vivweb01blog

  I have to admit, my first reaction when I saw this news item was “…Oh no, not another lammy …”. It’s perfectly true that road accident statistics, along with small boat crossings, taxes, and other such undesirable phenomena, have been on the up since Labour took power in 2024, but what seems to have escaped the policy makers’ collective notice is that the bulk of RTAs are caused by inexperienced drivers, and notably those under 21.  Insurance companies have long realised this as hard fact, and, as would be expected, their charging structures reflect the  risk, with sky high annual premiums into the thousands now being charged for the under 21s, with the traditional sharp downward transition in cost after age 25 is reached still in force. It’s also true that a small number of thoughtless elderly drivers do neglect their legal (and moral !) obligation to self-declare to DVLA any change in their circumstances which could affect their driving skills…of which a deter...

  On present evidence, and despite a welcome shower or two in late July, I think we just might….. Those of us old enough to remember the excesses of the 1970s will recall one of the most notable of its meteorological ones - the ‘great drought’ of ’76. Contrary to popular belief, this was even more extensive and prolonged than the current one, with both a dry autumn and winter in 1975 and a dry spring in 1976 contributing.   In June 1976 there was actually a period of two whole weeks where maximum temperatures in southern England never fell below 32oC, and we haven't seen anything that prolonged this year - yet. The prolonged nature of the 1976 heatwave, and the following dry, hot period which continued until early August, resulted in severe consequences for crops and domestic  water supplies, with taps in some areas actually running dry. This culminated in the Drought Act being rushed through parliament on 5 th August. This legislation   included more draconian...

 Editor's Note: I've reproduced this article from a guide I put together recently for my website on what to do if your remote dies on you, or gets damaged or lost. You can download this as a .pdf version, which also contains some additional useful illustrations. It's available via this link . ---------------------------------------- Introduction One of the most essential, and also potentially annoying, modern inventions is the infra-red remote control. Virtually every electronic device we use nowadays comes with a dedicated remote of some sort, and a lot of the more recent models have been designed so that they won’t work at all without it. Many of us have already suffered the consequences of this clever move on the part of the manufacturers after we’ve either a) lost the remote for our TV or b) one of the kids has broken it or c) the dog has taken a bite out of it (or the cat's been sick on it - moggies are never blameless!). The resulting lack of a working re...