Good news :-)

[Tim Watts]

C'mon - knives have always been carried by some group or other...

Go back to medieval times and everyone was packing.

50's onwards - punks, mods, etc.

I'm not convinced it is a new thing.

[damduck-egg]

When I were a lad I think the next stage was 132kV ,and that was on pylons which had been the first stage of the National Grid, post war the grid got the higher voltages of 275kV and then the supergrid of

400 kV. Sometime around the 1970's a lot of the 132kV network was transferred to the regional boards. A more recent development is carrying 132kv on wooden poles using the Trident design. often to connect wind farms to the existing network. . I was quite surprised myself to see 132kV on wooden poles when I first saw one near Barnstaple in Devon a few years back. Remember thinking "that'll make a bang if you knock it over with a Combine Harvester.

G.Harman

[Bob Eager]

Well, almost. I was a local. Had a nasty moment or two when (on my motorbike) I chanced upon a group of Mods. I was pursued through the town by them (no, I hadn't incited them). I parked up in Russell Square; there was a motorcycle show on and I was in the middle of several hundred bokes. They did not venture in.

[Cursitor Doom]

You must be some super "tough guy" then. Hope I never get on the wrong side of you.

[Cursitor Doom]

I was talking about SE England. Perhaps I should have stated that. Yeah, I've read Jimmy Boyle's carefully considered Magnum Opus and know the score about Glasgow in particular. It was something of a unique case.

[Cursitor Doom]

You win. I obviously don't get out enough.

[harryagain]

Write to your MEP. The EUSSR could make a law that everything should be repairable and cheap parts available.

[harryagain]

I watched them change a pole transformer a few months back. Whole job done live. 11Kv.

[Adrian]

When they changed our 11Kv-230v transformer back in January, the line was taken down all day.

[Tony Bryer]

Too right: when I was building my home in Twickenham in the late 1970s I don't think there was one DIY shed in LB Richmond: to get the latest Wickes special offer meant a drive to Harrow. If I lived there now I'd have 2 x Wickes, Toolstation, Screwfix and a couple of others on my doorstep with most things available after work.

Where I was perhaps better served was on heavyside, with Richmond Lime & Cement, Seccombes and Rover Transport getting a lot of my custom.

[Chris French]

It's not a picture I recognise from all the kids I know. Sure our 13yo daughter loves her iPhone, but that doesn't sop her doing stuff.

[Vir Campestris]

We were down all day so they could replace the 4 wire 240V with twisted ... err... quad? The same wires but in one bunch not separated.

It would have been nice to be warned they wanted to mess with out main fuse though. /She/ had been intending to go out. Next door were out - but luckily they have a meter cupboard.

Andy

[harryagain]

Exactly so.

[harryagain]

People (rightly or wrongly) believe the world is full of paedophiles/kidnappers these days. All the lurid crap on the TV news I suppose.

[harryagain]

Probably lives in an area with lots of "Asians".

[harryagain]

We could never afford it when I was a kid. Also there were fewer places to buy booze. The local pubs and off licences owners all knew our parents. Many pubs were run by ex-policemen.

[harryagain]

Richard

The "sheds" are taking over and destroying everything from pharmacies to newsagents to the local butcher to fruit shops.. When they have destroyed the opposition (by price cuts) they jack up prices. People won't travel 20 miles to save fifty pence or a pound.

I wonder when they'll ban people from selling fruit & veg at the garden gate to protect the supermarkets?