Contractor UK Bulletin Board

Contractor UK Bulletin Board - Forums https://forums.contractoruk.com/ vBulletin Forums en Thu, 29 Oct 2026 05:14:56 GMT vBulletin 60 images/misc/rss.png Contractor UK Bulletin Board - Forums https://forums.contractoruk.com/ Something I’ve Noticed… https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151476-something-i’ve-noticed….html Wed, 28 Oct 2026 06:14:54 GMT Something I’ve Noticed… There are many people relying on their smart phones and smart watches for time have no idea that the clocks went back one hour last Sunday. Something I’ve Noticed…

There are many people relying on their smart phones and smart watches for time have no idea that the clocks went back one hour last Sunday.
]]> General Paddy https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151476-something-i’ve-noticed….html Economic Rescue Plan https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151475-economic-rescue-plan.html Tue, 27 Oct 2026 15:06:31 GMT Thoughts on Robert Jenrick rescue plan?? Reform’s Economic Rescue Plan includes these 64 pro-growth measures: 𝗨𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗦𝗲𝗮 1. Approve Rosebank 2. Restart oil and gas licensing 3. Legalise onshore exploration 4. Abolish the Energy Profits Levy
Reform’s Economic Rescue Plan includes these 64 pro-growth measures:

𝗨𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗦𝗲𝗮

1. Approve Rosebank
2. Restart oil and gas licensing
3. Legalise onshore exploration
4. Abolish the Energy Profits Levy
5. Restore maximum economic extraction as the North Sea regulator's objective

𝗥𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻

6. Abolish the Emissions Trading Scheme
7. Halt the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism
8. Repudiate AR7 contracts for difference and scrap AR8
9. Implement the Fingleton Review on nuclear in full
10. Automatically approve French and South Korean nuclear designs

𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀

11. Cut affordable housing requirements on brownfield sites
12. Permitted Development Right for brownfield housing
13. Repeal Biodiversity Net Gain
14. Exit the Aarhus Convention
15. Repeal and reform the Habitats Regulations, including Nutrient Neutrality
16. End the boiler ban
17. Legalise air conditioning to meet overheating rules
18. Remove mandatory EPC improvements
19. Revoke the Future Homes Standard
20. Repeal the Renters' Rights Act

𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲

21. Legislate approval for new runways at Heathrow and Gatwick
22. Auction airport landing slots
23. End 'target-consistent' carbon pricing in project evaluation
24. Ban carbon emissions considerations in planning applications
25. Fast-track all water reservoirs as nationally significant projects
26. Make Development Consent Orders a true one-stop shop
27. Restrict judicial review of ministerial planning decisions
28. Scrap Net Zero construction rules
29. Scrap the social value test in procurement
30. Lift launch limits at SaxaVord Spaceport
31. Open completed sections of East-West Rail

𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

32. Review regulatory barriers to AI adoption
33. Permit on-site gas generation for data centres and industry

𝗥𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀

34. Cut Employer NI back to 13.8%
35. Introduce a migrant worker levy
36. Repeal the Employment Rights Act
37. Clarify that workplace rights don't require mandatory training courses
38. Let experienced tradesmen work on government contracts without CSCS qualifications

𝗨𝗻𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝘆

39. Review bank capital requirements to boost lending
40. Rule out Net Zero in financial regulators' remits
41. Repeal climate-related financial disclosure rules

𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗼𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴

42. Scrap airport 'surface access strategies'
43. Abolish the electric vehicle mandates
44. Apply domestic GB hours to all UK HGV trips
45. Ban Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods
46. Back the M4 Relief Road
47. Move a new car's first MOT to four years
48. Abolish the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation

𝗨𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗼𝗺𝘀

49. Replace GDPR with a New Zealand-style Privacy Act
50. Fully re-legalise Imperial units
51. Review all unchanged EU law
52. Automatically repeal remaining EU law in 5 years unless retained

𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀

53. Make quarterly Making Tax Digital reporting voluntary
54. Reduce legal obligations on SME Non-Executive Directors
55. Double permission-free event days from 28 to 56
56. Make pavement dining licences automatic and permanent
57. Let shops open until 10pm, except Sundays
58. Repeal board diversity and inclusion rules
59. Remove the Sustainable Aviation Fuel mandate
60. Abolish the packaging tax
61. Scrap BBC and Channel 4 priority on streaming platforms
62. Remove the Public Sector Equality Duty
63. Five-year sunset on all QUANGOs
64. Five-year sunset clause on all new regulations

]]> General WooHooNomad https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151475-economic-rescue-plan.html Monday Links from the Armchair vol. DCCCLXXVIII https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151474-monday-links-from-the-armchair-vol-dccclxxviii.html Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:28:32 GMT I’m on holiday this week! When did everybody start calling holidays “annual leave”? :confused: He Was a Suspect in the Yogurt Shop Murders for Thirty Years. He Can’t Forget. (https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/the-yogurt-shop-killer-who-wasnt/) - ”Forrest Welborn spent decades as a suspect...

He Was a Suspect in the Yogurt Shop Murders for Thirty Years. He Can’t Forget. - ”Forrest Welborn spent decades as a suspect in the infamous Austin murders. It all but destroyed his life. This year, he was finally exonerated. So why doesn’t he feel free?” Incredibly, at least one of the cops who tried to frame him and his friends still refuses to believe they’re innocent
Triplet of ‘Ghostly’ Galaxies Hints at What Dark Matter Is — and Isn’t - These galaxies don’t work properly, but they shouldn’t be working at all: ”A collision may have left these galaxies without dark matter. That spells trouble for alternative gravity theories.” The full paper is A Third Galaxy Missing Dark Matter along a Trail of Galaxies in the NGC 1052 Field.
What happens when monkeys and apes adopt other animals? - Humans aren’t the only primates to have pets: ”Researchers have gathered 427 documented cases of primates grooming, playing with, and carrying other animal species. From macaques grooming dogs to baboons adopting lion cubs, these unique stories offer fresh insight into the origins of human pet-keeping.” Another full paper for you to read, as it should be: Heterospecific social behavior in primates: insights into the evolutionary roots of pet-keeping
How long does it take to travel through the Universe at 1g? - ”1g is our acceleration in Earth's gravity: 9.8m/s². If a spaceship constantly accelerated at that rate, here's how far we could travel.” Spoiler: everywhere!
In 1976, a college paper blamed the Salem witch trials on moldy bread. It wasn’t true. - The theory that the events in Salem arose from ergot poisoning turns out to have been an undergraduate’s conjecture: ”The fact that a single undergraduate college paper could have such a lasting and wide-ranging impact on our understanding of the Salem witch trials seems bizarre, but it can be explained in part by a thoroughly modern phenomenon: virality. Although the World Wide Web was still decades away, Caporael’s paper found a way to spread fast through newspaper wire services.”
Recission for unilateral mistake: Barclays Bank UK PLC v (1) Terry & (2) Terry [2023] EWHC 2726 (Ch) and [2023] EWHC 3113 (Ch) and Representative actions under CPR 19.8: practical lessons to learn from Barclays Bank UK Plc v Terry - HT to Paddy for this legal deep dive into an interesting mortgage test data cockup by Barclays: ”Barclays pioneered a computer programme to automatically remove defunct charges from HM Land Registry… It was decided that the Programme would be run on a test of over 41,000 charges. Crucially, the decision-makers at the meeting were satisfied that all of the 41,000 charges were no longer securing loans. This belief turned out to be mistaken.”
Local Wikipedia - A simple but ingenious idea: ”Local Wikipedia is Wikipedia, but only for things a half hour walk from you.”
The Real Kevin Bacon - Neat statistical visualisation thing: ”A journey through the past, present, and future centers of Hollywood.” Sadly, Kevin Bacon isn’t as central as the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game suggests
Border Chain Quiz Game - Another simple but entertaining geographical game to add to your daily routine: ”Name countries to build a land-border chain between them. Any country works - the chain links up the moment your named countries touch.” I used one country more than necessary in todays’s puzzle because I forgot about an enclave
2026 Photomicrography Competition | Nikon Small World - ”The Nikon Small World Competition first began in 1975 as a means to recognize and applaud the efforts of those involved with photography through the light microscope. Since then, Small World has become a leading showcase for photomicrographers from the widest array of scientific disciplines.” Some lovely photos in here, including this remarkable shot of “Neurons in an expanded mouse brain” by Kaelin Wulf and Rachel Flannery

Happy invoicing!

]]> General NickFitz https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151474-monday-links-from-the-armchair-vol-dccclxxviii.html Thoughts on the budget? https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151472-thoughts-on-the-budget.html Mon, 26 Oct 2026 07:57:34 GMT Just to put this here, Firgas* is keen to hear your thoughts (God knows why…). (* Firgas Esack works with CUK to write articles that have relevance to contractors)
(* Firgas Esack works with CUK to write articles that have relevance to contractors)

The Budget will be on Thursday, are you hoping for the best but fearing the worst? Firgas is hoping to have a WhatsApp chat (group or otherwise) before then to find out the contractor's point of view.

Let her know if you're interested (or put it here).

firgas@daps.agency

]]> General cojak https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151472-thoughts-on-the-budget.html HMRC: Scary https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151471-hmrc-scary.html Sun, 25 Oct 2026 11:08:04 GMT https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/ta...unts-directly/

Is it just me, or is the prospect of HMRC having yet more powers rather worrying?

The notion that a third party can raid one's bank account for money they claim - but have not necessarily proven - is owned is a step too far.

I appreciate that this arrangement is in place already, but extending it seems so wrong in principle.

It's only a small step to retrospective taxation with funds automatically deducted.

I have no issue with funds being recovered that are proven to be owned, for example at a tribunal.

]]> General Protagoras https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151471-hmrc-scary.html All jobs to be taken by robots, apparently. https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151470-all-jobs-to-be-taken-by-robots-apparently.html Sat, 24 Oct 2026 23:07:34 GMT Not content with undercutting IT rates, Indians have now chosen to willingly participate in undercutting all of human endeavour. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckvgyml6pdm9o
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckvgyml6pdm9o]]> General willendure https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151470-all-jobs-to-be-taken-by-robots-apparently.html How will the Budget affect you? https://forums.contractoruk.com/accounting-legal/151469-how-will-the-budget-affect-you.html Fri, 23 Oct 2026 12:52:01 GMT
Let her know if you're interested (or put it here).

firgas@daps.agency
]]> Accounting / Legal cojak https://forums.contractoruk.com/accounting-legal/151469-how-will-the-budget-affect-you.html Consumer Confidence https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151468-consumer-confidence.html Fri, 23 Oct 2026 12:13:16 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/business...cost-of-living

"Over the past five years analysis by the Trades Union Congress shows that UK households have paid almost £14,000 on average in additional costs for mortgages, loans, energy and water bills."

Feeling confident?
]]> General Protagoras https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151468-consumer-confidence.html PHP cyber security https://forums.contractoruk.com/technical/151467-php-cyber-security.html Wed, 21 Oct 2026 16:52:26 GMT Has anyone seen this? Websites taken down worldwide as critical PHP cyber-security update issued - BBC News (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmly0lg3w5x2o) Darn it, my business website runs on a rather old version of PHP, so unlikely it will still work if I update to the latest version. ...
Websites taken down worldwide as critical PHP cyber-security update issued - BBC News

Darn it, my business website runs on a rather old version of PHP, so unlikely it will still work if I update to the latest version.

Seem to be a few PHP code checkers available on line, anyone tried them? Which is best?]]> Technical xoggoth https://forums.contractoruk.com/technical/151467-php-cyber-security.html new use for e-bikes? https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151464-new-use-for-e-bikes.html Tue, 20 Oct 2026 10:12:31 GMT this tickled me :D https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9zrdpg7256yo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9zrdpg7256yo]]> General sadkingbilly https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151464-new-use-for-e-bikes.html Monday Links from the Gap Between Teams Meetings vol. DCCCLXXVII https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151462-monday-links-from-the-gap-between-teams-meetings-vol-dccclxxvii.html Mon, 19 Oct 2026 11:51:47 GMT I just moved to a new project and they keep scheduling meetings for 1pm! So it was a choice between having lunch or posting this lot :rolleyes: Where the Forest Went (https://longreads.com/2026/10/13/american-forest-development-property-hugh-maxwell/) - ”Before the house was here, Edgewood was...

Where the Forest Went - ”Before the house was here, Edgewood was a farm, and before the farm, there was a forest. On a July day in 1788, a 55-year-old man named Hugh Maxwell set out to cross the forest in straight lines. Not kind of straight. Maxwell’s job was to walk 1,100 miles on ruler-straight lines through this vast, obstacle-filled forest, to divide it into a grid of parcels that could eventually be sold as property. To shrink it down to the scale of human imagination. To look at the forest and see something else in its place.” James Whorton Jr. retraces the steps of the man who carved a wilderness into the neighbourhood where he now lives.
Toadstools and toxins - ”When I found the mushroom Amanita muscaria being sold in candy wrappers, I uncovered legal loopholes, dangerous dosages and more.” Americans love their freedom to consume lethal doses of muscimol disguised as sweets
Natural Mummies Hold Memories of Life and Land - ”All around the world, extreme conditions have kept ancient human remains shockingly well preserved.” From the remains of children high in the Andes to bog bodies in Europe, natural mummification can tell us a lot about how our ancestors lived.
Wheel running in the wild - ”Wheel running is often used in the laboratory for triggering enhanced activity levels, despite the common objection that this behaviour is an artefact of captivity and merely signifies neurosis or stereotypy… Here, we show that when running wheels are placed in nature, they are frequently used by wild mice, also when no extrinsic reward is provided. Bout lengths of running wheel behaviour in the wild match those for captive mice.” Build it and they will come
Leap seconds abolished as rules governing civil time officially changed - ”The world’s timekeepers have voted to stop the decades-old practice of adding extra seconds to clocks starting May 2027.” It turns out changing time confuses satellites and such too much
International Toothbrush Collection - One of those unexpected treasures that pre-dates even the early web: ”The International Toothbrush Collection (ITC) was started in 1981 by artist Maryly Snow, mostly as a joke… There are over 2,500 toothbrushes from all over the world. These have all been acquired through word of mouth (sic). This collection has not been advertised or promoted to the general public, until it's debut on the www in 2001.”
Techno-Optimism Archive – Old Promises of New Technologies - ”Techno-Optimism Archive traces the long history of hype surrounding new technologies.” A collection of things that were supposed to herald a new Golden Age
What Was Matt Thinking? - Continuing the themes of the early Web and things that were, in retrospect, not such a good idea as they seemed: ”The high schooler who developed everyone’s forums and guestbooks in 1996 didn’t really think about security when he was building all that software. But Matt’s Script Archive was more than exploits.”
Inside the Intel 8087 chip: floating-point addition and subtraction - Ken Shirriff explores how the floating point chip handled basic arithmetic: ”The 8087 provided a spectacular speed improvement over the 8086 processor, speeding up addition by a factor of almost 100, and complicated operations by even more… To explore the 8087's circuitry, I popped the lid off a chip with a chisel and used a microscope.”
Inside Out Library - A veritable cornucopia of public domain images: ”Old books are full of beautiful, strange, interesting illustrations, diagrams, and photographs. But unless you know which book to open, a lot of those pictures are hard to find. I wanted to make it easier to wander through them, find something unexpected, and see where it takes you. Each picture can be discovered on its own, but it always has a path back to the book it came from.” This particular cornucopia comes from Wasch- Bleich- Platt- und Nach-Buch, zum Selbstunterricht für Damen, welche sich mit diesen Arbeiten beschäftigen published in 1796 by Johann Friedrich Netto; the title translates to “A Manual of Washing, Bleaching, Ironing, and Finishing: For Self-Instruction by Ladies Engaged in Such Tasks”

Happy invoicing!

]]> General NickFitz https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151462-monday-links-from-the-gap-between-teams-meetings-vol-dccclxxvii.html Flying Cars - anyone see it? https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151459-flying-cars-anyone-see-it.html Fri, 16 Oct 2026 12:47:19 GMT Say what you like about Elon Musk, but he knows how to do a demo, and there I am worrying my app might throw an error during a presentation. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/ckly4mj1g3n9o
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/ckly4mj1g3n9o

]]> General WooHooNomad https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/151459-flying-cars-anyone-see-it.html Air Purifier https://forums.contractoruk.com/technical/151458-air-purifier.html Wed, 14 Oct 2026 19:44:23 GMT
I always run the stove with the window in the room open, and with the stove running, the level is under 10.

Anyone recommend an air purifier to keep the pm2.5 level down? It's a smallish room under 20m².]]> Technical Protagoras https://forums.contractoruk.com/technical/151458-air-purifier.html Python Web GUI https://forums.contractoruk.com/technical/151457-python-web-gui.html Wed, 14 Oct 2026 16:51:06 GMT
Thinking about a tech stack for this ...
Python - seems to be a reasonable choice
Data storage - should I store data in arrays, or write it to a SQL DB?
GUI - which Python GUI framework to display values and graphs and allow controls to switch between these.

Expanding on this, I'd really like to display this on a low power display like TRMNL, but this that this is probably a Phase 2. It would be handy to have a display on the wall - this could also show real-time electricity use.

Any thoughts / recommendations?]]> Technical Protagoras https://forums.contractoruk.com/technical/151457-python-web-gui.html Any umbrella companies that offer decent private medical cover https://forums.contractoruk.com/umbrella-companies/151455-any-umbrella-companies-that-offer-decent-private-medical-cover.html Tue, 13 Oct 2026 13:34:38 GMT
Was wondering, are there any umrella companies that allow you to join their private health insurance scheme? Joining the employer's scheme is usally far cheaper than getting it done on an individual/family basis.

Any umbrella companies offer such a scheme?]]> Umbrella Companies ContractorBanking https://forums.contractoruk.com/umbrella-companies/151455-any-umbrella-companies-that-offer-decent-private-medical-cover.html