Always a risky thing raising political views on forums, but I know we're all reasonable and level headed people. Anyway, I'm getting increasingly disillusioned with political parties. I struggle to find a party I can vote for, and which I feel is working for the people. I'm really open to suggestions here. I do think that capitalism is on the whole, not a great thing, and it's so intertwined with our political system. Do you think that most governments are focussed on big business, rather than serving the people? I don't think much will change, while our society is obsessed with economic growth, and accumulation of wealth. Having masses of money is not important to me. As long as I can pay the bills and feed the family, with an ability to save a bit and enjoy life, I'm happy. I do worry about the future of public services such as the NHS, which is a priceless resource and deserves more funding. I don't like the way all our former services have been privatised, and now pursue profits at the expense of good quality service. Just look at what the water industry is doing. Rail travel is now ridiculously expensive, haven't taken a train journey for years. Anyway, interested in thoughts on options for placing my vote, come the next election. And of course, it's a valid choice to not vote.

We all know the current situation with regard to boats of people coming across the channel. Let me say to start with, I don't blame these people for wanting to come to the UK. There will be people genuinely fleeing situations that are dangerous to them, but I suspect a lot of them are just looking for a better life, compared to the countries in which they were born. I think the reason we now have an explosion in the numbers is because of more awareness of the different standards of living around the world. They see what we have in the western developed countries, and want it for themselves. I really don't think it's possible to stop the flow of people, so it begs the question of how to accommodate them? I don't believe the govt know what to do about it. They certainly aren't stemming the tide, and tbh it's a very difficult problem to solve. How do you think we should be handling the situation?

I'm not a massive football fan, but I tend to watch these big events. And England appear to be doing well so far, having made it through to the latter stages of the tournament.

Do you enjoy foreign travel? Where have you been, and where would you like to go?

I am in fortunate position of being able to WFH. My job has always really been capable of accommodating this, however for most of my career I've gone in to an office. Covid precipitated a change though, with many people in my industry switching to remote. Recently I've noticed more roles specifying 'hybrid' working patterns i.e. some days per week in the office. But my current job is totally remote and it's even in my contract that my normal place of work is home. I have to say this suits me down to the ground. I don't have any problems interacting with people via MS Teams (don't even have to enable video), and it beats having to do the awkward smalltalk in the office kitchen/canteen. Plus I don't have any commute and can start work in a relaxed manner, without doing a stressful drive through heavy traffic. I often take a break during the day, and work into the evening, again something which I find totally relaxing. I find my productivity is better than it was in the office, and less stressful too. Another advantage is that I can pop out to the shops or pick things up at any time during the day. It's just totally flexible. Don't miss those social interactions in the office, as I was never any good at doing that and didn't enjoy it. I generally decline all work social events too. And as for work/life balance: perfect. My Mrs is currently ill, and feels better with me being nearby. I can sit here typing while she rests in bed. Couldn't do that from an office!

I'm finding as I get older, that putting on weight becomes easier. So I think doing regular cardio exercise becomes a lot more important. In addition to other health benefits. What do you think? I also want to do more resistance training (weights), because losing muscle mass also becomes an issue as you age. I think keeping muscles in good shape helps to reduce stress on joints. And I read this article on the BBC website, which recommends squats and planks. Both good exercises to do

Is anyone else concerned about the current state of the NHS? Apart from the numerous ongoing pay disputes, I'm worried that the standard of healthcare is rapidly going down. My mother in law recently went into hospital with a serious heart condition. After some initial tests she was discharged, but needs an urgent heart operation. We've been absolutely shocked at the lack of follow up care. This is a woman in her 80s, living alone, with some major life threatening health issues, and has trouble even walking around. You could not imagine a more vulnerable person, yet there has been no ongoing support whatsoever. No checking, no routine care. The system has completely washed it's hands of her. Got to say it's been a real eye opener. And btw I paid for her to have a stairlift installed, out of my own pocket, there was no assistance even for that vital piece of equipment. I don't think this is an isolated case. There was another elderly gentleman at the hospital, who actually asked my wife if she could drive him home. The hospital had similarly discharged him, without even checking he could get home. He had no transport, and no phone! So I'm quite concerned that these are symptoms of under-funding and neglect. The NHS is a very valuable resource to this country. I would not like to see us going down the full healthcare privatisation route, like they have in the US. Over there, people go bankrupt through medical bills. What's the answer? Can the UK now not afford a public healtcare system?!

There's a reason why house moving is named as one of the most stressful things you can ever do. That's because it is!! We have what I can only describe as the buyers from hell. Unfortunately they are the only ones in play at the moment. When I say in play, I really mean limping along. Can you believe they have taken a colossal 14 weeks deliberating whether to buy our house, and still haven't made a fully committed offer. This leaves us in limbo where we can't offer on any house we view, as the vendor won't accept it. We know they want our house, but seem to be operating in their own little world. Things can move fast in the house buying game, and if a good one comes up, it'll be gone in no time. We've already lost an ideal place because of them. Wish we had other interested parties. Grrrr!

Anyone been reading about Meta's new platform very similar to Twitter? What do you think? Could be interesting seeing Musk and Zuckerberg square up to each other, although in the courts, not in a cage fight. Can't really see myself using the new app. For a start I don't want to sign up for Instagram, which is required to use it.

Any tennis fans? Wimbledon starts today and we'll see how far Andy Murray can get in the tournament. He's been playing well on grass recently, had a couple of wins. Of course Novak will be a major contender for his 8th win at Wimbledon.

I saw a good piece of news today. China is forging ahead with building out wind and solar energy sources, and they are set to achieve their green energy targets 5 years earlier than predicted. Hopefully this will drive down the costs of equipment such as solar panels, and make it more possible for western countries to do the same. I've thought for a long time, that all new build houses in this country should include solar panels. I think that's a missed opportunity.

We're so wasteful generally aren't we? And also do a poor job at recycling. I find it depressing whenever I go to the local recycling centre, and have to put things in the general waste bin, which I know is going to landfill. I mean how lazy is it that in this day and age, we're still simply burying waste, some of which will take 100's of years to degrade, and leach harardous substances into the ground (and water). Here's an example: I have a Garmin sports watch, which I've owned for a number of years. It's got an internal battery, which has started to fail. I wanted to replace it so I asked Garmin how to do this. Their response - yes you guessed it, replace the watch. They flat out refused to send me a new battery. The thing is, this battery, although not technically user replaceable, can be changed. I've seen videos on how to do it. I would even pay Garmin to do it, rather than buy a new watch and have to throw this one out.

Was anyone else amazed at the events over the weekend? Both amazed and disappointed really. I watched things unfold, and thought it was the start of a revolution. And let's face it, the only way Putin will be stopped is by some kind of armed insurrection. But it turns out Mr. Putin has all this figured out. You see he knows that the only threat to his authority is from an uprising of the military. Ordinary Russian people on the street have no chance, even if there was the collective will to go up against their leader. So Putin is doing things by the standard playbook of dictators - divide and rule. Have your underlings fight each other, so they don't collaborate and become stronger than you. Hitler behaved in a similar way. So normal service has been resumed. Poor Ukrainians suffering needlessly. The very sad thing here is that Russia has huge natural energy resources. It could be a major international trader. In fact that was happening, with Nordstream supplying Germany with gas. So if Putin was not hell bent on restoring the former Soviet Union and aggressively trying to regain territories, Russia could be a peaceful global trader, and become a very rich nation, benefitting all of its society.

I like the new look to the forum, in terms of presenting the posts. Much better I think. Also, I can't access the 'staff and mods' section.

Just read a news article on the BBC website about the extent of mental health issues in teenagers. You have to wonder why this is happening, and could it be because of the immense pressure we put on them. At a time of life which is probably the most difficult in terms of mental and physical development. The article doesn't really go into the types of issues, but anxiety and self-harm are mentioned.

Just thought I would kick off something here, because I hear about a lot problems for kids being in mainstream school. Looking back on school is quite tough for me, because I didn't have a great time. I had no friends in my class, and was ostracised pretty much the whole time. In a way it wouldn't have been a big deal, as I find socialising difficult and being alone doesn't bother me all that much. But you know what kids are like, if you're different, they don't leave you alone. :( Anyway I was determined that my own kids would not go through the same bad experience I had. And with our first daughter (DD1), it was ok in primary school, but things started to fall apart at secondary and she developed anxiety, and has now been diagnosed with ASD. She also has very bad OCD, and I mean properly, which believe me is life affecting. Maybe the school experience wasn't the root cause of her developing these problems, but what she had to go through didn't help. The schools will tell you that they have all kinds of measures in place to help people with mental health issues. To cut a long story short, it's just a tick box. They don't know how to deal with it. And nobody can stop the other kids behaving like little ******* if that's what they decide to do. So when DD2 started to exhibit signs of autism, we made an early decision to pull her out of primary school. She had different kinds of problems to DD1, but we're pretty sure she's autistic, having done a lot of research on the subject. We haven't gotten a diagnosis for her yet. Choosing the HE path is not as daunting as you might think. There are resources out there, and they aren't necessarily as expensive as you might expect, depending on your approach. We've been following courses provided by Woolsey Hall. We've done upper key stage 2 and stage 3 (years 5,6,7,8,9). These are meant to be self-study, and what really makes it work for us is that my wife has the job of being full time teacher. We're very fortunate in her being able to do this, not all families can. I'm aware of other organisations such as InterHigh who provide more of a remote classroom experience, but this costs a lot more. Woolsey Hall provide all the course materials, and it's also possible to talk with other students online. This has been good for developing some social skills, although DD1 is like me, and fairly happy with her own company. Some people get upset if the local education authority decide to visit. Not us though. We were only too happy to show them all the details of what we were doing. And when we first started, my wife had to go back through the previous year because DD2 had some fundamental gaps in her knowledge. Things she should have learned at school, but hadn't. Like times tables and basic maths concepts. So I would say that the quality of education she's now receiving is much better, and a good preparation for doing GCSEs. We haven't decided what to do here, but we know of a local college which runs a pre-16 programme. In fact DD1 did this when we took her out of secondary school. So how about others? Have you had bad experiences at school? Thinking of going down the HE path?

A lot young people with anxiety and/or autistic conditions have a hard time with mainstream school. Suggest a sub-forum for educational advice, problems, experiences etc.

Does anyone play a musical instrument? My main instrument is the trombone. I started off playing in the school brass band many years ago. It has been a lifelong rewarding hobby and I never regretted starting to play. You would think it's an unusual thing for someone with social anxiety to be doing, and you certainly can't hide away playing a brass instrument! However I tend to gravitate to supporting roles, not soloistic situations. I have played solos in the past, but I'm really not comfortable being in the spotlight and get extremely nervous. I currently play bass trombone, which is the perfect part for me - foundation supporting instrument, with no solos to play. I did play drums for a while in a band, but came back to playing my trombone. I have played other styles, such as jazz, big band and orchestral so it is a very versatile instrument. Anyone else play instruments, either alone or in an ensemble?