malumbu

She will hopefully already be on Facebook and Whatsapp university groups so perhaps someone could give you a lift. I found it crazy that the motorways could be solid with parents taking their kids up to uni, and estate cars full to the brim, why more didn't share eg hiring a larger vehicle. It's probably more realistic for later years when they don't need you to be there. Although dare I say I recall some in my time arriving on their own on the National Express with a backpack. I assume students can no longer fit all their belongings in a backpack any more (saying this with a smile on my face rather than being a grumpy oldish person)

Nope it's everyone looking at their lives and making this more sustainable, including cutting down unnecessary journeys, purchases, deliveries etc. Relying on the commercialisation of electric vehicles, or rocketing into near space, is putting your head in the sand. Sadly our world doesn't work like this.

For friends elsewhere on this site

Au contraire - on line information can be wonderful and has changed our lives. Most of us know when to cut through the Cr*p, but sadly there are some paranoid people, often well educated, who swallow it.....

Agghh, now I've distracted myself - some articles on giving up your car and/or rewards for doing this https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/families-tackle-climate-change-car-transport-vegan-diet-317718 https://policyexchange.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Clearways-Changing-Habits-Revised-Submission-Full-1.pdf https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/grantham-institute/public/publications/evidence--submission-papers/Incentivising-low-carbon-travel_2020.pdf Table on page 4 lists both low and high carbon (eg air miles) incentive scheme https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/we-fear-futures-not-enough-20876010 Only 7% of us are prepared to give up cars to save the planet.

After a period of dormancy this thread went a bit crazy yesterday. But so much repetition. So to also repeat myself: 1. Going on about the council being corrupt, only interested in the leafy roads, and introducing LTNs purely to make money doesn't help your case. Leave the visions of Mr Burns (the Simpsons) rubbing his hands together whilst he exploits the masses in your heads. If you consider LTNs are flawed by all means discuss this. 2. Don't pretend that many motorists need to be prised out of their vehicles. Even with the best public transport in the world many still wont switch. 3. The 'oh wouldn't it be nice if (trams were reintroduced/small electric buses/teleporting) is generally pie in the sky. Go down to the London Transport Museum and you can see for yourself that by the 50s trams and trolleybuses were seen to be antiquated and far less comfortable than the latest buses and were less popular. Of course if we had invested then, or in later decades, thinks would be very different, such as the light railway systems in Nottingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and even Croydon. When I used to attend or run workshops we'd always try to avoid the 'wouldn't it be nice' discussions unless there was some likelihood of measures happening. BTW the bunching of buses is a pain, and something TfL should manage better - as once discussed with them - 175 and 186 bumping into each other all the way to Camberwell, on occasion, would frustrate me. 4. Be sure of your facts, the science etc. Poorly informed comments like electric vehicles just displace pollution are not helpful. Nearly half of our electricity is now renewable. The remaining fossil fueled power station discharge their emissions 70m in the air, very different to the high levels on some streets from the internal combustion engine. Electric vehicles are only part of the solution. Go onto Wiki, BBC bite size or other informative websites to find out more. I'm intending to be constructive! PS Heartblock, I reckon we are not so far apart in our views irrespective how this may come across. Restricting parking to one side of the road, that does sound like a good/brave measure. I'll dig around with some of my contacts to see whether this has come up. In the recent past some new developments have limited parking to encourage sustainable travel, although not sure how well this has delivered. And Langton Rise is an example of where this has just led to the road being half blocked. [yes this is Lewisham not Southwark]

The remain campaign was pretty poor, and let's face it many of us could have done more - for me it was because I didn't think we'd be so daft to vote leave. I was at North Cross Road Market and they were leafleting - one of the benefits being free mobile roaming around Europe. I said is that the best we can come up with? But now we are losing this, I appreciate how great it is/was.

I had a thread on this recently. By law, the IFA's offering product to have to discuss the alternatives. Worth a look through: /forum/read.php?20,2208792,2210918#msg-2210918

Hi Rah Rah. It would be good to have views on the article or a precis. I know you normally do this, so not having a go, just I get grumpy when others just post links. It may be a wake up call but we had these half a generation ago. But not a lot changed. I listened a little to Jeremy Vine today, not representative of what the country thinks but gives some indication. A little sad by two callers. One was still referring to it's all due to the sun's activity. Another was having a go at environmentalists who he viewed as going from less consumption to buying electric cars. Gross over-simplification. I've got to write to the PM. This nonsense about Thatch being an eco warrier for closing the mines. Done economic/political reasons. She switched from supporting nuclear power (OK, controversial but one means for reducing carbon emissions) to burning much of our natural gas to generate electricity. Of course over population is one of the biggest issues, and as a nation that has a low birth rate he is not setting a great example. I was involved in the first Hinkley Point Inquiry - it got a go ahead and then was shelved when Thatch privatised the generating industry and pulled the plug on our nuclear industry (hence the French fund the new power stations and the Chinese build them as we have lost that capability). There were millions of pages on the case for this nuclear power station, including carbon emissions from the whole nuclear fuel cycle. I suspect that we missed an opportunity at that point to invest more in renewable energy technology. The then Atomic Energy Authority had a Division looking at renewables, maybe an odd place but that's where many of our expert scientists and engineers were at the time. Yes I am a scientist. Albeit rather rusty.

I don't normally rush to the cat's defence but a bit of an over-reaction here. I spend time challenging those who make the silly "oh that is politically correct" comments, which essentially belies their casual homophobia, transphobia, racist, etc etc views. But they live in Bromley where that is the norm. I get an old school friend talking about 'virtual signalling' and having a go at the BBC and many of the adverts for dis-proportionally using ethnic minorities, something that I don't notice or even care about. And again I think middle England casual racism. But on this occasion I just think it is banter/stirring up debate. No need to be so po faced. I could do the same in respect to not using terms such as black sheep of the family, the dark side etc etc. I do cringe at times with Seth MacFarlane, who seems to do his upmost to use stereotypes and the like. His defence of the reference to Down's Syndrome and Sara Palin was that he is an equal opportunity offender. But I look back on some of the terms I would have used, thinking they were quite harmless in previous years, with a bit of a shudder. https://abcnews.go.com/WN/sarah-palin-family-guy-controversy-rages/story?id=9898355 Sorry this thread has mutated. See what you have done Cat?

It's been on the cards for years and is common across Europe where it has been made slightly cheaper. Successive governments in the UK have put this on the back burner. Owners of classic bikes and cars will already be aware of the issues with ethanol, essentially it rots seals and fuel lines with older vehicles. There are additives to address this or the classics will have had their gubbins replaced. There are a minority of cars from the mid 90s to mid 00s which may not be compatible, a they will need to use the super unleaded or the E5 which will be around for at least five years. When we were at school we learned about Brazil where some cars ran on near pure ethanol made I think from sugar cane, but the small amounts of water in this caused the engines to rot.

It's a measure to reduce the number of vehicles on the road. It may not be the best way of doing this. You could say that all motoring enforcement is a scam. Perhaps you could go back to the 1950s where you could almost do what you liked if you could afford a car, in fact you were encouraged to drink and drive when large pubs were built on the arterial trunk roads going out into the outer boroughs and home counties. If you genuinely have evidence that this is a scam then report it to the Local Government Ombudsman, Serious Fraud Office and the like. You could also take this up with the PM who introduced and funded the concept https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/emergency-active-travel-fund-local-transport-authority-allocations

I've not had any PCNs in the last few years so don't know whether Southwark is the most corrupt hypocritical organisation around and whether the whole thing is money making scam. As for the original post try an old fashioned letter explaining your situation and that you were supporting the community. A hard copy letter sometimes has more impact than doing things on line.

In honour of the Netherlands' cycling team

Outed me!

Fair enough! Personally I'm pleased that I no longer carry money on me as was getting fed up with being approached on the Overground. Difficulty at times in distinguishing between genuine hardship and professional begging. That is a lot of reactionary stuff - 'Romanian beggars being handled by a gang leader' ("the clothing and babe in arms isn't genuine you know", Big Issue sellers and the like Not leveling these accusations at you, of course. Just like to get balance.

Oh the name has an S in it. Near enough....

The second of my highly irrelevant threads based on recent TV. For some reason I watched the Day After Tomorrow on Film 4. I saw it ten years ago and thought it pretty bad then. It is about a sudden massive drop in air temperature in the Northern Hemisphere. With temperatures plummeting and people freezing to death our hero manages to walk from Philadelphia to New York, to save his son who was doing a pretty good job of not needing saving. The hero only lost one of his colleagues on the way. The first minor whinge was the use of the term global warming, as opposed to the proper terminology climate change. But the thing that got my goat was the continual use of 'Fahrenheit', I stopped using this for summer temperatures last century (could never handle degrees F for cold temperatures) and have used the metric system since school and through a technical career. No scientist either side of the pond would us Fahrenheit. I expect that they haven't used it in space exploration since the 1960s. Well done for the film the Martian, I doubt that there were riots in small town USA for using proper units in that film.

Gosh I am being heckled for a thread from five years ago. What more of my past will you drag up Sparticus? Funny thing is when I read the OP I was going to argue with myself.

I've given money to homeless people before. Not all the time, has to come across as genuine. Perhaps I will start a thread on it. PS if you are concerned that this is a scam, or is threatening, report it to the police. I had homeless people come to my aid when I fell off my bike once. I also had a few beers with some near Covent Garden many years ago when I'd been to an awful party in a pub. I expect these groups have gone now since hostel provision improved in the last century.

Back to the SUV chat, really should be lounged but hey ho. The car manufacturers are selling you a dream. For most drivers in towns and cities who mainly do urban driving no need for the full size ones. Momentum/laws of physics - a 2 1/2 tonne vehicle will do more damage both to the human body, and a lighter car irrespective of the crash standards. I've hired a few, not on purpose, but the one in British Columbia made some sense - ironically two accidents, a stone chip smashed the window on an unmade road, and some poor deer ran out in front of me..... On Friday 13th too. I've also used some of the mini/smaller SUVs for work, I didn't rush out to buy one. Having said that I doubt if I will ever buy another car. Those I know who have one say they could never go back to a smaller car. The questioning them why they have one/need one gets nowhere!

Just a bit of fun. But really interested if Shakespeare's accent would have been remotely like Duncan's.

The first of three film/TV related threads. Do indulge me. I watched the film loosely based on Shakespeare's later life on Sat - All is True The one thing that got me was the accents. Shakespeare was fairly neutral as was his youngest daughter. The eldest one and his wife (Judy Dench being about 30 years too old...) had some sort of folkie accent, loosely south west/Steeleye Span. I know that if I went back to the West Midlands 150 years ago there would be a familiar accent to today's ears, but 400 years earlier in Warwickshire would I recognise it? The second point was they used the long vowels- parth rather than path, grarse rather than grass. Which would have been wrong at that time, certainly in the midlands. I looked on Wiki at the great vowel shift, thinking that would inform me, but it just confused me. Although it did seem to explain why in the South many would have spoken like the Queen, BBC circa 1950 or a Harry Enfield sketch.

I've been murdering slugs, squashing them, drowning them in beer traps and cutting them in half. Then I find out that many of them do not feed on fresh leaves, rather eat mouldy old ones. Help. How can I distinguish. Stuff on line isn't that clear - I think the leopard ones are friends not pests, but not so sure about the others.

The Elusive Shadow Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I bought resident tickets for ?20 (usually ?70+). > No point arguing on here, let the moaners moan. If > it wasnt this festival, it would be something else > to moan about this weekend then onto the next > thing next week. I love living in this area but > the fun prevention officers that occupy this forum > make me question it sometimes Q1 - how close do you need to live to the Rye? Q2 - do tell us about your experience Ta