malumbu

I had the pleasure of driving a number of new (hire) cars on a recent event. The chap from Enterprise dropped my vehicle off and told me a little out its workings. Does it have stop/start I said all excitedly? Yes but you turn it off by pressing that button. Why would anyone turn somethign off that saved 10% fuel I questioned him. So we get a briefing about why we are driving the cars and that we need to know how to open the bonnet, boot/tailgate, petrol cap etc. Good thing there are no women here today said the chap organising the event. During the day he also made comments about the French and gay men. I kicked myself when I got home for not actually saying anythign at the time (my God you moron, what age are you from) and did actually report him for his xenophobia and casual homophobia and sexism. He's been told to be more careful in the use of his language as we are no longer in the 1980s. Clearly this must have been you Grok. Now others I may say they were just being ironic.

And you don't moan? Forty years plus of neo lefty non democratic blah blah rule. So tell me in your parallel universe of the UK not joining the the Common market what would the UK have looked like? How would we remember Heath? Would Thatcher have got in? With the likely continuation of the state intervening to support inefficient industries would the workers still have had a big say on the running of the country? We can all play this game 'what if' Here are some other scenarios TUC voted for wage constraint in 1978 and a labour government stayed in power A new treaty had been agreed on the Falklands so no war, and a wishy washy SDP had won the 1983 election Scargill didn't consider himself above the law, had a proper ballot, and by a better timed strike brought the country to its knees in the winter of 1984. (in your scenario he would have been calling the shots with government so there would never have been a strike) Neil Kinnock did not prematurely celebrate his expected election victory in 1992 and instead went on a charm offensive in particular getting the Sun to support him. John Smith did not have a heart attack and after three successful terms handed onto Ed Milliband. Gordon Brown had gone for an early election. It's a fun and free pastime. (I also play the game for football, what if Banks hadn't been ill, what if Bobby Moore had been replaced by England a bit earlier, what if the useless Chief Constable of South Yorks had never got the job etc.

Calm down calm down. "I'm not going to go in a driverless car" Well you wont have to. Cars and navigation systems will get more advanced. Things will communicate with other things through the .... Internet of Things. My only prediction is that techology will serve us in ways yet predicted. Private car ownership will in deed, fall. And the sharing economy will rise - but again unpredicatably. Who could have seen AirBnB's fall from grace? It will be exciting. (PS like it or not Uber are progressive, but don't whisper that to any cabbies)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark

Apologies, my use of English is not good due to the EU. It will be better when we leave. We will also start brewing proper English beer again like Double Diamond and Red Barrel which sadly Brussels outlawed due to the lack of diamondsbarrels in the beer. A good topic of conversation when I bump into Nige again at a Westminster pub

Just to add that my grammer, spelling, and attention to detail will also improve once we leave Europe. malumbu Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Thanks for your postings uncleglen. As someone > without a business/economics background always > useful to hear the other side of the argument. > I've been around more than half a century (from > relatively humble stock) but don't recognise the > Britain that you are talking about from my > childhood. It was all pretty grim and black and > white from memory. Well you've clearly got some > strong views and I am sure that you will be > reminding us of it. > > But perhaps going back to my childhood there were > lots of positives. We wore short trousers > irrespective of the weather. We were slapped with > a ruler by the teacher for being the slightest bit > naughty. We were intolerent of other > nationalities, sexual preferences and other > beliefs. We were encouraged to throw stones at > the 'queer' (odd) kids at school just because > nobody knew about (or appreciated) childhood > mental health issues and behavioural issues. It > was your civil duty to shout 'mong' at anyone who > looked slightly weird. Men knew their place in > society, and women even more so. Most of us > smoked (even as children) and all benefited from > the more sociable office, pub and eateries > environments. And we had iced buns for treats, > and were allowed to spend our bus money on sweets > if we walked home. None of this nonsense about > health, diet and nutrition. And I still have a few > teeth left, some of the front ones don't even have > fillings. We had that excellent currency where > you had to divide things by 12 or times by 20. > Not all this silliness about multiples of ten. > Thank God Napolian didn't win. > > And we all bought Austin (ie British Leyland) cars > as they were made very well locally. It is > clearly a clearly a quasi socialist dirty > foreigner plot to pretend otherwise. Those bally > useless VW golfs. What rubbish. > > Ah takes me back. > > But there was an unsavoury side to all of this. > As kids of 9 or 10, we walked home from school > past a chap of around 40, building his own house. > He invited us, to ...... show us his bulding work. > We'd pop in most days to see how he was getting > on. My parents came past one day and thanked him > for being so friendly. He didn't even get his > John Thomas out once. So not everything about > pre-1973 Britain was great.

Good, there will be some proper discipline for a change. Harris Peckham has a zero tolerence policy for misbehaving pupils, will be spot on for the QT panel. They will need some rabid people as well as liberals, a few on this site come to mind!

Thanks for your postings uncleglen. As someone without a business/economics background always useful to hear the other side of the argument. I've been around more than half a century (from relatively humble stock) but don't recognise the Britain that you are talking about from my childhood. It was all pretty grim and black and white from memory. Well you've clearly got some strong views and I am sure that you will be reminding us of it. But perhaps going back to my childhood there were lots of positives. We wore short trousers irrespective of the weather. We were slapped with a ruler by the teacher for being the slightest bit naughty. We were intolerent of other nationalities, sexual preferences and other beliefs. We were encouraged to throw stones at the 'queer' (odd) kids at school just because nobody knew about (or appreciated) childhood mental health issues and behavioural issues. It was your civil duty to shout 'mong' at anyone who looked slightly weird. Men knew their place in society, and women even more so. Most of us smoked (even as children) and all benefited from the more sociable office, pub and eateries environments. And we had iced buns for treats, and were allowed to spend our bus money on sweets if we walked home. None of this nonsense about health, diet and nutrition. And I still have a few teeth left, some of the front ones don't even have fillings. We had that excellent currency where you had to divide things by 12 or times by 20. Not all this silliness about multiples of ten. Thank God Napolian didn't win. And we all bought Austin (ie British Leyland) cars as they were made very well locally. It is clearly a clearly a quasi socialist dirty foreigner plot to pretend otherwise. Those bally useless VW golfs. What rubbish. Ah takes me back. But there was an unsavoury side to all of this. As kids of 9 or 10, we walked home from school past a chap of around 40, building his own house. He invited us, to ...... show us his bulding work. We'd pop in most days to see how he was getting on. My parents came past one day and thanked him for being so friendly. He didn't even get his John Thomas out once. So not everything about pre-1973 Britain was great.

It will make me very angry. I managed to not watch it tonight.

So firstly an apology - I have seemed a bit insensitive and probably should have softened my posts. I do get a bit knee-jerky myself to what I see as pompous views("they should hang them all" "I am perfect") but of course my posts could be read in a similar way. So apologies that my posts came over as crass and unsympathetic to some rather than proking discussion. I'll make a mental note to review and reflect before posting on sensitive matters. I'm actually putting down thoughts on paper on how to improve driver behaviour to make some proposals. Nothing specifically to do with drivers and cyclists, but safety does come into it. Anyway to return to my conciliatory thoughts, I've done many thing I am not proud of in my life and put down to childish naughtiness, teenage hormones, alcohol, bloody mindedness etc. Maybe some of this is a product of my age. I've never thrown bottles of urine at anyone, but some of the immature stuff we did as students (you can see where this is going) now makes me shudder. A sort of "he who casts the first stone" sort of comment. Maybe this rings a bell, or maybe not. I'd better get on with my paper. PS if any one wants to advise me on speell checking my posts, and also how to0 embed a nice pictur of the link (ie for youtube videos) pleaese PM me. PS the guy shooting fireworks over cylists in Rye Lane a couple of years ago was one of my strangest encounters on a bike. The police said they'd be over in a couple of hours. He was sensible enough not to aim it at us. Anyone for a mass group hug?

PM me - I may be able to help but wont know until I know more. Churlish to say but trade unions are members' organisations negotiating collectively whilst supporting the individual. Not some evil empire. Anyway PM me if you don'd mind and the least I can do if offer an opinion - clearly in private

Trouble is glacier white is almost blue. Much better the old days when whites were creamier as they hadn't started adding the strong white pigment titatinium dioxide to paints. Bit like teeth really. jaybee82 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My dads got a can of Nissan Bluebird 'Glacier > White' and some masking tape?? > > Just make sure you close your eyes.

Oh dear, we are getting a bit uppity. I gave up scanning through the thread. Simply trying to inject a little perspective/proportionality. With all the bad feeling and reactionary stuff you may understand why I suggested that it was time for a group hug. Now I could happily spend an evening in the pub telling you about the numerous incidents over the last 30 years including being left dead by a hit and run driver, and road rage. And at times where I wasn't too clever in antagonising drivers. I know shed loads about transport policy and roads, and I am surprised by some of the new cycle routes that funnel some cyclists into directions that they don't want to go in or pinch points that weren't there before. The new signalling and routes can cause congestion that wasn't there before, delaying buses, and pissing off drivers who occasionally then take it out on cyclists. The routing around the old Elephant roundabout, going contraflow and then doubling back to to down towards the War Museum is just bizarre. Perhaps it improves the traffic flow from Camberwell? So don't any of you lecture me about not using cycle lanes. Nor whether I wear a helmet, which is my choice (and in recent years decided to to). If the cabby who thought it appropriate to give me a scare yesterday had not been in the advanced stop lane, then I would have been well clear as I am every evening, by the time he had got on the NKR. So rant over. I understand that segregated cycle lanes are appreciated by many and will improve cycle safety. I take up my gripes on routing and design with people like the head of LCC and with Sothwark Cyclists. Give me a quiet route rather than a segregated cycle lane on a main road any day. My two faves are the A4 going out to Heathrow and the A13 when it is essentially an urban motorway. Such fun! Love and peace SE22

OK a reality check. If you go through life with this being your worst attack then you have done OK. If the worst thing that that kid does in his life is chuck piss then society has done OK. I wont list the personal threats that I have had cycling but fortunately the list is short. Yesterday a taxi driver decided to drive close to me in the rain to teach me a lesson for daring not to use a (pointless) segregated cycle lane on the elephant roundabout. Yet only one in thousands of cabbies is like that. Spookily he had a cartoon of a cabbie urinating on an uber driver in his back window That doesn't diminish that you were assaulted and the effect that it has had on you. Even if the police do not act this time it is intelligence and if a regular thing they will do something. I'd also contact the school. The kid will be bragging and someone may well shop him. Better that they intervene at this age rather than let the kid go seriously off the rails. They may even have a suspicion who it is. (assuming that he may go to the school)

Local, but I doubt with the number of posts we have critical mass. Persuade me otherwise. We could do it at the police station, of the Crystal Palace Tavern, or other well none landmark.

Nah, a hug rather than a protest. Done too much moaning and protesting recently. Flash mob/hug. Although thinking about it a conga may be OK if it is happy. Or optional conga/hug. To be even more serious it would be quite a nice gesture and dare I even say it get some nice publicity.

With so much crap going on could we get together for a mass group hug? I'm not great at organising such things so perhaps one of you out there could organise? I think that its the sort of thing that younger people do through more instantaneous social media.

Civil Aviation Authority provides good advice and a template. The airline will riggle out of it and it would be good to know if anyone has been successful in such a situation.

???? Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I expect that all us groovy fookers know that the original lyris were "I'm so bored of you" (not I'm so bored of the USA). Spookily enough at the age of 16 hearing this (rather than all the prog rock crap that the upper 6th played in the common room) changed my life. Had me hair cut short, bought some seconds Levi drainpipe jeans from the market and was given my uncle's genuine WW2 army shirt (desert). Cool or what? And as I mellow I can even listen to some of the prog rock crap nowadays. And other genres I hated at the age of 16.

Worth waiting for special offers from Lidl no computing stuff at present www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?action=showDetail&id=38680 We were persuaded to buy a Macbook about ten years ago. Never got any good use out of it and then found out that the software was no longer supported.

I'm about to make a claim following a five hour delay from a small airport in France. The airport was not up to the job and hence we were transferred to a better airport about an hour away. The airline is one of the main budget ones, and I expect them to argue that the delay was outside of their control (weather). My argument is that a five hour delay was totally unreasonable and the there should be plans in place to shift passengers quickly and smoothly in such situations. Without having a pop at the airline (that uses Stansted as a hub), it would be great to hear of other's experiences. Also whether it is OK to also claim from my insuarance (a free policy from my bank, I wouldn't usually bother with short haul). Thanks in advance.

With the risk of souding a little bigoted, where the caller sounds educated I say this, and advise them to get a job working for society rather than against it. Oddly the phone has usually gone down before the sentence if finished. More recent scam calls have been very friendly, calling me by my first name so that I assume I instigated the business. Clearly none of ths applies to Specsavers in Peckham who seemed to have no telephone maners at all. Not sure if I have managed to turn anyones's life around but there seems to be no shortage of people in the UK to make the calls. I'm not going to digress about foreign call centres.

Bigger question is why TF people buy this and worse still believe it. I just occasionally have to skim through it to remind me how vile it is. Nothing nice, no rays of sunshine. Not that the centre ground or more lefty papers always have it right I hasten to add. I'd like to think the written page was less influencial but you will probably know that the DM web site is the most popular one (in the world? or just UK??)

God that was dire. I watched about 20 minutes of it, not rushing home from work and then deciding that Have I Got News for You was much more entertaining. Was it the dirge that the England fans were making that made me feel this way, or the football (or the bloody pink shirts). Genuninely open question. I'm at my lowest interest in the national team for 30 years. Probably make that the lowest ebb as I had a much more interesting social life 30 years ago so it was as much due to competing interests rather than the quality of football and atmosphere.

Specially for Salsaboy, and perhaps Grok, tickets going for Ricky Gervais for Children in Need. Go on, you know you want to, don't let me stand in your way http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows/children_in_need_insert_16nov16