Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
Does a ditch count as a building?
Driverless car heads for a ditch on the M5: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/local-news/car-careers-m5-ends-up-9477717
probably avoiding a cyclist
Pretty poor attempt at
Pretty poor attempt at “during a funeral” in one of the linked stories.
Hebden Bridge – 2
Hebden Bridge – 2
Hebden Bridge – 1
Hebden Bridge – 1
Oh no! another invasion,
Oh no! another invasion, quick let me see what Magna Carta says about this.
(another one I can’t access)
I think building a bike lane
I think building a bike lane brings out the best in people, just as a 20 mph limit does – drivers, instead of being me me me selfish all the time, discover their concern for bus passengers, blond and partially sighted people, and air pollution.
Fears cyclists could hurt people using Exeter’s new ‘floating bus stops’
A new £1.55m cycle lane is currently under construction
Mr Hill, local resident takes up the story “This design requires a blind person to step, literally blind, into moving traffic to use a bus. Various online videos illustrate the dangers.
“In effect, unaccompanied blind persons are excluded from using the bus stops. It’s fine to encourage cycling, but not at the expense of others. It’s not acceptable as the council has statutory duties to keep highways accessible to disabled persons and not to discriminate.
“Ironically, as Exeter starts implementing them, experience elsewhere is turning against them.”
DCC has assured the new ‘floating’ bus stops will be safe for all road users.
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/fears-cyclists-could-hurt-people-9461290
Live: Sinkhole appears on
Live: Sinkhole appears on Boardmasters bus route in Newquay
Two men from the Council are booking into it
https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/live-sinkhole-appears-boardmasters-bus-9469167
Rich_cb wrote:
Being unable to access public services would seem to be a legitimate grievance. Whether she is right in blaming that on immigration is another matter. I read an analysis in The Telegraph which contained the quote “inexcusable but not inexplicable”. I thought that was a rather apt way to describe a lot of recent episodes of social unrest.Explicable at least in part by 14 years of conservative rule and Brexit!
It’s because of all the immigrants coming in and bringing their families and putting pressure on the NHS, which they’re working for … er … they’re filling the care homes, by working there for minimal wages … er …See also migrants from the Indian subcontinent, Carribean, Irish immigration the whole time etc. And large short-term flows aren’t new – note the fairly rapid growth of e.g. Edinburgh’s second language (now Polish).
That’s one of the things that puzzles me – do these people not go in anywhere like hotels, restaurants, care homes, hospitals, public transport?? Who the heck do they thin runs these things? I include my low immigration locality in this. And that’s leaving aside music and sport.
Off the top of my head, the post-war recruitment drive by London Transport in the Caribbean – I guess it was all via The Commonwealth, so citizenships were on offer; London Brick in southern Italy; pre-Brexit, many NHS hospitals were actively recruiting nurses in the EU, it was the Philippines on and off before that. You don’t do those things if your adverts for staff are being answered by local people.
legitimate grievancesLegitimate grievances is an interesting one. For example Dawn was protesting in Southampton, is “definitely not a racist”, but is upset because she “can’t even get a doctor’s appointment”. Also something about honour and sovereignty.
Is that a legitimate grievance?
It’s complicated. I don’t have much wider evidence on this, but my lived experience is that it’s not a serious problem. Partly that’s because I’m fairly clued-up on health matters and am able to articulate my concerns when I need to. The important thing is to present (specific) things they can actually help you with.
Not sure how you get from frustration about accessing health care to joining, flag in hand, a potential riot originally brought on by racists, though.
Angry South West residents
Angry South West residents blame council workers for parking nightmare
Businesses say it is affecting trade
In that well-known part of Somerset, Plymouth, there just aren’t enough parking spaces to go around for businesses who rely upon on-street parking to bring much of their trade.
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/local-news/angry-south-west-residents-blame-9465275
Exeter parking charges set to rise as raft of changes considered
It could cost almost £5 to stay for two hours in the city centre
One-hour parking will be re-introduced for some car parks away from the very centre of the city, such as those at Belmont Road and Parr Street.
The idea is to encourage ‘pop and shop’ short-term visits. (ECC – please Google “induced demand”)
Some real Little Britain stuff here:
At Belmont Road, where there have been complaints that students and Airb&b customers monopolise spaces, there is a proposal to make it residents-only at night.
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/exeter-city-centre-parking-charges-9467355
Suprised the “let’s have a go
Suprised the “let’s have a go on your bike, mate” (with menaces) wasn’t employed here.
This is a picture of something that was very unlikely ever to end well.
Dissonance in the northern
Dissonance in the northern part of Wiltshire: in Calne, one more reopened lane will fix it –
Calne High Street to reopen to tackle traffic in town (picture)
https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/24497670.calne-high-street-reopen-tackle-traffic-town/
Call to share thoughts on Bradford on Avon traffic scheme
meanwhile, this is yet another nice little place ruined by through traffic, and maybe they will do something about it:
https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/24494171.call-share-thoughts-bradford-avon-traffic-scheme/
Rich_cb wrote:
I suppose it boils down to semantics, a protest turns violent, when does it become a riot? There are definitions but they don’t appear to be strictly adhered to. I think a tipping point is probably reached when the police are deemed to have lost control and then the opportunists take their opportunity. The lack of evident central planning does, in my opinion, hint that the underlying disillusion with the status quo is more widely shared than many seem willing to admit.“Tinderbox Britain” it says on the front of the Daily Mail today; and I’m also finding myself sympathising with Mrs Thatcher’s frequently quoted out of context comment “there’s no such thing as society”. So, what’s going on? However you characterise it, there’s a rabble out there. Ideally you’d put your message out “gather in the high street at 7 pm” and hardly anyone would turn up – anyone thinking of it would be shut down by those around them. The rabble will be motivated by a blend of grievances – perceived and real.
Some examples – Someone over there got/always gets preferential treatment over me or “us”, someone is taking what I am given to believe is rightfully mine, I am dissatisfied or bored with my life, I quite like going out and smashing things up – any excuse or focal point will do, I’ve seen or heard of others get away with doing stuff and fancy having a go myself.
There are also those who appear from their rhetoric to simply not want black and brown people to exist. The playbook there is all charted in 1935-45 Germany. For us in cycling it runs – oppress them, make rules for where and when they can be, make a big play of the times they do anything bad or if anything bad happens, label, catalogue and register them, bend the law against them, make them wear yellow, take away everything that is supportive of or conducive to them and their existence. Enact violence against anyone who hasn’t got the message by now. Rinse and repeat when bored of this, for any other convenient scapegoat or anyone else doubting the narrative.
Anyway, the genuine economic aspect isn’t helped by Brexit, of course and since forcing that over the line, the right-wing grift has been emboldened to try the next steps in their play-book. This sorry episode almost completes the Yellowhammer “project fear” bingo card. Today’s rioters will be approaching middle age before any Brexit benefits are delivered into their lives.
Mrs Thatcher was saying “there’s no such thing as society, just individuals and families” and right now, I think there’s something in that. The rioters are not the ones wondering where the next meal will come from, or whether they can heat their homes. The Government is responding with “stick”, but in terms of “legitimate grievances” there will have to be some sort of carrot as well in the search for political solutions. Without catastrophising too much, I guess the political goal here is to bring down the Government, force a general election in which people are invited to throw in the towel to the Reform Party.
car hits optician’s (no, not
car hits optician’s (no, not that one)
Woman in hospital following crash outside R &J Moore Opticians in Queen Street, Ramsgate
A woman was taken to hospital after a car collided with a pedestrian, a parked car and the shopfront of an optician’s.