Alot of cyclists have a massive chip on their shoulder and think they are above the law. I could imagine if a cyclist who was doing this was injured they would blame anyone but themselves. Where I live, the vast majority of cyclists are idiots who speed along the pavements, ignore red traffic lights, ram pushchairs if they are not moved out of their way (I have seen this happen myself). If I saw a cyclist come off as they were riding along the pavement, I would be the last person to offer to help them because I would think ‘serves them right’.

Good grief, ban the lot of them! [where is that damned rolleyes smilie?]

Seriously, are there really that many of them or is it that one or two incidents have tainted your view?
A cyclist is just flesh and blood on two wheels: if a cyclist and a car get together which one do you think would come off worst?
I (as a motorist) have seen more motorists ignore red traffic lights than I have cyclists (for the record I noticed two cars and a van yesterday, and two the day before, whereas I can only remember seeing just ONE cyclist go through a red light that was unnecessarily holding up traffic, ie there was nothing else waiting except us, a frequent state of affairs at those lights).
Inconsiderate cyclists on the pavement are a bloody nuisance BUT I can remember a woman cyclist dying (a few years ago) after being hit on the head by the wing mirror of a van from behind; both my daughter and I have been run off the road by drivers who couldn’t be bothered to drive around us – I had a big bruise on my hip from the cars wing mirror, which the indignant woman driver wanted me to pay to repair!
Just as big an annoyance are mobility scooters – I had a neighbour whose Achilles tendon was snapped after being hit by one who left him lying in agony on the pavement; even the police said there was a big problem with ignorant drivers but not enough of one to try and find them.
But top of the list must be motorcyclists. If I rode a vehicle that was as inherently unstable as a motorbike I wouldn’t do the things I’ve seen them do – a fireman I know bought his son a really nice car with the promise never to ride a motorbike (and I would too if I’d had to scoop bikers brains up off the road, with my hands into a bucket, as often as he has). Bikers all appear to be maniacal control freaks with a death wish – I know this is not completely true, but the stupidity of the few taints the rest.

I can’t believe anyone actually believes the utilities were well run when state owned. They were a disaster!

At least when they were a monopoly we weren’t being encouraged to keep shifting from one fleecing provider to another.
Seriously, when they were publicly owned at least they weren’t trying to make as much money as possible to keep their shareholders happy, like all the rest.

I think evidence around the world shows that governments never manage businesses capably. And clearly the PO workers do not share the anti-diluvian attitude of their union leaders as over 90% of them have opted in to the share offer joining about 700,000 others.

Surely it’s the management put in by the governments that succeeds or fails: that way the government can point out it’s the managers fault when something goes wrong or gloat that it was they who had the foresight to put them in place for the (very) occasional success. And most managers went from public to privatised ownership with their business, failure or not, anyway.
Which of the former public companies do you count as being an overwhelming success anyway?
Workers generally do take the carrot since it can provide them with extra money; I have no idea if this was provided to them free of charge or whether they got them at a discount, but a place I use to work at offered its workers free shares at an issue, which were to be held by the company for three years before being released. Obviously we then had an interest in the company’s wellbeing, rather than just working for it, with the chance of a bonus if we disposed of the shares of a rising business after three years.

Really? I thought rail passenger miles had been increasing year on year for several years, now…….

From what level is it increasing?
Do you feel better sitting on a train that is stuck between stations since one has broken down ahead (or maybe yours has broken down), telling yourself that the service is much better than it used to be?
My understanding is that passenger levels dropped to a point that was apparently regarded as alarming that they could do nothing but go up if an attempt was made to improve the service. Just because things sound like they have gotten better does not mean that all is good and proper now.

haha 🙂 Wait until they put a ridiculous price on it. Pay or we don’t deliver. After all the royal mail works for share holders now 😉

So if a stupid price is put on it then the service will not be used by all except the most needy and for bills – and you know what you can do with them!!! The price will need to be regarded as ‘competitive’ otherwise the shareholders will not get much return and the management will have some seriously hard questions to answer.
Someone will probably have put an answer to this already though.

Privatisation will mean that the posties will find that their rounds will get bigger and/or need to be done quicker. The post bus service will disappear (in areas where it hasn’t already) or the charge will become unsustainable for users – despite the fact that a vehicle will need to run on that route anyway. We will get even more advertising junk mail through our letterboxes as the company sells itself out to make money. Blah blah blah. 😡

The flu has subsided, although I wouldn’t get too close just in case. Put not your trust in flu jabs, they are just a government conspiracy to get the better of you really they are.

Snafu – I am convinced your ever extended posts are there solely to challenge my powers of concentration. Perhaps you’d be better staying away until your senses are clear. By the way flu is a virus so I’m not sure what pills you are taking…..

Try reading aloud, that might help with the concentration; although turning off all distractions such as TV, radio, music, but not ignoring your significant other since that causes problems that make your concentration even worse.
Paracetamol.
My sinus’s ached due to the sniffing and blowing.

Snafu I await your next few thousand words with baited breath!;)

Dare one ask what exactly you baited it with? My cats breath smells of cat food, so all I’d imagine him trying to catch is other cats.

I recently attended a school open evening, whilst looking for a secondary school for No 1 daughter. They dont teach RE, instead they are proposing to study ‘philosophy’. Personally, I think that’s bang on – an opportunity to learn the basic tenets of all religions, and how they affect the wider world – without pushing a specific belief system.

SNAFU – Broadly speaking, I’m with you; though the basic philosophy of most religions is very similar, and still relevant even in the modern world. The deity bit doesnt work for me, and its that part that is changing – and more in the UK than anywhere else.

Like the idea of philosophy, bit worried that it could be a little heavy for kids (although it could be that my understanding of philosophy is different from theirs…) unless it is much watered down, and if it focuses on the philosophy around religion then there could be little difference from the old RE. if the teacher is an old RE teacher.

Whilst the principle is intriguing, Bruce, I wonder, at secondary level, how the most immense subject known to man can be embraced. If it is religious philosophy they are referring to then that will take each of the main faiths and apply a rational defense for it’s teachings, I suppose. It’s still a mighty big subject, to which it is not easy to apply broad brush strokes.

Yes, what he says. Mostly.

Ever thought of writing a book snafu?, The most interesting thing about your ramble, is WHO forced you to swallow tablets for Flu,:)

Who says I haven’t, he lied…?;o)

As I pointed out above it was Paracetamol for my sinus’s, and some sort of Day/Night Nurse pills I’d forgotten about that my wife forced me to take, because she believes in dosing me up on any/everything that the chemist might have available; usually I manage to shove them in a pot plant – unfortunately I think she has cottoned on to this deception. They were more for the assistance in sleeping, I believe, since I am fully aware that there is nothing that helps with flu, not even man flu, other than groaning every so often and being waited on hand and foot.

Hope this meets Charlie’s approval for length. Next time, though…

The last photo is definitely a 737, the windows are the same its just a bit of heat haze that is distorting them.

Ah, so that’s the reason the ones on the left look round whilst the ones on the right are square? Hmm.
Is the chimney original to the design too? ;o)

…a group of WAAFS having removed the 8 guns from a Hurricane….

They are Wrens – Women’s Royal Naval Service. Even says so in the original caption[/pedantic]

Good grief. Sorry, it’ll be a long one, so here goes…

Religion isn’t a science.

Try telling them that when discussing intelligent design!

Religion in this country, which is what we are discussing, is predominantly Christian based, and enshrined within it is a set of moral and ethical codes which forms the foundation of how the majority live their lives.

But for how much longer?
And why should we need a book which is best described as a fictional biography to tell us how to live our lives? Do you really need to be told that you have to be nice to other people?

Re 7

Charlie, you are correct. This country lacks a clear sense and knowledge of moral and ethical imperatives, demonstrated in just one of many ways by recent discussions concerning the lack of care and compassion within our society.

Religion used to be the medium by which these values were taught. If, through some misplaced sensitivity we no longer trust religion to deliver then we need another method.

Islam knows only certainty and has no such sensitivity and has sensed a vacuum into which it is moving with great speed.

It was the carrot and stick approach: you either did what you were told or you were threatened with going to hell (not the one in Norway) for eternity, and in those days each man clung on to whatever morsel of hope he could find. These days I cannot threaten my eldest with being sent to his room without him coming back at me with the fact that he has rights and I am infringing them – imagine trying that in other parts of the world and the ways they might try to re-straighten his ‘moral’ compass.
Yes, an absence will be seen to require filling and there will be some religions which will actively seek to exploit what they see as a failure by our own religions, since obviously we cannot have shucked off those shackles ourselves… This would be where there would be conflict since it has taken us a great deal of time to get to this stage and we really don’t want to be dragged back several centuries.

If you have seen the film `The Rite` there is a very thought provoking scene. The film is about a priest who decides to leave the church because he does not believe in god.
On his way home from resigning a girl is run down in the street and is dying. She calls out to the priest and asks him to give her the last rites.

Not seen that film but I have listened to a series of radio plays called Bad Faith, starring (of all people!) Lenny Henry (a comedian I usually can’t stand, but here in a very straight role) as a police chaplain who has lost his belief. Very enjoyable.

The ultimate question. Would you deny a dying person (mother, father, son, daughter) that comfort, peace of mind even if you didn’t believe yourself?
BTW I don’t believe although I try to believe in something. Ceasing to exist doesn’t appeal.

The ultimate question? It would be their belief, and if it provides them with comfort then it is fine by me – as long as they do not expect me to participate, go skyclad, sacrifice a goat, whatever.
Ceasing to exist is what happens to all of us, though. We might be remembered somewhere – a gravestone, a book, a plaque on a bench – but physically we fade to dust, even in the minds of others. Think about the millions who existed in the world before the start of the last century; there are very few left who knew them personally, a few more who may have seen photographs of a relative few, more who have seen paintings of those who could afford the artist, some who will have read whatever records may have survived the centuries, but the vast majority are totally forgotten, unknown to us all. Believe in something preserving your character if it makes you feel better, but logic says you’re wasting your time.

Today at Lincoln Court, a Keith Hebden and 5 other were fined, because as a protest against Drones being used in Afghanistan, “Were Killing” Civillians, they cut the perimeter security wire at RAF Waddington.
Oh, forgot to mention, I should have said, the REV Hebden. Good example to kids re Religion?.
CLASSIC.

I’m guessing your own view is opposite to the protestors, yes? If you agreed with them your opinion would surely be the exact opposite!
There have been many instances of people with belief protesting against things which had the chance to cause controversy to the public – slavery, child labour, slum dwellings, etc.
A good example? Who knows – how much publicity did it get?

Because it’s the same as a Copper committing a crime. it sets a bad example to his “Faith”.

Eh, what???
A cop committing a crime is a crime, because the cop is supposed to be an upstanding member of society who sets an example and any transgression would cause the cop to no longer be a cop any longer. A church person who trespasses on RAF Waddington as a protest is, at least, not out to deliberately hurt anybody or (hopefully) self immolate themselves – he might be chanting ‘thou shall not kill’ in the hope that this convinces all the airmen he encounters to convert to pacifism, but at least we are not expecting him to uphold the law.

Come on, are there no god botherers on here who are prepared to defend organised religion, in or out of education?