So a friend of mine reckons I should give you all an update!
Finally managed to get over her, and life was going along swimmingly. Even met another girl, who is utterly lovely, then ex finds out, decides she’s jealous as, and tells me that she still loves me and always has… So the thing I hate myself for right now is that I’ve allowed her to turn my head…I thought the crazy scale only went up to 10 or is this normal behaviour for a woman?

Dude, she’s young – I mean 24, did you know what you wanted when you were 24? Life with a 38 year old partner probably wasn’t on my list of priorities, but if she liked you then you can see why she has a dilemma. If you want more pain and heartache ahead then sure go ahead, indulge her, but if you’d rather remain a happy go lucky sort of guy then I’d say best to avoid.

Tempting though I know. I’ve not so long ago got out of a 2 year relationship with the hottest girl on the planet, perfect figure, intelligent, slightly crazy, amazing in bed – I mean just out of this world amazing, on another level, an instant connection, yet I knew from the start it probably wouldn’t work long term (for various reasons which I wont go into now). Yet despite the significant issues over the last couple of years I was blinded by my ‘old boy downstairs’ doing the thinking for me, ignoring the warning signs until it was too late. I was gutted!

I’m almost over it now, lots of casual sex helped and I’m now seeing someone else who’s awesome too. Thing is though, if the ex turned up wanting to reignite things then I’d be sorely tempted – I know it’s not the right thing to do, but I’m a guy, I love women, I love sex with women, and there’s a constant battle going on in my head between ‘doing the right thing’ and mindless fornication. It’s normal (I think) so don’t worry ;)

Just look at any OS Map, pick a valley and head up there, will be plenty of spots if you look around.

We have an absolutely bl**dy amazing wild camp spot in the Lakes, nicest, most beautiful place I’ve ever camped, super quiet, flat and dry ground next to a bubbling stream and in full view of the mountains but I’m bu**ered if I’m going to reveal it on here, otherwise next time we head there, there might be several other tents in place. We found it using the look at OS map and thinks ‘that’s got potential’ method.

When these overhead speed gantries are showing the NSL sign, or appear to be switched off and unlit, then are the speed cameras mounted behind these signs still turned on?

In other words if you go past the said signs late at night at for example 95mph (a perfectly safe speed for light traffic conditions and good weather), then would you still end up with a ticket from these cameras in this situation?

Our house in Pembrokeshire is on the market, but we have had one viewing in the first month. Generally, houses do not seem to be selling.

1) Drop the price of the house to below what it is worth to get rid of it.

Has it occurred to you that your house (or others around the same area) might not be what you, or the estate agent (eager to get your business with a high valuation) thinks it’s worth?

If you’ve had no interest, then you might have to consider dropping to whatever someone else (e.g. a prospective buyer) thinks it’s actually worth paying?

I’d say option 5 makes more sense, at least until you’re sure you want to stay in N.Wales.

I’ve given up with instant coffee, it’s all rank, if I can’t have real coffee then I have tea.

+1

I keep a small cafetiere at work with packet of ground coffee. Easy-peasy and so much nicer than that instant muck.

NB. before anyone claims I’m a unitard for thinking the Focus drives better, read the Autocar review of the new 1 series in which they mention the focus is nicer to drive, or look at the Telegraph ‘fun to drive’ ratings (10 for the Focus, 9 for the BMW), and there are many others.

I’ve only driven the MK2 1 Series in various guises, but have driven the new shape Focus and I completely disagree with this. The BMW was streets ahead in the ‘nice to drive’ stakes. The Focus felt bloated, de-sensitised to drive, heavy and bland. The 1 Series was a much nicer drive. MK1 Focus, now that was different, a really nice drive but sadly it seems to have lost its way a little now that’s it a little more lardy IMO.

At that price point ALWAYS, ALWAYS buy private sale, that way you can assess the owner as well as the car.

When I bought my last few second hand cars the best condition ones by far were the private sales. All the dealer stuff I saw was shabby and overpriced (basically just auction tat that’s come mostly from main dealer trade ins). There’s often a reason why these cars were traded in by their previous owners and not sold privately.

I regularly commute to Germany for the day a few times a month with work, up at 4am for early flight, meetings all day, back home around 10pm. I make that an 18 hour day. Tired in work the day afterwards yes, but no real problem.

Depends how much you want the job I guess and what you think are the realistic chances you’ll get it. If you’re not sure how serious they are just ask if they’d mind paying your travel expenses. If they say no, then you’ll have probably dodged a bullet so far as employers goes anyway.

I’d have prepacked a lightweight tent and minimal camping gear, grabbed the bike, ditched the phone, stayed local to withdraw all of the £450 in cash over the first 2 days, then paid cash to grab a train within a couple of days ride of say the Lakes. Spend the whole month travelling round the trails, mostly wild camping, paying cash for everything in small local shops, farm shops etc. Nice little holiday and how would they find you?

I suspect that the programme has rules about these sort of things. No doubt you’d have to remain accessible for a vehicle based camera crew at all times, otherwise they can’t properly film it. Can’t see a camera crew bing happy tackling some gnarly trails and possibly bad mountain weather day after day.

Cant believe we’re at page 2 of this thread already and no one’s hinted at banning this sort of thing on safety/risk grounds. So here we go, lets ban engines on planes, lets ban anyone daring to overtake another vehicle on their way to the airport, in fact lets ban flights to Vegas full stop – far too risky!

About 4 months here in total, with an extra couple for a final few niggly jobs. Okay so the place is only 11 years old, 2 bed and we were renting previously so had 2-3 weeks with it vacant to get if recarpeted and decorated before we moved in.

So far replaced full kitchen, all flooring including laminates, new recessed lights throughout, garden tidied and decking stained, new blinds and curtains throughout, new locks, lots of furniture assembly, some plumbing work, some additional painting (highlight walls), new fitted doors to all recessed wardrobes, plus loads more little stuff. Bathrooms are fine.

Couldn’t stand living in a place that’s not as we’d want it or having all those jobs hanging over us, would rather get it done, and get on with life, riding bikes etc. We paid someone to paint the flat and make good in white before we moved in. Best £650 we ever spent.

You also have to think, by paying someone else to do stuff, it actually saves money sometimes. I’m a self employed contractor and my daily rate is higher than the daily rate I was paying the painter and decorator. The painter finished the job in 1/2 the time it would have taken me (if I’d have taken time off work to do it) – took him a full week, so estimate 2+ weeks for me. He did a better job than I would have too. No brainier really. Obviously we also got the kitchen fitted by professionals, did think about it ourselves but seeing what they did in just 3 days, so glad we didn’t.

The irony of this thread is that those on here shouting the loudest about being liberal, tolerance and compassionate for refugees are those who also seem most willing to shout down any one who has even dares to have slightly differing views from their own the refugee/migration crisis.

Now there’s liberal tolerance and compassion for you! Doh :roll:

Several of us on here have already said that we would. I’m looking into organisations that can help facilitate this. So there’s that attempt at justifying your own lack of compassion out the window.

Good on you, don’t think I would to be honest (apart from the fact we don’t have a big house with a spare room). Which organizations have you approached and how have you got on – is this possible?

And there’s what was it, 600,000 empty properties in this country (but also a ‘housing crisis’)?

This is all well and good and I’d be more than happy to see empty housing stock brought back into use, but what would you say to all those UK families who are currently in temporary B and B accommodation who’ve been on the housing lists for years waiting for an available social house to become free?

Just to add, there’s a lot of people on here (plus Facebook etc) saying and writing (probably from a comfy sofa whilst drinking a latte) how terrible this crisis is and that we should take action, but would anyone on here themselves actually be willing to open their doors to hosting a Syrian refugee family in their own house for an extended period, say 2-3 years?

I think a lot of people’s concerns (and rightly too) are that mixed up with the genuine refugees, there are a whole hoard of people who are tagging along simply because they fancy a better life in a more prosperous country. Some of the young men being interviewed at the Calais camp unfortunately appeared to be firmly in the latter group. But how to tell the difference, that’s the hard part?

Also what do we do with the refugees when they get to the UK? Should we house them in big tented camps or ex military facilities and keep them there until it’s safe to return? Should they be distributed among families willing to put them up but also run the risk that when it’s time for them to return home, they simply vanish into the UK’s illegal immigrant population?

Or should the UK be funding and building safe camps (with schools, medical facilities etc) protected by military peacekeepers in Syria or surrounding countries to guarantee the safety of citizens within their country of origin? Might be a good and ethical way to use our military for once?

We have to help in some way, don’t think anyone is disagreeing with that, it’s just whats the best way to help for both the benefit of the refugees but also the rest of us who actually live in the UK?

The poster I posed the question to has basically said that the risk caused by this airshow to non participants was ok in the bigger scheme of things. That’s not my stance so I don’t have to answer the question

No I said that the risk of being killed at or near an airshow is historically so small that it’s almost negligable. This was an unusual accident which probably won’t occur again in the foreseeable future. That doesen’t make this accident any less tragic for all involved and they have my deepest sympathies.

The point I’m making is that who ever is making the decisions behind whether these sort of activities go ahead in the future (or not) will need to look at the bigger picture rather than being swayed by the highly vocal knee-jerk brigade, many of whom are understandably upset at the moment. They need to consider the benefits such an event can give to the community and public as a whole (not all of which is measurable in the statistics you so love to quote).

Apart from inspiring kids, being a great day out etc, many of these events raise a considerable amount of money for local charities for example which may help save lives or improve things for vulnerable people and if they get watered down too much, there’s too much red tape involved to host them, or they get moved to a location where no one lives, then they will probably just become not worth attending/hosting and as a result will not be financially viable any more.

At the end of the day, who’s going to waste their time traveling several hours to a remote location, far from where they live where local infrastructure is poor (i.e. not near a main road) to view something they can hardly see (because they are being kept at an ultra safe distance) where aircraft are only allowed to fly straight and level?

but still feel there is an element of NIMBYism in your take on this.

No not at all – not sure if you get my point. I appreciate we need to do what we can where we can, and if there’s big improvements in safety that can be made without compromising peoples lives to much then great – lets do it.

Unfortunately though the balance (fueled by sensationalist media reporting and a ‘sue everyone’ culture) seems to have swung too far into the camp of those who now shout the loudest about safety over everything else (like them having a safe life is far more important than anyone else being able to lead a free or fulfilling life).

Many people these days seem to expect a completely risk free life – one where accident’s can’t just happen, and if it does all go wrong then there’s always someone else to blame or litigate the hell out of.

To have a fair life for all then we need to balance risk v safety, unfortunately the balance lately seems to be swinging firmly towards the latter, but I’m guessing that’s because these days an increasing number of people are not so exposed to risk, spending more time in front of a computer or TV than they do getting outdoors and appreciating just how liberating an element of risk, or taking personal responsibility for ones own safety can be.

But do you feel differently enough about it to swap a member of your own family with one of the victims, you know, for the greater good? Or does it only feel like that if it’s someone else taking one for the team?

That’s a pretty daft argument to be honest and you probably knew it when you typed this. Regardless, I shall rise somewhat to your bait. The answer to your question is no, of course I wouldn’t swap – would anyone of same mind?

The question you should have asked, is knowing the risks presented by an airshow, would you still allow a member of your family to drive past an active airshow en route somewhere else, or to attend, standing close to the flightpath?

Yes 100%, in fact we’ve done it at a couple of shows, in a field close to the end of the runway with the kids too. Plenty of other families and kids in the same field. Would we do it again since this accident? Yes we probably would – the benefits to the kids far outweigh the very small amount of risk present in our opinion. Personally though if you feel it’s too risky then feel free to keep your kids at home watching TV – it’s your choice at the end of the day.

I think the point slimjim is making is that those that feel a bit of unfortunate death is a reasonable price to pay for an edgy ‘worthwhile’ life for society at large also need to face up to is if this much death of folk going about their daily lives is acceptable.

Sorry think you’re totally missing the point. You seem to be implying that death in this way (because its the result of a non essential, fun or edgy activity) is somehow unacceptable, yet death by an activity that’s considered normal – e.g. driving the kids to school, is somehow okay, regardless to the fact that driving is probably the single most deadly activity known to man – certainly far more dangerous than attending an airshow.

No one said that this much death was acceptable. What we’re saying is that death for ALL of us in inevitable at some point and in order to live life to it’s full then we all need a certain amount of risk to be present. If we legislate all risk out of life then life becomes worthless anyway. Accepting that risk is present we must also accept that an unusual (or freak if you want to call it that) tragic accident can happen.

This accident will be looked into and no doubt new rules or restrictions will be put in place, but the reality is we could put in all the legislation we want to make life as safe (and as dull) as humanely possible yet still unforeseen accidents will always continue to happen. I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to make things safer, but all we’re asking for is a balanced approach, not a knee jerk reaction influenced by the media or all those easily outraged and shouty ‘do good’ people who seem to jump on any bandwagon that appears to be trendy at the time.

I agree with the sentiment of your comments, but don’t you think it’s unacceptable to have a situation where the display authorisation limits are set so that pilot error, or an aircraft failure can result in what has happened?

But we can’t legislate for every eventuality can we, or we’d all be able to do absolutely nothing. There has to be a balance struck, and currently, despite the media and some on here drumming up a knee-jerk frenzy, the stats for airshow safety (when you consider that the last non-participants to be killed at an airshow in the UK were in 1952) are pretty exceptional.

If you look at almost any airfield capable of holding a large airshow such as this then you’ll see that there’s roads, buildings and all other sorts around the majority of them. We’re a busy island so that’s normal. It’s the same for commercial airports, you only have to look at the built up areas directly beneath the approach to Heathrow, Manchester and other areas (East Midlands has the busy M1 crossing right at the end of the runway). Yet no one bats an eyelid despite a near miss with a 777 at Heathrow a few years back.

If you held an airshow far out to sea, or somewhere remote then not enough people would be able to get there to make it viable in the first place. If you banned aerobatics, old aircraft, demonstrations of flying skill etc, or kept the aircraft performing such menouvers so far away from the public that they’d have to use binoculars to see them then again no one would be interested enough to come. That’s not even touching on the fact that many incidents at airshows where pilots or a plane have had issues have been saved due to close proximity of a runway. If planes had ended up in the sea then the outcome for many of these would probably have been fatal.

Re-evaluating the risk benefit balance and making changes is a healthy exercise for any activity and comparisons to other unrelated activities is just a fatuous irellevance.

Yes but we still don’t know exactly what happened here do we, so calls from people to “ban this” or “change that” are a little premature and completely knee-jerk and based sadly (but probably) on viewing sensationalist and speculative media coverage.

I’m all for increasing safety where practically possible, but all too often rules and measures designed to increase safety end up strangling and killing off the very activities that they were designed to make safer in the first place. That doesn’t do anyone any favours and means that life becomes duller and less rewarding for everyone as a result. A life almost completely free from risk surely wouldn’t be worth living in the first place?

But the folk that died did not choose 2 or get the high of doing 2 or watching 2, just got to do the downside of 2. They had that chosen for them by someone else. I’m all up for personal reckless endeavour but it would be ideal if I alone get to do the suffering when it goes tits up.

No but ironically they were doing something far more dangerous at the time, driving or cycling on the UK’s road network, where as we know around 6-7 people are wiped out on a daily basis, often through no fault of their own, yet normally this isn’t even considered newsworthy! Let’s get things in perspective shall we?

if I’d lost someone close to me on the A27 today I somehow don’t think the “let us risk our lives or they’re not worth living” attitude would wash.

Mate as tragic as this is, we can’t eliminate risk from our lives entirely. Any one of us could be killed tomorrow for whatever reason through no fault of our own. If you can’t accept that then I don’t know what else to say really.

The very act of living is risky whether you choose to push the boundary’s in aviation, climbing, MTB or whether you decide that getting outdoors is too risky and spend your life avoiding risk by staying in sat on your sofa eating pizza (oh wait, there’s still risk there isn’t there – the risk of an early death from obesity).

Getting to and from work everyday poses far more risk to you and others than any airshow ever did so calling for this sort of thing to be banned is a total over-reaction. If all risk is to be eliminated from society then besides making life a pretty dull affair, there are many thousands of other things to be looked that would have a much greater impact on risk before banning aerobatics at airshows anywhere near anyone who might possibly be anywhere nearby.

For those people saying “hold airshows over the sea”. Well many of the people who attend airshows don’t live near the sea, most airfields needed to hold such events are not near the sea. For example, Duxford airshow is held at the war museum in Duxford? If it wasn’t at Duxford then there wouldn’t be a Duxford airshow full stop. Most of the residents in Duxford village (at the end of the runway) love the air shows. Yes there always the odd whinger, but from what I’ve seen on airshow days many of the residents get out side, watching from their own back gardens with BBQ or from a nearby field with a picnic. The kids in particular love it.

Very tragic and sad situation, condolences to all involved, but for those of you calling to ban airshows, acrobatics etc, really? Total over-reaction!

Perhaps we should also ban every other activity where there is a slight risk of death to the participant or others? Ironic thing would be that without these many activities that pose a risk, life wouldn’t be worth living for most of us anyway. In societies pursuit to take the risk out of absolutely everything, perhaps we’d all end up so bored we’d have to take up smoking and drinking instead.

OP, don’t be a beardy weirdy wannabe. As an older guy (who’s always been pretty successful with the ladies), every time I’m out these days I see so many bearded younger men in their huddles trying far too hard to impress. Guess what, not many of them seem to be getting laid – they’re all far too busy stroking their beards, drinking cafe latte or worried if they’re projecting the right image to fit in.

I’ve learned that the key to getting laid is being your own man, being confident about who you are and passionate about what you do (whether that’s bus mechanics or graphic design). Being different to all the other blokes out there helps loads (which right now probably means not following the herd and having a facial forest) and having the confidence to be honest whilst not giving a sh*t what other people think of you is a big winner. If you can do this, plus learn to have fun with a girl (there’s a difference between having a fun time and trying to be funny) then things should come your way.

Oh and before you take up a career in graphic design, all of the graphic designers I work with are stuck in front of a screen all day every day often working on some mind numbingly boring brochure or website.

I’m perfectly happy for all the sheeple to queue on the left – it leaves the right hand lane completely free for the rest of us who’ve read the highway code to zip right up to the merge point, probably saves a good wedge of time and avoids the need to queue at all.

Never had much of a problem merging at the end, particularly when I’m in the old Volvo shed. If someone’s a c**k, closes the gap and refuses to let me in then I’ll just keep moving gradually over to the left in front of them until they do finally let me in. Normally in the battle of wills then a battered old Volvo has a distinct psychological advantage over a shiny 4×4 c**k chariot. After all if the Volvo gets another dent, it just adds to it’s charm & character ;)

Yep, have some in the kitchen. Been in nearly a year and still looks like new. Much better than the cheaper B&Q stuff we’ve used in other areas of the house and well worth the price difference.

Simple supply and demand isn’t it? Plenty of young guys and girls who love cycling would love to work in a bike shop and unless you’re talking high end bikes and complex bikes, bike skills training etc it’s not really rocket science is it? Guessing it’s only really a sustainable career for someone for a couple of years, or for someone who doesn’t need or is happy to sacrifice a good salary for what they love. Plenty of these people around and hats off to them if they can make it work.

2008 was not an event, it was the end of UK being a wealthy country with a reasonable standard of living for all…

What you mean when we finally realised we had a huge government and personal debt addiction problem here in the UK? Was this ever sustainable?

as many of the elements that make up surfing have been removed.

What the changing into a cold damp wetsuit in a windswept November carpark, driving for 2/3/4/5 hours only to find that the surf forcast was not accurate and then spending the day paddling round in wind chop waiting for waves that never materialise or drinking coffee instead, battling through the hoards of beginners on foam boards clogging up the South Wests best beaches, swallowing a mouthful of suspect water and having to drink a can of coke afterwards to prevent a tummy bug, getting onto the perfect wave only to find some vocal local giving you the evil eye, having the same said vocal locals bagging almost all the waves and not giving you a look in, leaving you with scraps because they know the spot better than you and have a right to do that because they live there? ;)

which is how you get fit, develop ocean awareness, learn to read waves, sets, line-ups, learn to duck-dive etc etc. I wonder whether in a few years, if they spread throughout the country, we’ll have a bunch of ‘sufers’ who rip in pool waves but can’t surf wonky cross-shore beach breaks for toffee.

Maybe, but for those of us who already surf in the sea and sre trying to improve this will be a real asset, allowing us to perfect take offs, turning, cutting back etc on a consistent wave, so that when you get out to the real ocean, you’ll not go through the long process of paddling out, positioning, timing, wave selection etc, only to then be let down by patchy basic skills when you do actually get on a good wave.

Amazing that this has happened to North Wales, wish them all the luck in the world.

It works out about £3/ wave.
Kinda expensive

Really? I paid £45 for my session and they reacon 20 waves during that time, so that’s just £2.25 per wave. Bet you’d think nothing of pissing £45 up against the wall in town on a Saturday night? Plus my regular surf sessions at the moment involve driving best part of 100+ miles to the coast, maybe getting 3-4 really good waves if I’m lucky and then driving 100+ miles back again. Fuel alone must be £45, for far less waves.

If you want quiet country roads with hardly any traffic, plus lovely rolling scenery with plenty of hills, then head out of Llandudno for the A55/A470 roundabout, and then from the smaller of the two roundabouts (the one by the Shell garage) take the B5381 uphill for a few miles until it joins the B5113. Continue along the B5113 for as long as you like towards Llanrwst and when you’ve had enough just turn round and it’s mostly downhill on the way back.

Not much danger at all, hardly a big drop down, nowhere near the live rail, no trains coming. The average cycle commuter in London faces much more danger during every minute of their journey.

Only things shocking about that video are firstly that it was even filmed and posted on-line in the first place, the girl who filmed it’s over-reaction and subsequent foul language, the 30 seconds of my life I’ll never get back from watching it, and the fact that the paper even bothered to publish it.

Also worrying that the police would spend time investigating this, especially when they seem to have done ‘rat-all’ about helping my friend who had his expensive car stolen last week.

If you are that worried about how bad your driving will appear on film, then I suggest you do something about your driving rather than complaining that others will see it!

Not worried about my driving, what I am worried about is the proliferation of cameras and secret filming. Feels very big brother to me. Yes there are plenty of CCTV cameras around but they’re operated mostly by the Police, the Council or businesses who generally have a good reason for moutning the cameras in the first place and at least are partially accountable for how they use the footage. Filming of me and my young family by private individuals though, to use that footage as they so wish, is a whole new ball game. I’m a good and safe driver but yes I do speed sometimes and occasionaly make mistakes. I don’t want those mistakes misinterpreted by some vindictive, self righteous pr**k and then plastered together with my reg plate across the internet.

I mean would you tolerate someone following you and your family around with a camera say whilst you do your shopping at Tesco’s for example? Of course you wouldn’t so why tolerate this whilst you and your family are out about in your car? Same anti-social difference whatever the reason for filming.

People make mistakes, we all do, that’s life, get over it. That’s no reason to film everyone just to prove to yourself, your compensation lawyer and the internet the odd occasion when you’re right. Sad state of affairs!

Also you obviously haven’t come across the ppl purposely causing accidents to claim “accident compensation” (no brake lights and just slamming there brake on in front of you.. so obv you fault).. this is happening more and more (I know of two cases with ppl we know, not just friend of a friend). Having proof to show your innocence, I’m all for that!

Few and far between and sorry but if you get caught out by that sort of thing then you’re driving too close and probably not paying enough attention in the first place. Again an advanced driving course could help.

Jeeeesssss, that’s all we need on the roads. First we have self righteous and angry cyclists posting up videos of drivers minor mistakes, and now we have the same thing happening with car drivers (yes I’m aware of the irony of me being self righteous about dashcams).

Where will it end, in a few years will we all have a small HD camera surgically embedded in our forehead to ‘out’ anyone who even so much as dares to sneeze in our direction so that we can sue them to high heaven or report them to big brother?

Personally I’d rather that other drivers were not out there permanently filming me and my driving without my permission. Not that there’s anything majorly wrong with my driving but it feels like a big invasion of privacy if you’re being filmed by some muppet everywhere you go.

You do realise don’t you that dash cams can be used just as easily implicate you too in the event of an accident, just as much as the other party, and after the moment of impact probably the last thing on your mind will be sitting in the car patiently deleting the last few minutes of recorded footage.

If you’re concerned about your fathers safety, might be far better to spend the money on a ROSPA or AIM course for him. That way he might never need to use a camera in the first place and the roads might be safer for all without another jobsworth dash cam Darwin award contender out there.

It’s the can’t-see-them-coming business that gives me pause.

Unlike being hit behind by a car whilst you’re on your bike then?

Is the DLR running? I think it won’t be long before the tube follows the DLR and goes automated.

Lets hope so.

I didn’t realise that only poor people were allowed to go on strike.

Nope, but when you’re doing a job that requires just 6 months training (and if we’re honest anyone with less than half a brain could do it no problem), yet you’re paid double the average salary to do it, then striking smacks of pure ungratefulness to me.

There are plenty of hard working people in the country who would be grateful for the opportunity to earn just half of what these overpaid, over unionised idiots are demanding – without inconveniencing all of the rest of us in the process.

If tens of millions of pounds worth of business depend upon them, are they not due some of that?

Are you serious – the tube drivers are there because these businesses (through rates) and us the public fund Transport for London!

And the nhs and other public sector workers don’t?

Well if they’re payed half what a tube driver earns, for doing way more work then I’d say they’re much more entitled to strike. I mean £50k for driving a mostly automatic tube train – hardly rocket science is it?

£50k FFS, that’s more than most doctors start on after 7 years of training 8O