Well, that’s that settled.

The three days of rioting involving English hooligans was the fault of Russian hooligans.

This is the PC line to take – always blame the English, and frankly, it’s boring as it is inaccurate. Infact, it arguably makes the England fans more of a target, as the attackers know they can blame it on the English.

There’s a long tradition of England going to major tournaments and being involved in trouble. It has its roots in a particular brand of oafish patriotism which is fuelled by a right wing media.

It’s an arrogant, aggressive and xenophobic approach to the world. It’s a hatred and distrust of anything ‘foreign’, an attempt to cling to the last scraps of the British Empire.

It’s a boozed up extension of what’s constantly preached in the media by Farage, Johnson and pals. And yet this is never the issue.

It’s the Russians. It’s the French police. It’s French hooligans. It’s the Muslims.

English hooligans are one of the world’s most oppressed minorities – forever targeted and mistreated. Why can’t they just be left in peace; free to get pissed in town squares and allowed to hurl abuse, hatred, bottles and chairs at non English people?

Brits attacking the police, Russians attacking Brits. Brits fleeing Russians.

Didn’t realise that Wales and Northern Ireland fans were involved. Shocking.

Old kona with some new bits, £99.

Ted Chippington is the master of the pathetic joke, badly delivered.
This is him starting the process of alienating his audience:

One thing I keep hearing people say is that the EU is undemocratic. The main reason given is that EU commissioners are unelected.

But I’ve not heard anybody explain that it’s simply a cabinet system – similar to pretty much every democratic government in the world, including the UK.

Nobody voted for Lord Sainsbury to be a Culture Minister. Nobody voted for the current Foreign Office and Commonwealth minister, some woman called Joyce Anelay.

So presumably Brexiters are spitting feathers at this democratic deficit in Westminster?

Does it only work if you’re going over bumps?

Tongwynlais seems to me like it has been designed to injure and maim cyclists. It’s quite impressive how such a short stretch of road manages to chuck so many hazards at you.

Not been to that new cafe but would be up for a meet-up some time.

No helmet and an old bike is my passport to pootle.

I think the most important thing is having things worth sharing. Without that, it’s just spam.

Murry the Hump – the best Welsh band you’ve probably never heard of.

Named after a Welsh mobster. Immaculate indy pop. Had a song with the opening line: “My dealer drives a three wheeler, lives in a house by the side of the sea”.

They did a Peel session and recorded one album but it just never happened for them.

Never owned a post-millenial bike. Got a 1990 Courier Comp and 1998 Kona Lava Dome.

Smart. I had one with ‘bendy’ ACS-Z rims.

One of the dreariest films I’ve ever watched.
It reminded me of a Hale and Pace style cowboy sketch…which never ends.

This is an interesting fella.
Invented and built himself a giant robot.
Then he made a smaller version which he sold to a toy company.
Used the money to buy himself a tiny patch of land in Panama and now lives there with his family and makes things – currently a big boat.

J Mantzel

Which bike shop was it SR?

Shakespeare. Painful.

Erm… Labour traditionally aren’t. The internationale and all that.

Aye, you won’t find Labour getting involved in any of that nationalism.

Labour politicians from Wales were on the frontline of the Better Together campaign, passionately waving their little plastic Union Jacks.

UKIP and Plaid. Wales is second only to scotland in petty nationalist arsehattery.

All parties are nationalist parties – unless they believe in abolishing them all.

Plaid but not with much enthusiasm.
All of the parties seem happy for Wales to just muddle along.

Can’t stand anything featuring the Union Jack…apart from Anarchy in the UK cover.

Don’t dick around with them. Just grill them and add salad and wine vinegar.

Stopped watching when Red Bull made its first appearance – about six seconds in.

That looks ace. Just got rid of the front gears on my 90s bike to make it 1×7.

A funnier show would be charting Ricky Gervais’ life and career since The Office.

Lots of cameo appearances by celeb mates, chats about his diet regime, his masterwork ‘Derek’ and charity work for big cats.

PT will then be forgotten about, and abandoned to its fate, the government feeling that they’ve ‘done their bit’. The local drug dealers will rub there hands with glee at the prospect of the combination of quiet desperation and redundancy cheques. Now thats entrepreneurial capitalism at work!

Depressingly accurate. And ‘doing their bit’ in Wales consists of the Government using public money to dole out massive ‘development fund’ payments to corporations, who will bugger off as soon as they’re offered a better handout elsewhere.

Copa, your hatred of the military doesn’t half make you post some twaddle. On the points above:

1. Don’t you think that a commitment to military spending might be good for UK manufacturing?
2. The 2% commitment was wrung out of the government by the Americans, and even then it employs some smoke and mirrors to allow them to claim 2%. Why would you think they’ll increase it further?
3. The RAF are shutting bases. Is keeping Valley open and shutting Linton-on-Ouse in (Tory) North Yorkshire a dastardly plan to see off the Welsh? Where do you think Valley’s (predominantly civilian) workforce live?

1. Yes, of course it is. It’s what Dwight Eisenhower talked about in 1961.
2. Westminster politicians slobber over weapons, invasions and war – they don’t need encouraging.
3. The UK Gov can’t afford to save a steelworks which supports 4,000 but it can afford a £1 billion contract to safeguard 400 jobs involved in the training of people to bomb stuff.

Any “real world” examples of limitless public funds being made available?

Here’s another one. Commitment to spend two percent of GDP on military toys. Currently around £40 billion but no limit on what it could rise to:
Defence spending commitment

The UK government couldn’t give a toss about manufacturing. The only things they’ll fund in Wales are roads to England and the military:
RAF Valley future secured

Pompatus

The Master. A film that the movie critics oozed all over.
I just wanted it to end and it never did.

New promo funded by Welsh Gov:

And Murder-mile is the toughest.

Whereabouts is that?

That Penheol Ely one is the toughest I’ve found. There’s another good one which goes up to the top of The Garth via Mountain Road, really steep first bit.

It’d need a hell of a lot of properly joined up thinking though.

That’s what the Welsh Assembly should be coordinating.

You can see the problem when you follow the Taff trail out of Cardiff. It’s all decent until you reach the border with Rhondda Cynon Taff council where there’s a series of sketchy road crossings.

To find a safer route would require the two councils working together, agreeing on a plan and sorting out who should pay for what. And that’s why it’ll never get done.

just that your average punter who’d happily spend hundreds on walking gear before strolling around the paths at the swallow falls, doesn’t see the same easy options for an easy cycle-bimble.

Aye, I’m going to Llangollen over Easter and without spending ages studying Strava heatmaps there’s very little information on trails/routes etc.

I was also wondering how a mountain bike version of Boris bikes could work…Carwyn bikes?

You mean build even more trail centers and get even more tourists in?

Ok, but do we really want our economy even more dependent on tourism?

Not necessarily.

I don’t see it as purely an economic thing. I think Wales and its natural resources need selling to Welsh people as well – not just to visitors. As somebody brought up in a Welsh border town, the countryside was just a distant blur on the horizon.

It requires a change of mindset. To start looking at the potential of the country, rather than obsessing about its failings – the too small, too poor, too stupid mentality.

There’s so much potential in Wales to tap into something like this. And so little hope that anything much will happen. It’s the kind of thing the Welsh Assembly should be all over but they’re too busy managing Westminster austerity and squabbling about nothing.

I find going down things boring. You might as well buy a moped or something – and it would be a lot cheaper than a £3,000 bouncy pedal bike.

Another steep one is Penheol Ely – it’s just off Taff Trail in Pontypool