When i did the coastal trail it looks like we cycled on the road for that section.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2415231489

Great day out.

Hi Greg,
Keep me in the loop of when you are doing this, would be well up for doing it again. (New Gravel bike ordered yesterday too)

To those suggesting its too much for a day, look at my strava linked above, it is totally doable and highly recommended.

Cheers

https://www.strava.com/activities/5179613020

Any excuse to show this route we did!
You will easily manage this in a day, we took it really steady as we hadn’t tried to ride off road for 200k before and as it was Covid times nothing was open so we had to bring all our food. Thankfully the wee shop in Tomintoul was open.

Straight down Glen Tilt is a joy. Smooth Landy track and downhill for miles! Be aware of the wind direction though, I have heard its a chore heading down this into a headwind.

We did it in April before any of the grass/bracken etc had a chance to grow, not sure how much difference that makes.

But you can’t challenge it if you haven’t even read it! What an utterly ridiculous thing to say.

somafunk
Full Member
I don’t think an article by John McLellan (lifelong Tory blue blood) is quite the zinger you thought it was going to

I didn’t think it to be a zinger I thought it relevant to the conversation and I agreed with some of his points. Feel free to counter them and I will take your opinion on board.
Always good to listen to the opinions of people especially if you don’t agree with them.

Good to know you make no effort to challenge your thinking.

Did you read the article? What bits of it are cobblers and why?
Or did you not bother.

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/nicola-sturgeon-resigned-to-avoid-being-the-leader-who-presides-over-the-end-of-scottish-independence-dream-john-mclellan-4028511

“healthcare … gone down the tubes.”
you’ve been reading too much tory press and BBC criticism.

Try and get a vasectomy via NHS Grampian as just one example.

3 year waiting list with Grampian currently not doing any.

Defend her all you like, but Health is a devolved matter and the NHS is worse under her tenure. If it was a Tory FM the same people would be up in arms about the current situations.

My main concern now is what happens at the next GE.
With FPTP in most areas the choice was Tory or SNP and I would reluctantly vote SNP to oust the Tories. I figured it was better to have SNP MP’s in westminster banging the drum for scotland as opposed to Tory. I reasoned that I could always vote no in an Indy ref.
What will happen now? Will people like me continue to vote SNP for the same reasons? Will those who vote tory because they are anti Indy as opposed to pro tory move towards Labour or Lib dems? My hope is that all those who vote tacitly to oust the party they dislike more take a risk and vote for the party they actually want resulting in a Labour win at westminster that is helped by the people of Scotland as opposed to despite the people of Scotland. The worst thing I can see happening is Scotland delivers a fair few more Tory MP’s.

Ok – look at it slightly differently – who would you rather have had for the last 8 yrs? There’s not been a single Scottish party leader in the last 8 years, regardless of the political flavour who would have done a better job.

Being the best of a bad lot is not something to celebrate.

She has her good points, no doubt. She spoke well and looked good compared to the crop at the top in westminster.
This does not excuse her failings especially in education and NHS. Her Indy campaign was far too similar to the Brexit campaign for me, ie blame the tories and claim everything will be better if we vote to leave despite there being very obvious flaws in the plan that they either denied or refused to debate.

Do any of the rather vocal detractors on here think that they could have done a better job during the crises of the last few years..?
No..

What utter drivel, are you only allowed to criticize if you could do a better job yourself? No.

When you have constantly reducing budgets as a result of Westminster decisions and health and education make up such a large part of the Scottish governments discretionary spend this is simply true – that a lot of the issues could be fairly blamed on Westminster.

While I agree that is part of the issue, there was never any ownership of their own poor management.

And the arguments for becoming Independent starkly remind me of the Brexit debate.

have to say she came across as ten times the leader of any of our current crop of pillocks.

and this is the problem, because she spoke well and could hold her own in a debate she looked and sounded competent. But the reality is the SNP have failed Scotland. Our education is woeful for just one example. She asked to be judged on education but when she was that went quiet.
Constantly blaming Westminster for all our problems was wearing very thin.

I rode that horseshoe once. Won’t be doing it again.

Westminster voting intention:

LAB: 54% (+9)
CON: 21% (-7)
LDEM: 7% (-2)
GRN: 6% (-1)

via @YouGov, 28 – 29 Sep
Chgs. w/ 25 Sephttps://t.co/QFziTkP77K

— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) September 29, 2022

Police mate has had all leave cancelled and been warned to expect 12 hour shifts.

While I don’t pretend for a second to understand economics of countries if it were true that a government that can print its own money and never has to repay it why doesn’t every country with their own currency just print off all the money they will ever need? Surely you end up devaluing your currency & cause inflation?

Being reported he is about to announce his new cabinet team?????????????????

Steve Baker being interviewed on BBC. A truly dangerous individual.

Brandon Lewis just resigned

Seems to be confusion on this.

How easy is it for him to call an election?

The map picture is slightly misleading to be fair. 38% of voters voted to leave the EU which is not an insignificant number. I do not believe we are as different as people like to think.

If that cooperation also enabled a UK government approved vote on Scottish independence, backed with an agreement to respect the result and build a new relationship if the vote goes against the Union? You’d think so

Possibly yes.

The SNP have been relativly competent in government

Their record on education is woeful. Ferries?
Just because they are less worse than the current bunch of fools in westminster does not make them good. They manage to hide behind the fact that westminster as been totally consumed by Brexit resulting in the worst government in modern times.
Holyrood may be more democratic, but would the SNP work with Labour/Libdem to bring in proportional representation into Westminster? I very much doubt they would because it would be worse for them as a party despite being better for the UK as a whole.

The SNP have utterly failed to prove they can run a country. I realise the ref is not about the SNP but if we did get Indy it would be these same lightweights trying to run a country but without the common goal that unites them.
I like the idea of Indy Scotland but I think its because I dream of it being the land of milk and honey, much like Brexiteers believed leaving the EU would make the UK great again.
My other concern is people talk as if we are different up here to those south of the border, this is total nonsense, most of us are related to people down south and like anywhere there are a vast range of views and ideologies round the country. Are we really as anti tory as people believe?
The SNP are a broad church united around 1 thing, Indy. There are people from the left and the right people pro and against the EU united with one goal. Once they have achieved that goal and especially if we end up poorer will the selfishness of people come out?
Indy is a massive risk and one at the moment I do not think I am willing to take. I do change my mind though and will be willing to listen to the arguements but at the moment it is a no from me.

While working in an outdoor shop someone stole an expensive pair of walking boots. The boot department was up the stairs, guy was trying on some boots he said he walked down the stairs in them to “show his wife” and never returned, leaving behind a scabby old pair of trainers!

Another guy stole a kayak once, we had club nights that were very busy as you got discounts, someone just picked up a kayak and walked out the shop, think staff even helped open the door for him!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UzsjmvQDFfBFwsCCA

I built a lean to last year. Thankfully got the wood just before prices went crazy. OSB went from £25 a sheet (12mm) to £37 when I last looked.

Aldi’s mayo is superior.
Mustard mayo is better still.

Also there are only 650 MP’s so hedging your bets on getting there “from out with the club” is definitely not the easiest way to go and try earn £85k. Certainly more secure jobs, some might only have a short term before having to go back to what they were doing before.

simple job

Not if you are doing it properly. And definitely not if you are an opposition MP

excess of what these people would get outside of parliament with their skills for the vast majority of them

Just something you have decided is true.

those after the money not those with a public service ethos.

This is only true for the ones earning silly money for dodgy 2nd jobs.

do you really think an MP is worth a lot more and is a harder job than being a medical consultant or a head teacher

No, which is why i stated earlier that most public sector works are underpaid.
I think we shall agree to disagree, you think 80k is a massive salary, I think its a good salary for sure but realise more is available elsewhere.

@Superficial

What I would have liked to have said but phrased far better than I would have managed. I agree entirely.

There isn’t any point in me naming anyone as you would disagree as you think £80k is excessive.
There are plenty careers in which people can easily earn over £80k (not me though just so we are clear)
Law
Medicine
Engineering
Consultancy
Its all about perspective, to some 80k is excessive to others its not enough.

Its funny isn’t it that ” pay to get the best people” applies to politicians and bureaucrats but not to doctors or nurses or teachers or police

Not in my opinion, I think most public sector workers are underpaid.

very few MPs would be able to earn anything like £80 000 in the real world doing a real job – partly because jobs paying that much are vwery few and far between

Many of the current crop yes, but some MP’s and its easy to forget there are a lot of good hard working ones that deserve every penny they get and would be easily capable of earning more in the private sector. The ones milking it are not earning the majority of their cash through the MP salary.

just being straight with the public about how it works

Can you do that with a 3 word slogan that will stick with the public?
Could easily belittle it with a 3 word slogan, which do you think would work with most of the public? Remember, most people pay very little attention to Politics, Labour trying to explain to the public how government expenditure works would fail and hand the tories an easy win with a 3 word slogan despite that slogan being nonsense.

There are very few politicians in it for the MP salary. They earn there money through dodgy 2nd jobs/consulting etc. Be far better paying them far more, say in line with a consultant doctor for example and have much tighter rules on what they can and cannot do for 2nd jobs.
£80k is a lot compared to the average UK salary but it really isn’t a huge salary compared to what can be earned elsewhere.

In true STW tradition I will recommend what I have.
Aero Wide+ 42-D Carbon Wheelset (1,422g)

Good value,
really light,
Been flawless for 2 years.

Only negative is the freehub is rather loud.

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuaG9zdGluZy50aGlzaXNkYXguY29tLzk1MTU4Y2ZiLWY3NGYtNGY5Yy04ZjQ3LTAwYmQ5NzZhYjAxZA/episode/YzQxNjVjOGYtZTQ2Zi00YmZjLTljZTEtMWJlOTkyYWMwOWMx?ep=14

I found this interesting. I realise some of you will dismiss it as 2 centrists patting each other on the back. Others will find it worthwhile.

Tax breaks for people on lower incomes to buy electric cars. Massively subsidise the cost of public transport. Tax private jets and yachts out of existence. Increase tax on people who take more than one or two flights per year. Introduce tradeable carbon credits so those on lower incomes who emit less carbon can sell them to those who want to emit more. I could go on, there’s tons of stuff he could do to make net zero a progressive policy

These are great ideas and what a lot of us here on this forum would like to see. The problem is you need to get out of your bubble and see how that would look to the voting mases. Would they go for it or would they believe the lie fed to them by the RW media that all these tax breaks are for scroungers. Has Labour said they won’t do these things?
Can you imagine people voting to increase the price of flights for their holiday to Benidorm?

History has shown us that once in office Labour leaders become much more right-wing. There is nothing to suggest that in the extremely unlikely event of Labour winning the next general election Starmer will behave any different

So Corbyn would have been a filthy Centrists and having him as PM would have been totally pointless?