Meanwhile, Labour pursuing appeal to confirm criminalisation of protest

Go to your user profile then click on the forums tab. There’s a favourites page in there.

Got it. Thanks :-)

For a price, there’s the Day Saver. Or you could save money and hire a limousine to drive you home after a mechanical.

I was shouting at the TV – “stop looking round, pedal !!!”

Fabulous scenery today. Galicia is beautiful- too bad it’s so difficult to get to for us ( NE England).

Going to be interesting to see if Carapaz and EF hold a grudge after being taken out by AG2R yesterday

I saw an interview with Ben O’Connor saying he’s not as much of a dick as he appeared on Netflix (my paraphrase) but that protestation looks a bit hollow today.

Please stop, I find it offensive

Really? What I find offensive is quibbling about words while people are being shot, bombed, starved, imprisoned, tortured, their houses, schools and hospitals destroyed.

I’m not the one throwing around derogatory generalisations about an entire nation and then doubling down, but crack on with your pattern spotting I guess.

That’s the thing about “democracy” – it provides a dataset which allows you to make generalisations with a certain degree of validity. What is actually derogatory is accusing someone of racism without foundation.

But while you’re quibbling about words, the Israelis have killed a few more Palestinians.

Actually under £1 even with the losses.  It’ll be 7.5p/kWh during the off-peak window, so around 85p.

True, but the calculation I had in mind was one whereby you fill your batteries at 7.5p, or free using solar, and use it at a time when you’d otherwise be paying 25p(ish). As I mentioned in an earlier posting, I have never been able to make the sums work for me given the huge cost of a battery, but maybe I’m missing something. (We have an old FIT contract that I’m not going to mess with).

his regime is now publicly claiming that Hamas’s influence has spread to the Occupied West Bank.

I’m sure it has. As someone commented on the (I think?) same C4 news item referenced above, support for militancy is an inevitable result of the brutal occupation.

Indeed. The mask is starting to slip.

Another thinly veiled accusation of anti-semitism. I’m beginning to spot a pattern …

10.6kWh of battery storage

That’s about 3 quids worth. How much did the battery cost ?

i doubt we’ll see the Israeli public ousting Netanyahu any time soon!

i suspect you are right – they haven’t shown much interest in ousting him in the past so I don’t imagine they will do so now.

People were exercising their rights to protest against the government, as they continue to do in huge numbers

Any chance of folk exercising their rights to vote against the government in huge numbers, and elect a PM who wants peace?

The Rains models are looking like that because they’ve been trying to understand what the heck this means …

Rains’ core collection delivers new elevated outerwear and pants silhouettes. A minimal, forecast-defying language, articulated through signature coated fabrics. All designs are waterproof, windproof, and lightweight, with engineered ventilation.

A daily occurrence? You don’t think that deserves a thread? Wow! I would have thought you’d be all over that.

If you feel it’s important, go ahead and start a thread.

I don’t know how you’re “doing” quotes, but the random text size changes are really irritating.

Ernie has his faults, but I don’t think we can blame him for the site’s duff formatting functionality :-)

I compared the Osprey bag and an Eagle Creek bag in a shop and chose the Eagle Creek one. In retrospect I think I made a mistake. It is a good size and contains a lot of stuff while fitting in an airline bin, but it is very unstructured and not comfortable to carry for any distance. I think the Osprey one sacrifices a bit of weight and space for structure but is probably better to carry.

I do however find it interesting, and a bit depressing, that the civil war raging in Sudan gets so little mention. I don’t see any threads on here about it (apologies if I’m wrong), it gets little media coverage and there certainly aren’t loads of folk taking to streets in protest. Huge numbers of people are being killed, millions displaced and starvation is rife. But the rest of the world, including those outraged by what Israel is doing, seems to turn a blind eye?

Some truth in that. I’d say that the reasons include the fact that we aren’t arming one side in Sudan, and our politicians aren’t proclaiming the right of the various parties to “defend themselves” by murdering children, so protest marches in the streets of London – or indeed Tel Aviv – seem less relevant.

However, there are some exceptions, and maybe we can hope that opinion comes around. After all, it only took 600,000 dead Rwandans before the US decided it was a genocide.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/aug/26/macklemore-cancels-dubai-show-to-protest-uae-role-in-sudan-civil-war

Yates, Soler and Vine – that break was really the Ugly Bugs Ball :-(

The anti-Israeli bias amongst some people on here is a wee bit worrying.  Maybe it’s a little bit more than just anti-Israeli?  I hope I’m wrong.

I don’t see a bias, but you go ahead and accuse people of anti-Semitism, and welcome to my virtual “ignore” button.

“Stated aims” don’t kill any children. Bullets and bombs (and starvation and disease) kill children.

. double post …

October 7 escalated it beyond anything recently, though

So Israel slaughtering civilians is Hamas’ fault. That’s what every domestic abuser says – “I didn’t want to hit her, she made me do it, I had no choice”.

See my comment about Iran.

How many Palestinians or Israelis has Iran killed in the last year ?

So, didn’t the incursion by Hamas last October start this current shooting war then?

Did history start on October 7 ?? Is there a reason to ignore everything that happened before that ??

Do they come with a picture of you modelling the fit? Asking for a friend…

That would be a really niche market.

would they not surrender to stop any further killing?

So it’s Hamas’ fault that IDF are slaughtering civilians. Makes sense. Should Ukraine surrender as well? Or is that different?

some on here are alleging that the whole of the Israeli armed forces are nothing but sadistic murderers.  I can’t believe that.

Plenty of evidence of it. How else do you describe someone doing a dance on Tim-Tok to celebrate murder ?

Almeida out, COVID.

Cycling seems to have quite a relaxed attitude to COVID. Presumably he tested positive some time ago and has been riding with symptoms?

You just have to accept that you’ll be selling to a pervert

I take that for granted :-)

That’s not evidence ! Thats third hand allegations in a notoriously left wing newspaper!

About as far from evidence as you can get.

Yeah right. You’re obviously not an objective commentator. I won’t be responding further to your propaganda.

Too much evidence to list. Here’s a start

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/02/gaza-palestinian-children-killed-idf-israel-war?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Slight diversion – it’s funny how cycling sponsors make such mundane products – Hans Grohe (very nice) taps etc, Soudal make the stuff our roofers were using last year, various supermarkets. It’s always been like that – Jacques Anquetil’s iconic Bic shirt, Moltemi coffee machines and so on and so forth !!

Could someone explain what Israel were thinking with all the work they did?

Well following INEOS collapse as a viable team, someone has to be responsible for Pointless Pedalling and IPT drew the short straw.

Off-topic – did you see the interview with Matt Richardson? His thighs are HUGE ! I could fit my entire body in one leg of his jeans, and I’m not slim !!

That last climb was a brute – classic Rogla !!

Nathan van Hooydonck is a good addition to the commentary team – insightful.

So it’s better for them to carry on taking the risks to travel through all of Europe and then across the channel, no doubt building up alsorts of debts to the smuggler gang masters,rather than have an agreed solution at the first safe country.

That would depend what exactly you mean by “ an agreed solution”. If it means efficient processing of an asylum claim and provision of a visa to genuine refugees, that’s one thing. Just dumping people in squalid camps in Turkey, Pakistan, Iran is another.

Surely a better solution would be for asylum to be sought in the first safe country

Im sure countries like Turkey which are located next to major conflict zones will be a little unhappy with your suggestion, however much it may serve the purposes of people in the UK who don’t want to live with brown neighbours

Wout – what a rider and what a gentleman!!

Some red faces on Bora and other “favourite “ teams !!

Is it?  If someone were to ask this of me, I’d not consider it a big thing

Top tip: don’t respond to emails from Nigerian princes :-)

only time ive been stung was in italy with one of the main players (enterprise i think).

I was just about to mention Italy – apparently Enterprise and Europcar are not independent outfits in Italy but just names for Locauto. If you Google you’ll see they have awful reviews. When I picked up the car they made it clear that the minutest scratch would be charged for. i spent the whole holiday driving like a nun and fretting about getting a ding. In fact it turned out OK, but I’d avoid them next time.

In contrast, we always use Enterprise in Greece and they have a much more relaxed attitude to minor damage.