If they’ve ‘gone to brick’ to use their expression then you can hardly call them travellers, but they’re actions can still be a bit anti-social

Full on Travellers in these parts we get an early warning system and owners of local warehouses and car parks as I once was have to let each other know if they are about, if you don’t then let me tell you what happens from personal experience.

They move onto your car park and set up camp, things immediately start going missing anything of scrap value, feral kids turn up inside your warehouse grabbing anything that’s not screwed down, eventually there’s a foul smell from the drains round the back which have been used as latrines, all full, the police are frightened and will not deal with them, the council are slow, they know how long it takes to get an eviction notice served and actioned and warned us if we give them any trouble they’d ‘torch the place’. At the time we didn’t actually own the Industrial unit and the landlord came round and was very helpful but couldn’t do much being an old guy and at one point I was worried for him when he confronted them so a few of us lined up behind him with big sticks and heavy spanners and bolt croppers and we pointed out they might think about torching us but we could also act the same way by flooding the car park with fuel and setting light to it, it became very ugly for a while. They eventually backed down there not being quite as many of them as my staff and the staff from other warehouses who also joined the altercation. Still no police. Eventually we were lucky enough to get the army to help and the sight of a few Gurkas with big tow trucks and a tank carrier encouraged them to move on, this after about three weeks of an absolute nightmare.
Most of the locals run a tobacco smuggling ring given were’ near the channel ports, and vans, trailors and the like often go missing to be reported up country used to ship large quantities of tobacco up North, we’ve had two vans and a trailor stolen. They turn up with a low loader winch it on and bugger off with it, it’s all on CCTV which we installed whilst they were there the first time, we only recovered one van and it was trashed, a write off.

So if you ask me my opinion you can imagine my quote from Snatch.

If I needed the skills he had than yes and try to change his views by pointing out maybe some of his work colleagues who he may come to like have opposing views for instance. It is wrong to walk away from views you disagree with, better to engage and debate, wars get started like that.

Lots of early mountain bikers were part of the sailing/windsurfing scene, Guy Farrant from Whyte is responsible for me getting into dinghys when he loaned me a Musto Skiff as my first boat (how difficult can dinghy sailing be?). Lester, Roger still dinghy sail, Lester sails that 49er with his brother you’ll come across them up at the Lord Birket. Pete Holton from Marin had a hand in designing that 49er and campaigned an Iso and Boss.
The place I had that boat built’s other job was repairing busted carbon ATB frames can’t remeber their name now Jamie someone or other and Dan Holman worked there before he built the Punk which became the D-Zero. I fancied a Supersofa but just can’t stand the rig, big sticky out full battened roach not easy to control on the start line I didn’t think, then if everyone’s got one I don’t supposed it matters, other than that it’s a nice sail, my mate had one before he got a Phantom.

sharkbait – Member
Graham, if that’s you, what happened to that ‘lovely’ single hander you designed and had made?

I ran out of cash to complete the next phase which was to jack it up on foils, so it sits like so many others nurturing nettles in the boat park. I also discovered the “Solution” which is a lovely little boat for lake racing and I keep the EPS for use on the sea where it can stretch its legs and occasionally I can sail it to its handicap.

Ezorillo hits it nicely on the head with all the descriptions of crap boats there are out there and old guys ramming them down the necks of the young, but there have also been a spate of quite neat new single handers, the RS Aero, the D Zero, the Hadron H2, the refurbed Supersofa, our club has an infestation of Lasers right now and qute a fleet building which I’ve resisted until now. I’d really like a trapeze boat but can find nothing to suit my weight and buid, maybe I’ll set to with some wood in the garage next winter..

Or it’s the rights reaction to having its nose rubbed into diversity as I believe the New Labour quote went, what did they think would happen? There an entire generation remember and freequently quote the Enoch Powel rivers of blood speech. There’s more of it out there than I think folk in polite circles would care to know, driven underground as Wobbliscot pointed out back there a way. Not fair to link to Brexit, I voted Brexit but for years had a potential muslim son in law at my dinner table (she ended up with a Hindu) the difference with them and the Mosque dwellers, they are just regular day to day fellas who don’t define themselves by a tribal Religion. Honestly with the prior history of Finsbury I’m surprised some nutter hasn’t done something like this before hand, I think it’s a sad irony that the Isis switch to vehicle weaponry for mass attack has just educated the moron right with an easy method of tit for tat and so it is inevitably going to continue.

Guy on the radio nailed it this morning, when they said they couldn’t just requisition property, they don’t mind doing it to Alzheimers victims to pay for their social care.

I had a Blaze, sold it to get an RS100, sold that, made my own, then got a Laser EPS which quite coincidently just so happens to be for sale right now 😉 cheap, £750, now that’s not expensive is it?

This is not to do with the colour of anyone’s skin, it’s classic human tribalism. Football Hooligans, Teenage Gang Culture, Religion, all group one lot together against the rest.

God knows what drove that guy to do what he did, at least with the ISIS and AlQuadea types at the root there is a ’cause’ illfounded or not the perpetrator has been goaded into the belief that his actions will make thing better in some perverse way. White van man is not going to make things better in any way shape or form and now he’s trashed his own life for what?

The Muslim community pointing out they’d seen it coming is all very well, but the switch argument is the provocation that some of their number even in low level activities in London get up to in the name of Sharia etc. This is shaping up to be a long hot summer of discontent, I doubt this will be the last we see and until the media is reigned in and as wobbliscot points out, a serious debate takes place (Which for example is impossible here without the ban hammer falling)it’s unlikely we’re all going to just get along fine.

It’s not that expensive, certainly not mountain bike expensive if you factor in depreciation, if you buy wisely you can buy a boat use it for a couple of seasons then sell it for not much less than you paid for it.

OK if you buy obscure, or over powered stuff like that Boss or a 49er (which you couldn’t possibly sail as an entry level sailor you’ll pay the price) but there are stacks of dinghies on apolloduck.com or there’s a fb group dinghys and bits I think it’s called.

Personally I prefer more tactical stuff, if you want thrills on the water there are more efficient means of going about it than being surrounded by loads of bits of wire and rope, like kite or windsurfing, dinghy racing is more cranial, yes it’s physical, but you also have to use the grey stuff between your ears, there is no sport I’ve known that is more enduring than racing saily things, I love it.

Or the next leg is too tight, or a fetch. (A leg where the wind is blowing more toward the front of the pointy end.)
Oh and the picture is not a yacht, it’s a racing dinghy or racing sailboat if you prefer.

Junkyard – lazarus

I dont buy it that extreme greed is natural. its driven into us by the fact we build a a society that accepts and tolerates it

Secondly no one teaches their child to keep all the sweets and to take what they want from the weaker kids.

I think the real problem is that for capitalism to survive the 1% only need to trickle down a little and it needs fewer good people [ none] than socialism.

The majority of human beings are not capitalists by nature, even those of us that have had it forced upon us by circumstance recognise it’s that or die in order to survive and if you’re lucky offer others the opportunity to survive alongside and for most one man enterprises survive is about all you get to do.

I’m also of the belief there has eventually to be a better way, how much more is one mans labour worth than another, however great the skill difference? 10 times? 100 times, 1000 times, 10,000 times, How wealthy should one person be permitted to be? If we suddenly had to start from the begining, all over again knowing what we now know, surely a sensible planet wide scale should be drawn. No reason we cannot have differentials to cater for Human nature and the desire to ‘succeed’ but at what cost to others? The truth is pure socialism never will succeed because those at the top of the tree generally always are tempted by the bigger apple. So all the time capitalism and profit driven enterprise hold sway, the socialist all too soon becomes the champagne socialist and to hell with all the rest.

And meanwhile the planet is raped of its resources and what was it I heard on the radio this morning 15% of this country allegedly the 5th wealthiest on the planet, have no assets or are in debt.

Copperhead Bernard Cornwall, fiction based around factual events as always, he wrote a couple, Starbuck Chronicles they were called.

We’ve all panted up hills.

Very good, amazing what can turn up.

I don’t see revolution on the way, not with apathy as widespread as it is and surveillance at an unbelievable all time high.

Lots of us are angry for lots of disparate reasons, none of which are sufficient for us to take up the cudgel though. I have often wondered how bad it needs to get before the pitchforks and torches march, but I’d say we are a long way off yet. Not enough of us left that knew how free this country used to be and at an age where we could still raise arms.

What’s happening here, at lunchtime the thread was closed and was going to be deleted in 20 minutes (from then)? Trouser manufacturing must be a key part of mountain bike riding, not that I’ve spotted the reason why quite yet.

As an aside and the only way to drink lager is from a glass whatever the original container was, the best Lager in the world currently is brewed here in the UK, by a local company called Chapeldown and is named Curious Brew.
It also doesn’t quite taste the same from a bottle as it does from a keg although pouring into a glass is acceptable, drinking from a bottle or a can cuts the nose out of the taste process which is detrimental.

It is known that canned lager doesn’t taste as well as bottled, but once poured it would take a professional taster to tell the difference almost certainly you couldn’t reliably every time.

Anyway,do yourselves a favour and try that Curious Brew, it quite literally is the champagne of lagers, being brewed with the champagne leftovers from their wine business and genuinely is the finest Lager I’ve sampled and I’ve tasted many from all over the world including pretty much every brauhaus in Munich.

Well that was a nightmare, surreal and disorientating, and I didn’t realise I’d be off games for a month, so no biking, sailing windsurfing kiting, I’m screwed for the moment. Going to be depressed and will likely kill myself I told them.

Ruth Davidson will be inline for the next leader and she’ll act in both the UK and Scotlands interest, but, whoever, whatever commerce is like physics and some rules just can’t be broken.

Hard – Soft = In or Out of the Single Market & customs union.

Here’s why it can never happen, say I import widgets, or say T shirts from say Bangladesh (like Primark), at the moment I have to pay 12% duty at the point of import. Now lets say we exit yet keep in the customs union for tarif free trade, yet want to do a better deal with Bangladesh so we lower our Trade Tariffs with them, I then get my shirts duty free, so not only do they get to be cheaper all the shops I sell them to immediately get a better deal than all the shops in the EU and there’s this internet thing.. Now imagine they were higher ticket item things like say Cars…

Are we beginning to see why it can’t happen, we can only be in or out, not both.

No, the only wasted vote was mine and the several hundred other Green Party votes placed anywhere other than in Brighton.

Well I’m pleased, just the sight of Clegg being handed his marching orders, not to mention Alex Salmon and that other SDP bore who’s name I don’t even want to remember but it’ll be great not having him irritating me on Question Time in future.

So as I thought, they gave it away, lost the social media battle, offended their core vote, have no mandate for that ludicrous manifesto they tried to sneak by us on the back of our desire to have them represent us in the Brexit negotiations.

So no hard border in Ireland, and a more constrained approach to the single market which I think they’ll now have to remain a member of.

They and this is all politicians, had better pay heed to some of the desires of Corby’s manifesto if they want to retain the interest of the youth vote they keep cracking on about demanding, Canterbury going is exactly because of the young and if nothing changes they are unlikely to forgive a 2nd time.

I like Hung parliaments it means they can’t get unpopular shit through, I doubt they’ll last long but at least we may see the triple lock maintained and they may have to spot that austerity is now over.

A Good night, shame about the Greens but not surprising they haven’t a clue, think I might have to join the damn party and try to talk some sense into it.

No is the answer depending on what your opinion of success is and assuming it’s making lots of money which most people seem to consider success then the thickest boy in our year finished bottom of the D stream every time, went on to make the most money. But he was single minded in it’s pursuit and a bit dishonest as most successful business types generally are.

I did an internet test and it came out 165 wether that means anything or not given I just like those kind of logic puzzles, it doesn’t make me especially successful, but I have had my moments of both, success and failure and as the man said treated them with equal disdain.

Most of the really rich folk of my acquaintance and i know half a dozen or so mega wealthy types, I wouldn’t call the sharpest tools in the box. Being very intelligent is a disadvantage I would say.

My party would be Green at it’s core, but commercially sensible and pragmatic, it’s no good having radical views if you don’t get into power to instigate them.

I’d like to see a global scale of wage and wealth, i see no reason why one of our species should be so very very much richer than another. i can understand the need for success to drive human nature but there needs to be a ceiling. How much is one mans labour worth over another? 10 times? 100 Times? surely not 1000 times.

And these days, we need a new methodology something different from global capitalism and the relentless drive for profit and shareholder benefit, a form of commu-capitalism with quality of life as it’s ultimate goal, worldwide.

Yes I’m a stupid idealist. Maybe I should join the damned Greens and try and talk some sense into them.

But fundamentally we have got to stop **** up the Planet, we know enough now not to, the key is to stop making it profitable to do.

I think they’ll get back in but it will be a squeeze something went wrong for her even the breadknife went Green and she’s been a fascistbiatch Tory all her life.

I asked the folk at our polling station the turnout is up and there are more youngsters so we may yet see some surprises.

Well it’s a couple of days to go now and I don’t mind admitting I’m really nervous, I’m a bit down anyway following a funeral of a childhood mate, the anniversary of the death of my son and some bad news of another chum who’s had a stroke, somebody I’d never have expected it to happen and now I’m trying to think of ways to duck it, using every pathetic excuse my pussy side can come up with. The logical bit of me is telling me not to listen and everything will be fine but…
Usually when i want something it’s easy to convince myself I need it, but this is the other way round, I need it but don’t want it, not only do I not want it, I know it’ll go wrong, everything goes wrong for me, always has, so how do I duck it?

Selfie..

It’ll make no difference how I vote, safe Tory seat with an incumbent expenses fiddler, have not seen sign of a labour candidate nor a poster or leaflet through the door, the only recent challenge came from UKIP we being at the mouth of the Channel Tunnel and illegal visitors strolling up the road out of its mouth were once a daily feature.
So once again it’ll be Green although our local Greens tend to be tree hugging hand wringers, nimbys and Greenham Common vets including my ex wife who fancies the local candidate.

I am groot

Another lifetime LibDem voter here who would never vote for them again post Clegg. Made for TV Blair clone.

The other ‘hotspot’ that badly needs covering and segregation applying is our own jails, no amount of illegal bad stuff occurring in the name of the prophet there I imagine.

outofbreath – Member
intern those fighters that return here, at least until such time that they were declared no longer a threat.
That’s a very different case to what’s being discussed here which is (say) me phoning up the Police to tell them my mate is an Islamist plus he has a car and a kitchen with knives in it and an ‘intervention’ automatically taking place before he’s actually done anything illegal.

Incidently, I accept we’re at ‘war’ with Isis (we must be, we keep bombing them) but I remain to be convinced that the hopegrown terrorists are anything more than dissaffected weirdo criminals.

Yes I get that, and fundamentally I would be opposed to any kind of internment based purely on suspicion or as you point out potential nuisance/vicious/unjustified accusation. These people have passports they travel to hotspots, it’s not easy but it is possible to directly link them to having acted with ‘the enemy’ and there are plenty of laws covering that so no need for another raft of legislation which mark my words is about to descend upon us.

Internment is counterproductive at the best of times, but internment base on one accusation?

Agreed, but if as it seems we are, at war with Islamic State, it would seem perfectly reasonable to intern those fighters that return here, at least until such time that they were declared no longer a threat. Every other war, the nationals that remained here were subjected to just such treatment. I mean if you follow the logic using a WW2 analogy we’d have been allowing Germans to travel freely here throughout the duration without let or hindrance.

Not that it is an answer, but it is a Band-Aid, better than screening and watching which I assume is what is currently going on.

flanagaj – Member
I think part of the problem is that groups like ‘Liberty’ make the goverment’s job much harder. I am amazed how many people have an issue with state snooping. Surely, if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear.

Other than that state slipping too far right or left or being viewed as a soft target for whatever indiscretion of the moment that surfaces on someones agenda. God haven’t you people tolerated enough intrusion, it’s bad enough I can’t go from A to B without being surveiled God knows how many times by CCTV or that I end up being charged for being in posession of a ‘dangerous dog’ thanks to the vigilance of a snoopy neighbour who’s dog disagreed with mine on my own land. Or that if I travel at 3 mph over the limit I end up paying for a Government civil obedience course, or if I ride my m’cycle with the wind blowing over the bit where my curly locks used to be I get fined, never mind if I openly preach religious disagreement or talk out of turn about those with sexual preferences different to mine, or refuse to bake a particular kind of cake…

Nicely put by Lucorave and I’m certainly victim to western media despite knowing how badly we are all manipulated by it even down to our bloody weather forcasts.

It is such a sad state we find ourselves in that we now have fellow countrymen believing they will be better off dead and in their sacrifice they will somehow do their cause good. Fundamentally this is a failing of education. Even the IRA guys wanted to survive their bombs, these poor unfortunates in actually believing the doctrine fed to them by whoever are always going to be difficult to stop without achieving some part of their goal.

There is no easy answer, not without a more serious attempt at reaching all corners of our populace with the message that all these religious beliefs are not only wrong but are and have always been a political means of control and subjugation. We’re in need of a serious reformation, a reformation based in what can be proved, what we actually know now about the Universe and our part in it. Wether Creationist or Militant Jihadist they are all folk lacking in either a good education or a sound inquiring mind. The task ahead above everything has got to be about scientific enlightenment a la Prof Cox.

If God forbid it comes to large scale internment or ever increased prison population as a result of all this and whatever May is now planning, the fundamental thing that needs addressing is to throw doubt into every religious belief system on earth. It’s no good us being all high minded, tolerant and inclusive on the one hand if by doing so we ignore the underlying ignorance, prejudice and fear that can be manipulated for whatever cause might seem appropriate at the time. I hate to say the word Re-education centre, but if it has to be that we are all to be held to one particular mindset, then we sure as hell ought to make sure everyone is on the same page, or it will go on forever.

Well in our day, you had to be able to read.

I can’t believe the Torys are chucking this election away in such grand style idiocy, they’ve been completely caned on social media and all they have left is pseudo reality world TV, Amber Rudd has got such a sour demeanour even when trying to be pleasant. I’m off out sailing tonight anyway, but I think this is a mistake, silly woman, how difficult could it be shining amongst those other morons.

Because football fans read the sun and vote where Murdoch tells them?

Feel sorry for him, warn the kids to steer clear and that’s it, no harm done to you, poor bastards life is pretty much screwed anyway, doubt he’ll stay in the locality much longer.

It happens with increasing regularity as you come to realise it’s a government cash cow, you’ll get offered the course which by and large is a massive waste of a day and costs 80 odd quid which is a lot for a minor infraction, but you’ll take something from the course. Thirty in third seems to have stuck with me and locally I’m hardly ever out of third gear, even in forty zones where I have now become one of those irritating drivers that still does thirty ish.

I always used to push my luck, time was I had three sets of 12 points in a row, but not these days that annoying course pushed a couple of buttons and now I’m embarrassingly well behaved and a bit better informed than I was, since I passed my test in 1965.

Another offer of help here, although it looks like your covered and we’re probably a bit too far down south for your liking, but we’d love to look after her for you for as long as you need us to. She’d be out with me on the bike twice a day, live in a little valley with fields to run about in and a nice pub to take me to.

Genuine offer, email in the profile. Hope things work out ok for the Mrs and they can be together again.

Photochromatic here to, don’t even realise they’ve turned, wish I’d used them a lot more when I was younger, maybe I wouldn’t have damn cataracts now.