Nick Griffen deserves everything he gets – nasty convicted racist holocaust denial antisemitic twerp

bombadillo – Member
TandemJeremy
you seem to come over as a pretty foul man too. terrible attitude.

To describe Griffin as racist holocaust denying antisemitic scum is a terrible attitude bombadillo? You need to take a long hard look in the mirror my mixed up friend.

Hooligans? We have rights of free speech and public protest in this country. Surely they're just exercising both of those?

Ignorant fascist.

Who really cares?

Nah it's alright Ainsley… 😉

@ Trimix

Stop moaning and go and create some wealth and spend it

So many jokes in my head bursting to get out in response to that!

@ Stoner

I agree completely–though the operations of philanthropy are slightly different for those trusts in which the original beneficiary no longer plays an organizing role (because they're dead). It's also the case that there can be a discernible 'public good' achieved across a broad area even through the actions of an individual philanthropist–I'm thinking in particular about the relatively large number of Carnegie Libraries in the UK here. You're right, that philanthropy can't play a redistributive role but it can provide key services which the state is unwilling to support at a particular moment in time.

Mind you, my take on this as historical rather than political–i.e. I think the state should be providing those key services.

Perhaps Trimix–but they are part of it, in the sense that they are able to exploit its taxation and regulatory systems (or lack thereof), the inequalities around which its labour markets are organized, the educational opportunities it provides etc. etc. etc…

@ Stoner

Redistribution of wealth is the role of government through taxation, not the wealthy through philanthropy.

That's certainly the case in this country. There's an interesting comparison to be made with the USA though–there's no real desire to redistribute wealth through the federal or state taxation systems, but a far better developed culture of philanthropy among the very wealthy. You see it in the charitable trusts created by people like Carnegie or Rockerfeller and still in the donations that even moderately wealthy alumni make to their colleges / universities. I agree with you completely–it's clear that successive Labour governments have come nowhere near meeting what we could expect of even a moderate social democratic party. But I think there's also something profoundly wrong with a culture in which excess wealth does not also carry with it a sense of public duty.

Sorry Alpin that's just nonsense. Undergraduate teaching of GB and EU students is a loss-maker for Universities: the tuition fees they're able to charge are nowhere near the full economic cost of the teaching students are provided with. This is why they're all forced to cross-subsidize–by increasingly looking to get non-EU students onto expensive masters level courses. If you want to be cynical, that's where you should be looking.

@ Lester

and when was there ever a hyphen in world renowned???? glass houses and all that

Exhibit A:

Oh–and try this one for size while I'm about it:

Fish in a barrel.

And your emails have been semi-literate gibberish since you rocked up this morning.

You're very confrontational aren't you Lester? I was basing my reading of your intelligence on all the available evidence–your inability to spell or punctuate or use grammar in anything like the correct way. Plus the fact that every time you say anything you sound as daft as a brush.

do you know what the difference is between illicit and illegal, or between infer and imply.

Didn't Rhodes Boyson teach you how to use the world-renowned question mark? It's not rocket science is it? Perhaps you were too busy gazing at his sideburns.

Could all that money not have bought you at least the basis of a decent education Lester?

@ Dr_Bakes

It worked though didn't it?!

@

Dr_Bakes – Member
"What sort of bubble are London/uni people living in?"

If she was from Cambridge then why are you refering to 'London people'?

As for history degrees I couldn't agree more, load of old twaddle .

You were so hoping to get a rise out of me on this one right?!

I have a history degree. Actually, I have two of them. And now I churn out massed ranks of students with history degrees who leave Oxford year on year. To be honest, they seem to do OK out of it: a lot of them will take law conversion courses and end up at the bar or in a city law firm. The ones with a political conscience seem to end up in the civil service or a think tank. The ones with a social conscience go into teaching or NGOs. I don't know how far we can claim any credit for this, but they leave with the ability to think critically, analyze large amounts of material, work independently and in small groups and to develop independent and original arguments. The subject matter might be 'twaddle', but in terms of skills and employability I think we do pretty well.

There's a clear case of Me, Myself and Moz going on here

Perhaps we could get Moz to switch sides and uses his skills for the common good? Poacher turned gamekeeper and all that…

Moz the Vigilante, roaming the internet recovering stolen goods.

Moz is surely guilty of crimes against the English language right? I think we should convene a kangaroo court

i just had a thought, i think i am dreaming and i am in the middle of the jeremy kyle stolen bike show

It sounds like it might be the first one you've managed for a while.

I think one of the reasons I like Penmachno a lot is precisely because it doesn't all have that 'flow' people keep banging on about. It's like proper old school 'natural' riding where you have to work hard for your pleasures and keep the effort going for long long sections (like the exposed 'bowl' bit). Maybe it's just me, but that's an enormously rewarding kind of riding when compared to the instant-o-matic likes of Llandegla. And then there are those moments when it all opens up and you manage to get your speed up and sections do start to come together. Even then, however, there's still enough surprises to keep you honest.

I was hoping for a bit more track-standing

Sure–like I said, it's not the only way you can share photographs but…

It's not Facebook that's the problem it's the way that a whole load of inane idiots use it. If you want to have 568 friends and 5401 photographs documenting every minute of your past eight nights out then so be it. If you want to waste your time playing ridiculous games or keeping the whole world up-to-speed with your vacuous thoughts then so be it. That's not for me and, I guess, not for the people who've posted here so far.

But for sharing post-ride photographs it's great–it's not the only way you can do that, I know, but it does the job.

Irritating isn't it? Classic example of cutting corners fitting a non-removable freewheel to hit a certain price point. Like everyone says, the vice, the hammer and the centre punch are your friends here. The freewheel is your enemy. Go get it.

I know you've said you don't want to do a proper training programme, but they really are the best way of getting your speed up whatever distance you're targeting. The Runner's World site is great and there's also a fantastic book called Running is Easy by Bruce Tulloh. Crazy but inspirational stuff.

If you don't want to tick off sessions on a programme, then you could just build in a few fartlek runs during the week. It's Swedish for 'speed play' and just means that you constantly vary your pace and effort depending on how you feel–short bursts up a hill then a jog recovery, steady pace at just below HR threshold, some longer periods of effort then slow again. If you keep mixing it up according to what your body's telling you then you can get a lot of the training benefits but avoid the regimentation / oh shit I want to throw up my lungs feeling that you get with intervals.

What's for sale on here?

You can ride on and then lock and leave in the parking hold while you sun yourselves upstairs.

I wish I was better at being as cool as Alpin

Surely it's people using cliches like 'political correctness gone mad' as a substitute for independent and / or critical thought?

Like Grumm said: what does this have to do with political correctness? It's a lot of things, but it it's got sweet FA to do with politics or correctness

Have driven over one million miles in their life

I really like the look of the KHS 29er series. No idea how they ride though!
Link

@ Macgyver: drop me an email and I'll share the details (address in profile)

@ Macgyver no worries–it would be good to have you along. Just drop me an email and I'll add you to the mailing list. 'Fast and furious' in very short bursts…

@ Shteve–I reckon you'll be fine. It's Oxford, so the pedally uphill bits are never that long! Normal meet time is 7.30 on a Tuesday. We're just at that stage where you need lights by the end of the ride.

Hello Shteve

It varies. The Tuesday night rides tend to be fast and furious in short bursts with regular stops to push your lungs back in. They start from the city centre and head out either to Boars Hill or Shotover. There doesn't look to be much when you're first up there but we've put together some pretty good loops with sections of rootsy, steppy, rutty singletrack, bermed trails and the odd bit of boardwalk. On the weekend we're normally out in the Chilterns though occasionally venture further afield to the Malverns, Cotswolds, Long Mynd etc. Those rides are normally more of a 'social' pace so anyone can join in–four or five hours, a few stops and finishing up at a pub.

Let me know if you're interested and I can add you to the mailing list.

Cheers
Matt

Where exactly in Lincolnshire are you? I'm from Scunthorpe originally–a few bits and pieces up there if you're local.

Shteve

Like Munque-Chick says, there's a group of us who ride out of the city centre every Tuesday evening. We're usually out most weekends in the Chilterns or further afield as well. You're welcome to join us–email me on mhoulb at hotmail dot com

Cheers
Matt

Bump

Sorry for misunderstanding: we were cooking when he took a bathroom break–at which point 'contact' occured…

@ Surfer

When I was at uni a friend of mine got bits of dried / crushed chilli inside his foreskin.
what the hell type of sexual antics gave rise to this!!

Nothing so exciting I'm afraid–the hidden perils of communal cooking…