If you thought you’d have to change why buy an advance ticket? The whole point is that it’s only valid on one train. Always has been, that’s nothing to do with the TOCs. If you want flexibility you buy an open ticket…

Yeah true but on some companies you can only get cheaper tickets for certain journeys and what ends up happening is the train is riduclously packed and the others are half empty.

I know (in the past at least) with virgin if you have a young persons rail card its not just you get 1/3 off you can get a train any time of the day for the cheaper price.

Sometimes I used to get something like 5:15 from London to Manchester and got off at Lichfield to visit my folks. I almost had a carriage to myself on this train. Then my young persons ran out and I had to get the 6:06 or something like that to get the cheap fair and the train was rammed people standing the whole way.

So really it should of been in everyones interest to swap this fella to the more empty train.

50k in london is still a decent wage

Yeah I’d agree with you now why isnt everyone else earning it.

well seeing as inflation is just less than 5%.

45,545 * 1.05 = 47822

It should go up to £47,822 next year so £52,000 by 2015 does sound too out of place.

Its just everyone else pay is frozen so we are losing money.

why should they hold their bosses to ransom?

in a perfect world they should nt hold there bosses to ransom. But in a perfect world Rob Holden, Chief Executive, Crossrail would nt be paid £857,134.

In principle I agree it would be best if people didnt strike and there was some board that could award the correct level of pay to everyone. But this system does nt exist.

I dont understand why for so many people a tube driver earning £50,000 makes them more angry than Chief Executive earning £857,134.

If the pay at top ever became “fair” then we could start looking at whether tube drivers pay is “fair”.

“£50,000 in one year is worth alot more than £25,000 for two years

How do you disagree with that ?

1. Inflation
2. Savings Interest
3. Possible Mortgage deposit therefore avoiding rent.
4. Mortgage over payments therefore avoiding interest.
4. Other investment opportunities.

Would you include Bob Crow and his £133,138 annual package in that list ?

yes but presumably his union member pay that not TFL.

agree with OP….

sod em. surely this kind of action accelerates the introduction of driverless trains (DLR works fine without a driver). if they weren’t such a bunch of jumped up monkeys they’d be safer – long term – in their jobs.

Disagree earning £25,000 in London is pointless you just end up giving it to your landlord.

If you earn £50,000 you can try and save for a deposit and buy a house.

£50,000 is one year is worth alot more than £25,000 for two years.

They’ll be safer if they can get a mortgage going and then get another job when the the trains are automated.

If earning less is safer why dont cheif executives take pay cuts ? To make sure there business is safe ?

Of course these fantastic conditions for all would come at no extra cost

If they reduced all these peoples pay to say £100,000 that would go someway.

Peter Hendy, Commissioner: £332,276
Steve Allen, Managing Director, Finance: £268,982
Mike Brown, Managing Director, London Underground: £285,230
Howard Carter, General Counsel: £219,156
Leon Daniels, Managing Director, Surface Transport: £97,000
Michèle Dix, Managing Director, Planning: £147,766
Vernon Everitt, Managing Director, Group Marketing and Communications: £230,310
Sarah Atkins, Commercial Director, Tube Lines: £188,476
Ian Campbell, Chief Information Officer: £166,065
Howard Collins, Chief Operating Officer, London Underground: £202,281
Stephen Critchley, Chief Finance Officer: £179,488
Frank Douglas, Group Human Resources Director: £192,387
Robert Doyle, Head of Track and Signals, London Underground: £175,119
Gerald Duffy, Director of Employee Relations, London Underground: £174,067
Garrett Emmerson, Chief Operating Officer Streets, Surface Transport: £182,675
David Hendry, Finance Director, Surface Transport: £179,348
Philip Hufton, Asset Performance Director, London Underground: £284,626
Richard Parry, Strategy and Commercial Director, London Underground: £217,859
Ben Plowden, Director of Better Routes and Places, Surface Transport: £176,777
Peter Regan, Corporate Finance Director: £220,877
Geoff Virrels, Director of Projects, Tube Lines: £131,095
David Waboso, Director of Capital Programmes, London Underground: £203,592
Terry Morgan, Non-executive Chairman, Crossrail: £251, 632
Rob Holden, Chief Executive, Crossrail: £857, 134
David Allen, Finance Director, Crossrail: £268,842
Neil Farmer, IT Director, Crossrail: £169,567
Andy Mitchell, Programme Director, Crossrail: £326,981

If you reduced Peter Hendy, Commissioner for TFL £332,276 pay to £100,000 you would have £232,276. TFL has 4,064 staff you could give each of them a £60 pay increase. (including Peter)

Or if you reduced Rob Holden, Chief Executive, Crossrail: £857, 134 pay to 100,000 you could give them £186.30 pay rise.

Im sure if you added them all together you get like a grand pay rise for everyone.

Do you think footballers turn up for match day then disapear until the next match?

No course I dont ! I love footy and know what hard work they must of put in a kids. But once they make it to professional you can only train for so long each day.

I cant see they can train for more than half a day (4 -5 hours) for 3 or 4 days a week. They will need say 1 or 2 rest day a week. And then maybe either 1 or 2 match days where most of their work is actually travelling to the game.

But why would anyone want 4days pay for one days work

A footballer ?

I’m rostered to work Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Eve / Day this year and accept it as bad luck and part of the job. Don’t get anything extra for the days in question either.

But if you were part of a union that was trying to organise something extra for you would you support them ?

I reckon the equal pay commission should do something like this, worldwide of course as it needs to be now adays. ps (thinking hard burns more calories than you think)

Average pay per hour in Country/County/Area * (Calories burnt per hour of work + Calories burnt per year of education(or average calories need to be burnt to attain exams grades)) * Danger in job * vitalness factor * responsibility of work = Average pay for that type of work

This would give an average pay for that type of job and employers could pay up to say twice that amount or down to half that amount.

Obviously you would need to rate Danger in job/vitalness factor and responsibility of work

I think Danger in Job could quite easily be worked out from casualty figures.

Responsibilty would need to be rated on how many people you are directly responsible for. ie School Teacher 30 / Train Driver on average 100 Research Scientist 1.

Then Vitalness is obviously the hardness one to rate maybe something to do with average GDP creation per hours work ?

I reckon something like Oil Rig Manger would work out to be the best paid.

Ie Lots of education needed/very dangerous/lots with responsibility and vital to the economy.

true !

Its aslo not “fair” that london underground are sacking loads of ticket staff and replacing them with automated machines,

Why not?

Im not the one complaining it not fair everyone else is.

Obviously tube drivers are vital to the running of the capital and they are using this leverage to get as well paid as possible, just the same as everybody else.

Triple pay and a day in lieu is nt “fair” but since when did fair come in the equation with wage negations ?

Its aslo not “fair” that london underground are sacking loads of ticket staff and replacing them with automated machines, but these things happen.

Until employers start taking “fair” into account for negotiations I reckon the tube drivers should try and ring as much as possible out of them.

They are going to be automated at some point so what would the reason for the tube drivers to accept less ? Like I say the ticket staff have been replaced even though they earn a whole lot less.

So earning less will probably only put off automation by a year or two when it happens for the tube drivers.

he’s just having moan TJ dont take it so seriously

To Molgrips

Merica / Wessex yes I see your points here but large parts of Western Mercia/Wessex spoke Welsh and the people there dont claim to be Welsh now.

Holy Roman Empire : I think you’ve chosen a bad example here, surely one of the least homogenised political entities in Europe at the time.

I think what your suggesting is it spawned italy/switerland/austria/germany/holland/belgium/czech but the differences were always there it just did a bad job of homogenisation.

And anyway – we are continually coming up with new customs. How far d’you think Father Christmas goes back?

True like Rick rolling 🙂 but it gets shared round the world pretty quickly. New customs tend to be less unique to one group or location.

the differences were still very much there and they re-appeared after the Empire collapsed

Are you talking about this book ?

Britannia the Failed State

It is an interesting read.

What about going back another 400 years though, to Roman times? Things were pretty homogenous then. It’s worth a read about society then – I don’t think it’s too dissimilar to what we have now. Loads of cultural, social and political integration on some levels but dig a little deeper and the differences were still very much there and they re-appeared after the Empire collapsed.

Good point at last ! Yes I agree after the Empire collapsed cultural differences remerged and the flow of integration in Europe appears not just to have halted but have reversed.

We might have ended up in a situation like China where everyone now claims to be Han and where 836 million people speak Madarin. Everyone in Europe might have claimed to be Roman and spoke either Latin or Greek.

And as you mention there are some real similarities todays society I’ve read many books on the fall of the Roman Empire, this is one of my favourites.

Fall of Rome

it is very short but it uses alot of statistic trying to calculate the size of the Roman economy and then the European economy after the fall. It gives great examples of Europe wide trade ie clay plates from oxford marble from egypt to show how interwoven the Roman economy was and in the Authors opinion what a massive event the fall of Rome was.

But it just goes to show it took an event of worldwide historical importance to temporarily slow the steady march of world integration I would nt like to live in a world where a similar event happened now adays !

Is it necessarily a bad thing that languages are dying out?

Perhaps we need to give up some cultural diversity in order to find more common ground

have you read any of my posts ?

In 1914, before the first world war, there were 59 independent countries in the world. Today, it’s almost 200. To me, that suggest less homogenisation.

As clubber says thats more to do with self determination and the destruction of the British/German/Russian/Japanese/etc empires.

And there are now plenty of countries with almost exactly the same culture, so an extra country does nt mean a new culture.

Ie Serbia/Montenegro
Ie Kosovo/Albania

Do you really think the world is less homogenised than 100 years ago ? Or are you just trying to find a statistic that suggests it is ?

The two links below list many languages that have become extinct. Many have become extinct in the last 100 years. I very much doubt the same number have been created in the same time the only one I can think of is Esperanto. This suggests a reduction in cultural diversity over time.

Langauage Extinction
List of Langauages to become extinct

Dont returns normally only cost 10-20p more anyway.

1. Why didnt he originally buy a return ?
2. Was there an option to upgrade to the return for 10-20p ?
Did the conductor offer to let him upgrade. I have a feeling you cant once you’ve brought a single you need to buy the another single to return. So the guy might have felt like he was entitled to stay on the train because he’d only paid 10-20p less out of say £5.

Alot of the trouble with train fares is caused by stupid rules the train companies have brought in.

There was a case recently it went something like this, I think the guy worked in Newcastle and brought a return to London to go to a business meeting. But he lived in Sunderland or Durham or somewhere so he got off early on the way back. They would nt let him out of the station until he’d paid for a single from London.

Apparently he should of stayed on the train to Newcastle and then got another train home.

Seems mad to me.

Were things really better 80 years ago? Is cultural homogeneity in one country something to be sought after

My opinion definitely not ! England is a much better place today.

I don’t think England (or even the UK) will be ‘destroyed’ for integrating with other cultures

It depends what you mean destroy I think my example of Mercia and Wessex is a good example geographically they are still there but no one could truly describe themselves as a Mercian. The culture of Merica and Wessex is now so similar the inhabitants are either English or British.

The same will be true of England in the future the Island of Britain will be here, but England means Land of the Angles if they is nothing to distinguish them from any other country, ie similar racial mix, similar language culture aims etc will England really exist ?

People will be Europeans from Britain and then Earthlings from Europe. In the same way as I am a British person from the Midlands not a Mercian.

Im not saying this is a bad thing it will be a good thing in general once the initial teething problems have been overcome. But future generations may look back and miss the days when there were real differences.

Also I think both sides of the argument are guilty of ignorance. Some people obviously think human rights are of paramount importance and think you can promote individuals and subconsciousness ignore that fact that this will destroy historic communities.

While others think you can promote the rights of communities (ie the English) without damaging the rights of individuals (ie banning imigration, giving indegious communities etc rights ie council housing).

I just think people should admit that others are right to be scared that “England” probably wont exist in 100-150 years. But I would hope that something better, more tolerant, more equal will have replaced it.

lolwut?
The tie is Croatian/French/Italian and the forerunner of the suit was adopted from France: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1650%E2%80%931700_in_fashion

Obviously the culture of Italy/France was more important in the past than England so we adopted their customs when England/America became more important we spread this round the world.

This is just adding to my argument countries are becoming more similar.

Also no one now complains that having to wear a suit is unpatriotic.

Basically my argument is with the people jumping down Eddie throat suggesting we can continue to integrate as much as possible without destroying “Britain” or “England” or what ever. We can’t.

They should just admit to Eddie look sorry but soon I dont know when but “England” will be destroyed in the same way “Mercia” or “Wessex” was. We will continue to integrate with the rest of the world because this is what human rights demand People need freedom of speach/choice/travel etc.. and this will lead to further integration and reduction of culture differences in turn this will help reduce wars famine etc

They should also say encourage Eddie to help preserve English customs in the same way as the Welsh parliament is trying to preserve the Welsh Language. Because one day we might regret when they are all gone.

I think your conclusion we will all end up the same culturally due to global capitalism is false

It might well be false, obviously. But I still think most of you are looking at thing in a microcosm.

look at the attempts to get the US of A to like football for example

Instead they go to stadiums to watch a game also called football where you move the ball from one end of a pitch to the other. If you can get it past a certain point you score points. There is a certain amount of physical contact but players are expected to hurt each other.

In the big scheme its almost exactly the game. Its not like going to the Colosseum and watching some feela chop some others head off. Or playing polo with a goats head or thinking raiding the next village counts as a perfectly acceptable sport.

That is such a bad example

Also curries first you could only get them in India now you can get them in most of the world.

Think big

Cultures used to be different.

Life in Sparta

Read the section life in Sparta people used to have radically different values in different parts of the world now they are basically the same except that in some countries the death penatly is legal and in some not, also likewise abortion.

Personally I think the main argument here some people think too small and look at the individuals and have compassion for them and see that obviously everybody deserves a decent life. For instance obviously people should be able to move to the UK to lead a better life. But then dont look at the big picture and think that the world can go on as it is with individual different countries each with their own culture. But lots of individuals make a BIG difference.

Then others look at the big picture and just see the numbers and the coporations and dont realise that actually they are made of individuals who we need compassion for. They can spot trends that scare them and make them react. They dont realise that actually no culture is special because no individual is more important than other.

The differences in outlook and ‘national psyche’ for want of a better word are huge and profound between say the USA and the UK.

Yeah but they are considerably closer than 1000 years ago !

And they are probably much more similar than say Athens and Sparta in Classical Greece. They are just over 100 miles apart but the cultural differences were massive. (ie spartans reckoned it was fine to chuck babies out if they looked weak, athenians did nt see much wrong with an older man looking after a young teenage boy in their own special way)

Since the the first countries/empires were created cultural differences between the world inhabitants have been disappearing.

This trend is likely to continue until there are no differences and every country is a carbon copy of the other. Im just saying some people dont think this is the way to go.

To be honest its probably envitiable in the same way its envitiable that there will be a Tesco/Asda/Costa in every town across the country. So those people are fighting a losing battle.

But I can understand their fears as their way of viewing the world is quite quickly now destroyed. Eddie is wrong in saying he fears for his children though as they will grow up with the world as it is and accept it for what it is as all kids do.

??? what ???

where did I say that ?

Are you reading a different text from that which I wrote.

I said cultural integration is generally a good thing as it reduces friction violence oppression racism etc in the world.

I like curries, pasta, potatoes.

Globalisation of business can be a great thing too, means I can go anywhere round the world and know that I can pop in a McDonalds and have a big Mac which I like. But some people feel this is a bad thing. Im not sure whether it is or it isnt.

The point is that eventually national identies will be globalised your’ll go to one country and wont be able to tell it from the next.

To an extent they already have America/Australia/Britain are reasonably similar, I bet there are plenty of Native Americans who dont view this a positive thing.

As you say the advantages are obvious and generally I’m for it but their might be a day we look back and wish we’d done more to protect the differences between countries. In the same way the Welsh and Scots wish they had been able to do more to protect their languages which they are spending alot of money on trying to re energise.

Whether there is anything that could be done or should be done is actually another matter. I would say that freedom of travel will soon and should soon be a human right and if people keep moving the differences will keep falling.

There is a obviously some point behind what eddie is saying. The world not just Britain is currently heading towards a mono-culture. This is obviously a long way off but Im sure if we keep heading in the same direction it will happen. I think Eddie you need to remember that generally the ‘English’ culture has done very well out of this English is probably the worlds second language English styles of Music and Dress rule the world. Even the Chinese Premier(probably the most different culture) attends meeting wearing an English style suit.

Increased communications efficiency and transport faster transports shrink the world and erode barriers and hence cultural differences between groups. On one hand this is obviously a great thing as I think one of the biggest causes of violence in the world is cultural differences. As the cultural differences world wide have shrunk violence has overall reduced per capita.

However this process can occur too quickly and there can be violent reactions against it ie islamic bomber/ander bervic.

And the other question is, which is what I believe Eddy is trying to ask, is do some cultural differences have value in them selves and are we going to do anything to perverse them.

Every high street in the country is now a carbon copy of each other MacDonalds, Smiths, Marks and Sparks and this has recently lead to a backlash with local products and services becoming fashionable.

One day we might have identic countries with approximately the same racial mix, approximately the same language being talking even with the same wildlife to an extent ie Bison being replaced by cows in North America, Sheep in New Zealand etc

This I would generally say is a good thing as I think it will reduce violence and war worldwide(as it has in this country Welsh/English dont generally fight except twice a year when Bristol City play Cardiff) but there might be a case that we should be doing more to protect countries indigenous cultures, a bit like we try to protect indigenous wildlife.

my road commutes are a whole lot more stressful than the offroad version

I cycle to my local train station and then cycle from Paddington to work at the other end.

The route is fairly quiet by London standard but it still can be stressful not matter how confident a rider you are. If a car were to clip me it could result in serious injury.

To be honest the worse bit is probably the cycle to the local station the traffic is moving faster and there is still a good percentage of drivers who dont give you enough room.

one day people will look back

Dunno if we need to look back its pretty obvious now

WTB rocket V

My saddle never becomes uncomfortable so 10 I reckon. But Im not too sure wether it is the saddle or just time.

When I first got into MTB(1998) I used to find all the saddle uncomfortable admittedly some were better than other and I did settle on the WTB designs around 2002 I think.

But I have a feeling the saddle’s might have become more comfortable as my arms got stronger allowing me to put more weight on my hands.

Is nt this like stealing some one elses job

My skill was meant to be that I can throw a tea bag in a cup from about 4 metres (this distance across my kitchen and out the hall door a bit when I was young).

However I’ve been practising this from about the age of 10, 20 years, and although Im alot better now (ie most tea bags land near the cup) I’m still lucky if about 1 in 10 go in.

Yeah my two biggest presents were my Spectrum +2A and my Amiga 600.

I think the 600 was £300 quid or something in 1992. But really well worth it considering Im a Computational Chemist now.

I can. Sometimes, people just read things wrong. It’s actually very easy to see how it happens – you can have a well-adjusted person who’s very comfortable in having friendships/friendly banter with people of the opposite sex, who just sees the other person as a person, then you have the slightly more awkward people who always see someone of the opposite sex as a potential mate or sexual object, who completely misread the most innocent of interactions as flirting and are incapable of having friends of the opposite sex because of that

Pretty harsh accessment that. I basically agree with you but for different reasons. This is more how I’d see it

You can have a well-adjusted person who always see someone of the opposite sex as a potential mate but because of their good social skills its not obvious and they are good at reading signals so they quickly realise its better to just be friends.

Then you have the slightly more awkward people who always see someone of the opposite sex as a potential mate, who completely misread the most innocent of interactions as flirting and just wish the other person would make it clear they are not interested so they can just be friends.

Then again any type of person can occasionally fall in lust/love/obsession and act totally un-rationally and out of character for a period of time.

Personally I dont think there’s much you can do some blokes are just like this little things just start to mount up to big things in their head.

Ie small smile = she likes me
big smile = she loves me
etc etc

He’s obviously not happy with his wife so I feel a bit sorry for him.

I’d say your wife has two choices

1 official route ie report to HR etc.
2 be very unfriendly to him and I mean very almost every word would need to be rude or passive aggressive.

I dont think there’s anything you can do, because if he has got to the stage where he think your wife might be considering running off with him he is not thinking straight.

Ie you meet up tell him to lay off threateningly, in his mind will = you stopping wife and him eloping through violence your probably an abuse husband etc etc.

Im guess route 1 would be the best option. Or maybe route 2 with you being present but not saying much.

From Guardian :-

For a couple with two children the weekly income falls from £612 in 2002 to £606 in 2015.

In the nine years since 2002 the cost of living has increased 30%.

2011 1.045 1.24
2010 1.03286 1.20
2009 1.021662 1.18
2008 1.036132 1.14
2007 1.02321 1.11
2006 1.023335 1.09
2005 1.020497 1.06
2004 1.013446 1.05
2003 1.03629 1.01
2002 1.012562 1.00

Although I make it 1.24 or 24%

This means that £606 in 2012 is the equivalent of £489 in 2002.

When I was a kid it seemed obvious to me that the world would one day be just one big country and everyone would be free to go where ever they wanted and we’d all have a similar out look on life and there would be no wars.

This is an inevitable and good process. For instance in Ancient Greece there were massive difference between say Athens(democracy + strange practises with teenage boys) and Spata(Sort of proto communision fairly equal rights all(unless you were a slave) including girls but killed their children if they seemed weak).

These massive cultural difference were fertile ground for conflict and the ancient world was a world constantly at war. Now adays most people round the world agree on the basic human rights ie slavery wrong/killing people wrong/infanticide wrong.

This has lead to reduced conflict. Also Britain particularly the English have done very well out of this process most of the world currently uses English as a second language !

However these process take time, the unions between England, Wales and Scotland took hundreds of years and several. Although obviously the process of integration would be quicker now.

I also thought the day when we had one world government would be quite along way off and in my life time Britain would be remain a largely culturally British and probably with a racial British majority. Ie there would be people from other backgrounds here but they would have a Northern/London/Brummy accent.

However in some areas Im not sure this is the case accents have changed to be more like other countries, whole communities look for partners abroad.

Now in my mind it isnt fair that some areas of the world are poorer than others so I can understand why people want to come here and I would do the same if I was them and frankly there isnt much the government can do in my eyes to stop people arriving.

Now most of this strife is actually caused by the people coming being poorer than the people here. In my mind the way to solve this is by making “over there” richer.

So I think the governments round the world need to stop pretending that we are separate countries and just try and get on fixing the worlds problems together.

Ideas like having separate tax laws in separate countries are ridiculous we should have 1 tax law and apply it all round the world. So that countries like Switerzland are nt stupidly rich for no reason. Worldwide trade unions should be formed to fight for workers rights every where etc etc.

To stop the brain drain countries like the UK and USA should reverse immigration policies so only the most needy are allowed in. The clever bright people should be encouraged to stay in their own countries of birth to improve the standard of living their.

Hopefully then immigration would maybe not lessen but would be more equal with people just swapping places. I mean people come from the Midlands move to work in London without problem. The problem is when large groups(not individuals) of people with very different economic and very different cultural practises move on mass to another country.

Then they went on holiday and couldn’t find anybody to look after their cat, so they had it put down

I dont really get what your trying to say.

Was the cat old ? Did they get a new cat ? Everytime they wanted to go away did they get a new cat put down.

Im not sure what your saying should they have just left it to fend for itself ? I dunno, Im not a cat owner could it look after itself ?

How long was the holiday ? Was it like a really big one ? Did they go on holiday more often ?

Surely the problem was they brought a cat they could nt look after ? If they went out and repeated they’re mistake and brought a new one that would be reckless.

Also why didnt you look after it.

Im always surprised by how many people seem to be read fiction books. Until I brought my kindle I had nt read a fiction book for like 5-7 years.

Almost got to the point when I felt fiction books were just something you read as a kid.

Since I got my kindle alot of fiction book you can download for free so have read more.

Something I havent read since I was a child are books of short stories. This one is good http://www.amazon.co.uk/Twilight-Gods-Other-Tales-ebook/dp/B000JMKWKM/ref=pd_ys_iyr87

I suppose I like stories for the same reason I tend to like short TV programs rather than films.

I’ve also read great gatsby = pants and three men in a boat = good

I normally try to engage them in an intellectual conversation – much fun to be had.

My wife thinks it’s highly amusing – the only person on the street that looks forward to the jehovah’s witnesses knocking on the door

So predictably boring !

Invite them in, offer tea and biscuit’s, put ‘partyboy’ music on, then slowly start taking your cloths off, see how long they stay and how naked you can get

Nows theres something I’ve not heard of before !