@northwind – I tend to agree with you. But it’s good to get some of the folk who have massively one sided views of these things thinking. 😃

Hmm yes but it was always on a small local scale

Not sure that is right, but I’ll agree that the Atlantic Slave trade was the most large scale “industrialised?” example and Britain was complicit in this.

How could you do that and then ignore the millions of people transported as slaves under it?

You can’t. What I’m trying to get at is the Britain realised it was doing something that wrong, stopped doing it and then tried to stop other countries from doing it. I can’t think of anything else where such a huge change was done so relatively peacefully. The Americans had to fight a war over it*

All Wilberforce did was stop (after 200 years) what should never have started in the first place

I think that’s a bit unfair on William.

I often wonder what crimes we will be condemned for in 150 years time that we don’t think of as crimes now. Perhaps killing animals for meat when we don’t have to or ruining the environment. All we have to do is stop doing it.

*yes I know the war didn’t start over slavery, but it was the underlying disagreement.

Slavery has existed since written records began. It wasn’t suddenly invented by 18c. entrepreneurs. Its almost a natural state of mankind – where ever you have humans, you have human slaves. Its still around but at least its no longer respectable.

Without Britain and the British Empire, slavery as a respectable business practice would probably have lasted a lot longer than it did.

So perhaps when you see a Union Jack you could be proud because its the flag of William Wilberforce and his fellow abolitionists. Its the flag of the Royal Navy’s West African squadron and the flag of the MPs who voted through the 1807 and 1833 acts and a government that put international pressure on other slave trading nations.

Name me a country that doesn’t have a chequered past.

Wales.

They used to love kicking the shit out of each other, and the English. One reason they got swallowed up when the Normans came.

Switzerland? Famed for neutrality, chocolate and novelty clocks, they haven’t shown up to a war armed with non-locking pocket knifes for a couple of hundred years. Also, their flag is a big plus.

Famed for their skill an warfare and hiring themselves out to the highest bidder all through 17th century. I think there were plenty of massacres carried out in the 30 years war by Swiss mercenaries.

Isn’t this sort of what happened to Karrimor and Field and Trek?

Used to be very successful in their day. Once the business failed the names were still worth something as logos on cheap stuff peddled by Sports Direct.

someone in Windlesham surely isn’t doing that commute?

Windlesham is practically Suburban London. At certain times of the day trains from the South West are standing room only by the time they get to Basingstoke.

Some of my colleagues commute in from Brighton (which apparently is a REALLY shit journey)

I had rats in a compost bin. They tunnelled in from underneath. Never saw any baby ones, so perhaps they just visited.

They were very effective at turning the compost so it ended up as really good stuff.

The cats kept them out of the garden so I left them alone. I just had to remember to bang the side of the bin before opening it up!

Make it stop

I’ve read the book – it’s very good.

My question was basically In, say, 1943, were there any alternatives to the D-Day landings? I suspect not but my knowledge of history isn’t brilliant so am curious.

I would guess that if the D-Day landings didn’t take place Germany would have lost the war eventually as, in terms of ground fighting, the Soviets did most of the heavy lifting. This would have saved many British, Commonwealth and American lives at the expense of many more Eastern European lives. We might have had the Iron Curtain at the channel ports, or if the Soviets lost interest after invading Germany, the rump of a fascist state in Western Europe. (sounds like a good plot for an alternative hsitory novel)

The War did stop the holocaust as it was in full swing right up to the liberation of the Death camps.

If hitler had established his thousand year Reich they would have carried on until none of the “undermenschen” (sp?) were left.

IMHO of course

Best to let people like this not bother you and crack on. The internet is all of them. They’re like ants, you might get rid of a few, but there are millions just like them so you’re not even scratching the surface.

This isn’t just shop-floor banter (which isn’t right but can be dealt with). Its a permanent record on the internet.

A friend of mine had part of his life ruined because of half truths posted on the internet and there was nothing he could do about it.

We can’t all be thick skinned. If I knew that somebody was posting shit like that about me or my partner and that it could be read by any one in the world and that it would be there forever, it would make me feel suicidal.

Making excuses for this individual and telling the victims to move on is just not good enough.

It’s as mundane as wiring a plug but fascinating, especially as it seems the male and female connections don’t work so they’re trying to sort that out.

Not watching this one. But I saw one years ago where the procedure checklist gave a value in newtons-meters but their torque wrench was in foot-pounds.

They had to wait while someone on the ground did the conversion.

https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/we-fked-up-everything-we-could-johnson-tells-britain-20210127204697

Quite a neat summary!

total chaos over School closures at Christmas – then re-opening for one day..

Don’t forget he was insisting schools were safe the day before he closed them. He must have know he was lying.

Batteries always dying, dodgy electrical connections, etc.

I used the halogen version in the 1980s. I remember having to take them apart at least once a week and sand down all the contacts! And you’d turn them off when there was no traffic around to save the battery.

But the beam patterns were, I think, carefully thought out (BSI standard?). It was a nice big rear light and they threw a lots of light out to the side.

I reckon if you took that Never Ready lens design and married it up to some modern LED technology you would have some really good road lights.

at some point the government will change from declaring they are not reducing workers rights, to slashing them

If only we still had a strong trades union movement in the UK :-(

I clicked on the link and wished I hadn’t.

Who is Hambini and why has it got it in for that couple?

I thought this was an apt article to link to this thread

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55804123

Poor white teens in ‘left behind’ towns not going to uni

Mr Hughes explained what joining the EU meant to us kids

All that because Mr Hughes was so excited about Britain having joined the Common Market.

I thought freedom of movement and residence only came in in 1993?

as they thought my light was too bright!

I find a lot of modern cycle lights far too bright if I’m walking towards them. If your eyes have adjusted to the dark, it can be really painful. Strobing ones are even worse.

Where I live, motorists tend to dip their lights for walkers, some cyclists seem to just leave them pointing straight into your retina.

One benefit of more people using the outdoors might be that we get more trails due to the popularity.

Opposite effect around here. Too many drongos who don’t realise you can’t walk where you like or let you dog run where it likes. There are loads of new “private keep out” signs and barbed wire sealing a couple of tracks that aren’t rights of way where previously nobody really minded the odd walker.

Its a shame as all the rights of way around here are really clearly marked, so its people just being arses (or stupid).

Again, I’m not suggesting we simply create another dull school subject. Education is broader than that. But it probably is beyond the wit of the people in charge of the UK since most things appear to be.

Yes, it seems its more important to know what a fronted adverbial is than the best ways to live your life in the 21st century.

Personally, I don’t find it reasonable for pedestrians to walk two or three abreast

Bloody walkers, walking two abreast. And they don’t pay road tax and they jump red lights as well.

Also known as Chicago bolts/screws

Not sure what Fat Mountain is trying to prove, but wasn’t 2018 a particularly bad flu year?

That being so, the fact that 2020 with all it restrictions is higher indicates this is a nasty pandemic indeed.

Apologies if I’ve missed the point.

Last time I had an interest the automotive industry there was a feeling among industry analysts that there wasn’t a need for more than five manufacturing centres world wide. This was seen as a long term threat to the UK industry. That was about 15 years ago so things may have changed since. If not, Brexit may be speeding up the inevitable.

LOL at the latest gossip about giving £500 to anyone who tests positive. It’ll just encourage get togethers!

Yes I can imagine- “I’m 22 years old, relatively fit, just lost my job and absolutely skint – how soon can I get a positive test?”

The government did say it wasn’t going to happen though.

On our evening 10 TT a car parked up on a quiet lane. Chap in the front seat with his lady friend bouncing up and down on this lap. 20 sweaty blokes in Lycra huffing up hill at 1 minute intervals must have put her off her rhythm.

Another time at the same place, there was a car properly on fire with a man stood near it. He flagged down my mate and asked if he had a fire extinguisher on him – said mate was in a skin suit on a TT bike.

I suppose the best answer would have been “no mate, I’m just pleased to see you”. but you never think of these things at the time.

A friend was doing up a 17c farmhouse in France and we came across a shoe hidden in a void in the wall.

We thought it a bit odd at the time. A few years later I found out that it wasn’t uncommon in 17th and 18th centuries right across Europe. Apparently it was an anti-witch thing.

Not sure Stella has any supernatural qualities though

Our kids generation won’t be enjoying payed holidays, maternity pay, sick pay, employers pension contributions, minimum wage or a limit on working hours. This lot are literally chomping at the bit to get rid of the lot.

To be fair, we had worker rights before the EU and we don’t need the EU to maintain them.

Perhaps an up side to Brexit might be the re-emergence of the trades union movement as a positive force in the UK. But everyone thinks unions are crap because “winter of discontent” or something, so perhaps not. (Unions – Possibly the Tories’ greatest propaganda victory?)

Don’t push the comparison to 1945 too far.

1945 saw the start of the establishment of the welfare state in the UK. A direct result of the shitshow that preceded it.

If the shitshow that is Brexit could produce something as beneficial, our descendants might think Brexit wasn’t all bad despite our economic suffering.

I doubt it will though.

I don’t know a lot about subjects, but I know what I think.

The young people – You lot benefit from this and we’re getting shat on so why should we bear the entire economic cost

These young people are still in work, so in what particular way are they getting shat on?

It’s been said before, but what kind of incompetent moron clownshow would actually go ahead with the EU transition at THE VERY WORST POINT in this pandemic?

One that thinks its a good day to bury bad news?

I bet all the 50 something year olds here know what lineoleum is . They would have had it in their kitchen , bathroom, kitchen table if you were poor

Isn’t proper linoleum (ie. the stuff made from linseed oil) quite expensive now?

Pokey little en-suites tacked on to pokey little bedrooms.

Decking

Huge windows with no curtains or blinds (like you see on grand designs)

Open plan won’t age well with the post-covid WFH generations.

@dougiedogg

Don’t even try and look for anything positive on this thread. You’ll only get shot down.

I quite like Hilltrek clothing

https://hilltrek.co.uk/

Very expensive but the only jacket I’ve ever had that was properly waterproof and lasted more than two seasons.

And you can talk direct to the lady that sews them.