Whilst the term ‘Concentration Camp’ is generally atributed to the British camps during the Second Boer War the concept behind the camps wasn’t a new one at the time. Indeed both the Union and Confederates used such camps during the American Civil War and their use even pre-dates that conflict by hundreds of years. As for Nazis, some have said it already and I fully agree, learn the lessons of the past to prevent the failures of the future.

Fergie had nothing but contempt for Everton, that is why he fielded a weak team.

The premise that he was keeping players back purely to concentrate of the league and Europe is utter tosh. Silverwear is silverwear and the potential for Man Utd to take it all this year and achieve huge bragging rights over all the other Premiership ‘big boys’ would have been right up there in Ferguson’s mind. Fortunately he mis-judged the big-game mentality that Everton summoned up and his team paid for it through not having anything worthwhile (not even on the bench) to fall back on.

How I will laugh if Man Utd end up with little to show for this year.

……..but how many people are being converted by all this ??

Although the smattering of STW users I actually know is very small compared to the overall membership and therefore my sample is low I’d hazard a guess at “very few”.

The STW users I know come from a wide variety of backgrounds and have a wide variety of views but I’m not sure (pretty sure infact) any of them are so weak-minded that they’d be convinced to change their political viewpoint based on a rant on a MTBing forum.

I’m sort of lost as to the point GG is trying to make in that thread.

Is it something along the lines of Great Britain didn’t really have much room to criticise Germany in 1939 as GB at the time had the largest empire the world had ever seen or something?

WARNING – This internet may contain nuts, as well as opinions that differ from your own.

My friend Alison swears by http://www.gingerbeer.co.uk for all her lady loving information. Its gotta be a better bet than STW.

……and/or offensive towards individuals…..

I find the far left almost as distasteful and offensive as the far right, but I’d never wish to censor someone’s opinions either way.

As TJ says, either challenge their beliefs in a sensible and well-thought out way or don’t read the threads. Don’t start whinging that “its not how it used to be” because aside from the higher volume of posts generated by a larger amount of users it is, and thats based on my ever-so-humble experience stretching back to the days when you didn’t have to register to post (ah, happy days) on here.

Its always been a place where random chit chat, bicycle mleh and occasionally controversial opinions are mashed together.

Perhaps MTT wants you to be a forty something IT accounts manager called Dave from Solihull as thats his thing.

Seems a very exacting description.

I know exactly what you are saying MTT, as if someone on another MTB site has said “lets create a collective account on STW and use it to wind up al the cubicle-bound IT geeks with threads that traditionally get their attention”.

Of course I’m a very cynical person but I’m also a realist and appreciate that very often you discover the most ‘interesting’ people in the most unlikely places. Hmmmm.

My ex (the Dominatrix one) had some stars like that down her spine as well as ‘666’ across her lower back. She said out of al the places she had been tattoo’d it was the least comfortable to have done.

…..kinda wipes out the notions from the ‘Degla is too easy/not gnarly enough’ arguers, get well soon…..

Not really. The worst injury I’ve ever sustained MTBIng happened at no more than walking speed on a pretty simple trail when I was too busy chatting to someone behind me to pay attention to the trail and had a pedal strike against a trail-side tree stump, resorting in a 7″ gouge down my right shin to the bone caused by an SPD pedal.

Hope you get well soon STB, I know how horrible having a broken collar bone can be having had one myself (though not through MTBIng).

Pah, tattoos are old hat. 😉

I’ll see if I can find a picture of the brand I had done a while back.

Coppercrest (thats the brand the RAF use).

Its not very technical (no matter what speed you ride the trails at) but as long as you go not expecting it to be then I’m sure you’ll have a fairly good time. MBR seem to like it.

Certainly seems very popular what with the huge crowds it gets at weekends but I’m not sure what they are doing that requires the 6″ of travel at both ends many of them seem to have.

Still, if we all liked the same thing it’d be a boring world.

Is ‘being Gay’ a choice? You either are or you aren’t surely?

What about the lack of understanding ‘stereotype’ bit Juan? It ok, I accept you apology btw. English is a lingustic minefield and I know it isn’t you first language so I’m not going to judge you or make an issue of your mis-directed comment.

TooTall – Plenty of legroom on an Albert (though the seats are a little rough) and there is a fair bit on the Funbus, what with its back to front seating. Not really fair though to compare such ‘high quality’ aircraft with those of Easyjet etc. 😉

A cynical person might say “your mates in the media”. Luckily I’m not cynical and realise, as said earlier, there are only so many ways to bodge some pipes into a bicycle frame shaped object. If you can combine that with low prices and sprinkle with a sense of buying into a quirky British country then it’ll do well in these fair isles.

Nice Juan, very nice. You obviously don’t understand the word ‘stereotype’, nor the fact many ‘little Englanders’ base their opinions on such stereotypes, which unfortunately with your knuckle-scraping comment you are just supporting. Tounge in cheek comments are often difficult to put across in the written word but I don’t think it was so badly put this time, maybe just poorly understood by a certain individual.

There is a nice beach just down the road (Ladies Mile) with some good, reasonably priced beachfront bars to eat in thats far enough away from the main city not to be tainted by it. Also if you like looking around Roman ruins there is a well preserved ampitheatre (sp.) not to far away at Curium (which also has a nice beach). Limasol itself though is a dive, full of dodgy Russian Mafia owned bars kn which you may pay a suprisingly large amount of money for a cheap drink, ‘Napa-light’ disco bars, some docks and squaddies and slightly better behaved airmen based at the nearby Soverign Base Areas. Troodos Mountain is well worth a visit though you’ll rue not taking a mountain bike as its littered with fantastic trails.

Aye although Teejay is like a dog with a bone regarding anything to do with a certain Lincolnshire based importer of generic parts brought from a Taiwanese parts catalogue it can’t be denied that paying more than say, an importer in a fellow European state just across the channel, for an adjustable seatpost with design issues is a little daft. Buy from the Frenchies, at least if you get equally poor service then they’ll have lived up to the stereotype but you’ll be less out of pocket for the pleasure.

PJay – Six of one, half a dozen of the other. If On-One (or any bike manufactuer for that matter) owners were truely happy with their purchase they wouldn’t feel the need to daisy chain each other to affirm their purchase nor worry what others felt about them. See, ‘threads by folk on here whinging about what WhatMBUKSingleMBRworld mag said about their purchase’ for proof (if it were needed) about how precious some of the little dears on here get. Its just a bike. Are folk happy or so insecure that you need a fellow forumite to whip one off the wrist for them in order to appease the demons of doubt that linger after purchase? If its option ‘b’ then a life may be required before further interaction with the human race is attempted, less they get upset and hide in their room until Mum calls them down for tea.

Make a Tartiflette. It sounds like poncy French grub but is in reality a dead simple to cook dish that often powers (alongside large amounts of Trapist beer) proper mountain bikers who venture to the Alps in order to test their mettle. Its basically cheese, potato, onion and bacon baked in the oven, nothing too complex. If you can’t find (or afford) the Reblochon cheese that its traditionally cooked with then other cheeses can be subsituted.

I’ve ridden there a couple of times but its not somewhere to write home about, though it could be…. 😉 The Bylaws thing is pretty amusing though. Wasn’t the current system of public access to the countryside brought about by mass tresspass and a high degree of ignoring ‘ownership’ of the countryside?

Buzz – That sounds like the talk of a quitter. 😉

Nothing seen here, but then again I’m using a phone browser.

Other makes of bicycle are available and there are only so many ways you can hammer together a hardtail frame, as DeKerf discovered just after the Inbred was launched.

How about having a doorway you have to fit through before check-in that is only wide enough to take into account the size of the seats on the aircraft? If Mr and Mrs Fatbody touch the sides an alarm goes off, they are refused passage and their passport is taken off them until they have learned when to stop shoving pies in their greedy fat gobs.

Biker’s Retreat is very good, but its very popular so you’ll be lucky to get in at such short nitice. Worth giving them a bell though.

As soon as I have access to proper internet rather than mobile internet I will.

Still, at least the Haggis farmers look likely to have bumper herds this season. Apparently the hills are awash with the little blighters, so much so they’re having to install anti-haggis fencing alongside the Fort Bill DH course, though only down one side of course.

BBSB – I’m afraid the “la la la, I can’t hear you” approach to ignoring facts was out-ruled by the 1982 ‘Now now children’ Act. Try a Google search for ‘Tay caged salmon’ and as well as a site called ‘Salmon Farm Monitor’ which has articles on large scale escapes of farm salmon into the waters controlled by the Tay Fisheries Authority you’ll also find that Loch Tay has a large number of caged salmon farms, all of which can be legally sold as Tay salmon, unlike line caught salmon which is illegal to sell.

BigButSlimmerBloke – Not wishing to get drawn into a tit-for-tat Scottish/English debate as I have family allegiances both sides of the border (unlike that plastic Scot who normally turns up in any thread remotely associated with Scotland) but my take on the ‘Tay Salmon’ thing is this. In a country that has seen its industries ravaged by both government meddling and an inability to compete against the far-east Scotland has rightly fallen back on marketing anything it can to turn a profit and ‘Tay Salmon’ is a fine example of this. Its a catch-all (excuse the fishing pun) term thats used both for line caught samlon as well as by those selling cage reared, intensively farmed salmon. Its not nessessarily a mark of quality, just a mark of geography. Be proud of Scotland’s magnificent line caught salmon and the rivers its caught from but don’t be fooled into thinking a geographical tag adds quality. There are many factories surrounding a certain town in Lincolnshire churning out mass-produced meat pies but only geography makes them Melton Mowbray, not nessessarily quality.

Why have the Tories more chance of luring across BNP voters? Many of the areas in which support for BNP is on the rise are former (or current) Labour areas. Surely Labour are at fault for failing to address the concerns of former/current supporters rather than the Tories for not supplying a ‘right-wing light’ alternative in these areas where it’d often be the last party to be voted for due to historical gripes. As an aside though, on a few issues the Tories are actually less right-wing than Labour and you’d think the kind of morons who’d vote BNP would be all for ID cards and stricter border controls, if only to stop ‘them'(as they are often described in the Daily Wail) coming over here and stealing the jobs off of the hard-working British benefit class lay-abouts. Sorry, that last sentance may be a bit of mash-up of standard Daily Wail fodder and may not accurately portray the actual situation.

Isn’t a large part of the problem the way drunks are dealt with now? Drunkism is nothing new, ‘Gin Alley’ is not a 21st centuary invention, the UK has always had an issue with excess drinking. What has changed though is that many ‘normal’ drunks are now being carted off to A&E by the police to have a drip put in and a stomach pump rather than a night in the cells for D&D or being dropped off at home. This is one of the reasons drink-related admissions are more common, the manner in which the police deal with them. Get rid of the problem, pass it onto someone elses budget and pop around to take any statements when the dust has settled. I’m not excusing these idiots who drink to excess of course, just pointing out its not such a simple issue which can be easily explained by some rant-friendly TV.

Oh and if you’re on a road bike take it easy at the junction near the Robin Hood gate. Unless they have resurfaced it recently its like glass and quite a few roadies have picked up a road rash memento to take home at that point.

You can park in the park during opening hours but otherwise most people seem to park in one of the surrounding roads and hop over the gate.

Its not great but its better than nowt. Watch out for broody stags though depending on when you go, they can be quite scary and apparently the handlebars on a bike look to them like antlers or something so they can get aggressive near bikes.

What, upside down?

They never taught me that at the public school I went to in Surrey.

North/South, its all a state of mind really.

A little test on where you are from though, what do you call this?

Its a cob to me.

You could have jumped in earlier Stoner when Mr Worldly Wise used ‘nieve’, then I wouldn’t have naively copied his poor spelling.