…. and the Police (and Armys) response…….

The British Army was never used alongside the Police during the Miners Strike.

It was considered at one point due to the huge amount of over-stretch the Police were suffering but the decision was made not to use the Army. Primarily the driving force for this decision was the fact that the bulk of the Army at the time were recruited from what were traditionally mining areas and there was a fear that deploying troops against ‘their own’ could cause decent among the ranks and possibly lead to a mutiny.

The Beard – Just for you,

Must be cold.

I agree though, better as a brunette. Even better in black and white

pity the i.r.a did not get her in brighton. and i truly believe that.

I pity you.

For whatever reasons, even with the huge amount of power the traditional Labour supporting cities wield in General Elections she was democratically voted in (although never by a member of my family I must add).

To wish a democratically elected official (and no hung chads were involved) murdered by a terrorist organisation that has (still is) responsible for many murders within the UK and overseas of innocent civilians speaks volumes of your irrationality.

Yes you may feel strongly over her actions (as do I and I’m sure many others) but to wish her murdered by criminals?

Both Thatcher and Scargill were motivated primarily by political motives. Neither had the welfare of the nation nor of the workers as their number one priority.

Unfortunately both were single-minded in their zeal and no compromise would ever have been likely between what were basically a hard-line Stalinist and an ultra right-wing Conservative. Scargill did as much damage to the trade union movement with his undemocratic decisions and ulterior motives as Thatcher did by her bloody-minded desire to crush them.

The country was a victim of circumstance. Two ideologically opposed personalities as opposite numbers in a dispute in which the arguments of profit, people and sustainability were immaterial compared to their political goals.

As has already been said, no one won.

More money for policing offences other than speeding. Thats policing, requiring police officers rather than a yellow box that takes pictures of a small stretch of road occasionally.

Saw an ad for them in Cycling+ the other month, they are very nice.

Tempted…….

Most have you have probably not set foot in this part of the United Kingdom!

Is Dungannon (amongst other SF bases I’ve spent time at) included as “this part of the United Kingdom“?

G40? Bessbrook Mill? Omagh? Ballykelly?

MTT – You want to add ‘Fatcha, milk snatcher’ to that list for maximum STW points.

I don’t think that would stand up in court as a defence.

Well as pointed out, 16 is legal.

Of course the lad who I worked with in the RAF many years back who pulled a girl who later turned out to have been 15 (although she was in an over 21 club at the time) ended up having to explain his side of the story to the police after the parents of the girl contacted them over their little angel’s extra-curricular activities.

If he had only gone to ‘The Grapes’ instead he would have been ok as you can pretty much guarantee that no female in their is under 30.

Can I just point out I have no axe to grind against speed cameras, I’d just rather see any extra money plowed into road safety schemes used to target other dangers than the relatively minor one that is speeding.

Is that you happy then S&J?

Actually, yes it is.

Its good to see SF actually say something useful rather than sit on the fence as they did for many years over what were the murders of personnel going about their lawful duties as laid down by a democratically elected government.

If you need elaboration on that comment then you really have no place talking about NI at all.

My Trance has quite a low BB and I ride trails that are slightly more technical than some bland trail centre in North Wales that apparently has a black route. Plus I rarely use the big ring since I stopped doing XC races around a muddy field so I have a nice, lightweight bash guard instead.

The possibility of bending teeth on the big ring is one less thing to worry about and luckily the having a bash guard fitted doesn’t impact on the riding of my fellow riders, though it gives the STW moaners something to bleat about.

Bigger picture?

Squaddies picking up pizzas from a delivery man at the gate get shot dead?

Please, elaborate where the bigger picture is in such a cowardly act?

Are you suggesting perhaps its some sort of British Military plot to stoke up tension in NI in order to get a bigger piece of the budget (as has been suggested by some less than impartial Republican sources)?

….The roads will be covered by camera’s!…

Any idea just how expensive that would be?

Perhaps funding for proper traffic policing rather than an over-reliance on cameras which can only deal with one, relatively minor, aspect of road safety would be a better bet.

Unroadworthy cars, drunk/drugged drivers, stolen cars, untaxed cars, driving without due care and attention, these are just a few of the offences speed cameras are particularly useless at dealing with.

Sorry, have we just flashbacked to the 1890’s? Asking permission of the future father-in-law to marry his daughter?

How quaint.

……we pretty much turned our back on the Poles…..

I guess you are alluding to the decisions following the Yalta Conference? The conference at which Churchill stated, “we could never be content with any solution that did not leave Poland a free and independent state”. (Stalin pledged to permit free elections in Poland, but eventually never honored his promise.)

Unfortunately the premise that the UK ‘let down’ Poland at Yalta fails to take into account that the writing was already on the wall with respect to the power of the UK on the international stage. WW2 took a lot more than lives and money from the UK and the British Empire as a whole. The fact that for a not insignificant time the UK alone stood against the forces of Nazi Germany hugely damaged the economy and later pleas of economic then eventually military assistance in fighting this global problem carried with them huge political and financial penalties, mainly imposed by the US as a way to ‘get one over’ the British.

At Yalta, although the British were represented by one of the most charismatic leaders this country has ever had, the lack of power he wielded in face of the political and financial penalties imposed by the US meant that there were only really two parties making the majority of decisions (US and USSR) with the UK only really having a voice on matters where it agreed with the US.

On the direct matter on Poland, the US was mainly concerned with appeasing the USSR in the short term and attempting to stop the spread of Communism and as such they were happy to allow the USSR to consolidate itself amongst the states of Eastern Europe, believing the spread of Communism would halt there. As the US had no interest in Poland the UK had no support on the matter.

pimpmyride – I live in Carrington so not too far from you.

Have you explored Bestwood Country Park yet? Although not the largest of places there is some pretty good singletrack to be found if you have a good look. Its not too bad for a quick evening blast.

TJ – Do you have to use oil or will water suffice?

😉

….some say there was a female Nazi Camp Guard who had a lampshade made of the skin of some inmates.

I’ve seen that film, its trés bizarre.

Classic Nazi-exploitation.

Aye, yes I did.

Must make sure my lights are charged up fully next time! 😳

I’m localish (Nottingham) and know a fairly decent slice of the better singletrack at Sherwood Pines.

I’ll be riding this marvelous beast.

Gg – The use of NCP carparks entails agreeing to a private contract (all that small print next to the ticket machine) and a contract can only be legal between the company and whoever uses the facility. This means that legally they only have the right to persue the user of the facility, not the vehicle keeper and since it is a private contract between two individuals the registered keeper has no obligation to provide any information to them.
You quite often see “we will contact DVLA” or similar on these sorts of letters and parking tickets but they have no more right to access to this information than you or I and such information would be useless anyway because, as already stated, the contract of use is between the company and carpark user, not NCP and the registered keeper.

I’d be up for a meet. Its my local riding spot and it’d be nice to not have to travel too far to put names to faces.

The driver of the vehicle at the time of the ‘offence’ is liable, but as it is a speculative invoice rather than an official PCN they cannot force you to disclose the name of the driver which they’d need in order to persue the case via the courts.
Ignore the letter, its written in a vaguely legal sounding manner in order to frighten people into paying.
Of course if you had paid for the carpark…..

Mudshark – Its an older jersey, previous design. Not very uniform I know.

How can a fat person be aerodynamic? How often do you hear of aircraft designers adding a whacking great big round bit of metal to an aircraft to make it faster? Whilst I’m aware of the area rule principle adding girth to certain aircraft designs it doesn’t really work at the significantly slower speed the average pasty smuggler rides at.
Still, at least fat folks on bikes are trying to do something to combat their mouth/hand proximity issues.

Won’t somebody think of the children?

I think that a few people are confusing ‘belief’ with ‘religion’.
I was brought up (indoctrinated?) CofE but have since grown up and cast aside such fairy tale nonsense, in part assisted by my experiences in Bosnia cleaning up the damage ‘good Christians’ did to other members of the human race, apparently in my name. But not believing in some tosh dreamed up as a way to control simple people and encourage them not to think too much for themselves doesn’t mean I don’t have belief at all. I believe in my friends and family, without the need of some medieval instruction manual to tell me why or how.
Belief is good, religion is bad.

Jacqui Smith – The unacceptable face of ultra-conservative Labour.

(Damn, I’ll probably find myself on some government database for saying that).

🙁

Grumm – And to add to that, most stories about “Health and Safety gone mad” are actually often down to insurance companies being unwilling to cover certain potential hazards (planters hanging off lamp posts for example). H&S becomes the easy target, the HSE being a government orgainsation after all.

He touched me with his noodly appendage.

The professor stressed that stem cells will also have a wide range of clinical uses with the exception of bringing someone back to life after they have been nailed to a cross, ‘because that’s just a dangerously insane fairy story’.

Lol.

The fact people really believe in all that fairy tale cr@p (you know, the whole resurrection, son of God, walking on water and curing lepers stuff) makes it even funnier.

coffeeking – Honest, my wife is a complete BTTF anorak.

snaps – You must have faked that site, he works in the industry you know?

He said “quasi-dictator”.

I see ‘edjukshion, edjikashion, edgikashion’ has failed you too.

stoo and drac from what I heard this morning it’s a bit more than a few people, as some petitions have been set up and all… very sad

In a country of 61 million people what constitutes “a bit more than a few people”?

Well cycling back up to Arc1800 from Bourg St Maurice on a 42lb DH bike after missing the last Funicular back up (damn that lovely cafe near the train station) ranks it as a pretty difficult climb in my books.

😉

This site lists loads of Alpine passes.

Not that I complain, but I always thought UK was way ahead of France in terms of disable acceptance and integration in the society.

As a country the UK is arguably the most accepting in the world, unfortunately as with all countries there are a few idiots about who can’t quite cope with people who don’t look, sound, talk and think just like them.