Guest Max Stafford Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 It wasn't that one Horse. Although taking into account that only half the facts are being reported in that one I'm still not overly happy about such cases. It was more the bail issue that infuriated me and the fact that such rulings that affect us all are being constantly churned out by an unelected and unaccountable intellectual elite who appear to consider the honest, hard working ordinary people of our country to be their mortal enemies. They may find one day that this particular sentiment may become a two way street, I fear... That's not a personal dig at you by the way, you know the whole facts of your cases. I suspect the judiciary acts on ideological principals, bearing mind most of them are ageing Marxists anyway. Dave. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Don't you see that the rule has already been prepared for metrics. What sort of easy to visulise distance is 32ft? - why not KISS at 30ft? Cos I don't make the rules or write the highway Code old boy... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekEm8 Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 My gripe (contentious I know) is why can we as motorists not have as much special treatment roadwise as cyclists. Locally we have one 3 metre/yard long cycle lane, cycle lanes narrowing busy trunk roads to single lanes for considerable distances, large green areas(for cyclists ?) at traffic lights, special traffic signals (to give them priority) special underpasses and off road cycle lanes built for them. All very laudable from a safety point of view but they are totally ignored by most adult cyclists who either ride on the pavement or amongst the traffic (where off road lanes are available) ride through red lights, and very rarely have lights or when out at night. I must add that during the week the number of cyclists seen is minimal but at weekends the lycra brigade come out and they seem to think that the off road cycle lanes and underpasses are only for children/amateurs. How much has all this special treatment cost us as (road)taxed, insured and licenced motorists as cyclists (as such) are not taxed,insured or licenced. And yes I used to cycle regularly in my younger days and taught Cycling Profiency and the Highway Code in my spare time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Max Stafford Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Tread carefully with this one please Derek. I myself am a cyclist as well as a tax-paying motorist and make use of these facilities wherever they are available you describe rather than use a traffic infested road where the standard of driving I observe frequently matches that of the cycling! Yes, I know the kind of bicycle rider (not cyclist as such) of which you speak. They are generally dressed in tracksuits with either drugs or stolen items stuffed inside the jacket - in fact they probably stole the bike too! Fortunately though we don't have London-style kamikaze couriers up here and I can understand the frustration that their aggressive riding style can cause. Similarly I also get annoyed at pavement riders and those who ignore red lights but lets be honest, there are plenty of motorists who interpret traffic signals liberally too. I've tried to pitch this in a balanced way as I don't want this to turn into a bike-bashing thread. There would be no surer invite for Moderator intervention in my experience! Dave. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lankyphil Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Indeed it does. For small measurements, i use mm. For anything CD size or bigger, probably inches, and then feet, yards... For weight... well, stones, pounds, and ounces. Apparently I'm 60Kg. Or about 9st 6lbs. Or is it the other way round? I know 9st 6lbs means a lot more to me. I was doing a DIY job with my dad a little while ago and he burst out laughing when I measured up some timber at 600mm by 43 inches..... Tread carefully with this one please Derek. I myself am a cyclist as well as a tax-paying motorist and make use of these facilities wherever they are available you describe rather than use a traffic infested road where the standard of driving I observe frequently matches that of the cycling! Yes, I know the kind of bicycle rider (not cyclist as such) of which you speak. They are generally dressed in tracksuits with either drugs or stolen items stuffed inside the jacket - in fact they probably stole the bike too! Fortunately though we don't have London-style kamikaze couriers up here and I can understand the frustration that their aggressive riding style can cause. Similarly I also get annoyed at pavement riders and those who ignore red lights but lets be honest, there are plenty of motorists who interpret traffic signals liberally too. I've tried to pitch this in a balanced way as I don't want this to turn into a bike-bashing thread. There would be no surer invite for Moderator intervention in my experience! Dave. Also a motorist and cyclist, my beef is the wannabe racers on the the bypass at weekends, in groups of 3 or 4 abreast, which think it is OK to wander over the carriageway with no warning Oh, and the ones that stop underneath the nearside mirror at traffic lights in a truck, normally when you're turning left... And when I'm on my bike, the car drivers that overtake you and then turn left right in front of you missing you by about 0.0000000003mm... Cheers Phil Oooooh, almost forgot one, the bus drivers that drive through puddles that you're (stupidly I'll admit) stood next to...... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozexpatriate Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Even the stupidest country on earth(USA) doesn't use those ridiculous, meaningless, metric measurements. I bet Australia only went metric as part of an anti British policy. Ah, but they've made a start, using both systems at the same time on certain unmanned Mars missions. But before you get too carried away in praising the Americans for being non-metric, remember they use a completely different & supposedly simplified version of the "Imperial' system. Your argument might make some sense if the British & Americian's used the same system, but they don't. Far from taking umbrage to mulitprinter's post, firstly as an Australian who went through the Metric transition and secondly as a transplant across the other pond (the Pacific) to the U.S. of A, I find your post hilarious, though perhaps in an ironic way and not at all in agreement with its sentiment. It is indeed deeply suited to the "Grumpies" thread and I don't quite know where to begin to respond so I won't and I'll just enjoy your post for what it is! There is no substitute for the metric system as a coherent system of measurements. I say this as an engineer. There is no simply no place for foot-pound furlongs per fortnight to a scientific mind. Having a coherent system of units where a Joule of energy means the same thing electrically (Volt Amp seconds) as it does in potential energy (kg x m^2/s^2) is wonderful. The Mars Observer, humourously noted by bluebottle is a classic illustration of the problems in maintaining multiple systems of measurement. Much like US spellings, US weights and measures vary considerably from their Imperial ancestors - see here. The US ton (2,000 lb) and the US Gallon are quite different to British measures. This is a source of all kinds of confusion and is very important regarding pints of beer. Personally, for beer, I prefer the Imperial pint (by about 20%)! Well as a born and bred Aussie I grew up with Yds, ft and inches, then someone with wisdom/intellect or whatever, decided we would go metric. When I was working I had the issue of measuring a job in both.....don't ask me why but I tended to use the metric for larger measurements and imperial for the smaller measurements. Either way, it depends on what we were bought up with.....Imperial rules!!!! Best bit is in the Hardware stores and the young ones talk metric ....I ask them to speak english. Khris Khris, ah, there we differ. I was taught the Metric system in Australia in my formative days and am conversant in both Metric and Imperial units. (I currently live in a country that uses psuedo-Imperial units.) I do remember the deep regret with which the generation of older Australians mourned the passing of the 'furlong' when horse races are called. Me, not so much! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 but lets be honest, there are plenty of motorists who interpret traffic signals liberally too. New one on me today: Where pavement width is > 3.0m you can apparently drive your Audi past three queuing vehicles and do a left-turn, through a red light, on the pavement. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebottle Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 New one on me today: Where pavement width is > 3.0m you can apparently drive your Audi past three queuing vehicles and do a left-turn, through a red light, on the pavement. Might be something about Audi drivers - I had to spring out of the path of one who drove about a hundred metres along the pavement rather than bump down the high kerb by where he'd parked. Judging by his frenzied use of the horn and picturesque gesticulations, I was in the wrong. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 I spent years figuring out at school how to calculate (add, subtract, multiply, divide) in £. s. d. What a complete waste of time within months of leaving school the UK decimalized its currency................................................. Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pennine MC Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Judging by his frenzied use of the horn and picturesque gesticulations, I was in the wrong. This to me is by far the most annoying aspect of many behaviours these days. It's not so much that somebody does wrong, none of us are perfect; it's the arrogant justification of doing it as if it's perfectly normal and acceptable Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BTC Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 really bugs me this recent tendency for UK factual programmes to quote distances in Km only. I'm not ready for the scrap heap yet and was brought up decimal, educated with SI units etc but I still have an innate sense of how far a mile is. For someone to say such and such was 50 Km from so and so really just leaves me wanting. What drives me even more bonkers is the way that factual programmes, books and some newspaper articles when writing about aviation convert altitudes to metres and speeds to km/h. Even the metric heartlands of Europe use feet and knots!!!! It's only the Russians, Chinese and their satellites that don't. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium petethemole Posted June 30, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 30, 2011 One of my son's favourite TV programmes is Mythbusters so I see quite a lot of it; it's entertaining and informative. What peeves me is that the US original dialogue has mainly US units, most of which are the same as Imperial, yet the version for UK broadcast has a voiceover translating everything into metric. I understand the original, then go "what?". I think it's patronising. I believe the schools should teach both systems rather than censor, effectively, the system that our industries and architecture developed with (I won't start on what "metric standards" have done for domestic architecture!) . I grew up with Imperial and £.s.d., use metric at work but still eyeball measurements in feet/ins before I get the tape out. Liquids, or important ones anyway, only come in pints! And of course like many of us, model in a combination of the two. Pete Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Max Stafford Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 To be honest, I was schooled in metric from when I started schooling in 1969 (well to be honest it was 1970 before we started dealing with units of measurement if I remember right). I am to an extent 'bilingual' in linear measurement, but in terms of weights and quantitative measures, Metric is my first language and in my world at least, beyond feet, inches, yards and miles and the odd pound here and there, Imperial measurements are pretty much irrelevant. If you were schooled in Imperial though, that's what you use because it's what you relate to. I respect that so carry on regardless! Dave. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Williams Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 While we are having a go at WHSmith it really irritates me when the queue is getting longer yet only one member of staff is on the tills- surely attending to customers is the priority. Shelves can be rearranged and magazine locations changed for no reason any time- preferably after the shop has closed so you don't have to dodge the big blue boxes. Finally I do not like having to wait behind people who go in there to gamble- ie to buy lottery tickets or the multitude of scratchcards. Any activity that is covering by the Gaming Act should be with the rest of them- in a betting shop! Just came across this. Can't miss having a dig at WHS. Completely abysmal. Can relate to re-arranging the stock whilst the queue gets longer. Redditch branch is diabolical. In there the other Saturday, one young chap on the till, THREE managerial staff on the shop-floor doing effectively b****r all, none came to help. They would have been in their element re-arranging the deck-chairs on the Titanic. I have yet to go into a WHS where there hasn't been a queue. I think it is a deliberate company policy in order to make the place look busier than it is. As for the standard of lighting in there. If it gets much darker they will need to put the prices in braille. Whilst I'm in full flow, why is it now impossible to leave a supermarket without being accosted by people trying to sell you double-glazing, a new kitchen, conservatories, wanting to know who supplies your gas or electricity (mind your own damn business), wanting you to subscribe to the local dog rescue centre (I hate b***** dogs), or try to get you to join the AA or RAC (I wish they would both be there on the same day, might get a scrap). God, I feel better for that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 When border controls were pulled down, I had this 'orrible vision of immigration being part of a blueprint for Britain to create a cheap labour colony. But now it's out of the bag.....A Government Minister once again tells employers it is vital they employ people living here and their response is, get lost, they prefer immigrants! But how immigrants work cheaper wasn't answered this week...Is cheaper cheaper than minimum wage? If employers have no intention of employing the indigenous people and continue to bring in immigrants, someone needs to wake up and very quickly. Welfare won't stretch forever. Foreign firms are based here for a reason. Maybe its the favourable trading position of this island?. They obviiously think that they have the upper hand, but have they? Surely the soveriegn British Government can tell these companies to either employ local people or get out of our land. It's a big step but the vacuum would be filled by British entrepenours hopefully. The other apparent let-down has been the failure to educate our people to world class standards. But then again, the firms stating on this weeks news that they need to bring in foreigners for their "skills" were not exactly cutting edge technology. It's a con that could only happen with weak Government and toothless regulators. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dilbert Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 A Government Minister once again tells employers it is vital they employ people living here and their response is, get lost, they prefer immigrants! But how immigrants work cheaper wasn't answered this week...Is cheaper cheaper than minimum wage? If employers have no intention of employing the indigenous people and continue to bring in immigrants, someone needs to wake up and very quickly. Welfare won't stretch forever. Foreign firms are based here for a reason. Maybe its the favourable trading position of this island?. They obviiously think that they have the upper hand, but have they? Surely the soveriegn British Government can tell these companies to either employ local people or get out of our land. It's a big step but the vacuum would be filled by British entrepenours hopefully. The other apparent let-down has been the failure to educate our people to world class standards. But then again, the firms stating on this weeks news that they need to bring in foreigners for their "skills" were not exactly cutting edge technology. It's a con that could only happen with weak Government and toothless regulators. And this from the Dairy Tolyglaph http://www.telegraph...s-jobs-row.html - particularly this snippet : Frank Field, the Labour MP and a government adviser on poverty, recently uncovered figures indicating that, in the first year of the Coalition, 87 per cent of the 400,000 newly created jobs went to immigrants. Too much jingoism and not enough focus on the real problem - same old story... dilbert Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Max Stafford Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 That Frank Field quote reads like blatant buck-passing to me. Fact is, had The Party won the election, the would be taking exactly the same actions as this shower are. Who would they blame then; the Americans?, the Chinese? Dave. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 .....The other apparent let-down has been the failure to educate our people to world class standards..... It's more than apparent, particularly in Hemel Hempstead if this sign is anything to go by..... It's not even world cl-ar.se standards here, but just basic spelling. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mod6 Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Let's try and steer away from political comment please - you know it makes sense. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
iL Dottore Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 At least we can (somewhat) console ourselves that many of the perpetrators of bad and inconsiderate behaviours are likely to be very strong candidates for a Darwin Award.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Max Stafford Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 The rest will become junior and middle managers... Dave. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailor Charon Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 I worked at a company that had no middle management. Well, given how everybody's middle kept getting bigger... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 45156 Posted July 6, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 6, 2011 I worked at a company that had no middle management. Well, given how everybody's middle kept getting bigger... Being a tad more serious, I was in middle management in finance, and in the early 90s there was a purge on the entire tier and a subsequent migration of senior management not knowing what was actually happening, and less than competent junior managers with more responsibility thrust upon them, struggling to keep up with the pace of pressure from both sides - senior managers and staff. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pH Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Being a tad more serious, I was in middle management in finance, and in the early 90s there was a purge on the entire tier and a subsequent migration of senior management not knowing what was actually happening, and less than competent junior managers with more responsibility thrust upon them, struggling to keep up with the pace of pressure from both sides - senior managers and staff. I believe that was sold as 'empowerment' of junior staff. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Max Stafford Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 More like 'getting them to do something you didn't for no extra money'. Dave. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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