alastairq

An unanswerable question indeed. Like, the question about, how many near misses does one need to have, in order to have one's standard of driving questioned? [Often drivers who ''have never had an accident in their lives?''] A case of, ''phew, made it!!'', perhaps? Nowadays the answer is easier to discover, since round hereabouts, the authorities shut the roads completely in order to clear up the messes.. Thus the local news puts out warnings.

This stuff about the 'safety' of modern cars, compared to old one's crops up from time to time. I'm sure we can all think of instances where a collision , deemed 'unavoidable' [I'll not bother getting into that argument, even using my professional knowledge]....has resulted in occupants exiting and walking away, relatively unscathed. In fact, I've been hearing of, and witnessing [spent very little time in my early working life, 'indoors']... such instances for 50 years or more now! Sadly, I cannot consider the pre-1950's era as I wasn't allowed out on my own until I was four years old......a year later I got run over by an Austin Cambridge..[all pre-school run...I had to walk to & from school in those days]...It was even an A40/50 model!! Plus, it was in Cardiff, which may or may not say a lot? Personally I don't even give the issue much thought, regardless of what I'm driving, or where. Mind, life might be different on the highways south of Watford Gap, perhaps? I cannot afford the petrol to get much further south than that! I do drive 'defensively' [IE, I ultimately look after my own interests...if others benefit from that , whooptidoo!], and , I do make an effort to drive 'considerately' towards others on the roads... Anyway, what I do know is, my local Facebook page news sheet [Local paper] contains two or three mentions of RTCs within the surrounding [Yorkshire] area every week, .with accompanying fatalities. All seem to be involving modern cars/vehicles.

Mine attempted to become a three-box car, courtesy of my daughter and my Ex trying to fit a fridge in the back.....Daughter slammed tailgate when they thought all was snug & tidy....smashed the rear window glass.. They cleared it all up hoping I wouldn't notice......... Life has been like that in my family....like the time they disguised my portion of cream cake after the cat had been at it....

That's because there are folk employed, who are handsomely paid to know what goes on at the sharp end...? I have found that many at a 'sharp end' have little idea of the bigger picture anyway...

All of which rather denigrates the educational industry as a whole. Usually promulgated by those who thought they knew 'better' than the teachers themselves? But, in my experience , had totally 'missed the point?' Or , had I missed the point for a couple of decades, and the reality was, in fact, that education was a purely box-ticking exercise?

Which raises in my mind the question, ''who educates the educators?''

Oh, the bitterness?

Really! No way to describe Edwina, surely?

Round here, farmers shoot drones....

Amazon are touting their use of electric delivery vehicles. It won't be long before most carriers will be using them [Cost savings, availability new, etc etc] What goes around, comes around.....I can still recall that the use of electric commercial vehicles in use for local deliveries was the rule rather than the exception. I can even remember my surprise at seeing a milkman using a petrol powered truck for deliveries... Aaaah, the whine of the electric motors, and the chink of glass milk bottles.....

Peco? Anyone?

To top it all [antivaxxxxer thing still]...Prof Spectre [Spektor?] on the ZOE covid thing [King's College thingy] noted on the latest ZOE briefing, how the stats now show that 1 in 5 [unvaxed] who have had covid in the past, have acquired zero antibodies from their bout. That's around 20% who haven't received a vaxx [as distinct for Vax, which is a marvelous hoover!]....who think that simply having caught covid in the past, thinking they will acquire immunity without the little prick....will be sadly disappointed when they get it again..and again...

All this stuff about 'inheritance' makes me think of one aspect which, thus far is ignored? That is, plain & simple, ''good fortune?'' To be able to put bread on one's table, and save [speculate?] for one's old age/retirement/pension, makes me wonder whether anybody ever considers how much 'good fortune' plays a part in the successful outcome? [IE, house paid for, a tidy wee income to live off...maybe a couple of warm climate holidays a year, etc.] Illness, accidents, divorces, or simple, unfortunate, financial management, can all make a mess of 'plans'... Plus, one needs an income in the first instance, that allows a surplus over immediate financial needs, to be able to save for the dim n distant future? There's a degree of ''if I can do it, why can't everybody else?'' about it all. Instead of feeling smug about it all, how's about thinking ''phew?'' As one wipes one's brow?

Goat??

I absolutely agree. ''Equality'' seems to have somehow arrived at 'lowest common denominator?' I'm an auldfahrt, who can barely remember anything to do with my education. But, at an early age, I became 50% of a family under single parent status. But, the single parent I was left with, came from what was once referred to as a 'meddle class 'family....professional grand parent, good job, nice pension, et al...and this influenced my parent's attitude to single parenthood. So instead of eh 'council house' and bread-earning job, I ended up being passed from pillar to post as 'somewhere to live, and a job' became the overriding intention. Thus, I ended up in a 'Prep' school..[the breeding grounds for public schools]...with my mother getting the job as 'assistant matron', which included a room of her own, and a place for me at the school...in return for minuscule wages. Somehow more 'respectable' from a middle-class point of view, than a council flat, junior school for me, and a skivvy-type job for mother. No 'home' for me though, but that didn't matter as I wasn't overly important in the bigger scheme of things... 3 years I went through that educational process [up to age 9]... But, to give the 'prep' school its due, educational advancement in each subject was entirely down to ability. Hence my progress wasn't entirely by 'year group'. If I ended up with others of my age, that was purely accidental. One or two subjects, I ended up in the same class as 14 year olds, doing mock ''common entrance'' exams...... So, algebra, trigonometry, French, Latin, Geography, History, etc [and a bit of woodwork too]...were the types of subject I was encumbered with, as a 8-9 year old. As well as what might be known as English Literature, Grammar, etc..... Then, my Mother got the sack [or similar], and went into hospital for an extended period. I was fostered, for the remaining period of my 'primary education, and got sent to a local [state] Junior school. I was absolutely, totally, lost. My teacher, as I recall, couldn't actually, educationally, place me. None of my education profile from age 6-ish fitted that expected of a child who might have come up through the State education system [infants/juniors]!!! I had somehow missed out the basics of education the State normally provided. I was at a level expected of a child in the 2nd or 3rd year of secondary education, in a lot of respects. So, as a result, sitting in a class of my new peers, I was totally at a lost to understand what they seemed to take for granted. In many topics. Yet in others, I was streets ahead. Years ahead if progression were charted. Vey confusing. I don't think State & Private education systems could in any way be compared....at the time 1950's/early 1960's] The came the 11-plus! In the Prep [Private] school system the 11 plus was an option not promoted. The end game being the Common Entrance examinations at age 14, for progress onto a choice of Public School [a misnomer if ever there was one. They weren't in any way 'public' unless one acquired a scholarship....or paid.] The 11-plus was [for me] nothing but a divisive system. My junior school year was divided up into 3 or 4 classes....the 1st class being full of those expected to pass the 11 plus. The 2nd class being full of those who 'might' pass [my class] Classes 3 or 4 were destined for the secondary modern school regardless. I was the only child out of 30-odd in my class to pass the 11-plus. [Maybe because I was, by then, thoroughly used to 'sitting exams?] Anyway, I had made some good friends at school, in my class...[as would be hoped,but not necessarily taken for granted] and it was the first time I recall being mixed up with girls as well..[the Prep school was 'boys only'] Thus, come the September, I would be trolloping off to one school [the grammar school, Warwick as it happened]...and all my chums were going to the local Secondary Modern school.....one heck of a jolt at a time when a child can do with some peer support when going into a bigger, new, school?] As it happened, all changed [beyond my wit to recall why..I think I was simply left in the dark?}...and come the new school year I found myself in a very old Grammar boarding school [one of very few in the country]....mostly populated by Forces children......yup, my mother got a job there after coming out of hospital, 'cured' [she had been in the prevailing psychiatric system...yes, cold showers, , electric shock treatment, etc etc]....so she had a 'flat', which I wasn't allowed anywhere near, in term time....Also, boys-only school...very old, full of history..I got myself expelled after 3rd year... Then went to a local mixed grammar school for the final two years up to O levels.....thoroughly enjoyed that bit, I did....with some sense of a family normality, a 'home' to go to after school, etc etc... Got a packet of O levels, and that was it....Nowt since aside from the odd sojourn with City of London Poly,and a college in CArdiff, both part of my chosen career path..... CAreer? What a load of old boswellox that idea was, ? Well, the above perhaps puts the two education systems into some sort of perspective in my eyes..... Now, I have no idea what working class means?...Or middle class? Nor could \i care.....I think we simply have the 'haves', & the 'have-nots'.. I pobble around between the two, really, now I no longer am in the workplace environment. My Education did nothing for me, job-wise....except perhaps in some pub quizzes?

<< Gulp! >> Now seriously considering scrapping any thoughts of buying a subscription to BRM, and going for a sub to Private Eye! Especially as they currently have a deal on a pack of Christmas cards as well!

A bit more found about the vans etc....Amazing they went to 1965 as well? Also goes to show how easy it would be to fit the Herald engines? I've always thought a cheap Eight or Ten, with Spitfire mechanicals, was a ideal keeper-upper with modern traffic?

Well, not quite a 'Pennant' {I believe Pennants were saloons only?], but from the Standard Motor Club buyers guide, I have snipped the following.. So good spot for the front wings, but the Companion got the Pennant front wings [but not the rears] from late '59...[before the bedtimes of many on here, too?]

Never mind the quality, feel the width?? Actually, quite a nice comfy motor for an aged driver who shuns modernisms...and who cannot afford...or even, want, anything of the luxury motors like Jagwars or Damn-liars...or, worse still, Mercedes Bendz? Size matters for many of us.....[the less, the better?]

As I said, it has.... potential..possibilities...hope? The interior does not appear to be too bad at all..[which in my eyes is the nastiest part of any renovation....having had experience of dropping headlinings on SAAB 900s...]

The VW type 3 fastback is still on the DVLA books, the FIAT not so. The VW look suspiciously similar to the one I had back in....1977? But, according to DVLA it is white [or, was white?}....whereas mine was yellow. A good car in the winter, mine dropped its number three exhaust valve on the M62 at around 40k miles...as they did. To do with VWs attempts to meet burgeoning emissions laws, still using carbs, by altering the ignition timing for that one cylinder [making the whole thing run too lean...and the oil cooler blocking the airflow pretty much, to that particular cylinder. I have had aircooled Veedubs since then, and they have all dropped no.3 exhaust valve at around that mileage.....Who says Veedub is a reliable, quality, makle??? Pffffft! To think, when I bought my type 3 veedub, I also had the choice of a Renault 6 1100 !!

Gollygosh! Football queue? Or dole? I note, two minis, and, surprise surprise, two Standards! Only one Ford in that line-up, too. I can see the Standard saloon is an Eight..[no boot lid/handle] Two Jags as well, and a hot dog stall?

The Mini Clubman estate still exists on DVLA. As does the minivan [an Austin version] MArina is also on DVLA still [an 1800 too] Peugeot is still on record as well. All require taxing from the 1980's though.... None of the others are on record, however...

£1300 for a mini clubman estate??????

I really like{d} those Hillman Minx convertibles. Plus, there appears to be an extra use for wing mirrors [advantage?] over door mirrors......less messy shaving using a wing mirror? Back in the early 1970's, I lived in SE London. Not far from Lewisham. Also not far from Lewisham [town] was a scrap yard, which had loads of old van bodies crammed with all the blingy bits off really old cars...... a nest egg, perhaps? The owner's Dad had sent his son the Oxford University, but, despite degrees & stuffs, he came back home to run the business. I do recall he didn't seem to possess a Saarf London accent at all! Odd when he was wearing a leather jerkin and flat cap? Anyway, I used to go and see what he'd taken in of interest, which was still a runner...a bit of tax, a bit of mot left, etc. He would charge 25 quid for a few months MoT......plus free spares if it needed anything,whatever it was. I recall pondering over a Sunbeam Rapier convertible he got in. The paintwork had been taken back and red primered.....but everything except the hood was there.....it ran very nicely too....but, no hood! Doubtless he would have had a hood somewhere anyway? 25 notes, all this back in the early 1970's. All gone now I suspect? Yard and all? It was almost surrounded [on two sides, IIRC?] by railway lines....Spent many an hour in there, if only to chat, very interesting fella....