Hobby

Are you comparing like with like? Those figures are the whole population but his are over twelves so they are right for what they are.

Wonder how many chief aerodynamicists they need? That's two now, any more?

9 hours ago, hayfield said:

Oxford -Astra Zeneca vaccine is back in the headlines in one paper, latest data shows that its much better at maintaining T cells than the other vaccines, the best results is when the Oxford- Astra Zeneca vaccine is followed by Pfizer.

Good, that's exactly what I've had, A-Z for the first ones and just had a Pfizer booster!

6 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Maybe part of the answer would be to make civil service employment at the upper-middle level truly attractive, so that good, broadly-experienced people move into it as part of their career, providing a counterpoint to ‘lifers’, 

You could argue the same for MPs I think!

After having seen a major accident involving an HGV pushing an Audi A3 hard into the central barrier at speed on a French motorway and seeing the guy get out alive and uninjured (and furious!) I'm quite happy with the safety features on modern cars, thanks! Had he been in any car from the 80s and earlier he wouldn't have been so lucky. (Oh and please don't give me the "he should have  been driving to avoid it" excuse either, he couldn't have.)

1 hour ago, Andy Kirkham said:

it would only be a matte of time before some other, more vigorous strain took hold and started to proliferate.

No.

It can go either way, so you can't make such a statement as fact. Past experience of viruses has been that it's the other way, they've mutated into relatively harmless variants and/or humans have developed resistance, otherwise we'd have been wiped out by now. But at the end of the day we simply don't know which way it's going to go.

With regard to this:

"The first thing is should we worry about the higher level of infections over the past few days?"

He does point out that it's best to look at the overall trend, not the day to day figures, and they show, to quote him:

"infection rates have bobbled along, small rises being followed by similar drops."

It's been going on long enough (since July) to show a good trend, and that has been that it's been pretty stable.

Should have added, all the more reason for them to be paid by results... I wonder what the leagues would look like if they were!!

Trainline are our nemesis, whenever people use it they seem to take ages to get it up on the screen, that's if they can find them, none of the other (mainly TOC apps) have the same issues. I've spoken to many people who avoid it like the plague!

They can vary, but I've never seen a two foot step, I'd say that was far too much! I'd either halve it (one step, 12") or do 8/9" ones (i.e. two steps), personally I'd go with the latter.

I've seen some real cheapos over the past few weeks when checking them, so the answer is a definite Yes, though as Woodenhead said there may not be as many issued.

I tend to agree with br2975, in these sorts of circumstances (which seem to becoming more and more common) I feel that the players usually have a lot more to answer for than the management and owners, the power they wield is enormous. Ole isn't the first to suffer from player power, nor will he be the last.

We're actually still quite low compared to many European countries for home ownership...

https://www.statista.com/statistics/246355/home-ownership-rate-in-europe/

I don't know about the "backgrounds" of MPs in other countries, but I'd be surprised if they were much different to the UK.

They are good for a laugh, though!

Well he's been sacked, wonder who's next for the poisoned chalice?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54826343

7 minutes ago, KingEdwardII said:

Until we discovered that quite a few trains stopping at Warwick station (in the town centre) don't stop at Warwick Parkway - i.e. Parkway had a poorer service. So we travelled via Warwick station and Parkway didn't get a look-in. I was surprised by this. So cost certainly isn't the only factor.

I'm not sure its still the case, but I believe that Chiltern built the station and charge other users for using it, so LM don't use it and I can only ever remember stopping there once with an XC train and that was to help out Chiltern who were having issues! Don't think we were charged!!

26 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

Did you choose to? If so, you did what you could.

I can't wear a mask, Andy, hence I wear the lanyard.

I took a view on that train, it was fine 'til we arrived at DON and I'd have missed two connecting trains had I got off, with no guarantee that the next would be any different and I'd have ended up in the rush hour in Brum. So I took the risk for a twenty minute journey. 

Most people on the train in the "North" where I was on Friday didn't wear masks either... It's not compulsory. 

Now you'll just have to wait to see how you got on! Rather like my trip out on Friday to look at a car, 4 3/4 hrs by train and bus each way (and a wasted journey!), all was OK until Doncaster to Sheffield where the 158 was packed and I mistimed things on the final leg as I joined the school special where the train gets packed out at Hagley with kids... I'm now waiting to see if I've got the damned virus or not...

11 hours ago, phil-b259 said:

Agreed - but in a democracy change can only come if voters are willing to rise up and dump the elite. Regrettably with the British mentality tending to be more concerned about personal wealth / status (i.e. selfish and greedy) than building a just society as a whole, its very easy for the ruling elites to buy them off come election time.

You make it sound as if it's just the British that behave like that, but the rest of the West is just the same. And when the "masses" see the results of the alternative, where it often starts with best intentions but then goes horribly wrong, they tend to think that perhaps the current alternative is better for them to keep the status quo, warts and all...

I guess we are heading for another "glass half full" vs "glass half empty" discussion!!

12 minutes ago, John M Upton said:

the chances of it being effectively cancelled again are getting more likely by the day.

Really? That's not what I'm seeing, certainly in the UK which is what you are talking of I assume?

8 hours ago, 96701 said:

Unless you happen to live in Bradford, Leeds and environs.

How many people actually travel to London and actually need to save themselves a few minutes, though? I suspect it will make very little difference to the majority.

Then there's travelling time to the HS station which we discussed many moons ago, for many people in Birmingham and surrounds it'd still be quicker to catch either Avanti or Chiltern rather than spend time getting from where they live to the HS station so a saving of 20 minutes is easily eaten up by the extra time spent getting to the HS station. Perhaps with Bradford that may not be the case  but then I'd refer you to my first para.

I agree with many of the others who feel that improvements to the existing network in the area which would benefit far more people is more important than pandering for those few (in comparison) who need to go to London. Especially when such improvements will also benefit journey times.

1 hour ago, hayfield said:

Quite correct but England has its own rules, so there are 4 differing sets of rules

The point I was making is that MPs from the other countries can influence (and have, I think) Covid decisions which affect just England, in the last parliament the SNP were very active in English only matters even though they represented no-one from that country. It's something that was supposed to have been sorted several years ago, but hasn't, and it really p's me off that it hasn't been!  

On a separate note I see that Austria has complete lockdown... The way things are going our railway trip to Slovakia next year could also be in jeopardy... What the heck is going on over there?!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59343650

3 hours ago, LNERandBR said:

For track limits maybe they should take the Rally approach and stick a round bale or lump of concrete on the inside and outside of corners where they don't want the cars to go 

Barrels and old tractor tyres would work well...

Gismorail summed it up best for me But it seems one rule for one... And not for anyone else... No wonder Toto made some very sarcastic comments.