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  • In relation to cyclists many of them are a menace on the road and on our pavements unless there is a cycle lane incorporated marked out on a wide pavement , no person over the age 10 I believe is allowed to cycle on the pavement full stop and as far as I am aware can and should be fined.

    Down here in London many of them ride like lunatics , they are dangerous so yes about time they were taken to task , and don't get me started on Electric Scooters riders, being slightly deaf I can't hear the arrogant look at me buggers coming up behind me :cursing:

  • Huge plague of wasps invading gardens set to be 'worst for years', experts warn
    BRITS are being warned to brace for an invasion of sugar-crazed wasps set to swarm the end of summer. This year’s wasp season could be one of the worst in…
    www.thesun.co.uk

    I'll have to be sure to have the bug gun handy. ^^

    History is much like an Endless Waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever.

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  • Down here in London many of them ride like lunatics

    I find all the various brands of hire bikes the worst and they get dumped anywhere just laying around on pavements. Also have you noticed the massive increase in electric scooters on the road. The skateboard with handlebars type I mean...not Vespa type scooters. I saw some guy riding down the middle of a busy main road on one wearing a motorcycle crash helmet. Not only is it illegal to ride them outside private roads and park areas but this one was obviously much faster than the legal limit which is mobility scooter speeds, but this one was keeping up with the cars it was behind and in front of LOL Flying down the road he was.

  • Here’s the current situation regarding e-scooters. It sounds like they will eventually become legal for use in public areas as trials are currently underway in various parts of the country. It would be counterproductive to ban them whilst trying to get people to stop using cars especially in urban areas.

    When and where can I ride an e-scooter legally? - BBC News
    London is the latest UK city to trial e-scooters - which the government hopes will be a more environmentally-friendly way to travel.
    www.bbc.co.uk

    Celebrate it, Anticipate it, Yesterday's faded, Nothing can change it, Life's what you make it

  • Some of the electric bicycles are very quick I followed one in my car a few weeks back the rider was doing over 30mph

    That's an electric motorbike Fred. which should have a number plate and insurance and the rider should wear a helmet... Legal Electric bikes are restricted to 15 mph by law when using the motor.

    The Voice of Reason

  • Some of the electric bicycles are very quick I followed one in my car a few weeks back the rider was doing over 30mph

    They are speed restricted when sold new but it is very easy to derestrict them and I see this quite a bit where I live. I have followed an electric bicycle at 60mph on the open road.

    Celebrate it, Anticipate it, Yesterday's faded, Nothing can change it, Life's what you make it

  • You chose the right thread, Armitage, I really didn’t want to hear that news!

    I comfort myself knowing that once a first class stamp passes the £1 threshold, all mail delivery services will be open to competition.

    Can’t come quickly enough.

  • Perhaps Royal Mail should be brought back into public ownership?

    I don’t think it should ever have been sold off.

    Celebrate it, Anticipate it, Yesterday's faded, Nothing can change it, Life's what you make it

  • No, it’s been inefficient for far too long. The private employers are trying to modernise but people are too set in their ways. A fresh approach is required and only competition is going to deliver that.

  • No, it’s been inefficient for far too long. The private employers are trying to modernise but people are too set in their ways. A fresh approach is required and only competition is going to deliver that.

    OB you are quoting from an out of date playbook. They said the same thing about the railway’s, water, gas, electricity, telephones etc

    The only one where improvement has occurred is telephones and that is because the internet changed everything.

    All the others are broken and under foreign ownership and crappy and overpriced. The competition didn’t work, they mostly got conglomerated into one or two near monopolies only this time foreign owned with profits going out of the country to subsidise French and German consumers.

    Celebrate it, Anticipate it, Yesterday's faded, Nothing can change it, Life's what you make it

  • OB you are quoting from an out of date playbook. They said the same thing about the railway’s, water, gas, electricity, telephones etc

    The only one where improvement has occurred is telephones and that is because the internet changed everything.

    All the others are broken and under foreign ownership and crappy and overpriced. The competition didn’t work, they mostly got conglomerated into one or two near monopolies only this time foreign owned with profits going out of the country to subsidise French and German consumers.

    I don't think you remember clearly the days when British Rail ran the railways. Dingy, dirty old pre-war trains, appalling food on their catering side with those revolting turned-up sandwiches, surly staff, etc. Now we have much more modern and clean trains with the investment that the train companies have put in and catering is far better than it used to be. In my experience, staff now have a much better attitude.

    The main reason for privatisation was the increased investment that was needed which the government could not afford, although there was also the useful fact that it would prevent the unions from holding the government to ransom because they would no longer be the employers. You can see that even now, the rail unions are trying, unsuccessfully, to involve the government in the industrial action.

    I remember well back in the 1990s, when we were with BT, my daughter asked for her own phone line. They quoted £130, so I said no. About a year later the cable guy came round to persuade us to take cable TV, as they had just been laying cables in the area. I asked him how much a new line would cost to install and he told me it would be £20. I mean, £20! £110 cheaper than BT. Needless to say, I had a very happy daughter!

    I used to pay the same amount to BT for their telephone service than I do now for my phone, TV and internet put together. So frankly, I feel that privatisation has been a success in that area too.

    I could go on, but I won't bore you. But to say privatisation has been a failure is far from the truth. It used to be far worse and investment was always cut year on year by the government to pay for other priorities.

    I would not want to go back to those days, which only look good when you have a selective memory.

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