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It really is nice that we spend so much money on a dementia ward for posh people.
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Mar 25, 2021 00:09
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hes right but shut up I love discounted bargains
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Mar 25, 2021 00:09
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BalloonFish posted:All these things that helped make these villages self-sufficient and distinct communities just wiped out in the past 10-15 years or so. Now they're basically just clusters of Nocturnal Worker Accomodation Units for people working in Portsmouth or Southampton, which just perpetuates the cycle. If you were born and bred in one of these villages and didn't fancy getting a job - or couldn't get a job - that paid well enough to cover the costs of commuting approx. 1 hour away by car (or 2 hours or more on a sporadic bus service which I imagine has only become more sporadic and less useful since I last lived there) you'd be utterly screwed. I'm not looking forward to getting my vaccine invite because I'm pretty sure they're going to try and send me to the JR at 8am or some poo poo. Let me tell you, when you can't drive it fuckin' suuucks after living in Winchester, a city the size of a small town with such an utterly hosed traffic system that everything is within walking distance. And because it's technically a city, it has a bunch of shops and amenities it really has no right to have for its size. Man I really loving miss Winchester.
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Mar 25, 2021 00:17
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NotJustANumber99 posted:Yeah i can totally emphasise with all this. Although I would say its been happening longer than 15 years. I'm not holding anyone individually responsible for this - it's all big systems and forces. You're right, it's been going on a lot longer than 15 years but that list was just the list of things that have changed in the 15 years since I moved away. And when I was a kid the 'village elders' would talk for hours at the drop of a hat about how much things had changed for a worse and how now you have to travel such-and-such a distance to find such-and-such a business when in their day you used to have one in every village, and there was a certain low-level animosity between 'proper' locals and those (like my parents) who had moved in and commuted into the cities. It was just really stark, seeing these places stripped back to being just houses, the occasional pub, the even more occasional convenience shop and that's it. Now it sounds like I'm recounting some far-off pre-enclosure time or spinning yarns from Flora Thompson novel or something. But this was the late 80s/early 90s about a 20 minute drive from the urbanised south coast. Edit: Bobby Deluxe posted:Let me tell you, when you can't drive it fuckin' suuucks after living in Winchester, a city the size of a small town with such an utterly hosed traffic system that everything is within walking distance. And because it's technically a city, it has a bunch of shops and amenities it really has no right to have for its size. I always liked Winchester. My parents worked in Southampton and Portsmouth, I went to secondary school in Southampton and the bus service meant that it was easier to go into Portsmouth (via Gosport and the ferry) for 'big city' stuff but Winchester was, as you say, a great city for getting around on foot and had a really good range of 'stuff' in it. Some of my best friends from school lived in/around there and at the weekends we'd just drift up and down the high street and hang out on the buttercross or the park next to the guildhall *sigh* 
BalloonFish fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Mar 25, 2021 |
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Mar 25, 2021 00:21
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NotJustANumber99 posted:Try substituting rich people for travellers and see how that sounds. It would be pretty cool if a ton of travellers took up residence in canary wharf.
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Mar 25, 2021 00:27
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Bit hard to get the horses up the high rises mind.
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Mar 25, 2021 00:28
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MikeCrotch posted:I find the hate for London in general by leftists very strange - London has been the consistent bastion of the left for like a century and was the one place outside of the North West that stayed solid for Corbyn. London has way more socialist and radical credentials than say, Yorkshire, which rubs me the wrong way how some people from the North talk about the capital. why do you think northerners dislike london then?
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Mar 25, 2021 00:30
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BalloonFish posted:In the village where I used to live, the roll call of amenities and business goes: I think that's one of the few areas where the local Tories have been beneficial, there's a bunch that are so Ruskinian and in on the nation of shopkeepers thing to the point where they've told huge chains they aren't welcome and so co-ops and local ventures get a boost out of it almost by accident, although I'm sure that's in part out of their desire to kill foxes and worry livestock in a ~traditional environment~ more than anything else. If only there was a way to turn that against the tide of terrible low density housing and estate agents, but that might lead to the sort of questioning of property and wealth relation that got Ruskin himself kicked out of High Torydom. goddamnedtwisto posted:just the old public bar/saloon division that all pubs of that age have, even tiny ones
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Mar 25, 2021 00:32
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OwlFancier posted:Bit hard to get the horses up the high rises mind. shove a bunch of weed in their mouths, wait for them to float, simple as
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Mar 25, 2021 00:41
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Is this just an inevitability of capitalism, or something particular to the UK? Cos its not like any European town doesn't have its share of chains but they'll have their own industry and small traders, and the villages will be actual communities rather than hollowed-out satellites for the rich. I'm trying to understand what they did that we didn't or if they're just going to go this way too, give it another decade
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Mar 25, 2021 00:45
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where and when i lived in france, the local small town had a whole high street full of empty despair. I suspect things arent so different. I shopped in supermarkets and chain diy shops owned by the same companies as the uk ones. restaurants and bars seemed more locally owned.
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Mar 25, 2021 00:49
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Guavanaut posted:Reading this has made me realize that the village where I live now hasn't done too badly. Most of the mills and industrial stuff barring some light paper and card type factories went long ago (you can see classic examples of small factories turned into flats all over) but there's a couple of butchers and a greengrocer and a bakery and little places selling tchotchkes and so on, as well as the pubs and tea rooms and restaurants that have had a rough time lately but have strong local support. My list makes it look worse than it is, since I'm only listing stuff that has closed. The middle three villages I described have genuinely lost virtually all their businesses/amenities (one still has Methodist chapel and a village hall, the other has one pub and a primary school). 'My' former village still has a primary and secondary school, a really great independent butcher, a general/grocer shop, a post office, two pubs and has gained a print/copy shop. The last village on the list has a still-busy market square surrounded by businesses on three sides, but even so it's noticeable that in the intervening 15 years it's lost a couple of bank branches, the independent (and seemingly unchanged since about 1885) dressmakers/tailors, the barbers, the ironmongers, the straight-out-of-Open-All-Hours hardware shop, the independent chemist, the solicitor's office and the accountancy firm that specialised in agricultural businesses...and in return it has gained about half a dozen estate agents, a wine bar, a wine merchant, an Indian restaurant and an ice cream/desert parlour. Old Man Yells At Cloud and all that, but the trend is only heading one way. Guavanaut posted:Yeah all of the locals definitely have that feature, barring one where the building is so old that the division is drinking room and keg room. Yeah, that was a common feature of a lot of the very traditional pubs in my corner of Hampshire, especially the ones which stood out in the fields or at crossroads/junctions rather than in the middle of villages - they had a bar with wooden stools/little square tables and a stone/brick floor where the farmworkers would pile in after a day in the fields and the saloon/lounge with the soft furnishings and carpets. Isomermaid posted:Is this just an inevitability of capitalism, or something particular to the UK? Cos its not like any European town doesn't have its share of chains but they'll have their own industry and small traders, and the villages will be actual communities rather than hollowed-out satellites for the rich. I'm trying to understand what they did that we didn't or if they're just going to go this way too, give it another decade I've seen plenty of equally 'dead' villages in rural bits of France and Belgium, and equally there are villages/market towns here in East Anglia which still have a similar sort of diversity and self-sustaining economy that I'm reminiscing about. I suspect it's partly to do with the way that everything - culture, economy, society - in the UK is so strongly focused on London (to pick up a thread) and the related issue of insane property prices, which means that when a little local shop or independent business in a rural village in Hampshire closes down, there is easy money to be made from bulldozing it and plopping as many new houses onto the site as you can fit. Here in the Fens land and property is cheaper and the big cities (Lincoln, Peterborough, Norwich) are further away and harder to get to even by car, let alone public transport so there is less of the dormitory village/commuter effect and it's easier for local businesses to survive. Similarly, much of Europe does rather better at spreading its economy and culture around between its population centres (which are also much closer in size than here where London massively out-weighs everywhere else) so you don't get the same pressures. BalloonFish fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Mar 25, 2021 |
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Mar 25, 2021 01:03
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A very middle-class lady from a two-car family once rolled her eyes and muttered that she didn't think not being able to drink during an evening out was that much of an imposition during a conversation about the lack of public transport in rural areas. Probably the young, the poor, the disabled, and the very elderly who had lived in her village had all died of starvation because they get to 'local' shop 15 miles away and the postcode was outside the supermarket delivery area. One thing that homeworking might change is the lack of local facilities. Even a small proportion of companies retaining staff on a hybrid WFH/Office might help save the high street from collapse as they all collectively get bored mid-afternoon and nip to the shops.
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Mar 25, 2021 01:32
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some people just need telling they're a wanker imo
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Mar 25, 2021 01:34
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Lady Demelza posted:A very middle-class lady from a two-car family once rolled her eyes and muttered that she didn't think not being able to drink during an evening out was that much of an imposition during a conversation about the lack of public transport in rural areas. Probably the young, the poor, the disabled, and the very elderly who had lived in her village had all died of starvation because they get to 'local' shop 15 miles away and the postcode was outside the supermarket delivery area. Car drivers in rural or semi rural areas with limited public transport and none after 530-6pm are generally clueless about life for those who can't drive for medical, financial, or inability to pass driving tests reasons.
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Mar 25, 2021 01:40
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crispix posted:some people just need telling they're a wanker imo You are.
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Mar 25, 2021 01:42
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NotJustANumber99 posted:You are. Discriminating against our Norn Iron community. You're in deep poo poo laddo.
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Mar 25, 2021 01:44
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big scary monsters posted:Bit much to criticise someone as being anti-British when you're wearing a Norwegian flag on your head. Shuffle off back to your Oslo troll factory, "Josh". ... is the Oslo troll factory hiring?
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Mar 25, 2021 02:01
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Used to be we'd make do with good old fashioned british monsters. Now we've got all these foreign import "trolls" all over the place speaking their weird languages and gobbling up the billy goats. At least when you're getting drowned by a kelpie you're supporting local traditions
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Mar 25, 2021 02:10
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How on earth does one get over a crippling fear of driving and learn to drive anyway? I hate cars. I had about plucked up the courage pre covid but gently caress getting in a strangers car now. Or ever.
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Mar 25, 2021 03:06
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I lived in London for a few years, one of them during covid. I liked the feeling of being at the centre of things in terms of politics (while also being annoyed that I had to be there to feel that), and it undeniably has an insane array of Stuff To Do. I didn’t like the -vibe- of the city though - it felt impersonal and cold, like always being on holiday despite living there. I like the north because it genuinely is easier to meet people and have small interactions with others that start and end in the context they’re formed. That just isn’t really a thing in London and I think that’s sad. I lived most of my adult life before that in Manchester and it quickly felt like home - London never became that and I don’t know if it ever would if I went back. There’s very little sense of a shared identity or common experience which exists in smaller places. As for the bitterness towards it I think others have expressed it better than I can be arsed to. It’s not a dislike of any individual but it is detestable that this place is so central when other places have so much to offer. Public transport gets brought up a lot but I think that’s just because it’s the easiest to point to metric. The transport in London genuinely is fantastic. The tube might be expensive but it’s also easy to ride for free if you’re savvy and have a little time to spare. Nowhere else is like that. Put it this way - I plan journeys before I take them everywhere in the world, apart from London.
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Mar 25, 2021 03:55
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Mebh posted:How on earth does one get over a crippling fear of driving and learn to drive anyway? I hate cars. I had about plucked up the courage pre covid but gently caress getting in a strangers car now. Or ever. God knows. I failed my test 4 times in the 1990s learning in London. Needed 2 hours lesson to get chance to get out of 2nd gear. Each time I failed it was something different and a freak thing that never happens in normal times. Lessons were £19 an hour back then. There's a driving test centre in town and whenever I walk past it I get a mini panic attack. And the drivers round here are lunatics. I can't tell you how many times I've been in a car when some raving loony lorry or car driver has nearly run the car I'm in off the road (different drivers different cars I'm in so it's not down to one driver being crap.) Even if I didn't have the panic attacks I can't afford lessons nor can I afford to own and run a car. Let alone parking being a nightmare. Where I live there are 19 flats and only 9 spaces (non designated) and one of the flats has 2 cars. Why does one man in his 70s need 2 cars? And wankers who rev their engines hard while driving should be hanged. There's a crowd of lads who race around the streets making that stupid noise speeding round corners with well planned (sarcasm) zebras just a few yards from a corner and invisible until you're on top of them. I'm grumpy because it's 4am and I can't sleep and I'm supposed to get up at 830am. God help me when the clock goes forward on Sunday. Grrrr grump grump Jaeluni Asjil fucked around with this message at 05:08 on Mar 25, 2021 |
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Mar 25, 2021 05:01
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NotJustANumber99 posted:where and when i lived in france, the local small town had a whole high street full of empty despair. I suspect things arent so different. I shopped in supermarkets and chain diy shops owned by the same companies as the uk ones. restaurants and bars seemed more locally owned. Same in Finland, there are places emptying and other places doing better. Place I am in is doing quite well for a place with 6000 people (and that's the whole municipality, spread out over several villages and one island). Just the main town, which I live near, has three surviving grocery stores, somehow. And a butchershop, a pizza/kebab place, a thai place, then there's another lunch restaurant and also one guy selling burgers out of a converted caravan. And a bunch of other shops too I am forgetting.
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Mar 25, 2021 07:40
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Mebh posted:How on earth does one get over a crippling fear of driving and learn to drive anyway? I hate cars. I had about plucked up the courage pre covid but gently caress getting in a strangers car now. Or ever. The UK is easily one of the safest places to drive in the world. It's one of the few things we do right. You're about 5 times more likely to die driving in the US for example. Basically keep your distance from other cars and you're fine.
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Mar 25, 2021 07:50
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peanut- posted:There are a lot of extremely valid criticism of London and London-centrism but the public transport one is really dumb. Yes it has a good public transport system, that's because it's incredibly dense but also because it has to because there's almost no other viable means of travelling either into it or around it. I never learned to drive because I lived in London and now can’t afford the lessons, insurance, petrol, parking, maintenance, or a car. I do have a incredibly lovely public transport system to fall back, on which is so so poo poo me and the kids play “beat the bus” which is where we set off walking and then go quicker than the broken Stagecoach bus that pumps horrific fumes into my garden as it goes past once an hour.
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Mar 25, 2021 08:08
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Mebh posted:How on earth does one get over a crippling fear of driving and learn to drive anyway? I hate cars. I had about plucked up the courage pre covid but gently caress getting in a strangers car now. Or ever. Getting in the car is actually the biggest step. I have been driving for over twenty years, but any time I have a break in driving the nerves will come back. Just sitting in the driver's seat for a while, rehearsing the controls, helps.
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Mar 25, 2021 08:18
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Mebh posted:How on earth does one get over a crippling fear of driving and learn to drive anyway? I hate cars. I had about plucked up the courage pre covid but gently caress getting in a strangers car now. Or ever. I took lessons when I was 19, my dad (a good teacher) decided to stop after I nearly crashed going round a corner too fast on the second lesson - the only time I've heard him actually scream. Then we got a paid tutor who made me drive through the local town in rush hour on the third lesson without warning me at all. Stopping after that was probably a mistake - should have pushed through so my last memory of driving wasn't a traumatic one - but I did. I finally learnt 5 years ago, the impetus being that my wife got pregnant and I couldn't countenance being a dad and not being able to drive. I even took my lessons in London because gently caress it, if millions of idiots manage to drive these roads without killing themselves it can't be THAT hard. I did decide to go with an automatic and have no regrets, it's way easier to learn. I don't know why manual is still so popular in this country tbh.
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Mar 25, 2021 08:19
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I bought an E bike.
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Mar 25, 2021 08:22
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I wonder if they will press ahead with this 'vaccine card for beer' bullshit (of course they will). Seems like any easy way for the filth to get your details from barstaff if they so much as suspect you of some naughty activities.
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Mar 25, 2021 08:36
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Mebh posted:How on earth does one get over a crippling fear of driving and learn to drive anyway? I hate cars. I had about plucked up the courage pre covid but gently caress getting in a strangers car now. Or ever. I technically have a driving license but living in London the last day I drove was the day I got it. Now I also have a crippling fear of a situation where I have to be behind the wheel.
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Mar 25, 2021 08:43
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I was made redundant from virginmedia and decided to learn to drive. It wasn't that hard really. I think the first lesson gave me confidence because the instructor (who had been a colleague at virginmedia) took me to an empty car park and I learnt clutch control, then drove 5 miles home no problem. After that everything was pretty easy. On the day of my test I was driving down the "lighthouse road" and saw something in the road up ahead as I got closer it turned out to be a hedgehog and four baby hedgehogs  .
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Mar 25, 2021 08:45
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massive spider posted:I technically have a driving license but living in London the last day I drove was the day I got it. Now I also have a crippling fear of a situation where I have to be behind the wheel. Turns out though that a 30 year old that can't drive is far less of a danger than a 20 year old that can't drive. I had one lesson with an instructor, & she was just like "you're fine, good job you're not taking a test but just carry on not taking any risks & you'll pick up how to use a car in no time". She was right, it's easy. "Being good at driving safely & predictably" & "being good at actually knowing how to use a car" are totally different skillsets, focus on the first & the second follows in no time.
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Mar 25, 2021 08:55
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Butternubs posted:You're about 5 times more likely to die driving in the US for example. From a car accident or from being shot / having heart disease while in the car?
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Mar 25, 2021 08:56
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Trickjaw posted:I wonder if they will press ahead with this 'vaccine card for beer' bullshit (of course they will). Seems like any easy way for the filth to get your details from barstaff if they so much as suspect you of some naughty activities. Looks like this is what they gave Gove, the hint is that the NHS will issue certificates for fully vaccinated, or vaccine exempt people. It will be then up to private business to decide if they want to use them as a criteria for entry, but whoever insures them won’t be able to ignore the existence of the certificates because lawsuits, so will either insist they are used or put an absolutely enormous premium on. Tim Martin is going to go SPARE.
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Mar 25, 2021 08:59
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in the wales we were already having to check ID to go along with the track and trace details, its really not much of a step up from that privacy wise
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Mar 25, 2021 09:09
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Skarsnik posted:in the wales we were already having to check ID to go along with the track and trace details, its really not much of a step up from that privacy wise  Can definitely remember places not having any tracking & tracing whatsoever though, so could just be that places near me are poo poo at following the rules
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Mar 25, 2021 09:15
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Borrovan posted:We did quite a lot of eating out to help out & went to a few bars out of curiosity (it was poo poo, btw), can only remember being asked for ID once The ID with T&T rule came in post fire break, we'd not been doing it long before we all got closed again
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Mar 25, 2021 09:19
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I had 11 lessons before my driving test, and my instructor - a vile Jack-the-lad who once declared that if he cheated on his wife, it'd be with a black woman as "I've never had a black woman before" - didn't believe that they were my first lessons. The actual physical aspect of learning - clutch control, gear shifting, checking mirrors - I picked up pretty quickly because I'm generally good at learning motor sequences. And I've never been a very passive passenger, so the stuff like 'reading the road' I was already quite good at. I learned to drive because I thought it would give me more options with jobs after I graduated from my course. And now I work in one of the smaller boroughs in the country, with excellent public transport.
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Mar 25, 2021 09:25
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It seems virtually certain that I am coming back to the UK in May. I will be doing this to help a Chinese company get started in UK, which despite Brexit remains the biggest European market for what we do. What’s the sentiment these days toward China? In my mind there’s a kind of slider on how the general population sees other countries, which goes from (foreign but it’s not their fault -> foreign and therefore suspect -> basically The Enemy); where is China on that in TYOOL 2021?
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Mar 25, 2021 09:37
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JeremoudCorbynejad posted:From a car accident or from being shot / having heart disease while in the car? On a serious note it's probably because of their more relaxed stance on drink driving.
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Mar 25, 2021 09:40
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