Carrot mania: shoppers in a frenzy over Aldi’s plush toy Kevin
All posts by Steve Evans
The Gift of Death
Pathological consumption has become so normalised that we scarcely notice it. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 11th December 2012 There’s nothing they need, nothing they don’t own already, …
Source: The Gift of Death
York shop bans cheesy Christmas music for sake of staff
York shop bans cheesy Christmas music for sake of staff
I think it was this time last year I was ranting about Slade’s Christmas hit, and how I found it terminally depressing as it paraded itself across our ears for (what? The next seven weeks?) – seems I wasn’t alone.
I never expected to go viral just for saying billionaires shouldn’t exist
I never expected to go viral just for saying billionaires shouldn’t exist
Brexit, again . . .
So, yeah . . . 46 million eligabe to vote in the UK, of which 17.5 million said “leave the EU”. (Actually one third of the electorate).
So the rest either didn’t vote, or voted “stay”.
And the majority of the leave voters based their decision on pub talk, on the lies and filth pedalled by The Daily Mail, and chats with their mates in the van.
Not quite the informed and considered decision that was needed really.
The VERY thing I’ve been saying for nearly TEN YEARS
On the 18th January 2010, I blogged here that cycling on Pavements was the only safe way forward at the time. Just stand by a painted cycle-lane on a busy road (so, all of the UK then) – look at the speed, the vehicle sizes, the behaviour of the motorised traffic – what’s your first thought as a potential cyclist? It’s “Noooooooooo . . . . . ”
“Dealing with a busy road” advice includes: Assertiveness – ride with the traffic, not in the gutter, it includes wearing hi-vis, helmets, light yourself-up like a Christmas tree.
It makes me wonder if some drivers need to consider their eyewear options – isn’t a person on a bike big enough to see?
I remember typing – I wanted Mrs Jenkins to be quite able to pop onto her bike and cycle down to the corner shop – in normal clothes. I wanted Toby to get to school safely, not secured down in an enormous fashion-wagon, spewing exhausts out as it sits in the jams of other Tobys and Melissas – all heading for the some Ofsted graded emporium five miles away.
You see, what happens is the Cyclists that do brave the streets adopt guerrilla tactics, they see the motorised road users as ‘the enemy’ and behave accordingly. Consequently the motorised road users find these ‘Assertive’ cyclists much more of a nuisance – because they are!
