Rereading that Orwell piece, I'm struck by how starkly miserable he is as a writer. I really don't enjoy reading his stuff. Yes, there're clever and quotable gems in there and the vision is wonderful. But it's all so fucking dour. Better to read Heller. You get the cleverness but it's enjoyable too. Reading Orwell is like eating plain celery for lunch, every lunch, from now until the day you die. It's probably doing you some good, but you'll want to take a claw hammer to your own sphenoid within a week.
The only exception to that, in my opinion, is Down and Out in London and Paris which is quite entertaining in parts. Re Heller, I didn't get beyond page 5 of his most famous book. I'll try again some other time.
It took me two goes to get past the start of the book. No regrets once I was into it, Catch-22 is one of the funniest things I've read. Not many books make me laugh out loud* but C22 did. I think the only other time that's happened was with a Martin Amis book, perhaps Money? YMMV but I really enjoyed Catch-22.
*the delivery required for that is exceptional - I've read very funny books, e.g. much by Pratchett, but a literal LOL is rare
I loved Catch 22 when I was younger - I wrote my extended essay on it in CSYS English. You're right, it is outrageously funny. I tried reading it again later in life, though, and couldn't get into it so much. I think there are some books you enjoy when you're young (other examples include On the Road and the Lord of the Rings) that somehow aren't the same if you read them in middle age. On the other hand I have re-read Nineteen Eighty Four several times and it gets better each time. I'd put Great Expectations in that category too.
Nineteen Eighty Four is good, to be sure, and I have read it a few times. But it's a bit relentless. Orwell skimps on the sugar when trying to make a point and just batters the reader with a blunt object until they get it. It's all a bit Victorian in a way, all didactic and serious.
I'll admit I've had trouble getting into Dickens and I've never read GE. What recommends it?
I'm grateful to my English teacher who ditched Great Expectations as our set book after a few chapters saying, "I can't stand this". Which meant I could come back to it as an adult when it would have been killed for me for ever if we had persevered.
What recommends it is great story telling. It has a very satisfying narrative that runs through the book despite the many deviations. It is a long novel rewarding patience, which is something you develop as you get older.
A similar experience for me with Heart of Midlothian, which after three false starts I loved. It's a cracking read.
GE is a great read when you’re young, and a quite different experience to reread when you’re much older. ‘Long’ is Bleak House; GE is a short story in comparison.
Catch-22 brings back memories of my late father spending an entire week chuckling inanely while he read it. The only other thing that made him laugh as much was Tommy Cooper.
He had good taste. Both very funny.
Guy goes into the doctor’s. “Doc, I’ve got a cricket ball stuck up my backside.” How’s that?” Don’t you start.”
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
The bbc news page is getting like some woke version of Hello Magazine
Which is fine if that’s how it wants to go, but funded via a license fee.
The BBC should be competing for its funding not reliant on a license fee extorted from people who simply own a TV and want to watch live broadcasts.
The criminalisation of people for failure to pay fines, often the poorest in society, for not having a license in this day and age of multi media platforms is a disgrace.
The BBC seems of offer less and less to my generation. It’s happy to have our money. Less happy to provide or cater for the elder demographic.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
Their jobs are there of course, but they’ve also made the decision to stay in the inner city rather than commute from the suburbs.
Those without cars generally say they don’t miss them but it must cause issues when it comes to taking rubbish to the tip or picking up furniture from IKEA.
The carless parent cohort are a cross section from poor and on benefits to pretty wealthy and working in the city.
Trips to the skip and IKEA are easy. You can car club those. It's more the day to day stuff like shopping and and sending your daughter to Brownies where a car comes in handy. You can adapt but it takes a bit more planning.
The Tories are strange. Just heard Halfon, who's quitting, on R4. Asked to name 5 outstanding Conservatives, he came up with JFK (er?) and Reagan. Told he could only have Brits, seemed to struggle but ended up with Gove.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Dummy Mummies with cargo bikes seem to be all the rage in some parts and on twitter.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
Their jobs are there of course, but they’ve also made the decision to stay in the inner city rather than commute from the suburbs.
Those without cars generally say they don’t miss them but it must cause issues when it comes to taking rubbish to the tip or picking up furniture from IKEA.
The carless parent cohort are a cross section from poor and on benefits to pretty wealthy and working in the city.
The walking and cycling parents in Bristol, at least the ones the BBC found, are the very lucky few who can both afford to live around the corner from the good school, and have a parent without a tight morning schedule.
Once upon a time, kids would've walked or cycled to school on their lonesome. Then parents started to get risk averse and thus the school run started, making the roads more dangerous for those who continued to walk - a vicious cycle until there is a huge increase in congestion during school term and people won't let their kids out on the road.
I find that very sad, and count myself lucky that I had the freedom of my neighbourhood from about age 8.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
Their jobs are there of course, but they’ve also made the decision to stay in the inner city rather than commute from the suburbs.
Those without cars generally say they don’t miss them but it must cause issues when it comes to taking rubbish to the tip or picking up furniture from IKEA.
The carless parent cohort are a cross section from poor and on benefits to pretty wealthy and working in the city.
The walking and cycling parents in Bristol, at least the ones the BBC found, are the very lucky few who can both afford to live around the corner from the good school, and have a parent without a tight morning schedule.
Once upon a time, kids would've walked or cycled to school on their lonesome. Then parents started to get risk averse and thus the school run started, making the roads more dangerous for those who continued to walk - a vicious cycle until there is a huge increase in congestion during school term and people won't let their kids out on the road.
I find that very sad, and count myself lucky that I had the freedom of my neighbourhood from about age 8.
My recollection is that my Mum walked me to school for my first few mornings at Primary School and that was it. It was about half a mile away and I crossed one minor road and a main one with a school crossings lady by the school. Even at the age of six, none of us would be seen dead with our Mums in the street if we could possibly avoid it.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Dummy Mummies with cargo bikes seem to be all the rage in some parts and on twitter.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Dummy Mummies with cargo bikes seem to be all the rage in some parts and on twitter.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
They’re just a bike with a battery !!
They are significantly cheaper than any car once you take into account fuel, MOT, insurance etc etc. The unit cost is falling quickly as they become more widespread.
They won't replace the first car but they will certainly replace the second one for most families.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
Their jobs are there of course, but they’ve also made the decision to stay in the inner city rather than commute from the suburbs.
Those without cars generally say they don’t miss them but it must cause issues when it comes to taking rubbish to the tip or picking up furniture from IKEA.
The carless parent cohort are a cross section from poor and on benefits to pretty wealthy and working in the city.
The walking and cycling parents in Bristol, at least the ones the BBC found, are the very lucky few who can both afford to live around the corner from the good school, and have a parent without a tight morning schedule.
Once upon a time, kids would've walked or cycled to school on their lonesome. Then parents started to get risk averse and thus the school run started, making the roads more dangerous for those who continued to walk - a vicious cycle until there is a huge increase in congestion during school term and people won't let their kids out on the road.
I find that very sad, and count myself lucky that I had the freedom of my neighbourhood from about age 8.
This "vicious cycle" sounds terrifying. Time we cracked down on these two-wheeled menaces!
Rereading that Orwell piece, I'm struck by how starkly miserable he is as a writer. I really don't enjoy reading his stuff. Yes, there're clever and quotable gems in there and the vision is wonderful. But it's all so fucking dour. Better to read Heller. You get the cleverness but it's enjoyable too. Reading Orwell is like eating plain celery for lunch, every lunch, from now until the day you die. It's probably doing you some good, but you'll want to take a claw hammer to your own sphenoid within a week.
The only exception to that, in my opinion, is Down and Out in London and Paris which is quite entertaining in parts. Re Heller, I didn't get beyond page 5 of his most famous book. I'll try again some other time.
It took me two goes to get past the start of the book. No regrets once I was into it, Catch-22 is one of the funniest things I've read. Not many books make me laugh out loud* but C22 did. I think the only other time that's happened was with a Martin Amis book, perhaps Money? YMMV but I really enjoyed Catch-22.
*the delivery required for that is exceptional - I've read very funny books, e.g. much by Pratchett, but a literal LOL is rare
I loved Catch 22 when I was younger - I wrote my extended essay on it in CSYS English. You're right, it is outrageously funny. I tried reading it again later in life, though, and couldn't get into it so much. I think there are some books you enjoy when you're young (other examples include On the Road and the Lord of the Rings) that somehow aren't the same if you read them in middle age. On the other hand I have re-read Nineteen Eighty Four several times and it gets better each time. I'd put Great Expectations in that category too.
Nineteen Eighty Four is good, to be sure, and I have read it a few times. But it's a bit relentless. Orwell skimps on the sugar when trying to make a point and just batters the reader with a blunt object until they get it. It's all a bit Victorian in a way, all didactic and serious.
I'll admit I've had trouble getting into Dickens and I've never read GE. What recommends it?
I'm grateful to my English teacher who ditched Great Expectations as our set book after a few chapters saying, "I can't stand this". Which meant I could come back to it as an adult when it would have been killed for me for ever if we had persevered.
What recommends it is great story telling. It has a very satisfying narrative that runs through the book despite the many deviations. It is a long novel rewarding patience, which is something you develop as you get older.
A similar experience for me with Heart of Midlothian, which after three false starts I loved. It's a cracking read.
Perhaps to return to the origins of this discussion it is worth reading Orwells essay on Dickens:
It certainly helped me make sense of Dickens and why his works were so popular. They speak to that very British desire to improve the world, not by overturning systems but rather by rich people being nicer.
Worth noting too that many of Dickens works were published as monthly serials in magazines, hence often rather wordy as spacefiller, and full of digressions and plot twists when sales fell and rose.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
Their jobs are there of course, but they’ve also made the decision to stay in the inner city rather than commute from the suburbs.
Those without cars generally say they don’t miss them but it must cause issues when it comes to taking rubbish to the tip or picking up furniture from IKEA.
The carless parent cohort are a cross section from poor and on benefits to pretty wealthy and working in the city.
The walking and cycling parents in Bristol, at least the ones the BBC found, are the very lucky few who can both afford to live around the corner from the good school, and have a parent without a tight morning schedule.
Once upon a time, kids would've walked or cycled to school on their lonesome. Then parents started to get risk averse and thus the school run started, making the roads more dangerous for those who continued to walk - a vicious cycle until there is a huge increase in congestion during school term and people won't let their kids out on the road.
I find that very sad, and count myself lucky that I had the freedom of my neighbourhood from about age 8.
This was of course also driven by the introduction of choice. Once upon a time, you simply went to the nearest primary school, which was usually within easy walking distance.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Dummy Mummies with cargo bikes seem to be all the rage in some parts and on twitter.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
They’re just a bike with a battery !!
Only five or six grand. And you’ll need somewhere to store it safely.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
Their jobs are there of course, but they’ve also made the decision to stay in the inner city rather than commute from the suburbs.
Those without cars generally say they don’t miss them but it must cause issues when it comes to taking rubbish to the tip or picking up furniture from IKEA.
The carless parent cohort are a cross section from poor and on benefits to pretty wealthy and working in the city.
The walking and cycling parents in Bristol, at least the ones the BBC found, are the very lucky few who can both afford to live around the corner from the good school, and have a parent without a tight morning schedule.
Once upon a time, kids would've walked or cycled to school on their lonesome. Then parents started to get risk averse and thus the school run started, making the roads more dangerous for those who continued to walk - a vicious cycle until there is a huge increase in congestion during school term and people won't let their kids out on the road.
I find that very sad, and count myself lucky that I had the freedom of my neighbourhood from about age 8.
My recollection is that my Mum walked me to school for my first few mornings at Primary School and that was it. It was about half a mile away and I crossed one minor road and a main one with a school crossings lady by the school. Even at the age of six, none of us would be seen dead with our Mums in the street if we could possibly avoid it.
This was Hackney in the mid fifties.
The Krays presumably putting the frighteners on any dangerous drivers.
‘Yer could leave yer doors open and speeding drivers ended up in the Thames’
Rereading that Orwell piece, I'm struck by how starkly miserable he is as a writer. I really don't enjoy reading his stuff. Yes, there're clever and quotable gems in there and the vision is wonderful. But it's all so fucking dour. Better to read Heller. You get the cleverness but it's enjoyable too. Reading Orwell is like eating plain celery for lunch, every lunch, from now until the day you die. It's probably doing you some good, but you'll want to take a claw hammer to your own sphenoid within a week.
The only exception to that, in my opinion, is Down and Out in London and Paris which is quite entertaining in parts. Re Heller, I didn't get beyond page 5 of his most famous book. I'll try again some other time.
It took me two goes to get past the start of the book. No regrets once I was into it, Catch-22 is one of the funniest things I've read. Not many books make me laugh out loud* but C22 did. I think the only other time that's happened was with a Martin Amis book, perhaps Money? YMMV but I really enjoyed Catch-22.
*the delivery required for that is exceptional - I've read very funny books, e.g. much by Pratchett, but a literal LOL is rare
I always liked the story of when Joseph Heller was challenged that he hadn't written anything quite as good as Catch 22.
"Who has?" , he replied.
Although God Knows was seriously close, almost as funny and much more soulful. I loved it.
Dickens: I've only ever read David Copperfield. It was interesting. He's excellent at writing but unafraid of using three sentences when a single word would do.
As indicated above by Dr. Foxy, that's likely down to the serial origins.
Rereading that Orwell piece, I'm struck by how starkly miserable he is as a writer. I really don't enjoy reading his stuff. Yes, there're clever and quotable gems in there and the vision is wonderful. But it's all so fucking dour. Better to read Heller. You get the cleverness but it's enjoyable too. Reading Orwell is like eating plain celery for lunch, every lunch, from now until the day you die. It's probably doing you some good, but you'll want to take a claw hammer to your own sphenoid within a week.
The only exception to that, in my opinion, is Down and Out in London and Paris which is quite entertaining in parts. Re Heller, I didn't get beyond page 5 of his most famous book. I'll try again some other time.
It took me two goes to get past the start of the book. No regrets once I was into it, Catch-22 is one of the funniest things I've read. Not many books make me laugh out loud* but C22 did. I think the only other time that's happened was with a Martin Amis book, perhaps Money? YMMV but I really enjoyed Catch-22.
*the delivery required for that is exceptional - I've read very funny books, e.g. much by Pratchett, but a literal LOL is rare
I loved Catch 22 when I was younger - I wrote my extended essay on it in CSYS English. You're right, it is outrageously funny. I tried reading it again later in life, though, and couldn't get into it so much. I think there are some books you enjoy when you're young (other examples include On the Road and the Lord of the Rings) that somehow aren't the same if you read them in middle age. On the other hand I have re-read Nineteen Eighty Four several times and it gets better each time. I'd put Great Expectations in that category too.
Nineteen Eighty Four is good, to be sure, and I have read it a few times. But it's a bit relentless. Orwell skimps on the sugar when trying to make a point and just batters the reader with a blunt object until they get it. It's all a bit Victorian in a way, all didactic and serious.
I'll admit I've had trouble getting into Dickens and I've never read GE. What recommends it?
I'm grateful to my English teacher who ditched Great Expectations as our set book after a few chapters saying, "I can't stand this". Which meant I could come back to it as an adult when it would have been killed for me for ever if we had persevered.
What recommends it is great story telling. It has a very satisfying narrative that runs through the book despite the many deviations. It is a long novel rewarding patience, which is something you develop as you get older.
A similar experience for me with Heart of Midlothian, which after three false starts I loved. It's a cracking read.
Perhaps to return to the origins of this discussion it is worth reading Orwells essay on Dickens:
It certainly helped me make sense of Dickens and why his works were so popular. They speak to that very British desire to improve the world, not by overturning systems but rather by rich people being nicer.
Worth noting too that many of Dickens works were published as monthly serials in magazines, hence often rather wordy as spacefiller, and full of digressions and plot twists when sales fell.
The point about the serialisation is astute. What Dickens I have read has often felt like it's in need of a vigorous edit. If the plot is going nowhere, you'd better be wowwing me with interesting subtextual musings on philosophy or truth or something. Dickens waffles for cash.
Opinium's methodology is specifically designed to find shy Tories. If it is reporting a wider Labour lead as the Reform vote and DKs decline, that is very bad news indeed for Sunak and co. I'd say that's the big takeaway from this poll.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
Their jobs are there of course, but they’ve also made the decision to stay in the inner city rather than commute from the suburbs.
Those without cars generally say they don’t miss them but it must cause issues when it comes to taking rubbish to the tip or picking up furniture from IKEA.
The carless parent cohort are a cross section from poor and on benefits to pretty wealthy and working in the city.
The walking and cycling parents in Bristol, at least the ones the BBC found, are the very lucky few who can both afford to live around the corner from the good school, and have a parent without a tight morning schedule.
Once upon a time, kids would've walked or cycled to school on their lonesome. Then parents started to get risk averse and thus the school run started, making the roads more dangerous for those who continued to walk - a vicious cycle until there is a huge increase in congestion during school term and people won't let their kids out on the road.
I find that very sad, and count myself lucky that I had the freedom of my neighbourhood from about age 8.
My recollection is that my Mum walked me to school for my first few mornings at Primary School and that was it. It was about half a mile away and I crossed one minor road and a main one with a school crossings lady by the school. Even at the age of six, none of us would be seen dead with our Mums in the street if we could possibly avoid it.
This was Hackney in the mid fifties.
I started walking home with my mates from primary school aged 9. We had one big road to cross. We were supposed to do it at the zebra crossing but never bothered because it meant a longer walk.
Rereading that Orwell piece, I'm struck by how starkly miserable he is as a writer. I really don't enjoy reading his stuff. Yes, there're clever and quotable gems in there and the vision is wonderful. But it's all so fucking dour. Better to read Heller. You get the cleverness but it's enjoyable too. Reading Orwell is like eating plain celery for lunch, every lunch, from now until the day you die. It's probably doing you some good, but you'll want to take a claw hammer to your own sphenoid within a week.
The only exception to that, in my opinion, is Down and Out in London and Paris which is quite entertaining in parts. Re Heller, I didn't get beyond page 5 of his most famous book. I'll try again some other time.
It took me two goes to get past the start of the book. No regrets once I was into it, Catch-22 is one of the funniest things I've read. Not many books make me laugh out loud* but C22 did. I think the only other time that's happened was with a Martin Amis book, perhaps Money? YMMV but I really enjoyed Catch-22.
*the delivery required for that is exceptional - I've read very funny books, e.g. much by Pratchett, but a literal LOL is rare
I always liked the story of when Joseph Heller was challenged that he hadn't written anything quite as good as Catch 22.
"Who has?" , he replied.
Although God Knows was seriously close, almost as funny and much more soulful. I loved it.
God Knows is a very sympathetic portrait of a idealistic and ambitious politician ruminating on the isolation hubris, and loneliness of life at the top, and on how this leads to evil acts.
Oh Mr Eagles, really, how could you say such a thing?
It's 'Donald Trump and I.'
As I said I am re-evaluating my choices and that includes all grammar related things.
Including metaphors. How can just one thing, the Elphicke defection, be both flotsam and jetsam?
Anyway, the bigger story is not that Elphicke is Labour's most right-wing MP but that Wes Streeting is running her close as he sets out his stall in the Sunday Telegraph. The health service is not to be worshipped; it must work evenings and weekends (doesn't it already?) while reducing its dependence on immigrants; it must raise productivity, harrumphs Streeting as he channels his inner Jeremy Hunt. No more banging pans in support of the NHS.
Speaking of whom, the Chancellor tells the Sunday Times he is ready to generously compensate victims of the tainted blood scandal now that Labour will get the bill.
I am tired and emotional at the moment.
Literally tired and emotional at the fact I am off to Anfield to say goodbye to Jürgen Klopp.
I haven't been this emotional since David Cameron announced his retirement in 2016.
Even as a United fan I will be sorry to see him go. Definitely one of the good guys in sport. It should be a memorable day.
Rereading that Orwell piece, I'm struck by how starkly miserable he is as a writer. I really don't enjoy reading his stuff. Yes, there're clever and quotable gems in there and the vision is wonderful. But it's all so fucking dour. Better to read Heller. You get the cleverness but it's enjoyable too. Reading Orwell is like eating plain celery for lunch, every lunch, from now until the day you die. It's probably doing you some good, but you'll want to take a claw hammer to your own sphenoid within a week.
The only exception to that, in my opinion, is Down and Out in London and Paris which is quite entertaining in parts. Re Heller, I didn't get beyond page 5 of his most famous book. I'll try again some other time.
It took me two goes to get past the start of the book. No regrets once I was into it, Catch-22 is one of the funniest things I've read. Not many books make me laugh out loud* but C22 did. I think the only other time that's happened was with a Martin Amis book, perhaps Money? YMMV but I really enjoyed Catch-22.
*the delivery required for that is exceptional - I've read very funny books, e.g. much by Pratchett, but a literal LOL is rare
I loved Catch 22 when I was younger - I wrote my extended essay on it in CSYS English. You're right, it is outrageously funny. I tried reading it again later in life, though, and couldn't get into it so much. I think there are some books you enjoy when you're young (other examples include On the Road and the Lord of the Rings) that somehow aren't the same if you read them in middle age. On the other hand I have re-read Nineteen Eighty Four several times and it gets better each time. I'd put Great Expectations in that category too.
Nineteen Eighty Four is good, to be sure, and I have read it a few times. But it's a bit relentless. Orwell skimps on the sugar when trying to make a point and just batters the reader with a blunt object until they get it. It's all a bit Victorian in a way, all didactic and serious.
I'll admit I've had trouble getting into Dickens and I've never read GE. What recommends it?
I'm grateful to my English teacher who ditched Great Expectations as our set book after a few chapters saying, "I can't stand this". Which meant I could come back to it as an adult when it would have been killed for me for ever if we had persevered.
What recommends it is great story telling. It has a very satisfying narrative that runs through the book despite the many deviations. It is a long novel rewarding patience, which is something you develop as you get older.
A similar experience for me with Heart of Midlothian, which after three false starts I loved. It's a cracking read.
Great Expectations is a masterpiece. One of the greatest books ever written in the English language. It's not just the story it's the sense of place that is so brilliant.
Dickens: I've only ever read David Copperfield. It was interesting. He's excellent at writing but unafraid of using three sentences when a single word would do.
As indicated above by Dr. Foxy, that's likely down to the serial origins.
The sudden shift of the action of Martin Chuzzelwit to America was explained to me as his publisher complaining of sales there. Early globalisation and export earnings!
Writing 10 000 words a month for publication did rather encourage wordiness, but I think that was also his style in other works. Russian and French authors did the same.
Morning all. Polling of late suggests a bump for Labour post LEs/Elphicke of maybe a couple of % points, Opinium, WeThink, Deltapoll and YouGov all found a bouncette, all within MoE though of course. Tories are sort of holding on at low to mid 20s but there is an inexorable drift down at a very slow pace, I don't expect that to reverse until a GE is called and then a limited bump up as DKs return (not en masse by any means). Reform are declining by a similar amount to Labour's bounce....... dyor, LDs and Greens seem static, LDs need double figures to be confident of large gains from the Tories but evenat 7 or 8% they'd nab quite a few. Galloway and the WPB made their first appearance this week in polls with 1% in Whitestone (actually 0.6%) and Opinium (awaiting tables), I've got them on ca 2.5% if they run 600 candidates or proportionate thereto (ca 750,000 votes), they'd need maybe 3 to 3.5% to start causing a bit of chaos. I think they will do pretty well for a new party, Gaza will be a strong recruiting sergeant this time and they are a natural outlet for it.
Morning all. Polling of late suggests a bump for Labour post LEs/Elphicke of maybe a couple of % points, Opinium, WeThink, Deltapoll and YouGov all found a bouncette, all within MoE though of course. Tories are sort of holding on at low to mid 20s but there is an inexorable drift down at a very slow pace, I don't expect that to reverse until a GE is called and then a limited bump up as DKs return (not en masse by any means). Reform are declining by a similar amount to Labour's bounce....... dyor, LDs and Greens seem static, LDs need double figures to be confident of large gains from the Tories but evenat 7 or 8% they'd nab quite a few. Galloway and the WPB made their first appearance this week in polls with 1% in Whitestone (actually 0.6%) and Opinium (awaiting tables), I've got them on ca 2.5% if they run 600 candidates or proportionate thereto (ca 750,000 votes), they'd need maybe 3 to 3.5% to start causing a bit of chaos. I think they will do pretty well for a new party, Gaza will be a strong recruiting sergeant this time and they are a natural outlet for it.
Most people presume that Reform UK will get fewer votes in the election than their polling. Can I ask why you think WPB will get more votes in the election than their polling?
Labour seems to understand this. The Tories less so ...
Excellent article from @TorstenBell in the Guardian. You'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise, but political polarisation in the UK is *lower* today than 40 years ago. We are not the US. UK voters are not polarised, just "pissed off and volatile".
Opinium's methodology is specifically designed to find shy Tories. If it is reporting a wider Labour lead as the Reform vote and DKs decline, that is very bad news indeed for Sunak and co. I'd say that's the big takeaway from this poll.
Indeed. I have been saying that the GE will be in Jan 25 for a long time - looks more and more probable. The Tories will hang on to the bitter end. After Ratnering the country for 14 years, what’s a few extra months of incompetent rule?
Let's compare for the smaller parties to recent elections (UK wide because it's easier, and rounded to the nearest %):
- 2019: Brexit Party 2%, Green Party 3% - 2017: UKIP 2%, Green Party 2% - 2015: UKIP 13%, Green Party 4% - 2010: UKIP 3%, Green Party 1%
... 2015 was an exception as it was the right rebelling against a liberal Tory government/coalition and wanting a Brexit referendum on the agenda.
But otherwise history suggests both Reform and Greens will struggle to match their polling. But it's not obvious this will have much impact on the Labour Tory gap given the combination of the two.
I think it's more likely that will boost the % vote of both Labour and the Tories sTher than
Morning all. Polling of late suggests a bump for Labour post LEs/Elphicke of maybe a couple of % points, Opinium, WeThink, Deltapoll and YouGov all found a bouncette, all within MoE though of course. Tories are sort of holding on at low to mid 20s but there is an inexorable drift down at a very slow pace, I don't expect that to reverse until a GE is called and then a limited bump up as DKs return (not en masse by any means). Reform are declining by a similar amount to Labour's bounce....... dyor, LDs and Greens seem static, LDs need double figures to be confident of large gains from the Tories but evenat 7 or 8% they'd nab quite a few. Galloway and the WPB made their first appearance this week in polls with 1% in Whitestone (actually 0.6%) and Opinium (awaiting tables), I've got them on ca 2.5% if they run 600 candidates or proportionate thereto (ca 750,000 votes), they'd need maybe 3 to 3.5% to start causing a bit of chaos. I think they will do pretty well for a new party, Gaza will be a strong recruiting sergeant this time and they are a natural outlet for it.
Most people presume that Reform UK will get fewer votes in the election than their polling. Can I ask why you think WPB will get more votes in the election than their polling?
Well, I just did. Gaza. Also, Increasing awareness of their existence and their performance where they have stood thus year so far suggests a not insignificant interest and support.. Reform are prompted in polling, WPB are not.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
I didn't find the article particularly offensive. Jettisoning the cars for bikes and public transport isn't on my agenda, although if it were a practical proposition I'd be much happier to curtail my 30,000 miles a year habit for the relative calm of a strike-free train service.
Neither of my children have yet bothered to pass a driving test (and only one of them will probably get around to it), and they aren’t particularly unusual in that. Another decade, and possibly no one will need to any more, anyway.
Neither of my children drive (23 and 29) either but they live in cities. It seems more normal these days. In my day you got your first driving lesson on your 17th birthday and I have driven every since. Seems times have changed though
However I agree with @Casino_Royale on the tone of the article. Times have changed, but I don't think either of my kids have ignored the car because of the climate. They just don't need one and it is no longer a rite of passage anymore to get one.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Dummy Mummies with cargo bikes seem to be all the rage in some parts and on twitter.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
They’re just a bike with a battery !!
They are significantly cheaper than any car once you take into account fuel, MOT, insurance etc etc. The unit cost is falling quickly as they become more widespread.
They won't replace the first car but they will certainly replace the second one for most families.
They have one considerable advantage over a car.
Due to the large number of calories required to propel them, they represent a very good workout. Which reduces the amount of time the Ladies Who Lunch need to spend in the gym. Which in turn is required to reduce the probability of the husband trading in for a younger model of wife.
What’s not to like? Social status, a bit of greenwashing, divorce risk reduction…
Of course there a quite a few genuine users…. But having lived among The Superficial People for a while…. I’m talking about people for whom Desperate Housewives was something between a documentary and a how to manual.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Dummy Mummies with cargo bikes seem to be all the rage in some parts and on twitter.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
They’re just a bike with a battery !!
Only five or six grand. And you’ll need somewhere to store it safely.
For the safe storage, it will be coming to a residents parking scheme near you soon, with a cargo-bike cycle hangar - the first one was installed in Westminster in January. Don't worry - it only needs about 1-4% of on street parking spaces to be reallocated eventually, depending on location. Standard bikes are 6 or 12 per parking space, cargo bikes are 2 per parking space. So every space reallocated creates relatively lots more more space for motor vehicles, assuming a zero sum game.
If the Council provide people with no drives a public space to store their motor vehicle, then it should be providing cargo bike riding people with no storage space a public space to store *their* vehicle. That's a matter of simple equity. *
For cargo bikes, the ones you need to be worrying about are those like the 6-wheel articulated 600kg (loaded) ePack, which the Transport Minister wants to allow onto the shared pavements near you, unregulated and un-type-approved, by shoe-horning it into the definition of "bicycle".
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
I didn't find the article particularly offensive. Jettisoning the cars for bikes and public transport isn't on my agenda, although if it were a practical proposition I'd be much happier to curtail my 30,000 miles a year habit for the relative calm of a strike-free train service.
Neither of my children have yet bothered to pass a driving test (and only one of them will probably get around to it), and they aren’t particularly unusual in that. Another decade, and possibly no one will need to any more, anyway.
Neither of my children drive (23 and 29) either but they live in cities. It seems more normal these days. In my day you got your first driving lesson on your 17th birthday and I have driven every since. Seems times have changed though
However I agree with @Casino_Royale on the tone of the article. Times have changed, but I don't think either of my kids have ignored the car because of the climate. They just don't need one and it is no longer a rite of passage anymore to get one.
It’s a massive pain in the backside to get a test at the moment, so it’s unsurprising that those who don’t actually need to drive aren’t bothering.
Rereading that Orwell piece, I'm struck by how starkly miserable he is as a writer. I really don't enjoy reading his stuff. Yes, there're clever and quotable gems in there and the vision is wonderful. But it's all so fucking dour. Better to read Heller. You get the cleverness but it's enjoyable too. Reading Orwell is like eating plain celery for lunch, every lunch, from now until the day you die. It's probably doing you some good, but you'll want to take a claw hammer to your own sphenoid within a week.
The only exception to that, in my opinion, is Down and Out in London and Paris which is quite entertaining in parts. Re Heller, I didn't get beyond page 5 of his most famous book. I'll try again some other time.
It took me two goes to get past the start of the book. No regrets once I was into it, Catch-22 is one of the funniest things I've read. Not many books make me laugh out loud* but C22 did. I think the only other time that's happened was with a Martin Amis book, perhaps Money? YMMV but I really enjoyed Catch-22.
*the delivery required for that is exceptional - I've read very funny books, e.g. much by Pratchett, but a literal LOL is rare
I loved Catch 22 when I was younger - I wrote my extended essay on it in CSYS English. You're right, it is outrageously funny. I tried reading it again later in life, though, and couldn't get into it so much. I think there are some books you enjoy when you're young (other examples include On the Road and the Lord of the Rings) that somehow aren't the same if you read them in middle age. On the other hand I have re-read Nineteen Eighty Four several times and it gets better each time. I'd put Great Expectations in that category too.
Nineteen Eighty Four is good, to be sure, and I have read it a few times. But it's a bit relentless. Orwell skimps on the sugar when trying to make a point and just batters the reader with a blunt object until they get it. It's all a bit Victorian in a way, all didactic and serious.
I'll admit I've had trouble getting into Dickens and I've never read GE. What recommends it?
I'm grateful to my English teacher who ditched Great Expectations as our set book after a few chapters saying, "I can't stand this". Which meant I could come back to it as an adult when it would have been killed for me for ever if we had persevered.
What recommends it is great story telling. It has a very satisfying narrative that runs through the book despite the many deviations. It is a long novel rewarding patience, which is something you develop as you get older.
A similar experience for me with Heart of Midlothian, which after three false starts I loved. It's a cracking read.
Perhaps to return to the origins of this discussion it is worth reading Orwells essay on Dickens:
It certainly helped me make sense of Dickens and why his works were so popular. They speak to that very British desire to improve the world, not by overturning systems but rather by rich people being nicer.
Worth noting too that many of Dickens works were published as monthly serials in magazines, hence often rather wordy as spacefiller, and full of digressions and plot twists when sales fell.
The point about the serialisation is astute. What Dickens I have read has often felt like it's in need of a vigorous edit. If the plot is going nowhere, you'd better be wowwing me with interesting subtextual musings on philosophy or truth or something. Dickens waffles for cash.
I'm sure there's some truth in the point about serialisation, but of course the tastes of the reading public have changed beyond recognition. Dickens was writing for a public with no radio, no TV, no Internet, no Twitter! It stands to reason it would be more receptive to 800-page novels than we are today.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
Their jobs are there of course, but they’ve also made the decision to stay in the inner city rather than commute from the suburbs.
Those without cars generally say they don’t miss them but it must cause issues when it comes to taking rubbish to the tip or picking up furniture from IKEA.
The carless parent cohort are a cross section from poor and on benefits to pretty wealthy and working in the city.
The walking and cycling parents in Bristol, at least the ones the BBC found, are the very lucky few who can both afford to live around the corner from the good school, and have a parent without a tight morning schedule.
Once upon a time, kids would've walked or cycled to school on their lonesome. Then parents started to get risk averse and thus the school run started, making the roads more dangerous for those who continued to walk - a vicious cycle until there is a huge increase in congestion during school term and people won't let their kids out on the road.
I find that very sad, and count myself lucky that I had the freedom of my neighbourhood from about age 8.
My recollection is that my Mum walked me to school for my first few mornings at Primary School and that was it. It was about half a mile away and I crossed one minor road and a main one with a school crossings lady by the school. Even at the age of six, none of us would be seen dead with our Mums in the street if we could possibly avoid it.
This was Hackney in the mid fifties.
The Krays presumably putting the frighteners on any dangerous drivers.
‘Yer could leave yer doors open and speeding drivers ended up in the Thames’
They were always small timers.
Luigi: We can guarantee you that not a single armoured division will get done over for fifteen bob a week.
Opinium's methodology is specifically designed to find shy Tories. If it is reporting a wider Labour lead as the Reform vote and DKs decline, that is very bad news indeed for Sunak and co. I'd say that's the big takeaway from this poll.
Indeed. I have been saying that the GE will be in Jan 25 for a long time - looks more and more probable. The Tories will hang on to the bitter end. After Ratnering the country for 14 years, what’s a few extra months of incompetent rule?
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Oxford must be way, way ahead of ItsGrimUpNorthLondon then. Kiddie trailers & cargo bikes as far as the eye can see.
Of course, anyone that chooses to /drive/ into Oxford is completely insane in the first place. Bicycle trailers actually make sense here.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Dummy Mummies with cargo bikes seem to be all the rage in some parts and on twitter.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
They’re just a bike with a battery !!
They are significantly cheaper than any car once you take into account fuel, MOT, insurance etc etc. The unit cost is falling quickly as they become more widespread.
They won't replace the first car but they will certainly replace the second one for most families.
They have one considerable advantage over a car.
Due to the large number of calories required to propel them, they represent a very good workout. Which reduces the amount of time the Ladies Who Lunch need to spend in the gym. Which in turn is required to reduce the probability of the husband trading in for a younger model of wife.
What’s not to like? Social status, a bit of greenwashing, divorce risk reduction…
Of course there a quite a few genuine users…. But having lived among The Superficial People for a while…. I’m talking about people for whom Desperate Housewives was something between a documentary and a how to manual.
Meh, it's like with any new technology from iPhones to motorcars - the rich have them first and then they become universal.
Cargo bikes are interesting because they are actually cheaper than what they replace (cars) and you can get them on finance too. The reason they are associated with rich people is simply having somewhere to store them.
Rereading that Orwell piece, I'm struck by how starkly miserable he is as a writer. I really don't enjoy reading his stuff. Yes, there're clever and quotable gems in there and the vision is wonderful. But it's all so fucking dour. Better to read Heller. You get the cleverness but it's enjoyable too. Reading Orwell is like eating plain celery for lunch, every lunch, from now until the day you die. It's probably doing you some good, but you'll want to take a claw hammer to your own sphenoid within a week.
The only exception to that, in my opinion, is Down and Out in London and Paris which is quite entertaining in parts. Re Heller, I didn't get beyond page 5 of his most famous book. I'll try again some other time.
It took me two goes to get past the start of the book. No regrets once I was into it, Catch-22 is one of the funniest things I've read. Not many books make me laugh out loud* but C22 did. I think the only other time that's happened was with a Martin Amis book, perhaps Money? YMMV but I really enjoyed Catch-22.
*the delivery required for that is exceptional - I've read very funny books, e.g. much by Pratchett, but a literal LOL is rare
I loved Catch 22 when I was younger - I wrote my extended essay on it in CSYS English. You're right, it is outrageously funny. I tried reading it again later in life, though, and couldn't get into it so much. I think there are some books you enjoy when you're young (other examples include On the Road and the Lord of the Rings) that somehow aren't the same if you read them in middle age. On the other hand I have re-read Nineteen Eighty Four several times and it gets better each time. I'd put Great Expectations in that category too.
Nineteen Eighty Four is good, to be sure, and I have read it a few times. But it's a bit relentless. Orwell skimps on the sugar when trying to make a point and just batters the reader with a blunt object until they get it. It's all a bit Victorian in a way, all didactic and serious.
I'll admit I've had trouble getting into Dickens and I've never read GE. What recommends it?
I'm grateful to my English teacher who ditched Great Expectations as our set book after a few chapters saying, "I can't stand this". Which meant I could come back to it as an adult when it would have been killed for me for ever if we had persevered.
What recommends it is great story telling. It has a very satisfying narrative that runs through the book despite the many deviations. It is a long novel rewarding patience, which is something you develop as you get older.
A similar experience for me with Heart of Midlothian, which after three false starts I loved. It's a cracking read.
Perhaps to return to the origins of this discussion it is worth reading Orwells essay on Dickens:
It certainly helped me make sense of Dickens and why his works were so popular. They speak to that very British desire to improve the world, not by overturning systems but rather by rich people being nicer.
Worth noting too that many of Dickens works were published as monthly serials in magazines, hence often rather wordy as spacefiller, and full of digressions and plot twists when sales fell.
The point about the serialisation is astute. What Dickens I have read has often felt like it's in need of a vigorous edit. If the plot is going nowhere, you'd better be wowwing me with interesting subtextual musings on philosophy or truth or something. Dickens waffles for cash.
I'm sure there's some truth in the point about serialisation, but of course the tastes of the reading public have changed beyond recognition. Dickens was writing for a public with no radio, no TV, no Internet, no Twitter! It stands to reason it would be more receptive to 800-page novels than we are today.
Yes - people wanted more words to fill their time. There was also more re-reading, I think - reading the same book multiple times to find more.
The serialised books in magazines were a big business in their day - people queuing up to get the first copies etc.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
I didn't find the article particularly offensive. Jettisoning the cars for bikes and public transport isn't on my agenda, although if it were a practical proposition I'd be much happier to curtail my 30,000 miles a year habit for the relative calm of a strike-free train service.
Neither of my children have yet bothered to pass a driving test (and only one of them will probably get around to it), and they aren’t particularly unusual in that. Another decade, and possibly no one will need to any more, anyway.
Neither of my children drive (23 and 29) either but they live in cities. It seems more normal these days. In my day you got your first driving lesson on your 17th birthday and I have driven every since. Seems times have changed though
However I agree with @Casino_Royale on the tone of the article. Times have changed, but I don't think either of my kids have ignored the car because of the climate. They just don't need one and it is no longer a rite of passage anymore to get one.
It’s a massive pain in the backside to get a test at the moment, so it’s unsurprising that those who don’t actually need to drive aren’t bothering.
I looked into this for some reason recently. The most recent number from early this year are that delays are only ~3 -3.5 months at present on (national) average, which seems not unreasonable, and has improved rapidly,
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
Their jobs are there of course, but they’ve also made the decision to stay in the inner city rather than commute from the suburbs.
Those without cars generally say they don’t miss them but it must cause issues when it comes to taking rubbish to the tip or picking up furniture from IKEA.
The carless parent cohort are a cross section from poor and on benefits to pretty wealthy and working in the city.
The walking and cycling parents in Bristol, at least the ones the BBC found, are the very lucky few who can both afford to live around the corner from the good school, and have a parent without a tight morning schedule.
Once upon a time, kids would've walked or cycled to school on their lonesome. Then parents started to get risk averse and thus the school run started, making the roads more dangerous for those who continued to walk - a vicious cycle until there is a huge increase in congestion during school term and people won't let their kids out on the road.
I find that very sad, and count myself lucky that I had the freedom of my neighbourhood from about age 8.
This was of course also driven by the introduction of choice. Once upon a time, you simply went to the nearest primary school, which was usually within easy walking distance.
Agreed. My daughter went to a nearby CoE school and walked only from year 6 on her own (or rather, with a friend). There is a primary school four doors down from us (I think I've ranted about school run mum parking across.... and in... our driveway before). She could've walked that from year 1 but its Catholic so... boo hiss... they're the enemy my wife tells me... so she couldn't go there.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
Their jobs are there of course, but they’ve also made the decision to stay in the inner city rather than commute from the suburbs.
Those without cars generally say they don’t miss them but it must cause issues when it comes to taking rubbish to the tip or picking up furniture from IKEA.
The carless parent cohort are a cross section from poor and on benefits to pretty wealthy and working in the city.
The walking and cycling parents in Bristol, at least the ones the BBC found, are the very lucky few who can both afford to live around the corner from the good school, and have a parent without a tight morning schedule.
Once upon a time, kids would've walked or cycled to school on their lonesome. Then parents started to get risk averse and thus the school run started, making the roads more dangerous for those who continued to walk - a vicious cycle until there is a huge increase in congestion during school term and people won't let their kids out on the road.
I find that very sad, and count myself lucky that I had the freedom of my neighbourhood from about age 8.
Yes, my brother & I walked the mile + a half or so to primary school from when I was 7? 8? Something like that. Including crossing the main through road at the bottom of our cul-de-sac by ourselves once my parents were happy that we could do so safely.
Having been back recently, that road is now nose-to-tail godawful traffic during rush hour & it wouldn’t surprise me if absolutely no parents are letting their children anywhere near it. Increasing car use forces everyone else off the roads & it has happened so slowly & incrementally that we don’t notice the effects on a year-on-year basis but they pile up over time regardless.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
I didn't find the article particularly offensive. Jettisoning the cars for bikes and public transport isn't on my agenda, although if it were a practical proposition I'd be much happier to curtail my 30,000 miles a year habit for the relative calm of a strike-free train service.
Neither of my children have yet bothered to pass a driving test (and only one of them will probably get around to it), and they aren’t particularly unusual in that. Another decade, and possibly no one will need to any more, anyway.
Neither of my children drive (23 and 29) either but they live in cities. It seems more normal these days. In my day you got your first driving lesson on your 17th birthday and I have driven every since. Seems times have changed though
However I agree with @Casino_Royale on the tone of the article. Times have changed, but I don't think either of my kids have ignored the car because of the climate. They just don't need one and it is no longer a rite of passage anymore to get one.
It’s a massive pain in the backside to get a test at the moment, so it’s unsurprising that those who don’t actually need to drive aren’t bothering.
I looked into this for some reason recently. The most recent number from early this year are that delays are only ~3 -3.5 months at present on (national) average, which seems not unreasonable, and has improved rapidly,
Last time we enquired we found that a black market in Test dates had developed.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
I didn't find the article particularly offensive. Jettisoning the cars for bikes and public transport isn't on my agenda, although if it were a practical proposition I'd be much happier to curtail my 30,000 miles a year habit for the relative calm of a strike-free train service.
Neither of my children have yet bothered to pass a driving test (and only one of them will probably get around to it), and they aren’t particularly unusual in that. Another decade, and possibly no one will need to any more, anyway.
Neither of my children drive (23 and 29) either but they live in cities. It seems more normal these days. In my day you got your first driving lesson on your 17th birthday and I have driven every since. Seems times have changed though
However I agree with @Casino_Royale on the tone of the article. Times have changed, but I don't think either of my kids have ignored the car because of the climate. They just don't need one and it is no longer a rite of passage anymore to get one.
Which would probably make for a more interesting article.
The discussion on here though is an interesting insight into the two nations. The mutual incomprehension of the urban walker and the rural driver.
Rereading that Orwell piece, I'm struck by how starkly miserable he is as a writer. I really don't enjoy reading his stuff. Yes, there're clever and quotable gems in there and the vision is wonderful. But it's all so fucking dour. Better to read Heller. You get the cleverness but it's enjoyable too. Reading Orwell is like eating plain celery for lunch, every lunch, from now until the day you die. It's probably doing you some good, but you'll want to take a claw hammer to your own sphenoid within a week.
The only exception to that, in my opinion, is Down and Out in London and Paris which is quite entertaining in parts. Re Heller, I didn't get beyond page 5 of his most famous book. I'll try again some other time.
It took me two goes to get past the start of the book. No regrets once I was into it, Catch-22 is one of the funniest things I've read. Not many books make me laugh out loud* but C22 did. I think the only other time that's happened was with a Martin Amis book, perhaps Money? YMMV but I really enjoyed Catch-22.
*the delivery required for that is exceptional - I've read very funny books, e.g. much by Pratchett, but a literal LOL is rare
I loved Catch 22 when I was younger - I wrote my extended essay on it in CSYS English. You're right, it is outrageously funny. I tried reading it again later in life, though, and couldn't get into it so much. I think there are some books you enjoy when you're young (other examples include On the Road and the Lord of the Rings) that somehow aren't the same if you read them in middle age. On the other hand I have re-read Nineteen Eighty Four several times and it gets better each time. I'd put Great Expectations in that category too.
Nineteen Eighty Four is good, to be sure, and I have read it a few times. But it's a bit relentless. Orwell skimps on the sugar when trying to make a point and just batters the reader with a blunt object until they get it. It's all a bit Victorian in a way, all didactic and serious.
I'll admit I've had trouble getting into Dickens and I've never read GE. What recommends it?
I'm grateful to my English teacher who ditched Great Expectations as our set book after a few chapters saying, "I can't stand this". Which meant I could come back to it as an adult when it would have been killed for me for ever if we had persevered.
What recommends it is great story telling. It has a very satisfying narrative that runs through the book despite the many deviations. It is a long novel rewarding patience, which is something you develop as you get older.
A similar experience for me with Heart of Midlothian, which after three false starts I loved. It's a cracking read.
Perhaps to return to the origins of this discussion it is worth reading Orwells essay on Dickens:
It certainly helped me make sense of Dickens and why his works were so popular. They speak to that very British desire to improve the world, not by overturning systems but rather by rich people being nicer.
Worth noting too that many of Dickens works were published as monthly serials in magazines, hence often rather wordy as spacefiller, and full of digressions and plot twists when sales fell.
The point about the serialisation is astute. What Dickens I have read has often felt like it's in need of a vigorous edit. If the plot is going nowhere, you'd better be wowwing me with interesting subtextual musings on philosophy or truth or something. Dickens waffles for cash.
I'm sure there's some truth in the point about serialisation, but of course the tastes of the reading public have changed beyond recognition. Dickens was writing for a public with no radio, no TV, no Internet, no Twitter! It stands to reason it would be more receptive to 800-page novels than we are today.
Thing is, I love a good epic. It's not the length of the work that annoys, it's the sense that writing isn't doing the job of either moving the narrative along or moving your soul with a deep truth about life. Even a pointless digression written beautifully is fine. But when it's neither use nor ornament, it becomes something of an abuse of the reader's time. Go long if and only if you've got something to say.
Want to have a bit of fun, donate to a good cause, and maybe win a massive book token? Here's how...
As I have mentioned once or twice, in January I took over a bookshop - The Book Ferret, in Arundel.
Now that I've got my feet under the table and the local customers have got used to the new face behind the desk, I'm going to be changing the name of the book shop next month, and I'm running a competition to guess the new name to raise money for charity - and you could win a book token!
The new name is the title of a twentieth century novel by a British author - details of the contest are on the JustGiving page where you can donate and enter
Labour seems to understand this. The Tories less so ...
Excellent article from @TorstenBell in the Guardian. You'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise, but political polarisation in the UK is *lower* today than 40 years ago. We are not the US. UK voters are not polarised, just "pissed off and volatile".
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
I didn't find the article particularly offensive. Jettisoning the cars for bikes and public transport isn't on my agenda, although if it were a practical proposition I'd be much happier to curtail my 30,000 miles a year habit for the relative calm of a strike-free train service.
Neither of my children have yet bothered to pass a driving test (and only one of them will probably get around to it), and they aren’t particularly unusual in that. Another decade, and possibly no one will need to any more, anyway.
Neither of my children drive (23 and 29) either but they live in cities. It seems more normal these days. In my day you got your first driving lesson on your 17th birthday and I have driven every since. Seems times have changed though
However I agree with @Casino_Royale on the tone of the article. Times have changed, but I don't think either of my kids have ignored the car because of the climate. They just don't need one and it is no longer a rite of passage anymore to get one.
It’s a massive pain in the backside to get a test at the moment, so it’s unsurprising that those who don’t actually need to drive aren’t bothering.
Curiously, the Conservatives pro-motorist posture does not extend to young people.
A really smart policy would be to make motoring much more accessible, from cheaper lessons and tests to incentives to keep old bangers going as long as possible. Essentially a bung to the middle class, but environmentally friendly and rural focussed too.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Dummy Mummies with cargo bikes seem to be all the rage in some parts and on twitter.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
They’re just a bike with a battery !!
They are significantly cheaper than any car once you take into account fuel, MOT, insurance etc etc. The unit cost is falling quickly as they become more widespread.
They won't replace the first car but they will certainly replace the second one for most families.
They have one considerable advantage over a car.
Due to the large number of calories required to propel them, they represent a very good workout. Which reduces the amount of time the Ladies Who Lunch need to spend in the gym. Which in turn is required to reduce the probability of the husband trading in for a younger model of wife.
What’s not to like? Social status, a bit of greenwashing, divorce risk reduction…
Of course there a quite a few genuine users…. But having lived among The Superficial People for a while…. I’m talking about people for whom Desperate Housewives was something between a documentary and a how to manual.
Meh, it's like with any new technology from iPhones to motorcars - the rich have them first and then they become universal.
Cargo bikes are interesting because they are actually cheaper than what they replace (cars) and you can get them on finance too. The reason they are associated with rich people is simply having somewhere to store them.
Indeed. A relative does ultra high end building work for the kind of people who own small banks. The technology he puts into their houses is stuff that everyone is buying at B&Q ten years later.
One thing that sunrises me about the cargo bikes is that they don’t seem to have made an effort to make them really weatherproof - in the sense of just leave them outside.
Back when I was young, my brother and I used to build our own bikes. By using stainless bolts, wheel spokes etc. we got to the stage that our bikes genuinely didn’t rust when outside. In this day of composites, easy custom plastic holding etc, it should be possible to build a bike that can sit uncovered all year with no ill effects. Just a plastic bag over the saddle and a cover over the cargo space.
Oh Mr Eagles, really, how could you say such a thing?
It's 'Donald Trump and I.'
As I said I am re-evaluating my choices and that includes all grammar related things.
Including metaphors. How can just one thing, the Elphicke defection, be both flotsam and jetsam?
Anyway, the bigger story is not that Elphicke is Labour's most right-wing MP but that Wes Streeting is running her close as he sets out his stall in the Sunday Telegraph. The health service is not to be worshipped; it must work evenings and weekends (doesn't it already?) while reducing its dependence on immigrants; it must raise productivity, harrumphs Streeting as he channels his inner Jeremy Hunt. No more banging pans in support of the NHS.
Speaking of whom, the Chancellor tells the Sunday Times he is ready to generously compensate victims of the tainted blood scandal now that Labour will get the bill.
I am tired and emotional at the moment.
Literally tired and emotional at the fact I am off to Anfield to say goodbye to Jürgen Klopp.
I haven't been this emotional since David Cameron announced his retirement in 2016.
Even as a United fan I will be sorry to see him go. Definitely one of the good guys in sport. It should be a memorable day.
I did wonder today why there were so many Liverpool fans about, given its a meaningless match for placing. Only realised now its to see Klopp off.....
This is one of those classic polls that people more or less make up an opinion on the spot when asked but in reality less than 1% give a toss . If somebody asked me today (lets say) if the elgin marbles should be returned to Greece I would be forced to consider this for the first time in years and say yes or no - Does not mean i care in reality
How many people have actually heard of Dan Poulter or Natalie Elphicke, other than those in their constituencies or those who spend half their lives following politics?
Agreed, the most that will register with the majority of voters is "A Tory MP defects to Labour" which is a plus for Starmer.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
There was a great slightly provocative quote on the school run in the video about Waterbeach I posted yesterday:
"With the local schools team, we said what what do you need in terms of access - how much parking do you need for parents in the morning? They basically said we don't want any because whatever you do outside the front of a primary school it will be chaos.
If you provide 50 parking spaces they'll be filled and more. If you provide none it will all be filled and more. So we'd rather you didn't provide any. So that was actually quite encouraging and not really the answer we'd expected."
(Separate facility provided for staff, disabled access etc. Plus a local mobility hub within walking distance on paths through amenity space.)
My cynical side says that that response was from the developer: who would quite like that car parking space to cram yet more houses in.
Our school has a too-small car park; shared by it and the adjacent secondary. The approach is via a long road that leads from almost outside the village; most people have a long drive just to reach the access road.
There is lots of active travel to the school; a short path leads from the end of a residential road in the village to the main gate. At school times, this is crammed with people and bikes. Noticeably less so in wet weather, though, when the car park gets busier.
But: lots of people park, or drop kids off on, the residential road; it is a much shorter trip for many than negotiating the access road. The road is not designed for that sort of traffic load. I ca guarantee that this will also happen in Waterbeach; lack of provision of a car park will just lead to people using nearby residential roads.
Active travel is fine for people like me, where we live less than a ten minute walk away from the school, especially as I don't work. It may be very different if you need to drive to work immediately afterwards - in other words, the life many people lead.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
Their jobs are there of course, but they’ve also made the decision to stay in the inner city rather than commute from the suburbs.
Those without cars generally say they don’t miss them but it must cause issues when it comes to taking rubbish to the tip or picking up furniture from IKEA.
The carless parent cohort are a cross section from poor and on benefits to pretty wealthy and working in the city.
The walking and cycling parents in Bristol, at least the ones the BBC found, are the very lucky few who can both afford to live around the corner from the good school, and have a parent without a tight morning schedule.
Once upon a time, kids would've walked or cycled to school on their lonesome. Then parents started to get risk averse and thus the school run started, making the roads more dangerous for those who continued to walk - a vicious cycle until there is a huge increase in congestion during school term and people won't let their kids out on the road.
I find that very sad, and count myself lucky that I had the freedom of my neighbourhood from about age 8.
This was of course also driven by the introduction of choice. Once upon a time, you simply went to the nearest primary school, which was usually within easy walking distance.
Agreed. My daughter went to a nearby CoE school and walked only from year 6 on her own (or rather, with a friend). There is a primary school four doors down from us (I think I've ranted about school run mum parking across.... and in... our driveway before). She could've walked that from year 1 but its Catholic so... boo hiss... they're the enemy my wife tells me... so she couldn't go there.
That's interesting. Perceptions of RCs as "the enemy" have been reducing for many decades.
There are various "straight down the line" Evangelical setups which exclude RCs from membership on various theological grounds, which is the same sort of principle the Vatican applies to non-RCs in various respects (marrying out of the RC community, Anglican Priestly Orders being "utterly null and void" etc) - but it's been very much dissolving apart from the Legal Rules for a long time.
Oh Mr Eagles, really, how could you say such a thing?
It's 'Donald Trump and I.'
As I said I am re-evaluating my choices and that includes all grammar related things.
Including metaphors. How can just one thing, the Elphicke defection, be both flotsam and jetsam?
Anyway, the bigger story is not that Elphicke is Labour's most right-wing MP but that Wes Streeting is running her close as he sets out his stall in the Sunday Telegraph. The health service is not to be worshipped; it must work evenings and weekends (doesn't it already?) while reducing its dependence on immigrants; it must raise productivity, harrumphs Streeting as he channels his inner Jeremy Hunt. No more banging pans in support of the NHS.
Speaking of whom, the Chancellor tells the Sunday Times he is ready to generously compensate victims of the tainted blood scandal now that Labour will get the bill.
I am tired and emotional at the moment.
Literally tired and emotional at the fact I am off to Anfield to say goodbye to Jürgen Klopp.
I haven't been this emotional since David Cameron announced his retirement in 2016.
‘Announced his retirement’ - well that’s one way of putting it…
Want to have a bit of fun, donate to a good cause, and maybe win a massive book token? Here's how...
As I have mentioned once or twice, in January I took over a bookshop - The Book Ferret, in Arundel.
Now that I've got my feet under the table and the local customers have got used to the new face behind the desk, I'm going to be changing the name of the book shop next month, and I'm running a competition to guess the new name to raise money for charity - and you could win a book token!
The new name is the title of a twentieth century novel by a British author - details of the contest are on the JustGiving page where you can donate and enter
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
Their jobs are there of course, but they’ve also made the decision to stay in the inner city rather than commute from the suburbs.
Those without cars generally say they don’t miss them but it must cause issues when it comes to taking rubbish to the tip or picking up furniture from IKEA.
The carless parent cohort are a cross section from poor and on benefits to pretty wealthy and working in the city.
The walking and cycling parents in Bristol, at least the ones the BBC found, are the very lucky few who can both afford to live around the corner from the good school, and have a parent without a tight morning schedule.
Once upon a time, kids would've walked or cycled to school on their lonesome. Then parents started to get risk averse and thus the school run started, making the roads more dangerous for those who continued to walk - a vicious cycle until there is a huge increase in congestion during school term and people won't let their kids out on the road.
I find that very sad, and count myself lucky that I had the freedom of my neighbourhood from about age 8.
My recollection is that my Mum walked me to school for my first few mornings at Primary School and that was it. It was about half a mile away and I crossed one minor road and a main one with a school crossings lady by the school. Even at the age of six, none of us would be seen dead with our Mums in the street if we could possibly avoid it.
This was Hackney in the mid fifties.
The Krays presumably putting the frighteners on any dangerous drivers.
‘Yer could leave yer doors open and speeding drivers ended up in the Thames’
Never met them, but did once box at their club, Repton, and they probably would have been there. They didn't offer me a contract.
You often heard it said that the streets were safer then because any bother would be sorted by them and their like. There may be a grain of truth in this. I remember it as a peaceful neighbourhood, but as a teenager you tended to know where to go and when to mind your ps and qs. If it was a 'Kray' pub or cafe, you kept yourself to yourself and minded your manners, but generally trouble didn't come looking for you if you didn't go meet it halfway.
On the whole, I regard mine as being a privileged upbringing.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Dummy Mummies with cargo bikes seem to be all the rage in some parts and on twitter.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
They’re just a bike with a battery !!
They are significantly cheaper than any car once you take into account fuel, MOT, insurance etc etc. The unit cost is falling quickly as they become more widespread.
They won't replace the first car but they will certainly replace the second one for most families.
They have one considerable advantage over a car.
Due to the large number of calories required to propel them, they represent a very good workout. Which reduces the amount of time the Ladies Who Lunch need to spend in the gym. Which in turn is required to reduce the probability of the husband trading in for a younger model of wife.
What’s not to like? Social status, a bit of greenwashing, divorce risk reduction…
Of course there a quite a few genuine users…. But having lived among The Superficial People for a while…. I’m talking about people for whom Desperate Housewives was something between a documentary and a how to manual.
Meh, it's like with any new technology from iPhones to motorcars - the rich have them first and then they become universal.
Cargo bikes are interesting because they are actually cheaper than what they replace (cars) and you can get them on finance too. The reason they are associated with rich people is simply having somewhere to store them.
Indeed. A relative does ultra high end building work for the kind of people who own small banks. The technology he puts into their houses is stuff that everyone is buying at B&Q ten years later.
One thing that sunrises me about the cargo bikes is that they don’t seem to have made an effort to make them really weatherproof - in the sense of just leave them outside.
Back when I was young, my brother and I used to build our own bikes. By using stainless bolts, wheel spokes etc. we got to the stage that our bikes genuinely didn’t rust when outside. In this day of composites, easy custom plastic holding etc, it should be possible to build a bike that can sit uncovered all year with no ill effects. Just a plastic bag over the saddle and a cover over the cargo space.
Bicycle and motorcycle theft is then your problem. It's rampant, and the police simply can't comprehend that it has a huge impact on how some people get around regardless of the relatively low value.
I know where all the bikes end up in Edinburgh because people have tracked them using Airtags.
Oh Mr Eagles, really, how could you say such a thing?
It's 'Donald Trump and I.'
As I said I am re-evaluating my choices and that includes all grammar related things.
Including metaphors. How can just one thing, the Elphicke defection, be both flotsam and jetsam?
Anyway, the bigger story is not that Elphicke is Labour's most right-wing MP but that Wes Streeting is running her close as he sets out his stall in the Sunday Telegraph. The health service is not to be worshipped; it must work evenings and weekends (doesn't it already?) while reducing its dependence on immigrants; it must raise productivity, harrumphs Streeting as he channels his inner Jeremy Hunt. No more banging pans in support of the NHS.
Speaking of whom, the Chancellor tells the Sunday Times he is ready to generously compensate victims of the tainted blood scandal now that Labour will get the bill.
I am tired and emotional at the moment.
Literally tired and emotional at the fact I am off to Anfield to say goodbye to Jürgen Klopp.
I haven't been this emotional since David Cameron announced his retirement in 2016.
‘Announced his retirement’ - well that’s one way of putting it…
Its an interesting take on 'took his ball and went home crying like a little biatch' for sure
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Dummy Mummies with cargo bikes seem to be all the rage in some parts and on twitter.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
They’re just a bike with a battery !!
They are significantly cheaper than any car once you take into account fuel, MOT, insurance etc etc. The unit cost is falling quickly as they become more widespread.
They won't replace the first car but they will certainly replace the second one for most families.
They have one considerable advantage over a car.
Due to the large number of calories required to propel them, they represent a very good workout. Which reduces the amount of time the Ladies Who Lunch need to spend in the gym. Which in turn is required to reduce the probability of the husband trading in for a younger model of wife.
What’s not to like? Social status, a bit of greenwashing, divorce risk reduction…
Of course there a quite a few genuine users…. But having lived among The Superficial People for a while…. I’m talking about people for whom Desperate Housewives was something between a documentary and a how to manual.
Meh, it's like with any new technology from iPhones to motorcars - the rich have them first and then they become universal.
Cargo bikes are interesting because they are actually cheaper than what they replace (cars) and you can get them on finance too. The reason they are associated with rich people is simply having somewhere to store them.
You would need to be some kind of massive fanny to be seen out on one of those. I do not expect to see one anywhere near here in my lifetime.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Dummy Mummies with cargo bikes seem to be all the rage in some parts and on twitter.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
They’re just a bike with a battery !!
They are significantly cheaper than any car once you take into account fuel, MOT, insurance etc etc. The unit cost is falling quickly as they become more widespread.
They won't replace the first car but they will certainly replace the second one for most families.
They have one considerable advantage over a car.
Due to the large number of calories required to propel them, they represent a very good workout. Which reduces the amount of time the Ladies Who Lunch need to spend in the gym. Which in turn is required to reduce the probability of the husband trading in for a younger model of wife.
What’s not to like? Social status, a bit of greenwashing, divorce risk reduction…
Of course there a quite a few genuine users…. But having lived among The Superficial People for a while…. I’m talking about people for whom Desperate Housewives was something between a documentary and a how to manual.
Meh, it's like with any new technology from iPhones to motorcars - the rich have them first and then they become universal.
Cargo bikes are interesting because they are actually cheaper than what they replace (cars) and you can get them on finance too. The reason they are associated with rich people is simply having somewhere to store them.
Indeed. A relative does ultra high end building work for the kind of people who own small banks. The technology he puts into their houses is stuff that everyone is buying at B&Q ten years later.
One thing that sunrises me about the cargo bikes is that they don’t seem to have made an effort to make them really weatherproof - in the sense of just leave them outside.
Back when I was young, my brother and I used to build our own bikes. By using stainless bolts, wheel spokes etc. we got to the stage that our bikes genuinely didn’t rust when outside. In this day of composites, easy custom plastic holding etc, it should be possible to build a bike that can sit uncovered all year with no ill effects. Just a plastic bag over the saddle and a cover over the cargo space.
Bicycle and motorcycle theft is then your problem. It's rampant, and the police simply can't comprehend that it has a huge impact on how some people get around regardless of the relatively low value.
I know where all the bikes end up in Edinburgh because people have tracked them using Airtags.
The police are quite even handed on this actually. They equally don’t bother investigating stolen cars.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Dummy Mummies with cargo bikes seem to be all the rage in some parts and on twitter.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
They’re just a bike with a battery !!
Only five or six grand. And you’ll need somewhere to store it safely.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
I didn't find the article particularly offensive. Jettisoning the cars for bikes and public transport isn't on my agenda, although if it were a practical proposition I'd be much happier to curtail my 30,000 miles a year habit for the relative calm of a strike-free train service.
Neither of my children have yet bothered to pass a driving test (and only one of them will probably get around to it), and they aren’t particularly unusual in that. Another decade, and possibly no one will need to any more, anyway.
Neither of my children drive (23 and 29) either but they live in cities. It seems more normal these days. In my day you got your first driving lesson on your 17th birthday and I have driven every since. Seems times have changed though
However I agree with @Casino_Royale on the tone of the article. Times have changed, but I don't think either of my kids have ignored the car because of the climate. They just don't need one and it is no longer a rite of passage anymore to get one.
Life's too short to get irritated about every other article on the BBC website.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
There was a great slightly provocative quote on the school run in the video about Waterbeach I posted yesterday:
"With the local schools team, we said what what do you need in terms of access - how much parking do you need for parents in the morning? They basically said we don't want any because whatever you do outside the front of a primary school it will be chaos.
If you provide 50 parking spaces they'll be filled and more. If you provide none it will all be filled and more. So we'd rather you didn't provide any. So that was actually quite encouraging and not really the answer we'd expected."
(Separate facility provided for staff, disabled access etc. Plus a local mobility hub within walking distance on paths through amenity space.)
My cynical side says that that response was from the developer: who would quite like that car parking space to cram yet more houses in.
Our school has a too-small car park; shared by it and the adjacent secondary. The approach is via a long road that leads from almost outside the village; most people have a long drive just to reach the access road.
There is lots of active travel to the school; a short path leads from the end of a residential road in the village to the main gate. At school times, this is crammed with people and bikes. Noticeably less so in wet weather, though, when the car park gets busier.
But: lots of people park, or drop kids off on, the residential road; it is a much shorter trip for many than negotiating the access road. The road is not designed for that sort of traffic load. I ca guarantee that this will also happen in Waterbeach; lack of provision of a car park will just lead to people using nearby residential roads.
Active travel is fine for people like me, where we live less than a ten minute walk away from the school, especially as I don't work. It may be very different if you need to drive to work immediately afterwards - in other words, the life many people lead.
Our school is now on a “school street” which means no driving except for residents for about an hour and a half at drop off and pick up time. And certainly no parking.
It means a festive atmosphere every morning with the children all walking down the middle of the street, welcomed in by name by the headmistress standing outside the gate.
I mean it's a bit chalk and apples but the 9th round reminds me of the Mayweather McGregor fight when McGregor was being thrown around like a rag doll and the ref stopped the fight. Big call in this case that the ref gave Fury a count rather than waved it off.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
There was a great slightly provocative quote on the school run in the video about Waterbeach I posted yesterday:
"With the local schools team, we said what what do you need in terms of access - how much parking do you need for parents in the morning? They basically said we don't want any because whatever you do outside the front of a primary school it will be chaos.
If you provide 50 parking spaces they'll be filled and more. If you provide none it will all be filled and more. So we'd rather you didn't provide any. So that was actually quite encouraging and not really the answer we'd expected."
(Separate facility provided for staff, disabled access etc. Plus a local mobility hub within walking distance on paths through amenity space.)
My cynical side says that that response was from the developer: who would quite like that car parking space to cram yet more houses in.
Our school has a too-small car park; shared by it and the adjacent secondary. The approach is via a long road that leads from almost outside the village; most people have a long drive just to reach the access road.
There is lots of active travel to the school; a short path leads from the end of a residential road in the village to the main gate. At school times, this is crammed with people and bikes. Noticeably less so in wet weather, though, when the car park gets busier.
But: lots of people park, or drop kids off on, the residential road; it is a much shorter trip for many than negotiating the access road. The road is not designed for that sort of traffic load. I ca guarantee that this will also happen in Waterbeach; lack of provision of a car park will just lead to people using nearby residential roads.
Active travel is fine for people like me, where we live less than a ten minute walk away from the school, especially as I don't work. It may be very different if you need to drive to work immediately afterwards - in other words, the life many people lead.
I'd recommend watching the presentation - it is only 15 minutes. There is car park provision at the mobility hub nearby, which is provision for the area rather than just the school.
"Nearby roads" are tending to be replaced with open landscaped amenity space or walking / wheeling / cycling paths.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Dummy Mummies with cargo bikes seem to be all the rage in some parts and on twitter.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
They’re just a bike with a battery !!
They are significantly cheaper than any car once you take into account fuel, MOT, insurance etc etc. The unit cost is falling quickly as they become more widespread.
They won't replace the first car but they will certainly replace the second one for most families.
They have one considerable advantage over a car.
Due to the large number of calories required to propel them, they represent a very good workout. Which reduces the amount of time the Ladies Who Lunch need to spend in the gym. Which in turn is required to reduce the probability of the husband trading in for a younger model of wife.
What’s not to like? Social status, a bit of greenwashing, divorce risk reduction…
Of course there a quite a few genuine users…. But having lived among The Superficial People for a while…. I’m talking about people for whom Desperate Housewives was something between a documentary and a how to manual.
Meh, it's like with any new technology from iPhones to motorcars - the rich have them first and then they become universal.
Cargo bikes are interesting because they are actually cheaper than what they replace (cars) and you can get them on finance too. The reason they are associated with rich people is simply having somewhere to store them.
You would need to be some kind of massive fanny to be seen out on one of those. I do not expect to see one anywhere near here in my lifetime.
Live and let live Malcolm. Nobody’s forcing you to buy a cargo bike.
Want to have a bit of fun, donate to a good cause, and maybe win a massive book token? Here's how...
As I have mentioned once or twice, in January I took over a bookshop - The Book Ferret, in Arundel.
Now that I've got my feet under the table and the local customers have got used to the new face behind the desk, I'm going to be changing the name of the book shop next month, and I'm running a competition to guess the new name to raise money for charity - and you could win a book token!
The new name is the title of a twentieth century novel by a British author - details of the contest are on the JustGiving page where you can donate and enter
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Dummy Mummies with cargo bikes seem to be all the rage in some parts and on twitter.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
They’re just a bike with a battery !!
They are significantly cheaper than any car once you take into account fuel, MOT, insurance etc etc. The unit cost is falling quickly as they become more widespread.
They won't replace the first car but they will certainly replace the second one for most families.
They have one considerable advantage over a car.
Due to the large number of calories required to propel them, they represent a very good workout. Which reduces the amount of time the Ladies Who Lunch need to spend in the gym. Which in turn is required to reduce the probability of the husband trading in for a younger model of wife.
What’s not to like? Social status, a bit of greenwashing, divorce risk reduction…
Of course there a quite a few genuine users…. But having lived among The Superficial People for a while…. I’m talking about people for whom Desperate Housewives was something between a documentary and a how to manual.
Meh, it's like with any new technology from iPhones to motorcars - the rich have them first and then they become universal.
Cargo bikes are interesting because they are actually cheaper than what they replace (cars) and you can get them on finance too. The reason they are associated with rich people is simply having somewhere to store them.
You would need to be some kind of massive fanny to be seen out on one of those. I do not expect to see one anywhere near here in my lifetime.
Live and let live Malcolm. Nobody’s forcing you to buy a cargo bike.
I did not say they could not spend their money as they wish , merely the fact that I would never make myself look such a massive fanny by having one. I prefer an SUV in any case.
I mean it's a bit chalk and apples but the 9th round reminds me of the Mayweather McGregor fight when McGregor was being thrown around like a rag doll and the ref stopped the fight. Big call in this case that the ref gave Fury a count rather than waved it off.
Fury saying he was robbed was ridiculous braggadocio. Though I probably wouldn't say that to his face.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
Their jobs are there of course, but they’ve also made the decision to stay in the inner city rather than commute from the suburbs.
Those without cars generally say they don’t miss them but it must cause issues when it comes to taking rubbish to the tip or picking up furniture from IKEA.
The carless parent cohort are a cross section from poor and on benefits to pretty wealthy and working in the city.
The walking and cycling parents in Bristol, at least the ones the BBC found, are the very lucky few who can both afford to live around the corner from the good school, and have a parent without a tight morning schedule.
Once upon a time, kids would've walked or cycled to school on their lonesome. Then parents started to get risk averse and thus the school run started, making the roads more dangerous for those who continued to walk - a vicious cycle until there is a huge increase in congestion during school term and people won't let their kids out on the road.
I find that very sad, and count myself lucky that I had the freedom of my neighbourhood from about age 8.
Oh indeed, kids should be allowed to be kids, but today’s parents are much more worried about the massively rare safety issues, than they are about letting them be kids and explore the world.
It tells you a lot about the BBC though, that they choose to venerate the yummy mummies and WFHers in the million-pound houses with six grand bikes, and softly demonise the hardworking secretary whose boss notices if she arrives at 9:05 because there was a traffic jam outside the school on the other side of town.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Dummy Mummies with cargo bikes seem to be all the rage in some parts and on twitter.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
They’re just a bike with a battery !!
They are significantly cheaper than any car once you take into account fuel, MOT, insurance etc etc. The unit cost is falling quickly as they become more widespread.
They won't replace the first car but they will certainly replace the second one for most families.
They have one considerable advantage over a car.
Due to the large number of calories required to propel them, they represent a very good workout. Which reduces the amount of time the Ladies Who Lunch need to spend in the gym. Which in turn is required to reduce the probability of the husband trading in for a younger model of wife.
What’s not to like? Social status, a bit of greenwashing, divorce risk reduction…
Of course there a quite a few genuine users…. But having lived among The Superficial People for a while…. I’m talking about people for whom Desperate Housewives was something between a documentary and a how to manual.
Meh, it's like with any new technology from iPhones to motorcars - the rich have them first and then they become universal.
Cargo bikes are interesting because they are actually cheaper than what they replace (cars) and you can get them on finance too. The reason they are associated with rich people is simply having somewhere to store them.
You would need to be some kind of massive fanny to be seen out on one of those. I do not expect to see one anywhere near here in my lifetime.
Live and let live Malcolm. Nobody’s forcing you to buy a cargo bike.
He hasn’t heard about The English plan to force all True Scots to work as slaves, pedalling Toffs around the 15 Minute Cities?
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
‘Jayne Wade, who lives in Easton, "burst into tears" when she first started researching the climate crisis.’
Jesus Wept.
No, Jayne wept.
No, it was a typo in the article. Should have been “Jesus Christ, who lives on the West Bank, “burst into tears” when he first started researching the climate crisis”.
Jesus Christ, who lived in the West Bank but whose home was demolished by a far right Israeli regime to accommodate settlers. That’s probably why he wept 🤔
Those parents are way behind the curve. In the really expensive bits of West London, the must have accessory is a Danish branded cargo bike to take your infants to school. For years now.
A Chelsea tractor on the school run has been the social equivalent of reading the Sun on public for a long, long time.
There’s a couple of “Christiana” branded ones, locally. Which makes me smile every time I see them.
Dummy Mummies with cargo bikes seem to be all the rage in some parts and on twitter.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
They’re just a bike with a battery !!
They are significantly cheaper than any car once you take into account fuel, MOT, insurance etc etc. The unit cost is falling quickly as they become more widespread.
They won't replace the first car but they will certainly replace the second one for most families.
They have one considerable advantage over a car.
Due to the large number of calories required to propel them, they represent a very good workout. Which reduces the amount of time the Ladies Who Lunch need to spend in the gym. Which in turn is required to reduce the probability of the husband trading in for a younger model of wife.
What’s not to like? Social status, a bit of greenwashing, divorce risk reduction…
Of course there a quite a few genuine users…. But having lived among The Superficial People for a while…. I’m talking about people for whom Desperate Housewives was something between a documentary and a how to manual.
Meh, it's like with any new technology from iPhones to motorcars - the rich have them first and then they become universal.
Cargo bikes are interesting because they are actually cheaper than what they replace (cars) and you can get them on finance too. The reason they are associated with rich people is simply having somewhere to store them.
Indeed. A relative does ultra high end building work for the kind of people who own small banks. The technology he puts into their houses is stuff that everyone is buying at B&Q ten years later.
One thing that sunrises me about the cargo bikes is that they don’t seem to have made an effort to make them really weatherproof - in the sense of just leave them outside.
Back when I was young, my brother and I used to build our own bikes. By using stainless bolts, wheel spokes etc. we got to the stage that our bikes genuinely didn’t rust when outside. In this day of composites, easy custom plastic holding etc, it should be possible to build a bike that can sit uncovered all year with no ill effects. Just a plastic bag over the saddle and a cover over the cargo space.
Bicycle and motorcycle theft is then your problem. It's rampant, and the police simply can't comprehend that it has a huge impact on how some people get around regardless of the relatively low value.
I know where all the bikes end up in Edinburgh because people have tracked them using Airtags.
That's one reason - the other being needing to recover from major illness - why my N+1 cycle is an e-folder. I can just fold it in 10 seconds and put it in the supermarket trolley if needed, or wheel around the eg shop or hospital.
Still need to get on to secure cycle parking, even at the hospital. The ones at my GP surgery are literally blocks of concrete with slots in them, straight out of Fred Flintstone.
One point to be noted is that the cycle market, like the car market, is driven by brand, fashion, shallow or deep discounting and gimmicks, and new ones immediately lose 20% or so in value. So I hardly ever buy anything at less than 25%-30% off the price.
Morning all. Polling of late suggests a bump for Labour post LEs/Elphicke of maybe a couple of % points, Opinium, WeThink, Deltapoll and YouGov all found a bouncette, all within MoE though of course. Tories are sort of holding on at low to mid 20s but there is an inexorable drift down at a very slow pace, I don't expect that to reverse until a GE is called and then a limited bump up as DKs return (not en masse by any means). Reform are declining by a similar amount to Labour's bounce....... dyor, LDs and Greens seem static, LDs need double figures to be confident of large gains from the Tories but evenat 7 or 8% they'd nab quite a few. Galloway and the WPB made their first appearance this week in polls with 1% in Whitestone (actually 0.6%) and Opinium (awaiting tables), I've got them on ca 2.5% if they run 600 candidates or proportionate thereto (ca 750,000 votes), they'd need maybe 3 to 3.5% to start causing a bit of chaos. I think they will do pretty well for a new party, Gaza will be a strong recruiting sergeant this time and they are a natural outlet for it.
Most people presume that Reform UK will get fewer votes in the election than their polling. Can I ask why you think WPB will get more votes in the election than their polling?
Well, I just did. Gaza. Also, Increasing awareness of their existence and their performance where they have stood thus year so far suggests a not insignificant interest and support.. Reform are prompted in polling, WPB are not.
Thanks. There are other parties competing on the Gaza vote, including the better-organised, more established, larger, less homophobic Greens. I don’t think myself that Gaza is going to be a bigger issue in a few months. Ukraine faded from the headlines to a degree, as will Gaza. (Personally, I think Gaza is a huge tragedy, as is Ukraine, and I don’t want it to fade in people’s attention.)
The WPB’s performance to date has been good in the limited places they chose to stand. They chose to stand in areas with a high proportion of Muslim voters. That scenario doesn’t generalise to most constituencies.
Prompting in the polls does make a difference, but it doesn’t make a huge difference.
Are WPB building on their success to date? Their crowdfunding campaign for the general election is going pretty poorly. I think they’ll struggle to raise the funds to stand in a very large number of constituencies. I also think it’s notable that lots of people aren’t joining them. Akhmed Yakoob in the W Mids mayoral election stood as an independent rather than for the WPB (who endorsed him). I don’t see that as a vote of confidence in the WPB.
Want to have a bit of fun, donate to a good cause, and maybe win a massive book token? Here's how...
As I have mentioned once or twice, in January I took over a bookshop - The Book Ferret, in Arundel.
Now that I've got my feet under the table and the local customers have got used to the new face behind the desk, I'm going to be changing the name of the book shop next month, and I'm running a competition to guess the new name to raise money for charity - and you could win a book token!
The new name is the title of a twentieth century novel by a British author - details of the contest are on the JustGiving page where you can donate and enter
www.justgiving.com/page/thebookferret
Good luck with the enterprise @jamesdoyle . Keep us informed as to how you get on.
One thing that sunrises me about the cargo bikes is that they don’t seem to have made an effort to make them really weatherproof - in the sense of just leave them outside.
I suspect most of these things are designed for use in countries with much nicer weather than the UK. It's the same with motorcycles and scooters, even quite expensive ones will rust quickly under the British weather, particularly if they're used in the winter and get exposed to road salt.
My current scooter is less than two years old, wasn't cheap, yet it's developed some visible rust despite being kept under a cover and regularly coated in anti-corrosion goo.
Opinium's methodology is specifically designed to find shy Tories. If it is reporting a wider Labour lead as the Reform vote and DKs decline, that is very bad news indeed for Sunak and co. I'd say that's the big takeaway from this poll.
Indeed. I have been saying that the GE will be in Jan 25 for a long time - looks more and more probable. The Tories will hang on to the bitter end. After Ratnering the country for 14 years, what’s a few extra months of incompetent rule?
Quite possibly the destruction of our current university sector knocking a couple of percent off our GDP
These people are mocking the horrific death rate from Dihydrogen Monoxide
I’d love to find a box of that. It’s quite literally comedy water, as in a bunch of American comedians invested in the company and they all promote the hell out of it on their podcasts. Never seen it on sale though.
Mr. Doyle, it's ok if I post the link for your contest to my Twitter (MorrisF1), right? Don't use it too much but lots of people I know are very into books.
Opinium's methodology is specifically designed to find shy Tories. If it is reporting a wider Labour lead as the Reform vote and DKs decline, that is very bad news indeed for Sunak and co. I'd say that's the big takeaway from this poll.
Indeed. I have been saying that the GE will be in Jan 25 for a long time - looks more and more probable. The Tories will hang on to the bitter end. After Ratnering the country for 14 years, what’s a few extra months of incompetent rule?
Quite possibly the destruction of our current university sector knocking a couple of percent off our GDP
I wonder if Labour are quite happy with the BBC putting up a disproportionate number of Tories for the moment. Probably.
One thing that sunrises me about the cargo bikes is that they don’t seem to have made an effort to make them really weatherproof - in the sense of just leave them outside.
I suspect most of these things are designed for use in countries with much nicer weather than the UK. It's the same with motorcycles and scooters, even quite expensive ones will rust quickly under the British weather, particularly if they're used in the winter and get exposed to road salt.
My current scooter is less than two years old, wasn't cheap, yet it's developed some visible rust despite being kept under a cover and regularly coated in anti-corrosion goo.
Denmark is not the Sunshine Country. Well, the summers are quite nice. But in winter, digging your cargo bike out of a snow drift would be common thing.
Perhaps that is the issue - the weather is actually worse, so the bikes live in garages and bike sheds?
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
Their jobs are there of course, but they’ve also made the decision to stay in the inner city rather than commute from the suburbs.
Those without cars generally say they don’t miss them but it must cause issues when it comes to taking rubbish to the tip or picking up furniture from IKEA.
The carless parent cohort are a cross section from poor and on benefits to pretty wealthy and working in the city.
The walking and cycling parents in Bristol, at least the ones the BBC found, are the very lucky few who can both afford to live around the corner from the good school, and have a parent without a tight morning schedule.
Once upon a time, kids would've walked or cycled to school on their lonesome. Then parents started to get risk averse and thus the school run started, making the roads more dangerous for those who continued to walk - a vicious cycle until there is a huge increase in congestion during school term and people won't let their kids out on the road.
I find that very sad, and count myself lucky that I had the freedom of my neighbourhood from about age 8.
Oh indeed, kids should be allowed to be kids, but today’s parents are much more worried about the massively rare safety issues, than they are about letting them be kids and explore the world.
It tells you a lot about the BBC though, that they choose to venerate the yummy mummies and WFHers in the million-pound houses with six grand bikes, and softly demonise the hardworking secretary whose boss notices if she arrives at 9:05 because there was a traffic jam outside the school on the other side of town.
“demonise” Really? Can you show me an article that “demonise[s]” a “hardworking secretary whose boss notices if she arrives at 9:05 because there was a traffic jam”. I can’t say I’ve noticed that happening.
These people are mocking the horrific death rate from Dihydrogen Monoxide
I’d love to find a box of that. It’s quite literally comedy water, as in a bunch of American comedians invested in the company and they all promote the hell out of it on their podcasts. Never seen it on sale though.
Want to have a bit of fun, donate to a good cause, and maybe win a massive book token? Here's how...
As I have mentioned once or twice, in January I took over a bookshop - The Book Ferret, in Arundel.
Now that I've got my feet under the table and the local customers have got used to the new face behind the desk, I'm going to be changing the name of the book shop next month, and I'm running a competition to guess the new name to raise money for charity - and you could win a book token!
The new name is the title of a twentieth century novel by a British author - details of the contest are on the JustGiving page where you can donate and enter
Rereading that Orwell piece, I'm struck by how starkly miserable he is as a writer. I really don't enjoy reading his stuff. Yes, there're clever and quotable gems in there and the vision is wonderful. But it's all so fucking dour. Better to read Heller. You get the cleverness but it's enjoyable too. Reading Orwell is like eating plain celery for lunch, every lunch, from now until the day you die. It's probably doing you some good, but you'll want to take a claw hammer to your own sphenoid within a week.
The only exception to that, in my opinion, is Down and Out in London and Paris which is quite entertaining in parts. Re Heller, I didn't get beyond page 5 of his most famous book. I'll try again some other time.
It took me two goes to get past the start of the book. No regrets once I was into it, Catch-22 is one of the funniest things I've read. Not many books make me laugh out loud* but C22 did. I think the only other time that's happened was with a Martin Amis book, perhaps Money? YMMV but I really enjoyed Catch-22.
*the delivery required for that is exceptional - I've read very funny books, e.g. much by Pratchett, but a literal LOL is rare
I loved Catch 22 when I was younger - I wrote my extended essay on it in CSYS English. You're right, it is outrageously funny. I tried reading it again later in life, though, and couldn't get into it so much. I think there are some books you enjoy when you're young (other examples include On the Road and the Lord of the Rings) that somehow aren't the same if you read them in middle age. On the other hand I have re-read Nineteen Eighty Four several times and it gets better each time. I'd put Great Expectations in that category too.
Nineteen Eighty Four is good, to be sure, and I have read it a few times. But it's a bit relentless. Orwell skimps on the sugar when trying to make a point and just batters the reader with a blunt object until they get it. It's all a bit Victorian in a way, all didactic and serious.
I'll admit I've had trouble getting into Dickens and I've never read GE. What recommends it?
GE is just a really bloody good story. A genuine page turner. I can't read all of his books, some are too long and hard to read but GE I couldn't put town. Bleak House is a really good read, too, but GE is a masterpiece.
Mr. Doyle, it's ok if I post the link for your contest to my Twitter (MorrisF1), right? Don't use it too much but lots of people I know are very into books.
Spoiler: parents are not ditching their cars. A BBC Bristol journalist from BBC Bristol has spoken to a couple of left-wing parents in urban areas of what is now one of the UK's most left-wing cities who now cycle their kids to school.
It's entirely unrepresentative, it is very much exaggerated and it is absolutely very BBC. Met and preachy to the core.
I am a big supporter of the BBC - I think the country is trashing a huge soft influence asset by running it down...
But I have to say this is a fair cop Casino - DM or Express levels of journalism. I fear the journalist's/editor's biases got the better of them.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a BBC article that’s remotely biased in that direction given the torrent of Tory talking points the organisation is cowed into spewing on a daily basis.
There have always been weak articles like this on the site. Inevitable when you consider the volume they pump out daily. Though I’d note that at least a third of the parents at our primary school, possibly closer to half, don’t own a car. It’s perhaps of anthropological interest to those living outside big cities to understand the cultural norms and mores of the millions who do.
Yes. I think there's a more interesting story to be written about the inconvenience of bringing up a family without the use of a car that would still fit the topic.
To your point I'm guessing most young families are in cities because that's where the jobs are.
Their jobs are there of course, but they’ve also made the decision to stay in the inner city rather than commute from the suburbs.
Those without cars generally say they don’t miss them but it must cause issues when it comes to taking rubbish to the tip or picking up furniture from IKEA.
The carless parent cohort are a cross section from poor and on benefits to pretty wealthy and working in the city.
The walking and cycling parents in Bristol, at least the ones the BBC found, are the very lucky few who can both afford to live around the corner from the good school, and have a parent without a tight morning schedule.
Once upon a time, kids would've walked or cycled to school on their lonesome. Then parents started to get risk averse and thus the school run started, making the roads more dangerous for those who continued to walk - a vicious cycle until there is a huge increase in congestion during school term and people won't let their kids out on the road.
I find that very sad, and count myself lucky that I had the freedom of my neighbourhood from about age 8.
Oh indeed, kids should be allowed to be kids, but today’s parents are much more worried about the massively rare safety issues, than they are about letting them be kids and explore the world.
It tells you a lot about the BBC though, that they choose to venerate the yummy mummies and WFHers in the million-pound houses with six grand bikes, and softly demonise the hardworking secretary whose boss notices if she arrives at 9:05 because there was a traffic jam outside the school on the other side of town.
I think the funniest thing about the cargo bike debate is the concern over cost. My car costs about £1,000 a year to run, before you get to fuel and depreciation. My bicycle... maybe £100?
I wonder what the average value of the cars PBers drive is?
Comments
‘Long’ is Bleak House; GE is a short story in comparison.
Guy goes into the doctor’s. “Doc, I’ve got a cricket ball stuck up my backside.” How’s that?” Don’t you start.”
The BBC should be competing for its funding not reliant on a license fee extorted from people who simply own a TV and want to watch live broadcasts.
The criminalisation of people for failure to pay fines, often the poorest in society, for not having a license in this day and age of multi media platforms is a disgrace.
The BBC seems of offer less and less to my generation. It’s happy to have our money. Less happy to provide or cater for the elder demographic.
Are they expensive ? If they are branded I cannot imagine them costing pennies.
I was looking at electric pedal assisted bikes in the toon yesterday, one of them cost more than my second had 18 plate Hyundai 10 (I do less than 1,000 miles a year in it).
They’re just a bike with a battery !!
I find that very sad, and count myself lucky that I had the freedom of my neighbourhood from about age 8.
This was Hackney in the mid fifties.
They won't replace the first car but they will certainly replace the second one for most families.
https://orwell.ru/library/reviews/dickens/english/e_chd
It certainly helped me make sense of Dickens and why his works were so popular. They speak to that very British desire to improve the world, not by overturning systems but rather by rich people being nicer.
Worth noting too that many of Dickens works were published as monthly serials in magazines, hence often rather wordy as spacefiller, and full of digressions and plot twists when sales fell and rose.
https://christianiabikesamerica.com/collections/in-stock-models
‘Yer could leave yer doors open and speeding drivers ended up in the Thames’
"Who has?" , he replied.
Although God Knows was seriously close, almost as funny and much more soulful. I loved it.
As indicated above by Dr. Foxy, that's likely down to the serial origins.
It's as timeless as Catch-22.
Writing 10 000 words a month for publication did rather encourage wordiness, but I think that was also his style in other works. Russian and French authors did the same.
Galloway and the WPB made their first appearance this week in polls with 1% in Whitestone (actually 0.6%) and Opinium (awaiting tables), I've got them on ca 2.5% if they run 600 candidates or proportionate thereto (ca 750,000 votes), they'd need maybe 3 to 3.5% to start causing a bit of chaos. I think they will do pretty well for a new party, Gaza will be a strong recruiting sergeant this time and they are a natural outlet for it.
Excellent article from @TorstenBell in the Guardian.
You'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise, but political polarisation in the UK is *lower* today than 40 years ago. We are not the US.
UK voters are not polarised, just "pissed off and volatile".
https://x.com/Beyond_Topline/status/1792123691771306045
- 2019: Brexit Party 2%, Green Party 3%
- 2017: UKIP 2%, Green Party 2%
- 2015: UKIP 13%, Green Party 4%
- 2010: UKIP 3%, Green Party 1%
... 2015 was an exception as it was the right rebelling against a liberal Tory government/coalition and wanting a Brexit referendum on the agenda.
But otherwise history suggests both Reform and Greens will struggle to match their polling. But it's not obvious this will have much impact on the Labour Tory gap given the combination of the two.
I think it's more likely that will boost the % vote of both Labour and the Tories sTher than
However I agree with @Casino_Royale on the tone of the article. Times have changed, but I don't think either of my kids have ignored the car because of the climate. They just don't need one and it is no longer a rite of passage anymore to get one.
Due to the large number of calories required to propel them, they represent a very good workout. Which reduces the amount of time the Ladies Who Lunch need to spend in the gym. Which in turn is required to reduce the probability of the husband trading in for a younger model of wife.
What’s not to like? Social status, a bit of greenwashing, divorce risk reduction…
Of course there a quite a few genuine users…. But having lived among The Superficial People for a while…. I’m talking about people for whom Desperate Housewives was something between a documentary and a how to manual.
If the Council provide people with no drives a public space to store their motor vehicle, then it should be providing cargo bike riding people with no storage space a public space to store *their* vehicle. That's a matter of simple equity. *
For cargo bikes, the ones you need to be worrying about are those like the 6-wheel articulated 600kg (loaded) ePack, which the Transport Minister wants to allow onto the shared pavements near you, unregulated and un-type-approved, by shoe-horning it into the definition of "bicycle".
(Struggling - link:
https://x.com/mattwardman/status/1792129168282374199/photo/1)
* I haven't mentioned mobility aids for people who need them. The same principle as Blue Badge parking spaces apply. Again, it's simple equity.
These people are mocking the horrific death rate from Dihydrogen Monoxide
Luigi: We can guarantee you that not a single armoured division will get done over for fifteen bob a week.
Of course, anyone that chooses to /drive/ into Oxford is completely insane in the first place. Bicycle trailers actually make sense here.
Cargo bikes are interesting because they are actually cheaper than what they replace (cars) and you can get them on finance too. The reason they are associated with rich people is simply having somewhere to store them.
The serialised books in magazines were a big business in their day - people queuing up to get the first copies etc.
There is a primary school four doors down from us (I think I've ranted about school run mum parking across.... and in... our driveway before).
She could've walked that from year 1 but its Catholic so... boo hiss... they're the enemy my wife tells me... so she couldn't go there.
Having been back recently, that road is now nose-to-tail godawful traffic during rush hour & it wouldn’t surprise me if absolutely no parents are letting their children anywhere near it. Increasing car use forces everyone else off the roads & it has happened so slowly & incrementally that we don’t notice the effects on a year-on-year basis but they pile up over time regardless.
Cracking contest and they go again later this year.
I suppose he (Fury) has to think he won because his persona and mental health condition doesn't allow him to think he is a loser.
Great fight.
The discussion on here though is an interesting insight into the two nations. The mutual incomprehension of the urban walker and the rural driver.
As I have mentioned once or twice, in January I took over a bookshop - The Book Ferret, in Arundel.
Now that I've got my feet under the table and the local customers have got used to the new face behind the desk, I'm going to be changing the name of the book shop next month, and I'm running a competition to guess the new name to raise money for charity - and you could win a book token!
The new name is the title of a twentieth century novel by a British author - details of the contest are on the JustGiving page where you can donate and enter
www.justgiving.com/page/thebookferret
A really smart policy would be to make motoring much more accessible, from cheaper lessons and tests to incentives to keep old bangers going as long as possible. Essentially a bung to the middle class, but environmentally friendly and rural focussed too.
One thing that sunrises me about the cargo bikes is that they don’t seem to have made an effort to make them really weatherproof - in the sense of just leave them outside.
Back when I was young, my brother and I used to build our own bikes. By using stainless bolts, wheel spokes etc. we got to the stage that our bikes genuinely didn’t rust when outside. In this day of composites, easy custom plastic holding etc, it should be possible to build a bike that can sit uncovered all year with no ill effects. Just a plastic bag over the saddle and a cover over the cargo space.
Our school has a too-small car park; shared by it and the adjacent secondary. The approach is via a long road that leads from almost outside the village; most people have a long drive just to reach the access road.
There is lots of active travel to the school; a short path leads from the end of a residential road in the village to the main gate. At school times, this is crammed with people and bikes. Noticeably less so in wet weather, though, when the car park gets busier.
But: lots of people park, or drop kids off on, the residential road; it is a much shorter trip for many than negotiating the access road. The road is not designed for that sort of traffic load. I ca guarantee that this will also happen in Waterbeach; lack of provision of a car park will just lead to people using nearby residential roads.
Active travel is fine for people like me, where we live less than a ten minute walk away from the school, especially as I don't work. It may be very different if you need to drive to work immediately afterwards - in other words, the life many people lead.
There are various "straight down the line" Evangelical setups which exclude RCs from membership on various theological grounds, which is the same sort of principle the Vatican applies to non-RCs in various respects (marrying out of the RC community, Anglican Priestly Orders being "utterly null and void" etc) - but it's been very much dissolving apart from the Legal Rules for a long time.
Oh no sorry that's if it was a hairdressers.
You often heard it said that the streets were safer then because any bother would be sorted by them and their like. There may be a grain of truth in this. I remember it as a peaceful neighbourhood, but as a teenager you tended to know where to go and when to mind your ps and qs. If it was a 'Kray' pub or cafe, you kept yourself to yourself and minded your manners, but generally trouble didn't come looking for you if you didn't go meet it halfway.
On the whole, I regard mine as being a privileged upbringing.
I know where all the bikes end up in Edinburgh because people have tracked them using Airtags.
It means a festive atmosphere every morning with the children all walking down the middle of the street, welcomed in by name by the headmistress standing outside the gate.
"Nearby roads" are tending to be replaced with open landscaped amenity space or walking / wheeling / cycling paths.
Something by Tony Powell, perhaps 😉
You are safe from an insane barrage of photos
Altamura is fantastico. I am about to go under the “lower urban arch in Europe”
I prefer an SUV in any case.
Fury saying he was robbed was ridiculous braggadocio.
Though I probably wouldn't say that to his face.
It tells you a lot about the BBC though, that they choose to venerate the yummy mummies and WFHers in the million-pound houses with six grand bikes, and softly demonise the hardworking secretary whose boss notices if she arrives at 9:05 because there was a traffic jam outside the school on the other side of town.
Don’t tell ‘I’m, @Taz!
I'm thinking of visiting somewhere down there this autumn, if I can spare the time.
Still need to get on to secure cycle parking, even at the hospital. The ones at my GP surgery are literally blocks of concrete with slots in them, straight out of Fred Flintstone.
One point to be noted is that the cycle market, like the car market, is driven by brand, fashion, shallow or deep discounting and gimmicks, and new ones immediately lose 20% or so in value. So I hardly ever buy anything at less than 25%-30% off the price.
The WPB’s performance to date has been good in the limited places they chose to stand. They chose to stand in areas with a high proportion of Muslim voters. That scenario doesn’t generalise to most constituencies.
Prompting in the polls does make a difference, but it doesn’t make a huge difference.
Are WPB building on their success to date? Their crowdfunding campaign for the general election is going pretty poorly. I think they’ll struggle to raise the funds to stand in a very large number of constituencies. I also think it’s notable that lots of people aren’t joining them. Akhmed Yakoob in the W Mids mayoral election stood as an independent rather than for the WPB (who endorsed him). I don’t see that as a vote of confidence in the WPB.
My current scooter is less than two years old, wasn't cheap, yet it's developed some visible rust despite being kept under a cover and regularly coated in anti-corrosion goo.
“Dummy Mummys”
What’s that about then?
Perhaps that is the issue - the weather is actually worse, so the bikes live in garages and bike sheds?
I wonder what the average value of the cars PBers drive is?
It's such a bad argument even Adrian Chiles has made it: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/16/3999-for-a-cargo-bike-how-a-new-kind-of-class-politics-arrived-on-britains-streets