Gotta love em

If you’re keen to hear the most  English story imaginable, here it is: A British lord resigned instantly after arriving to work late, saying that he was “thoroughly ashamed” of his grave crime.

Though Michael Bates was only a couple of minutes late to the House of Lords, it meant he wasn’t there to answer a question from Baroness Ruth Lister. So he, uh, instantly resigned.

'I want to offer my sincere apologies to Baroness Lister for my discourtesy in not being in my place to answer her question on a very important matter at the beginning of questions.

During the five years in which it’s been my privilege to answer questions from this dispatcher box on behalf of the government, I’ve always believed that we should rise to the highest possible standards of courtesy and respect in responding on behalf of the government to the legitimate questions of the legislature.

I am thoroughly ashamed at not being in my place and therefore I shall be offering my resignation to the prime minister . . . with immediate effect.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zxmKlKWJkE&sns=em

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The UK government has refused Bates’ resignation, and it looks like he will continue in his post:

 

“With typical sincerity, Lord Bates today offered to tender his resignation after missing the start of an oral questions session in the House of Lords, but his resignation was refused as it was judged this was unnecessary.”


In the UK bike helmets are optional 

There is an uproar as the Govt has a committee looking at it.


Australia a Namny State


Cycling groups in the United Kingdom say any moves to make helmets compulsory would be "detrimental to public health".

 

Unlike Australia, where helmet use is mandatory, cyclists are free to ride without protection in the UK.

 

But the British Government is conducting a review of cycle safety, which will include the contentious issue of helmets.

 

Duncan Dollimore, campaigns director at Cycling UK, said forcing cyclists to wear head protection would discourage people from riding.

 

"I think it's a move that would be detrimental to public health and the wider population," Mr Dollimore said.

 

 

He said the effect of Australia's laws, introduced in the early '90s, resulted in a fewer young people choosing to cycle.

 

"If you look at the wider population benefits of people being involved in forms of active travel and the benefits of that in terms of reducing congestion … it's just not a wise move," he said.

 

Australia's yearly cycling participation rate is heading downhill from 40 per cent in 2011, to 34 per cent in 2017, according to the National Cycling Participation Survey.

Mr Dollimore said he believed Australia's helmet laws were part of the problem.

 

"It's become the activity of the serious cyclist. It's becoming something that you get dressed up to do," he said.

"A word we use over here [is] MAMIL: middle aged man in lycra."


ABC

Could that 6% down turn be that the age ratio is getting older ?

There has also been a decline in horses in New York city. There are more logical reasons than Dollimore eludes to.

Obviously Mr Dollimore has not heard of cars which are now affordable.

UK aged pension scheme a complete mess .

They pay a National Insurance levy that goes into General Revenue in other words a Tax .

yet pay out not Mesns Tested 

this means it’s a Ponzi Sceme with this years Tax from the young paying out a pension to aged millionaires .

Unless we stop taxing savings for old age we will end up in same boat with more and more in the pension and not able to support themselves . And the young paying more and more tax . 

I have said before on here;  it would not be long before disgruntled younger taxpayers will be turning on the elderly who they see as having a pretty good lifestyle in their old age.  

I am talking about the ones who are tootling around the countryside in their winnebagoes/caravans etc. (not those who are on full aged pensions)  The young do not differentiate between those who are self funded or part self funded ..they just see elderly people having a ball while they are slogging it out working and paying taxes to provide for pensions.

 

 

 

 

... jealous you not "tootling around the countryside"???  lol  What would you know about the "young"?   You don 't have children - right??   You have said that many times on here???   How do you know what Gen X/Y "see" -   your cracked up/fogged "crystal ball"  maybe???

lol lol lol -  so funny!

Why so bitter Foxy 

Raddy is making a perfectly legitimate point 

 

Some just do not see the point I was trying to make.  

From the Sydney Morning Herald 2 March 2016

"A new CIS report, called The Myths of the Generational Bargain, is warning an unrealistic expectation has been established in Australia that the real value of the pension should keep increasing over time.

It says such an expectation will ensure that the real cost of the pension per worker will nearly triple over the next few decades, putting greater stress on the Commonwealth budget and testing taxpayers' willingness to pay for the pension.

At the moment, the average Australian worker is expected to contribute $3500 a year to pensioners, and $6270 to their own future retirement, the report shows.

But by 2054, the average worker will be asked to contribute nearly as much to pensioners each year ($9424) as to their own retirement ($11,895)."

Five animal rights organisations are opposing the culling of grey squirrels, which is intended to save trees and red squirrels.

They say the greys, which were originally North American imports, are ‘being scapegoated because they are not native’.

This is another example of the trend to import the discourse of racism into animal affairs. Soon it will be ‘hate speech’ to stigmatise animals of foreign descent and oppose their free movement.

One would, of course, be making the same anthropomorphic mistake if one were to criticise the motives of greys, but it is a simple fact that they are by far the main enemy of native red squirrels. Greys drive out reds partly because they carry a parapoxvirus which they can survive but reds cannot. Shooting greys does work, but it cannot do all that is needed.

The learned Matt Ridley tells me that a possible answer is putting contraceptive vaccine in pollens. No doubt Peta and suchlike would call this ‘ethnic cleansing’.

Speccie 

DEAR GOD,    /// not squirrels now,     cant they leave anything alone,   we have foxes coming into the city now,    because there is nothing left in the bush for them to eat,    mixo killed the rabbits off,    they will end up killing the foxes,          what next,? 

Foxy has been living in Melbourne for ages 

no one dare bother her 

I refuse to partake in any discussion that wants to compare us with Poms.

Old Man, there are 3 million Poms living in OZ. That means you may have insulted around 12% of YLC posters LOL

In other environmental news, the South African city of Capetown is fast approaching the day when it runs dry of water. The Times of London, Saturday:

 

Nigel Casey, the British high commissioner, urged guests at a cocktail party at his residence in Bishopscourt to urinate in the gardens rather than flushing the toilets — as long as they avoided the electric security fence around the property. He added: “Please don’t drink any water. There’s plenty of wine, whisky and beer.”

:) Typical Brit humour.

The 11 cities most likely to run out of drinking water - like Cape Town

Full BBC story.

Just like where I am, great drama a few years ago re water supply running out … authorities built a desal plant at enormous cost … never been used. Rains came, area flooded. I don’t blame the powers that be … at least they responded to the dire conditions of the time.

Great result in some ways. Hope similar happens to Cape Town.

:) Despite the awful result that some may have to drink water rather than alcohol.

Hope nobody moved to Capetown to escape Perth’s own water crisis. SMH, 2005:

 

“Perth is facing the possibility of a catastrophic failure of the city’s water supply,” says Tim Flannery, director of the South Australian Museum and Australia’s most high profile scientist and ecologist.

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