Brexit, for once some facts.

jonathan.agnew

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Dec 27, 2018
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I've never been cruel, we always had lots of animals at home. My grand parents who lived in the same village had a farm, it wasn't a working farm, they just lived there after it had closed down. They had five donkeys, some of which used to wander around the house, loved it there.

Always worked hard at school, academic success didn't come easy to me, I had to work for it, some kids just had it without trying. I have my dad to thank for making me work hard, if it wasn't for him I'd have been at the farm all the time.
I could say the same. But (and it's a massive but) there are parts of the world (and this country) where one is screwed regardless of hard work. The boot strap theory/American dream/call it what you will is largely a lie. The world is a very long way from a level playing field and I suspect in truth both of us owe as much to relative privilege than hard work.
 

oldgroaner

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Nov 15, 2015
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They never gave a second thought to the risks involved. They were just swept along on a wave of hysteria for their own titillation. They don't even know what they want as an outcome and are simply experiencing a synthetic emotional overload.
Rather as you are doing? " simply experiencing a synthetic emotional overload."? :cool:
 

RossG

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Feb 12, 2019
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there was a program on CH5 about Isambard and his dad Marc Isambard Brunel.
6 workers were killed in building the tunnel under the Thames.
2 workers were killed in building the Clifton suspension bridge.

Compare that to 10 workers killed building the Channel Tunnel.
It would have been great, no .... a miracle more like if the figures were that low. I'd put the numbers at probably many hundreds (yes really) more than a hundred lost their lives during the construction of box hill.
Brunel himself almost got killed three times messing around near construction sites.
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
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Thing is flecc these four had more power and influence over the masses, the young in particular than many if not most of the people whose statues are being toppled. Also of course their lives are very well documented and in living memory, what they said and did can be proven. Statues of people from the past whose lives and works good and bad are written down, but who knows how much is factually true.
People died constructing Brunel's great monuments of technology, I wonder if he or anyone knows how many ?
I wonder how many were black, did he know or care ?...do we ?...should we pull his statues down I wonder.
No, people like Colston and Milligan were well documented and recorded, we know exactly what they did.

Only a few in living memory are in any way comparable and their statues have mostly long been pulled down.
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RossG

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Feb 12, 2019
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Just to add to my previous post:

The probable figure of lives lost during the building of the Channel Tunnel was as many as 24 with around 500 accidents.
 

RossG

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Feb 12, 2019
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The film "Gone With The Wind" has now been removed from HBO's line up.

HBO Max said the 1939 film was "a product of its time" and depicted "ethnic and racial prejudices" that "were wrong then and are wrong today".

I'm loving this TBH because what will happen soon is there will be a backlash as there always is, and it will be very interesting to see what form it takes.
 

flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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The probable figure of lives lost during the building of the Channel Tunnel was as many as 24 with around 500 accidents.
A benefit then. We've lost more than that in rubber dinghys crossing without using the tunnel.
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flecc

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I'm loving this TBH because what will happen soon is there will be a backlash as there always is, and it will be very interesting to see what form it takes.
The Golliwog back on Robertson's Marmalade jars? ;)
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RossG

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Feb 12, 2019
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The Golliwog back on Robertson's Marmalade jars? ;)
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You can only use the word "Golly" these days flecc, you have to leave the last bit off. I think ebay has that rule too :rolleyes:

Why is there not a black smiley ?
 

Woosh

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It would have been great, no .... a miracle more like if the figures were that low.
I've watched the program on TV last week - not long ago, then googled them just to be sure. The numbers are accurate. Isambard Kingdom Brunel nearly got killed when the tunnel under the Thames he was constructing got flooded. He tried to get out but couldn't, the escape door was locked. By sheer luck, the rescuers smashed through the door just in time, they found him unconscious behind the door. He then went to Bristol to recuperate and took part in a competition to design the Clifton bridge.
 
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flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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You can only use the word "Golly" these days flecc,
Not even that it seems. Some while after dropping their mascot name of Golliwog and naming it only Golly, Robertsons felt compelled to drop the Golly name too.
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oyster

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Nov 7, 2017
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I've watched the program on TV last week - not long ago, then googled them just to be sure. The numbers are accurate. Isambard Kingdom Brunel nearly got killed when the tunnel under the Thames he was constructing got flooded. He tried to get out but couldn't, the escape door was locked. By sheer luck, the rescuers smashed through the door just in time, they found him unconscious behind the door. He then went to Bristol to recuperate and took part in a competition to design the Clifton bridge.
And the four killed in the Cleddau bridge collapse. Anniversary just a few days ago. I was aware of it at the time - and can't help thinking about it as we cross, or look up from nearby. (Not obsessively - just awareness.)

Cleddau Bridge disaster: 50th anniversary of fatal collapse
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-52878053
 
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RossG

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 12, 2019
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I've watched the program on TV last week - not long ago, then googled them just to be sure. The numbers are accurate. Isambard Kingdom Brunel nearly got killed when the tunnel under the Thames he was constructing got flooded. He tried to get out but couldn't, the escape door was locked. By sheer luck, the rescuers smashed through the door just in time, they found him unconscious behind the door. He then went to Bristol to recuperate and took part in a competition to design the Clifton bridge.
My numbers are also accurate too Woosh, all well documented. Brunel was almost killed three times, on one occasion he fell down a shaft ! he was a man who was hands on with all his constructions.

 

Woosh

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Neil Ferguson: he sent in his report advocating early lockdown 16-March.

“We knew the epidemic was doubling every three to four days before lockdown interventions were introduced.

“So had we introduced lockdown measures a week earlier, we would have reduced the final death toll by at least a half."

Johnson's hesitation killed 25,000 more people.
 

oyster

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Nov 7, 2017
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Interesting analysis of how covid-19 got to the UK:

Coronavirus came to UK 'on at least 1,300 separate occasions'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52993734

Obviously, there will be much discussion and this could be updated. But I do remember the first two cases I know of round here were people returning from Italy. And I am fairly sure that was behind quite a number of reports - where people returned and then voluntarily stayed at home (whether they had it or not).
 
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Barry Shittpeas

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Jan 1, 2020
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Neil Ferguson: he sent in his report advocating early lockdown 16-March.

“We knew the epidemic was doubling every three to four days before lockdown interventions were introduced.

“So had we introduced lockdown measures a week earlier, we would have reduced the final death toll by at least a half."

Johnson's hesitation killed 25,000 more people.
I believe the script is, “We took the correct decisions at the at the right time.” Which leads us back to the Eric Morcombe gag, they took all the right decisions, but not necessarily in the correct order.

I think the New Zealand quarantine situation provides a perfect example of this government’s chaotic and directionless handling of Coronavirus. If you fly from New Zealand, a country free from Coronavirus, into the the U.K., a country riddled with Coronavirus, you must isolate for 14 days in case you bring Coronavirus from a country that has non, into a country that has a lot.
 

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