In the news

I know it was in the Hour Record thread a few days ago...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38510439

...but I've just been reading a bit more on him in Wikipedia, amazing guy...

(from French and English wiki pages)
Marchand was a firefighter in Paris in the 1930s. He was a prisoner-of-war during World War II. He then moved to Venezuela, where he was a lorry driver and sugarcane planter. In the 1950s he went to Canada, where he had a job as a lumberjack. He returned to France in 1960 and worked as a gardener and wine dealer until 1987. He is a member of the French communist Party and the CGT Trade Union, the longest serving member alive to this day with 90 years of membership in the Trade Union. He took an active part during the strikes of 1936 in France that gave birth to the modern era foundations of French employment legislation.

Before cycling, he tried boxing, then gymnastics, and was a French champion at the 'human pyramid'. Aged 35 he finished seventh in the Grand Prix des Nations (cycling time trials) in 1946, but was considered too small to be a professional cyclist. He returned to cycling in 1978 (aged 67). Since then, he's completed Paris-Bordeaux 8 times, Paris-Roubaix 4 times, 3 Marmottes, and l'Ardechoise 12 times. In February 2012, aged 100, he set a world record in one-hour track cycling in the over-100 age group (24.1km), and in September 2012 he cycled 100km in 4hrs 17mins, another record. In January 2014, aged 102, he beat his own hour record by 2.7km (26.9km). To celebrate his 103rd birthday, he cycled up a peak named after him (Col de Marchand), 10km/450m, in 56 minutes.

And at 105 years old...

A reminder, again, to anyone who says it doesn't matter which party you vote for - it does, and the difference can be fatal.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/08/an-absolute-warzone-nhs-doctors-describe-their-week-in-ae

No it's fine Teresa May has said there is no crisis in the NHS.

😐

Breaking: Trump launches scathing attack on wikileaks founder Julian Assange

Wut

I know there's a march planned in March, but how else to make noise about NHS sooner, except write to MP?

Sadiq Khan doing his best impersonation of a Tory.

https://twitter.com/MayorofLondon/status/818411161108574209

Something a bit Trump-like about it as well.

#wac

But Winnifred is a big fan so that sways me.

maybe johnson still has the password to the MayorofLondon twitter account.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-northern-ireland-38561446

Bye bye NI Assembly. But if people vote the same fuckwits in AGAIN (the DUP has no end to scandals, red sky, and NAMA, SF is ALSO involved in NAMA) fuck me they deserve a second round of this.

Yes I do vote.
And did you know the Good Friday Agreement means a government here w/o key roles filled by sectarian parties is impossible?
WAC

The people of NI have never shown the slightest interest in voting along non-sectarian lines, and will of course vote for the same fuckwits again and again and again.

Would things chang if parties stood on a unified Ireland vs Stick with the UK through thick or thin platform?

Dunno about that. He thinks industrial action is unnecessary at this stage and has said he would prefer talks. I haven't followed the progress of this dispute, but have other non-strike actions been worn out on whatever the issue is?

https://www.scribd.com/document/335676726/Public-Leaflet-Jan17#from_embed

RMT saying the issue is "safety", without going into detail.

That's pretty much what they do. Sometimes they pretend to have policies on other things, but it just boils down to what church your ancestors went to, which dictates where you stand on the UK/Ireland debate. But they don't really care about the other policies, unless they really hate the people involved, like gay cakers or abortionists.

But the GFA is also fucked up by not allowing only "other" parties to form an assembly.

If the DUP loses enough seats to go under the minimum needed for a petition of concern it's at least progress.

There are some small changes, people are now in favour of same-sex marriage and smaller parties won seats. But really it may need 2 generations to die before it really changes, and the disillisionment with politics in general doesn't help either: People don't vote, but the sectarian ones always do...

The strikes are about ticket office closures.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-37985033

"The ticket offices were closed as part of the Fit for the Future programme introduced by former London mayor Boris Johnson.
His successor Sadiq Khan has ordered a review of the project."

Staff are getting more abuse from the public because there is no-one to buy a ticket from if the machines break. Sadiq should definitely reverse the closures if he can, but I'm worried he's spent the money on all night tube services. He managed to get the first strikes called off through negotiations, but the current strikes sadly prove he's worse than Thatcher.

worse than Thatcher.

I would go so far as to say he is literally Hitler.

Steady on.

facial and racial reconstructive surgery in Brazil?

Conspiracy theories thread >>>>>>

The people of NI have never shown the slightest interest in voting along non-sectarian lines, and will of course vote for the same fuckwits again and again and again.

Every time Stormont is on the news though I have the same thought:

It's all very grand and impressive but how do they cut the grass in front of it? It's always perfectly manicured but it's quite a considerable slope.

Perspective, it's quite a long road

It's all very grand and impressive but how do they cut the grass in front of it?

It's that fake grass you can get.

Yeah, it's not that steep - I did a day's gardening there about 25 years ago - it was doable with push mowers, no doubt they have ride-ons now, and little mirrors on sticks to check them for bombs before use.