Tube strike, London

i'm loving the drug dealer full-suss parked next to the penny farthing, i'm guessing that was dragged out from the shed just for today.

sorry was that a bit low-brow and un-socioeconomicalpolitical for this thread.

..but all the more welcome because of it, Mr Smith

I just had the best damn ride from fulham up to acton in memory. so many new things to dodge, inexperienced pedestrians, royal mail people getting out in the middle of the road, scooters, cyclists, taxis, go-peds...
Every little backstreet, shortcut, filter, lane-switch seemed on a bloody kife-edge, and overtaking everything in sight. I'm fucking buzzzing hard!

and me! the roads are so much more fun to ride when they're packed! :)

"Oh I couldn't possibly cycle into work, it's far too dangerous out there these days"
"It's not you I worry about, it's all those drivers"
"It's all main roads, there's no cyclepaths on my route to work"
"The roads will be full of people who can't take the tube today"

Shut up you whinging cunts:

Now that is a fucking great picture ! How far do you have to commute on that, and I'll bet you average a much higher speed than the Apollo owner.

your talking about celebrating because someone has died. i'm not by any means saying that thatcher didn't do some shit things, but fucking hell she doesn't deserve that kind of abuse.

I'll fucking dance on that old witches grave when she carks it - countless communities destroyed and young mens lives sacrificed on the altar of that old harridans ego

erm.....................................tube stike vs Falklands? perspective please

nope, personally I wasn't making the comparison

just letting Ross know why I personally will be doing the samba on that wicked old harridans grave when she coughs :^]

fair enough. i think that is a truly awful thing to say. regardless of whether your family, or community or whatever were effect, at the end of the day there are far, far greater tragedies occurring daily. there have been far, far worse leaders and i just don't think that anyone, whatever they done 'deserves' death, or deserves their death to be celebrated.

you wouldn't celebrate anyone's death? Hitler, PolPot?

for serious? of course not what does it achieve?

I think a lot of people are planning to celebrate Thatcher's death, not just the dozens on this forum... right?
And there was a play staged about it recently... Maggie's End

pops on devil's advocate hat

surely celebrating someones death (no matter what attrocities they commited) just brings you down to their level?

and as a sensible reply…

To contextualise why she evokes such a strong reaction from me as that I saw my dad, my uncles, my mates dads reduced to standing outside supermarkets accepting donations of food so that their families could eat, it wasn't games or some fanciful idealogy - this was a community of men who were able to work, who wanted to work with no money. not just 'a bit strapped' it was 'no fucking money to even buy food'. Many of the poor sods who caved and crossed the picket lines were forever ostracised and isolated within their communities.

Yup, there are loads of levels of blame and Scargill has got a lot to answer for but primarily the community I knew and the ones that surrounded it were sacrificed on Thatchers objective to break the unions - you want to see bleakness, try driving through an old pit or steel town

still angry - fuck yeah!

Chile is one of the most successful countries in South America because of him. Park Chung-hee and South Korea the same..

Well, fair enough if that's true (which it isn't) but even if it is the question is LPG: would you have been prepared to die for that success? Or had a member of your family 'disappear' for that success? To have, perhaps, your girlfriend, sister or mother raped and tortured to death for that success? To give up the right to free speech, a free press and peaceful political protest? All of that happened under Pinochet. You're very brave volunteering the misery of other people. Would you be so courageous with your own life?

My ride today, 25 mins, as usual.
My colleagues drive - 1hr 45, and he lives half a mile from my place.

Another massively smug cyclist.

The Belgrano:
1: it was an enemy warship, in a war, albeit not in an exclusion zone. What were they supposed to do?

1. Thatcher didn't start the war. Argentina did, by invading the Falklands.
   
2. Thatcher didn't conscript anybody. Galtieri did. It is his fault those conscripts were on the ship, his fault the ship was where it was, and his fault the ship was in a war. If you want to blame anybody, blame Galtieri. Do you blame Churchill for the deaths of Nazi conscripts? (I apply for a Godwin's law exemption on the grounds of it being a legitimate comparison)
   
3. Regardless of the direction the ship was steaming in Argentina stated that the sinking of the Belgrano was a legitimate act.
   
4. Do you feel the same kind of anger for those killed on the six British ships that Argentina sank? Do you even know the names of those ships?
   
5. After the Belgrano was attacked the Argentinian navy never left port again for the duration of the war. The sinking of the Belgrano was a decisive factor in shortening the war and saving many more innocent lives than were cost, British, Argentinian and Falkland. Who knows how long the conflict would have lasted had the Argentine Navy been there to support the invasion force.
   
6. This has nothing to do with the tube strike
   
7. I will provide the music at the Thatcher grave dance party.
   
   

My only point, by the way, is that these things are not black and white.

My ride today, 25 mins, as usual.
My colleagues drive - 1hr 45, and he lives half a mile from my place.

Another massively smug cyclist.

... who clearly still hasn't succeeded in convincing his colleague of the huge benefits of cycling, despite them being so glaringly obvious in this case.

Sorry for being smug. ;)

I think today will do more to put off those new cyclists than convince them, sadly. I haven't seen the roads more dangerous in a while.

Roads aren't dangerous. Have you ever been attacked by one? ;)

A guy I spoke to at the lights who was riding a borrowed bike seemed to be a new convert to cycling.

Even after I shouted at him to get him to filter.

Roads aren't dangerous. Have you ever been attacked by one? ;)

I have. Lots of times. bastard things they are!

I slack off, have fun

Do you want your public (bus, tube, train) transport to operate with the same level of commitment from their employees?

I have. Lots of times. bastard things they are!

That doesn't show that they're dangerous, only that they're sensible and have sound judgement. Next!

See?

Evil.

Actually... it's a 4x4.. Job well done. I take it all back..