View Full Version : Kinnock & the mile....
landmarker
23-Feb-06, 20:02
....I used to rate Neil Kinnock. In the early eighties he was a card carrying Labour fire-brand who seemed overburdened with conviction, many of which struck a chord with me at the time.
I remember he was vehemently anti-Europe for instance. Since those far off days Neil's and my opinions have somewhat veered off at a tangent. His stock seems to have risen, while mine has stayed largely the same. However, it is not these financial fripperies which concern me today.
A former Commissioner for the European Union, & his wife Glynnis is a serving M.E.P. Children installed in comfy Brussels based jobs it almost seems his whole family are latched onto the nipples of the European gravy train and are sucking in its milk like greedy piglets. The pig analagy is rather appropriate, as the unseemly sight of the boyo from the 'Valleeze' leeching from what he once despised is akin to swine guzzling from the trough.
Now, the ageing Kinnock, on a pension which most of us can only dream of beyond avarice has the nerve to suggest that we need to modernise and ditch the mile!!!. Possibly one of the last remaining signposts of true Britishness, which serves to remind us of our island identity.
Not only Neil seems to think this is important. Another dinosaur who I remember as Geoffrey Howe (now 'Lord' Howe after his 'elevation' to the upper house rest home for retired Tory toads - amongst others ) has rallied to the cause, suggesting that by the time of the 2012 Olympics we should spend £700m changing all of our roadsigns., to be more 'modern' and more synonymous with the rest of Europe.
These otherwise champions of 'diversity' in an age where cultures are allowed to exist and thrive side by side - ALL EXCEPT OURS! Kinnock - keep your hands off my mile. Howe dare YOU!! Will it be my pint next?
The sheer cheek of this balding turncoat.
In any event we have far more pressing transport (and other) needs deserving of this kind of money.How many by-passes could we build or perform for for £700m?
Howe was once likened to a 'sheep' by Denis Healey, so we are truly in animal farm territory here.
Pigs and sheep.
Two fossils of the political farmyard with blunt and bankrupt axes to grind. Give them no quarter, unless you hang them first.
(sorry, but I feel rather emotional about this)
Just wait until he has the brainwave (or should that be brainphart?) and demands that in the interest of conformity we all start driving on the right.
I mean how confusing it must be for them "Johnny Foreigners" coming over here not only to have convert kilometres etc but to also have to drive on the wrong side of the road!!!!
Im all for unification. I dont give a hoot about pints or miles or litres or kilometres. I care about the future of my children and the security and hope a united Europe will offer them. Having said that I am as proud of my heritage as the next man but I dont see it as a reason to throw a spanner into the works of something that is as natural in human development as growing teeth.
Churchill saw this unification of Europe as our only hope way back in 1946. No matter how much the boyo from the valleys has changed and taken the 20 pieces of silver from the establishment, his philosophy of unity sure sounds better to me than the isolatory rantings of a Europhobic right wing, nationalistic Tory from deepest Amersham.
Bring on the Euros. Let Britains voice be heard from the front of the charge, not from behind a curtain of isolation in outer Manchester.
Churchill was indeed in favour of a United Europe.
Churchill was also of the opinion that our future lay with the rest of the World and not as an Off-shore afterthought to European unity.
Churchill never saw us as a part of Europe and certainly didn't want to encourage that idea.
The Eurocrat's main aim in life is to have a single rule for everything everywhere.
If there isn't a rule about something it's because they have not given it enough attention.
Last night a Eurocrat was exercising his brain about a total ban on Mercury Thermometers. Mercury is a poison and too much time had been allowed to elapse without them looking further into it.
I can't remember when I last saw one for sale in a hardware shop. Possibly there are a few old medical thermometers hanging round but I don't know of many people swallowing them wholesale.
Is Mercury Poison really the most important problem in Europe?
When I go abroad I would be greatly concerned if my brainpower did not run to converting Kilometres into miles. Perhaps the arrogant Kinnock is of the opinion that people from outwith Britain are too stupid to be able to convert miles into kilometres.
Will he next be telling us that we should shout very loudly and very slowly at them in English so the stupid people will understand us.
How British, How insulting. And how terribly British.
When I go to Spain I was to see Spanish Culture.
When I go the Greece I want Greek Culture.
When I go to Poland I wish for Polish Culture.
If the Eurocrats get their way and regulate all differences out of existence why should I bother. I might just as well go outside my home and see exactly the same thing.
What unimaginative people they are, they cannot envisage people wanting to enjoy the differences.
“What would they want to do that for? Surely they want everything to look and taste the same!”
Perhaps we all ought to wear a standardised blue boilersuit so we would all look the same.
We could call it the "Eurosuit".
My two enduring images of Kinnock are the one where he clumsily falls over into the sea with his missus and the one when he piled back to a victory election rally knowing that he'd lost the election. He is a loser.
Coincidentally, I was thinking about this whilst driving to work a couple of days ago. We've switched to metric units for almost everything else, so why not for distances of order miles? Should we go for kilometres too? Yes, of course, it would be silly not to.
What of the expense? This is easy to sort out. We would make the switch gradually. New road signs would be be "bilingual" with imperial and metric distances being shown side-by-side, eg
Thurso 24 (39km)
Alternatively, imperial and metric distances could be shown in different colours, just as English and Gaelic place names are shown at present. One or two classes of road sign require a little more thought, but the problems are hardly insurmountable, and I don't see a problem with costs. Imperial distances would be phased out over a period of many years - long enough for the landmarkers and the JAWS of this world to have faded away with their dignity intact.
What about switching to driving on the right? I suspect it's decades too late to do that. Sweden did it, but that was years ago when the density of cars was low, and they have a much lower density of people anyway. I would propose that the UK switches to driving on the right on the same day as Japan does it. ;)
Has the cost of living fallen by a third since the Crucifiction. Fancy Kinnock only getting 20 pieces of silver when Judas got 30.:D Decimalise everything. It's the only sane thing to do.
Gleber2, I agree, we should go along with them and decimate everything.
Driving on the right was arrived at by a perfectly sensible reason.
Napoleon, Emperor of France, and Would be Emperor of Europe, wished to abolish all things relating to the old Superstitious Past. He was a believer in the, what was then new, belief that everything should have a Scientific rather than Superstitious base and for very good sound and scientific reasons people should therefore travel on the right hand side of the road.
Oh yes, I nearly forgot. The good Scientific Reason for driving on the right was because, at that time, everybody travelled on the left hand side of the road.
What better Scientific Reason could you have?
I am assured that it had nothing to do with the left being associated with the Devil. The link being that things that were sinister or evil were associated with the left side of the body from the Latin Word for the left, "sinister".
Nothing superstitious about that, is there?
That's why many things are still made which are very difficult for left-handed people to use.
What a fantastic world we live in.
Gleber2 wrote
Decimalise everything. It's the only sane thing to do.
What about time? Not sure I fancy working a 10 day week....then again....let me calculate how long the weekend would be:)
JAWS,
I believe the reason we drive on the left harks back to the good old days when Knights were bold and "Johnny Foreigner" quaked in his pantaloons. Your right arm was your sword arm and so you rode on the left to enable you to defend yourself.
And I suspect the road to decimilisation is being laid out by stealth - I have heard that the 100 yard countdown markers on routes are actually placed at 100 metres.......
I am sure that many have seen this, but it is worth viewing again.
http://www.edsf.org/Images/Report05-03.PDF
I have always thought Neil Kinnock a bit of a horse's rear end.
Ye ken whit Ah mean ya trosk.[evil]
landmarker
24-Feb-06, 18:33
[QUOTE=DrSzin] and I don't see a problem with costs. Imperial distances would be phased out over a period of many years - long enough for the landmarkers and the JAWS of this world to have faded away with their dignity intact.
QUOTE]
I have absolutely no intention of gently 'fading' away quietly, like my beloved Grandmother did.
I shall die wide-eyed, kicking, screaming and struggling, like the passengers in her car at the time.
Gleber2 wrote
Ye ken whit Ah mean ya trosk.
LOL of course I did, but hey, JJC has left, someojnehas to be pedantic;)
Trosk = great word.
Gleber2 wrote
LOL of course I did, but hey, JJC has left, someojnehas to be pedantic;)
Trosk = great word.
Can't you spell a simple word like some-one?? I have trawled the net for hours and can't find the word 'trosk'. Therefore it cannot exist.[evil]
wickerinca
24-Feb-06, 20:02
Can't you spell a simple word like some-one?? I have trawled the net for hours and can't find the word 'trosk'. Therefore it cannot exist.[evil]
There are things that exist that we mere mortals have no knowledge of.....and the net does not give up its secrets lightly[para]
Trosk a fool. From the Norse .throskr; Gaelic. trosg, codfish
Don't ask me!! Definition courtesy of A Caithness Wordbook (page 53) by James Miller
Sorry Gleber2, I am just useless at fingering my QWERTY.
landmarker
24-Feb-06, 21:23
jjc has 'left' ?
you mean leanings, or has he gone?
Dear Canadian lady, The word trosk has been in my vocabulary for a long time. I've been called one many times.My comments to Scotsboy were just my way of continuing his reference to the late Jjc.
Landmarker,he could indeed be both left and left.
Oh dear, I posted on the wrong thread. Now I'm even confusing myself.
wickerinca
25-Feb-06, 04:43
Dear Canadian lady, The word trosk has been in my vocabulary for a long time. I've been called one many times.My comments to Scotsboy were just my way of continuing his reference to the late Jjc.
Landmarker,he could indeed be both left and left.
FYI......I am not a Canadian Lady. I am a Wicker born and bred who just happens to be living in Canada at the moment.........and I am well aware of the word trosk. I use it very frequently myself and have some of my Canadian, English and South African.....Oh! and a Norwegian..friends using it as well, as they think that it is a great word!
And I did understand the interplay between you and Scotsboy........I was just trying to be pedantic too!!
My humble apologies. I abase myself. How could I know? You pedantic trosk o a Weeker!
wickerinca
25-Feb-06, 18:22
The last person that called me "Fishface" (See origin of 'trosk') got a punch on the nose. Unfortunately it was in Tunisia and the person who miscalled me was a local.......it did not go down to well!!...but justice won!
But I'll forgive you gleeber because I usually enjoy your posts!:Razz
Listen, Fishface, do not call me GLEEBER. I am Gleber2 and there is a limit to what I'll take from a Weeker.
Now now children!!!! Stop all this childish nonsense, this is a serious web site, and we should not be throwing frivalous insults at each other.
Why dont you kiss and make up.....hmmm Gleber2 forget I said 'at she is from Week [disgust]
Ma faither came frae Week, ma mither came frae Thirsa an Ah live half way between e' two so Ah swing both ways. Ah wonder whit she looks lek.
JAWS,
I believe the reason we drive on the left harks back to the good old days when Knights were bold and "Johnny Foreigner" quaked in his pantaloons. Your right arm was your sword arm and so you rode on the left to enable you to defend yourself.
And I suspect the road to decimilisation is being laid out by stealth - I have heard that the 100 yard countdown markers on routes are actually placed at 100 metres.......
The Warning Signs down the centre of the Motorway can signal "100" and I don't think for one minute that is to signal Miles per Hour.
The Emergency Telephone Boxes have been set at 1500 metres for over 20 years now.
Prior to that you could see where you were on a Motorway from the Box Number. If you knew the Number on the Box were you left the Motorway a simple subtraction told you how far away it was. If you left near Box 115 and you were passing box 80 you had 35 miles to go.
Since then they have improved the system. Now you get a four figure number with the last number giving the distance to the nearest 100 metres.
Sounds easy but you try subtracting 7468 from 7521 with a bored screaming youngster in the back, a partner insisting you pull over so they can climb in the back and commit murder most foul, an artic throwing spray all over you and the idiot who has just remembered that to leave at the exit on 100 yds/metres away they should not be in the outside lane and is making a brave attempt to get you to do the same also.
And by the time you have got here, can you remember the first of the four figure numbers without looking back?
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