Let's not forget that Jews are not the only target of hate campaigns.


And through various media channels, some people are deliberately stirring up trouble.


We may come from a different political spectrum (sometimes we agree though), but I would miss your input on whatever subject. It's only through polite conversation that we on this group can improve understanding.

[/quote]

 

Not intended to be "nasty", just expressing an opinion based on my own observation, and the experience of a number of Jewish friends who, especially living in London, feel somewhat as if they're walking around with a target on their back, and in some cases are hiding their identity.

Politicians, who should know better, are in many cases making it worse.

I'll say no more on the subject in order to avoid anyone taking offence.

Shalom

 

There's a conversation to be had about how much aviation the planet can take before it makes life difficult for humans - because of climate; because of direct impacts such as noise; and because it uses resources that might have more vital application elsewhere.

If it turns out the the answer is "not as much as we are forecast to travel by plane" then there's a follow-up question about what to do about it. There are some awkward trade-offs and value problems involved.

 
Thank you, grahame.

Perhaps we could get some way back to the original topic and discuss ways of promoting ways of mitigating environmental damage that would be acceptable across a range of political views?

 
From me ... a while ago ...


Please, gentlemen, let's not stray too far.   It feels like the world is getting nastier - or it could just be that I am getting older - but let's not follow that regrettable path here on the Coffee Shop.   

 

Scottish B&B person who had had a portmanteau career before running a B&B business that having husbanded its reputation had grown along with the old stationmaster's house there - and now also included a freestanding holiday home constructed in part on ground that he'd cleared by removing a scoop into the long-abandoned railway embankment that bordered his land. He indicated that yes, the booking sites took a substantial bite out of the transaction, and for the holiday cottage this was 22%.

 
It was the roof of Southall station and was struck by 1A23.

 

Amazing how many maps used on accommodation / booking sites don't have a scale bar.

 

I avoid booking.com for probably similar reasons (reinforced by its irritating presence on the National Rail journey planner).

Here, search engine algorithms are not our friend, as the "native" website of the B&B can be well down the list.

 

Yes, I have come across a number of dead links. One thing that irritates me is the large number of websites that, for want of a better term, seem to be parasitic; that is to say they appear to have scraped details from elsewhere and often offer to "check availability" for places that have long-since ceased to exist.



It was probably the early 90's when I used Tourist Info to obtain a long list of B&B in North Cornwall and worked my way through the telephone numbers until I found one that was suitable and had space. Although not the most streamlined of processes, it had the advantage of being, probably, a comprehensive list of accommodation - in one document.


Brings back memories. I stayed one night in Inverness. The proprietess didn't have space for the following night, so asked her neighbour.  I stayed with said neigbour several times over the years. She was a fantastic host and was there with tea and sandwiches to welcome me at about 02:30 after the Taunton-Inverness train* was delayed by 5 hours.

Still as a student, I booked into a B&B opposite Balloch station. When my friend and I arrived, the door was opened by a girl rather younger than us. She looked rather hesitantly at us - nobody else was in the house - but let us in. The same girl cooked breakfast the following morning, saying very little. We enjoyed the meal in what was rather smart surroundings and then went on our way.

* Yes there was a Taunton-Inverness train in those days (probably 1980s).

 

Indeed.  A lot of local feedback on that one.   With all the extra housing planned in the Melksham area and in town to the south - such as Trowbridge, Westbury and Warminster ... and with many of our roads already congested, just one step short of gridlock, freight and passenger issues, the future looks interesting.

Roll on the Bath and Wiltshire metro, with public transport providing a network at turn-up-and-go frequency, and capacity through the railway line to take all that freight that Heidi wants to shift over from the roads.

 

Southall I think

 
Plans for Melksham bypass (A350) dropped:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cxvgdegp3ry7o

 
Route(s) affected
Between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport / Reading

Description

Trains are returning to normal following an obstruction on the track between London Paddington and Hayes & Harlington. As service recovers, trains running between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport / Reading may still be cancelled or delayed by up to 20 minutes.

Major disruption is expected until 18:00.

 

Not sure about Dawlish ... but just today I have been booking hotels that need to be stations for next week.   These days, outside the UK, I tend to search on booking-dot-com, find something that looks vaguely suitable, then click on the map, find the station, and navigate around hotels nearby.   It's a formula that typically words, just with the proviso that in big cities what looks close to the station may not be. 

 
I think the obstruction must be between Paddington and Slough - the 14:37 from Didcot arrived at Slough at 15:37 (4 mins late) but is yet to reach Paddington (due 15:52), "delayed".

 

There was plenty of skullduggery going on at the tills too !  Just before D day I bought two items in a supermarket in Dumbarton, each doubly marked 2s 5d and 12½p. I was duly charged 5s - I then pointed out that 2 times 2s 5d was 4s 10d not 5s. The girl on the checkout then said that we were going decimal soon and the decimal price was 12½p - which was 2s 6d.......so that was the price of the item. I then asked to see the manager, he arrived and I explained what had happened...........he rang up "no sale", took 2d out of the till, slammed it down in front of me and walked off - never having said a word.  A double attempted con-trick as the official conversion of 2s 5d was actually 12p !!!

I never darkened that supermarket's door step again............

Later:  I travelled a lot to Germany during the introduction of the Euro - what went on there made the man in Dumbarton look a complete amateur !

But, I digress !

 
...and the earlier 15:30 to Weston is delayed at Reading, should have departed 15:55.

EDIT: 16:00 to Bristol is cancelled.

 

I use a combination of Booking.com to locate (but not book) potential places near a specific location by using their map facility. Having located suitable places scoring ideally above 8.0 (but higher the better) using their map, I will check reviews there & elsewhere before looking up their website & making contact direct - the vast majority of places these days have learned that they can offer cheaper rates direct than on Booking.com by not paying the latter's comission fee of around 9%. Hasn't let me down yet.

 
16:30 Paddington - Taunton "This service has been delayed because of an obstruction on the track"

 

Hear Hear.

Ever since Polanski took over they seem to have been taken over by former Corbynistas, the Environment seems to have faded away from their priorities to be replaced by obsessing over Gaza, "trans rights" and various fringe causes.

Like Corbyn's Labour, they have now been referred to the ECHR in respect of their antisemitism. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the outcome was the same.

I can understand why the estimable Caroline Lucas is so distressed by the direction they are taking/have taken, I may not have agreed with all she said, but at least it was coherent, well informed and inoffensive, however already the usual suspects are piling on to her, accusing her of being a shill for Israel etc with depressing predictability.

 
Talking with a B&B owner in Scotland, that class of accommodation's very much in decline for reasons you can imagine. Information being online is a mixed blessing too, as the number of deceased web sites, deceased email addresses, unresponsive email address owners, is legion.

Something that's gone and that I'm not sure was valued even when it was running was the Tourist Information 'Book a bed ahead' service, which for a 10% commission was pretty good at finding somewhere to stay and often provided a voyage of discovery too. It was UK-wide so I once visited the tourist information in Bath and within a few hours they booked a B&B for me in Stirling. Compare and contrast with the present day and Bath has no tourist information office.

One memorable time, before the service was centralised, and for Gairloch, the tourist information person completely ran out of options but had enough local contacts to go on the grapevine and find someone who was very content to put us up in a spare room. Evening sun, a small house with an extensive view a mile or so to Gairloch, and on arrival having taken a quick look at us, she handed us the house keys, apologised that she was out for the evening and with that we were beyond reach of the midges and had a roof over our heads.

 
So far, I've posted a reflection on the experience of my train journey. There are other points I'd like to cover and to see how other Coffeeshop members views compare.

Firstly, it was not easy to choose a destination. Some of this may be due to my advancing years and a sense of "been there done that". Some, however, may be due to a decline in the destinations themselves. This forum has already covered town centre decline and the particular problems of coastal destinations.

Some of that decline may have been unavoidable. Some, I feel, is down to poor design and planning. (Here, planning is in a wider sense than what Local Govt. does). So many places look dreary or "the same".

Then there is the aspect of car dominance. Not only does this detract from the beauty or tranquility of places, it has also led to particular difficulties for those of us trying to use public transport.

Turning to my decision to extend the trip to more than one day: it is not particularly easy to find somewhere to stay overnight (varies by location and budget). It is much harder when you are looking for somewhere that is easily accessible by train. Many websites are catching on to the idea of searching for "dog friendly" but I've yet to see "near the station" offered as a search option.

I have stayed in some fantastic B&Bs over the years, which I prefer to the more impersonal hotel experience. Not many could be described as "easily accessible by rail". In Dawlish, with a bit of effort, I found three (can you do better? without using AirBnB). I have also tagged B&Bs in Lymington, Yarmouth IoW and Sway for future reference.

 

Given its governance, as of today, Starlink should not be under consideration for this (or anything else).

Mark

 

I'm sorely tempted to associate those words with a certain train service...

 

I will never vote "green" again, unless they reverse the recently announced anti-Semitic policy is reversed.