Britain - The Official Thread

[Touring Mars]

Gutted to hear the tragic news that the four missing lads who were on a camping trip in Wales have been found dead.

RIP

 

[Liquid]

I don't know that area of North Wales exceptionally well but anything in the hinterland can be so dangerous. Very sad to be reading about this.

 

[Liquid]

 

[MatskiMonk]

I still don't want a monarchy in the UK... but...



Well played sir, well played.

 

[HenrySwanson]

We live in 'Britain's unhappiest town' - There are pickpockets

EXCLUSIVE: The west London borough - where the average house price is £483,556 - was yesterday revealed as Britain's unhappiest place to live in Rightmove's Happy at Home index.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Hillingdon is the unhappiest? Really??

 

[UKMikey]

We live in 'Britain's unhappiest town' - There are pickpockets

EXCLUSIVE: The west London borough - where the average house price is £483,556 - was yesterday revealed as Britain's unhappiest place to live in Rightmove's Happy at Home index.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Hillingdon is the unhappiest? Really??

It's not great but it's not a warzone. I suppose we must have the highest proportion of moaners.

 

[TheCracker]

We live in 'Britain's unhappiest town' - There are pickpockets

EXCLUSIVE: The west London borough - where the average house price is £483,556 - was yesterday revealed as Britain's unhappiest place to live in Rightmove's Happy at Home index.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Hillingdon is the unhappiest? Really??

It's not great but it's not a warzone. I suppose we must have the highest proportion of moaners.

Rightmove: The survey asks residents how they feel about their area based on 13 happiness factors. These include things like the club-together community spirit of a local area, having green space on the doorstep, or the sense of belonging in a local community.
This year, more than 26,000 people living in towns, cities and villages across Great Britain have told us how they feel about their local areas, and the things that are the most important to them. And based on the scores people gave their local areas, we’ve ranked the happiest places to live.

I feel proud about the area I live in	1
I feel a sense of belonging	2
There’s a real sense of community spirit	3
Generally, the people are friendly and polite	4
I can be myself	5
Nature and green spaces	6
I earn enough to live comfortably in my area	7
Artistic and cultural activities	8
Employment opportunities and desirable jobs	9
Sports and recreational activities	10
Essential local services e.g. doctors, schools	11
Non-essential amenities e.g. restaurants, shops	12
Public transport connections i.e. bus, train, tram	13

 

[UKMikey]

Rightmove: The survey asks residents how they feel about their area based on 13 happiness factors. These include things like the club-together community spirit of a local area, having green space on the doorstep, or the sense of belonging in a local community.
This year, more than 26,000 people living in towns, cities and villages across Great Britain have told us how they feel about their local areas, and the things that are the most important to them. And based on the scores people gave their local areas, we’ve ranked the happiest places to live.

I feel proud about the area I live in	1
I feel a sense of belonging	2
There’s a real sense of community spirit	3
Generally, the people are friendly and polite	4
I can be myself	5
Nature and green spaces	6
I earn enough to live comfortably in my area	7
Artistic and cultural activities	8
Employment opportunities and desirable jobs	9
Sports and recreational activities	10
Essential local services e.g. doctors, schools	11
Non-essential amenities e.g. restaurants, shops	12
Public transport connections i.e. bus, train, tram	13

I don't get your point. This is simply a list of criteria. It still depends on how people respond.

 

[TheCracker]

I don't get your point. This is simply a list of criteria. It still depends on how people respond.

Sure, but there were 26,000 people who were surveyed over the country. They weren't just asked "What do you think of where you live" with a couple of people from HA4 responding "Well, it's a bit **** innit". If the residents consistantly responded negatively about the area across the range of questions it means that area is generally unliked, compared to other parts of the country. It can't be just down to a few local moaners and their off the cuff remarks.

Of course, it could be simply down to the fact that there was a smaller proportion of people Rightmove actually spoke to (compared to other areas) because not many people were moving out of or moving into the area. But that in itself is telling.

 

[UKMikey]

Sure, but there were 26,000 people who were surveyed over the country. They weren't just asked "What do you think of where you live" with a couple of people from HA4 responding "Well, it's a bit **** innit". If the residents consistantly responded negatively about the area across the range of questions it means that area is generally unliked, compared to other parts of the country. It can't be just down to a few local moaners and their off the cuff remarks.

Of course, it could be simply down to the fact that there was a smaller proportion of people Rightmove actually spoke to (compared to other areas) because not many people were moving out of or moving into the area. But that in itself is telling.

It's a divided borough with areas north of Uxbridge being quite prosperous and southern areas decidedly less so. I wouldn't say they're heavily deprived, though. It'd be interesting to see how local government responds, if they do. I definitely wouldn't say it'd top any polls for community spirit or being an aspirational destination. More like somewhere people end up.

 

[Liquid]

 

[Dreadmed]

It's a divided borough with areas north of Uxbridge being quite prosperous and southern areas decidedly less so. I wouldn't say they're heavily deprived, though. It'd be interesting to see how local government responds, if they do. I definitely wouldn't say it'd top any polls for community spirit or being an aspirational destination. More somewhere people end up.

I had a skim through the article itself, the whole thing does seem a bit nonsensical because it's mixed actual towns/cities (Chester, Aylesbury, Sheffield e.t.c) with London Boroughs.

In some cases you could make the case for a sizeable equivalence but Hillingdon (as you've noted) is a bit of an abnormality because of how much ground it covers, in more than one sense of the word; the northern boundary stretches all the way up to Northwood, which in itself is about an affluent place as you could hope to find in suburban London, but the response in this survey could be in relation to one of a dozen areas in the borough.

For what it's worth my Grandad is still living in Hillingdon itself after moving in some 60/70 years ago (the "town" although it doesn't really qualify as such), albeit with help from carers now (he had his 97th a few weeks ago). He was still active and hitting up the sports/community centre in Uxbridge right up until Covid hit, if the area really was as depressing as they're trying to make out he would've moved or hit the bucket long ago!

 

[AEKara38]

26,000 is 0.03% of the UK population. Hillingdon population is around 300,000 so they asked around 90 people. Hardly representative of the population.

 

[UKMikey]

26,000 is 0.03% of the UK population. Hillingdon population is around 300,000 so they asked around 90 people. Hardly representative of the population.

I bet they all lived in Hayes.

 

[TheCracker]

26,000 is 0.03% of the UK population. Hillingdon population is around 300,000 so they asked around 90 people. Hardly representative of the population.

The YouGov exit poll sample for the 2016 referendum was a poll of 4772 voters out of 33,577,342 actual voters - so just a .0142% sample.

Enough to be acurate within .1%. So 90 people out of 300,000 is plenty enough.

 

[HenrySwanson]

Not that surprising:

The bus took 11 minutes before LTNs — now it takes 45

Cycle lanes and low-traffic zones have been blamed for making bus travel in London a misery. Mutinous drivers are on the verge of strikes

www.thetimes.co.uk

In the worst-hit areas buses are now taking almost an hour to pass two stops, according to official data.

Bus drivers in the capital have formed an alliance outside their union to discuss how they can confront Transport for London (TfL). They say they have been pushed to “breaking point” by cycling policies that are making life on the buses a misery.

Using information from social media reports and published documents, The Times has established that bus lanes have been lost to cycle lanes on at least 20 roads across the capital in recent years, including Chiswick High Road, Trafalgar Road, Balls Pond Road and Vauxhall Bridge.
Bus journey times are also being hit by traffic displaced by LTNs.
The recent Streatham Wells LTN pilot, which was introduced in south London in October, is destroying bus services, according to local campaigners. They point to figures from TfL showing that since the LTN was introduced some buses are taking three quarters of an hour to travel a mile along one of its boundary roads, a journey that is timetabled to last only 11 minutes. In one case a bus took 55 minutes to travel two stops when it normally takes 4 minutes.
Bus operators in Oxford have also complained about LTNs delaying services. In response to a consultation, the Oxford Bus Company, Stagecoach and Thames Travel said that the LTNs had “directly caused bus services across the bulk of Oxford to become substantially slower”.
Vincent Stops, who worked as a policy officer at the statutory body London Travel Watch for 20 years, believes TfL and councils are putting cyclists ahead of bus users because they have been influenced by the “cycling lobby”.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Tom the Taxi driver on YouTube has repeatedly pointed out how the LTNs force everyone onto the same routes, causing much heavier traffic.

 

[TheCracker]

Tom the Taxi driver on YouTube has repeatedly pointed out how the LTNs force everyone onto the same routes, causing much heavier traffic.

They've put large concrete planters across some of the roads near me, roads i used to use as cuthroughs on my commute to and from work to avoid heavy traffic at the lights and because at those times of day there was heavy bus traffic too. All it's done is increase the traffic on the main roads that were already busy and to kill off several local businesses due to it now being increasingly difficult to get parked in the area.

It became a battle of wills between the council and people who actually lived on those roads - who didn't want to be adding time to every car journey they took due to the convoluted routes they now had to take. The residents kept shifting the planters to the sides of the road and the council would come and put them back.

 

[Liquid]

Apropos of nothing:

Make no mistake, the Tory party won't be satisfied until everyone under £100k p/a is selling their organs for rental deferments.

 

[Jimlaad43]

How much irony can you fit in one picture

 

[Famine]

After killing off Top Gear (1977-2022) and Question of Sport (1968-2023), the United Kingdom is hoping that Paddy McGuinness will be cast in Mrs. Brown's Boys soon.


I've never had a clue why he became famous; he's more wooden than literal wood. Also the only ongoing gig he has left (also on a long-term production: 1985-present) is Comic Relief and my word that's long overdue for being taking out behind the bins and shot.

 

[TheCracker]

His fame came off the back of just being friends with Peter Kay. He was pretty good as 'Paddy' in the series they did together to be fair, but yeah, anything he's done since...

 

[R55NA]

We just pretending he wasn't good on Take Me Out? At its peak, it was good fun television.

 

[Liquid]

Apropos nothing, this is a fabulous idea and I would have bitten your hand off to have had this course at school.

 

[Clinton Ducks]

Apropos nothing, this is a fabulous idea and I would have bitten your hand off to have had this course at school.

I wonder if it’s an option for a second language, or if it’s its own thing?

 

[Liquid]

I wonder if it’s an option for a second language, or if it’s its own thing?

Although education is devolved, so Wales has its own way of approaching things and it might be different elsewhere, I always remember it being a foreign language rather than a second language. You'd then have to wonder if BSL counts as "foreign" as opposed to an additional language.

I did Welsh and German at school, I'd have happily done British Sign as well.

 

[Clinton Ducks]

Although education is devolved, so Wales has its own way of approaching things and it might be different elsewhere, I always remember it being a foreign language rather than a second language. You'd then have to wonder if BSL counts as "foreign" as opposed to an additional language.

I did Welsh and German at school, I'd have happily done British Sign as well.

I did French. Complete waste of everyone’s time that was, I barely have a grasp of English. It was a really hard decision for me to choose between metal work and wood work. Always wished I could’ve done both and sacked French off entirely.

Nothing against the French of course, I’m just more technically minded than linguistic.

 

[Roo]

Apropos nothing, this is a fabulous idea and I would have bitten your hand off to have had this course at school.

Would've made it difficult to pass a BSL GCSE, though.

 

[Touring Mars]

James Cleverly apologises for ‘appalling’ date rape drug joke at No 10 event

Home secretary said secret of a long marriage was sedating spouse on the same day a new policy on spiking was announced

www.theguardian.com

...on the same day the government announced new measures to curb spiking of drinks...

 

[Liquid]

I might only have been born in 1991 which is young compared to some people here but these past few years have been the worst British governments in my life.