>>465590
Yes, I was a bit apprehensive about using it as a comparison, but did so since I know their railways quite well. I just wonder what he meant by radically better.

>>465589

Short answer: Britain's passenger railway network performs above the EU average on most metrics. It has improved more since the 1990s than any other network. It is by far and away the safest large network and one of the most efficient; fares are relatively high, but subsidy is unusually low, so the total cost-effectiveness is good.

Switzerland is a wild (and wildly expensive) outlier, but we generally radically over-estimate the quality of foreign rail services. The grass is greener, everything tastes nicer on holiday etc.

Long answer:

https://ec.europa.eu/archives/commission_2010-2014/kallas/headlines/news/2013/01/doc/swd(2013)-10-part3.pdf

>>465592
That was a very good answer, thank you.

The meme about German efficiency and punctuality certainly has a lot of truth to it. If you're attending a German home as a guest you're expected to arrange it in advance, and if you turn up 15 minutes early they seemingly won't know what to do with you. But it doesn't seem to apply to their railways. All the excuses you hear about here apply there even more. Long-distance inter-city services can routinely pick up multi-hour delays. If you're on a train between Berlin and Cologne or Hamburg and Munich, and you arrive within 3 hours of your scheduled time, you got off lightly.

The Swiss city of Basel is near a tripoint with Germany and France. As such, a lot of people travel to and from the city from those countries. There are French trains into the city on the line from the French border into the main SBB station. For historical reasons, the railway from Germany was part of the German system when it was built as the Baden State Railway, and so Basel Baden station remains. International trains from Germany run into Basel Baden station before running into the SBB station. Or, at least, that's how it's supposed to work. But these days it's rare that the DB international train makes it to the SBB station, because SBB controllers have been instructed not to allow the train through if it's delayed by more than a few minutes, because that will affect the capacity for SBB services. So, more often than not, DB's trains are turned around in the Baden station. The situation is apparently so bad and the issues so chronic that there have been complaints to the German government about it.

International services through Germany also run into the Netherlands, and there is apparently a very noticeable discrepancy in the punctuality figures between trains departing the Netherlands for Germany and those arriving from Germany. Then there are the routes in Poland electrified right up to the German border, in the expectation of being able to run electric trains internationally, but which are still diesel-powered because the Germans haven't got around to their part.

The Germans are possibly not the worst offenders here, but their position in Europe (as in their literal position, geographically) means that when the Germans fuck up, everyone else notices.

In France, on many routes the conventional inter-city services have been withdrawn entirely in favour of TGV services, which has meant many places disappearing from the long-distance network altogether and routes not aligned towards Paris having significant cuts. In Greece, much of the network was withdrawn during the financial crisis of a decade ago and hasn't been reinstated since, and on what little they have left they've suffered numerous incidents, including the rather notorious one with multiple fatalities. Hungary has suffered a series of fuck-ups and poor decision-making that have left them abandoning their improved inter-city services and instead pursuing "improved" inter-city services with coaches that look like they were assembled by a child building an Airfix model unsupervised.

As bad as our network is, everyone else has their problems somewhere, and we have at least managed several multi-year stretches without any incidents of multiple passenger fatalities. Before Carmont, I think you have to go all the way back to Hatfield. Grayrigg recorded a single fatality, and I think that was on a technicality of someone having died within 28 days that was arguably not directly caused by the crash.

>>465608
Has there been any hoo-ha in France over les coups de Beecham?

>>465600
You gotta remember mate that in the age of post-industrial colonialism, where films like The Office Space Jam couldn't be made, all these younger lower class floor workers are disenfranchised with our capitalist system and the only way they can push back is by sticking it to the man who can afford a £5 blocks of cheese.

>>465600
>And are people (of all generations) getting ruder?

I think there is an overshadowing epidemic of tiredness and resignation amongst people who work in shops which encourages one to think "what a smug prick/scruffy bastard/entitled bitch" whenever they see a stranger who somewhat resembles someone they've had a bad experience with. Also my generation blames pretty much everything on the older generations, as though your auntie was personally responsible for the housing crisis.

>>465610
Have you tried enlargening the doorways?

>>465610

Was she like this before she worked from home?

I had a shut in girlfriend once, even getting her to do something as simple as take the recycling out or pick something up from the post office quite literally around the corner at the end of our street, was like pulling teeth. She wasn't fat, only a big curvy, but in the very attractive "big tiddy goth gf" stereotype kind of way, but she was still ridden with anxiety and self image issues.

The core of it probably isn't that she's fat, tha's just become an exacerbating factor. I suspect however, you'll need to find and address whatever is at the core of it if you want to even begin to work on it, and the fatness is part of what will need to be addressed to fully make her comfortable.

But personally I just figured it's not worth it, you can help people if there's a will to change but in her case there wasn't, she was happy with it and basically I either had to accept that I'd be the one doing more or less everything in the relationship, or continually cause conflict over it. I definitely miss her from time to time. But I have to remember it was absolutely driving me up the wall.

>>465610
"They'll laugh regardless, so just go" - no seriously, this is what I used to convince myself to start swimming in public, though I'm not humongous just big. I think hiding away is a type of denial - if they don't see me I'm not fat, or atleast they don't know I'm fat. My dad used to ask if certain clothes made him look fat, to which I'd reply 'Your fat makes you look fat'. It's logical and once you can get to terms with it in your own head you can start becoming more comfortable moving about and generally addressing the issue.

What're we talking, multiple wobbly shelves of fat? Knee rolls so large they'd sit on a dining plate?

>>465019
It's eroding our precious culture.

We're just normal men.

We're just innocent men.

https://www.change.org/p/uk-government-rename-the-isle-of-man-the-isle-of-person

As trolls go, this one is kind of brilliant.

>If we are to truly call a ceasefire in the battle of the sexes, we need to rename The Isle of Man, The Isle of Person.


Cat owners, take note: your Manx cat will then become a Personx cat.

>>465023

Thanks grandad .

>>464668

Have you ever swung anything in real life, m8? Weight helps, not hinders. That's why sledgehammers are heavy. You get more force out of the swing than something light and weedy.

>>464567
I promise you they exist and the government knows and it is covered up.

>>464682
>it is covered up
Why would they cover it up?

>>464681
Okay. Put a sledgehammer on the ground in front of you, and pick it up and swing it at a charging panther before the panther reaches you. In fact, pick it up and swing it before I get to you and slap you in the face. Or would you just be walking around with your crowbar perpetually primed and ready to swing? Time is of the essence in these situations - that's why we have already established that a crossbow is no good - and there are no situations where a crowbar is faster to swing than a sword.

>>464684

Just how bad do you think the average person's had eye co-ordination is? It's not rocket science we're talking about here. And furthermore, it's what our ancestors did for millennia. It's literally what we are made for, even if we have mostly stopped practising. Yeah, it's not going to be a foolproof defence, there's every likelihood you'll fuck it and end up getting mauled. But it's going to give you a much better odds.

Anyway I don't know if you've ever had a crowbar in your hands but they are pretty easy to swing, that's the entire reason it feels like a natural choice for the job to me. It's blunt force so it doesn't require any special technique or accuracy, but it's also just the right weight and balance for somebody like me to wield without difficulty. Also the hooked end will essentially act like an axe or pick.

All I'm saying is that out of anything else I have at my immediate disposal, that's what I'd go for if a panther or random violent criminal broke into my flat. I don't ever intend to be in a situation where I have to defend myself like that, but if I were to find that situation forced upon me, I'd feel most confident with that. Not just because I played Half Life.

Why are all the functioning autistic young men that I meet overweight and have a neckbeard? It's like the autist uniform. No eye contact, halting speech... and fat neckbeard. They all look like Jonty Bravery.

>>464358

Is it possibly because you associate a level of lack of self care with autism?

Not deliberately, but much like you only notice a bad toupee there are people with autism you don't notice. Conversely do you think if you meet a overwight neck beard you would assume they were an undiagnosed autistic if they said they weren't autistic?

>>464358
Why you gotta cut me like that

>>464358
Are you the self loathing autist lad?
Where are you meeting them all, work?

>>464344

>>464334
>Selling on behalf of my father who sadly passed away last month
I had someone tell me they were seeing a load of flats on Facebook Marketplace where people were saying "this is my aunt's place" and the like, and invariably they were scams. The idea with those is to get to the point of being able to take some money to cover some cost or another and then ghost the mark once they've paid. I suspect there are a bunch of similar things going on with used car ads, besides the usual exaggerations.

>>464303 I had to move a log that was in the way of putting up a new fence today. Bastarding heavy thing bent my forklift.
But yes, chainsaws are fantastic inventions, everyone should have a few. Chainsaw groups on social media seem to be a wanker-rich cesspit though.

>>464335

In the end, a lot of it is sob stories that are meant to catch you off guard. When somebody tells you a car belonged to their late relative or the flat you've come to look at belongs to their incapacitated grandad who's too frail to come in person, you are meant to think that surely somebody in that life situation isn't going to pull one over on you.

I'm not saying it can't happen for real that you are buying their dead nan's car or renting their crippled dad's flat. Just be on your toes and ask questions and try to think if their story is credible.

>>464337
I've got two fallen mature trees in the back field, I couldn't get a forklift out there even if I had one. It's going to be many trips back and forth with the barrow.
Are chainsaw groups on social media necessary? They're a tool for me, not a hobby in itself.

>>464339 I have forks to go on the back of the tractors, not an actual forklift (although I'd love a teleporter or the like, I rally can't justify it). Barrowing wood around makes a hard day harder.
I joined a chainsaw sharpening group, possibly a 5% information ratio. I should quit it, but it's somewhat addictive, like a zoo full of posturing, shit-flinging monkeys. But with chainsaws.

We're already having breakouts of disease from the water infrastructure failing.

>As for telecoms

It probably won't matter with how fast satellite communications are advancing and the broader 6G the shift away from physical hardwire after the failure of 5G. We're incredibly fortunate that the telecoms industry doesn't behave anything like our utilities and it's probably helped in that by being a broadly international effort.

The National Grid needs to do a lot of work in the coming years to cope with the increase in demand from EVs and electric heating.

Hydrogen might end up being a workable compromise for heating and replacing heavier ICEs. There can be efficiency savings to generate offshore electricity with a turbine and then, instead of sending the energy down a wire, converting it into hydrogen through electrolysis at source and sending that instead.

https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/nhs-services-and-treatments/can-i-access-the-medical-records-health-records-of-someone-who-has-died/

https://pcse.england.nhs.uk/help/medical-records/access-medical-records-members-public

>>464089
The thing is, I am not related to them

>>464090
If you're not in one of the two categories listed, you're SOL. Sorry, stalkerlad.

Fine, I'll be the one to ask.

Why?

>>464173
There was someone in another thread a few weeks ago who was trying to push some narrative about that undertaker in Hull who had been lacklustre with the dead bodies, and I am confident from the writing styles that OP is that same poster again. However, I can't find those posts now and I don't really know what any of this means.

I would.

>including next to the door of a flat where a prostitute, who gets all kinds of shady and sometimes violent men coming to her, lives.

I'd also move.

Could be connected, might not be, probably worth giving an anonymous tip over and then it's up to the police if they want to send forensics or whatever.

But the last thing you want if it is connected is the pigs showing up at your flat and implicating you as a grass.

>>463983
>But the last thing you want if it is connected is the pigs showing up at your flat and implicating you as a grass.

Those are my thoughts exactly. But it might be an unrelated situation where she herself is injured and needs help (I find it very unlikely that she would contact the emergency services herself). In any case I'm not sure how I could remain anonymous here.

You can submit an anonymous tip-off through Crimestoppers:
https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information/forms/give-information-anonymously

How many people live in your building? Any one of them could submit this tip, or equally any of your prostitute neighbour's non-shady customers.

>>463984

I think what you used to do is go phone the tip in from a phone box at least a few streets away. Don't know how you'd do it now but I always thought they have anonymous (anonymous enough for this at least) hotlines for these kinds of things.

Most weddings are well organised, what's happening and where you're supposed to be and doing what will usually be made quite clear. Just make sure your dress-code following clothes are comfortable and that you have a decent snack that can be eaten quietly just in case. If you don't know anyone well, chances are it'll mainly be tedious.

I went to this exact wedding last year, or at least a very similar one. Don't go hogging the groom's time just because you don't know anyone else; he knows everyone there and you should stay in the background unless you think you can get away with it.

The ceremony bit will be fine; it's like watching a play. After that, you will hang about a bit and will have a chance to send messages to your other friends from those days whom he didn't invite because they were all dickheads to him and you were his only real friend. Try and get some sneaky photos for those friends. Don't tell him you're doing this. (Your friendship and backstory might differ from mine here, but the rest of my post should all still apply).

Then, you get the eating bit. At this point, you will be put on a table with a bunch of strangers. These could well be other people who don't know anyone else there, and it is okay to talk to them and even make friends with them. Watch out for tossers and sex predators; if everyone else is in groups who know each other well, you might unfortunately be on the miscellaneous table with people who don't deserve to know anyone else. But that's a worst-case scenario; the best-case scenario is that your groom friend will seat you with people he knows you will get on with, and you will have a fantastic time with them, and they with you.

>>463767

>I continue to maintain that the current Conservative shitshow is all Brexit’s fault.

Agreed, in a way. The problem is that while democracy and the will of the people are good concepts that don't do much harm in and of themselves, you've got to be careful about what you ask the people specifically, and how you ask it and what consequences it will have. I guess that's the real lesson.

You could do all manner of statistically significant opinion polls that will tell you who is in favour of contentious issue X or Y. For example, according to the latest polls, 60 percent of Brits would back a reintroduction of the death penalty. The question is if the country will be better off if you put very fundamental and consequential questions to the people in that kind of way, so that their vote on the matter will actually either cause Britain to leave the EU or to readopt capital punishment.

For a democracy to function, as counterintuitive as it seems, sometimes you have to ignore the will of the people. Otherwise, you could end up derailing your democratic system in and of itself.

>>463767

I largely agree, although I don't think it's even as complicated as that. It's just that Brexit was the only reason people were voting for them in the first place, and either way they would have been fucked once they'd actually gone and done it.

All of our politics of the last 20 years has been dominated by that gut instinct bellyfeel emotional impulse that tells ordinary northern working class Red Wall type voters who know they should be voting Labour that they can't vote Labour, because immigrants. Well now that we did Brexit and immigration stayed at record levels, it's made two things staggeringly obvious even to the most ignorant Baz down the pub type.

Firstly, that the Conservatives are complete frauds who always secretly wanted massive immigration no matter how hard they posture against it.

Secondly, that the Conservatives really did have nothing else. Brexit was the only thing they had and they even cocked that up.

The Red Wall voters who surged over to Bozza weren't under any illusion that the Conservatives were suddenly going to look after them. They weren't even under any impression that Brexit was going to meaningfully improve things. But actually doing it made the point. It lanced the boil. It's done and it's over with and going forward we only have ourselves to account for what happens in our country. In all likelihood, I reckon we'd have seen them all flip back over to Labour even if the Conservatives hadn't had disaster after disaster for the last five years; Liz Truss and all the scandals were just the final nail in the coffin of a party that were already done for.

>>463660
>He was a sort of vaguely kind of lefty (before he was unpersoned
>unpersoned
What's that mean mate?

>>463958

He done a bit of sex naughties apparently, so he's an outcast now isn't he. Don't read any implicit bias into it because there wasn't.

>>463958
His original audience got bored of him so he started doing the Alex Jones thing in an English accent for a different audience then people remembered he did a cheeky bit of rape back in the day so now he can market himself to a more hardcore version of his new audience because they sympathise it's just like in Jorjor Wells.