Random political stuff - old news, or not news

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BoldonLad

Old man on a bike. Not a member of a clique.
Location
South Tyneside
Funny thing is that I’ve noticed that most drivers these days seem to only look about 1m in front of their bonnet.

Well, if you are busy playing candy crush on your phone. It is not easy to lift your head enough to further ahead than that 😊
 

icowden

Pharaoh
I wouldn't be surprised if the parents end up only half understanding what their children are saying in French, as their spoken vocab and grammar won't be anything like the language even older French people speak, let alone the kind of formal French we learn in the UK.

My French was not great (C at GCSE) but I speak French reasonable well as far as most French people are concerned. I did French Exchange with the same family for 4 years. A fortnight living in France every year for four years taught me more French than my French teacher. That French was not GCSE compatible though.

I always remember in the Oral test one of the questions was "You have been skiing and crashed into a tree breaking your leg. Give this information to the Doctor" or something along those lines.

I have always thought that the correct answer is

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!" "MA JAMBE!" "Je pense que c'est cassé!"

That's it. If the Doctor can't work out HOW I broke my leg, I don't want him treating it, thanks. Why the buggery bollox would I be needing to say "Pardon Monseir, Je faire au Skiiing et apres je descend la montaine, j'allez au l'arbre et je pense my jambe est cassé." (this is not good French, bt it's good enough - that;s the thing".

Also when you speak French to someone French they are so used to Brits just SHOUTING MORE LOUDLY that they will genuinely appreciate the effort even if it's a fair way from perfect.

We should be teaching French as a living language much more. The most important phrase you can learn is "Parlez plus lentement s'il vouz plais!" in my opinion.
 
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briantrumpet

briantrumpet

Timewaster
My French was not great (C at GCSE) but I speak French reasonable well as far as most French people are concerned. I did French Exchange with the same family for 4 years. A fortnight living in France every year for four years taught me more French than my French teacher. That French was not GCSE compatible though.

I always remember in the Oral test one of the questions was "You have been skiing and crashed into a tree breaking your leg. Give this information to the Doctor" or something along those lines.

I have always thought that the correct answer is

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!" "MA JAMBE!" "Je pense que c'est cassé!"

That's it. If the Doctor can't work out HOW I broke my leg, I don't want him treating it, thanks. Why the buggery bollox would I be needing to say "Pardon Monseir, Je faire au Skiiing et apres je descend la montaine, j'allez au l'arbre et je pense my jambe est cassé." (this is not good French, bt it's good enough - that;s the thing".

Also when you speak French to someone French they are so used to Brits just SHOUTING MORE LOUDLY that they will genuinely appreciate the effort even if it's a fair way from perfect.

We should be teaching French as a living language much more. The most important phrase you can learn is "Parlez plus lentement s'il vouz plais!" in my opinion.

Probably bad form to add "...and without the Marseille accent..."
 
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briantrumpet

briantrumpet

Timewaster
Re planning, East Devon are really taking the mickey - they have a habit of plonking all their biggest developments on Exeter's finges, so they get all the council tax, but all the infrastructure challenges are dumped on Exeter. The latest one is a proposed 2000-house development at Clyst St George (strangely their planning portal is down now, just when people want to view it and comment). I think I'd mentioned the 500-house one that would feed directly on to two of the most insane rush hour roads, and is bounded by the M5 and River Clyst, right on Exeter's doorstep.

There's widespread scepticism about the new proposed unitary authorities, but I'd look East Devon in the eye (as well as Teignbridge) and say it's because they've been taking the mickey and dumping everything at the outer edges of their areas but right on Exeter's doorstep, that Exeter ought to be doing a landgrab to become Greater Exeter.

Normally I'm not a nimby (as you know, I wasn't objecting to the smaller one within a hundred yards of my own house), but this meeting-of-targets by sticking every thing as close to Exeter as they can has got ridiculous. It's so flagrant.
 

Ian H

Pharaoh
Re planning, East Devon are really taking the mickey - they have a habit of plonking all their biggest developments on Exeter's finges, so they get all the council tax, but all the infrastructure challenges are dumped on Exeter. The latest one is a proposed 2000-house development at Clyst St George (strangely their planning portal is down now, just when people want to view it and comment). I think I'd mentioned the 500-house one that would feed directly on to two of the most insane rush hour roads, and is bounded by the M5 and River Clyst, right on Exeter's doorstep.

There's widespread scepticism about the new proposed unitary authorities, but I'd look East Devon in the eye (as well as Teignbridge) and say it's because they've been taking the mickey and dumping everything at the outer edges of their areas but right on Exeter's doorstep, that Exeter ought to be doing a landgrab to become Greater Exeter.

Normally I'm not a nimby (as you know, I wasn't objecting to the smaller one within a hundred yards of my own house), but this meeting-of-targets by sticking every thing as close to Exeter as they can has got ridiculous. It's so flagrant.

To be fair to East Devon, the east of the district is mostly AONB (or whatever the term is now). The Blackdown Hills and the East Devon Hills are like two buttocks, with this town squeezed out from between them.
 
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briantrumpet

briantrumpet

Timewaster
To be fair to East Devon, the east of the district is mostly AONB (or whatever the term is now). The Blackdown Hills and the East Devon Hills are like two buttocks, with this town squeezed out from between them.

Yes, but just dumping everything in the most inappropriate places as close to Exeter as they can isn't using what they have got. At least Cranbrook had a bit of thought about transport, and isn't slap on the boundary of Exeter, and isn't on the worst side to be getting into Exeter from. I think they've just gone "How close to Exeter can we put it?" since then. I suspect they aren't wanting to upset their voters in pretty places like Ottery that are nearer the centre of the East Devon area. Call me cynical...
 

Pross

Guru
Yes, but just dumping everything in the most inappropriate places as close to Exeter as they can isn't using what they have got. At least Cranbrook had a bit of thought about transport, and isn't slap on the boundary of Exeter, and isn't on the worst side to be getting into Exeter from. I think they've just gone "How close to Exeter can we put it?" since then. I suspect they aren't wanting to upset their voters in pretty places like Ottery that are nearer the centre of the East Devon area. Call me cynical...

I know nothing about it but would guess that their argument is that it’s better to develop near the place where everything is rather than have people travelling to work from the middle of nowhere (although the poor and very difficult to improve links into Exeter city centre go against that to some extent).
 
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briantrumpet

briantrumpet

Timewaster
I know nothing about it but would guess that their argument is that it’s better to develop near the place where everything is rather than have people travelling to work from the middle of nowhere (although the poor and very difficult to improve links into Exeter city centre go against that to some extent).

Yes, that'd be my guess of an excuse, but where they are suggesting putting them suggests that's not the real reason - they'd just tag that on, like the nimbys tag on assorted reasons why it's impossible to build *here*.

As I say, Cranbrook is an example of how it ought to be done - sure, most of those will be working in Exeter, but it has never felt that they were just trying to tag it onto Exeter and hope no-one would notice it was in East Devon.
 

The Crofted Crest

Well-Known Member
A propos de rien, this morning I had a cup of tea and an orange juice at this bar in Thionville, East Exeter.
Screenshot_20260807_213802_Google.jpg


No not really, it was France
 
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