The effect of inflation on spending a penny.

Traveling by coach in the United Kingdom

Coach travel UK

If, for any reason, you need to travel by coach in the United Kingdom, and the route happens to take
in Bristol as a stop over or change, there are some important points that you will need to be aware of.
In my case, it was travelling last Sunday,(12th October) as a passenger with National Express from Dorchester to Swansea in Wales, with changes at Bristol and Cardiff. The journey had a duration of some 6 hours, including changes and some minor diversions to obscure pick up points along the way.
A lengthy time traveling, which would in any circumstances require "comfort breaks" even with the provision of toilet facilities on the coach. As it so happens, the "facilities" on the first coach were in fact blocked and therefore unusable. This must have been even more inconvenient, (no pun intended) for those traveling with this coach to its ultimate destination, which was in fact Blackpool, some distance away up the M6.
On reaching Bristol, there was the usual scramble for the station facilities, particularly as a number of coaches had arrived at the same time, spilling their cargo's of human travellers into an already crowded concorse, (and I thought that this was Sunday!) Eventually, we reached a turnstile, rather similar to those which used to be found at the gates of football grounds (perhaps the builders of the Bristol bus station has managed to secure a job lot of turnstiles at a knock down price during the construction work) to be confronted by a sign which demanded a 20p entry fee and moreover, would only accept 20p coins as a means of entry. After obtaining the necessary coinage, by the purchase of a Bounty Bar and a Crunchie, I gained entry to the convenience.
If the management of these bus stations are compelled to charge extortionate prices for the use of their amenities within the station, they might at least ensure that the facilities are clean and usable. The Bristol facilities are dirty, uncleaned and when seraching for toilet paper to wipe hands after discovering that the hand driers did not work, found that all of the WC's in the cubilcle were blocked. All of them. Not just blocked but overfolwing with paper and other matter.
Not un naturally, I obtained a complaint form from the station office and indicated that I was not very happy with the situation. Bizzarely, he said that they have received lots of complaints about the state of the loo's from many users. Weird that nothing has been done to resolve the problem.

If by chance you travel on to Swansea, the charge is 30p!

Northern Ireland and Brexit. The return of "The Troubles"

Northern Ireland: police attacked in another night of disturbances | Northern Ireland | The Guardian When the "Brexit" debate was still filling our newspapers and our television screens, readers may remember why I had changed my mind since voting to leave at the referendum vote. Apart from the economic arguments, which had become crystal clear after peeling away all the lies and misrepresentations trotted out by Bozo Boris and his "Get Brexit Done" conspirators, there was always the problem of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Would it be possible to have a border between the European Union and the United Kingdom where people, goods and services could pass freely between the two nations without customs restrictions, tariffs, duties and all the other formalities? Would it be possible to have one part of the United Kingdom treated differently from other parts of the United Kingdom, particularly when Scotland for example had voted overwhe...

Workers face ban on striking .

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/15/trade-unions-conservative-offensive-decades-strikes-labour?CMP=share_btn_fb Tories launch biggest crackdown on trade unions for 30 years The Labour party must oppose the continuing assault on ordinary people in this country. Organisation and protests against the excesses of this Conservative government is essential. Should Harriet Harman suggest even partial support for Conservative policies, she is clearly in the wrong party.

Leave the clocks alone!

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/did-you-remember-to-put-clocks-forward-224737/ Sanity returns!!! The clocks have gone forward by one hour and perhaps now I can get some proper sleep, and return to normal in numerous other areas which have been disrupted since 25th October 2020. That pesky little person who steals an hour from my sleep and disrupts my time/body clock for the next 6 months, should be confined to a secure location for ever. Never again should I and thousands like me be disrupted every year and for no apparent reason by an outdated and tenuous notion of "daylight saving". In fact we should probably put another hour at the start of the Summer and then stay on Double British Summer Time (DBST). for the duration. Message for pesky little person "LEAVE THE BLOODY CLOCKS ALONE!"

Agenda 2019

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