Paul Brownjohn @Paulos_the_fog@social.cleverlibre.org

@paulgarrard
I agree, Eurostar tickets from London to Paris, for example, are a ludicrous price.

The bus is miles cheaper than either but not so convenient

For anyone who lives in Eastbourne or close to that part of East Sussex, the Bluebell Walk opens in a few days time and it is a stupendous experience. The scent and sight of millions of bluebells is quite overwhelming.

It isn't free but the proceeds go to charity (details on the website)

https://www.bluebellwalk.co.uk/

Of course the system of "instant transfers" available at banks in the EU is a wonderful thing except if you want to make such a transfer over a weekend, in which case 'instant' means the next normal working day. So an instant transfer initiated on Good Friday will , in most EU countries, not appear on the recipients bank account until the following Tuesday - yeah "instant", my fuckin arse!!!

@TimWardCam @ChrisMayLA6

I have lived in Belgium and Luxembourg since 1999 and I have never had a cheque book nor has such a thing been available to me!

The last sort of cheque in existence in Luxembourg; the counter cheque drawn by the bank to pay for such things as cars, ceased to exist at the beginning of last year!

Banks in Britain have always been behind the leaders in technology by 10 years or more. When I was living in France in 1990, I was paying for most things with a debit/credit card that had a chip and pin rather than being associated with a multi-part paper slip and a signature. The first chip & pin cards only appear in Britain in 2003!

@CyclingJourno@toot.bike @PaulNickson @Homebrewandhacking @CableSt

The thrust of my comment was not to trivialize the danger to cyclists which I freely acknowledge to be much greater than the risk to car drivers, but rather to point out that it is not by any means only UK cyclists and other road users who are endangered by the presence of monster potholes.

The area where I bent my suspension was on a cobbled street in Leuven in Belgium where quite a few of streets still boast cobbles. Obviously, if a few cobbles loosen they are quickly uprooted by heavy vehicles and that leaves a hole of impressive size and very substantial depth!

@lostdownunder

The government here in Luxembourg, have done exactly that. All public transport; trains, trams and buses, inside the country's borders is now free (for the real pedants, the only exception is 1st class rail travel for which a modest fare is payable).

@Gojiro

I'm not convinced that his death was suicide as he was conducting experiments involving cyanide (the poison that killed him) at the time of his death and it is therefore quite possible that he accidentally killed himself with it.

That aside, I absolutely agree; he was treated utterly shamefully by his own government especially when one considers the enormous contribution he made to winning WWII. Others in that era, in positions of power, had their homosexual exploits swept under the carpet and I wonder therefore why he was singled out for 'treatment'.

@PaulNickson @Homebrewandhacking @CableSt

Very dangerous to cyclists but car drivers are not immune. I drove over a 'puddle' in Belgium in my then brand new Lotus Elise. It turned out to be a pothole around 15cm (6inches) deep which actually bent the front suspension badly enough for part of it to need to be replaced!

@EU_Commission

Another thing that worries me is the vast quantity of polyester and other 'plastic' fibres that are 'washed' out of modern clothing and thereby fed into our waterways and thence into the sea. Whereas cotton, wool, linen, silk and other natural fibres like hemp fibre will degrade harmlessly and fairly rapidly in rubbish tips, rivers and oceans, artificial fibres are generally much more persistent and add to the already huge quantities of microplastics accumulating on earth!

@dwnews_bot@mastodon.social
Shame the Americans refused refugee status to Anne Frank and family, eh?

The thing that annoys me about the absolute chaos at the port of Dover, is that it was an absolutely 100% predictable problem.

As Britain is no longer a member of the European Union, every British passport now has to be examined for validity (not less than 6 months) and stamped to indicate the date of entry into the Schengen zone. Moreover, every passport must now be checked to see if the holder has already reached or exceeded the maximum stay of 90 days per 180 days in the Schengen zone. The French authorities foresaw the delays that this would occasion and asked the port of Dover to provide them with additional border control booths where they could station extra officers. The port of Dover recognised the forthcoming problem and asked the government for £30 million to completely reorganise the port to make room for the required extra border control booths. The tory scum offered 0.1% of the funds requested so the necessary work has not been undertaken.

As is usual with this government of tory filth, they are now blaming the French and the European Union for problems for which they, themselves, are absolutely 100% to blame!

The French have no option whatever other than to make the checks on each passport and stamp them in as it is required by the other members of the Schengen zone and European Union regulations (regulations that the British government were adamant should be imposed when Britain was still a member of the EU. “Hoisted with his own petard” springs to mind!), just as the same checks are made on the passports of aliens entering the United Kingdom by the UK border force.

The British need to get it into their thick skulls that they are now aliens in the European Unions rather than welcome friends and colleagues!

Running scared? Nah - Donald Trump jnr just doxxed the judges daughter in his father's court case!

https://www.comicsands.com/aoc-trump-jr-judge-daughter-2659739806.html