They ran a campaign like this down in England fronted by Anton Du Beke and Dale Winton
Dante Alighieri missed a trick in never detailing that particular circle of Hell.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Minister for trunk roads
(70 posts)-
Posted 7 years ago #
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discounted back to 1970 to allow for sedentary lifestyles and overeating
Don't worry, the way things are going this country will soon be back in a recession like the one in the 1970s - people will lose their jobs, starve, and no longer be able to afford to eat in restaurants*
*Except Inner-Circle members.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Laid out like this it is staggering how much is being spent on road projects. I thought we were living through austerity?
Since a stretch south of Aviemore of just five miles, due to be completed by August, has cost £35m, that could mean a series of big bills all coming in at the same time.
5 miles.
Posted 7 years ago # -
"
The £8 billion total is breathtaking, even if some of the work has been awaited for decades.
...
For the A9 and A96, it is true that the railway lines which largely follow them are also being upgraded - but the estimated combined cost of some £400m is a fraction of that being spent on the new dual carriageways.
In fact, the planned widening of an 11-mile section of the A82 beside Loch Lomond could cost almost as much, while spending that much on cycling might give ministers a glimmer of hope of getting anywhere near their “vision” of 10 per cent of journeys by bike.
"
War on (potential) cyclists.
Posted 7 years ago # -
@Stickman
It's amusing (to me anyway) to think that the A9 is actually the King's Road from Dunkeld to Fort George (the old one in Inverness that the Jacobites engaged a French engineer to blow up) built by General Wade in the late 1720s.
The costs are hard to compare but it was a big expense and a huge project for back then, made for the purpose of 'Establishing an order in those Parts and Reducing the Highlanders to a more due submission to Your Majesty’s Government'. This was to be done by i) getting troops north to crack heads and ii) getting highland recruits south in volume. It demonstrated the power of the new state in its last lawless region.
I would say that the road still has a political function in demonstrating to the inhabitants of the north in concrete fashion that the south (wherever that is) still cares about them. It's a Mitterand-style project whose importance goes beyond its strict utility.
I can't think of any other reason why the dualling would be done when the traffic flow does not justify it and the average speed cameras have already dealt with the bulk of the safety issues.
Over-engineering can go wrong of course - the French sapper who mined the old Fort George was so keen on his work that the resulting explosion killed him.
Posted 7 years ago # -
I think when duelling a road cycle lanes should always be added with a small wall as when the road is duelled people think you cant cycle on it
Posted 7 years ago # -
"The one guy in my primary class everyone thought was fat would barely count as normal weight now. We really have changed."
It's true. It's global too, not just Scotland, though we are one of the most obese societies on the planet.
"Don't worry, the way things are going this country will soon be back in a recession like the one in the 1970s - people will lose their jobs, starve, and no longer be able to afford to eat in restaurants"
There's this myth about the 1970s that there was this huge recession. It's not true. We might not have had full employment like the 1960s but it wasn't so bad. There was an energy (oil) crisis, there was industrial unrest. The Empire finally came to end. There was some unemployment, but not that bad.
The recession that was the worst was in the early 1980s, as a result of Thatcher's monetarist policies, in particular the abolition of exchange controls in 1979 which led to an exodus of capital, and resulting in very high interest rates which destroyed huge swathes of manufacturing industry.
Posted 7 years ago # -
The recession that was the worst was in the early 1980s
At school in the 70's it was assumed you could walk into a job if you had a degree. I graduated in 1982 and after over 100 job application rejections did a teacher training course. I got my first full-time post in 1988. So yes, it was pretty bad.
Edit: maybe an English degree wasn't the best choice.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Re unemployment and the 1970s. I recall the Tories in the late 70s made an enormous fuss when the number of unemployed people (*) went over the shocking figure of one million.
When the Tories got into government in 1979 they lost little time in sending the unemployment figures to well over three million, and inflation up to 35%.
(*) actual unemployment, then, not just those who hadn't been excluded from eligibility to claim the resulting benefit
Posted 7 years ago # -
This thread seems to be leaving for a political overview of where we are currently as we progress to 'who knows where'.
So I'll give a snapshot from Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp's article in today's National.Picture: Deliveroo riders protest at London HQ
Theme: New divisions will run deeper than left or right (yes and no).
Content: The new class system only has two castes. Those whose income is secure and those whose income is insecure.
Real jobs don't exist in the Deliveroo Economy... If you think that's bad the Uber Economy has no workers at all.
(Or plans to have no workers?)Going to post Rab Wilson's 'Mair fowks should be oot thair gettin on thair bikes' to cheer you all up!
Posted 7 years ago #
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