"I don't care how much it costs...": Cyclist stuns bike shop by upgrading $250 Walmart ride with DT Swiss wheels, Shimano GRX and dropper post in $3,000 spree + more on the live blog

levestane wrote:

The only serious way to address overshoot of multiple planetary boundaries is to reduce global resource use to about 30% of current. At this point the term 'sustainability' is more than marketing wash.

Really?  Well, we're f-ed as a civilisation then, aren't we?  Maybe the species will survive, but we won't have the shiny stuff any more.

Not news - it's just an extended Mathusian trap.  In general populations of creatures grow and use more resources until they hit some limit.  That could be depleting the resources, or being eaten or subject to disease / parasites.

Our ancestor creatures stoned-and-burned the predators, then speared our way to meat beyond reach of our weight and teeth / claws.  Much later we cleverly expanded beyond limits of hunter-gathering resources, and very recently we've tapped into vast new energy sources.  And in the last hundred years or so massively increased average lifespan.

Barring a "conspiracy" of some kind the only limits are excess population density issues (e.g. wars) OR us running out of something we can't find an alternative for.  "Conspiracy" could be something cultural e.g. the theory that the rate of having kids is going to decline at a rate which compensates for lifespan increases, or an extremely uncommon agreement that somewhow everyone will ease off a bit (actually a vast amount in the "west") to avoid everyone losing out.

OTOH plenty of cultures and civilisations have collapsed in the past, it's very natural!

It's symptomatic of the system we have that we 'laud' breadcrumbs.

I was expecting fuel duty to be raised, it's an ideal time, world oil prices are low, pump prices are low too so banging up duty would've been lower impact than it was last year when petrol and diesel were over £1.50/l.

As a whole, the budget was 'more of the same' with no account taken of the elephant on a skateboard thundering towards us in the form of climate change and environmental breakdown.

There is no point being forward looking if you lose the next election and based on the astonishing amount of anti-Labour media since day one and the fact most Tory voters probably wouldn't have any issue blaming Brexit and the last 14 years of shit leadership on Labour somehow, you can't just go in all guns blazing. 

Its nice to think that a radical and massively unpopular policy would win the hearts and minds of people by the time the next election comes around but it won't. People are squeezed financially at the moment so upping fuel duty would be deeply unpopular. 

Labour can either try and move towards a better country whilst toeing the line on unpopular policies and hopefully get a decade or more to do things or they can go down in a blaze of glory, have most of their changes undone and the country in another mess in 10 years which they have to start again on. 

We tend to be very idealistic on here when perhaps a slice of realism is necessary. Doesn't matter if people are the dregs of society or have completely the wrong views on everything. Their vote is as good as yours and Labour wouldn't even be this position if our voting system was proportional representation. 

mctrials23 wrote:

There is no point being forward looking if you lose the next election and based on the astonishing amount of anti-Labour media since day one and the fact most Tory voters probably wouldn't have any issue blaming Brexit and the last 14 years of shit leadership on Labour somehow, you can't just go in all guns blazing. 

Its nice to think that a radical and massively unpopular policy would win the hearts and minds of people by the time the next election comes around but it won't. People are squeezed financially at the moment so upping fuel duty would be deeply unpopular. 

Labour can either try and move towards a better country whilst toeing the line on unpopular policies and hopefully get a decade or more to do things or they can go down in a blaze of glory, have most of their changes undone and the country in another mess in 10 years which they have to start again on. 

We tend to be very idealistic on here when perhaps a slice of realism is necessary. Doesn't matter if people are the dregs of society or have completely the wrong views on everything. Their vote is as good as yours and Labour wouldn't even be this position if our voting system was proportional representation. 

I get your point, but investing in active travel infrastructure can be easily justified by many studies on return on investment. I suppose I'm looking for a rational, analytical style of governing rather than the knee-jerk follow the newspapers populism style.

In 2016, the Conservative Government invested 316m I think? Now your beloved Labour throws you a 100m pitance. The delusion so many of you have, is that you think Labour are any different. Political parties are nothing but crime syndicates, only looking after themselves. Conservative, Labour, LibDem; they don't care about you, they really dont, yet they sucker you in to vote for them and have you trash other parties all day long. Public opinion needs to change, to affect more support for cycling infra investment, but that wont happen while hate-filled one-sided NPC mob sites, such as this one, propogate conflict. Honestly, this site has fast become a mirror of the Telegraph, for the hate and niave one-sided view on everything. You should merge into one site, you all deserve each other, you really do. Now cue my buddy Rendal, to respond with more hate, name calling and prove the point again, as he always does - thanks buddy! 

Hi Alex, thanks for popping in!

I have found the link that you were missing for your reference to £316 million.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/cycle-funding-and-bike-lanes-is-the...

I note that whilst a figure of £316 million is mentioned, it appears to be for the period of 2016-2021. So my rudimentary maths has that coming out at £63.2m per year. Obviously the money spent by this government will not go as far due to the catastrophic inflation we have suffered under the previous administration.

The inflation caused by printing money during covid you mean ?

They've got 5 years. If they can encourage people out of cars and on to bikes then those people will experience the freedom of cycling along with the improvements in physical and mental health that go with it. That in turn will reduce demand for NHS and social services. If that doesn't convince enough people to reelect tham then we may as well give up.

It's will soon be 5 years since the start of the Covid pandemic.

it doesn't feel despite the fact for at least a few months of that brief period nearly 5 years ago people were encouraged out of cars onto bikes, that attitudes changed towards cycling, or the demand for NHS reduced in any measurable way.

Could that be due to the fact that as soon as restrictions on driving were removed the standard of driving, especially around cyclists, deteriorated rapidly and nothing was done to stop it. I was so appalled I invested in cameras and have been reporting ever since. The police did nothing. Active travel infrastructure was cancelled or delayed (in my area funding that had been allocated to a cyle lane was diverted to provide extra lanes for drivers).

Many people have told me they gave up on cycling, despite having enjoyed it in lockdown, because it was too dangerous and they thought I must be stupid to continue to brave the roads on my bike. Hardly encouraging active travel was it.