The Meldrew 'I don't believe it' thread.

[flatandy]

Even more so if they're nominally in positions of power. If you have a place in the commons or lords, you really should be required to give up all tax dodges.

[voice]

Propper VM moment, just been to the supermarket, what is that makes people wander round with air pods in having long and loud phone conversations, saw this woman doing this tonight, kept bumping into her, she wittering all the way round and never even stopped at the checkout.

Anyone who does this is an utter utter cnut.

[flatandy]

100% this.

200% this when they keep on talking while in the queue for the checkout.

800% this when they still keep on talking when actually loading the belt and interacting (or, more accurately, incredibly rudely not interacting) with the cashier.

[mids]

I even interrupt my phone calls at the self-checkout.

[perrykneeham]

"Researchers have launched a mission to find wrecks of ships lost during the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk during World War Two.

More than 305 vessels were sunk during Operation Dynamo - in which 338,226 surrounded troops were evacuated from Dunkirk between 27 May and 4 June 1940.

Some 1,000 ships, including pleasure craft and fishing vessels, took part in the rescue - a key moment of the war.

The project will search for 31 wrecks believed to be in French waters.

It is a partnership between France's marine heritage agency Department of Underwater Archaeological Research and Historic England and builds on research by Claire Destanque, of Aix-Marseille University, which revealed new information about the location and condition of the wrecks."

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66867935

I dunno, what are we doing this for? It seems to be an odd thing to spend scarce resources on. It's one of those projects where you wonder if there aren't other priorities. What are they hoping to discover?

[flatandy]

Also, was it actually a "key moment of the war"? It saved a lot of people becoming prisoners of war, but did it materially change anything? Was it national mythmaking as a way of feeling better about what was actually a pretty miserable defeat and moment of running away?

[voice]

Saving over 300,000 fighting aged men must have been a massive positive outcome in what was otherwise a disaster

[perrykneeham]

How times change. We get that many fighting age men coming across the channel every month now, unopposed.

[flatandy]

It was a positive outcome for the 300k men evacuated - although 100k of those were French and shipped back to France to lose again.

I'm not convinced it was a key moment in the war, though. There wasn't any tactical advantage gained by losing and getting smashed and having 70k troops captured or killed and running back to blighty.

It's one of those "glorious defeats" that some countries love and create their national myths about - like The Alamo, for instance, which was a complete failure for the Texans

[voice]

Oh, I'm pretty certain having 2000k soldiers back, even without much of their kit, probably kept the UK in the war, hard to see how losing that many would not have meant losing North Africa and so on.

The kit was quickly resupplied hard to see 2000k men would have come from tbh

[perrykneeham]

Whatever happened to French mustard, as offered by Coleman's?

It was very odd and almost the opposite of the Grey Poupon, but you could sell anything to the public back then.

[voice]

Suppose they started stocking actual French mustards, and people quickly realized the difference between the coleman stuff and the real thing

[mids]

Mustard's shite.

[voice]

too much flvour for your Scottish sensibilities? or is just hard for you to deep fry?

[mids]

All you need is broon sauce. The universal condiment.

[perrykneeham]

"Plans to close most railway ticket offices in England to save money "go too far, too fast", MPs have warned.

In a letter to the rail minister, the Transport Committee said the proposals risk "excluding some passengers from the railway".

The plans, which are yet to be approved, have sparked concern from unions and disability groups.

The government said whatever changes the industry makes, it must maintain a high quality service."

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67193008

I have some sympathy for this: at some point we have to acknowledge that we need to pay to have human contact and actual sentient people to help customers and travelers.

I understand that computers are cheaper, work 24/7/365.25, don't get sick, pregnant or go on strike, but that massively misses the point. We must look after everyone and a touchscreen isn't going to be able to help everyone. Also, people need jobs and it's just not decent.

I was mulling this as I stood in the queue for self-service in Waitrose the other day (don't judge me, their sauvignon blanc is cheaper and nicer than Lidl across the road). The old bloke in front of me lost his rag and threw his basket. I wondered who was benefiting from this: I was still queuing and would certainly have to wait for some malfunction and/or my age to be verified.

If their argument is that it keeps costs down, then knock the money off my bill. My bill, only when I use self-service.

Middle-class Rant of the Week.

[flatandy]

Hmmm. I'm not sure we need to give jobs to people doing largely redundant jobs. Most stations don't need humans 98% of the time, these days. And it's not like station staff actually know what the best routing/discount fare combinations would be.

[mids]

I was in Waitrose earlier and was momentarily mildly angry that two people with small trolleys were blocking my way when I'd finished paying and turned round to leave. I don't mind people using the self service with the small trolleys when it's quiet but it's not really on when it's busy. As an aside, I like the fact that Waitrose self service checkouts don't have scales to check if you're cheating like other supermarkets that the lower order use have. Ditto no-deposit trolleys.

[flatandy]

I don't think I've had any whining about the weight of bags and of things put in the self-check for a couple of years now. Perhaps they realised that the cost of wastage is less than the cost of pissed off customers and staff running around to cancel and check things.

[perrykneeham]

Oct 23, 2023 17:05:13 GMT flatandy said:

Hmmm. I'm not sure we need to give jobs to people doing largely redundant jobs. Most stations don't need humans 98% of the time, these days. And it's not like station staff actually know what the best routing/discount fare combinations would be.

Spoken like a middle-aged, middle class white bloke with no particular physical, intellectual [ish] or emotional challenges or vulnerabilities*.

I'm all in favour of wholesale sackings for TFL's massively overweight, surley West Indian platform staff or hamas-chanting tube drivers, but some people need some support, sometimes.

*I'm taking my new NHS wokeness very seriously. Also, I paid £35 for a haircut today.