[Youngian]

Pedal power fell from grace, giving way to the development of modern technologies designed to compete with the capitalist West.

Today, China is the world's largest manufacturer of automobiles and the Chinese are well on the way to overtaking America as an economic powerhouse.

As an efficient means of transport, bicycles proved about as progressive as doing the doggy paddle down the Yangtze, Mao-style.

Sadly, it's a lesson lost on the mutton-headed communists who appear to be running 21st-century Britain.

Has this conversation in Beijing 30 years ago as to how you’ll initially enjoy your car revolution. Until the cities are gridlocked like other metropolises in the developing world. And then you’ll want to go back to bikes and public transport like advanced West European cities. Young people with English as a second language in a censorious society had no problem in understanding this trajectory.

[Andy McDandy]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/arti ... -ever.html

If you wear a face mask you're a spineless coward. If you refer to place names as they are rather than as some hangover from your childhood, you're an intellectual snob. The Sweeney don't muck about.

Cunt.

[Cyclist]

That's me pigeon-holed then. I'm a cowardly intellectual snob.

[Boiler]

That's me pigeon-holed then. I'm a cowardly intellectual snob.

So am I, it would seem by his metric.

Does it count though if you still call some of the streets of the village you were raised in by the names they used to have as a result of your mother and great-aunt having lived there when they had those names?

[Andy McDandy]

Probably not.

The school I went to was renamed a few years ago. However everyone refers to it as "The Grange" because "tidy it up as much as you like, it's still the fucking Grange", as one local put it.

Point is, Kolkata, Mumbai, Kyiv and so on were renamed for the ease of colonists and people who couldn't be arsed to get their tongues round odd vowels. Their names are the preferred names, by the people who live there now. And frankly, if the majority of people in Mumbai want it so named, the opinion of a lazy arsed columnist in London doesn't matter a jot.

It's basically half harking back to colonial times (when those foreigners knew their place), and half deadnaming. Equivalent of calling an Indian restaurant waiter Sabu, or a married woman as Miss [birth name], even when they've asked you please not to. Basically, it's about showing respect.

[kreuzberger]

The very non-colonially-minded Bosche are useless at this.

Beijing is still Peking, Kolkata is now largely Kalkata or Kolkota, and we will need years yet to cotton on to Tong-a instead of Tongah.

Woe betide anyone who stubbles over the pronunciation of Schmedeswurtherwesterdeich...

[Boiler]

[...] and we will need years yet to cotton on to Tong-a instead of Tongah.

Interesting... I've noticed variations in the pronunciation of those islands recently - either the "Tong-a" we seem to use in the UK or "Tonger", seemingly all as one syllable which seems to be prevalent in Australia.

I've found it curious that when I've listened to the news on BR-Heimat that items are often prefixed with the region or country they relate to before the story is read.

[kreuzberger]

I've found it curious that when I've listened to the news on BR-Heimat that items are often prefixed with the region or country they relate to before the story is read.

This is symptomatic of a standardised approach to news and highly factual reporting here. Whether newspapers, radio bulletins, or TV, it is pretty much the same drill. You want to see a weather forecast – it is presented with the same gravitas as an obituary.

[Boiler]

You want to see a weather forecast – it is presented with the same gravitas as an obituary.

Polar opposite to what the popular view of the South American model is then.

Have to say I like the radio news format.

[davidjay]

It's pathetic. Stick him in an empty room and he could find something to argue against; even the BTLs are starting to get embarrassed..

[MisterMuncher]

Probably not.

The school I went to was renamed a few years ago. However everyone refers to it as "The Grange" because "tidy it up as much as you like, it's still the fucking Grange", as one local put it.

Point is, Kolkata, Mumbai, Kyiv and so on were renamed for the ease of colonists and people who couldn't be arsed to get their tongues round odd vowels. Their names are the preferred names, by the people who live there now. And frankly, if the majority of people in Mumbai want it so named, the opinion of a lazy arsed columnist in London doesn't matter a jot.

It's basically half harking back to colonial times (when those foreigners knew their place), and half deadnaming. Equivalent of calling an Indian restaurant waiter Sabu, or a married woman as Miss [birth name], even when they've asked you please not to. Basically, it's about showing respect.

It's a salient points that one place that's suffered such colonial renaming is us folks across the sea, and woe betide those who might think putting those old, meaningful names back on the road signs would be a useful exercise.

I wonder how Dickie copes with Wales, apart from at a distance.

[soulboy]

Probably not.

The school I went to was renamed a few years ago. However everyone refers to it as "The Grange" because "tidy it up as much as you like, it's still the fucking Grange", as one local put it.

Point is, Kolkata, Mumbai, Kyiv and so on were renamed for the ease of colonists and people who couldn't be arsed to get their tongues round odd vowels. Their names are the preferred names, by the people who live there now. And frankly, if the majority of people in Mumbai want it so named, the opinion of a lazy arsed columnist in London doesn't matter a jot.

It's basically half harking back to colonial times (when those foreigners knew their place), and half deadnaming. Equivalent of calling an Indian restaurant waiter Sabu, or a married woman as Miss [birth name], even when they've asked you please not to. Basically, it's about showing respect.

It's a salient points that one place that's suffered such colonial renaming is us folks across the sea, and woe betide those who might think putting those old, meaningful names back on the road signs would be a useful exercise.

I wonder how Dickie copes with Wales, apart from at a distance.

Hmmm.... Seventies comedy and projecting his beliefs on to someone who wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire?

[Andy McDandy]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/arti ... n-won.html

Something happened yesterday but we won't talk about that. Instead let's talk about how awful things would have been if the EU referendum had gone the other way. And yes, he even throws in "You know what we'd have got? President Blair!!!, a la Kevin Eldon's thinly veiled Richard Madeley on the Lee and Herring show.

Otherwise, something about e-scooters and a bizarre thing about the actor Art Malik (based on him having the same name as a storm) which turns into a copy/paste from a Wiki article about an episode of Minder.

Comments are not going his way.

[Youngian]

There were 882 accidents involving e-scooters including three fatalities, in the year to June 2021, according to the latest figures available. Injuries caused by these contraptions cost the NHS £1,000 a pop.

More than 500,000 are in circulation

Under 0.2% accident rate.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I don't see any evidence that there are half a million in the UK. Surely that's a worldwide figure?

[MisterMuncher]

It's a faintly ridiculous figure on a prima facie basis if you've been following the kind of supply chain issues leisure product like that has been experiencing since the tail end of 2019.

It's vaguely possible that many have been imported to the UK since forever but that's in no way the same as them being in use

[satnav]

Does Littlejohn really believe that George Osborne would have succeeded David Cameron if remain had won the referendum? If remain had won the referendum Cameroon would have quickly taken down by the Brexit nutters and Johnson would have been the new Tory leader within months.

[Boiler]

The very non-colonially-minded Bosche are useless at this.

Beijing is still Peking

As noted, I just put on BR-Heimat to listen to as I have had a sudden visitation from the Black Dog and whilst listening to the news, did indeed hear the use of "Peking".

[Andy McDandy]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/arti ... n-war.html

Jimmy bloody Savile. Seafood. BLM are the real racists. Johnson's all OK even though he's fucked everything up.

Cunt.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Words 1-18 are redundant.