Cycling UK Forum

The obvious answer to the OP is to increase the density of our existing cities. Places like Barcelona manage urban densities far higher than the norm in the UK, yet are regarded as offering a very high quality of life. Higher urban densities are also highly conducive to cycling, not motoring...

Edit: I feel like I should go through this and use adjectives other than high/higher, but I can't be bothered...

PaulCumbria wrote:The obvious answer to the OP is to increase the density of our existing cities. Places like Barcelona manage urban densities far higher than the norm in the UK, yet are regarded as offering a very high quality of life. Higher urban densities are also highly conducive to cycling, not motoring...

Edit: I feel like I should go through this and use adjectives other than high/higher, but I can't be bothered...

Nothing to do with the weather....

I never said send them back anywhere, dont be so touchy! I am a cockney, I have lived in the Welsh Valleys and owned a second home in Cornwall. Around here there are many people from other parts of Britain and Europe attracted by jobs. Mrs Thatcher scrapped the IDC in the early 80s and startups in the South blossomed. Its all very well but to those of us that call it home I think we have lost the plot allowing one part of our small island to be overwhelmed with new homes and more people. The IDC was a crude weapon, but it worked, thats why I went to Wales to generate jobs in a very poor run down area.
When I bought my house in Cornwall it had been on the market for over two years. Lostwithiels creamery had closed with the loss of 250 jobs, the town was on its uppers. I did it up, enjoyed it, and when I sold it it became a family home, so it generated work for locals and the money I spent helped the local economy employing builders, electricians and plumbers. I went to a barbie here in the summer and there were three cornish couples there and one of our local councillors is a cornishman. Its two way traffic because Cornwall generally doesnt have enough jobs for well educated youngsters. That said attractive spots in Devon and Cornwall have been overwhelmed with holiday homes. Councils should do something about it.

What I am saying is that the South is too much of a magnet which is good for business but bad for people and the quality of life. Something needs to be done about it. Its not the fault of the individuals here that its regarded as guilded.

Al

NUKe wrote:

Ray wrote:

tyreon wrote:Reports tell that the UKs population may well reach 130,000,000 in some years time. With current recorded immigration levels we will have to build 2 new Birminghams within 30 years...where should we build these houses,factories,roads.

I'm tempted to guess the source of this 'report'. Perhaps you could tell us, please?

my thought as well whats your guess Ray ?
Daily Fail, Torygraph, or the Daily Excess

Daily Mail, via selective misinterpretation of National Statistics data. In a superb example of openness the ONS shared its workings with the world and the British press responded by distorting the information for its own grubby purposes. ONS's principal prediction is about 94m by 2111. 130m is the absolute maximum if ALL the major factors - migration, fertility and life expectancy - go towards the maximum end of the scale. Surprise surprise, the Mail failed to draw anyone's attention to the minimum estimate, which is just as likely as the maximum and shows the UK's population falling to around 50m.
I note that Tyreon seizes on "immigration levels" - the least significant of those three factors.

Thanks, Andy, very interesting, if not really surprising. This thread has shot off in directions unintended by the OP, although s/he may have been more intent on making an oblique political point rather than seeking people's opinions about where they like to cycle.

AndyK wrote:...130m is the absolute maximum if ALL the major factors - migration, fertility and life expectancy...

Migration. With net immigration over emmigration in this case of course.

Fertility is only an issue if you abuse it.

As for life expectancy... Maybe "Logan's Run" was the right idea. Hmmm, hang on, that leaves me well past my destruction date. Gulp.

Did I mention fertility, and it's popular abuse?

AndyK wrote:...130m is the absolute maximum if ALL the major factors - migration, fertility and life expectancy...

This reminds me of popular misuse of the Drake equation. If all the unknown factors are taken to their maximum variance, then it's a dead cert that our population will have been more than doubled by an influx of Martians (and any other assorted ETs you care to throw in) by the year 2100. You have been warned!

Off topic? I'm still not clear what the topic is - certainly the OP doesn't say anything about the difference between urban and rural cycling. So digress away!

I seem to have landed in a Monty Python sketch:

Man enters room via door labelled 'Digressions' -

"I've come to digress".
"Very well, sir!"
"On the other hand, I've changed my mind", I'm going for a bike ride"
Leaves with a flourish.

And so will I - the sun's shining, much more interesting out there. Byeee!

- returns 30 secs later to Edit: Oh, in the country - don't like traffic jamming!

Ray wrote:..............Oh, in the country - don't like traffic jamming![/i]

So you're not digressing at all!

Was it the 5 minute argument you wanted?

MartinC wrote: So you're not digressing at all!

Yes I am !

Was it the 5 minute argument you wanted?

Can't stand arguments; give me a nice digression any time.

Anyway, stop trying to change the subject!

Give me women, wine, and snuff
Untill I cry out "hold, enough!"
You may do so sans objection
Till the day of resurrection:
For, bless my beard, they aye shall be
My beloved Trinity.

Enough of a digression?

niggle wrote:

al_yrpal wrote:As for the guilded South its already full of notherners, midlanders, cornishmen, welshmen and scots, all seeking good jobs and nice surroundings. If many more come it will be spoilt.

Al

If you asked you would find that the cornishmen would mostly prefer to stay in Cornwall (or at least return after completing their education), but many are forced out by the gilded South Easterners coming down and buying up all the cottages as second homes, forcing house prices up way beyond the means of locals in the lowest paid area of the country. Good jobs are harder to come by than in the South East admittedly, due to competition from incomers from the rest of the UK who want to live and work down here due to the percieved better quality of life, as nice surroundings are plentiful.

This is exactly how gilded south easterners feel about furriners. We're told house price inflation in London is driven by Chinamen who never come to the houses, merely compete to invest in them for a better return than the bank, which let's face it is -ve interest. What are we to do?

Ayesha wrote:Name me a Cockneyland person who has contributed toward the greater good?

Well I don't know his name but he was a baker in Pudding Lane!

hexhome wrote:

Ayesha wrote:Name me a Cockneyland person who has contributed toward the greater good?

Well I don't know his name but he was a baker in Pudding Lane!

hexhome wrote:

Ayesha wrote:Name me a Cockneyland person who has contributed toward the greater good?

Well I don't know his name but he was a baker in Pudding Lane!

Thomas Farriner. But, although he owned the bakery, he wasn't implicated in - what happened in that locality. Another man, a Frenchman, was hanged for arson - wrongly as it turned out.