Guilt Free Railing 11

[WouldBeGood]

The end was not nigh,and still looking far far away, so here’s the latest thread.

Usual railing rules apply: all rails or good news welcome, no nauseating positivity or resilience wankery. 😃

And hope everyone is feeling better, @rookiemere, @shouldistop and anyone else poorly

@ElephantOfRisk totally agree with you about the NHS.

There was that TV programme done a number of years ago where they got in a business trouble shooter and there were infinite number of easily implementable ideas that would reduce waiting lists and improve service at zero cost. But I seem to remember that they involved changing the way the operating list worked so the consultants were against them.

And also agree on the waiting for meds. When DM had her breast cancer op I was keen to get her home - not least because her and DF had a loud running commentary about the weight of the nurses - we ended up waiting 3 hours for some paracetamol. Also I suspect because DM as a retired doctor had kicked up a fuss about not being operated on within the required timelines she appeared to be in a totally empty wing save for her and I suspect she was the only one on the list that day.

Thanks @WouldBeGood - I got a negative test - go me, but still feel fairly wiped out. Apparently there is a nasty not covid bug doing the rounds at the minute.
Annoyingly to preempt him taking time off I booked DS for a PCR today, so he can't go back until he gets the results. Mind you mine were pretty quick and arrived in less than 24 hrs.

Good to hear that PCR tests are returning results fairly quickly.

rookiemere, shouldistop and scottishskifun hope you feel better very soon.

@IncludeWomenInThePrequel

Free buses and bikes is about zero carbon strategies though. There are other considerations behind decisions a lot of the time.

Yes, there's obviously benefit in the zero carbon things, but it's not clear why, for example, the best means of tackling that (admittedly enormous) issue is by giving kids a bike. Especially if they a) don't have space to store it, b) don't have parents able to help them ride it or with the time, or even the bikes themselves, to go off on long improving family bike rides, c) can't get anywhere on it because they'd get squashed by a lorry on the busy main road right outside their front door d) live in Scotland where in many places it's hilly, generally cold and rainy and dark, often a long way from where you need to be and so on.

There's a lot of issues needing solving, some of which will need public money and some can be progressed by pressure on private individuals or developers through improving environmental legislation, planning (insisting new developments have proper footpaths, cycle paths and accessible public transport, as well as better green corridors, outdoor space with appropriate lighting, renewable power, electric charging points and so on...) and so forth. Active travel is important, but free bikes are only one way of possibly encouraging that for some people. It's fair to ask if it's the most efficient way of reaching that aim, given there's only limited amount of money! And it's not just lack of bikes that hinder people not getting in their car, in general...

Also, not sure Scotrail's current consultation of its revised (I. E. reduced) timetable is really in the spirit of increasing use of public transport, generally.. Maybe if we hadn't had the past 18 months of being scared shitless to use buses and trains (and forbidden from them for a reasonable amount of time, unless "essential") people may be more keen to use them...

Thanks @mibbelucieachwell fingers crossed for your DS!

@rookiemere if you have the same thing we have it's pretty rotten day 6 and still feel rubbish. DH has taken a sick day he feels so crap! I think our bodies have forgotten how to deal with these so it hits harder!

@ssd

Anyone i like seems to get shunted out the road...in all parties

Ha, yes, I know what you mean! I seem to have been on the "wrong" side of the popular political opinion far more often than seems fair. It's getting to be a joke. DH asks me what I think of a certain person/ opinion, I express general support, and they then proceed to be voted out/ against at the next possible opportunity... I am the anti zeitgeist.

@ElephantOfRisk

The delay thing happens all the time. Ambulance staff waiting on patients meds before they can take them home. Sometimes because they have other patients either needing to get home or make other appointments, they have to leave them and someone else needs to be sent later to get the patient home. Or maybe they'll use a private ambulance, or a taxi. Sometimes they send on the meds by taxi. That's just one part of what goes on. Often they are waiting on perfectly normal meds that could be available in any pharmacy.

This kind of thing seems so crazy. It's not the people involved - I'm sure they are as frustrated as everyone else, but it seems the huge lumbering "system" is so inflexible, and therefore inefficient. Like mibbe's vaccine cert! Glad you eventually got it - but surely, surely it shouldn't have been so much pain?!

And yes, hope the ill and infirm feel better and get back on your feet soon

See. I’d vote for genuinely green policies like making it easier to cycle by improving the infrastructure to allow this, and making it more attractive. And free or cheap good quality reliable public transport.

Not the woke one agenda “greens”

Well, putting in the infrastructure is only useful if people can use it. Hence the bikes.

Yes, but horse before cart!

Also, the free bikes, like the free iPads, was just a lie

How so? My local area has a cycling ring road right around and through the city. Which would actually be a huge fuck-off waste of money without the means to encourage people to use it.

You look on the FB selling pages there are always low cost kids bikes and the occasional free one too. Free kids bikes just takes away the second hand market for perfectly usable bikes.

I just don't see a need.

I work in health, I would not support more money going into the NHS. It is a huge bureaucracy and very difficult to change. It is a black hole for money .... we could end up paying more in taxes and no improvements. There are so many issues I cannot go into them here ...

Well I assume the government does on a wide scale societal level rather than just what random people might believe.

Responding to climate change needs actions, society wide, now. You may not see the value of every action but they're going to be part of a layered approach to try to instill changes in a whole range of areas.

A lot of people don't have the means to store or maintain bikes especially if you are talking about a full family amount. It will result in a lot of cheap bikes, ending up dumped or in landfill as soon as they get a puncture. And what about growing kids? Are they going to update them every couple of years? It's stupid. Much better to have decent public transport options and cycling schemes to borrow bikes or rent then cheaply or free for those who need.

And yet there are posts upthread moaning about free public transport for young people.

See what I mean?

That’s great @IncludeWomenInThePrequel and I would like to see more of it. Improves health and well being as well as saving the planet.

I do agree it’s pretty easy to get a cheap bike.

But the promise of free bikes hasn’t come to anything anyway.

I support the free public transport @IncludeWomenInThePrequel 😃

We have a local charity/scheme where bikes are donated or abandoned bikes are collected, they do them up and sell them cheaply. They train young folk to fix them up, giving them skills and purpose and also run safe cycling courses. Often they get a lot from the Uni when students finish up and don't want their bike anymore but also families with outgrown bikes pass them on.

Instead of chucking free bikes at everyone, schemes like this could be rolled out more imo.

Impossible to scale that up nationally though. Lovely as it is.

Free public transport works in cities...... Rural though you first have to have the bus to get on...... Most of these have gone or down to every few hours!

The free bike thing is a PR exercise nothing else. Plenty of charities that already run these types of services.

Unless they are providing electric bikes then it will be fat lot of use around my area its way too hilly and the country roads are fast with lorries on!

I don't mind the free public transport but it could be targeted better to school age DC, kids at college and Uni, low earners, job seekers rather than arbitrary age groups - thought it was 22 though?

However, our public transport is particularly shite so there is not a lot to use, even if it was "free".