Cyclists ‘a real worry’ says North Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner – before conceding they aren't actually doing anything wrong

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/18376326.cyclist-found-serious-in...

Taught a lesson by some driver for their own good ?

I'll post back if I hear any more.  Hard to imagine how this can have happened in the middle of the day in the middle of a small town, no-one saw anything, car or no car.

Bloody hell, you cycle fast !

My response is much more likely to be, 'what's it got to do with you?'

It's a shared problem of course it has to do with anyone you encounter.

Being furloughed is not necessarily fun or like being on holiday. The vast majority of furloughed workers have no choice in the matter. There is no logic in the idea of them getting 80% of their wage when they return to work, that argument appears to be based solely on resentment. Are you getting 80% of yours now? And what if they're on the minimum wage?

It's nothing new for people to spread out across a shared path, it has been a bone of contention for decades. Live with it. You don't own the path. Take a breath, slow down and be considerate. It doesn't cost anything.

Can't people go for a walk and be cheerful on a sunny Spring day? Perhaps you'd rather they stayed confined at home, drove each other mad and then it ends with a beating (the number of domestic abuse cases reported has risen sharply during the lockdown).

The bitterness that prompted your comments will not do your mental health - or that of the people around you - any favours.

I'm working full time, working harder than usual due to many being furloughed. All the furloughed people I know are happy as a pig in shite, they do think they are on holiday. All the people I see out walking don't seem to have a care in the world. Why do they have to walk all over both the footpath and the cyclepath, 15 at a time? Do they all live in the same house? No. So they are taking the piss. And yes, I am pissed off. I am working my tits off, trying to keep a fleet of ambulances on the road for the ambulance service. When they are recovered in to us to be repaired, we don't know if they are contaminated with Covid - 19, we just know that we have to turn them around and get them back on the road ASAP. My wife works for the police, they have no PPE and are still expected to work on a bank of four sitting together, no social distancing there. We are putting our lives at risk on a daily basis, for nothing more. Finally, why are the dickheads out ignoring the Government directives so cheerful? Because they see it as a holiday, at least all the ones I've spoken too do, they don't want it to end. Because they are sat at home 'earning' 80% of their wages for doing fuck all. And that is why those on furlough should pay back what they have been given for nothing at a rate of 20% until they have paid off what the Government has given them. 

I take it that you're furloughed, hence your opinion on it. Try carrying on working in difficult conditions.

biker phil wrote:

All the furloughed people I know are happy as a pig in shite

Exactly this. If you don't believe it, here's a question for you. Would you rather:

a) Work full time for 100% of your wage.

b) Do whatever you like with your time for 80% of your wage.

If you answer (a), you're either one of the lucky few who actually enjoy their work, or you're fibbing.

Being furloughed might seem a good option in the short term, but how many will have jobs to go back to? The gov have said it's a temporary measure. Your struggle is now, theirs may be down the line.

The whole point of the furlough scheme is to preserve jobs. I can't see why it wouldn't be extended if need be. The money will just be printed - the world will need to inflate away debts when this is over.

I'm not furloughed, by the way. I'm working from home, which is probably the worst option of all, except being sacked, of course.

But it's not 80%, it's up to 80% capped at £2500 per month (less tax and NI). Many of us have commitments based upon our usual salaries and whilst it's welcome, I'd rather I was working.

Minor point, but it's £2.5k (per month) - not £25k. (That would be equivalent to £30k per annum.)

I would rather work, I am not lazy nor a shirker. I have worked bloody hard all of my life, and I don't want to sponge off the state. And that my friend, is the truth.

You've completely missed the point. The aim of furloughing is not to give people a holiday but to ensure that the thousands of businesses and companies that employ them don't collapse creating an even bigger burden on the social care system. 

Your friends who have been furloughed and who are happy as a pig in shit must be on decent salaries. My friends who are furloughed are getting 80% of fuck-all! Add to that the worry of what will happen three months down the line when the lenders finally start asking for mortgage payments and other loan payments. I'm sure everyone of them would be far happier with job security rather than being furloughed.

Yes, I know that, I have not completely missed the point. But loads of people think that it is a holiday. Many people who I have spoken to all think that it is a holiday. One atually said to me "What? You'd rather be at work than on holiday?"

biker phil wrote:

I take it that you're furloughed, hence your opinion on it. Try carrying on working in difficult conditions.

I'm not. However, it's very kind of you to make so many incorrect assumptions.

My wife works in social care and her team have no PPE but she doesn't need to bitch about people who aren't at work right now. She's earning 50p over the minimum wage for dealing with some very difficult and sometimes scary situations, with no perks and only getting 5 days sick leave a year. After that it's £94/week and some of her colleagues are trying to keep a family on that money. It's shocking. But that is what the Tories have done to council social care contracts, along with everything else thanks to 'Austerity'.

She is due to go to work this afternoon and won't be back until 7.30 tomorrow morning. But she won't get any double-time or overtime rate because Easter Sunday is not a bank holiday. And she knows people in worse situations and some with tougher jobs and worse conditions so she is still grateful.

You can keep blaming everyone else if you want, that's what the government want you to do. Divide and conquer, let the little people blindly fight amongst themselves. But you're just harming yourself.

I work for a biotech company that specialises in human biospecimens for contract research. We have the lab space and PCR machines that could be used for testing. In the meantime pretty much the entire pharmaceutical industry is working flat out to counter Covid-19. I'm now working from home, setting up data systems to record details of Covid patients who are willing to provide biosamples for research purposes, only going in a couple of days every other week on a lonely rota to cover basic office duties as the labs are still open. Personally I am doing many more hours per week than contracted with no promise or expectation of any extra pay, overtime or bonus. I'm happy to do this, it's my contribution to the effort.

Personally speaking I'd far rather this than being furloughed and those I know who have been are far from sanguine over their prospects when that finishes.

I was working from home but because we've been forced shut our manufacturing and distribution centres, the company wasn't sustainable so we'v ebeen furloughed. The govt cheque is welcome (when it comes) but it's a darn sight less than 80% of my normal salary.

Being on 'holiday' with nothiing to do and nowhere to go, whilst worrying about my mortgage payments is no 'holiday'.

Slightly off topic, but it was the invention of the railway, it's spread across the country and then the adoption of the bicycle that led to female freedom that lessened the rates of inbreeding within villages that generally stopped the "village idiots"