Today I'll mainly be moaning about ...

[Malc]

hmmm   isn't age  12 ........ 11 plus ? 

But I do wholeheartedly agree ...........  with everyone about everything today 

Malc

[paulrnx]

1 hour ago, First_Lexus said:

Certainly is an age thing! In my day, you either went to private (or Public) school or the local Grammar school with exam selection - the ‘12 Plus’ (as was - later became the 11 Plus) in order to align with Common Entrance and studied the arts, classics and humanities with associated University degree afterwards, or you failed the 12 Plus exam and went to the Secondary Modern school to prepare for an apprenticeship after school (at 14/15/16 depending on the exact era). Believe maths and science were only really a focus at (what I think were called) Technical Colleges.

There were also Polytechnics for more ‘practical’ degrees.

The belief that ‘almost everybody should go to University’ is, in my opinion, one of the great mistakes of the last thirty years…

Totally agree with this and especially so your last statement. It created a sense of entitlement and worth that society and the workplace was never ever going to be able to satisfy.

[First_Lexus]

38 minutes ago, Malc said:

hmmm   isn't age  12 ........ 11 plus ? 

11 Plus completed at age eleven, 12 Plus completed at age twelve…

Most children would start upper/secondary school with the oldest reaching their next birthday immediately in the September, with the youngest not getting there until July.

I’m reminded of another moan. When did we start calling school children ‘students?’ Until the age of 16 (at the youngest) they are still children!

Feel the need to post this classic too…I had a couple of teachers who remind me of Roman Atkinson here!

This one too.

 

[Mincey]

17 hours ago, First_Lexus said:

 

I’m reminded of another moan. When did we start calling school children ‘students?’ Until the age of 16 (at the youngest) they are still children!

 

And remember when F1 drivers suddenly became "pilots"? Pilots fly planes, drivers drive cars. 

[First_Lexus]

32 minutes ago, Mincey said:

And remember when F1 drivers suddenly became "pilots"? Pilots fly planes, drivers drive cars. 

Also, when did we stop referring to female actors as actresses? It’s not an offensive term as far as I’m aware - grammatically, actor is the male and actress the female - or so I was taught…

[Phil xxkr]

Today, I wish to moan about Steve, originator of this rich vein of vitriol. After more than 500 responses it can only be described as making a very successful contribution to the overall enjoyment of members of the LOC. And that is the very essence of my complaint, he's been too successful which is the very antithesis of moaning. 😎

[Mincey]

12 minutes ago, First_Lexus said:

Also, when did we stop referring to female actors as actresses? It’s not an offensive term as far as I’m aware - grammatically, actor is the male and actress the female - or so I was taught…

Chair, Chairperson, Chairwoman.

What next? Wopersons?

[Malc]

16 minutes ago, First_Lexus said:

grammatically, actor is the male and actress the female - or so I was taught…

but in your being taught times there wasn't the situation of the non-gender specific person ......  so methinks " actor " applies to all,  so's not to be offensive to those non-gender identifying persons 

Malc

ain't it just so blo-dy ridiculous eh !

[Mincey]

HMRC!

My 82 year old mother has just received a letter saying she's due a tax rebate. Can she log on to gov.uk/p800refund to claim it. No problem. I've been through all the rigmarole to create an account for her, but now it wants details of:

- her passport
- credit reference questions
- NI driving licence.

She does not have a valid passport or a NI driving licence. Does the taxman actually think things through? No wonder the Beatles didn't like him.

Guess it's a six week wait for the cheque now.

[First_Lexus]

16 minutes ago, Malc said:

but in your being taught times there wasn't the situation of the non-gender specific person ......  so methinks " actor " applies to all,  so's not to be offensive to those non-gender identifying persons 

Malc

ain't it just so blo-dy ridiculous eh !

You are right, of course. Looking online it isn’t ‘offensive’ as such, it’s just seen as outdated as are other gender specific terms. It’s the same as ‘batsmen’ being changed to ‘batters’ in cricket. I also read we should now refer simply to  ‘parents’ rather than to ‘Mother’ or ‘Father.’

As my Father (!) would have said, “…none of this changes the price of fish.” It doesn’t really matter - whatever makes people comfortable is fine with me. My concern is that I’ll say something innocent (such as referring to an actress) and somebody will take offence where none was intended.

[Malc]

1 minute ago, First_Lexus said:

and somebody will take offence!

indubitably my dear Watson !

Malc

[Phil xxkr]

16 minutes ago, Mincey said:

HMRC!

My 82 year old mother has just received a letter saying she's due a tax rebate. Can she log on to gov.uk/p800refund to claim it. No problem. I've been through all the rigmarole to create an account for her, but now it wants details of:

- her passport
- credit reference questions
- NI driving licence.

She does not have a valid passport or a NI driving licence. Does the taxman actually think things through? No wonder the Beatles didn't like him.

Guess it's a six week wait for the cheque now.

As long james, you are sure its kosher? And not some attempt at identity theft? Please check 

[Mincey]

18 minutes ago, Phil xxkr said:

As long james, you are sure its kosher? And not some attempt at identity theft? Please check 

It all looks ok - fonts/spelling/layout/NI number. Government link checks out too. I can't do anything about it as I've not yet registered the LPoA with them so I'll just have to wait. 

[dutchie01]

There has been a serious debate with several meetings about genderneutral toilets in Amsterdam town hall. They even designed a logo for it like they have nothing else to do.

Digging back in my memory first job at ICI visiting the Paris headoffice in the eighties i was stunned the toilets were to be used by both genders ( sorry if that is offensive i have no clue if there are more genders) ( apologies if that is offending people as i am not on their level maybe we need a name for ignorent people like me).

Am i the only one that sees a big difference between young highly educated city folk and normal people in the rest of the country? 

[Phil xxkr]

1 minute ago, dutchie01 said:

There has been a serious debate with several meetings about genderneutral toilets in Amsterdam town hall. They even designed a logo for it like they have nothing else to do.

Digging back in my memory first job at ICI visiting the Paris headoffice in the eighties i was stunned the toilets were to be used by both genders ( sorry if that is offensive i have no clue if there are more genders) ( apologies if that is offending people as i am not on their level maybe we need a name for ignorent people like me).

Am i the only one that sees a big difference between young highly educated city folk and normal people in the rest of the country? 

Love the word ignorent Bernard 🤣

[dutchie01]

And here is another moan. The increased use of screens in car design. Traditional buttons disappear in favour of touch screens that are getting bigger by the minute. Heated seats? Old; feel button keeping eyes on the road switch on. New; look at screen click menu to go to heated seat menu, click to switch on then 2 more clicks to reach the correct level then eyes back on the road just in time to avoid the oncoming bulk carrier.

Mobile phone use is illegal and correctly so but what about those screens??

My beloved IS250 had a screen that could only be operated when standing still.

[First_Lexus]

1 hour ago, dutchie01 said:

Am i the only one that sees a big difference between young highly educated city folk and normal people in the rest of the country? 

Certainly in the UK there has been a gradual shift in political allegiance over the past thirty years.

Metropolitan areas - especially London, Leeds and Bristol but to a lesser extent pretty much every other city - are now very left-wing / liberal (see Sadiq Khan looking to de-criminalise drugs), while rural areas are far more right-wing / conservative. Obviously that’s a gross generalisation, but it is directionally correct imho.

It was always a bit like that, but the gentrification of urban areas and their shift in population to majority younger age groups has accelerated the change.

When I was growing up, I couldn’t have imagined that Islington, Bow or Leytonstone would ever be considered as attractive places to live, or that they’d be populated by young professionals with liberal views!

Increasingly political views are being determined less by habit, gender or ethnicity and more by social class and wealth. If the Brexit debate taught us anything, it was that there was an ‘accepted’ view (either for or against) for people who considered themselves to be highly educated or intelligent and those that didn’t. To some extent, I believe that a lot of people voted in the way that ‘people like them’ were supposed to vote!

[steve2006]

Government travel back to UK goalposts have moved yet again.

Arrived back from Gran Canaria on Wednesday having had to take a supervised pre travel Lateral Flow Test and then a PCR test within 2 days of arrival.

£51.00 for the pre travel tests and £88.00 for the arrival tests so £139.00 including would you believe it 20% VAT!

Get up this morning to hear the pre travel test is no longer required after 4.00am on 9/1/2022 and the post arrival test has gone back to the much cheaper Lateral Flow Test At £15.00 each.

Given the present situation here in the UK I wished I had stayed in Gran Canaria where Covid rules are actually strictly enforced, intensive care beds are at 22% capacity, no one complains about having to show their vaccination certificate and if you do get Covid the government there will pay your isolation,treatment and repatriation costs.

Does anyone have step by step instructions for moving my steering wheel over to the other side 😀

[Mincey]

2 hours ago, dutchie01 said:

And here is another moan. The increased use of screens in car design. Traditional buttons disappear in favour of touch screens that are getting bigger by the minute. Heated seats? Old; feel button keeping eyes on the road switch on. New; look at screen click menu to go to heated seat menu, click to switch on then 2 more clicks to reach the correct level then eyes back on the road just in time to avoid the oncoming bulk carrier.

Mobile phone use is illegal and correctly so but what about those screens??

My beloved IS250 had a screen that could only be operated when standing still.

+1. I much prefer buttons. I can see why touchscreens are attractive to manufacturers as it simplifies production and gives a "cleaner" layout but I hate having to go through umpteen menus to find things. Just let me press a button! 

Did you see that Tesla had to deactivate a game they'd installed to run on their touch screens? 

[Malc]

56 minutes ago, steve2006 said:

Does anyone have step by step instructions for moving my steering wheel over to the other side 😀

the very first thing you need to do is to send a payment to ?????? for 100 euros to seek permission to do so .......... and then when it's done, another for 200 euros for the Govt inspection ....... and the additional 35 euros at each MOT for the excess work involved to check some gasket or other by the Tester 

Malc

[dutchie01]

2 hours ago, Mincey said:

+1. I much prefer buttons. I can see why touchscreens are attractive to manufacturers as it simplifies production and gives a "cleaner" layout but I hate having to go through umpteen menus to find things. Just let me press a button! 

Did you see that Tesla had to deactivate a game they'd installed to run on their touch screens? 

There are several reasons for manufacturers to go for screens.

1. Screens sell cars in the showroom. The wow effect, open the door and Wow! i want that!. Mercedes is propably leading this now with the NEW C class. They spent more in cabin design than on drivertrain and chassis which is a worked over previous generation.

2. It opens the route to subscriptions. Again mercedes where you can have all functions and all screens but it will cost you a monthly fee. This will be the standard in the industry soon.

3. Cheaper in manufacturing. 1 screen can replace 40 buttons. Look at Porsche cabins. Panamera and Taycan.

Safety seems largely forgotten in this process as manufacturers are not forced by legislation or consumer pressure, they go for the profit.

All this seems to have by-passed toyota/lexus like they do not think of it as important. They are currently launching a new system but so far i have not seen a "premium"design at all.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

 

[First_Lexus]

2 minutes ago, dutchie01 said:

There are several reasons for manufacturers to go for screens.

1. Screens sell cars in the showroom. The wow effect, open the door and Wow! i want that!. Mercedes is propably leading this now with the NEW C class. They spent more in cabin design than on drivertrain and chassis which is a worked over previous generation.

2. It opens the route to subscriptions. Again mercedes where you can have all functions and all screens but it will cost you a monthly fee. This will be the standard in the industry soon.

3. Cheaper in manufacturing. 1 screen can replace 40 buttons. Look at Porsche cabins. Panamera and Taycan.

Safety seems largely forgotten in this process as manufacturers are not forced by legislation or consumer pressure, they go for the profit.

All this seems to have by-passed toyota/lexus like they do not think of it as important. They are currently launching a new system but so far i have not seen a "premium"design at all.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

 

I’ve seen threads on this very forum where prospective owners have said they’d discount Lexus because of the sat nav / screen / connection functionality.

It must be an age thing. I’d much rather have a well built, comfortable and reliable car first, and worry about things like sat nav or screen connection functionality some way down the list! 

 

[Malc]

4 minutes ago, dutchie01 said:

Cheaper in manufacturing. 1 screen can replace 40 buttons.

then brrrrrr.....  the screen goes blank and all functionality reposes in a heap !

Malc

[royoftherovers]

8 minutes ago, First_Lexus said:

I’ve seen threads on this very forum where prospective owners have said they’d discount Lexus because of the sat nav / screen / connection functionality.

It must be an age thing. I’d much rather have a well built, comfortable and reliable car first, and worry about things like sat nav or screen connection functionality some way down the list! 

 

One day, the proverbial will hit the fan.

In UK, Employers are obliged to provide inter alia, safe systems of work.

Requesting employees to drive Company Cars which are ergonomically unsafe will cause a Courtroom crash.

When will Government, Health and Safety Executive and Trade Unions wake up ?

[Mossypossy]

I only watch the hybrid kicking in and out on my Lexus screen. Who cares for the other gubbins?