Heartland

Anyone making a recreational (or otherwise) visit to (or via) Heathrow soon?
I hear there's a good party nearby ...

Gee, that sounds like a Glasgow airport rip off....

Thankfully, no one appeared up to anything this afternoon, so my flight departed on time...

Fingers crossed that it will have calmed down by this time in September

Fcuking hippies...

Now, yes, fair enough, we need to cut greenhouse gasses, reduce our carbon footprint, all that.

I just wonder... how many of these protesters have done a "gap year" in India, Thailand, or wherever, and how they got there if they did; how many of the protesters got a lift to the protest in Daddy's Range Rover; etc. etc. But perhaps I'm being unfair.

Air travel only accounts for ~5% of the UK's carbon output. IMO the best thing for these protesters to do, if they're serious about cutting the UK's carbon output, is to start picketing road haulage companies.

They're probably upping emissions due to an increased number of taxis and private vehicles used instead of the airport to avoid the problems on top of flights which are running anyway.

Good job, guys.

a good wash would reduce toxic emissions too

Perhaps if they all stopped breathing it might contribute

Quiff Boy wrote:a good wash would reduce toxic emissions too

Says the spokesman for the Levellers...

markfiend wrote:Fcuking hippies...

Now, yes, fair enough, we need to cut greenhouse gasses, reduce our carbon footprint, all that.

I just wonder... how many of these protesters have done a "gap year" in India, Thailand, or wherever, and how they got there if they did; how many of the protesters got a lift to the protest in Daddy's Range Rover; etc. etc. But perhaps I'm being unfair.

Air travel only accounts for ~5% of the UK's carbon output. IMO the best thing for these protesters to do, if they're serious about cutting the UK's carbon output, is to start picketing road haulage companies.

Perhaps! ... I thought this might be an interesting debate ... I personally haven't been on a plane for over 20 years, and am happy going by ferry to where I want to go in Europe - Much more civilised! Can't get my motorcycle on an plane either ... Yeah I know this is carbon unfriendly too - don't make a habit of that either! (Bike spends most of its life 'resting')

Maybe, just maybe, we should all just be a little less selfish before it is too late?! I guess not many of you tried to stop the Newbury Bypass or the M3 through St. Catherine's Hill (sacred to some people)?

Ok, perhaps I'm just a sad old Hippy, but 'freedom' (whatever that might be?!) started being seriously eroded after the last 'Henge fest' in '84 - the following year three of us tried to make it to The Stones at Sunrise, after hiding in the woods, but plod swiftly put a stop to our peaceful little (carbon free) walk (they threatened to set the dogs on us, which we took very seriously after the Battle of the Beanfield shortly before). All this bullying didn't stop 9/11 did it? Might even have encouraged it ... We just wanted to 'party' in our own way, just like you do at Sisters gigs - when I don't suppose you would appreciate being pinned to the ground in an armlock by a terminator lookalike with several others & their large dogs waiting to take chunks out of you ... Where would you 'draw the line'?!? Operas, repetitive beats, busking? ... Hmmm, surely Drum Machines fit one of those categories??? .......

'Lighten up' though, don't you see? A few hundred hippies can send the media and the Met. into serious hysteria - got their publicity though, didn't they? Maybe they are starting to get their own back?

Meanwhile, I'm watching all of this from a distance in Cowpat Country! ...

Unfortunately, I can't afford to take a boat trip across the Pond - if I could, I would, though. I hate flying.

SINsister wrote:Unfortunately, I can't afford to take a boat trip across the Pond - if I could, I would, though. I hate flying.

That's what I like to hear!

So! You paying for me to take a long, lovely cruise from the U.S. to ol' Blighty next time, then?

SINsister wrote:So! You paying for me to take a long, lovely cruise from the U.S. to ol' Blighty next time, then?

I'm presently on the 'Ham Roll' my dear, but otherwise most certainly!
You will be granted a First Class cabin naturally!

Incidentally, my personal 'fave' ferry is the one to Norway - (or any one to Scandinavia), with my 'bike in the hold! You are welcome to join me next time I go to see my buddy Martin in Molde ... (The annual Jazz Festival is in July - highly recommended!)

reactiv8: Sorry if I offended you. I pretty much agree with what you're saying. I swing between "sad old hippy" and "angry young lefty" myself.

I agree that freedom in this country was seriously eroded under Thatch, and things haven't got any better since. Hell, the "war on terror" has given The Man all the excuse He needs to completely f*ck us over.

And serious kudos to you being at Stonehenge in '84. The way the place is now with the fences and sh*t just makes me want to cry.

But yeah, I think getting freight off the roads and back onto the trains is probably the best way to cut carbon emissions in the short-to-medium term, but you'd probably need renationalisation and a f*ck of a lot of investment in the railways. But like the man says, you can't get there from here.

markfiend wrote:reactiv8: Sorry if I offended you. I pretty much agree with what you're saying. I swing between "sad old hippy" and "angry young lefty" myself.

I agree that freedom in this country was seriously eroded under Thatch, and things haven't got any better since. Hell, the "war on terror" has given The Man all the excuse He needs to completely f*ck us over.

And serious kudos to you being at Stonehenge in '84. The way the place is now with the fences and sh*t just makes me want to cry.

But yeah, I think getting freight off the roads and back onto the trains is probably the best way to cut carbon emissions in the short-to-medium term, but you'd probably need renationalisation and a f*ck of a lot of investment in the railways. But like the man says, you can't get there from here.

No offence taken! - It made me smile! ... Glad you have a sense of humour! - Percy Plod certainly doesn't! - I've got a thick skin and a big mouth (which often gets me into trouble ...)

I really was at the 'Henge in '84 - I had to dodge helicopters circling above, then hide in a wood, getting soaked trying to sleep in bin-liners - then found by two other intrepid heroes before we got harassed by PP who definitely spoiled another party ... Read it and weep. ...

Freight onto Trains? - Aaarrgghh! - You are so right! - Where I live we are constantly suffering 40 Tonne trucks carrying stone from a quarry which 200 years ago actually had its own railway line before it was closed! ... That's progress (or something)!
So, what the f*ck is our 'government' doing about it? (not much)

Andrew E. playing a freebie at the 'Henge? It could happen yet! C'mon everyone?! - Winter Solstice: Lots of Dry Ice billowing around and Ghostrider wafting out from The Stones ... Would that be cool or what?!

markfiend wrote:And serious kudos to you being at Stonehenge in '84. The way the place is now with the fences and sh*t just makes me want to cry.

The first time I visited Stonehenge (as a child), one could actually touch the stones. It was amazing...

Not so much these days. It might as well be plastichenge.

Awwww sh*t I just thought, while you were down around Oxfordshire, you could have gone and seen Rollright Stones and the Uffington White horse (which looks more like a cat...)

I did see the Rollright Stones (took some mobile phone pics, too, but most came out crappy, sadly)! My aunt and uncle drove me all over the Cotswolds one afternoon - staggeringly beautiful! Didn't see the horse, though...

Yay!

I really wanted to see the Sutton Hoo burial site, but it's in East Anglia, and there's no way in hell that my family'd have driven me over there. Meh! Next time, dammit.

Of course, in the US, the nearest you get to history is the house where George Burns was born

LOL! Pretty much, unfortunately.

Actually, I'm from the northeastern part of the U.S. (known as New England - HA! Someone was smoking something back then, apparently...), which, aside from St. Augustine, Florida, boasts the oldest European settlements in the country (if I'm not mistaken, which I could be, of course ). The 6 New England states, including my home state of Connecticut, were part of the original 13 colonies. So at least back home, I've got the "old" city of Boston relatively close by; there are structures dating to the 1600s in some parts of my home state and in Massachusetts - laughably young by British/European standards, but this stuff's as close to genuine, living history as the U.S. gets...

SINsister wrote:I did see the Rollright Stones (took some mobile phone pics, too, but most came out crappy, sadly)!

I fancy I'll open a stationer's
Stock quaint notepads for weekend pagans
While you were out at the Rollright Stones
I came and set fire to your shed...

...anyone?

boudicca wrote:

SINsister wrote:I did see the Rollright Stones (took some mobile phone pics, too, but most came out crappy, sadly)!

I fancy I'll open a stationer's
Stock quaint notepads for weekend pagans
While you were out at the Rollright Stones
I came and set fire to your shed...

...anyone?

I'm guessing one of:
Frank Sidebottom
John Shuttleworth
Half Man Half Biscuit.