The Off Topic Topic

[Josquius]

I'd rather see a proper holiday made official.
Guy Fawkes for instance.
Or do May Day properly.
As you say what few we do have are pretty random.

But the UK could certainly use more bank holidays even if its national biscuit day.

[Sheilbh]

I can't emphasise enough how little I think we need a holiday in November

Very keen on properly doing May Day though.

[Sheilbh]

Zanza, Syt! Saw this doing the rounds on Twitter about how many trains are punctual and I'm a little surprised with the East-West divide but wondered if there's any reason/explanation

[Zanza]

Not sure, but nothing on the map surprised me. Pretty much matches my expectations. 

The rail infrastructure in Germany is pretty poor. Lack of investment for decades amd mixed use between regional, long-distance and cargo trains. Sadly the Liberals in our transport ministry again prefer to subsidize Porsche drivers.

The infrastructure in East Germany is generally newer than West Germany as it was all (re-)built in the last thirty years. Also, population density and thus train network density there is lower.

The red dots along the Rhine from Cologne to the Swiss border show a notoriously overused piece of track.

The red dots in the middle of Germany are the high speed track Frankfurt - Fulda -Kassel - Göttingen - Hannover - Hamburg. Also heavy traffic and if something g goes wrong, long delays. Also already 30+ years old.

The Ruhr area is just very crowded with old infrastructure.  Lots of trains, lots of delays.

[Sheilbh]

Nice that they managed to find a way to involve the cabinet in the jubilee stuff:

[The Larch]

For Sheilbh. 

[Sheilbh]

Two extra bank holidays

[Duque de Bragança]

Since Brexit you lost CAP subsidies however. 

[Sheilbh]

Well the Queen lost her CAP subsidies

[crazy canuck]

Careful, she might take back one of those bank holidays

[Duque de Bragança]

Well the Queen lost her CAP subsidies

  

[Sheilbh]

Careful, she might take back one of those bank holidays

Well I've had them now, cheering crowds are off the streets and the ceremonial Teletubbies have been packed away for the next ten years - so fully back to seizing their property and packing them off to France

[Josquius]

For Sheilbh. 

This is what annoys me about republicans. Their arguments are just shite. They constantly argue in terms of finances despite the numbers there being in the monarchys favour. They should stick to fluffier stuff about how weird and out of sync with the modern world it is, how the monarchy has insane rights, etc...

[Duque de Bragança]

Deporting the Teletubbies to the Continent?

Now that's extreme. 

[Sheilbh]

This is what annoys me about republicans. Their arguments are just shite. They constantly argue in terms of finances despite the numbers there being in the monarchys favour. They should stick to fluffier stuff about how weird and out of sync with the modern world it is, how the monarchy has insane rights, etc...

Well also that they get attention during big events. But that's probably not the best time to do it - so the Guardian can do their trademark royal free front page but that is really only for people who are 100% on board. I'm with Ian Leslie - if you see a big crowd of people being enthusiastic and happy about something then, unless it's positively harmful, don't tell them it's shit. That goes for royal events, sports I don't care about, festivals etc. And I'm a sucker for crowds - I love a crowd and will almost always join in. I always get emotional at films when the crowd get involved or in football games when there's some sentimental gesture

But also getting rid of the flummery is maybe what will happen - but I'm not sure. I feel like there's a lot of republican flummery (which I love) - the US Presidential inauguration, or the President of Mexico doing the cry of Dolores with all the bells going off, or the French President doing Bastille day or other grand events interring heroes into the Pantheon (e.g. from the last year Macron doing it for a Napoleonic general and Josephine Baker). I love that stuff. So I'm not convinced that republicanism is necessarily an antidote to flags and ceremonial nonsense.

And this is where the Cromwell/Puritan point comes in because there is a tendency for British republicans to sound a little bit like they just look down on/don't like people having fun and if there had to be any civic events they should be held in a strip lit, utilitarian office block. Which is an aesthetic I personally like - as does every other left-wing man in London with a book about the Barbican - but I get it's not universally popular.