Light At The End of The Tunnel ?

[IBM]

14 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

..and both the A9 and the A96 are going to be dual carriageway for their entire lengths much reducing the disadvantage that the Highlands endured in terms of geographical isolation for decades when the Westminster government were responsible for transport. 

Yes Kingsmills and the other parties that were in power in Scotland before the SNP that did nothing!

[Charles Bannerman]

1 hour ago, Kingsmills said:

..and both the A9 and the A96 are going to be dual carriageway for their entire lengths much reducing the disadvantage that the Highlands endured in terms of geographical isolation for decades when the Westminster government were responsible for transport. 

Yes.... the A9 looks WELL up to schedule for completion by 2025.... It took them several years to do the 5 or 6 miles south of Aviemore so only about 70 to go. On the other hand, they'll doubtless officially open a set of experimental boreholes and then announce that they've closed them again for half a century for "snagging". It will, of course, still be "the best road in the world".

[IBM]

I wonder what the predicted opening date would be for these roads would be if the others were in power, the end of the century if we are lucky 

[Kingsmills]

10 hours ago, Charles Bannerman said:

Yes.... the A9 looks WELL up to schedule for completion by 2025.... It took them several years to do the 5 or 6 miles south of Aviemore so only about 70 to go. On the other hand, they'll doubtless officially open a set of experimental boreholes and then announce that they've closed them again for half a century for "snagging". It will, of course, still be "the best road in the world".

Is sneering cynicism your default mode for everything ?

[Charles Bannerman]

49 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

Is sneering cynicism your default mode for everything ?

What's realism to one man could well be cynicism to another who is in perpetual denial.

[Laurence]

14 hours ago, IBM said:

Yes Kingsmills and the other parties that were in power in Scotland before the SNP that did nothing!

I think to say that nothing was done before the recent times , is being very political to say the least

The  British government going back to  the formation of military roads has done wonders to open up the Highlands and the north to  traffic.  Not to mention the railway.

Amazing engineering feats  have been the order of the day .  I travelled in Scotland as a young boy and it took a very long time to travel between Edinburgh and Inverness.

The full history of the development of the A9 can be seen on line anybody willing can  follow this link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A9_road_(Scotland

 

 

Edited January 24, 2018 by Laurence

[+snorbens_caleyman]

20 minutes ago, Laurence said:

The  British government going back to  the formation of military roads has done wonders to open up the Highlands and the north to  traffic.

True about who built some of the roads, but possibly not very diplomatic on this forum

23 minutes ago, Laurence said:

I travelled in Scotland as a young boy and it took a very long time to travel between Edinburgh and Inverness.

In the early 60s it took about 5 hours on the old A9, going via Kincardine.

[Kingsmills]

2 hours ago, Laurence said:

I think to say that nothing was done before the recent times , is being very political to say the least

The  British government going back to  the formation of military roads has done wonders to open up the Highlands and the north to  traffic.  Not to mention the railway.

Amazing engineering feats  have been the order of the day .  I travelled in Scotland as a young boy and it took a very long time to travel between Edinburgh and Inverness.

The full history of the development of the A9 can be seen on line anybody willing can  follow this link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A9_road_(Scotland

 

 

The Gerneral Wade military roads were certainly not constructed for the benefit of the local population and the railway was extended to the Highlands largely to convey the great and the good from their Belgravia town houses to their sporting estates for six weeks of the year and, only a couple of short decades later, carrying the youth of Caithness, Sutherland, Rossshire and Invernessshire to the killing fields of Belgium and France in the cause of imperialism.

[IBM]

3 hours ago, Laurence said:

I think to say that nothing was done before the recent times , is being very political to say the least

 

 

 

Laurence my post was indeed political but I did say in Scotland and nothing to do with the UK government. I will give the Tory party credit for upgrading the A9 in the seventies but that upgrade was long overdue!

[Renegade]

23 hours ago, IBM said:

Thanks to the SNP I get my free prescriptions and now have my bus pass since last year, I will be heading down to the shops tomorrow for a few things on the bus which saves taking the car to the old town. 

Why would you take the car when you could've taken the bus anyway?  It's hardly expensive to get a bus into town. 

[Charles Bannerman]

7 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

The Gerneral Wade military roads were certainly not constructed for the benefit of the local population and the railway was extended to the Highlands largely to convey the great and the good from their Belgravia town houses to their sporting estates for six weeks of the year and, only a couple of short decades later, carrying the youth of Caithness, Sutherland, Rossshire and Invernessshire to the killing fields of Belgium and France in the cause of imperialism.

Lowland Scots treat Highlanders with at least as much contempt as anyone else. Ironically, a certain Scottish Football League vote in 1973, although hardly vital to life, comes as an interesting instance of same.

And the somewhat contrived WW1 reference really does betray the most enormous propensity to grievance.

[IBM]

43 minutes ago, Renegade said:

Why would you take the car when you could've taken the bus anyway?  It's hardly expensive to get a bus into town. 

Before I got my bus pass it was £1.80 each way so I used my car.

[Renegade]

Surely it'd cost more than that to take your car in?

[IBM]

Not if you take the cost of fuel free parking at Morrisons if you do some shopping and it would be double fare when my wife is with me 

[Kingsmills]

Renegade seems to have an unhealthy interest in IBM's travel arrangements ?

[Renegade]

1 hour ago, Kingsmills said:

Renegade seems to have an unhealthy interest in IBM's travel arrangements ?

Not really.  Just thought it would've cheaper taking the bus, even paying full price.

Edited January 25, 2018 by Renegade

[Charles Bannerman]

4 hours ago, IBM said:

Not if you take the cost of fuel free parking at Morrisons if you do some shopping and it would be double fare when my wife is with me 

Free parking at Morrisons is a good one. You can more or less get as long as you like if you feed the meter hourly. To get a £1 refund for the hour there's no minimum spend but, unless you are planning spending more than £15 or more, you won't get a refund for any longer duration.

[IBM]

8 hours ago, Charles Bannerman said:

Free parking at Morrisons is a good one. You can more or less get as long as you like if you feed the meter hourly. To get a £1 refund for the hour there's no minimum spend but, unless you are planning spending more than £15 or more, you won't get a refund for any longer duration.

Feed the meter Charles  I thought there was a maximum 3 hour stay, I would not risk feeding the meter myself and would never be in town that long 

[Charles Bannerman]

29 minutes ago, IBM said:

Feed the meter Charles  I thought there was a maximum 3 hour stay, I would not risk feeding the meter myself and would never be in town that long 

Yes, there is a maximum three hour stay, but you can get that without either having to pay £4 without getting it back or spend £50 in the shop - if you are in a position to put in 3 separate £1 coins at hourly intervals and redeem each with a token purchase in the shop. The camera clocks you coming in and out and is set to 3 hours while the "wee man" who has been restored to patrolling duties and isn't even there all the time, is only looking for vehicles with invalid tickets. In any case I don't see anything in the car park rules to stop that since the customer's patter of shop usage must be their own decision.

I never have need for the full three hours but, quite regularly, I go into the café for breakfast and to read the paper and redeem my first ticket against that, stick a second ticket on whilst on my way out so I can go down town and then redeem that one against a sandwich for my lunch on the way back.

[Laurence]

My word Charles  Pity you have nothing less to worry about. Like paying the new Income tax rate for the wealthy -

[The Mantis]

On 24/01/2018 at 10:16 PM, Charles Bannerman said:

Lowland Scots treat Highlanders with at least as much contempt as anyone else. Ironically, a certain Scottish Football League vote in 1973, although hardly vital to life, comes as an interesting instance of same.

And the somewhat contrived WW1 reference really does betray the most enormous propensity to grievance.

So while accusing Kingsmills you manage to slip in two of your own favourite grievances 

Time you were carted off to the glue factory Charlie boy.

[Charles Bannerman]

1 hour ago, TheMantis said:

So while accusing Kingsmills you manage to slip in two of your own favourite grievances 

Time you were carted off to the glue factory Charlie boy.

The difference being that, unlike those of a certain political persuasion, I don't have very many grievances..... insofar as they exist they are genuine and not contrived with a little saltire stamp on them ..... and I don't create them as a vehicle for inciting support for political change.

Apart from that..... IT'S PICTLAND'S OIL! 

[The Mantis]

38 minutes ago, Charles Bannerman said:

The difference being that, unlike those of a certain political persuasion, I don't have very many grievances..... insofar as they exist they are genuine and not contrived with a little saltire stamp on them ..... and I don't create them as a vehicle for inciting support for political change.

Apart from that..... IT'S PICTLAND'S OIL! 

Oh dear. Nice bit of deflection. Really no need to bring politics in, just make an effort to justify those two 'genuine' bits of prejudice.

[Kingsmills]

1 hour ago, Charles Bannerman said:

The difference being that, unlike those of a certain political persuasion, I don't have very many grievances..... insofar as they exist they are genuine and not contrived with a little saltire stamp on them ..... and I don't create them as a vehicle for inciting support for political change.

Apart from that..... IT'S PICTLAND'S OIL! 

Oh dear. At least you are well balanced by the weighty chips on both shoulders.