The grumpy thread

[retrogeezer]

BUT...... how are they supposed to get from one field to the next, or from the farm yard to the field?

Well the last time I looked most fields were linked to other fields, usually by a gate!! And farm yards tend to be attached to the farm don't they. Obviously there are occasions when they need to use a road but they really need to be more considerate and pull over where possible to let cars past - see my 2nd post above.I really can't see why they should be on a road for mile after mile after mile.

[seth]

A tractor traveling at 20mph will take 15mins for a 5 mile journey that the 20 cars behind it could otherwise do in 5 minutes. Farmer Giles would loose approx 30 seconds from his day to pull in and let everyone else past, who then gain 10 minutes each and are able to get on with their important business.Therefore I calculate that the net effect of the farmer's insistence to hog the road costs the country £378,643.05 in lost revenue.

[pogweasel]

you kinda get a bit more sympathetic to farmers, for whom life is bloody tough anyway.

Have you ever met a poor farmer? No me neither.

[retrogeezer]

Also, they use cheap red diesel and have no MOT and pay NO road tax....

You can drive a tractor without a valid licence as long as it remains on your own land.You only have to be 17-years-old to drive a tractor unaccompanied on a public road.Agricultural vehicles are not legally required to have an MOT.No tractors may exceed 20mph on a public highway.Farmers have not had to pay road tax on their tractors since April 2001, although you still have to display a free tax disc or receive a £200 fine. Regulations state that tractors holding up traffic should pull over at a suitable passing place or risk a charge of "driving without reasonable consideration for other road users."VOSA has the power to stop vehicles on the road and if they present a risk to other road users they can be prohibited from use.

[seth]

The last time I drove in that London I was held up by tricycles with sofas on the back, my own fault for driving through the west end of London.

They are the single worst thing to have happened to London streets in the last 5-10 years or so. Absolutely infuriating. I don't think they add anything to the tourist interest here (where we are known for black cabs and red buses) The streets are too narrow for them and they just meander all over the place. They were all unlicensed to start with but I think that has been sorted in the last couple of years. I don't know if they have any form of insurance should they drive in to you (similar to bicycles)?

[gearoil]

TNT.... ( not the explosive )We did try to re-deliver your consignment.... NO YOU FUCKING DIDN'T. If you did try at the time stated, then I'd have it. And your parcel tracking is a fucking crock of shit too.Fuck it, lets have another:CUSTOMS. Stop closing offices, diverting services and fucking about with an already unfathomable system. You are uncontactable having shut most of your local offices and consolidating the resultant shitty mess into just one.JUST STAMP THE FUCKER AND FAX IT BACK. Nice one, thanks.

[wuvvum]

No tractors may exceed 20mph on a public highway.

So where does that leave those Fastrac things that roar around at 45 then? Even the (seemingly standard issue around here) big John Deere tractors seem to cruise at 30+ unladen.

[whitevanman]

No tractors may exceed 20mph on a public highway.

So where does that leave those Fastrac things that roar around at 45 then? Even the (seemingly standard issue around here) big John Deere tractors seem to cruise at 30+ unladen.

Apparently they are not classed as Tractors but some other sort of Agricultural vehicle....

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Earlier today I knocked over my (open) 89pc socket set and it fell in a prickly bush.

[trigger]

Nasty, I was helping my dad the other with my sisters car when he picked up his large socket set with the lid open and the whole lot went all over the gravel, He was kind enough to let me pick them all up and sort out all the metric, Imperial and whitworth sockets. He's nice like that.

[chester drawers]

I recently stumped the excess for a replacement windscreen after Farmer Palmer’s tractor tyres dragged out enough boulders to make a rockery on the busy A road. Fast forward a couple of months and it’s happened again - though it’s just a chip at the moment.Interestingly said Farmer seems to be hauling trailers full of scrap metal around in the dark, with no lights and no plates. He’ll have a waste license for that of course. Hope the local pikeys pinch the lot when his back's turned.

[Lankytim]

Royal mail destroyed a consignment of Austin Maestro parts I had sent to a now un-happy customer. Im in the pricess of refunding the unlucky punter

[Mr Lobster]

^ Royal Mail seem to be surprisingly good at that.

[myglaren]

^ Royal Mail seem to be surprisingly good at that.

So they damned well should be, they've had years of practice!

[dollywobbler]

Idiots who can't drive. Again.Picture the scene. I'm hurtling along the A1M. I'm in the left-hand lane, being slowly overtaken by an Alfa. Fuckwit in an Audi comes down the slip road, at exactly the same speed as me. I've got a car next to me, and right of way, so I'm not moving. Audi could easily have accelerated out ahead of me but does the 'um, what the fuck do I do now?' thing before eventually braking and slotting in behind me. Then proceeds to light up my rear end, clearly pissed off that despite having right of way and nowhere to go, I didn't get out of his way in my stupid looking old car covered in stripes.Said idiot then drove along behind me for a bit, still with the RH indicator going. Eventually turned it off, drifted into the middle lane where he stayed about 400yds behind me, doing EXACTLY the same speed and backing up all the faster cars. No attempt to overtake me or speed up.Sorry but who's the fucking idiot driver here you Audi driving twat?! If only you could talk to other drivers. I may have said rude things but really, I just wanted to say 'try reading the Highway Code and then try joining motorways again.'I've had this happen a few times. Obviously the fact that nice people usually do move over has caused people to think that this is how things should actually be.

[Cavcraft]

He's probably backed off the cars behind in the hope you'll come across a slow moving vehcile in your lane to hold you up.

[Lankytim]

He's probably backed off the cars behind in the hope you'll come across a slow moving vehcile in your lane to hold you up.

Ha! The oldest trick in the book!

[55bloke]

you kinda get a bit more sympathetic to farmers, for whom life is bloody tough anyway.

Have you ever met a poor farmer? No me neither.

Hmm a bit Daily Mail that. The big corporate ones may be doing ok, but, I have known several poor farmers who live very hand to mouth, including one who let it all get a bit much and topped himself. I suppose they should all sell up, let someone buy the house as a second home and sell the land to one of the big boys, hopefully there will be enough to pay off the overdraft. If it's your way of life there is not always a profit in it.

Well said! There are a few wealthy land-owner type farmers, but for the average small family farm, which was most of them round where I used to live, it's a constant battle to get a fair price for whatever they were producing, be it grain, milk, or meat, the bloody supermarkets seemed determined to put them out of business in the name of keeping their customers happy.

[seth]

the bloody supermarkets seemed determined to put them out of business in the name of keeping their shareholders happy.

[Cavcraft]

Maybe they flooded the market though? Maybe a fair amount of them don't have mortgages as the farms have been in their family for generations?Maybe some got greedy when the big land boom happened a few years back?Maybe some got all kinds of handouts from the government for not growing crops or for cattle diseases which some of them were rumoured to have spread themselves?Maybe some of them used to twat on about buying British and drove Japanese 4x4s?And maybe, just maybe, some people get pissed off propping them up because there's too many of them and choose to buy foreign meats instead of paying British farmers twice, one through taxes and once more at the supermarket?No, I do NOT believe all farmers are greedy, sponging moaners. But the vast majority of the many I've encountered are.

[Tayne]

.

[brammy777]

My uncle has a farm, and its been in the family for over 60 years now. Its been tough at times to keep it running, but hes pretty well known (as was my Grandad) and respected by the local community. Luckily, they have managed to dodge all outbreaks of F+M and survive a massive fire. Still, Im bloody annoyed that he scrapped all those old cars that were once dumped there! I hope it stays profitable for a long time, its been a fairly big part of my life. I once had to help there on my holiday, I tell you what, guiding cows down mainroads is not a fun thing to do. Even less fun when you have to outrun them when they dont go where they are told!

[Lankytim]

So if all farms become unprofitable due to cheaper foreign imports, is it O.K to see them all go to the wall and dissapear? Who will look after the sheep?

[chester drawers]

Who will look after the sheep?

[Mr H Sceptre]

Lots of cheap/free land for hoarding old tat on, so it wouldn't be all bad.

[Tayne]

.

[Cavcraft]

So if all farms become unprofitable due to cheaper foreign imports, is it O.K to see them all go to the wall and dissapear?

In a nutshell, yes. Tbh I don't think they'll all disappear but if there are too many of them and they're losing money then you could say it's a cull of the weakest. Incidentally I recall when foot and mouth came out that a few weeks before farmers were saying how cows were only worth a tenner and sheep 50p yet when it came to compo time all of a sudden they were worth loads more.If farming really is so bad for some of them and they can't make any money at it why don't they diversify or change careers?If there was too many newsagents in town and some had to shut because they weren't making money would they start protesting? Would the government give them hand outs for not selling twenty L&B? If some go to the wall then so be it. Yeah it'd be a shame but that's life. We can't go on throwing money at a dying cause just because it's traditional, or because they used to make a shed load of money and now don't.

[outlaw118]

Just to go back to DollyWobb's last rant, I noticed he used the word "hurtling" when describing his A1 journey.No you weren't, you're in a 2cv!! They don't hurtle mate!! Thrashing would probably been a better word....

[pogweasel]

I think wobbla was actually travelling in his old BX. His diesel BX. Hurtling does still therefore not compute...

[M'coli]

Or quite possibly in the 21, in which I believe that it would be quite possible to hurtle.