Forum Topic

Brent's Initiative - bollards!

Anyone see the ITV local news at lunchtime today.Apparently Brent council are placing bollards across front gardens used for parking where there aren't dropped kerbs.Would this be a good idea for Ealing to follow? Didn't the last Conservative council investigate dropped kerbs?

Alan Brainsby ● 6784d29 Comments

They are fining people in Chiswick aren't they?

Philippa Bond ● 6784d

There's a video item on www.itv.com/local regarding Brent's bollards. It's next to the Brick Lane lamp posts. Go to London area news.

Alan Brainsby ● 6784d

Yes, if you park your car in front of your house in Brent and you don't have permission and haven't paid for the officially dropped kerb then you could wake up to find that there are bollards concreted into the pavement blocking your exit.

Philippa Bond ● 6783d

They'd never get away with doing that in France - the bollards would be removed pronto and possibly shoved up the nearest council official's bum! Brits are just so law abiding, they moan but do nothing.

S. D. Brock ● 6782d

"...shoved up the nearest (French)council official's bum!"Sacre bleu, that would be painful mon brave!  :-(

Gerry Tan ● 6782d

Well they also like to spray Politicians etc with liquid manure, that has the effect of consentrating minds wonderfully!!

Colin Vaughan ● 6782d

Yes Colin, our cousins across the channel are a funny lot, aren't they?

Gerry Tan ● 6782d

The Normans may well be our cousins but the French? It wasn't until 1214 that Normandy became French, and for a long time after that the English kings ruled more of France than the French kings.And their language! It's a series of grunts and other farmyard noises.The French probably have more white flags per head of population than any other state, yet they have one of the bloodthirstiest national anthems going.You are right... they are a funny lot.Bollards to the lot of 'em, I say! Bollards!!

Alan Brainsby ● 6782d

Alan, you're hilarious!At least the French invented Champagne, M.Hulot, the Metro and Oily Prats!

Gerry Tan ● 6782d

Perhaps they invented bollards! Sound French don't they? Savoyards, Picards, cowards, retards...Bolleaux !)But it's thought it is from bole, a topped tree.Within the topic (amazingly) some of the pavement bollards in Southwark were allegedly cannon from french ships (Napoleonic Wars, England 1, France 0) with a cannon ball stuffed in the end.I suppose the french have come up with some good mathematicians and microbiologists. Probably because those subjects are written, not spoken.And they've won the Eurovision Song Contest more times than we have - is that geopolitical, or because more countries in Europe speak French than English? We've only got Eire. They've got Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Andorra, Monaco...

Alan Brainsby ● 6782d

Who started the original channel tunnel? It was the English. Perhaps the Frenchies were scared of the dark!French mainline trains run on the left, except Alsace, because we built their first lines. Of course they've overtaken us somewhat on railways because our interests have moved on to cleverer things like bio-tech.I think the biggest thing the French have ever given us is......grief! At least we knew which side the Germans were on in the war!

Alan Brainsby ● 6780d

"I think the biggest thing the French have ever given us is......grief! At least we knew which side the Germans were on in the war!"Why are we so disdainful of our cousins across the channel - the French?  After all, they are the most cultured nation in Europe.  And they've probably given the world more inventions than any other nation.

Gerry Tan ● 6780d

After all, they are the most cultured nation in Europe...Plastic Bertrand, Antoine de Caunes, le Petomaine, etc.Cultured mon cul! And they gave us "Peritel" or SCART as we call it.

Alan Brainsby ● 6780d

Plus Secam 625 instead of PAL just to be b****y awkward!!!

Colin Vaughan ● 6780d

"And they've probably given the world more inventions than any other nation."Gerry, you cannot be serious!  Name one and I'll give you ten from the UK.  That's ten for every one!  This is not to diminish the contribution of France but to put it in perspective beside our own which is second to none.Try steam power, railways, jet engines, television, antibiotics for starters.  And all the groundwork laid by Darwin, Newton, Rutherford . . . . . . .

David Biles ● 6780d

Is SCART French??? No wonder it's so useless.They do good cheese though.

Jane Salisbury ● 6780d

I think Gerry must have a bit of French ancestry.He's being provocative!-)

Alan Brainsby ● 6780d

"Name one [French invention] and I'll give you ten from the UK."- Aqualung (Cousteau, 1943)- Aneroid barometer (Vidie, 1843)- Battery - lead/acid (Plante, 1859)- Battery - Leclanché cell, from which today's dry cell batteries were developed (Leclanché, 1866)- Bicycle (Comte Mede de Sivrac, 1790)- Braille system of raised dots (Braille, 1829)- Gyroscope (Foucault, 1852)- Guillotine (1792, based on an idea by Guillotin)- Hot-air balloon (Montgolfier brothers, 1782)- Interchangeable parts - initially for gun manufacture, the basis for all mass production (Blanc, 1790)- Metric system (a committee of various scientists at the Academy of Sciences, Paris, directed by the French National Assembly, 1790-93)- Parachute (first demonstration by Lenormand, 1783)- Pasteurisation (Pasteur, 1862)- Pencil - modern type using kiln-fired powdered graphite (Conte, 1795)- Sewing machine (Thimonnier, 1830)Source: www.enchantedlearning.com, supplemented by Wikipedia.I await your list of 150 British inventions with interest!:-)(Sitting here in Paris this evening, I couldn't resist the challenge!)

Richard Jennings ● 6780d

Nice one Richard mon brave!Now Davide le Biles, over to you mon petit chou!  ;-)

Gerry Tan ● 6780d

"I think Gerry must have a bit of French ancestry."Mais oui Alaine mon ami, there's a touch of the old Auguste Escoffier in me, especially when it come to a full English fry-up breakfast! Or as our cousins across the channel might say...Le grand petit dejeuner Anglais! Avec le HP sauce!  ;-)

Gerry Tan ● 6780d

“Throughout history, the British have been responsible for many great inventions and are still commonly acknowledged to be among the best in the world when it comes to inventing. Over the past 50 years, according to Japanese research, more than 40 per cent of discoveries taken up on a worldwide basis originated in the United Kingdom.”Richard, GerryForgive me for not trawling through loads of data to substantiate my claim; I think the above quote gives the drift of my argument, especially with the big league stuff like telephone, radio, television, radar, digital computers, steam power, jet power, electromagnetic induction, mass production of steel, navigational chronometers, DNA, plastics, internet, light bulb, pneumatic tyre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .My original challenge to Gerry still stands, particularly if it is possible to "rank" the importance of the invention.

David Biles ● 6780d

Whats useless regarding Scart Jane????!!!!!

Colin Vaughan ● 6780d

Sewing machine?Was that to speed up white flag production?

Alan Brainsby ● 6780d

This should keep you happy for hours this afternoon, for when the storm returns.          http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa010500a.htm

Peter Wright ● 6780d

"He's being provocative!"Moi, an agent provocateur?  To use a famous Paisleyism - Jamais, jamais, jamais, jamais!  :-(O

Gerry Tan ● 6779d

Ummm....I'm not a technically minded person really...aren't they those leads that completely fail to connect our TV/DVD/VCR properly and have been known to make me cry?

Jane Salisbury ● 6779d

Your right Jane. It is said that Sky etc gets more callouts for part disconnected Scart leads than anything else. Purchase of the lockable type gets rid of that problem. However if our French Friends had given the thing a locking overcentre wire catch as was used on Radar Sets in my RAF days on what was known as a Jones Plug, most of those troubles would have been eliminated!

Colin Vaughan ● 6779d

You have left out the biggest French inventionVIOLENT REVOLUTION.

Graham Weeks ● 6779d