Things that have bothered you for a long time.

[Yellow Fang]

How is it air flight is so cheap when rail fares are so expensive?

 

[Andy in Germany]

How is it air flight is so cheap when rail fares are so expensive?

Because they're exempt from a lot of taxes and have been for decades, so governments effectively subsidise air travel.

 

[JohnHughes307]

Because they're exempt from a lot of taxes and have been for decades, so governments effectively subsidise air travel.

Only in some countries... In Italy a 55 minute train journey into central Rome is EU2.60 because workers need to get into the city. In the UK it is about £30 because the privatised rail companies can rip off the poor bloody workers who have no choice.

 

[Chris S]

Why do people on TV being chased by the police always head for the roof?

 

[Chris S]

If people are born gay then why are so many prisoners 'gay for the stay but straight at the gate'?

 

[Diogenes]

Why did Margaret Thatcher take away our free school milk? I don't remember the Heath government, but I remember our milk being taken away. I cam remember there were sometimes power cuts, which were fun because we could light candles and use the oil lamp.

Much of it was wasted. I remember the 1/3 pint bottles being delivered in the morning in a crate that was put in the corner of the class, by the radiator. By the time we got it, it was foul.

There's also an argument that cow's milk isn't actually good for you. It's been linked to kidney stones, asthma, allergies, endometrial cancer in women and male fertility amongst other things. "Milk Is Good For You" was an advertising slogan coined for the Milk Marketing Board after the war - effectively the dairy farmer's union and it was they who successfuly lobbied government to buy their product to put in schools.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Because they're exempt from a lot of taxes and have been for decades, so governments effectively subsidise air travel.

Can't just be fuel tax that accounts for it.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Reams and reams of instructions that come with products. Just bought a wireless mouse and the paperwork in every language known needed more package space than the item itself. The usage instructions in English maybe half A4 at most, the certificates of conformity, servicing centres world wide etc etc etc would wallpaper your hall. Why not separate sheets for different markets? As it is I've half filled the weekly paper recycling box with waste paper from one small computer mouse purchase

 

[Threevok]

Tear Tapes and perforated strips on bottle tops

Designed to save time and so I don't have to find a sharp tool to open them

Now, I just struggle with them for 10 minutes and then find a sharp tool to open them

 

[Lullabelle]

My colleague's dad owned his own business and had a lot of cash so she grew up in a big house, 3-4 holidays abroad every year, pretty much anything she wanted, then her folks split up when she was about 12, mum and daughter had to move out to a small dingey place, no car, very little cash because dad paid a bare minimum of child support. No holidays, no school trips, they really struggled, yet she talks about her dad like he was an amazing guy-her best mate. Ok she has the right to see her dad as she so chooses but the fact that he barely supported her and didn't communicate with her for a couple of years doesn't sound like a great dad to me.
When she was about 15 she started working for him during school holidays and he took her on full time, 1 person doing the work of 4 people, clearly to save money, the more I hear about him the more I wonder why he is held in such high regard! Her dad, her life.

 

[oldwheels]

Blunt kitchen knives. I go to stay with a son from time to time and have an en-suite accommodation and d in l feeds me in the evening. I make my own breakfast and lunch as I am out cycling in the daytime mostly. Making lunch involves cutting thing like fruit etc. but the kitchen knives are always blunt by my standards. When I was an agriculture student I learned the importance of always having a sharp knife and this has carried on the rest of my life. Blunt knives are useless and dangerous. All schoolboys in my day had a pocket knife as a matter of course but nowadays this would give the powers that be hysterics.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Is the Old Trafford cricket ground the same as the football ground?

No. One's a football ground. One's a cricket ground. About 5 minutes walk from each other, I believe.

 

[Smudge]

Blunt kitchen knives. I go to stay with a son from time to time and have an en-suite accommodation and d in l feeds me in the evening. I make my own breakfast and lunch as I am out cycling in the daytime mostly. Making lunch involves cutting thing like fruit etc. but the kitchen knives are always blunt by my standards. When I was an agriculture student I learned the importance of always having a sharp knife and this has carried on the rest of my life. Blunt knives are useless and dangerous. All schoolboys in my day had a pocket knife as a matter of course but nowadays this would give the powers that be hysterics.

I've carried a pocket knife for most of my life, perfectly legal as long as its under 3" and doesn't have a locking blade.
So buy a Victorinox SAK and you wont have have to worry about your son having blunt kitchen knives.

 

[oldwheels]

Smudge I actually have a 6 inch kitchen knife I take with me now. Since this is carried in the bottom of my bag I doubt it would be a problem. I also have a couple of illegal lock knives which I bought when they were still legal. What on earth is one supposed to do with such things. When I go sea fishing or diving I am also highly illegal but again how does one gut fish or open scallops with a tiddly little blade?

 

[Smudge]

Smudge I actually have a 6 inch kitchen knife I take with me now. Since this is carried in the bottom of my bag I doubt it would be a problem. I also have a couple of illegal lock knives which I bought when they were still legal. What on earth is one supposed to do with such things. When I go sea fishing or diving I am also highly illegal but again how does one gut fish or open scallops with a tiddly little blade?

I have a couple of Leatherman multitools, really handy things to have. But because of the locking blade, illegal to carry, so they live under the seat of my motorcycles.
With the spotlight on knife crime atm, i just wouldn't be comfortable keeping them on my person.