Organgrinder

So sorry to hear this. Rest in peace Mort and condolences to family and friends.

It would be helpful to find out what you are actually trying to say. Quotes from unknown (to us) third parties mean nothing at all. It's a well known known fact that even among fully qualified experts, you can always find opposing views so how do you know which one to support. No posters on this forum are experts in virology so we should be as careful as we can and follow the advice - Hands, Face, Space until we get on top of it. No matter how virulent the virus, it would not spread if everyone stuck to the rules.

Good point - you took the words out of my mouth. I would include Facebook & Twitter with these bog rolls too. I sometimes think the world has gone mad - important happenings are overlooked and and trivial things are blown up and celebrated. Three cheers for the NHS again. Time that the honours list changed too. Away from entertainers who are well paid for their work, sports stars ditto and politicians and their benefactors. Lets have more NHS surgeons, nurses, paramedics etc and more firefighters, lifeboat crews & mountain rescue people. Those who give the most, always receive the least and those who line their own pockets finish up at the top of the tree.

Although I am disappointed with the performance of Boris and Hancock throughout this virus pandemic and think that their reactions have been too slow and marred by U-turns, the fact is that the spread of this virus is caused purely and simply by the action of ordinary citizens who, by their impatience, thoughtlessness and sheer stupidity, are responsible for the large scale spread of Civid-19. I walk for 90 minutes every day for health reasons and have worn a face mask every time I have left the house and make sure that I am distancing from others. I very rarely see anyone else wearing a mask except just before entering shops and I see lots of people every day day standing close to each other whilst chatting, including mothers at school gates, dog walkers, neighbours etc. I consider it worth going to this trouble for the sake of members of my family and also the NHS and the well being of the general population. Do others not care about their own loved ones or the poor NHS workers, or is it just down to stupidity? The scenes at the London stations are disgraceful and much more needs to be done to enforce the rules.

True enough, that guy was the bees knees but I was only quoting a few of those from the 20th century to show that we had still been doing things since the 1800's.

If it can be done, then why wasn't it? Especially before construction of the Supertram systam. You are excusing Sheffield City Council by trying to blind us with science. Maybe you work for Sheffield City Engineers. Complicated doesn't matter. Compared with a scale of work done throughout history and including the last century, (yes, we were still good in the 1900's), it must rate much less than 00.01% complicated. Apart from all our great Cathedrals and buildings such as Westminster Hall we built an incredible infrastructure in this country. I could quote all day long, great engineers of the 20th century, who you dismiss so lightly. Have you not heard of R.J. Mitchell, Christopher Cockerell, Barnes Wallace, Clive Sinclair and even Dyson - just a few of dozens of leading engineers, designers and inventors. Our Hawker Hunter was the first military plane in general use to break the sound barrier. Our Harrier Jet was the first vertical take off fighter which went into service. Along with the French, we produced supersonic Concorde, which America & Russia tried and failed to do. Computers, Calculators and TV's were developed here and the internet was conceived here. They were all done after the 1800's. Us uneducated yokels may know a little bit more about engineering than you think, so I would prefer that you didn't talk down to us. I don't think our City Engineers fail us so much as our City Council and Central Government but, compared with the old days, "we are still useless".

WE were leading the world in modern engineering before both you and I were born and we maintained that world class expertise for many many years. We now, according to you, have such an expert knowledge that someone like me can fail to comprehend and yet, we cannot undertake so many large projects or even little flood prevention schemes. I seem to recall that it was flooding there in the 70's before the supertram was even built. There were also similar floods in many other parts of Sheffield too. If you or anyone else has such vast knowledge of modern engineering and yet small projects such as this, are "too hard" to undertake or pay for then I still say " we must be useless." It's not my dismissal that's shameful but the fact that a small project like that, can't be done.

So was everything we did from the industrial revolution onwards but we managed it. Now, we have to call in some foreign company instead - this tells me that we must be useless.

Wrong attitude - So do you just leave it then cos it's a bit of a hard job? Wonder how they managed to build York Minster and similar. Seems we are pretty useless at everything these days which is why we usually call on the Chinese. Britains changed since I was a lad. and we should be ashamed.

As the shops close down and we all shop on the internet, every company will be like PC World. Once they have your money, they won't give a damn whether the product works or whether you need help or advice. All we need then, is for the internet to go down and all shopping ceases completely. Think it can't happen - in these days of cyber warfare, it's a certainty. It's also another way to hasten the end of money and get everybody to use plastic.

People will regret buying everything from the internet when all the shops have shut down and they are unable to view anything before they buy them. Shops not only sell stuff but provide advice and also service when the goods fail. They also pay their full whack of taxes and the Government and your Local councils are going to see their income drop drastically whilst Amazon etc. sends all their money to American headquarters. I once worked for Debenhams (and Pauldens before them) and they were great companies to work for in the old days with a lovely family atmosphere. All progress seems to be backwards these days.

You've said that before. Fine, we are all in agreement then. Except I know that the moaning will still continue because you lost the referendum and decide to do a Donald Trump.

You seem to be as mistaken as John Major about how much influence Europe has. We were not allowed by the EU to make trade agreements at all until we entered this last phase of leaving on January the first last. And we can just as easily do the same.

We can make trade agreements and pacts just the same as other countries and did so for hundreds of years. Trade agreements between countries are changing all the time and if a majority of us wanted to leave ours, then we can, and have. Time to stop weeping.

Still waiting for someone to explain how every nation on earth except for 27 of them, manages to trade without being a member of the EU as we did for the greater part of our history. We just need to stop being so weak kneed and show a bit of positive courage.