United Kingdom VII: Taking Pride in Your Success

[Neon Ignition]

****ing hell. The relentless negativity is something else.

I can only work with what they give me and a broken infrastructure now led by a career politician plainly laying the groundwork for a third bid at party leader doesn't inspire me

[Cepp]

I can only work with what they give me and a broken infrastructure now led by a career politician plainly laying the groundwork for a third bid at party leader doesn't inspire me

I legitimately don't get your hatred for the guy, especially looking at the current lot in government.

Public transport in Greater Manchester is garbage. It aint fun waiting for once an hour buses that never turn up during winter nights, or finding out that two of your routes are now run by two separate companies resulting in you picking one or the other, or paying more to retain access to both.

Having everything under one umbrella and integrated with the Metrolink sounds like a massive step in the right direction to me. As does having buses on all routes and not just the most lucrative ones.

[Asura]

I'll never understand why some people are so gung ho for it.

I like working in the office with other people. Sitting in a room alone with a computer every day makes me feel like a troll.

[Cepp]

I like working in the office with other people. Sitting in a room alone with a computer every day makes me feel like a troll.

I'm talking more management wanting everyone back. I've no issues if its optional.

[Dogg Thang]

I guess that depends on the type of work you do. I know I would struggle to make it optional. We've shown that remote working can be done and be done well. But it uses a different set of systems. To go back to in-person systems but have to keep other systems and allowances for some to choose to work remotely would add a massive amount to my workload. Optional isn't always as easy as it sounds but, like I say, it really depends on the type of work you do.

[wakka]

Yeah, it really does. I know you've mentioned before Dogg that for your business in-person work is key, but for myself the realisation has been the opposite.

I can't see myself and the people I work with getting an office again as a result. A few years ago I was all for it and we've been based out of some decent places, but I've realised it's actually far from necessary for us. An expense we don't need - and anyone travelling from outside London is now saving £500+ on train tickets per month, so for them it's tremendously advantageous.

Optional, as you point out, is the trickiest path of all though. We won't have an optional office, that's for sure.

[Neon Ignition]

I legitimately don't get your hatred for the guy, especially looking at the current lot in government.

Public transport in Greater Manchester is garbage. It aint fun waiting for once an hour buses that never turn up during winter nights, or finding out that two of your routes are now run by two separate companies resulting in you picking one or the other, or paying more to retain access to both.

Having everything under one umbrella and integrated with the Metrolink sounds like a massive step in the right direction to me. As does having buses on all routes and not just the most lucrative ones.

He's been a senior/local MP where I grew up for over 20 years so hos track record in terms of how I judge him goes way, way beyond his time as Mayor and I've still yet to really see anything that has changed in his style. He's a microphone fluffer, very good at greasing the right palms and being on the right side of who he needs to be but gets very little of meaning done. He's pretty much a Blairite in style which is why he lost the second leadership bid as he'd have been a continuation of that path.

Don't get me wrong, in theory the idea they've proposed is great and much better than how fractured the local public transportation has become but many of the ills in the decisions made by the bus companies has also come due to the decisions of the same council that now feels it can push both agendas at the same time.

They can't restore old routes, and convenience whilst simultaneously shutting down the main arteries in and out the city. I think much of it comes from the greatly misplaced view that Manchester can emulate London. It can't and needs to stop naval gazing its way into problems.

[Cepp]

He's been a senior/local MP where I grew up for over 20 years so hos track record in terms of how I judge him goes way, way beyond his time as Mayor and I've still yet to really see anything that has changed in his style. He's a microphone fluffer, very good at greasing the right palms and being on the right side of who he needs to be but gets very little of meaning done. He's pretty much a Blairite in style which is why he lost the second leadership bid as he'd have been a continuation of that path.

Don't get me wrong, in theory the idea they've proposed is great and much better than how fractured the local public transportation has become but many of the ills in the decisions made by the bus companies has also come due to the decisions of the same council that now feels it can push both agendas at the same time.

They can't restore old routes, and convenience whilst simultaneously shutting down the main arteries in and out the city. I think much of it comes from the greatly misplaced view that Manchester can emulate London. It can't and needs to stop naval gazing its way into problems.

Alright, I get the concerns. Getting in and out of Manchester by road is... utter hell. Makes me miss having access to the Metrolink.

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, it really does. I know you've mentioned before Dogg that for your business in-person work is key, but for myself the realisation has been the opposite.

I can't see myself and the people I work with getting an office again as a result. A few years ago I was all for it and we've been based out of some decent places, but I've realised it's actually far from necessary for us. An expense we don't need - and anyone travelling from outside London is now saving £500+ on train tickets per month, so for them it's tremendously advantageous.

Optional, as you point out, is the trickiest path of all though. We won't have an optional office, that's for sure.

Yep, this is it. A studio I know that isn’t all that dissimilar to the one I work at has already made the decision to stay remote forever. That’s how they work now. Whereas with us, we want everyone back. But in either case, trying to accommodate both wouldn’t be realistic. It’s one or the other.

And yeah, the transport is the big thing for me. If I never have to commute a day in my life again, I’ll be happy. And it costs a fortune. That’s one thing I don’t miss and will never miss. It’s actually going to be a big deal for me because, since this all began, I have started working in a place that’s in another county. I still haven’t figured out how I’m going to make it work.

[Hirst]

Working from home allows me to get my work done without noise or distractions. When my office moved to being open plan some years ago, I never adapted to it and I became so angry about people loudly nattering all day that I went into the bathroom and punched the wall until it dented the plaster. All the talk of "creative collaboration" and what-not might be useful if you're some kind of media firm, but the reality in my work is trying to balance a spreadsheet with 10K lines of data and if a single one is wrong I might be there for two hours trying to fix it.

I just want to do my work in silence with as little grief as possible until I can slam the laptop shut and enjoy the rest of my day. I can't do that if I'm still there at 6pm because nothing balances as some loud turds couldn't stop talking about what happened on Strictly Come Bake-Offs and it threw me off my rhythm so I misplaced a figure.

As it stands, I enjoy my work more, the work is done to a better standard with less errors and short of my boss being desperate for me to be there for micromanagement purposes I think everyone is glad not to see me and the feeling is largely mutual. If I have to go back to the office full-time, that'll be my cue to go work somewhere where I don't have to. It was always my dream to work at home and nobody is taking that dream away.

[Neon Ignition]

Alright, I get the concerns. Getting in and out of Manchester by road is... utter hell. Makes me miss having access to the Metrolink.

Absolutely, and I'd still stick with what we have than have a Tory in charge and expect better. When he planned for Leigh to receive a dedicated bus route into Manchester it took the entirety of his time there to get it into action. The end result is its built but the main route into Manchester is at times now 1 lane instead of 3 and you'd now need to get 2 buses instead of 1 with an added 20 mins of travel time added on top of the direct buses time which curiously still takes 10 minutes longer to get to Manchester than the old service did before the whole plan began.

They need to look at breathing Manchester out, the city centre is tiny next to London and it's surrounded by such a large scale of Greater Manchester areas that need investment and regeneration, strangling the infrastructure whilst still keeping all the business, people and money within such a small location is going to keep the city back.

[Cepp]

Absolutely, and I'd still stick with what we have than have a Tory in charge and expect better. When he planned for Leigh to receive a dedicated bus route into Manchester it took the entirety of his time there to get it into action. The end result is its built but the main route into Manchester is at times now 1 lane instead of 3 and you'd now need to get 2 buses instead of 1 with an added 20 mins of travel time added on top of the direct buses time which curiously still takes 10 minutes longer to get to Manchester than the old service did before the whole plan began.

They need to look at breathing Manchester out, the city centre is tiny next to London and it's surrounded by such a large scale of Greater Manchester areas that need investment and regeneration, strangling the infrastructure whilst still keeping all the business, people and money within such a small location is going to keep the city back.

It'd be nice to see more investment/development in and around north Manchester; some areas really need it. Preferably without displacing locals.

[Neon Ignition]

Exactly, it's amazing how their are parts of even the city centre where you literally turn a corner and the difference hits you fast in terms of how developed it is. They seem to sink a lot of money into redeveloping central spaces but very little on expanding (presumably because of how many apartment towers they keep trying to build) but there's so much room to widen the area for business both big and local and instantly it would lessen the amount of people trying to get into a space just a handful of miles across.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I can't speak for Manchester, but I lived in Birmingham for 8 years and on the most part the city centre holds up quite well. You can venture reasonably far in most directions and its fine.
However the greater Birmingham area is really disjointed. You can venture to places like Walsall and Dudley and they are absolute **** holes. But then Solihull is pretty nice. I get the feeling all the councils keep themselves very separate for no real reason.
What I will say is the public transport in Brum is fantastic. I never once had a problem with the metro or the busses and the new Tram system seems to work well.

[Neon Ignition]

It's the catch 22 of pet projects and local councils versus profit focused transport companies etc. In theory the scenario Leigh finds itself in is that a guided busway (that only extends for about a sixth of the journey at best) was built and due to the cost and need to push it as a worthwhile venture at least 4 or 5 other Leigh-Manchester routes were slashed or cut completely to force commuters to go out of their way to use the new route. In theory what will happen in the coming years is that the older routes would be reinstated to bring back better convenience and greater access to the plentiful elderly population but if they do then they render their own multi-million pound pet project redundant. I suspect the town is screwed lol

Bus lanes need to be dropped for the most part, they're something you have in specific short distance locations to ensure the continued smooth pasing of public transport, outside of that they're just a symptom of failed infrastructure.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/28/johnson-urges-caution-as-england-takes-first-big-step-out-of-lockdown

For the third time rules loosen today on social gathering and once again Johnson leads us into the attempt by trying to frame things that separate any blame for it going wrong from government decisions.


Purely anecdotal from my own wider family but if they're anything to go off then 1000% they view the lifting of restrictions today as vastly more flexible than the last two times and won't at all be following the rules. The key difference is very clearly the vaccine. Either through having had a dose themselves or assuming enough people have had one dose that they don't need to bother worrying themselves anymore. Definitely one of two things coming, either vaccine pacing just about holds back the tide and we're finally completely past lockdowns or another wave of trouble is coming in the next few weeks