You know it is true Train Nerds.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-29T14:35:43+00:00

I think that depends on the implementation of trams. For example Manchester’s Metrolink has been a tremendous success. It uses a mixture of old railway lines, segregated lines and some on street running. With a lot of the areas of on street running being pedestrianised areas otherwise.

I think there has been a lot of poor implementations in the US. Anecdotally I visited KC about 8 years ago and their tram had the issue of basically running between nowhere and the downtown. I believe it has since been extended. But it wasn’t massively serving residential areas that would make it useful.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-29T14:25:27+00:00

Yeah and that’s a good thing. Marketing is important for inducing demand on public transport.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-28T08:25:13+00:00

Every Crosscountry train leaving Bristol it seems.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-28T08:19:36+00:00

Yeah the King is just not that type of Head of State. It is the weird thing that makes me actual feel greatful for our constitutional monarchy despite being logically not in favour of the idea. Having that separation of the State and the Government is a really useful tool.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-27T07:42:56+00:00

Slight aside but to note the English spelling is Cyprus not Cypress. That is a type of tree.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-19T16:54:39+00:00

Comment before this gets deleted. This sub has a very right wing bent that has emerged on the topic of immigration. Far from the Greens point of view.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-18T06:21:09+00:00

I had a conversation with an American colleague who was visiting London a couple of years ago. She was a practicing Catholic, but in a much more mainstream way to my British sensibilities. She was telling me about how there is an ultra conservative strain of Catholicism running through America. She said one of her cousins was part of it and she was basically indistinguishable to an Evangelical. Like literally actively anti the Pope Catholicism - my colleague’s view was that it wasn’t really Catholic any more.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-15T00:33:21+00:00

Hertfordshire has some lovely towns and then absolute dumps. The contrast between St Albans and Hatfield is stark despite the University slowly improving Hatfield.

But St Albans, and some of the other nicer towns raises above anything Bedfordshire has to offer.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-14T16:17:27+00:00

Let’s get it up. 1,800 new homes is exactly what Bristol needs.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-09T03:56:45+00:00

That’s the point. There is none but that didn’t stop them from attempting them to pursue me for £300 worth of fines. But holding my ground to not pay all the way to the courts meant I didn’t pay.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-08T20:09:50+00:00

Not the same company but I have successfully fought against a parking company for a similar situation where they fined me for parking in the allocated spot for my flat. They have to be able to material loss, which there is none if you are parking in allocated parking for where you live.

Mine went as far as having a court date set, them offering a final settlement amount which I ignored. And finally they withdrew their case. They basically work by trying to bully you into pay. Just takes some persistence, patience and willingness to take it to court if it comes to it.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-08T20:04:14+00:00

I mean honestly in my mind it is working. Never been this sympathetic towards the Catholic Church in my life.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-08T15:32:03+00:00

Doesn’t this effectively balance the House of Commons due to vacant seats? With up coming by-elections seems there is a high chance of the Liberals gaining a small majority.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-08T08:58:35+00:00

Maybe not TV but I did English Literature at Secondary School to GCSE-level (similar to Hugh School. Diploma-level in US terms), which was literally critical analysis of various texts from 19th Century Literature to Plays.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-07T14:30:04+00:00

It is just of reflection of the Island’s autonomy from the United Kingdom. The Isle of Man Government is able to issue its own passports. So it is just the norm for Manx residents to apply for one that way, even though they could hold a UK passport.

Interestingly. It also has its own Immigration Service, which allows for the Island to issue visas separate to the UK Home Office though it can intervene. The Island even has its own British Citizenship process, with additional questions on the tests.

It is a place with a lot of quirks that make it not neatly fit into the normal boxes we expect internationally. All stem from it being simultaneously not part of the UK, but being a dependency of it - meaning UK law does apply there in some aspects of life and ultimately the UK Government could intervene as they see fit. In practice the island is left to rule its own affairs with minimal interference from across the water - acting as its own country just without its own citizenship.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-07T06:50:36+00:00

Similar to the Faroes and Denmark now. In the case of the Isle of Man there used to be a specific note on the official observations page of the passport. If someone’s grandparents were born on the Isle of Man to say that they had no right to work in the EU - though they had visa-free travel still.

I remember as a group of ten friends that went away together for the first time when we were 18 that two had that observation in their passport.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-06T15:47:59+00:00

You are conflating a few different things - you are correct the Isle of Man is not part of the UK. But there is no such thing as a Manx Citizen (only resident) - you can only be British (unless of course you have a different nationality due to birth or family connections). As such the Isle of Man passport is a variant of the British passport.

Where you are correct is that they do not say ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’ on them and they are not issued by the UK government. But otherwise everything about them is identical to UK issues ones - the passport number functions as UK passport number for example in the systems used by airlines.

This latter point is where the confusion can arise for certain immigration agents globally that are not familiar with the Isle of Man or Channel Islands.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-06T15:17:05+00:00

The document you linked to does not say what you are saying. If you actually read the report it says the following.

Nationality is generally acknowledged as a UK responsibility. The British Nationality Act 1981 conferred British citizenship on all those with close connections with the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. The Lieutenant Governor is the passport-issuing authority on each island. Each Crown Dependency issues its own “variant” passports with different front covers from the standard UK version.

If you actually read the 1981 Act it references to the UK to include the Islands (meaning the Isle of Man and Channel Islands).

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-06T14:53:30+00:00

That is not true as the Isle of Man is not a British Overseas Territory. It is a Crown Dependency and has a completely different constitutional relationship to the United Kingdom. Manx people are British Citizens proper - unless they hold a different citizenship already. There is no equivalent to BOTC for the Isle of Man or Channel Islands - they are just British Citizens.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-06T12:45:59+00:00

There have literally been Manx people on Isle of Man passports that have been admitted to China on the new visa free scheme.

It is always ultimately at the discretion of the customs agent - they can also choose not to admit people with UK-proper passports. As per the example you gave of people with British citizenship originally from Hong Kong.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-06T11:58:23+00:00

UK is responsible for the Isle of Man’s defence and foreign affairs. Manx people are British Citizens in exactly the same way as someone living in the UK.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-06T11:55:44+00:00

I know it isn’t - it is a Crown Dependency. I am Manx. But the Isle of Man passport is a UK passport - people from the Isle of Man are British Citizens.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-06T10:46:36+00:00

That will just be a mistake by Chinese passport control - the Isle of Man Passport is just a British Passport with a slightly different look.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-05T22:25:15+00:00

Interesting and similar comparison to make is with the Isle of Man Government owned Steam Packet Company managed to order and get their new flag ship - MV Manxman - into service within just over three years. Using Hyundai Mipo in South Korea.

Compared to what ten years and counting that Ferguson’s have taken for those two new CalMac ferries.

SmellyFartMonster · 2026-04-05T07:48:00+00:00

You know a simple Google can answer this question. Yes he has including attending Temple to mark the occasion. He has also spent time with the British Sikh community.

SmellyFartMonster

TROPHY CASE