Posts by Mr Slasher 6 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Mar 2019
Sigma Sports is a small chain of UK stores, Wiggle/CRC parent company was Signa Holding, a German e-commerce brand.
Wiggle was not the only outfit to assume the Covid bubble would lead to longer term growth when the opposite happened. But it had become a bit of an Amazon, dominating the cycle/triathlon retail market in the UK.
Pity about dhb clothing, which was very good quality, and I feel for the staff who lost their jobs.
I know someone with a 2019 Hyundai Ioniq hybrid with the same issue - leave it for 3 or 4 weeks (as was the case through last year's lockdown) and it won't start because the little battery doesn't hold its charge.
I prefer low-tech stuff, especially for something expensive like a car. I use the 'dumb' key for my Fabia, even though there's a key with locking remote as well. I would prefer my car didn't have electric windows - I have hands so there's no need for a motor to wind the window for me. Even more so now that the driver's side switch for the passenger window won't work.
A better analogy: you set up a drive-thru fast food outlet open 24/7 with long working hours and low wages. You chose that location because the tiny town has so few job opportunities so the council welcomed you with open arms.
While you employ more staff than the little restaurant they have to travel from all over the region by car to serve burgers and nuggets to impatient car occupants and young people who want somewhere to hang out. Both toss their McPackaging out of the car window somewhere down the road, which infuriates the locals.
Public transport is not possible; it's woefully infrequent, the bus stop is 1.5 miles away and services don't run at the times staff have to start and finish work. When your staff get fed up and leave it's OK as there is always somene else desparate enough to fill their shoes... for a while. Having 'Amazon warehouse worker' on their CV doesn't help their job prospects as it's the same as everyone else. They watch hours of TV and turn to binge-drinking.
While working at the little restaurant the staff had been relatively happy/satisfied, as were the staff at the catering and other businesses that supplied and serviced them. Customers were mostly polite, the owner was not generous with wages but you got some free (real) food most days.
The restaurant is now closed and no-one wants to rent the space as footfall is down and council rates have gone up. The landlord is poorer, the council is poorer and the local High Street is dying because they were seduced by out-of-town retail. Council services are cut year on year, as are staff and contracts. Some ex-council staff end up having to work for Amazon. Everything arrives and leaves in massive HGVs that rumble through the lanes day and night. Occasionally an driver unfamiliar with the location gets stuck in a side lane, which also infuriates the locals.
"I know many kids here in West Wales who hate being forced to sit through Welsh lessons and would rather have the time spent on learning a widely spoken European or Asian language, or even to hone the (often poor) English language skills."
The alternative scenario you imply is that no-one will learn any Welsh and this ancient language will die out. The Welsh culture, which is a key part of our national identity, will then disappear. There will be no need for place names and signs in Welsh. Kids in Wales will then be no different to kids in England. They can disband the football and rugby teams and stop using one of the world's most beautifully poetic and musical National anthems since no-one will know the words or care what they mean. Wales will be another English holiday destination.
This is what the English have always wanted, they have tried so hard to kill off the language and the Welsh identity down the centuries, even in the 1970s when I was in school. English incomers (possibly unconsciously) bring that mentality with them. It seeps into the locals so that the natives have more in common with the English than with their forebears.
Perhaps you want everyone - everywhere - to speak English. It makes life easier for English speakers, all transactions are in English, those foreigners can't pull a fast one or talk about you behind your back.
Poor English skills are not related to the teaching of Welsh (or another language) in schools. They would probably rather play on their smartphones or hang out with friends, not learn another language.
Their parents may well have voted Leave, the usual reason being because they don't like foreigners / immigrants - at least non-white, non-English ones - so they're not going to be up for learning foreign languages.
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