Prof Yaffle

For many people, sadly, Brexit was about getting rid of foreigners. We succeeded, and now have crippling shortages in areas from HGV to crop picking to social care to hospitality. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Rejoining EFTA - 'soft Brexit' - is arguably what people actually voted for before the vitriol and lies kicked in. That simplifies imports and exports to our major trade partners, and gives a pool of labour we need.

@cheezemonkhai I'll merely say again that context matters. Nobody is disputing that that symbol means "okay" if you're, for example, bobbing around at 20m taking a decompression stop. These people aren't diving, however, they're holding a xenophobic/racist publicity stunt. Yes, you can raise one arm, palm exposed, and wave to someone; no, it most certainly doesn't mean that when accompanied by racist chants. Yes, you can raise two fingers in front of someone and mean it as a form of counting; no, it doesn't mean that when accompanied by angry exhortations to kindly leave the area. And, yes, you can use this hand gesture to mean "okay" in a whole variety of situations - but, no, in this one, it is highly unlikely to mean that. Whether or not people want it to be co-opted, it has been, and it is used as a symbol of recognition between white supremacists. That it almost certainly the intention here. It is unlikely to single you out for abuse if you use it in a more traditional context, and its use as a white power symbol may yet die out. However, it's also possible that more widespread recognition as a racist gesture would, indeed, render it unacceptable in general use - just as language changes, and words drop out of use because of implications (see how terms for people of colour or different sexualities have changed over time, or even the current debate about the use of "master/slave" in e.g. braking systems or IT configurations). You may not agree with these changes, but it's easy to end up as the oblivius-yet-embarrassing grandparent, still stuck with outmoded language and symbols that are caught somewhere between anachronism and offence. I, for one, would still use the OK symbol interchangeably with a thumb-up. I am aware of how it might be perceived, though, irrespective of my own opinions. PS any Agincourt connotations of the V-sign are, I'm afraid, a modern myth. It's a 20th century hand gesture, much more contemporary with the "okay" symbol being rotated into a horizontal plane before being moved vigorously up and down to denote disapproval. Sorry

Context is everything. This is an ethnonationalist (read: 'we don't like foreigners/dark people') protest, holding a slogan well-recognised as a racist trope, making hand gestures widely associated with white supremacists. Just like those shaven-headed idiots in London the other week, raising one arm while shouting "we’re racist and that’s the way we like it" - maybe they weren't saluting, just waving to their mums. On balance, then, I really don't know what to think.

I'm in the school of ducks on this one: if it walks like one, and quacks like one, there's a good chance that it is one. Only two camps use the "white lives matter" comment: racists and idiots. The latter tend not to go out of their way to produce a large and expensive banner, march miles up a hill, and pose for publicity photos for a group that clearly states that it "stands up for the interests of the indigenous people of these islands". On balance, then, it's unlikely that he's mislaid his tank and fins; more likely, he's simply a white ethno-nationalist, probably the type that's a world expert on the implications of the Treaty of Lisbon and Article XXIV of GATT, thinks foreigners are fine so long as they stay in their own countries (exceptions made for people serving down the curry house), and likes to regularly misquote the Magna Carta.

But what did they vote for? No deal? EFTA? Customs Union? Single Market++? That's the problem with this crapfest. It's not Brexit per se - it's the fact that it's turned into a binary "you lost, we won", when we don't even know *who* won. At any level, the reality is that marginally more people voted to be out than voted to be in, so we should be marginally more out than in versus the marginally more in than out that we were anyway. *That's* democracy. If three people want curry and two hate curry, you don't all go for a vindaloo - you go somewhere which sells both spicy and non-spicy food.

Remember that all 5 million or so ex-pats are eligible to sign. It's perfectly reasonable for them to want to, especially those in an EU country. Any remaining data errors can be explained as eg UK location but no match found between postcode as provided and constituency. Attempts to reuse email addresses are blocked. Use of disposable email addresses means the signature is rejected. Multiple requests from the same IP address will get those signatures voided and the IP address banned. It's not perfect, but it's reasonably robust - most noise is coming from people like Guido Fawkes and Julia Hartley-Brewer as hostile to the process and mere technical opinion-holders who don't understand how this works.

Sorry to rain on anyone's parade, but the data extract that people are analysing is produced on a batch basis - maybe no more than once every couple of hours. That means that it's a static snapshot, and thus lags behind the headline signature count. It'll be like this for all petitions, although I suspect the extract frequency has been lowered because of the load on the petitions site at the moment. In other words - no, there aren't millions of unregistered, location-free signatures, it's simply that hordes signed after that snapshot was taken. When I looked an hour or so ago, the data extract was up-to-date and tallied with the headline number. At that point, 93.6% of signatures were UK-based; 3.7% were non-UK; 2.7% were still potential errors (eg invalid postcodes). Top non-UK countries, in order, were France, Spain, the USA and Germany, each showing between 10k and 25k signatures, versus the UK at 3.15 million. Non-UK countries tend to tally with where Brits abroad are typically found, so places like Australia, Canada and New Zealand also make a decent showing.

Old Briskodans never die - we just shuffle off to the parts bin, waiting to be resurrected in a future blaze of glory. Keep your account, you never know when it might be needed!

I change my car every three years, so I wash it approximately every 36 months, whether it needs it or not...

@Stormchaser - yes, the Passat VII. I'm happy with the looks (I didn't like the FL Octavia at first, but the wraparound headlights really grew on me). @Kiwibacon - oh, yes - the handbrakeythingy - how could I forget that one, I get in, start the car and stare blankly around, wondering what to do next. Or wave my left hand in some muscle memory simulation of "button in, lever down". The auto-hold is good once you get used to it, but the lack of a handbrake reminds me of the first time I drove a car with a column shift, or a foot-operated parking brake (both in the US).

Well, my Octy is gone - I had two Octavias in the last seven years, my wife had a Fabia, and my parents had one as well, and they're all gone. I've switched to VW (a Passat estate) for the moment, and thought I'd share my initial impressions here for anyone else to make use of. In general, the Passat is a more comfortable car, but not a better one. It's undoubtedly smoother; it's more refined; it's quieter; it has the 170bhp CR engine versus my old 140bhp PD, so what do you expect. It's a fine vehicle, and munched up the 1000 miles I drove the first week I had it. However, the Skoda is more... well, practical. Things I miss (in - genuinely - no particular order): 1. The windscreen ticket holder 2. The cubby hole on the dashboard for your windscreen cloth 3. The locker under the passenger seat for whatever crud you keep (I used it for torch, breathalyser and hiviz jackets) 4. The false boot floor - the Passat has one, but you can put naff all under it, nothing like the roof bars, bungees, kite and everything else the Octavia swallowed 5. The side boxes in the boot - the VW has open holes, the Skoda had covers on them. I'm sure they're an extra, but... (and the Skoda ones were bigger) 6. The bag holders - VW owners clearly don't carry as much shopping in the boot, they're *much* smaller... 7. Other odds and sods, such as the larger door storage buckets and the larger ashtray/spare change container in the middle of the console. 8. The 'leccy mirrors can only be activate from inside the car, instead of the push-and-hold the Skoda had Things that are better: 1. The dealers. I hated my local Skoda dealer. Loathed the incompetence and "we don't care" attitude. No, really despised. 2. It's quieter (and was engine-for-engine on a test drive - Octavia and Superb). 3. It's probably better mannered around corners (Sport suspension, though - let's face it, the Passat isn't renowned for its racing pedigree) 4.The dealers. I might have said. 5, Bi-xenon lights and LED DRLs/rear lights 6. It's better specced - yes, I bought stuff, but .... the leather seats are better (I always thought the vRS ones were deeply vulgar) .... the climatronic still has half degrees (and can be read properly on a RHD car) .... the maxidot equivalent is colour and has more eye candy .... the RNS510 has some improvements over my old Columbus (version differences, really) 7. Start/stop technology (which should be on the Octy III - maybe some other things here will be as well) 8. Did I mention the dealers? 9. Rear legroom 10. Audio quality (speakers, I guess) 11. MDI as standard (despite it being really clumsy for us non-fruit people) - a handy USB charger if nothing else! 12. Other options that Skoda doesn't (yet) have - heated front window, lane detection, road sign recognition, etc. (not all of which I have, but they were available, at least), Things that are outright worse: 1. The VW has unfinished trim... I have an electronic boot release lever, for example, but no electronic boot. really, guys... 2. The VW has some really naff buttons on the roof for the 'phone - call VW for help, call them for advertising. Shockingly useless and opportunistic. 3. The boot is - surprisingly - smaller. Volume isn't everything, and the width of this one is less even if the overall size if greater. I'm sure I'll grow into this one, but I'd have been far happier swapping it for an Octavia III (having had two Octy IIs, FL and non-FL), I think. Put in some sound proofing and you've a better car for less money. You can put the difference towards getting towed to a different dealer - not sure if I ever said how much I hated my local one...

It is a pretty universal complaint, though - that the dealers are sub-standard, and that it's letting the brand down. Sure, if you're picking up a second-hand car, don't care about warranty or trust a local independent to keep things stamped, you have options. But if you're in the brand-new or company-car category and choose to drive a Skoda then you're pretty much tied to the dealer network - and it's not good. Now, objectively, is it genuinely worse than the other brands, let alone the other VAG brands? That I'm not sure. I've wondered whether the price point for Skoda drives a certain behaviour (SUK recalls on ESP units and goodwill payments, for example, or reimbursement rates to dealers for warranty work, or even the amount of time/money dealers are prepared to spend). My worst experience has been at a joint Skoda-VW franchise, and I really can't imagine that there's anything much to choose between the bloke in the grey uniform and the one in green, with the same knowledge on tap and the same tools at their disposal. So it's not training or skill, and we all know it's not the engineering given the number of shared components. I'll find out when my Passat arrives and it inevitably goes to a different dealer for some fault or other. And maybe a new Skoda franchise will open up closer to home in time for an Octy 3 some time in 2015...

Just an update on this - I sent Skoda UK an email to point out/complain/say goodbye/whinge pointlessly. You know how it is, part "if you like it, tell your friends - if you don't, tell us!" and part "I just get the urge to send a random email". Anyway, they came back and I can summarise their note as "oh - ta-ta, then". Not even a hollow "thanks for sharing the opinions... Skoda values all feedback... we're working hard to increase the density and quality of our dealer network, although obviously we've let you down in this time and I'll make sure your comments are passed to the appropriate department" sort of thing. Just "goodbye, thanks for the loyalty". Took the wind right out of my sails, but they clearly weren't that bothered. I guess they're shifting enough units not to care... shame.

I don't suppose anyone has a service notice reference or similar for this "known problem/fix", do they? Mine's been to the dealer four times for the wind noise from the driver's door, never fixed - but also never any mention of doing anything beyond playing with alignment. If there is a known issue, I'd like to be able to bludgeon them with it. Thanks....