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....

Three quid for an original? Theft, I got one from Skoda last year for about 79p. I'll dig out the part number if you want me to, I still have the packaging since I bought two (intending to fit one to the passenger side as well, and never doing so). If you do change your, check whether you have airbags in the front pillars - if you do, the trim removal is different (there's a torx headed screw under the AIRBAG badge which needs to be undone versus simply crowbarring the trim off). Easy job though.

All I can add is (1) I had a dealer-fit non-Skoda towbar on my last Octavia - played havoc with the rear sensors, but only with the towball cover on! (2) watch for any body/corrosion warranty, having someone welding/drilling around your chassis may not look good (recommended to me by a lease company last week - they'd decline any claims for non-dealer modifications) (3) warranty - if anything does go wrong, you may be stuck with the supplying dealer/fitter versus being able to take it to any franchised garage My local VW garage is quoting around £600-£700 for one at the moment (VAG or third party), which is comparable to the VW factory-fit. I can't remember about Skoda. Of course, all dependent on age etc. of your car.

Yeah, but the Greenline is hardly comparable to a 170bhp 2.0 Passat... same technology, except VW fit it across the range and not just to a single derivative. I read somewhere that the Octavia 3 will get it across more vehicles. This could have been pure speculation, but the need to lower the average CO2 of a manufacturer's range may well drive such things (as well as the loss of spare wheels, or making anything more than the driver's seat an optional extra...)

Still driving the Skoda, but looking at a Passat estate. Larger than I wanted, and a good bit dearer when optioned up than the Octavia or equivalent Superb (less so when you take CO2/fuel into account - VW's stop-start system really helps in traffic), but I can't find something that's the same "package" as the Octavia and I don't want anything smaller. I still have faith in VAG vehicles, it's those pesky dealers who are the problem! Shame, I've enjoyed the "counter-snobbery" of the Skoda bagde. Feels like selling out to go as mainstream as VW :-) Yeah, I know that. I don't know if Skoda is overly-reliant on diags, or whether they're just running on such a tight budget (dealer or SUK warranty payments) that they can't afford speculative/diagnostic swap-outs. But it's the punter who bears the brunt of this with repeat visits. My experience of VW a couple of years back was far more "we'll just fix it, sir". One of the real advantages of VW to me is that I can walk to the dealer if need be, rather than be stuck if they need to keep it in (or have to cope with motorway speeds in a courtesy Fabia!*). And if they fail, I have two other dealers within 25 minutes or so. The same goes for Ford, Vauxhall and the other "workaday" brands... Skoda has a dealer network more like Land Rover or Audi in their density, unfortunately. --- * and that presumes you can get a courtesy car - one of my other "local" dealers refused to provide one despite me being 30 miles from home. They apparently only did courtesy cars for private motorists, and not for company car drivers... oddly, I didn't rush to go there again ...

After seven years and three Skodas (five if you count my parents' two in the same period), and after being an über-evangelist for the brand to all the short-sighted, badge-snob pillocks, it's time to say goodbye. Don't get me wrong - while this hasn't been a great car, it's not been terrible... I've clocked up 15k a year and it's only let me down a couple of times. I accept that to a certain extent: many modern cars have issues, they're complicated beasts. What's ultimately put me off is the dealer support - I'm just sick to the back teeth of taking my car in for an issue (major or minor) and then either being told "no fault found" or else the fault getting fixed and then reappearing a couple of weeks later. I'm left simply not trusting the car as it reaches the end of its warranty. I don't trust that the faults won't re-occur, and I don't trust that they'd get fixed even if they do (... leaving aside the "but who'd pay?" question). Damn shame. I've looked for an equivalent car and can't find anything that gives the same combination of specification, quality and price of the Octavia, so it's with genuinely mixed feelings that I walk away from this one. Open more dealers, please, Skoda. Close the bad ones. And encourage them all to fix faults and not just match fault codes to "how to" manuals before giving up. Decent access to knowledge and a willingness to fit parts (or even order them) "because that's probably the issue" would help tremendously. You're letting down an otherwise fine product in my experience. I'll probably drift away from briskoda at the same time... thanks for the help/chatter/knowledge over the past years, and all the best to you all. All I can say is that I'm not deleting my account *just* yet... who knows, maybe the Octavia 3 will lure me back, assuming I can stomach an hour's drive each way to a different dealership! Cheers, everyone.

Can you retrofit an apostrophe into "London's", please, it'd annoy the hell out of people like me to be stuck in traffic behind that...

Those look suspiciously like Nederlands plates in the photo, so I guess if the OP is in Noord-Holland then the wind and cold could be pouring off the sea. Then again, maybe you're in Freeze-land?

Seems a common gripe... I've struggled with nearly every dealer I've been to, so much so that I'm probably moving away from Skoda now despite being in the market for a new vehicle. They're great cars, superb value for money - but, if something breaks, the dealers just can't fix it. I took mine in five times for an engine fault which may have been multiple things but nothing conclusive ever showed up on the damned diagnostics so they didn't know what to do; it's now been in three times, 8 days in total, over two months to solve a satnav problem... each time, there's some excuse for not doing what they planned to do... and after all that, they've concluded that it's probably a dodgy aerial which now needs to be ordered in (so no car over the weekend). Hardly impressive, given that this what the first suggestion was back in December, and it would have been an obvious part to change if there were no other ideas. Oh, and the diagnostics plug mysteriously broke itself somewhere in the process as well. My guess is that the dealers are run on a shoestring because of the prices of the cars and the whole "budget" ethos. That means that they don't have the staff, nor does any part of the supply chain routinely carry the parts. They bring a car in first thing, but don't get round to looking at it until later - by which stage they're already running out of time if it's more than routine. They also swap parts as an absolute last resort - so no diagnostic swapout here, they can't afford it. Maybe higher-cost cars fund higher service levels... or maybe I'm just being too sympathetic...

Re: Regensburg, yes, it's a known issue on A hardware with the wrong firmware. That might be my problem - except it's worked fine for over two years, right up until just before Xmas when the dealer was tinkering. As I said, suspicious... Anyway, I'd just like to say that my fault was fixed today with a head unit swapout. I'd *like* to say that, but I can't - the dealer apparently couldn't connect to the diags on my car "because your system is broken" and "bits needs to be replaced". Sounds like they broke the pins on the diags plug or something like that, since it took them all day to establish that they could do nothing whatsoever. These damned diagnostics, they seem to live or die by them - if a fault isn't showing, it can't be fixed, and if you can't log in, you can do nothing to the car (not even fix the wind noise on the driver's door, apparently ;-) ). Back in two weeks for another go. Apparently RNS510/Columbus units are on back order anyway because of the number of them that are being replaced, so they're looking to swap units out of demonstrators in the worst case...

Same symptoms here - 2-year-old unit, started playing up before Xmas, being replaced under warranty tomorrow. Antenna is sound, the unit can see the satellites but not lock onto them. Soft reset doesn't help, nor does an overnight powerdown. It normally starts the next day where it thought it was the day before, which is several hundred miles from where I really am... as you drive, it knows you're moving, but has no idea where it is, so it happily plots a course over fields, lakes, whatever. Once it booted up to Regensburg, which had me raising an eyebrow - but only the once. And then, once in a while, it'll suddenly get a lock... and then lose it a day or so later. My suspicion is that the dealer upgraded some car software (CAN?) before Xmas as part of some other work, and it's now showing this problem. I can't think of much else, software doesn't normally just fail after a couple of years...