Brexit

[ruffrecords]

Ummm...

I'm sure the other 60 agreements won't be anything like that though eh.

Source : https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-japan-trade-deal-liz-truss-exports-b1619263.html

In other news, the penny seems to be dropping for the 'red wall' regions of the UK as the government fails to keep promises to match EU funding levels for deprived regions of the UK...

Source : https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/brexit-backing-sunderland-says-it-is-not-receiving-same-level-of-funding-outside-eu-222122/

Sorry, I forgot, the British government is totally incompetent. That's what is has only managed to inoculate 40% of the adult population against Covid.

edit: And in yesterday's budget it was announced 8 new 'freeports' in England including ones at Liverpool, East Midlands airport, The Humber and Teesside plus a new Treasury Campus in Darlington and a national infrastructure bank in Leeds.

Cheers

Ian

 

[rob_gould]

;D I'm not sure you're allowed to use the same deflection on two consecutive pages.

Government competence in relation to the vaccine roll out - well I'm sure you could argue both sides of just how much of a role they have played in that huge success, and a huge success it has certainly been.  I can imagine hearing that it wouldn't be their fault if it had been a failure haha.  But credit wherever it's due - the vaccine roll out has gone extraordinarily well so far in Britain!

However, my links were about Brexit, not Corona, and were not about Government's competence.  It was more an observation about whether expectations are being met, promises kept and integrity maintained.  The leave voting council in Sunderland seems to think not. 

I'm curious about the free ports.  It seems like there's a lot of potential for lost tax revenue, so again it feels like a strange thing to hold up as a post-Brexit 'victory' when one the reasons people voted to leave was to stop diverting money away from the UK government's coffers.  We'll have to wait and see what happens eh.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

one the reasons people voted to leave was to stop diverting money away from the UK government's coffers. 

The problem when getting rid of a nuisance is that the ones that were ignored suddenly come to prominence.

 

[Newmarket]

I'm curious about the free ports.  It seems like there's a lot of potential for lost tax revenue, so again it feels like a strange thing to hold up as a post-Brexit 'victory' when one the reasons people voted to leave was to stop diverting money away from the UK government's coffers.  We'll have to wait and see what happens eh.

Quite ! And I know that "ask ten economists a question and you'll get twelve different answers" but it's worth noting that the consensus amongst economists is, to put it mildly, sceptical about the idea of 'FreePorts' bringing a net economic benefit.

 

[Newmarket]

Easy, forcing our government to prosecute traders who still allow you to buy things like meat using imperial units like pounds and ounces. They and we are forced to use metric. Same with petrol. You cannot buy it by the gallon any more it has to be by the litre.

Sorry Ian - but this is nonsense - it is/was perfectly possible to sell/buy anything in whatever units the sellers choose - pints / gallons (imperial or US) / guineas / groats...
The point is/was that the price had to be stated in kg or litres or whatever the appropriate 'decimal' unit.
That makes total sense in a single market but in no way prohibits the use of other units alongside.

 

[jacomart]

Well, if all this has been done to keep measuring in inches... but I rather think some “smart” politician took advantage of some “misunderstanding” and bad information.

 

[ruffrecords]

Sorry Ian - but this is nonsense - it is/was perfectly possible to sell/buy anything in whatever units the sellers choose - pints / gallons (imperial or US) / guineas / groats...
The point is/was that the price had to be stated in kg or litres or whatever the appropriate 'decimal' unit.
That makes total sense in a single market but in no way prohibits the use of other units alongside.

You call this nonsense?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1120131.stm

Cheers

Ian

 

[jacomart]

You call this nonsense?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1120131.stm

Cheers

Ian

this thing comes from afar is not the fault of the EU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_Kingdom

 

[ruffrecords]

this thing comes from afar is not the fault of the EU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_Kingdom

#To quote from your own link:

"The treaty of accession to the European Economic Community (EEC), which the United Kingdom joined in 1973, obliged the United Kingdom to incorporate into domestic law all EEC directives, including the use of a prescribed SI-based set of units for many purposes within five years. By 1980 most pre-packaged goods were sold using the prescribed units. Mandatory use of prescribed units for retail sales took effect in 1995 for packaged goods and in 2000 for goods sold loose by weight. The use of "supplementary indications" or alternative units (generally the traditional imperial units formerly used) was originally to have been permitted for only a limited period. That period being extended a number of times due to public resistance, until in 2009 the requirement to ultimately cease use of traditional units alongside metric units was finally removed."

So metrication of everyday life was EU driven.

heers

Ian

 

[Script]

Well, if all this has been done to keep measuring in inches.

LOL. Yes, I'm pretty sure that something like the above will also feature together with other explanations in future history books.

 

[crazydoc]

Yes - measuring in inches -appropriate ad below the post.  ;D

 

[jacomart]

Ian, I love the English people, really! But I wanted to point out that since 1818 no one wanted to take a step towards a much simpler and more efficient system. I wonder what would have happened if they asked the British to consider the possibility of moving to the “right” side of the roads.  8)

 

[ruffrecords]

Ian, I love the English people, really! But I wanted to point out that since 1818 no one wanted to take a step towards a much simpler and more efficient system. I wonder what would have happened if they asked the British to consider the possibility of moving to the “right” side of the roads.  8)

LOL, that will NEVER happen. We already drive on the right side. It is steeped in history from the days when travellers met and offered their right hand to show they did not carry a weapon which then developed into the hand hske.. Since most people are right handed, people tended to walk on the left side of the road. If most people were left handed then it would probably be the opposite.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Script]

Yes - measuring in inches -appropriate ad below the post.  ;D

Yepp, hehe, while metric is instant enlargement ;D

 

[Banzai]

You call this nonsense?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1120131.stm

Cheers

Ian

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/south_yorkshire/7546315.stm

 

[Script]

Just anecdotal updates: My wife ordered clothes from Britain again. Situation seems to have normalized, which is good. Only four days for delivery from Yorkshire to Tokyo -- fast and pre-pandemic norm ! Clothes are originally made in Turkey, hmm... And wife's birthday is coming up. Ian, thanks again for the whisky hint 

 

[JohnRoberts]

Quite ! And I know that "ask ten economists a question and you'll get twelve different answers" but it's worth noting that the consensus amongst economists is, to put it mildly, sceptical about the idea of 'FreePorts' bringing a net economic benefit.

I heard a new economist joke...

Its a good thing they only have two hands or we'd get even more on the other hands.

JR

 

[Newmarket]

You call this nonsense?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1120131.stm

Cheers

Ian

err...yes.

"Mr Shrimpton told Judge John Morgan, that Euro legislation allowed weights to be displayed in both metric and imperial, but the day would come when imperial would be outlawed."

- it was just his lawyer - and some years past - making a claim about something that might (but didn't) happen in the future.
And since it seems any move to compulsion (to drop alternative units alongside metric) was dropped in 2009 it seems bizarre to give that as a justification for voting to leave in 2016.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

The debate over units is moot, since all serious engineering done in imperial units is actually decimalized.
No CNC machine can accept coordinates in yards/feet/inchs/fractions; it's all xx.yyyy
Conversion between metric and imperail is no more complicated than knowing how much is a dollar in local currency. This is an engineering group. We're supposed to be clever enough to master it.

 

[JohnRoberts]

The debate over units is moot, since all serious engineering done in imperial units is actually decimalized.
No CNC machine can accept coordinates in yards/feet/inchs/fractions; it's all xx.yyyy
Conversion between metric and imperail is no more complicated than knowing how much is a dollar in local currency. This is an engineering group. We're supposed to be clever enough to master it.

it's been decades since I drank draught bier in Germany, but I seem to recall some specifications about how much head (foam) was on every serving. To avoid ever having to discard bier they engineered some extra turbulence into the taps, inadvertently making it all but impossible to fill a glass with one pull. As a consequence we would see half filled glasses sitting behind the bar waiting for the too frothy head to subside, so they could finish filling. When the bar got busy they would fill pitchers to reduce pour times.

 
JR

PS: This may have been a quirk of one small hotel bar outside Frankfurt.