Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
Dura_Ace is, I believe, of the opinion that we should just give Putin what he wants in eastern Europe (I hope I am not misrepresenting him). This, whilst also housing some Ukrainian migrants. The former is an interesting position, although one I don't agree with as it is both immoral and desperately short-sighted.
You've got dear old Vlad and those very, very close to him saying in terms that NATO arming Ukraine will lead in short order to tactical and then strategic nukes, and you've got NATO arming Ukraine. What is farsighted about that arrangement? Are we relying on a Dear old Vlad, bark worse than bite, just having his fun, sort of argument? because I'm not. I think it's about even money he celbrates 9 May with the first live-fire nuke detonation since 1945, and that worries me quite a lot.
It worries a lot of us, but doesn’t mean we should be appeasing him or allowing him to claim anything that looks like a victory. He’s one of the most evil leaders we have seen since 1945, and the rest of the world needs to put him firmly back in his box.
In principle that is obviously right, but metaphors aren't necessarily helpful. "Putting him back in his box" entails doing stuff which might in turn entail him nuking London. As you say He’s one of the most evil leaders we have seen since 1945, but he is also one of the best armed, and he occupies a position from which the holodomor was launched. Again,
message as per url. Sounds hysterical, but it is alarmingly well sourced.
Except he's not one of the best armed, that's a myth that is rapidly being dispelled by the bravery of the Ukrainians.
Your unilateral disarmament give Putin what he wants pandering won't stop him from seeking more and more. What's to stop him demanding the whole of Eastern Europe with revanchism seeking all the territory the USSR lost since 1989?
What's to make him stop there?
Either we say no and stand up to Putin, or we just pander to him and hand him the world. Yes standing up to bullies might entail risk but its a risk we need to take.
Besides even in the Cold War, the USSR and the USA were willing to back proxies fighting the other side. The USSR supporting the Vietcong against the USA, the USA supported the Afghanis against the USSR. So us backing the Ukrainians is not some sort of new concept, its the same way the Cold War was fought since the end of WWII.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
Dura_Ace is, I believe, of the opinion that we should just give Putin what he wants in eastern Europe (I hope I am not misrepresenting him). This, whilst also housing some Ukrainian migrants. The former is an interesting position, although one I don't agree with as it is both immoral and desperately short-sighted.
You've got dear old Vlad and those very, very close to him saying in terms that NATO arming Ukraine will lead in short order to tactical and then strategic nukes, and you've got NATO arming Ukraine. What is farsighted about that arrangement? Are we relying on a Dear old Vlad, bark worse than bite, just having his fun, sort of argument? because I'm not. I think it's about even money he celebrates 9 May with the first live-fire nuke detonation since 1945, and that worries me quite a lot.
It worries a lot of us, but doesn’t mean we should be appeasing him or allowing him to claim anything that looks like a victory. He’s one of the most evil leaders we have seen since 1945, and the rest of the world needs to put him firmly back in his box.
Pretty much everyone agrees Russia had no legitimate reason for invading Ukraine. To then say we have to let them win Ukraine because they will be The World's Worst Losers means that in fact, they could not lose. We would be consigning the Ukrainian population to God knows what depravities in the process.
That would set a horrific precedent for the 21st century.
Compounded, of course, by the behaviour of their military during the invasion.
The only way Ukraine surrenders is if we, not Putin, force them to do so, by cutting off aid. And even then they might fight on.
I do not see how the west can possibly force the surrender of a democracy to an invader who is credibly accused of having started a genocide.
I was given a pretty rough ride on here a few months back for telling you that misogynism was rife in the Parliamentary Conservative Party. It was partly my fault for telling you I had a source and because at the time some of you thought I was a troll.
What is heartening, and I mean this genuinely, is that a significant number of Conservatives have come out strongly in condemnation, including the PM. It gives me hope. There is still decency to be found in the Conservative Party, just as there was still decency to be found inside Corbyn's toxic Labour Party.
I think it's this same decency which will help rebuild the Conservative brand. Labour have almost achieved this in two years, so it is possible.
Is it possible that the story was made up by someone? As it happens it has taken off, but that is not entirely predictable, and someone somewhere may have wanted to fill some space in a way which may have been instantly forgettable but wasn't.
Perhaps it was one of the 3 MPs who were about to defect to the Conservatives, that we were told about with such confidence?
I am fairly convinced that about 50% of "anonymous sourced" stories in politics are made up. If nothing else, when they are proven false, why don't the journalists do the old fashioned thing and expose the liars (it's how they used to keep anonymous sources honest)?
Don't think so, our PM is evidence that journalists making up stories are liable to the sack, even if the message from his overall career arc is a bit mixed
I am fascinated by the GQ story that he reviewed cars without actually driving them, time and time again. Presented as a Good Old Boris what a card story but I think it ought to be damaging.
Didn’t the GQ editor essentially admit complicity with Boris’s deception on the undriven cars? He published the reviews knowing full well that Boris had at most just sat in them. I know he’s not our PM, but - on it’s own - it makes him look worse than Boris.
Depends whether you are GQ as “news” or “entertainment”
If I were buying a car, I might use GQ reviews to decide which cars I would read reviews of in proper motoring magazines, but not to make an actual purchasing decision.
I don't know why Boris just doesn't accept the inevitable, and position some normal politicians who could be voted on for PM into the cabinet. Get rid of Raab Dorries and Rees Mogg et al and have some boring competency. No matter how long the above are ministers they will never win an election and that should be the priority. The famous back room Tory party structure could tell Boris this, set out the timelines and give the opportunity to move on of his own volition. Of course I am not ruling out Boris winning a further election particularly as a minority administration, but removing any rivals with potential, and surrounding yourself with loyalists seems a Gordon Brown type of thing to do.
Right now, under the tories, ordinary people are getting poorer, because of a combination of rampant inflation and tax increases. And maybe not just at the margins.
In democracies, what happens to governments that do this to their electorates? regardless of personnel?
It seems to me that mainstream centrist non narcissist Tories would not want to start being in government at the moment.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
Dura_Ace is, I believe, of the opinion that we should just give Putin what he wants in eastern Europe (I hope I am not misrepresenting him). This, whilst also housing some Ukrainian migrants. The former is an interesting position, although one I don't agree with as it is both immoral and desperately short-sighted.
You've got dear old Vlad and those very, very close to him saying in terms that NATO arming Ukraine will lead in short order to tactical and then strategic nukes, and you've got NATO arming Ukraine. What is farsighted about that arrangement? Are we relying on a Dear old Vlad, bark worse than bite, just having his fun, sort of argument? because I'm not. I think it's about even money he celebrates 9 May with the first live-fire nuke detonation since 1945, and that worries me quite a lot.
It worries a lot of us, but doesn’t mean we should be appeasing him or allowing him to claim anything that looks like a victory. He’s one of the most evil leaders we have seen since 1945, and the rest of the world needs to put him firmly back in his box.
Pretty much everyone agrees Russia had no legitimate reason for invading Ukraine. To then say we have to let them win Ukraine because they will be The World's Worst Losers means that in fact, they could not lose. We would be consigning the Ukrainian population to God knows what depravities in the process.
That would set a horrific precedent for the 21st century.
So would a 1Mt airburst over Devonport.
I don't think anyone is saying "let them win," I certainly wouldn't be happy doing any less than we are doing, but it is not a no-risk thing to do. It's like continuing to smoke cigarettes out of packets with health warnings on them, and it is silly to think that standing up to nuked-up bullies is always a winning strategy any more than standing up to lung cancer is.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
Dura_Ace is, I believe, of the opinion that we should just give Putin what he wants in eastern Europe (I hope I am not misrepresenting him). This, whilst also housing some Ukrainian migrants. The former is an interesting position, although one I don't agree with as it is both immoral and desperately short-sighted.
You've got dear old Vlad and those very, very close to him saying in terms that NATO arming Ukraine will lead in short order to tactical and then strategic nukes, and you've got NATO arming Ukraine. What is farsighted about that arrangement? Are we relying on a Dear old Vlad, bark worse than bite, just having his fun, sort of argument? because I'm not. I think it's about even money he celebrates 9 May with the first live-fire nuke detonation since 1945, and that worries me quite a lot.
It worries a lot of us, but doesn’t mean we should be appeasing him or allowing him to claim anything that looks like a victory. He’s one of the most evil leaders we have seen since 1945, and the rest of the world needs to put him firmly back in his box.
Pretty much everyone agrees Russia had no legitimate reason for invading Ukraine. To then say we have to let them win Ukraine because they will be The World's Worst Losers means that in fact, they could not lose. We would be consigning the Ukrainian population to God knows what depravities in the process.
That would set a horrific precedent for the 21st century.
And as I have also pointed out, to much opprobrium, that precedent was set in 2003 in Iraq.
No it wasn't, we had good reason for invading Iraq in 2003.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
Dura_Ace is, I believe, of the opinion that we should just give Putin what he wants in eastern Europe (I hope I am not misrepresenting him). This, whilst also housing some Ukrainian migrants. The former is an interesting position, although one I don't agree with as it is both immoral and desperately short-sighted.
You've got dear old Vlad and those very, very close to him saying in terms that NATO arming Ukraine will lead in short order to tactical and then strategic nukes, and you've got NATO arming Ukraine. What is farsighted about that arrangement? Are we relying on a Dear old Vlad, bark worse than bite, just having his fun, sort of argument? because I'm not. I think it's about even money he celbrates 9 May with the first live-fire nuke detonation since 1945, and that worries me quite a lot.
It worries a lot of us, but doesn’t mean we should be appeasing him or allowing him to claim anything that looks like a victory. He’s one of the most evil leaders we have seen since 1945, and the rest of the world needs to put him firmly back in his box.
In principle that is obviously right, but metaphors aren't necessarily helpful. "Putting him back in his box" entails doing stuff which might in turn entail him nuking London. As you say He’s one of the most evil leaders we have seen since 1945, but he is also one of the best armed, and he occupies a position from which the holodomor was launched. Again,
That is per warhead. This mf carries 15 of the things, and even if the true figure is let's say 2,500 square miles for the whole lot, Greater London is about 600 sq m.
Nice deadpan
"This is a superweapon that can calm any aggressor or a group of aggressors wherever they are," said Mr Rogozin. Like Terminator "You know your weapons buddy, these are all good for home defence."
15 warheads is not especially impressive. Trident can carry 14 - though since the various treaties it has been generally downloaded.
Interestingly, in American design discussions, there has been little military interest in warhead counts over 10. This is because they prefer to have more missiles for reliability issues - spread the eggs across baskets. The 14 for Trident involves no space/weight for decoys, IIRC, as well.
On topic, I still think Johnson will survive to GE24 but I'm less certain than I was. I've therefore laid back my Starmer Next PM position so I'm green him (but not as green) and flat others. I don't want the good vibrations created by him being ousted to be even slightly dampened by a betting loss. Esp one on a position I've trumpeted so much and which I could take profits on.
What's clear, though, is he will stoop to anything to stay in the job. Such a bummer because he brings absolutely nothing of value to it. He's come out with a lot of stuff in recent times that makes me puke but one that requires a particularly large bucket is this one -
"I apologize most profusely, again, and it makes me all the more determined to get on and deliver on the priorities of the British people."
As if a priority of the British people is for the PM to be Boris Johnson. Utter piffle. Just about the only British people who think the PM has to be Boris Johnson are Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg and Nadine Dorries. And maybe Carrie.
PS: Where is Michael Gove? Haven't seen or heard him for ages. Is he grinding away on Levelling Up? Must be grinding away on something.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
Dura_Ace is, I believe, of the opinion that we should just give Putin what he wants in eastern Europe (I hope I am not misrepresenting him). This, whilst also housing some Ukrainian migrants. The former is an interesting position, although one I don't agree with as it is both immoral and desperately short-sighted.
You've got dear old Vlad and those very, very close to him saying in terms that NATO arming Ukraine will lead in short order to tactical and then strategic nukes, and you've got NATO arming Ukraine. What is farsighted about that arrangement? Are we relying on a Dear old Vlad, bark worse than bite, just having his fun, sort of argument? because I'm not. I think it's about even money he celebrates 9 May with the first live-fire nuke detonation since 1945, and that worries me quite a lot.
It worries a lot of us, but doesn’t mean we should be appeasing him or allowing him to claim anything that looks like a victory. He’s one of the most evil leaders we have seen since 1945, and the rest of the world needs to put him firmly back in his box.
Pretty much everyone agrees Russia had no legitimate reason for invading Ukraine. To then say we have to let them win Ukraine because they will be The World's Worst Losers means that in fact, they could not lose. We would be consigning the Ukrainian population to God knows what depravities in the process.
That would set a horrific precedent for the 21st century.
So would a 1Mt airburst over Devonport.
I don't think anyone is saying "let them win," I certainly wouldn't be happy doing any less than we are doing, but it is not a no-risk thing to do. It's like continuing to smoke cigarettes out of packets with health warnings on them, and it is silly to think that standing up to nuked-up bullies is always a winning strategy any more than standing up to lung cancer is.
That would set a horrific precedent for the 21st century.
That's the entirety of human history. The people with the weapons and the resolve to use them get what they want. Romans, Mongols, British, Americans, Birmingham City fans, etc.
The Mongols wouldn't have got very far if those to the west had thermal imaging kit and heat-seeking missiles.
The Russians still have a capability for long-range demolition. Scorched earth. Not much else. And even that is being shown up, at any level below thermo-nuclear. Because we have the weapons coupled with resolve to use them - to stop the Russians getting what they want. (When I say we, that's apart from Germany, obvs.)
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
Dura_Ace is, I believe, of the opinion that we should just give Putin what he wants in eastern Europe (I hope I am not misrepresenting him). This, whilst also housing some Ukrainian migrants. The former is an interesting position, although one I don't agree with as it is both immoral and desperately short-sighted.
You've got dear old Vlad and those very, very close to him saying in terms that NATO arming Ukraine will lead in short order to tactical and then strategic nukes, and you've got NATO arming Ukraine. What is farsighted about that arrangement? Are we relying on a Dear old Vlad, bark worse than bite, just having his fun, sort of argument? because I'm not. I think it's about even money he celebrates 9 May with the first live-fire nuke detonation since 1945, and that worries me quite a lot.
It worries a lot of us, but doesn’t mean we should be appeasing him or allowing him to claim anything that looks like a victory. He’s one of the most evil leaders we have seen since 1945, and the rest of the world needs to put him firmly back in his box.
Pretty much everyone agrees Russia had no legitimate reason for invading Ukraine. To then say we have to let them win Ukraine because they will be The World's Worst Losers means that in fact, they could not lose. We would be consigning the Ukrainian population to God knows what depravities in the process.
That would set a horrific precedent for the 21st century.
And as I have also pointed out, to much opprobrium, that precedent was set in 2003 in Iraq.
No it wasn't, we had good reason for invading Iraq in 2003.
Of course you think we did. But not everyone did.
This guy, for instance - a "baddie" no doubt and "one of them" but he makes his point.
I don't know why Boris just doesn't accept the inevitable, and position some normal politicians who could be voted on for PM into the cabinet. Get rid of Raab Dorries and Rees Mogg et al and have some boring competency. No matter how long the above are ministers they will never win an election and that should be the priority. The famous back room Tory party structure could tell Boris this, set out the timelines and give the opportunity to move on of his own volition. Of course I am not ruling out Boris winning a further election particularly as a minority administration, but removing any rivals with potential, and surrounding yourself with loyalists seems a Gordon Brown type of thing to do.
Except that Gordon Brown did not do that and Boris already has done.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost... (snip)"
The Ukrainians lost (I think) 440-odd tanks in four years of fighting in the Donbass. Russia have exceeded that in less than two months. And it's not just tanks, but other kit as well. The loss of the Moskva, old as it was, will have hurt their capabilities and pride.
If you don't think that the Russians have lost vast amounts of treasure - in terms of kit, money and lives - then I'd like to know what would convince you.
A stirring rendition of an old partisan song, by a group of female singers in Bologna's main square, at the spot where a group of partisans were shot during the war, was a fitting tribute on Italy's Liberation Day.
I remember a quite low key, but effective memorial there.... ah
When I have finished my lunch, I will go back and look for it; during the ceremony the square was packed. But that looks near identical to the one I saw in Modena just yesterday
FPT, thanks @CorrectHorseBattery for your comment re the bullying. TBH (1) it was confined to @Anabobazina (with a little help from a 'fact checker') and (2) I was laughing this morning at how many posts they spewed out late on a Sunday night. The reverse ferret on denying they had been mocking on Virginia and then, when presented with the post, turning round and saying they were right all along was also funny (I say 'they' because I have no idea whether it's a man or woman).
Still, my view of such people is that it is best to hope that they get the help they so obviously need with what seems like multiple issues.
You are wrong. Look at the post you cited again. Learn to read.
I was right – Biden won it by 10pts despite your tipping it heavily as "in play" for Trump. You have been making up stuff about me now for two days. You are either a liar or delusional: which is it?
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
Dura_Ace is, I believe, of the opinion that we should just give Putin what he wants in eastern Europe (I hope I am not misrepresenting him). This, whilst also housing some Ukrainian migrants. The former is an interesting position, although one I don't agree with as it is both immoral and desperately short-sighted.
You've got dear old Vlad and those very, very close to him saying in terms that NATO arming Ukraine will lead in short order to tactical and then strategic nukes, and you've got NATO arming Ukraine. What is farsighted about that arrangement? Are we relying on a Dear old Vlad, bark worse than bite, just having his fun, sort of argument? because I'm not. I think it's about even money he celbrates 9 May with the first live-fire nuke detonation since 1945, and that worries me quite a lot.
It worries a lot of us, but doesn’t mean we should be appeasing him or allowing him to claim anything that looks like a victory. He’s one of the most evil leaders we have seen since 1945, and the rest of the world needs to put him firmly back in his box.
In principle that is obviously right, but metaphors aren't necessarily helpful. "Putting him back in his box" entails doing stuff which might in turn entail him nuking London. As you say He’s one of the most evil leaders we have seen since 1945, but he is also one of the best armed, and he occupies a position from which the holodomor was launched. Again,
message as per url. Sounds hysterical, but it is alarmingly well sourced.
Except he's not one of the best armed, that's a myth that is rapidly being dispelled by the bravery of the Ukrainians.
Your unilateral disarmament give Putin what he wants pandering won't stop him from seeking more and more. What's to stop him demanding the whole of Eastern Europe with revanchism seeking all the territory the USSR lost since 1989?
What's to make him stop there?
Either we say no and stand up to Putin, or we just pander to him and hand him the world. Yes standing up to bullies might entail risk but its a risk we need to take.
Besides even in the Cold War, the USSR and the USA were willing to back proxies fighting the other side. The USSR supporting the Vietcong against the USA, the USA supported the Afghanis against the USSR. So us backing the Ukrainians is not some sort of new concept, its the same way the Cold War was fought since the end of WWII.
I am not advocating disarmament or pandering, I am simply exhibiting the possible consequences of some courses of action.
And I repeat, we have already sold the pass on appeasement. Leaving aside any moral obligation, we have an absolute duty under treaty to prevent the genocide which is taking place in Ukraine. We are not doing so. Shouldn't you be indignantly writing to your MP to ask why not?
ETA and he hasn't nuked Ukraine yet. Let's reserve judgment on the effectiveness of his nuclear weaponry, bearing in mind it would still be a terrifying threat if only 2% of it worked.
That would set a horrific precedent for the 21st century.
That's the entirety of human history. The people with the weapons and the resolve to use them get what they want. Romans, Mongols, British, Americans, Birmingham City fans, etc.
The Mongols wouldn't have got very far if those to the west had thermal imaging kit and heat-seeking missiles.
The Russians still have a capability for long-range demolition. Scorched earth. Not much else. And even that is being shown up, at any level below thermo-nuclear. Because we have the weapons coupled with resolve to use them - to stop the Russians getting what they want. (When I say we, that's apart from Germany, obvs.)
The critical factor is whether Putin cares about any of this. We really are at an extraordinary moment in history. He might not care and believe, as I think he may have said, that without Russia in its rightful position, there is no point in maintaining the globe as it is currently constituted. And then Kablooey.
I have seen plenty of articles saying we must stop Putin otherwise where will he stop; and I have seen many saying it ain't werf it.
Logically, if we are not prepared to risk nuclear war (and MAD) then Putin could take over all of Europe. So the question becomes are we prepared to do that.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"Putin has learned from the West that might is right" - Farcical Western narcissism and self-hatred. 🤣
Russia has plenty of its own "might is right" history without needing the West for any lessons on that, and if he had looked at the West's history he might have realised that might is not right and that "might" can be defeated.
You are speaking here with the self-certainty of HYUFD. Might didn't win Afghanistan for the USA, nor Vietnam for them either. Might is not winning Ukraine for Russia.
Putin may be putting us in danger of nuclear war but that is not a reason to pander to Putin and let him seize the world while we watch slackjawed from the sidelines. Life isn't without risk and just as we needed to take risks getting out of lockdown rather than waiting until life was riskfree before meeting each other face to face, similarly we can't wait until the risk of nuclear war is eliminated before we send support to Ukraine.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost... (snip)"
The Ukrainians lost (I think) 440-odd tanks in four years of fighting in the Donbass. Russia have exceeded that in less than two months. And it's not just tanks, but other kit as well. The loss of the Moskva, old as it was, will have hurt their capabilities and pride.
If you don't think that the Russians have lost vast amounts of treasure - in terms of kit, money and lives - then I'd like to know what would convince you.
I'm sure they have lost plenty. But do you know how that leaves their capabilities.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
Dura_Ace is, I believe, of the opinion that we should just give Putin what he wants in eastern Europe (I hope I am not misrepresenting him). This, whilst also housing some Ukrainian migrants. The former is an interesting position, although one I don't agree with as it is both immoral and desperately short-sighted.
You've got dear old Vlad and those very, very close to him saying in terms that NATO arming Ukraine will lead in short order to tactical and then strategic nukes, and you've got NATO arming Ukraine. What is farsighted about that arrangement? Are we relying on a Dear old Vlad, bark worse than bite, just having his fun, sort of argument? because I'm not. I think it's about even money he celbrates 9 May with the first live-fire nuke detonation since 1945, and that worries me quite a lot.
It worries a lot of us, but doesn’t mean we should be appeasing him or allowing him to claim anything that looks like a victory. He’s one of the most evil leaders we have seen since 1945, and the rest of the world needs to put him firmly back in his box.
In principle that is obviously right, but metaphors aren't necessarily helpful. "Putting him back in his box" entails doing stuff which might in turn entail him nuking London. As you say He’s one of the most evil leaders we have seen since 1945, but he is also one of the best armed, and he occupies a position from which the holodomor was launched. Again,
message as per url. Sounds hysterical, but it is alarmingly well sourced.
Except he's not one of the best armed, that's a myth that is rapidly being dispelled by the bravery of the Ukrainians.
Your unilateral disarmament give Putin what he wants pandering won't stop him from seeking more and more. What's to stop him demanding the whole of Eastern Europe with revanchism seeking all the territory the USSR lost since 1989?
What's to make him stop there?
Either we say no and stand up to Putin, or we just pander to him and hand him the world. Yes standing up to bullies might entail risk but its a risk we need to take.
Besides even in the Cold War, the USSR and the USA were willing to back proxies fighting the other side. The USSR supporting the Vietcong against the USA, the USA supported the Afghanis against the USSR. So us backing the Ukrainians is not some sort of new concept, its the same way the Cold War was fought since the end of WWII.
I am not advocating disarmament or pandering, I am simply exhibiting the possible consequences of some courses of action.
And I repeat, we have already sold the pass on appeasement. Leaving aside any moral obligation, we have an absolute duty under treaty to prevent the genocide which is taking place in Ukraine. We are not doing so. Shouldn't you be indignantly writing to your MP to ask why not?
ETA and he hasn't nuked Ukraine yet. Let's reserve judgment on the effectiveness of his nuclear weaponry, bearing in mind it would still be a terrifying threat if only 2% of it worked.
I would say we are doing so. In supplying arms to Ukraine we are trying to prevent the genocide which is taking place by pushing back the Russians, rather than standing idly by.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"Putin has learned from the West that might is right" - Farcical Western narcissism and self-hatred. 🤣
Russia has plenty of its own "might is right" history without needing the West for any lessons on that, and if he had looked at the West's history he might have realised that might is not right and that "might" can be defeated.
You are speaking here with the self-certainty of HYUFD. Might didn't win Afghanistan for the USA, nor Vietnam for them either. Might is not winning Ukraine for Russia.
Putin may be putting us in danger of nuclear war but that is not a reason to pander to Putin and let him seize the world while we watch slackjawed from the sidelines. Life isn't without risk and just as we needed to take risks getting out of lockdown rather than waiting until life was riskfree before meeting each other face to face, similarly we can't wait until the risk of nuclear war is eliminated before we send support to Ukraine.
And that would be your policy. To arm Ukraine and send troops. Which currently NATO is not doing for some absurd reason. Sounds like as has been mentioned above, you should write to your MP to petition for UK troops to be sent to Ukraine.
Or who was it who posted links to the various International Brigades that you yourself could go and join. Every little helps.
That would set a horrific precedent for the 21st century.
That's the entirety of human history. The people with the weapons and the resolve to use them get what they want. Romans, Mongols, British, Americans, Birmingham City fans, etc.
The Mongols wouldn't have got very far if those to the west had thermal imaging kit and heat-seeking missiles.
The Russians still have a capability for long-range demolition. Scorched earth. Not much else. And even that is being shown up, at any level below thermo-nuclear. Because we have the weapons coupled with resolve to use them - to stop the Russians getting what they want. (When I say we, that's apart from Germany, obvs.)
The critical factor is whether Putin cares about any of this. We really are at an extraordinary moment in history. He might not care and believe, as I think he may have said, that without Russia in its rightful position, there is no point in maintaining the globe as it is currently constituted. And then Kablooey.
I have seen plenty of articles saying we must stop Putin otherwise where will he stop; and I have seen many saying it ain't werf it.
Logically, if we are not prepared to risk nuclear war (and MAD) then Putin could take over all of Europe. So the question becomes are we prepared to do that.
But have you tried using the hospitality industry recently.? Now that so many Europeans have been replaced by English workers in cafes restaurants bars and hotels it's become across the board crap.
One thing even the biggest eurosceptics will have appreciated with free movement was that the hospitality industry improved dramatically. Well it's now taken a nosedive.
The majority of people working in hospitality in the UK were always UK born.
The myth that all the people working at Pret were from the Czech Republic etc. comes from people who live in rather central London, where foreigners do dominate the low skilled, low pay jobs.
The situation has not vastly changed in London, either, in terms of ratios of foreigners vs UK citizens in such jobs.
The problem in the hospitality trade is a shortage of workers, meaning that those who are there are generally over worked.
EDIT: There was an amusing piece on Radio 4 the other day. A chap running a gastro pub had lost all his staff in the lock down. They were all doing other jobs now. He described his workplace conditions - mainly his use of no-notice shifts. Literally ring people the day before to tell them they were/weren't working.....
Short of actually flogging his employees.... it was astonishing to me that they hadn't all left before.
I don't know the precise figures but in ALL major cities and large towns it's obvious to anyone who eats out and uses hotels a lot that many if not most of the staff were European. Even in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The only area I can think of where this doesn't SEEM to be the case is North Wales.
2017 - "Between 12.3% and 23.7% of the UK hospitality sector workforce is currently made up of EU nationals."
There is an effect, I've been told, where the staff up front are tailored to customers expectations - so in posh restaurants they make sure the sommelier has a foreign accent.
A reverse example - a local butcher runs a massive commercial trade. He has all the pubs and restaurants for miles around using him as a supplier. All the English cheeky chaps work in the front shop, doing the banter with the customers. The crew at the back are nearly all Polish.....
I'm happy for them getting an 11% rise but In the long run if they don't up their game to the standards that exist everywhere else in Europe-and existed in the UK pre Brexit in the cities and large towns- the whole industry will take a dive.
I used to work in hospitality and the was absolutely no difference pre and post brexit. Why would there be? We didn't kick out a load of people in 2016. If you mean after all the agreements went through then you have a slight point but as per the above 80% of people in hospitality were british. I used to go in pubs from Swansea over to the home counties and From the South and South West coast up to Staffordshire. It was fairly rare to see non British peop!e either running the business of back of house. Those that did particularly own the business tended to be in a relationship with a Brit.
Why it's happened I don't know. Probably it's just trickier for them to come as they now need a permit to work and the UK is generally less welcoming. But there's no doubt that there are now visibly less European workers in hospitality. That most pub and small towns and villages used mainly British staff and Cities and larger towns largely European staff seems to be born out by the report
According to that report, the highest estimate of EU nationals in the workforce in hospitality was 38% in Central London, using the higher KPMG numbers.
Personal perceptions and experience are often contrary to the wider facts.
"This varies significantly across businesses and service lines, with one respondent based in Greater London reporting that 100% of their employees are EU nationals, and a number reporting figures of around 80-90%."
38% is huge. In London I doubt the majority of non British staff are EU citizens anyway. All the various ethnic family restaurants to start with. But my point remains that your average Wagamama in your average town is now more than likely without EU staff and the British replacements are just not as good if they can find any. Try removing all EU footballers from the Premier league and see if it remains the best in the world!
That would set a horrific precedent for the 21st century.
That's the entirety of human history. The people with the weapons and the resolve to use them get what they want. Romans, Mongols, British, Americans, Birmingham City fans, etc.
The Mongols wouldn't have got very far if those to the west had thermal imaging kit and heat-seeking missiles.
The Russians still have a capability for long-range demolition. Scorched earth. Not much else. And even that is being shown up, at any level below thermo-nuclear. Because we have the weapons coupled with resolve to use them - to stop the Russians getting what they want. (When I say we, that's apart from Germany, obvs.)
The critical factor is whether Putin cares about any of this. We really are at an extraordinary moment in history. He might not care and believe, as I think he may have said, that without Russia in its rightful position, there is no point in maintaining the globe as it is currently constituted. And then Kablooey.
I have seen plenty of articles saying we must stop Putin otherwise where will he stop; and I have seen many saying it ain't werf it.
Logically, if we are not prepared to risk nuclear war (and MAD) then Putin could take over all of Europe. So the question becomes are we prepared to do that.
Risk is a continuum, not an either/or question.
That is true. But at some stage you have to pick your point on it.
On topic, I still think Johnson will survive to GE24 but I'm less certain than I was. I've therefore laid back my Starmer Next PM position so I'm green him (but not as green) and flat others. I don't want the good vibrations created by him being ousted to be even slightly dampened by a betting loss. Esp one on a position I've trumpeted so much and which I could take profits on.
What's clear, though, is he will stoop to anything to stay in the job. Such a bummer because he brings absolutely nothing of value to it. He's come out with a lot of stuff in recent times that makes me puke but one that requires a particularly large bucket is this one -
"I apologize most profusely, again, and it makes me all the more determined to get on and deliver on the priorities of the British people."
As if a priority of the British people is for the PM to be Boris Johnson. Utter piffle. Just about the only British people who think the PM has to be Boris Johnson are Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg and Nadine Dorries. And maybe Carrie.
PS: Where is Michael Gove? Haven't seen or heard him for ages. Is he grinding away on Levelling Up? Must be grinding away on something.
To my mind, Partygate and Ukraine are overplayed on here, and the cost of living crisis underplayed, and that is why I don't think Johnson can last much longer.
Is there a recent example, anywhere in the G7, of the centre/left beating the right by a margin greater than 17pts?
Canada. If it were a top two runoff like France.
In which year?
2021. A Trudeau O'Toole runoff would most likely have produced that or greater.
That's a weird hypothetical.
Is there a real example, anywhere in the G7, of the centre/left beating the right by more than 17pts within the last, let's say, two decades?
No, because that's not how the rest of the world's voting systems work.
In France 2022 Macron beat Le Pen by 4.7% in the first round, not 17%, so why would you compare the French second round with other countries that don't have 2 rounds of voting and expect to see single-round voting producing the same results as run-off second round voting does?
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
I'd stay with travelogue writing. You're very good at it. Or try copywriting for a decent ad agency.
Thanks Roger. I’ve never written for money before. Maybe I should try?
JUST IN: Twitter is working to hammer out terms of a transaction and could reach an agreement with Elon Musk as soon as today if negotiations go smoothly, according to a person with knowledge of the matter
Is there a recent example, anywhere in the G7, of the centre/left beating the right by a margin greater than 17pts?
Canada. If it were a top two runoff like France.
In which year?
2021. A Trudeau O'Toole runoff would most likely have produced that or greater.
That's a weird hypothetical.
Is there a real example, anywhere in the G7, of the centre/left beating the right by more than 17pts within the last, let's say, two decades?
But you have to have a hypothetical. Nowhere else in the G7 apart from the USA do you have a forced choice between two candidates. Therefore such a margin won't happen.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"Putin has learned from the West that might is right" - Farcical Western narcissism and self-hatred. 🤣
Russia has plenty of its own "might is right" history without needing the West for any lessons on that, and if he had looked at the West's history he might have realised that might is not right and that "might" can be defeated.
You are speaking here with the self-certainty of HYUFD. Might didn't win Afghanistan for the USA, nor Vietnam for them either. Might is not winning Ukraine for Russia.
Putin may be putting us in danger of nuclear war but that is not a reason to pander to Putin and let him seize the world while we watch slackjawed from the sidelines. Life isn't without risk and just as we needed to take risks getting out of lockdown rather than waiting until life was riskfree before meeting each other face to face, similarly we can't wait until the risk of nuclear war is eliminated before we send support to Ukraine.
And that would be your policy. To arm Ukraine and send troops. Which currently NATO is not doing for some absurd reason. Sounds like as has been mentioned above, you should write to your MP to petition for UK troops to be sent to Ukraine.
Or who was it who posted links to the various International Brigades that you yourself could go and join. Every little helps.
Where did I say send troops?
My policy would be to do exactly what the West is doing: To arm Ukraine.
Ukraine can fight on our behalf by proxy which is the same as the Cold War was fought for half a century before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
We have no reason to send troops to Ukraine as that would be a direct conflict which isn't required, but what we do have good reason to do is send munitions to Ukraine for them to use themselves which is fair game and is precisely like how the USA armed the Afghanis versus the USSR or how the USSR armed the Vietcong versus the USA.
FPT, thanks @CorrectHorseBattery for your comment re the bullying. TBH (1) it was confined to @Anabobazina (with a little help from a 'fact checker') and (2) I was laughing this morning at how many posts they spewed out late on a Sunday night. The reverse ferret on denying they had been mocking on Virginia and then, when presented with the post, turning round and saying they were right all along was also funny (I say 'they' because I have no idea whether it's a man or woman).
Still, my view of such people is that it is best to hope that they get the help they so obviously need with what seems like multiple issues.
You are wrong. Look at the post you cited again. Learn to read.
I was right – Biden won it by 10pts despite your tipping it heavily as "in play" for Trump. You have been making up stuff about me now for two days. You are either a liar or delusional: which is it?
You can’t have things both ways Anaknob. You denied originally yesterday you had written about my views on Virginia and now, when I highlighted you did, you are saying you were right all along.
Also, as anyone who reads that link I posted can see, you are also personally offensive when making posts and when it’s uncalled for. You come across as unpleasant and slightly unbalanced (you may not be in real life, I don’t really know).
In any event, you were the one making the original thrust and now, when someone replies, you are crying like a baby about things.
Anyway, back to Oryx to see how many tanks the Russians have lost today.
On topic, I still think Johnson will survive to GE24 but I'm less certain than I was. I've therefore laid back my Starmer Next PM position so I'm green him (but not as green) and flat others. I don't want the good vibrations created by him being ousted to be even slightly dampened by a betting loss. Esp one on a position I've trumpeted so much and which I could take profits on.
What's clear, though, is he will stoop to anything to stay in the job. Such a bummer because he brings absolutely nothing of value to it. He's come out with a lot of stuff in recent times that makes me puke but one that requires a particularly large bucket is this one -
"I apologize most profusely, again, and it makes me all the more determined to get on and deliver on the priorities of the British people."
As if a priority of the British people is for the PM to be Boris Johnson. Utter piffle. Just about the only British people who think the PM has to be Boris Johnson are Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg and Nadine Dorries. And maybe Carrie.
PS: Where is Michael Gove? Haven't seen or heard him for ages. Is he grinding away on Levelling Up? Must be grinding away on something.
To my mind, Partygate and Ukraine are overplayed on here, and the cost of living crisis underplayed, and that is why I don't think Johnson can last much longer.
Is there a recent example, anywhere in the G7, of the centre/left beating the right by a margin greater than 17pts?
Canada. If it were a top two runoff like France.
In which year?
2021. A Trudeau O'Toole runoff would most likely have produced that or greater.
That's a weird hypothetical.
Is there a real example, anywhere in the G7, of the centre/left beating the right by more than 17pts within the last, let's say, two decades?
But you have to have a hypothetical. Nowhere else in the G7 apart from the USA do you have a forced choice between two candidates. Therefore such a margin won't happen.
Is Macron centre left by any reasonable definition? Actually forget it, left and right are not only meaningless terms these days but get in the way of effective analysis.
But have you tried using the hospitality industry recently.? Now that so many Europeans have been replaced by English workers in cafes restaurants bars and hotels it's become across the board crap.
One thing even the biggest eurosceptics will have appreciated with free movement was that the hospitality industry improved dramatically. Well it's now taken a nosedive.
The majority of people working in hospitality in the UK were always UK born.
The myth that all the people working at Pret were from the Czech Republic etc. comes from people who live in rather central London, where foreigners do dominate the low skilled, low pay jobs.
The situation has not vastly changed in London, either, in terms of ratios of foreigners vs UK citizens in such jobs.
The problem in the hospitality trade is a shortage of workers, meaning that those who are there are generally over worked.
EDIT: There was an amusing piece on Radio 4 the other day. A chap running a gastro pub had lost all his staff in the lock down. They were all doing other jobs now. He described his workplace conditions - mainly his use of no-notice shifts. Literally ring people the day before to tell them they were/weren't working.....
Short of actually flogging his employees.... it was astonishing to me that they hadn't all left before.
I don't know the precise figures but in ALL major cities and large towns it's obvious to anyone who eats out and uses hotels a lot that many if not most of the staff were European. Even in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The only area I can think of where this doesn't SEEM to be the case is North Wales.
2017 - "Between 12.3% and 23.7% of the UK hospitality sector workforce is currently made up of EU nationals."
There is an effect, I've been told, where the staff up front are tailored to customers expectations - so in posh restaurants they make sure the sommelier has a foreign accent.
A reverse example - a local butcher runs a massive commercial trade. He has all the pubs and restaurants for miles around using him as a supplier. All the English cheeky chaps work in the front shop, doing the banter with the customers. The crew at the back are nearly all Polish.....
I'm happy for them getting an 11% rise but In the long run if they don't up their game to the standards that exist everywhere else in Europe-and existed in the UK pre Brexit in the cities and large towns- the whole industry will take a dive.
I used to work in hospitality and the was absolutely no difference pre and post brexit. Why would there be? We didn't kick out a load of people in 2016. If you mean after all the agreements went through then you have a slight point but as per the above 80% of people in hospitality were british. I used to go in pubs from Swansea over to the home counties and From the South and South West coast up to Staffordshire. It was fairly rare to see non British peop!e either running the business of back of house. Those that did particularly own the business tended to be in a relationship with a Brit.
Why it's happened I don't know. Probably it's just trickier for them to come as they now need a permit to work and the UK is generally less welcoming. But there's no doubt that there are now visibly less European workers in hospitality. That most pub and small towns and villages used mainly British staff and Cities and larger towns largely European staff seems to be born out by the report
According to that report, the highest estimate of EU nationals in the workforce in hospitality was 38% in Central London, using the higher KPMG numbers.
Personal perceptions and experience are often contrary to the wider facts.
"This varies significantly across businesses and service lines, with one respondent based in Greater London reporting that 100% of their employees are EU nationals, and a number reporting figures of around 80-90%."
38% is huge. In London I doubt the majority of non British staff are EU citizens anyway. All the various ethnic family restaurants to start with. But my point remains that your average Wagamama in your average town is now more than likely without EU staff and the British replacements are just not as good if they can find any. Try removing all EU footballers from the Premier league and see if it remains the best in the world!
Wagamama and similar restaurants design their cooing arrangement to be by rote, not skill.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"Putin has learned from the West that might is right" - Farcical Western narcissism and self-hatred. 🤣
Russia has plenty of its own "might is right" history without needing the West for any lessons on that, and if he had looked at the West's history he might have realised that might is not right and that "might" can be defeated.
You are speaking here with the self-certainty of HYUFD. Might didn't win Afghanistan for the USA, nor Vietnam for them either. Might is not winning Ukraine for Russia.
Putin may be putting us in danger of nuclear war but that is not a reason to pander to Putin and let him seize the world while we watch slackjawed from the sidelines. Life isn't without risk and just as we needed to take risks getting out of lockdown rather than waiting until life was riskfree before meeting each other face to face, similarly we can't wait until the risk of nuclear war is eliminated before we send support to Ukraine.
And that would be your policy. To arm Ukraine and send troops. Which currently NATO is not doing for some absurd reason. Sounds like as has been mentioned above, you should write to your MP to petition for UK troops to be sent to Ukraine.
Or who was it who posted links to the various International Brigades that you yourself could go and join. Every little helps.
Where did I say send troops?
My policy would be to do exactly what the West is doing: To arm Ukraine.
Ukraine can fight on our behalf by proxy which is the same as the Cold War was fought for half a century before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
We have no reason to send troops to Ukraine as that would be a direct conflict which isn't required, but what we do have good reason to do is send munitions to Ukraine for them to use themselves which is fair game and is precisely like how the USA armed the Afghanis versus the USSR or how the USSR armed the Vietcong versus the USA.
It's fairly well attested that we have troops in Ukraine in non-combat roles, particularly training Ukrainian forces and doubtless similar non-combat roles, though we'll doubtless have to wait for their memoirs to find out how far they've blurred the distinction.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost... (snip)"
The Ukrainians lost (I think) 440-odd tanks in four years of fighting in the Donbass. Russia have exceeded that in less than two months. And it's not just tanks, but other kit as well. The loss of the Moskva, old as it was, will have hurt their capabilities and pride.
If you don't think that the Russians have lost vast amounts of treasure - in terms of kit, money and lives - then I'd like to know what would convince you.
I'm sure they have lost plenty. But do you know how that leaves their capabilities.
If you are prepared to invade your neighbours because you see them as a threat in case they join NATO, then presumably somewhere in your paranoid mindset is that NATO are a military threat to your national borders too. There comes a point at which you need enough of a functioning military to hold on to what you have. That also means policing operations for parts of your empire that are less than delighted at being such.
I would suggest however much Russia's military has been degraded, it is getting close to a point where it would have to rely on nukes against NATO - which would mean in turn it would be reduced to a wasteland of irradiated tundra and taiga - and several former cities made of trinitite.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"Putin has learned from the West that might is right" - Farcical Western narcissism and self-hatred. 🤣
Russia has plenty of its own "might is right" history without needing the West for any lessons on that, and if he had looked at the West's history he might have realised that might is not right and that "might" can be defeated.
You are speaking here with the self-certainty of HYUFD. Might didn't win Afghanistan for the USA, nor Vietnam for them either. Might is not winning Ukraine for Russia.
Putin may be putting us in danger of nuclear war but that is not a reason to pander to Putin and let him seize the world while we watch slackjawed from the sidelines. Life isn't without risk and just as we needed to take risks getting out of lockdown rather than waiting until life was riskfree before meeting each other face to face, similarly we can't wait until the risk of nuclear war is eliminated before we send support to Ukraine.
And that would be your policy. To arm Ukraine and send troops. Which currently NATO is not doing for some absurd reason. Sounds like as has been mentioned above, you should write to your MP to petition for UK troops to be sent to Ukraine.
Or who was it who posted links to the various International Brigades that you yourself could go and join. Every little helps.
Where did I say send troops?
My policy would be to do exactly what the West is doing: To arm Ukraine.
Ukraine can fight on our behalf by proxy which is the same as the Cold War was fought for half a century before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
We have no reason to send troops to Ukraine as that would be a direct conflict which isn't required, but what we do have good reason to do is send munitions to Ukraine for them to use themselves which is fair game and is precisely like how the USA armed the Afghanis versus the USSR or how the USSR armed the Vietcong versus the USA.
So what is the big debate then? You are happy with what is happening. At no stage did I say that what is happening shouldn't be happening.
@MarqueeMark said that if we let Putin get away with "it" (not sure how defined) it would set a terrible precedent. I said that that precedent had been set in 2003 in Iraq.
You disagreed with that saying "we had good reason". And in so doing you have let yourself down as an analytical observer. Because right now there are plenty of Russians in Russia saying "we have good reason". The key should be to distance yourself from the emotional and try to understand the dynamics from as much an objective perspective as possible.
JUST IN: Twitter is working to hammer out terms of a transaction and could reach an agreement with Elon Musk as soon as today if negotiations go smoothly, according to a person with knowledge of the matter
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost... (snip)"
The Ukrainians lost (I think) 440-odd tanks in four years of fighting in the Donbass. Russia have exceeded that in less than two months. And it's not just tanks, but other kit as well. The loss of the Moskva, old as it was, will have hurt their capabilities and pride.
If you don't think that the Russians have lost vast amounts of treasure - in terms of kit, money and lives - then I'd like to know what would convince you.
I'm sure they have lost plenty. But do you know how that leaves their capabilities.
I said 'vast amounts of treasure'. Looking at those figures, it's not insignificant, is it? As for their (conventional) capabilities; no-one can be sure, possibly not even the Russians. For tanks, figures vary to around 12,000 - although the vast majority of these are older, unmodernised types in storage. Some say the actual amount of usable tanks might be as low as 3,000-4,000, with some needing recommissioning to even reach that number.
Losing at least 550 then becomes a big issue, given sanctions mean their tank factories have shut down, and they have a vast border to protect. And the tanks they are losing seem not to be older ones, but modernised versions.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost... (snip)"
The Ukrainians lost (I think) 440-odd tanks in four years of fighting in the Donbass. Russia have exceeded that in less than two months. And it's not just tanks, but other kit as well. The loss of the Moskva, old as it was, will have hurt their capabilities and pride.
If you don't think that the Russians have lost vast amounts of treasure - in terms of kit, money and lives - then I'd like to know what would convince you.
I'm sure they have lost plenty. But do you know how that leaves their capabilities.
On topic, I still think Johnson will survive to GE24 but I'm less certain than I was. I've therefore laid back my Starmer Next PM position so I'm green him (but not as green) and flat others. I don't want the good vibrations created by him being ousted to be even slightly dampened by a betting loss. Esp one on a position I've trumpeted so much and which I could take profits on.
What's clear, though, is he will stoop to anything to stay in the job. Such a bummer because he brings absolutely nothing of value to it. He's come out with a lot of stuff in recent times that makes me puke but one that requires a particularly large bucket is this one -
"I apologize most profusely, again, and it makes me all the more determined to get on and deliver on the priorities of the British people."
As if a priority of the British people is for the PM to be Boris Johnson. Utter piffle. Just about the only British people who think the PM has to be Boris Johnson are Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg and Nadine Dorries. And maybe Carrie.
PS: Where is Michael Gove? Haven't seen or heard him for ages. Is he grinding away on Levelling Up? Must be grinding away on something.
To my mind, Partygate and Ukraine are overplayed on here, and the cost of living crisis underplayed, and that is why I don't think Johnson can last much longer.
Dead wrong. The economy is cyclical, and the PM can to some extent human-shield behind the Chancellor. It might be nailed on as what would wipe him out in GE 24 but no way would it lead to an attack on him by the party before then.
That would set a horrific precedent for the 21st century.
That's the entirety of human history. The people with the weapons and the resolve to use them get what they want. Romans, Mongols, British, Americans, Birmingham City fans, etc.
The Mongols wouldn't have got very far if those to the west had thermal imaging kit and heat-seeking missiles.
The Russians still have a capability for long-range demolition. Scorched earth. Not much else. And even that is being shown up, at any level below thermo-nuclear. Because we have the weapons coupled with resolve to use them - to stop the Russians getting what they want. (When I say we, that's apart from Germany, obvs.)
The critical factor is whether Putin cares about any of this. We really are at an extraordinary moment in history. He might not care and believe, as I think he may have said, that without Russia in its rightful position, there is no point in maintaining the globe as it is currently constituted. And then Kablooey.
I have seen plenty of articles saying we must stop Putin otherwise where will he stop; and I have seen many saying it ain't werf it.
Logically, if we are not prepared to risk nuclear war (and MAD) then Putin could take over all of Europe. So the question becomes are we prepared to do that.
(i) Putin uses our fear of Nuclear Holocaust to blackmail his way to European domination.
(ii) Nuclear Holocaust.
For me, both of the above are only a remote possibility but if I had to rate them against each other I'd say (ii) is more likely than (i).
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost... (snip)"
The Ukrainians lost (I think) 440-odd tanks in four years of fighting in the Donbass. Russia have exceeded that in less than two months. And it's not just tanks, but other kit as well. The loss of the Moskva, old as it was, will have hurt their capabilities and pride.
If you don't think that the Russians have lost vast amounts of treasure - in terms of kit, money and lives - then I'd like to know what would convince you.
I'm sure they have lost plenty. But do you know how that leaves their capabilities.
no-one can be sure
Agree wholeheartedly.
Sad that you felt the need to snip the rest of my post.
Quite entertaining seeing the right-wing media trying to spin Le Pen's thumping defeat to a relatively unpopular incumbent as a victory. We'd have presumably been subject to the same nonsense had Remain won the EU referendum.
If Remain had won by a similar margin to Leave, Faragists, much like the similarly hate-filled and divisive SNP would have been continuously agitating for another vote and claiming that some circumstance or other had changed, and "The People" (aka *their* people) deserve another go. This is the nature of the psychopathically undemocratic: a vote in favour of something they believe in is permanent and in perpetuity, whereas a vote against their pet project is something that ought to be reversed as soon as possible.
I should say there's enough crap argument about what did happen without projecting all the 'what if' stuff.
Boris Johnson will not be making a Commons statement on his trip to India today. First time in years I can recall a PM opting not to update MPs at 1st opportunity on a major trip overseas.
Russia has already accepted the failure of its attempt to take Kyiv, and it didn't turn to the use of nuclear weapons. I think they can be defeated in the Donbas without it being inevitable that Russia will use nuclear weapons.
💥💥💥 ITV News reporting Johnson may be as few as EIGHT letters away from a leadership challenge.
Tallies with Sunday Times scoop that Sue Gray report is 'damning' and i report that 'One Nation' and 2019 intake MPs are now coordinating to oust him. ~AA
FPT, thanks @CorrectHorseBattery for your comment re the bullying. TBH (1) it was confined to @Anabobazina (with a little help from a 'fact checker') and (2) I was laughing this morning at how many posts they spewed out late on a Sunday night. The reverse ferret on denying they had been mocking on Virginia and then, when presented with the post, turning round and saying they were right all along was also funny (I say 'they' because I have no idea whether it's a man or woman).
Still, my view of such people is that it is best to hope that they get the help they so obviously need with what seems like multiple issues.
You are wrong. Look at the post you cited again. Learn to read.
I was right – Biden won it by 10pts despite your tipping it heavily as "in play" for Trump. You have been making up stuff about me now for two days. You are either a liar or delusional: which is it?
You can’t have things both ways Anaknob. You denied originally yesterday you had written about my views on Virginia and now, when I highlighted you did, you are saying you were right all along.
Also, as anyone who reads that link I posted can see, you are also personally offensive when making posts and when it’s uncalled for. You come across as unpleasant and slightly unbalanced (you may not be in real life, I don’t really know).
In any event, you were the one making the original thrust and now, when someone replies, you are crying like a baby about things.
Anyway, back to Oryx to see how many tanks the Russians have lost today.
Er, what? You said yesterday that:
• I tipped the Dems in South Carolina –– this was a falsehood. I have never tipped the state either way. • I was wrong about Virginia –– this was a falsehood. I was right. You were wrong claiming it was "in play" for Trump. • I tipped the Dems in Alaska –– this was a falsehood. I have never tipped the state either way.
Three complete untruths you wrote about me in the space of a few hours then refused to retract them, even though you know that they were false claims.
You have absolutely no right to call others "unpleasant and slightly unbalanced".
I will simply ignore you from now on, lest I be accused of "bullying" someone merely by asking them to retract their untruths.
💥💥💥 ITV News reporting Johnson may be as few as EIGHT letters away from a leadership challenge.
Tallies with Sunday Times scoop that Sue Gray report is 'damning' and i report that 'One Nation' and 2019 intake MPs are now coordinating to oust him. ~AA
This site has turned rather nasty today and the last weeks, people jumping down people's throats and being just genuinely unkind.
I wouldn't take too much notice of it. People might be worried about stuff, you know perhaps nuclear war, etc, and this is a good release valve (better to shout at @XXXX than kick the dog or the missus/hubbie).
Let it all wash over you, extract the points being made and respond, or just respond to the people who are more measured.
💥💥💥 ITV News reporting Johnson may be as few as EIGHT letters away from a leadership challenge.
Tallies with Sunday Times scoop that Sue Gray report is 'damning' and i report that 'One Nation' and 2019 intake MPs are now coordinating to oust him. ~AA
Johnson may be as few as ONE letter away from a leadership challenge, given we wouldn't know about it until he was ZERO letters away from a leadership challenge
(Also, technically, X letters away from a confidence vote - X letters and a lost confidence vote away from, well not so much a leadership challenge as being booted out on his ear. There's no actualy mechanism for a leadership challenge now, is there? Either win the vote and safe for a year or lose it and booted out, not permitted to stand in the new leader election?)
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost... (snip)"
The Ukrainians lost (I think) 440-odd tanks in four years of fighting in the Donbass. Russia have exceeded that in less than two months. And it's not just tanks, but other kit as well. The loss of the Moskva, old as it was, will have hurt their capabilities and pride.
If you don't think that the Russians have lost vast amounts of treasure - in terms of kit, money and lives - then I'd like to know what would convince you.
I'm sure they have lost plenty. But do you know how that leaves their capabilities.
no-one can be sure
Agree wholeheartedly.
Sad that you felt the need to snip the rest of my post.
JUST IN: Twitter is working to hammer out terms of a transaction and could reach an agreement with Elon Musk as soon as today if negotiations go smoothly, according to a person with knowledge of the matter
I still can't see Elon's angle here. Why does he care about buying twitter. I don't really buy the whole free speech absolutism angle. Is there some huge business opportunity that is being slept on?
That would set a horrific precedent for the 21st century.
That's the entirety of human history. The people with the weapons and the resolve to use them get what they want. Romans, Mongols, British, Americans, Birmingham City fans, etc.
The Mongols wouldn't have got very far if those to the west had thermal imaging kit and heat-seeking missiles.
The Russians still have a capability for long-range demolition. Scorched earth. Not much else. And even that is being shown up, at any level below thermo-nuclear. Because we have the weapons coupled with resolve to use them - to stop the Russians getting what they want. (When I say we, that's apart from Germany, obvs.)
The critical factor is whether Putin cares about any of this. We really are at an extraordinary moment in history. He might not care and believe, as I think he may have said, that without Russia in its rightful position, there is no point in maintaining the globe as it is currently constituted. And then Kablooey.
I have seen plenty of articles saying we must stop Putin otherwise where will he stop; and I have seen many saying it ain't werf it.
Logically, if we are not prepared to risk nuclear war (and MAD) then Putin could take over all of Europe. So the question becomes are we prepared to do that.
(i) Putin uses our fear of Nuclear Holocaust to blackmail his way to European domination.
(ii) Nuclear Holocaust.
For me, both of the above are only a remote possibility but if I had to rate them against each other I'd say (ii) is more likely than (i).
Putin respects NATO, at least core NATO. Worst case is he tries to reestablish USSR boundaries minus E Germany, and that was a set up I was comfortable with for much of my youth. Then we can hope that the oldies die off in Russia and are replaced by people who don't believe everything on state TV, and we get another round of Prague springs and stuff. That entails massive suffering for the pore old Estonians and Moldovans and such, but as against that a nuclear holocaust is an actual nuclear, actual holocaust.
That would set a horrific precedent for the 21st century.
That's the entirety of human history. The people with the weapons and the resolve to use them get what they want. Romans, Mongols, British, Americans, Birmingham City fans, etc.
The Mongols wouldn't have got very far if those to the west had thermal imaging kit and heat-seeking missiles.
The Russians still have a capability for long-range demolition. Scorched earth. Not much else. And even that is being shown up, at any level below thermo-nuclear. Because we have the weapons coupled with resolve to use them - to stop the Russians getting what they want. (When I say we, that's apart from Germany, obvs.)
The critical factor is whether Putin cares about any of this. We really are at an extraordinary moment in history. He might not care and believe, as I think he may have said, that without Russia in its rightful position, there is no point in maintaining the globe as it is currently constituted. And then Kablooey.
I have seen plenty of articles saying we must stop Putin otherwise where will he stop; and I have seen many saying it ain't werf it.
Logically, if we are not prepared to risk nuclear war (and MAD) then Putin could take over all of Europe. So the question becomes are we prepared to do that.
Risk is a continuum, not an either/or question.
That is true. But at some stage you have to pick your point on it.
I think you're right that the future is not predictable. But it's thus not at all clear whether realpolitik would mean following or abandoning our principles. In which situation I'd prefer to run the risk of following them.
But have you tried using the hospitality industry recently.? Now that so many Europeans have been replaced by English workers in cafes restaurants bars and hotels it's become across the board crap.
One thing even the biggest eurosceptics will have appreciated with free movement was that the hospitality industry improved dramatically. Well it's now taken a nosedive.
The majority of people working in hospitality in the UK were always UK born.
The myth that all the people working at Pret were from the Czech Republic etc. comes from people who live in rather central London, where foreigners do dominate the low skilled, low pay jobs.
The situation has not vastly changed in London, either, in terms of ratios of foreigners vs UK citizens in such jobs.
The problem in the hospitality trade is a shortage of workers, meaning that those who are there are generally over worked.
EDIT: There was an amusing piece on Radio 4 the other day. A chap running a gastro pub had lost all his staff in the lock down. They were all doing other jobs now. He described his workplace conditions - mainly his use of no-notice shifts. Literally ring people the day before to tell them they were/weren't working.....
Short of actually flogging his employees.... it was astonishing to me that they hadn't all left before.
I don't know the precise figures but in ALL major cities and large towns it's obvious to anyone who eats out and uses hotels a lot that many if not most of the staff were European. Even in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The only area I can think of where this doesn't SEEM to be the case is North Wales.
2017 - "Between 12.3% and 23.7% of the UK hospitality sector workforce is currently made up of EU nationals."
There is an effect, I've been told, where the staff up front are tailored to customers expectations - so in posh restaurants they make sure the sommelier has a foreign accent.
A reverse example - a local butcher runs a massive commercial trade. He has all the pubs and restaurants for miles around using him as a supplier. All the English cheeky chaps work in the front shop, doing the banter with the customers. The crew at the back are nearly all Polish.....
I'm happy for them getting an 11% rise but In the long run if they don't up their game to the standards that exist everywhere else in Europe-and existed in the UK pre Brexit in the cities and large towns- the whole industry will take a dive.
I used to work in hospitality and the was absolutely no difference pre and post brexit. Why would there be? We didn't kick out a load of people in 2016. If you mean after all the agreements went through then you have a slight point but as per the above 80% of people in hospitality were british. I used to go in pubs from Swansea over to the home counties and From the South and South West coast up to Staffordshire. It was fairly rare to see non British peop!e either running the business of back of house. Those that did particularly own the business tended to be in a relationship with a Brit.
Why it's happened I don't know. Probably it's just trickier for them to come as they now need a permit to work and the UK is generally less welcoming. But there's no doubt that there are now visibly less European workers in hospitality. That most pub and small towns and villages used mainly British staff and Cities and larger towns largely European staff seems to be born out by the report
According to that report, the highest estimate of EU nationals in the workforce in hospitality was 38% in Central London, using the higher KPMG numbers.
Personal perceptions and experience are often contrary to the wider facts.
"This varies significantly across businesses and service lines, with one respondent based in Greater London reporting that 100% of their employees are EU nationals, and a number reporting figures of around 80-90%."
38% is huge. In London I doubt the majority of non British staff are EU citizens anyway. All the various ethnic family restaurants to start with. But my point remains that your average Wagamama in your average town is now more than likely without EU staff and the British replacements are just not as good if they can find any. Try removing all EU footballers from the Premier league and see if it remains the best in the world!
Because pro football and catering are of course exactly the same in every respect!
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost... (snip)"
The Ukrainians lost (I think) 440-odd tanks in four years of fighting in the Donbass. Russia have exceeded that in less than two months. And it's not just tanks, but other kit as well. The loss of the Moskva, old as it was, will have hurt their capabilities and pride.
If you don't think that the Russians have lost vast amounts of treasure - in terms of kit, money and lives - then I'd like to know what would convince you.
I'm sure they have lost plenty. But do you know how that leaves their capabilities.
no-one can be sure
Agree wholeheartedly.
Sad that you felt the need to snip the rest of my post.
I left in the only relevant part.
Not really IMO, especially for people reading the thread. At least learn to use (snip) to show where you've removed stuff.
JUST IN: Twitter is working to hammer out terms of a transaction and could reach an agreement with Elon Musk as soon as today if negotiations go smoothly, according to a person with knowledge of the matter
I still can't see Elon's angle here. Why does he care about buying twitter. I don't really buy the whole free speech absolutism angle. Is there some huge business opportunity that is being slept on?
There are quite a few analysts who think that Twitter is doing a poor job with its potential.
That would set a horrific precedent for the 21st century.
That's the entirety of human history. The people with the weapons and the resolve to use them get what they want. Romans, Mongols, British, Americans, Birmingham City fans, etc.
The Mongols wouldn't have got very far if those to the west had thermal imaging kit and heat-seeking missiles.
The Russians still have a capability for long-range demolition. Scorched earth. Not much else. And even that is being shown up, at any level below thermo-nuclear. Because we have the weapons coupled with resolve to use them - to stop the Russians getting what they want. (When I say we, that's apart from Germany, obvs.)
The critical factor is whether Putin cares about any of this. We really are at an extraordinary moment in history. He might not care and believe, as I think he may have said, that without Russia in its rightful position, there is no point in maintaining the globe as it is currently constituted. And then Kablooey.
I have seen plenty of articles saying we must stop Putin otherwise where will he stop; and I have seen many saying it ain't werf it.
Logically, if we are not prepared to risk nuclear war (and MAD) then Putin could take over all of Europe. So the question becomes are we prepared to do that.
Risk is a continuum, not an either/or question.
That is true. But at some stage you have to pick your point on it.
I think you're right that the future is not predictable. But it's thus not at all clear whether realpolitik would mean following or abandoning our principles. In which situation I'd prefer to run the risk of following them.
@TheKinster outlined two rather unpalatable (and, he believes, very remotely possible) scenarios.
Under such circumstances everything is up in the air.
JUST IN: Twitter is working to hammer out terms of a transaction and could reach an agreement with Elon Musk as soon as today if negotiations go smoothly, according to a person with knowledge of the matter
I still can't see Elon's angle here. Why does he care about buying twitter. I don't really buy the whole free speech absolutism angle. Is there some huge business opportunity that is being slept on?
It's some mad crypto thing where Twitter becomes the new Barclaycard or something. The site's foremost kei truck owner knows shitloads about it.
This site has turned rather nasty today and the last weeks, people jumping down people's throats and being just genuinely unkind.
I wouldn't take too much notice of it. People might be worried about stuff, you know perhaps nuclear war, etc, and this is a good release valve (better to shout at @XXXX than kick the dog or the missus/hubbie).
Let it all wash over you, extract the points being made and respond, or just respond to the people who are more measured.
Would be my thinking.
Glad that you are off your meds btw. Well done.
In the Goode Olde Days of soc.history.what-if, when it got a bit shouty, one response was to post cooking recipes.
JUST IN: Twitter is working to hammer out terms of a transaction and could reach an agreement with Elon Musk as soon as today if negotiations go smoothly, according to a person with knowledge of the matter
I still can't see Elon's angle here. Why does he care about buying twitter. I don't really buy the whole free speech absolutism angle. Is there some huge business opportunity that is being slept on?
There are quite a few analysts who think that Twitter is doing a poor job with its potential.
Well I think it has long been talked about that because of the nature of the platform and poor backend they don't know their users in the way Facebook does i.e. you can't ask to target ads for left handed EU waiters who are under 30 working in London Wagamamas....so there is an upper bound on how effective ads can be and thus price you can charge.
But seems like a hell of a task to try and compete in this space when there is always the next "hot" social media, first it was Instanta, then Snap, now Tik Tok, and twitter has a culture of anonymous egg accounts and toxicity...while you aren't buying it at total knock down rate.
But that's why Elon Musk is a billionaire and I'm not I suppose.
That would set a horrific precedent for the 21st century.
That's the entirety of human history. The people with the weapons and the resolve to use them get what they want. Romans, Mongols, British, Americans, Birmingham City fans, etc.
The Mongols wouldn't have got very far if those to the west had thermal imaging kit and heat-seeking missiles.
The Russians still have a capability for long-range demolition. Scorched earth. Not much else. And even that is being shown up, at any level below thermo-nuclear. Because we have the weapons coupled with resolve to use them - to stop the Russians getting what they want. (When I say we, that's apart from Germany, obvs.)
The critical factor is whether Putin cares about any of this. We really are at an extraordinary moment in history. He might not care and believe, as I think he may have said, that without Russia in its rightful position, there is no point in maintaining the globe as it is currently constituted. And then Kablooey.
I have seen plenty of articles saying we must stop Putin otherwise where will he stop; and I have seen many saying it ain't werf it.
Logically, if we are not prepared to risk nuclear war (and MAD) then Putin could take over all of Europe. So the question becomes are we prepared to do that.
Risk is a continuum, not an either/or question.
That is true. But at some stage you have to pick your point on it.
I think you're right that the future is not predictable. But it's thus not at all clear whether realpolitik would mean following or abandoning our principles. In which situation I'd prefer to run the risk of following them.
Not that strightforward. If you buy any form of utilitarianism (which looks like the only moral game in town) you have to do some quite difficult sums about aggregate human suffering in invasions vs nukings.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"Putin has learned from the West that might is right" - Farcical Western narcissism and self-hatred. 🤣
Russia has plenty of its own "might is right" history without needing the West for any lessons on that, and if he had looked at the West's history he might have realised that might is not right and that "might" can be defeated.
You are speaking here with the self-certainty of HYUFD. Might didn't win Afghanistan for the USA, nor Vietnam for them either. Might is not winning Ukraine for Russia.
Putin may be putting us in danger of nuclear war but that is not a reason to pander to Putin and let him seize the world while we watch slackjawed from the sidelines. Life isn't without risk and just as we needed to take risks getting out of lockdown rather than waiting until life was riskfree before meeting each other face to face, similarly we can't wait until the risk of nuclear war is eliminated before we send support to Ukraine.
And that would be your policy. To arm Ukraine and send troops. Which currently NATO is not doing for some absurd reason. Sounds like as has been mentioned above, you should write to your MP to petition for UK troops to be sent to Ukraine.
Or who was it who posted links to the various International Brigades that you yourself could go and join. Every little helps.
Where did I say send troops?
My policy would be to do exactly what the West is doing: To arm Ukraine.
Ukraine can fight on our behalf by proxy which is the same as the Cold War was fought for half a century before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
We have no reason to send troops to Ukraine as that would be a direct conflict which isn't required, but what we do have good reason to do is send munitions to Ukraine for them to use themselves which is fair game and is precisely like how the USA armed the Afghanis versus the USSR or how the USSR armed the Vietcong versus the USA.
It's fairly well attested that we have troops in Ukraine in non-combat roles, particularly training Ukrainian forces and doubtless similar non-combat roles, though we'll doubtless have to wait for their memoirs to find out how far they've blurred the distinction.
We had before the invasion - do we now ? Certainly recent announcements have been about training in neighbouring Poland.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"Putin has learned from the West that might is right" - Farcical Western narcissism and self-hatred. 🤣
Russia has plenty of its own "might is right" history without needing the West for any lessons on that, and if he had looked at the West's history he might have realised that might is not right and that "might" can be defeated.
You are speaking here with the self-certainty of HYUFD. Might didn't win Afghanistan for the USA, nor Vietnam for them either. Might is not winning Ukraine for Russia.
Putin may be putting us in danger of nuclear war but that is not a reason to pander to Putin and let him seize the world while we watch slackjawed from the sidelines. Life isn't without risk and just as we needed to take risks getting out of lockdown rather than waiting until life was riskfree before meeting each other face to face, similarly we can't wait until the risk of nuclear war is eliminated before we send support to Ukraine.
And that would be your policy. To arm Ukraine and send troops. Which currently NATO is not doing for some absurd reason. Sounds like as has been mentioned above, you should write to your MP to petition for UK troops to be sent to Ukraine.
Or who was it who posted links to the various International Brigades that you yourself could go and join. Every little helps.
Where did I say send troops?
My policy would be to do exactly what the West is doing: To arm Ukraine.
Ukraine can fight on our behalf by proxy which is the same as the Cold War was fought for half a century before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
We have no reason to send troops to Ukraine as that would be a direct conflict which isn't required, but what we do have good reason to do is send munitions to Ukraine for them to use themselves which is fair game and is precisely like how the USA armed the Afghanis versus the USSR or how the USSR armed the Vietcong versus the USA.
So what is the big debate then? You are happy with what is happening. At no stage did I say that what is happening shouldn't be happening.
@MarqueeMark said that if we let Putin get away with "it" (not sure how defined) it would set a terrible precedent. I said that that precedent had been set in 2003 in Iraq.
You disagreed with that saying "we had good reason". And in so doing you have let yourself down as an analytical observer. Because right now there are plenty of Russians in Russia saying "we have good reason". The key should be to distance yourself from the emotional and try to understand the dynamics from as much an objective perspective as possible.
IMO.
The big debate is that some people are insinuating we shouldn't be arming Ukraine because to do so risks nuclear war.
I disagree, we are doing the right thing and we need to continue with it until Russia loses the war and is pushed back out of Ukraine.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost... (snip)"
The Ukrainians lost (I think) 440-odd tanks in four years of fighting in the Donbass. Russia have exceeded that in less than two months. And it's not just tanks, but other kit as well. The loss of the Moskva, old as it was, will have hurt their capabilities and pride.
If you don't think that the Russians have lost vast amounts of treasure - in terms of kit, money and lives - then I'd like to know what would convince you.
I'm sure they have lost plenty. But do you know how that leaves their capabilities.
no-one can be sure
Agree wholeheartedly.
Sad that you felt the need to snip the rest of my post.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"Putin has learned from the West that might is right" - Farcical Western narcissism and self-hatred. 🤣
Russia has plenty of its own "might is right" history without needing the West for any lessons on that, and if he had looked at the West's history he might have realised that might is not right and that "might" can be defeated.
You are speaking here with the self-certainty of HYUFD. Might didn't win Afghanistan for the USA, nor Vietnam for them either. Might is not winning Ukraine for Russia.
Putin may be putting us in danger of nuclear war but that is not a reason to pander to Putin and let him seize the world while we watch slackjawed from the sidelines. Life isn't without risk and just as we needed to take risks getting out of lockdown rather than waiting until life was riskfree before meeting each other face to face, similarly we can't wait until the risk of nuclear war is eliminated before we send support to Ukraine.
And that would be your policy. To arm Ukraine and send troops. Which currently NATO is not doing for some absurd reason. Sounds like as has been mentioned above, you should write to your MP to petition for UK troops to be sent to Ukraine.
Or who was it who posted links to the various International Brigades that you yourself could go and join. Every little helps.
Where did I say send troops?
My policy would be to do exactly what the West is doing: To arm Ukraine.
Ukraine can fight on our behalf by proxy which is the same as the Cold War was fought for half a century before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
We have no reason to send troops to Ukraine as that would be a direct conflict which isn't required, but what we do have good reason to do is send munitions to Ukraine for them to use themselves which is fair game and is precisely like how the USA armed the Afghanis versus the USSR or how the USSR armed the Vietcong versus the USA.
So what is the big debate then? You are happy with what is happening. At no stage did I say that what is happening shouldn't be happening.
@MarqueeMark said that if we let Putin get away with "it" (not sure how defined) it would set a terrible precedent. I said that that precedent had been set in 2003 in Iraq.
You disagreed with that saying "we had good reason". And in so doing you have let yourself down as an analytical observer. Because right now there are plenty of Russians in Russia saying "we have good reason". The key should be to distance yourself from the emotional and try to understand the dynamics from as much an objective perspective as possible.
IMO.
The big debate is that some people are insinuating we shouldn't be arming Ukraine because to do so risks nuclear war.
I disagree, we are doing the right thing and we need to continue with it until Russia loses the war and is pushed back out of Ukraine.
And NY, London and Paris start glowing in the dark.
On topic, I still think Johnson will survive to GE24 but I'm less certain than I was. I've therefore laid back my Starmer Next PM position so I'm green him (but not as green) and flat others. I don't want the good vibrations created by him being ousted to be even slightly dampened by a betting loss. Esp one on a position I've trumpeted so much and which I could take profits on.
What's clear, though, is he will stoop to anything to stay in the job. Such a bummer because he brings absolutely nothing of value to it. He's come out with a lot of stuff in recent times that makes me puke but one that requires a particularly large bucket is this one -
"I apologize most profusely, again, and it makes me all the more determined to get on and deliver on the priorities of the British people."
As if a priority of the British people is for the PM to be Boris Johnson. Utter piffle. Just about the only British people who think the PM has to be Boris Johnson are Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg and Nadine Dorries. And maybe Carrie.
PS: Where is Michael Gove? Haven't seen or heard him for ages. Is he grinding away on Levelling Up? Must be grinding away on something.
This site has turned rather nasty today and the last weeks, people jumping down people's throats and being just genuinely unkind.
I wouldn't take too much notice of it. People might be worried about stuff, you know perhaps nuclear war, etc, and this is a good release valve (better to shout at @XXXX than kick the dog or the missus/hubbie).
Let it all wash over you, extract the points being made and respond, or just respond to the people who are more measured.
Would be my thinking.
Glad that you are off your meds btw. Well done.
In the Goode Olde Days of soc.history.what-if, when it got a bit shouty, one response was to post cooking recipes.
In the spirit of posting something uncontentious to diffuse shoutiness, this ought to be far more widely shared - which country is the squarest?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mrNEVUuZdk
Even though I know nobody really cares here is an update on my legs, but also to say thank you to @TOPPING and others who advised on physiotherapy (although I was always going to do this). I have booked sessions both at the hospital and my GP. Visited the hospital on Friday, GP tomorrow.
I have been exercising my thighs throughout to compensate for the lack of exercise. I have been exercising my right calf (where 3 of the breaks are) since I have been able to. Both while lying down. I can do a straight lift of my legs for 5 1/2 minutes at a time, which I consider pretty good. I have nearly full mobility of my ankle now so I can really work my calf and the really good news is I have practically no muscle wastage (which I understand is pretty rare). I am still on crutches for 2 more weeks and then 2 more weeks in a boot so there is no swimming or cycle riding yet.
Yesterday I walked (on crutches) the 100 metres to my compost heap and sat on it filling a wheelbarrow full of compost 3 times for the rhubarb (my wife has to push the wheelbarrow) and also cut up the remains of a hedge I took down prior to breaking my leg. The only down side is a very wet bottom.
Is there a recent example, anywhere in the G7, of the centre/left beating the right by a margin greater than 17pts?
Canada. If it were a top two runoff like France.
In which year?
2021. A Trudeau O'Toole runoff would most likely have produced that or greater.
That's a weird hypothetical.
Is there a real example, anywhere in the G7, of the centre/left beating the right by more than 17pts within the last, let's say, two decades?
As it was only a two horse race, it's hard to find a comparison. Unless we start looking at London mayor elections.
Well there are all the US presidential races for starters.
And the London mayors.
And the Paris mayors.
And probably a fair few others.
Anything anywhere near 17pts?
2000 London Mayoral election: Livingstone beat the Conservatives by 12pp in the first round and 16pp in the second.
2008 Paris mayoral election: PS were 15pp ahead of UMP
So 17pts the largest margin in recent history then?
Out of a small sample of elections with 2nd rounds of some sort in the G7, the 2017 French Presidential election shows the largest margin in recent history, with the 2022 election second, depending on how you define recent and what sub-national elections you include.
How local do you want to go? The last Hackney mayoral election had Labour 45% ahead of the Conservatives. 41% in the Lewisham mayoral election. 61% in Newham. Outside London, Labour had a 32% lead in the last South Yorkshire mayoral election, 19% in the West of England, 39% in Liverpool, etc.
Why is everyone's assumption that the use of nuclear weaponry would be on major urban centres? Russia has a range of technology available; and the Soviets at least did suspect that NATO would respond differently to their use on civilian or military targets.
This site has turned rather nasty today and the last weeks, people jumping down people's throats and being just genuinely unkind.
I wouldn't take too much notice of it. People might be worried about stuff, you know perhaps nuclear war, etc, and this is a good release valve (better to shout at @XXXX than kick the dog or the missus/hubbie).
Let it all wash over you, extract the points being made and respond, or just respond to the people who are more measured.
Would be my thinking.
Glad that you are off your meds btw. Well done.
In the Goode Olde Days of soc.history.what-if, when it got a bit shouty, one response was to post cooking recipes.
LOL. In rec.martial-arts it used to result in a "challenge". 98.768% of which times was never acted upon.
Its never been "no" benefits, its that the very few benefits are completely dwarfed by the negatives. Even in that piece it manages to flag them. Better than inflation pay rises for the workers who are in a sector like hospitality is great in the immediate term for those workers - but terrible for their industry.
Why? Because it shows a catastrophic lack of staff: https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/02/16/hospitality-staff-shortage/ The reason why some industries had an influx of the evil forrin wasn't because crooked employers wanted cheap labour, it started because there was a labour shortage as not enough Brits wanted to work in a bar or in a chicken processing factory or wiping someone's mother's bottom etc etc. And despite the inflation busting wage rises have Brits flooded into these sectors in anything like the numbers required? No.
Of course you will always seek a downside but to be fair, to those workers who have enjoyed above inflation (even at today's figure) wage increases is good news
Back in the 1970s the upshot was called a wage-price spiral. Trotskyist Trade Union Shop Stewards loved it. Mrs Thatcher, not so much.
Fine by me, fill yer boots, but it gets paid for at the other end in the inflation figures.
But Indeed's Mr Kennedy says that pay rises resulting from hiring shortages will not bring about the "high-wage, high-skill" economy pursued by the government.
"Firms are facing a range of non-labour cost increases so their ability to offer big wage increases is limited," he says. "Without sustained increases in productivity, any wage increases are likely to be passed onto the consumer."
Yes, there need to be sustained increases in productivity. That means replacing minimum wage employees with capital equipment, in industries such as hospitality. A small chain-branded coffee shop doesn’t need three ‘baristas’, when a machine can make the coffee just as well, constistently, and at a lower cost. Replace three £10/hr workers with one £15/hr worker and three £10k machines - pays for itself in a year or less.
You haven't encountered most press button coffee machines, then.
They break down frequently, require lots of cleaning and are generally a pain in the ass. Part of the problem is that coffee grounds are ideal for damaging machinery - fine, sticky, abrasive.....
The design where the coffee grounds are external to the majority of the machine is done that way for a reason.
My Nespresso makes nice coffee - cost €49 and wortks like a dream - 4 years and counting!! #barista España
Nespresso is a classic in the business plan genre - cheap machine (sold at very low margin), expensive consumables you are locked into.
The actual coffee in a double espresso costs a fraction of a penny.
How much are you paying per capsule :-)
I use a stove top mocha maker (in stainless steel) - one of them (I have varying sizes) is 25 years old.....
Oh of course - but I don't consume as much coffee as tea - and this is so easy. Plus it's always fresh - a lot of palaver to keep beans or grounds fresh once opened. Also when making small quantities the difference is often marginal. Indeed my overall preference here in Spain is to have my coffee at a beachside bar overlooking the tranquil Mediterranean with some pastries , water, orange juice along with excellent coffee for just €1.60 the lot!
Beans actually stay quite fresh if you don't leave them in the open air - even the hopper in a coffee grinder is fine. I grind on demand....
The other nice thing is that with a stainless mocha maker you can stick it in the dish washer from time to time to nuke all the accumulated stuff out. People using aluminium with coffee....
Hmmm. Morning all.
The "fraction of a penny" for the coffee (typically 10g) in a shot is a bit optimistic; at a trade level coffee beans cost £7-15 per kilo for good quality. So more like 7-10p, which is still low enough to allow purchase of top quality coffee. My local tonne-a-week bean roaster start their beans at £11 per kilo wholesale.
Nespresso will end up (correctly) as a green pariah; there are excellent alternatives available to capsules which don't have to be thrown away or recycled via a special infrastructure which only catches a % of the Nespresso cartridges, such as E.S.E paper capsules. Nespresso fails by Ockham. Enjoy it whilst it lasts .
Nespresso will at some time be selected as 'hate of the month' by one of the green groups.
Being in the process of helping open a cafe with a trade bean to cup machine, I can say that they are expensive but are treated as a craft product. A new one for 100-150 cups a day might be £4-5k at the lower end plus a £40 a month maintenance agreement plus (round here) water filters. Quite durprised to find that Franks, who made my sink, make them.
You can tell we're all losing interest in Ukraine when coffee dick measuring economics is making the running.
Like you ever had any interest in Ukraine or Ukrainians, Mr “ who would give a fuck if they did?”.
Fuck you Russian whore shit.
Are you OK?
I’m good thanks Rog. A little sad to be ending my holiday, and spending my last couple of hours drinking beer and eating nuts in a dog park by Girona station. But the “Ace” has been really pissing me off. He seems to be held in reverence here by some for his military “expertise” or his lunatic driving or his anarchism, but many of his posts are indistinguishable from those of a Russian shill. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ukraine (or the Baltics or Moldova). He may have Ukrainians living with him, but that’s clearly his wife’s decision.
And I liked the fact that my abuse sounds similar to “fuck you russian warship”
Dura_Ace and Topping are possibly the most conspicuous ex-military people on here. Both repeatedly called the Ukraine war very wrong, perhaps for understandable reasons.
What did I call wrong?
Signed Conspicuously Military TOPPING.
Apologies if I am wrong, but back in February weren't you rather negative about Ukraine's chances of resisting the mighty Russian bear?
Back in February I was wary of people pronouncing on how it was "obviously" going (ie using pictures from Twitter) on Day 2 of the invasion.
I still am; I'm not sure anyone, not an apparently well-regarded twitter user, nor PJHQ, knows what is going on.
Frustrating for all of us who want to comment conclusively but probably a more sensible approach.
My *impression* was that you were rather more negative than that.
However, I have no problem with stating categorically that the whole adventure so far has gone disastrously for Russia. They lost a vast amount of treasure on their abandoned northern attack towards Kiev, and the sanctions will be increasingly hurting them. Worse, their military's poor performance is an embarrassment for them. They can hide that from their population for some time, but not from external eyes.
With more uncertainty; whilst the eastern and southern fronts are still active and could give them a 'win', I wouldn't bet on it given their recent performance.
We shall see. I have no difficulty in believing that Putin expected to march into Ukraine to be welcomed by garland-throwing maidens if not the odd clatter of small arms fire, quickly extinguished.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
"Putin has learned from the West that might is right" - Farcical Western narcissism and self-hatred. 🤣
Russia has plenty of its own "might is right" history without needing the West for any lessons on that, and if he had looked at the West's history he might have realised that might is not right and that "might" can be defeated.
You are speaking here with the self-certainty of HYUFD. Might didn't win Afghanistan for the USA, nor Vietnam for them either. Might is not winning Ukraine for Russia.
Putin may be putting us in danger of nuclear war but that is not a reason to pander to Putin and let him seize the world while we watch slackjawed from the sidelines. Life isn't without risk and just as we needed to take risks getting out of lockdown rather than waiting until life was riskfree before meeting each other face to face, similarly we can't wait until the risk of nuclear war is eliminated before we send support to Ukraine.
And that would be your policy. To arm Ukraine and send troops. Which currently NATO is not doing for some absurd reason. Sounds like as has been mentioned above, you should write to your MP to petition for UK troops to be sent to Ukraine.
Or who was it who posted links to the various International Brigades that you yourself could go and join. Every little helps.
Where did I say send troops?
My policy would be to do exactly what the West is doing: To arm Ukraine.
Ukraine can fight on our behalf by proxy which is the same as the Cold War was fought for half a century before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
We have no reason to send troops to Ukraine as that would be a direct conflict which isn't required, but what we do have good reason to do is send munitions to Ukraine for them to use themselves which is fair game and is precisely like how the USA armed the Afghanis versus the USSR or how the USSR armed the Vietcong versus the USA.
So what is the big debate then? You are happy with what is happening. At no stage did I say that what is happening shouldn't be happening.
@MarqueeMark said that if we let Putin get away with "it" (not sure how defined) it would set a terrible precedent. I said that that precedent had been set in 2003 in Iraq.
You disagreed with that saying "we had good reason". And in so doing you have let yourself down as an analytical observer. Because right now there are plenty of Russians in Russia saying "we have good reason". The key should be to distance yourself from the emotional and try to understand the dynamics from as much an objective perspective as possible.
IMO.
The big debate is that some people are insinuating we shouldn't be arming Ukraine because to do so risks nuclear war.
I disagree, we are doing the right thing and we need to continue with it until Russia loses the war and is pushed back out of Ukraine.
Who has said that we shouldn't arm Ukraine? On PB?
Even though I know nobody really cares here is an update on my legs, but also to say thank you to @TOPPING and others who advised on physiotherapy (although I was always going to do this). I have booked sessions both at the hospital and my GP. Visited the hospital on Friday, GP tomorrow.
I have been exercising my thighs throughout to compensate for the lack of exercise. I have been exercising my right calf (where 3 of the breaks are) since I have been able to. Both while lying down. I can do a straight lift of my legs for 5 1/2 minutes at a time, which I consider pretty good. I have nearly full mobility of my ankle now so I can really work my calf and the really good news is I have practically no muscle wastage (which I understand is pretty rare). I am still on crutches for 2 more weeks and then 2 more weeks in a boot so there is no swimming or cycle riding yet.
Yesterday I walked (on crutches) the 100 metres to my compost heap and sat on it filling a wheelbarrow full of compost 3 times for the rhubarb (my wife has to push the wheelbarrow) and also cut up the remains of a hedge I took down prior to breaking my leg. The only down side is a very wet bottom.
Good to hear!
I think I mentioned (as I always do for such injuries) getting yourself into a swimming pool. Does wonders as well as the therabands...
Even though I know nobody really cares here is an update on my legs, but also to say thank you to @TOPPING and others who advised on physiotherapy (although I was always going to do this). I have booked sessions both at the hospital and my GP. Visited the hospital on Friday, GP tomorrow.
I have been exercising my thighs throughout to compensate for the lack of exercise. I have been exercising my right calf (where 3 of the breaks are) since I have been able to. Both while lying down. I can do a straight lift of my legs for 5 1/2 minutes at a time, which I consider pretty good. I have nearly full mobility of my ankle now so I can really work my calf and the really good news is I have practically no muscle wastage (which I understand is pretty rare). I am still on crutches for 2 more weeks and then 2 more weeks in a boot so there is no swimming or cycle riding yet.
Yesterday I walked (on crutches) the 100 metres to my compost heap and sat on it filling a wheelbarrow full of compost 3 times for the rhubarb (my wife has to push the wheelbarrow) and also cut up the remains of a hedge I took down prior to breaking my leg. The only down side is a very wet bottom.
Hope your recovery continues well. It's not pleasant.
Physio didn't do much for my problem sadly - except for the fact my physio got me in with the surgeon who did fix me...
That would set a horrific precedent for the 21st century.
That's the entirety of human history. The people with the weapons and the resolve to use them get what they want. Romans, Mongols, British, Americans, Birmingham City fans, etc.
The Mongols wouldn't have got very far if those to the west had thermal imaging kit and heat-seeking missiles.
The Russians still have a capability for long-range demolition. Scorched earth. Not much else. And even that is being shown up, at any level below thermo-nuclear. Because we have the weapons coupled with resolve to use them - to stop the Russians getting what they want. (When I say we, that's apart from Germany, obvs.)
The critical factor is whether Putin cares about any of this. We really are at an extraordinary moment in history. He might not care and believe, as I think he may have said, that without Russia in its rightful position, there is no point in maintaining the globe as it is currently constituted. And then Kablooey.
I have seen plenty of articles saying we must stop Putin otherwise where will he stop; and I have seen many saying it ain't werf it.
Logically, if we are not prepared to risk nuclear war (and MAD) then Putin could take over all of Europe. So the question becomes are we prepared to do that.
Risk is a continuum, not an either/or question.
That is true. But at some stage you have to pick your point on it.
I think you're right that the future is not predictable. But it's thus not at all clear whether realpolitik would mean following or abandoning our principles. In which situation I'd prefer to run the risk of following them.
@TheKinster outlined two rather unpalatable (and, he believes, very remotely possible) scenarios.
Under such circumstances everything is up in the air.
Indeed. Just to be clear, I'm not arguing for direct NATO involvement, but I strongly support the supply of heavy weapons and aircraft.
Plus talking to China about possible responses if Putin does use tactical nukes.
Is there a recent example, anywhere in the G7, of the centre/left beating the right by a margin greater than 17pts?
Canada. If it were a top two runoff like France.
In which year?
2021. A Trudeau O'Toole runoff would most likely have produced that or greater.
That's a weird hypothetical.
Is there a real example, anywhere in the G7, of the centre/left beating the right by more than 17pts within the last, let's say, two decades?
As it was only a two horse race, it's hard to find a comparison. Unless we start looking at London mayor elections.
Well there are all the US presidential races for starters.
And the London mayors.
And the Paris mayors.
And probably a fair few others.
Anything anywhere near 17pts?
2000 London Mayoral election: Livingstone beat the Conservatives by 12pp in the first round and 16pp in the second.
2008 Paris mayoral election: PS were 15pp ahead of UMP
So 17pts the largest margin in recent history then?
Out of a small sample of elections with 2nd rounds of some sort in the G7, the 2017 French Presidential election shows the largest margin in recent history, with the 2022 election second, depending on how you define recent and what sub-national elections you include.
How local do you want to go? The last Hackney mayoral election had Labour 45% ahead of the Conservatives. 41% in the Lewisham mayoral election. 61% in Newham. Outside London, Labour had a 32% lead in the last South Yorkshire mayoral election, 19% in the West of England, 39% in Liverpool, etc.
And of course the very nature of the second ballot election is designed to produce a clear result. Not to mention the sleight of hand wording there 'centre-left' beating the 'right'. Must be the first and only time MLP has lost her 'extreme right' title in order to 'prove' the point. Epic fail on so many levels while ignoring the fact that 40+% of the French voted for a candidate portrayed mostly by her opponents as all but fascist.
JUST IN: Twitter is working to hammer out terms of a transaction and could reach an agreement with Elon Musk as soon as today if negotiations go smoothly, according to a person with knowledge of the matter
Is there a recent example, anywhere in the G7, of the centre/left beating the right by a margin greater than 17pts?
Canada. If it were a top two runoff like France.
In which year?
2021. A Trudeau O'Toole runoff would most likely have produced that or greater.
That's a weird hypothetical.
Is there a real example, anywhere in the G7, of the centre/left beating the right by more than 17pts within the last, let's say, two decades?
As it was only a two horse race, it's hard to find a comparison. Unless we start looking at London mayor elections.
Well there are all the US presidential races for starters.
And the London mayors.
And the Paris mayors.
And probably a fair few others.
Anything anywhere near 17pts?
2000 London Mayoral election: Livingstone beat the Conservatives by 12pp in the first round and 16pp in the second.
2008 Paris mayoral election: PS were 15pp ahead of UMP
So 17pts the largest margin in recent history then?
Out of a small sample of elections with 2nd rounds of some sort in the G7, the 2017 French Presidential election shows the largest margin in recent history, with the 2022 election second, depending on how you define recent and what sub-national elections you include.
How local do you want to go? The last Hackney mayoral election had Labour 45% ahead of the Conservatives. 41% in the Lewisham mayoral election. 61% in Newham. Outside London, Labour had a 32% lead in the last South Yorkshire mayoral election, 19% in the West of England, 39% in Liverpool, etc.
And of course the very nature of the second ballot election is designed to produce a clear result. Not to mention the sleight of hand wording there 'centre-left' beating the 'right'. Must be the first and only time MLP has lost her 'extreme right' title in order to 'prove' the point. Epic fail on so many levels while ignoring the fact that 40+% of the French voted for a candidate portrayed mostly by her opponents as all but fascist.
Of course when faced with a range of opponents Macron achieved a somewhat less emphatic 28% - a Corbyn sort of result. I am glad he won but let's not get carried away - the Messiah for France he is not and hopefully the better for it.
Got into Girona bus station with about forty five minutes until my bus was due, so thought I’d grab a sandwich and a beer. Sandwich wasn’t awful, but €9.50 seemed a bit steep.. Having the beer in a paper Pepsi cup might have made me look less, or more, of an alcoholic - I’m not quite sure!
Comments
Your unilateral disarmament give Putin what he wants pandering won't stop him from seeking more and more. What's to stop him demanding the whole of Eastern Europe with revanchism seeking all the territory the USSR lost since 1989?
What's to make him stop there?
Either we say no and stand up to Putin, or we just pander to him and hand him the world. Yes standing up to bullies might entail risk but its a risk we need to take.
Besides even in the Cold War, the USSR and the USA were willing to back proxies fighting the other side. The USSR supporting the Vietcong against the USA, the USA supported the Afghanis against the USSR. So us backing the Ukrainians is not some sort of new concept, its the same way the Cold War was fought since the end of WWII.
The only way Ukraine surrenders is if we, not Putin, force them to do so, by cutting off aid. And even then they might fight on.
I do not see how the west can possibly force the surrender of a democracy to an invader who is credibly accused of having started a genocide.
I don't think anyone is saying "let them win," I certainly wouldn't be happy doing any less than we are doing, but it is not a no-risk thing to do. It's like continuing to smoke cigarettes out of packets with health warnings on them, and it is silly to think that standing up to nuked-up bullies is always a winning strategy any more than standing up to lung cancer is.
Interestingly, in American design discussions, there has been little military interest in warhead counts over 10. This is because they prefer to have more missiles for reliability issues - spread the eggs across baskets. The 14 for Trident involves no space/weight for decoys, IIRC, as well.
What's clear, though, is he will stoop to anything to stay in the job. Such a bummer because he brings absolutely nothing of value to it. He's come out with a lot of stuff in recent times that makes me puke but one that requires a particularly large bucket is this one -
"I apologize most profusely, again, and it makes me all the more determined to get on and deliver on the priorities of the British people."
As if a priority of the British people is for the PM to be Boris Johnson. Utter piffle. Just about the only British people who think the PM has to be Boris Johnson are Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg and Nadine Dorries. And maybe Carrie.
PS: Where is Michael Gove? Haven't seen or heard him for ages. Is he grinding away on Levelling Up? Must be grinding away on something.
But that is by the by.
The Russians are engaged upon a large scale military operations and, having not followed the Russian order of battle as closely as some on here, am in no position to say what constitutes the "vast amount of treasure" that they have lost, nor what they might do from here.
What I can say is that Putin has learned from the West that might is right and is exercising that might right now.
It brings me back to the NFZs that many on here were (still are?) enthusiastically promoting. Are we going to put ourselves in danger, nuclear war danger, for the sake of Ukraine. My guess is not. As NATO has said. Are, however, the edges becoming blurred as to how much NATO is assisting Ukraine, and what Putin might do next on the borders of NATO? Absolutely.
Only a fool would make any kind of assessment, still less forecast under such conditions.
Its a risk we need to take.
The Russians still have a capability for long-range demolition. Scorched earth. Not much else. And even that is being shown up, at any level below thermo-nuclear. Because we have the weapons coupled with resolve to use them - to stop the Russians getting what they want. (When I say we, that's apart from Germany, obvs.)
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/two-russian-oligarchs-dead-from-apparent-suicide-within-24-hours-of-each-other
This guy, for instance - a "baddie" no doubt and "one of them" but he makes his point.
https://thearabweekly.com/how-russia-war-ukraine-echoes-precedent-set-us-iraq
But the point really is that might is right and creates the "good reason".
Well, look at the following. It's open-source, but fairly well documented.
https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2022/02/attack-on-europe-documenting-equipment.html
The Ukrainians lost (I think) 440-odd tanks in four years of fighting in the Donbass. Russia have exceeded that in less than two months. And it's not just tanks, but other kit as well. The loss of the Moskva, old as it was, will have hurt their capabilities and pride.
If you don't think that the Russians have lost vast amounts of treasure - in terms of kit, money and lives - then I'd like to know what would convince you.
I was right – Biden won it by 10pts despite your tipping it heavily as "in play" for Trump. You have been making up stuff about me now for two days. You are either a liar or delusional: which is it?
And I repeat, we have already sold the pass on appeasement. Leaving aside any moral obligation, we have an absolute duty under treaty to prevent the genocide which is taking place in Ukraine. We are not doing so. Shouldn't you be indignantly writing to your MP to ask why not?
ETA and he hasn't nuked Ukraine yet. Let's reserve judgment on the effectiveness of his nuclear weaponry, bearing in mind it would still be a terrifying threat if only 2% of it worked.
Any bald blokes with barcodes on the back of their heads been spotted?
I have seen plenty of articles saying we must stop Putin otherwise where will he stop; and I have seen many saying it ain't werf it.
Logically, if we are not prepared to risk nuclear war (and MAD) then Putin could take over all of Europe. So the question becomes are we prepared to do that.
Russia has plenty of its own "might is right" history without needing the West for any lessons on that, and if he had looked at the West's history he might have realised that might is not right and that "might" can be defeated.
You are speaking here with the self-certainty of HYUFD. Might didn't win Afghanistan for the USA, nor Vietnam for them either. Might is not winning Ukraine for Russia.
Putin may be putting us in danger of nuclear war but that is not a reason to pander to Putin and let him seize the world while we watch slackjawed from the sidelines. Life isn't without risk and just as we needed to take risks getting out of lockdown rather than waiting until life was riskfree before meeting each other face to face, similarly we can't wait until the risk of nuclear war is eliminated before we send support to Ukraine.
Is there a real example, anywhere in the G7, of the centre/left beating the right by more than 17pts within the last, let's say, two decades?
Or who was it who posted links to the various International Brigades that you yourself could go and join. Every little helps.
In France 2022 Macron beat Le Pen by 4.7% in the first round, not 17%, so why would you compare the French second round with other countries that don't have 2 rounds of voting and expect to see single-round voting producing the same results as run-off second round voting does?
https://twitter.com/business/status/1518556240242253826
And the London mayors.
And the Paris mayors.
And probably a fair few others.
Anything anywhere near 17pts?
Therefore such a margin won't happen.
My policy would be to do exactly what the West is doing: To arm Ukraine.
Ukraine can fight on our behalf by proxy which is the same as the Cold War was fought for half a century before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
We have no reason to send troops to Ukraine as that would be a direct conflict which isn't required, but what we do have good reason to do is send munitions to Ukraine for them to use themselves which is fair game and is precisely like how the USA armed the Afghanis versus the USSR or how the USSR armed the Vietcong versus the USA.
'Look boss, you know what we've been really good at for years? Bumping off people in mysterious circumstances to put the shitters up les autres.'
Also, as anyone who reads that link I posted can see, you are also personally offensive when making posts and when it’s uncalled for. You come across as unpleasant and slightly unbalanced (you may not be in real life, I don’t really know).
In any event, you were the one making the original thrust and now, when someone replies, you are crying like a baby about things.
Anyway, back to Oryx to see how many tanks the Russians have lost today.
I was also assuming relatively recently
The problem is finding staff.
I would suggest however much Russia's military has been degraded, it is getting close to a point where it would have to rely on nukes against NATO - which would mean in turn it would be reduced to a wasteland of irradiated tundra and taiga - and several former cities made of trinitite.
@MarqueeMark said that if we let Putin get away with "it" (not sure how defined) it would set a terrible precedent. I said that that precedent had been set in 2003 in Iraq.
You disagreed with that saying "we had good reason". And in so doing you have let yourself down as an analytical observer. Because right now there are plenty of Russians in Russia saying "we have good reason". The key should be to distance yourself from the emotional and try to understand the dynamics from as much an objective perspective as possible.
IMO.
Losing at least 550 then becomes a big issue, given sanctions mean their tank factories have shut down, and they have a vast border to protect. And the tanks they are losing seem not to be older ones, but modernised versions.
2008 Paris mayoral election: PS were 15pp ahead of UMP
The PIRA would then run round torturing and murdering only to discover that the leaks were still going on....
(ii) Nuclear Holocaust.
For me, both of the above are only a remote possibility but if I had to rate them against each other I'd say (ii) is more likely than (i).
Surely, given his ‘Oxford debating skills’, he’s not scared of being quizzed by MPs?
https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1518546007176491009
Tallies with Sunday Times scoop that Sue Gray report is 'damning' and i report that 'One Nation' and 2019 intake MPs are now coordinating to oust him. ~AA
https://www.itv.com/news/2022-04-25/sue-gray-partygate-report-could-end-pm-as-no-confidence-letters-pile-up
• I tipped the Dems in South Carolina –– this was a falsehood. I have never tipped the state either way.
• I was wrong about Virginia –– this was a falsehood. I was right. You were wrong claiming it was "in play" for Trump.
• I tipped the Dems in Alaska –– this was a falsehood. I have never tipped the state either way.
Three complete untruths you wrote about me in the space of a few hours then refused to retract them, even though you know that they were false claims.
You have absolutely no right to call others "unpleasant and slightly unbalanced".
I will simply ignore you from now on, lest I be accused of "bullying" someone merely by asking them to retract their untruths.
Let it all wash over you, extract the points being made and respond, or just respond to the people who are more measured.
Would be my thinking.
Glad that you are off your meds btw. Well done.
(Also, technically, X letters away from a confidence vote - X letters and a lost confidence vote away from, well not so much a leadership challenge as being booted out on his ear. There's no actualy mechanism for a leadership challenge now, is there? Either win the vote and safe for a year or lose it and booted out, not permitted to stand in the new leader election?)
It's not a slam dunk either way.
But it's thus not at all clear whether realpolitik would mean following or abandoning our principles. In which situation I'd prefer to run the risk of following them.
Under such circumstances everything is up in the air.
But seems like a hell of a task to try and compete in this space when there is always the next "hot" social media, first it was Instanta, then Snap, now Tik Tok, and twitter has a culture of anonymous egg accounts and toxicity...while you aren't buying it at total knock down rate.
But that's why Elon Musk is a billionaire and I'm not I suppose.
Certainly recent announcements have been about training in neighbouring Poland.
I disagree, we are doing the right thing and we need to continue with it until Russia loses the war and is pushed back out of Ukraine.
I have been exercising my thighs throughout to compensate for the lack of exercise. I have been exercising my right calf (where 3 of the breaks are) since I have been able to. Both while lying down. I can do a straight lift of my legs for 5 1/2 minutes at a time, which I consider pretty good. I have nearly full mobility of my ankle now so I can really work my calf and the really good news is I have practically no muscle wastage (which I understand is pretty rare). I am still on crutches for 2 more weeks and then 2 more weeks in a boot so there is no swimming or cycle riding yet.
Yesterday I walked (on crutches) the 100 metres to my compost heap and sat on it filling a wheelbarrow full of compost 3 times for the rhubarb (my wife has to push the wheelbarrow) and also cut up the remains of a hedge I took down prior to breaking my leg. The only down side is a very wet bottom.
How local do you want to go? The last Hackney mayoral election had Labour 45% ahead of the Conservatives. 41% in the Lewisham mayoral election. 61% in Newham. Outside London, Labour had a 32% lead in the last South Yorkshire mayoral election, 19% in the West of England, 39% in Liverpool, etc.
I think I mentioned (as I always do for such injuries) getting yourself into a swimming pool. Does wonders as well as the therabands...
Physio didn't do much for my problem sadly - except for the fact my physio got me in with the surgeon who did fix me...
Just to be clear, I'm not arguing for direct NATO involvement, but I strongly support the supply of heavy weapons and aircraft.
Plus talking to China about possible responses if Putin does use tactical nukes.