It's not at all good. And what are the Lancet playing at publishing articles from the Chinese government?
Why do you think The Lancet was so keen to rubbish the Lab Leak hypothesis? So very very keen that they published a deliberately duplicitous letter, denouncing the theory, written by the man who co-runs the Wuhan lab - without actually mentioning his connection to the lab? They even declared “no conflict of interest”. Sweet Jesus
It is an absolutely discredited journal. Which is sad
I expect the crypto crash later this year, as people try to pull their money out to cover other bills, find there is no liquidity and start a crypto run.
What mainstream businesses are vulnerable to this, thinking of my own portfolio?
Companies that sell advertising. Crypto companies have been spending billions of dollars in the advertising market over the past couple of years.
Google and Facebook stand out, and are already well down from their own peaks. Other media and sports companies too.
Yes, I can see advertising getting squeezed. Crypto adverts are everywhere, and a sign of peak bubble. Advertising is easy to squeeze too if a company is short of cash, just re-run a previous campaign.
I have a bit in US tech stocks via a Unit Trust but mostly my portfolio is in businesses that I understand how they make their money.
SHOPPERS have been left perplexed by a mysterious tin of “Boris Beans” that was photographed in a supermarket.
A member of the public said the product, an apparent protest against the current cost-of-living crisis, was found in Tesco Express on Queens Road, Brighton.
The "Boris Beans" are said to come in a tasty “austerity sauce” with “misery guaranteed”.
It comes after a Tory minister said hard-up families should switch to supermarket value brands to survive.
The irony to me is the level of stupidity which still thinks that the vast of majority of branded products are not identical to the generic equivalents in all respects except price. The advice was eminently sensible.
The level of stupidity involved in thinking that stupidity is likely in issue in a dispute over verifiable facts, is disturbing.
You are just wrong: it varies by product. Tesco jaffa cakes are jaffa cakes (I know a bloke who drives the lorry from the jaffa cake factory to tescos); Tesco Dorito knock offs are seemingly offcuts from a North Korean cardboard factory (but own brand salsa is acceptable, so buy Doritos and dip them in that).
Bonus tip:Tesco's Finest wines are almost all excellent vfm.
That BBC article on covid lockdown in Shanghai is well worth a read.
Quite astonishing. More than two years into the pandemic and China is now imposing “its strictest quarantine yet” - and this is in its richest, probably most important city (you can argue a case for Beijing - but that’s also in quasi-lockdown)
I wonder if Xi is in real trouble
This also raises the question Why on earth doesn’t China just make vaccination compulsory (and buy and rebadge western MRNA vax if necessary). Surely that would be better than the economic and social horror of lockdown? And China is quite happy to coerce its people
I posted this near the end of the last thread; since I got no response, I thought I'd try again:
Okay, so Brexit is done. I'm putting my 'bloke on the Clapham omnibus who voted for Brexit' hat on and asking - what difference has it made to my life? I'm struggling. I'm aware of some downsides, though they don't affect me much. But what are the upsides? Okay, I hear that wages have risen in some, but not that many, low-skilled sectors, but that may be as much due to Covid as Brexit, and anyway I don't work in a low-skilled sector.
So a serious, genuine question. How has Brexit benefitted me, who voted for it? How has my government used these new freedoms/sovereignty to improve my life? If it was such a good idea, people ought to be able to answer this by now, with specific, tangible examples that affect me - but I'm struggling. Help.
You were duped, it was a crap deal , badly handled and implemented
On another note, the Queen’s Speech confirms that the Tories now have nothing to offer but division and culture war. The ongoing erosion of Parliamentary scrutiny and continuing threats to tear up international treaty obligations also confirms the party’s long-time beliefs in democracy and upholding the rule of law have now been abandoned. What a time to be alive!
Mr. Sandpit, ah, cheers. I do remember thinking that untethered Tether was just destined to fall but didn't realise it had already.
Tether is still tethered, but God only knows why. It’s the Tether-clones that have fallen in recent days.
Tether is tethered (for now), because the guys that created it are able to temporarily prop up the price with the money they've looted from it. They are in a bit of a bind... if (when) it collapses, they all end up in jail... but they don't have unlimited resources to maintain the peg.
Many years ago, when I was a lad, I had a job loading 1cwt bags of fertilizer onto pallets. This was when the UK granulated nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compounds to make fertilizer. They were bagged in situ, and the farmer came with their wagons to collect it.
I remember one old farmer being emphatic. "I don't want any of that Fisons rubbish boy, I want Hadfields." It was the work of seconds to exchange the Fisons bags for the Hadfields ones. He paid close to £2 a ton extra for the privilege. This was when £2 was a lot of money.
Many years ago, when I was a lad, I had a job loading 1cwt bags of fertilizer onto pallets. This was when the UK granulated nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compounds to make fertilizer. They were bagged in situ, and the farmer came with their wagons to collect it.
I remember one old farmer being emphatic. "I don't want any of that Fisons rubbish boy, I want Hadfields." It was the work of seconds to exchange the Fisons bags for the Hadfields ones. He paid close to £2 a ton extra for the privilege. This was when £2 was a lot of money.
Some people never learn.
Yes N P and K can't really be anything else. Like buying nurofen when it is literally illegal for it to vary from unbranded ibuprofen. Then again, supermarket petrol and diesel are, as I understand it, crap - they skimp on the additives
“The majority of shadow ministers said they were grimly resigned to Starmer’s pledge – but said there were likely to be internal consequences. “I think once you start talking up the prospect of your own resignation you are on dangerous ground,” one said.
Another veteran MP, a Starmer loyalist, said they suspected ulterior motives from some shadow cabinet members. “If you fancy Keir’s job, this is win-win,” they said.”
Doesn’t sound like a happy place: the Shadow Cabinet
Some positives for Nandy. Comprehensive educated. Female. Ethnic minority. Northern. Soft left. Soft Brexiter. Though voted Remain (as did many Cabinet Ministers). Ticks several boxes.
Think she wouldn’t scare the moderate Tory voting shires either.
She is a complete lightweight and a republican like Corbyn, which we Tories would make damn sure the Tory shires know about.
She is too Brexity for Remainers who would start to shift back to the LDs (remember Labour lost more votes to the LDs in 2019 than the Tories), while still not Brexity enough for Boris backing Leavers in the redwall.
She so has no charisma unlike Burnham or Streeting and no gravitas unlike Starmer or Cooper or even Reeves. Heck, even Rayner would be a better option for Labour than Nandy
Big reason why Makerfield stayed Labour and Leigh didn't despite slightly worse demographics. Lots of voters thought they were voting for Lisa Nandy the "Wigan" MP. She's pretty well liked in a classic Red Wall town. PS. Streeting has charisma? It's in the eye of the beholder I know. But crikey.
I thought Makerfield was Yvonne Forvague (sp?) Or is that your point - Lisa's charms not only win her own seat but her neighbours' too?
I'm only going off anecdotal reports from my Mother. Leigh sees itself in opposition to Wigan. Makerfield, which could easily be named Wigan South, (the less posh bit) is firmly Wigan. Mums's canvassing reports said many in Makerfield said they'd vote Labour cos they liked Lisa Nandy the Wigan MP.
I see - yes, that sounds right. 'Take Back Control' in Leigh means and since 1974 has only ever meant from Wigan. I did a consultation event in Atherton a couple of years back - to hear people there talk it was as if the streets of Wigan were paved in the gold stolen from the good hardworking people of all the other towns in the borough. To hear Wigan described in the terms of a decadent metropole was slightly jarring.
I used to end up in Leigh on my driving lessons! Despite living on a bus route to Leigh I have never been to the town centre, but always remember the main fact I was told - it is the largest town on the country without a train station. I bet Sunil hasn't been.
SHOPPERS have been left perplexed by a mysterious tin of “Boris Beans” that was photographed in a supermarket.
A member of the public said the product, an apparent protest against the current cost-of-living crisis, was found in Tesco Express on Queens Road, Brighton.
The "Boris Beans" are said to come in a tasty “austerity sauce” with “misery guaranteed”.
It comes after a Tory minister said hard-up families should switch to supermarket value brands to survive.
The irony to me is the level of stupidity which still thinks that the vast of majority of branded products are not identical to the generic equivalents in all respects except price. The advice was eminently sensible.
I wonder how many Tory MPs use predominantly own brands themselves?
If they don't they're as thick as anyone else who does. Of coourse we know that woman of the people Angela Rayner loves her Apple air Buds - paid for by the taxdes of the .
I think it is worth trying the own brands, or cheaper brands, from time to time, sometimes they are fine and similar, other times, most of the time in my experience, they are clearly lower quality.
I don't think Tory MPs are thick for likely preferring pricier brands, just that at their income level they are not hit by the cost of living crisis in the same way that the poorest 10-20% are.
Oh dear - the power of advertising.... I respectfully think you are wrong but each to their own.
He isn't wrong. Having watched the production of fish fingers they are clearly different (I was providing consultancy). I watched the production of:
Different branded fish fingers Different own brand fish fingers Local authority ff for school Government ff for prisons
All coming out of the same factory, but all with very different contents.
Now I agree the branded might not taste better, in fact when it comes to fish fingers I prefer own brand because I'm not bothered about fish content. I also agree that some products might be identical, but you can't claim it is all down to advertising.
I will always try the cheaper stuff first before being suckered into the branded goods and generally find it fine but it isn't necessarily the same and usually isn't.
I asked for thoughts on coffee machines for a small cafe the other week.
We ended up going for a consumer bean-to-cup on the basis that it does make a nice coffee, but is also inexpensive enough that it will do the job whilst trade is low and starts to build, and we can either take it home and buy a larger machine if required, or just get another one to go next to it.
Simple, and makes a very nice cup off coffee, but is quite customisable. A slight annoyance is that it works in "low medium high" rather than grams of coffee per shot.
But DeLonghi need some serious attention to their incomprehensible model numbers.
Generic drugs are another interesting issue. The prices drop for a good reason. It's assumed the original company have made up for the research costs which are considerable, so the price now reflects the maufacturing price. Do patients ask for the original stuff? Do they believe the packaging has a magic ingredient?
That BBC article on covid lockdown in Shanghai is well worth a read.
Quite astonishing. More than two years into the pandemic and China is now imposing “its strictest quarantine yet” - and this is in its richest, probably most important city (you can argue a case for Beijing - but that’s also in quasi-lockdown)
I wonder if Xi is in real trouble
This also raises the question Why on earth doesn’t China just make vaccination compulsory (and buy and rebadge western MRNA vax if necessary). Surely that would be better than the economic and social horror of lockdown? And China is quite happy to coerce its people
Most peculiar
Oh, it's even worse than that. Pfizer's vaccine is actually manufactured in China, and is exported from there to Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, etc. But it is not approved for use in China itself.
Many years ago, when I was a lad, I had a job loading 1cwt bags of fertilizer onto pallets. This was when the UK granulated nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compounds to make fertilizer. They were bagged in situ, and the farmer came with their wagons to collect it.
I remember one old farmer being emphatic. "I don't want any of that Fisons rubbish boy, I want Hadfields." It was the work of seconds to exchange the Fisons bags for the Hadfields ones. He paid close to £2 a ton extra for the privilege. This was when £2 was a lot of money.
Some people never learn.
Yes N P and K can't really be anything else. Like buying nurofen when it is literally illegal for it to vary from unbranded ibuprofen. Then again, supermarket petrol and diesel are, as I understand it, crap - they skimp on the additives
I know the average age of PB-ers is quite high, but if @CD13 can remember when “£2 was a lot of money” then I estimate he must be about 320 years old. Which is impressive
In life there's stuff people need to have, food, hydrocarbons (For now), construction materials, medicines, houses Then there's the 'want to have' stuff - sports entertainment, artwork, vapid celebrity.
Often the 'want to have' stuff can be of high value - Warhol's painting of Monroe sold for $200m, and the Prem is obviously worth a few billion.
Currencies lie somewhere between the two - people can produce the needs and wants and exchange between the two with various currency.
Crypto is worth as much or as little as any other currency - see the recent movements of the Turkish Lira, Sterling, ruble and the USD. NFTs are different - Jack's recent tweet sale demonstrates the fact that these are highly dependant on WHO is selling it at the time... the 'value' can't hold up so well once the owner is AN Other Joe
On Crypto - and NFTs for that matter - I simply don't understand the supposed value held. Yes people apparently want to pay $30k for a bitcoin, but isn't that its only value - other loons?
Spectator TV on Youtube David Frost: Why Brexit deal needs renegotiating ...
Because he negotiated it ?
Because of sequencing.
The EU requested that we sequence sorting NI first, then the Withdrawal Agreement, then the Trade Agreement, then go back to revisit NI once we knew our Trade arrangements.
We're now at the last step, and the EU are wanting to welch on their own sequencing by not revisiting NI.
Time to invoke Article 16. That's what its there for.
SHOPPERS have been left perplexed by a mysterious tin of “Boris Beans” that was photographed in a supermarket.
A member of the public said the product, an apparent protest against the current cost-of-living crisis, was found in Tesco Express on Queens Road, Brighton.
The "Boris Beans" are said to come in a tasty “austerity sauce” with “misery guaranteed”.
It comes after a Tory minister said hard-up families should switch to supermarket value brands to survive.
The irony to me is the level of stupidity which still thinks that the vast of majority of branded products are not identical to the generic equivalents in all respects except price. The advice was eminently sensible.
The level of stupidity involved in thinking that stupidity is likely in issue in a dispute over verifiable facts, is disturbing.
You are just wrong: it varies by product. Tesco jaffa cakes are jaffa cakes (I know a bloke who drives the lorry from the jaffa cake factory to tescos); Tesco Dorito knock offs are seemingly offcuts from a North Korean cardboard factory (but own brand salsa is acceptable, so buy Doritos and dip them in that).
Bonus tip:Tesco's Finest wines are almost all excellent vfm.
Good morning One & All! Bro-in-law used to work for a big confectionary manufacturer. Made sweets for several big firms. The difference was frequently, although not always, the packaging. And years ago I knew a chap who was production manager at a firm which made the sort of vitamin products advertised as being 'finest'. Yes, you've guessed it. Often off the same production line as their 'competitors'.
That BBC article on covid lockdown in Shanghai is well worth a read.
Quite astonishing. More than two years into the pandemic and China is now imposing “its strictest quarantine yet” - and this is in its richest, probably most important city (you can argue a case for Beijing - but that’s also in quasi-lockdown)
I wonder if Xi is in real trouble
This also raises the question Why on earth doesn’t China just make vaccination compulsory (and buy and rebadge western MRNA vax if necessary). Surely that would be better than the economic and social horror of lockdown? And China is quite happy to coerce its people
Most peculiar
Oh, it's even worse than that. Pfizer's vaccine is actually manufactured in China, and is exported from there to Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, etc. But it is not approved for use in China itself.
It’s totally bonkers. Presumably the Chinese govt fears that if it makes the vax compulsory and goes around forcibly injecting the oldies it might face civil unrest…
… and yet this is a government which until recently brutally enforced a law restricting how many kids you can have, and is also engaged on a genocide on its Muslim minorities, still ongoing
So that doesn’t make sense
My only conclusion is that Xi is personally wedded to the “zero Covid” idea via lockdown, and he is too invested in it to back away. Which does imply his leadership is in trouble, as lockdowns are so damaging and unpopular
On Crypto - and NFTs for that matter - I simply don't understand the supposed value held. Yes people apparently want to pay $30k for a bitcoin, but isn't that its only value - other loons?
At one time, I thought that Bitcoin would eventually trend towards the cost of electricity required to mine one. Not sure now though, I think it could collapse completely.
All the other coins and NFTs have very little tangible value beyond speculation and money laundering. They’re 21st century tulip bulbs.
I asked for thoughts on coffee machines for a small cafe the other week.
We ended up going for a consumer bean-to-cup on the basis that it does make a nice coffee, but is also inexpensive enough that it will do the job whilst trade is low and starts to build, and we can either take it home and buy a larger machine if required, or just get another one to go next to it.
Simple, and makes a very nice cup off coffee, but is quite customisable. A slight annoyance is that it works in "low medium high" rather than grams of coffee per shot.
But DeLonghi need some serious attention to their incomprehensible model numbers.
I missed your original post - I would have suggested the Gaggia Velasca (£499 Caffe Italia). We have one and it is excellent.
Generic drugs are another interesting issue. The prices drop for a good reason. It's assumed the original company have made up for the research costs which are considerable, so the price now reflects the maufacturing price. Do patients ask for the original stuff? Do they believe the packaging has a magic ingredient?
Theassumption is yes, and answer is yes, sometimes. The colour sometimes makes a difference, as well.
SHOPPERS have been left perplexed by a mysterious tin of “Boris Beans” that was photographed in a supermarket.
A member of the public said the product, an apparent protest against the current cost-of-living crisis, was found in Tesco Express on Queens Road, Brighton.
The "Boris Beans" are said to come in a tasty “austerity sauce” with “misery guaranteed”.
It comes after a Tory minister said hard-up families should switch to supermarket value brands to survive.
The irony to me is the level of stupidity which still thinks that the vast of majority of branded products are not identical to the generic equivalents in all respects except price. The advice was eminently sensible.
The level of stupidity involved in thinking that stupidity is likely in issue in a dispute over verifiable facts, is disturbing.
You are just wrong: it varies by product. Tesco jaffa cakes are jaffa cakes (I know a bloke who drives the lorry from the jaffa cake factory to tescos); Tesco Dorito knock offs are seemingly offcuts from a North Korean cardboard factory (but own brand salsa is acceptable, so buy Doritos and dip them in that).
Bonus tip:Tesco's Finest wines are almost all excellent vfm.
It depends on the company. In general the last thing a “branded product” company will want is to turn brands into commodities and some of the leading ones absolutely will not supply own brands. Many moons ago when Pampers was introduced M&S approached P&G said they wouldn’t mind if P&G made the M&S own brand disposable nappy, the technology being good enough. P&G declined.
SHOPPERS have been left perplexed by a mysterious tin of “Boris Beans” that was photographed in a supermarket.
A member of the public said the product, an apparent protest against the current cost-of-living crisis, was found in Tesco Express on Queens Road, Brighton.
The "Boris Beans" are said to come in a tasty “austerity sauce” with “misery guaranteed”.
It comes after a Tory minister said hard-up families should switch to supermarket value brands to survive.
The irony to me is the level of stupidity which still thinks that the vast of majority of branded products are not identical to the generic equivalents in all respects except price. The advice was eminently sensible.
That really was not the basis of the criticism.
Maybe it should have been then - unless the left wants to die on the cross to defend Heinz against Tesco's finest. Of course we know from yesterday that the biggest tragedy of Brexit is the fact that it's marginally less easy now to spend more than 3 months at a time 'immersing' in French/Italian culture in one's villa in Provence or Tuscany - so maybe they do.
You made it to Spain to live a very happy retirement. Your sneering at those many Brits who will now be denied that opportunity is not a great look.
I voted against Brexit as you know. I also know the difference between settling in a new country and having 2 homes. You clearly don't. I'm sad beyond measure to lose your good opinion. I'll just have to bear it and move on.
On Crypto - and NFTs for that matter - I simply don't understand the supposed value held. Yes people apparently want to pay $30k for a bitcoin, but isn't that its only value - other loons?
People paying $30k for a bitcoin are doing so because they assume they can sell it to someone else later for even more.
SHOPPERS have been left perplexed by a mysterious tin of “Boris Beans” that was photographed in a supermarket.
A member of the public said the product, an apparent protest against the current cost-of-living crisis, was found in Tesco Express on Queens Road, Brighton.
The "Boris Beans" are said to come in a tasty “austerity sauce” with “misery guaranteed”.
It comes after a Tory minister said hard-up families should switch to supermarket value brands to survive.
The irony to me is the level of stupidity which still thinks that the vast of majority of branded products are not identical to the generic equivalents in all respects except price. The advice was eminently sensible.
The level of stupidity involved in thinking that stupidity is likely in issue in a dispute over verifiable facts, is disturbing.
You are just wrong: it varies by product. Tesco jaffa cakes are jaffa cakes (I know a bloke who drives the lorry from the jaffa cake factory to tescos); Tesco Dorito knock offs are seemingly offcuts from a North Korean cardboard factory (but own brand salsa is acceptable, so buy Doritos and dip them in that).
Bonus tip:Tesco's Finest wines are almost all excellent vfm.
Good morning One & All! Bro-in-law used to work for a big confectionary manufacturer. Made sweets for several big firms. The difference was frequently, although not always, the packaging. And years ago I knew a chap who was production manager at a firm which made the sort of vitamin products advertised as being 'finest'. Yes, you've guessed it. Often off the same production line as their 'competitors'.
25 or so years ago, the supermarkets had a 'bean war', where they all went mad trying to have the cheapest baked beans. Myself and some friends bought a load of cans and did a taste testing. The really cheap beans - I think one can was even a few pence - had water-like tomato sauce that was gritty and hard, tasteless beans. Almost literal sweepings off the factory floor ...
SHOPPERS have been left perplexed by a mysterious tin of “Boris Beans” that was photographed in a supermarket.
A member of the public said the product, an apparent protest against the current cost-of-living crisis, was found in Tesco Express on Queens Road, Brighton.
The "Boris Beans" are said to come in a tasty “austerity sauce” with “misery guaranteed”.
It comes after a Tory minister said hard-up families should switch to supermarket value brands to survive.
The irony to me is the level of stupidity which still thinks that the vast of majority of branded products are not identical to the generic equivalents in all respects except price. The advice was eminently sensible.
I wonder how many Tory MPs use predominantly own brands themselves?
If they don't they're as thick as anyone else who does. Of coourse we know that woman of the people Angela Rayner loves her Apple air Buds - paid for by the taxdes of the .
I think it is worth trying the own brands, or cheaper brands, from time to time, sometimes they are fine and similar, other times, most of the time in my experience, they are clearly lower quality.
I don't think Tory MPs are thick for likely preferring pricier brands, just that at their income level they are not hit by the cost of living crisis in the same way that the poorest 10-20% are.
Oh dear - the power of advertising.... I respectfully think you are wrong but each to their own.
He isn't wrong. Having watched the production of fish fingers they are clearly different (I was providing consultancy). I watched the production of:
Different branded fish fingers Different own brand fish fingers Local authority ff for school Government ff for prisons
All coming out of the same factory, but all with very different contents.
Now I agree the branded might not taste better, in fact when it comes to fish fingers I prefer own brand because I'm not bothered about fish content. I also agree that some products might be identical, but you can't claim it is all down to advertising.
I will always try the cheaper stuff first before being suckered into the branded goods and generally find it fine but it isn't necessarily the same and usually isn't.
It really depends on the product. Most own brand products are not the same as branded - why would the brand owner give away their brand equity to someone else? But if you look around so many of them are very very close to branded.
The problem is that you can't guarantee that will stay the same. I've seen quite a few times where the supermarket switches supplier for their own brand product, the packaging and price are the same and the quality drops. That doesn't tend to happen with branded!
Quite simply, yet you pay a premium for brands and they spend some of that on marketing. But no marketing can hawk an inferior product. The reason why Beanz Meanz Heinz is because their beans are the best on the market. Don't like the price? Buy them on promotion in bulk.
On Crypto - and NFTs for that matter - I simply don't understand the supposed value held. Yes people apparently want to pay $30k for a bitcoin, but isn't that its only value - other loons?
At one time, I thought that Bitcoin would eventually trend towards the cost of electricity required to mine one. Not sure now though, I think it could collapse completely.
All the other coins and NFTs have very little tangible value beyond speculation and money laundering. They’re 21st century tulip bulbs.
(Did you manage to move your safe?).
Not yet - the guy is going to come and look this weekend and formulate a plan. It will be hoist onto a heavy-duty trolley job - I have step-free access from the road so the tricky bit is getting it off the plinth its on.
SHOPPERS have been left perplexed by a mysterious tin of “Boris Beans” that was photographed in a supermarket.
A member of the public said the product, an apparent protest against the current cost-of-living crisis, was found in Tesco Express on Queens Road, Brighton.
The "Boris Beans" are said to come in a tasty “austerity sauce” with “misery guaranteed”.
It comes after a Tory minister said hard-up families should switch to supermarket value brands to survive.
The irony to me is the level of stupidity which still thinks that the vast of majority of branded products are not identical to the generic equivalents in all respects except price. The advice was eminently sensible.
The level of stupidity involved in thinking that stupidity is likely in issue in a dispute over verifiable facts, is disturbing.
You are just wrong: it varies by product. Tesco jaffa cakes are jaffa cakes (I know a bloke who drives the lorry from the jaffa cake factory to tescos); Tesco Dorito knock offs are seemingly offcuts from a North Korean cardboard factory (but own brand salsa is acceptable, so buy Doritos and dip them in that).
Bonus tip:Tesco's Finest wines are almost all excellent vfm.
Good morning One & All! Bro-in-law used to work for a big confectionary manufacturer. Made sweets for several big firms. The difference was frequently, although not always, the packaging. And years ago I knew a chap who was production manager at a firm which made the sort of vitamin products advertised as being 'finest'. Yes, you've guessed it. Often off the same production line as their 'competitors'.
25 or so years ago, the supermarkets had a 'bean war', where they all went mad trying to have the cheapest baked beans. Myself and some friends bought a load of cans and did a taste testing. The really cheap beans - I think one can was even a few pence - had water-like tomato sauce that was gritty and hard, tasteless beans. Almost literal sweepings off the factory floor ...
I asked for thoughts on coffee machines for a small cafe the other week.
We ended up going for a consumer bean-to-cup on the basis that it does make a nice coffee, but is also inexpensive enough that it will do the job whilst trade is low and starts to build, and we can either take it home and buy a larger machine if required, or just get another one to go next to it.
Simple, and makes a very nice cup off coffee, but is quite customisable. A slight annoyance is that it works in "low medium high" rather than grams of coffee per shot.
But DeLonghi need some serious attention to their incomprehensible model numbers.
I missed your original post - I would have suggested the Gaggia Velasca (£499 Caffe Italia). We have one and it is excellent.
I have a jar of Kenco Smooth. A £5 jar lasts for a couple of months.
On Crypto - and NFTs for that matter - I simply don't understand the supposed value held. Yes people apparently want to pay $30k for a bitcoin, but isn't that its only value - other loons?
People paying $30k for a bitcoin are doing so because they assume they can sell it to someone else later for even more.
Like a Tulip bulb.
The analogy is tempting but inexact. Crypto currencies are highly useful and have advantages over normal fiat currencies. There is a good chance a chunk of the world - or all of the world - will eventually settle on one as its crypto of choice and that currency will become as important and valuable as the US dollar or the £ sterling before it
Having spent a few days in Wakefield the by election is going to be tough for the Tories. One of their issues is that people feel disillusioned about Brexit. People who voted for it telling us they regret it. One of PM’s biggest selling points starting to seem like a weakness. https://twitter.com/wizbates/status/1524098882375983106
SHOPPERS have been left perplexed by a mysterious tin of “Boris Beans” that was photographed in a supermarket.
A member of the public said the product, an apparent protest against the current cost-of-living crisis, was found in Tesco Express on Queens Road, Brighton.
The "Boris Beans" are said to come in a tasty “austerity sauce” with “misery guaranteed”.
It comes after a Tory minister said hard-up families should switch to supermarket value brands to survive.
The irony to me is the level of stupidity which still thinks that the vast of majority of branded products are not identical to the generic equivalents in all respects except price. The advice was eminently sensible.
That really was not the basis of the criticism.
Maybe it should have been then - unless the left wants to die on the cross to defend Heinz against Tesco's finest. Of course we know from yesterday that the biggest tragedy of Brexit is the fact that it's marginally less easy now to spend more than 3 months at a time 'immersing' in French/Italian culture in one's villa in Provence or Tuscany - so maybe they do.
You made it to Spain to live a very happy retirement. Your sneering at those many Brits who will now be denied that opportunity is not a great look.
I voted against Brexit as you know. I also know the difference between settling in a new country and having 2 homes. You clearly don't. I'm sad beyond measure to lose your good opinion. I'll just have to bear it and move on.
Voting against Brexit is no defence when you sneer at those who will lose out because of it.
I asked for thoughts on coffee machines for a small cafe the other week.
We ended up going for a consumer bean-to-cup on the basis that it does make a nice coffee, but is also inexpensive enough that it will do the job whilst trade is low and starts to build, and we can either take it home and buy a larger machine if required, or just get another one to go next to it.
Simple, and makes a very nice cup off coffee, but is quite customisable. A slight annoyance is that it works in "low medium high" rather than grams of coffee per shot.
But DeLonghi need some serious attention to their incomprehensible model numbers.
I missed your original post - I would have suggested the Gaggia Velasca (£499 Caffe Italia). We have one and it is excellent.
Thanks.
They've really been around the houses on this one
I started off by suggesting a consumer machine that could be thrown away if it did not work well as an option, and that has turned out to be the low risk option.
I'm now wondering about a bean to cup for home to go alongside the Gaggia Classico for convenience.
SHOPPERS have been left perplexed by a mysterious tin of “Boris Beans” that was photographed in a supermarket.
A member of the public said the product, an apparent protest against the current cost-of-living crisis, was found in Tesco Express on Queens Road, Brighton.
The "Boris Beans" are said to come in a tasty “austerity sauce” with “misery guaranteed”.
It comes after a Tory minister said hard-up families should switch to supermarket value brands to survive.
The irony to me is the level of stupidity which still thinks that the vast of majority of branded products are not identical to the generic equivalents in all respects except price. The advice was eminently sensible.
I wonder how many Tory MPs use predominantly own brands themselves?
If they don't they're as thick as anyone else who does. Of coourse we know that woman of the people Angela Rayner loves her Apple air Buds - paid for by the taxdes of the .
I think it is worth trying the own brands, or cheaper brands, from time to time, sometimes they are fine and similar, other times, most of the time in my experience, they are clearly lower quality.
I don't think Tory MPs are thick for likely preferring pricier brands, just that at their income level they are not hit by the cost of living crisis in the same way that the poorest 10-20% are.
Oh dear - the power of advertising.... I respectfully think you are wrong but each to their own.
He isn't wrong. Having watched the production of fish fingers they are clearly different (I was providing consultancy). I watched the production of:
Different branded fish fingers Different own brand fish fingers Local authority ff for school Government ff for prisons
All coming out of the same factory, but all with very different contents.
Now I agree the branded might not taste better, in fact when it comes to fish fingers I prefer own brand because I'm not bothered about fish content. I also agree that some products might be identical, but you can't claim it is all down to advertising.
I will always try the cheaper stuff first before being suckered into the branded goods and generally find it fine but it isn't necessarily the same and usually isn't.
It really depends on the product. Most own brand products are not the same as branded - why would the brand owner give away their brand equity to someone else? But if you look around so many of them are very very close to branded.
The problem is that you can't guarantee that will stay the same. I've seen quite a few times where the supermarket switches supplier for their own brand product, the packaging and price are the same and the quality drops. That doesn't tend to happen with branded!
Quite simply, yet you pay a premium for brands and they spend some of that on marketing. But no marketing can hawk an inferior product. The reason why Beanz Meanz Heinz is because their beans are the best on the market. Don't like the price? Buy them on promotion in bulk.
@IshmaelZ is right about Tesco’s Finest wines however. They are often great. Their “Finest” Amarone is probably the best Amarone I’ve ever had. It costs £18 (you used to be able to get it for a ridiculous £12) and it is better than amarone wines thrice the price
That BBC article on covid lockdown in Shanghai is well worth a read.
Quite astonishing. More than two years into the pandemic and China is now imposing “its strictest quarantine yet” - and this is in its richest, probably most important city (you can argue a case for Beijing - but that’s also in quasi-lockdown)
I wonder if Xi is in real trouble
This also raises the question Why on earth doesn’t China just make vaccination compulsory (and buy and rebadge western MRNA vax if necessary). Surely that would be better than the economic and social horror of lockdown? And China is quite happy to coerce its people
Most peculiar
Oh, it's even worse than that. Pfizer's vaccine is actually manufactured in China, and is exported from there to Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, etc. But it is not approved for use in China itself.
It’s totally bonkers. Presumably the Chinese govt fears that if it makes the vax compulsory and goes around forcibly injecting the oldies it might face civil unrest…
… and yet this is a government which until recently brutally enforced a law restricting how many kids you can have, and is also engaged on a genocide on its Muslim minorities, still ongoing
So that doesn’t make sense
My only conclusion is that Xi is personally wedded to the “zero Covid” idea via lockdown, and he is too invested in it to back away. Which does imply his leadership is in trouble, as lockdowns are so damaging and unpopular
Brainwashing and coercion of a reluctant population, by the government to suit their own interests, is what the Chinese are supposed to be really good at!
He needs to get a billion Western vaccines, call them “Future Prosperity for the Love of Xi”, and get them into a billion arms yesterday.
Unless, as you suggest, he’d rather keep everyone locked up a little longer.
Meanwhile, the world’s supply chains get a little more screwed up.
That BBC article on covid lockdown in Shanghai is well worth a read.
Quite astonishing. More than two years into the pandemic and China is now imposing “its strictest quarantine yet” - and this is in its richest, probably most important city (you can argue a case for Beijing - but that’s also in quasi-lockdown)
I wonder if Xi is in real trouble
This also raises the question Why on earth doesn’t China just make vaccination compulsory (and buy and rebadge western MRNA vax if necessary). Surely that would be better than the economic and social horror of lockdown? And China is quite happy to coerce its people
Most peculiar
Oh, it's even worse than that. Pfizer's vaccine is actually manufactured in China, and is exported from there to Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, etc. But it is not approved for use in China itself.
A Chinese friend of mine’s parents are based in an inland province in the North. The local party announced a plan to roll out Pfizer to I think it was all 65+ residents, as a milestone to relaxing restrictions. And then Beijing overruled them, saying it was “unsafe” to proceed. Most odd.
One now wonders which of the 21st Century Axis powers will lose their job first. Xi is not educated in science but he has plenty around him who are. One can only assume he’s adopted a bunker mentality and is ignoring them.
On Crypto - and NFTs for that matter - I simply don't understand the supposed value held. Yes people apparently want to pay $30k for a bitcoin, but isn't that its only value - other loons?
People paying $30k for a bitcoin are doing so because they assume they can sell it to someone else later for even more.
Like a Tulip bulb.
And like a share in Tesla or Amazon or facebook (I mean, yes these things pay a yield if you have a good enough electron microscope) so what is your point?
Crypto currencies are highly useful and have advantages over normal fiat currencies. There is a good chance a chunk of the world - or all of the world - will eventually settle on one as its crypto of choice and that currency will become as important and valuable as the US dollar or the £ sterling before it
The downside of crypto over cash is the transaction cost.
If somebody is spending $5 so you can buy a stick of gum, that is not sustainable.
SHOPPERS have been left perplexed by a mysterious tin of “Boris Beans” that was photographed in a supermarket.
A member of the public said the product, an apparent protest against the current cost-of-living crisis, was found in Tesco Express on Queens Road, Brighton.
The "Boris Beans" are said to come in a tasty “austerity sauce” with “misery guaranteed”.
It comes after a Tory minister said hard-up families should switch to supermarket value brands to survive.
The irony to me is the level of stupidity which still thinks that the vast of majority of branded products are not identical to the generic equivalents in all respects except price. The advice was eminently sensible.
The level of stupidity involved in thinking that stupidity is likely in issue in a dispute over verifiable facts, is disturbing.
You are just wrong: it varies by product. Tesco jaffa cakes are jaffa cakes (I know a bloke who drives the lorry from the jaffa cake factory to tescos); Tesco Dorito knock offs are seemingly offcuts from a North Korean cardboard factory (but own brand salsa is acceptable, so buy Doritos and dip them in that).
Bonus tip:Tesco's Finest wines are almost all excellent vfm.
Good morning One & All! Bro-in-law used to work for a big confectionary manufacturer. Made sweets for several big firms. The difference was frequently, although not always, the packaging. And years ago I knew a chap who was production manager at a firm which made the sort of vitamin products advertised as being 'finest'. Yes, you've guessed it. Often off the same production line as their 'competitors'.
25 or so years ago, the supermarkets had a 'bean war', where they all went mad trying to have the cheapest baked beans. Myself and some friends bought a load of cans and did a taste testing. The really cheap beans - I think one can was even a few pence - had water-like tomato sauce that was gritty and hard, tasteless beans. Almost literal sweepings off the factory floor ...
John Ruskin applies, of course.
Can you expand on that? I'm not aware of a specific quote?
Although the tasting occurred not a million miles away from the location of one of Ruskin's best-known quotes, involving fools. So it was an apt location for us ....
Many years ago, when I was a lad, I had a job loading 1cwt bags of fertilizer onto pallets. This was when the UK granulated nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compounds to make fertilizer. They were bagged in situ, and the farmer came with their wagons to collect it.
I remember one old farmer being emphatic. "I don't want any of that Fisons rubbish boy, I want Hadfields." It was the work of seconds to exchange the Fisons bags for the Hadfields ones. He paid close to £2 a ton extra for the privilege. This was when £2 was a lot of money.
Some people never learn.
Yes N P and K can't really be anything else. Like buying nurofen when it is literally illegal for it to vary from unbranded ibuprofen. Then again, supermarket petrol and diesel are, as I understand it, crap - they skimp on the additives
I know the average age of PB-ers is quite high, but if @CD13 can remember when “£2 was a lot of money” then I estimate he must be about 320 years old. Which is impressive
Generic drugs are another interesting issue. The prices drop for a good reason. It's assumed the original company have made up for the research costs which are considerable, so the price now reflects the maufacturing price. Do patients ask for the original stuff? Do they believe the packaging has a magic ingredient?
Theassumption is yes, and answer is yes, sometimes. The colour sometimes makes a difference, as well.
There can be issues with bioavailibility, for example with epilepsy drugs. As a pharmacist didn't you run across this at times?
SHOPPERS have been left perplexed by a mysterious tin of “Boris Beans” that was photographed in a supermarket.
A member of the public said the product, an apparent protest against the current cost-of-living crisis, was found in Tesco Express on Queens Road, Brighton.
The "Boris Beans" are said to come in a tasty “austerity sauce” with “misery guaranteed”.
It comes after a Tory minister said hard-up families should switch to supermarket value brands to survive.
The irony to me is the level of stupidity which still thinks that the vast of majority of branded products are not identical to the generic equivalents in all respects except price. The advice was eminently sensible.
The level of stupidity involved in thinking that stupidity is likely in issue in a dispute over verifiable facts, is disturbing.
You are just wrong: it varies by product. Tesco jaffa cakes are jaffa cakes (I know a bloke who drives the lorry from the jaffa cake factory to tescos); Tesco Dorito knock offs are seemingly offcuts from a North Korean cardboard factory (but own brand salsa is acceptable, so buy Doritos and dip them in that).
Bonus tip:Tesco's Finest wines are almost all excellent vfm.
Good morning One & All! Bro-in-law used to work for a big confectionary manufacturer. Made sweets for several big firms. The difference was frequently, although not always, the packaging. And years ago I knew a chap who was production manager at a firm which made the sort of vitamin products advertised as being 'finest'. Yes, you've guessed it. Often off the same production line as their 'competitors'.
25 or so years ago, the supermarkets had a 'bean war', where they all went mad trying to have the cheapest baked beans. Myself and some friends bought a load of cans and did a taste testing. The really cheap beans - I think one can was even a few pence - had water-like tomato sauce that was gritty and hard, tasteless beans. Almost literal sweepings off the factory floor ...
I asked for thoughts on coffee machines for a small cafe the other week.
We ended up going for a consumer bean-to-cup on the basis that it does make a nice coffee, but is also inexpensive enough that it will do the job whilst trade is low and starts to build, and we can either take it home and buy a larger machine if required, or just get another one to go next to it.
Simple, and makes a very nice cup off coffee, but is quite customisable. A slight annoyance is that it works in "low medium high" rather than grams of coffee per shot.
But DeLonghi need some serious attention to their incomprehensible model numbers.
I missed your original post - I would have suggested the Gaggia Velasca (£499 Caffe Italia). We have one and it is excellent.
I have a jar of Kenco Smooth. A £5 jar lasts for a couple of months.
Job done.
That's like saying to someone who buys a PS5 that you have a crossword book and job done.
The solution is staring them in the face - we just handed control of standards to the EU for an indefinite period. We're not doing inbound checks and don't have the capability or the will to implement them. We remain aligned to the EU and as they are now setting the standards the status quo is even more powerful.
So the deal is there to be had. "We're sticking to what you set, so why don't you join us in dropping checks?" Will drive BR mad but he isn't in government. Would be a relief in Ireland and to all the exporters who are uniquely and uncompetitively expensive in their EU export markets.
SHOPPERS have been left perplexed by a mysterious tin of “Boris Beans” that was photographed in a supermarket.
A member of the public said the product, an apparent protest against the current cost-of-living crisis, was found in Tesco Express on Queens Road, Brighton.
The "Boris Beans" are said to come in a tasty “austerity sauce” with “misery guaranteed”.
It comes after a Tory minister said hard-up families should switch to supermarket value brands to survive.
The irony to me is the level of stupidity which still thinks that the vast of majority of branded products are not identical to the generic equivalents in all respects except price. The advice was eminently sensible.
The level of stupidity involved in thinking that stupidity is likely in issue in a dispute over verifiable facts, is disturbing.
You are just wrong: it varies by product. Tesco jaffa cakes are jaffa cakes (I know a bloke who drives the lorry from the jaffa cake factory to tescos); Tesco Dorito knock offs are seemingly offcuts from a North Korean cardboard factory (but own brand salsa is acceptable, so buy Doritos and dip them in that).
Bonus tip:Tesco's Finest wines are almost all excellent vfm.
Good morning One & All! Bro-in-law used to work for a big confectionary manufacturer. Made sweets for several big firms. The difference was frequently, although not always, the packaging. And years ago I knew a chap who was production manager at a firm which made the sort of vitamin products advertised as being 'finest'. Yes, you've guessed it. Often off the same production line as their 'competitors'.
25 or so years ago, the supermarkets had a 'bean war', where they all went mad trying to have the cheapest baked beans. Myself and some friends bought a load of cans and did a taste testing. The really cheap beans - I think one can was even a few pence - had water-like tomato sauce that was gritty and hard, tasteless beans. Almost literal sweepings off the factory floor ...
It really depends on the product. Most own brand products are not the same as branded - why would the brand owner give away their brand equity to someone else? But if you look around so many of them are very very close to branded.
The problem is that you can't guarantee that will stay the same. I've seen quite a few times where the supermarket switches supplier for their own brand product, the packaging and price are the same and the quality drops. That doesn't tend to happen with branded!
Quite simply, yet you pay a premium for brands and they spend some of that on marketing. But no marketing can hawk an inferior product. The reason why Beanz Meanz Heinz is because their beans are the best on the market. Don't like the price? Buy them on promotion in bulk.
I'm a child of the "No label" generation who disliked the whole branding culture - my default assumption is that MOST of the difference in price is for marketing or simply a price markup. Idelaly they want you to become emotionally attached to a favourite brand and despise others. There was a case of a company which was exposed as marketing four different brands of the same beer at different prices - lots of people had sworn brand A was great, brand B was rats' piss.
I agree with RP that own-brand carries the risk that they change supplier or ingredients, but branded products do that too. It's commonplace to see products advertising that you're getting more per £ than last week, but the reverse is common too, and of course unadvertised.
Bottom line is try different products and see what you like and whether you think the branded one is worth the extra cost.
On Crypto - and NFTs for that matter - I simply don't understand the supposed value held. Yes people apparently want to pay $30k for a bitcoin, but isn't that its only value - other loons?
People paying $30k for a bitcoin are doing so because they assume they can sell it to someone else later for even more.
Like a Tulip bulb.
And like a share in Tesla or Amazon or facebook (I mean, yes these things pay a yield if you have a good enough electron microscope) so what is your point?
Those are different.
A share may have a low yield because profits are re-invested, or because analysts anticipate larger profits in the future.
Crypto has no yield or use-value. At least gold is pretty.
On Crypto - and NFTs for that matter - I simply don't understand the supposed value held. Yes people apparently want to pay $30k for a bitcoin, but isn't that its only value - other loons?
People paying $30k for a bitcoin are doing so because they assume they can sell it to someone else later for even more.
Like a Tulip bulb.
And like a share in Tesla or Amazon or facebook (I mean, yes these things pay a yield if you have a good enough electron microscope) so what is your point?
Not really, there's an actual product underpinning those shares. The yield (and more importantly the EV of future yields) means that there's something genuine there.
There isn't with bitcoin, quite the opposite in fact, the extremely high running costs of Bitcoin means it has a long-term negative EV. It is worse than a pyramid scheme.
There was a case of a company which was exposed as marketing four different brands of the same beer at different prices - lots of people had sworn brand A was great, brand B was rats' piss.
In Pennsylvania, Tennants Lager is sold as a premium import brand...
That is of course one of the risks. Does arguing with Brussels and messing around with NIP and GFA remind the wider British electorate that Brexit is not done? And if so, is that good or bad for the next election? (Other considerations like trade and diplomacy are less likely to factor in Boris's thinking.)
There was a case of a company which was exposed as marketing four different brands of the same beer at different prices - lots of people had sworn brand A was great, brand B was rats' piss.
In Pennsylvania, Tennants Lager is sold as a premium import brand...
Tennents is better than Fosters. And Carlsberg. And waaaaay better than Carling. So I can understand that.
That is of course one of the risks. Does arguing with Brussels and messing around with NIP and GFA remind the wider British electorate that Brexit is not done? And if so, is that good or bad for the next election? (Other considerations like trade and diplomacy are less likely to factor in Boris's thinking.)
BoZo will simply say he got Brexit done, and you must elect him again to get Brexit done
There was a case of a company which was exposed as marketing four different brands of the same beer at different prices - lots of people had sworn brand A was great, brand B was rats' piss.
In Pennsylvania, Tennants Lager is sold as a premium import brand...
That BBC article on covid lockdown in Shanghai is well worth a read.
Quite astonishing. More than two years into the pandemic and China is now imposing “its strictest quarantine yet” - and this is in its richest, probably most important city (you can argue a case for Beijing - but that’s also in quasi-lockdown)
I wonder if Xi is in real trouble
This also raises the question Why on earth doesn’t China just make vaccination compulsory (and buy and rebadge western MRNA vax if necessary). Surely that would be better than the economic and social horror of lockdown? And China is quite happy to coerce its people
Most peculiar
Yes, it seems bizarre to me - if I was Xi and not bothered by coercion I'd do exactly that, rebadging and all. But the Chinese are not infinitely coercible. I've told the story here before of talking to a Chinese group who were SHOCKED that British residents are turned away from hospitals if they don't go through a GP (except for A&E) - "in China we would never accept such a dictatorial system", said one, and everyone else nodded vigorously. But why people are OK with being locked down but not OK with being vaccinated is a complete mystery.
SHOPPERS have been left perplexed by a mysterious tin of “Boris Beans” that was photographed in a supermarket.
A member of the public said the product, an apparent protest against the current cost-of-living crisis, was found in Tesco Express on Queens Road, Brighton.
The "Boris Beans" are said to come in a tasty “austerity sauce” with “misery guaranteed”.
It comes after a Tory minister said hard-up families should switch to supermarket value brands to survive.
The irony to me is the level of stupidity which still thinks that the vast of majority of branded products are not identical to the generic equivalents in all respects except price. The advice was eminently sensible.
The level of stupidity involved in thinking that stupidity is likely in issue in a dispute over verifiable facts, is disturbing.
You are just wrong: it varies by product. Tesco jaffa cakes are jaffa cakes (I know a bloke who drives the lorry from the jaffa cake factory to tescos); Tesco Dorito knock offs are seemingly offcuts from a North Korean cardboard factory (but own brand salsa is acceptable, so buy Doritos and dip them in that).
Bonus tip:Tesco's Finest wines are almost all excellent vfm.
Good morning One & All! Bro-in-law used to work for a big confectionary manufacturer. Made sweets for several big firms. The difference was frequently, although not always, the packaging. And years ago I knew a chap who was production manager at a firm which made the sort of vitamin products advertised as being 'finest'. Yes, you've guessed it. Often off the same production line as their 'competitors'.
25 or so years ago, the supermarkets had a 'bean war', where they all went mad trying to have the cheapest baked beans. Myself and some friends bought a load of cans and did a taste testing. The really cheap beans - I think one can was even a few pence - had water-like tomato sauce that was gritty and hard, tasteless beans. Almost literal sweepings off the factory floor ...
You saw their production line then!
As a young man, an ex-colleague had a job writing software for a company that made food production lines. He described a time they installed a baked bean canning line in a factory. It was all installed, and he had to adjust the timings to get things working correctly. The cans went through so fast, even a few hundredths of a second could mean the difference between a successful fill and beans everywhere.
Even with the rudimentary sensors they had at the time, the machines would 'drift' over time, meaning the line would run for an hour or two and then beans would be spilled, or the lids miss the cans, or the labels wrap themselves around the mechanism. After which everything would have to be cleaned up, the timings altered, and a run done again. He said over the week it took to get it working properly, there was tremendous wastage.
The moment I tasted those beans, I knew those beans had not been wasted ...
The Good Friday Agreement was about power sharing across communities and not about winner-takes-all majoritarianism.
At the Assembly election as far as I can see zero unionist MLAs were elected who support the NI Protocol.
So by the standards of the Good Friday Agreement (cross-community consensus is needed) the NI Protocol has failed.
And yet the government agreed to majoritarianism in the Protocol, which states that if a majority of NI voters back it it should remain in force.
The government and the EU also agreed to Article 16, which states that if the Protocol is causing problems (which both parties acknowledge it is) then the government can invoke it and suspend elements.
Time to do that. That's literally what its there for.
The Good Friday Agreement was about power sharing across communities and not about winner-takes-all majoritarianism.
At the Assembly election as far as I can see zero unionist MLAs were elected who support the NI Protocol.
So by the standards of the Good Friday Agreement (cross-community consensus is needed) the NI Protocol has failed.
And yet the government agreed to majoritarianism in the Protocol, which states that if a majority of NI voters back it it should remain in force.
The government and the EU also agreed to Article 16, which states that if the Protocol is causing problems (which both parties acknowledge it is) then the government can invoke it and suspend elements.
Time to do that. That's literally what its there for.
The government is not threatening to invoke Article 16, it is threatening to legislate to allow ministers to override the Protocol.
Well, as Mrs May was gleefully saying yesterday, they were warned!
I can see why she stayed on the backbenches. She is having a great time with the schadenfreude.
If she’d got her way, we’d be stuck indefinitely in the Backstop, eating yet another of Macron’s “Screw the British” pieces of EU legislation over which we had no say.
The issue with the Protocol was always the sequencing, it was destined to be revisited in light of the later trade agreement. That the EU have no intention of doing this, and refuse to implement the trusted trader scheme or the electronic border, is a show of bad faith on their part.
A16 is the mechanism by which they can be forced to actually negotiate on the stalled points, and a lack of agreement acceptable to all comunities in NI exacerbates political tensions there.
I asked for thoughts on coffee machines for a small cafe the other week.
We ended up going for a consumer bean-to-cup on the basis that it does make a nice coffee, but is also inexpensive enough that it will do the job whilst trade is low and starts to build, and we can either take it home and buy a larger machine if required, or just get another one to go next to it.
Simple, and makes a very nice cup off coffee, but is quite customisable. A slight annoyance is that it works in "low medium high" rather than grams of coffee per shot.
But DeLonghi need some serious attention to their incomprehensible model numbers.
I missed your original post - I would have suggested the Gaggia Velasca (£499 Caffe Italia). We have one and it is excellent.
I have a jar of Kenco Smooth. A £5 jar lasts for a couple of months.
Job done.
That's like saying to someone who buys a PS5 that you have a crossword book and job done.
Not really. It's still coffee. It does the same job.
I wonder if there's a correlation between people who overpay for 'luxury' coffee and those who overpay by worshipping at the altar of Apple?
Stuck in the rain at the train station with over an hour delay to board a train to London. I'm just musing on how uniquely infuriating train company messaging is. "Please delay your travel today". If I could delay my travel I wouldn't have paid the daylight robbery Thameslink charge for a peak ticket.
Given Burnham has suggested he wants to be an MP again at the next general election then if Starmer survives until then and loses, Burnham certainly would be a contender.
However for the moment if say Starmer is fined and has to resign then I would make the second favourite, Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting, the favourite to succeed him
Streeting is such a non entity politically though. He's butter chicken.
Streeting comes across well, is telegenic, articulate and relatively centrist and also has much more charisma than Starmer.
As a Tory of the above he is the one I would most fear, I also fear Burnham but he is not in Parliament.
Streeting would also be our first Cambridge educated PM since Baldwin, as indeed would Burnham
FFS can't we look a little wider afield than oxbridge tossers?
Nah. They have "unattractive" accents. The Oxbridge ones are "too posh". Vote Tory. No one else is right and proper.
As OGH frequently reminds us the last non Oxbridge leader to win a general election against an Oxbridge educated leader was Churchill in 1951 v Attlee but then Churchill went to the superior public school, Harrow to Attlee's Haileybury, even if Churchill unlike Attlee did not go to Oxford.
Plus of course Attlee did beat Churchill in 1945 and 1950
I remember when looking for work after graduating in the 1980s reading one of the really small ads in the Thursday Telegraph jobs pages. It read "... only first class honours graduates OR those educated at a good Public School need apply" So two years to get good A levels, then three or four years to get a good 2:1 wasn't as good as a CSE in woodwork from Clifton College.
Well, as Mrs May was gleefully saying yesterday, they were warned!
I can see why she stayed on the backbenches. She is having a great time with the schadenfreude.
If she’d got her way, we’d be stuck indefinitely in the Backstop, eating yet another of Macron’s “Screw the British” pieces of EU legislation over which we had no say.
The issue with the Protocol was always the sequencing, it was destined to be revisited in light of the later trade agreement. That the EU have no intention of doing this, and refuse to implement the trusted trader scheme or the electronic border, is a show of bad faith on their part.
A16 is the mechanism by which they can be forced to actually negotiate on the stalled points, and a lack of agreement acceptable to all comunities in NI exacerbates political tensions there.
Oh, I agree the May deal was also crap, but that is the fundamental problem with Brexit. You can role the turd in glitter, but it is still a turd.
Well, as Mrs May was gleefully saying yesterday, they were warned!
I can see why she stayed on the backbenches. She is having a great time with the schadenfreude.
If she’d got her way, we’d be stuck indefinitely in the Backstop, eating yet another of Macron’s “Screw the British” pieces of EU legislation over which we had no say.
The issue with the Protocol was always the sequencing, it was destined to be revisited in light of the later trade agreement. That the EU have no intention of doing this, and refuse to implement the trusted trader scheme or the electronic border, is a show of bad faith on their part.
A16 is the mechanism by which they can be forced to actually negotiate on the stalled points, and a lack of agreement acceptable to all comunities in NI exacerbates political tensions there.
You are describing the situation from November last year. Since then the EU has published their trusted trader proposal, and the Northern Ireland Select Committee has reported significant progress.
Article 16 is the weapon to be used if and when the EU drags their feet again. It is not to be used when they are - thanks to the threat - actually moving.
I asked for thoughts on coffee machines for a small cafe the other week.
We ended up going for a consumer bean-to-cup on the basis that it does make a nice coffee, but is also inexpensive enough that it will do the job whilst trade is low and starts to build, and we can either take it home and buy a larger machine if required, or just get another one to go next to it.
Simple, and makes a very nice cup off coffee, but is quite customisable. A slight annoyance is that it works in "low medium high" rather than grams of coffee per shot.
But DeLonghi need some serious attention to their incomprehensible model numbers.
I missed your original post - I would have suggested the Gaggia Velasca (£499 Caffe Italia). We have one and it is excellent.
I have a jar of Kenco Smooth. A £5 jar lasts for a couple of months.
Job done.
That's like saying to someone who buys a PS5 that you have a crossword book and job done.
Not really. It's still coffee. It does the same job.
I wonder if there's a correlation between people who overpay for 'luxury' coffee and those who overpay by worshipping at the altar of Apple?
(Runs for cover...)
Its not the same coffee at all.
You need decent pressure to make coffee properly and get a decent crema on your espresso. That doesn't happen with any instant coffee I've ever seen.
Its like saying there's no difference between an old-fashioned landline and an iPhone. The branding doesn't matter, they're completely different products.
I asked for thoughts on coffee machines for a small cafe the other week.
We ended up going for a consumer bean-to-cup on the basis that it does make a nice coffee, but is also inexpensive enough that it will do the job whilst trade is low and starts to build, and we can either take it home and buy a larger machine if required, or just get another one to go next to it.
Simple, and makes a very nice cup off coffee, but is quite customisable. A slight annoyance is that it works in "low medium high" rather than grams of coffee per shot.
But DeLonghi need some serious attention to their incomprehensible model numbers.
I missed your original post - I would have suggested the Gaggia Velasca (£499 Caffe Italia). We have one and it is excellent.
I have a jar of Kenco Smooth. A £5 jar lasts for a couple of months.
Job done.
That's like saying to someone who buys a PS5 that you have a crossword book and job done.
Not really. It's still coffee. It does the same job.
I wonder if there's a correlation between people who overpay for 'luxury' coffee and those who overpay by worshipping at the altar of Apple?
I asked for thoughts on coffee machines for a small cafe the other week.
We ended up going for a consumer bean-to-cup on the basis that it does make a nice coffee, but is also inexpensive enough that it will do the job whilst trade is low and starts to build, and we can either take it home and buy a larger machine if required, or just get another one to go next to it.
Simple, and makes a very nice cup off coffee, but is quite customisable. A slight annoyance is that it works in "low medium high" rather than grams of coffee per shot.
But DeLonghi need some serious attention to their incomprehensible model numbers.
I missed your original post - I would have suggested the Gaggia Velasca (£499 Caffe Italia). We have one and it is excellent.
I have a jar of Kenco Smooth. A £5 jar lasts for a couple of months.
Job done.
That's like saying to someone who buys a PS5 that you have a crossword book and job done.
Not really. It's still coffee. It does the same job.
I wonder if there's a correlation between people who overpay for 'luxury' coffee and those who overpay by worshipping at the altar of Apple?
(Runs for cover...)
Its not the same coffee at all.
You need decent pressure to make coffee properly and get a decent crema on your espresso. That doesn't happen with any instant coffee I've ever seen.
Its like saying there's no difference between an old-fashioned landline and an iPhone. The branding doesn't matter, they're completely different products.
Our machine gives great crema. I'm not good at latte art though - partly my fault and partly the machine I guess.
Well, as Mrs May was gleefully saying yesterday, they were warned!
I can see why she stayed on the backbenches. She is having a great time with the schadenfreude.
If she’d got her way, we’d be stuck indefinitely in the Backstop, eating yet another of Macron’s “Screw the British” pieces of EU legislation over which we had no say.
The issue with the Protocol was always the sequencing, it was destined to be revisited in light of the later trade agreement. That the EU have no intention of doing this, and refuse to implement the trusted trader scheme or the electronic border, is a show of bad faith on their part.
A16 is the mechanism by which they can be forced to actually negotiate on the stalled points, and a lack of agreement acceptable to all comunities in NI exacerbates political tensions there.
You are describing the situation from November last year. Since then the EU has published their trusted trader proposal, and the Northern Ireland Select Committee has reported significant progress.
Article 16 is the weapon to be used if and when the EU drags their feet again. It is not to be used when they are - thanks to the threat - actually moving.
The story from last week, was that they are very much dragging their feet.
Given Burnham has suggested he wants to be an MP again at the next general election then if Starmer survives until then and loses, Burnham certainly would be a contender.
However for the moment if say Starmer is fined and has to resign then I would make the second favourite, Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting, the favourite to succeed him
Streeting is such a non entity politically though. He's butter chicken.
Streeting comes across well, is telegenic, articulate and relatively centrist and also has much more charisma than Starmer.
As a Tory of the above he is the one I would most fear, I also fear Burnham but he is not in Parliament.
Streeting would also be our first Cambridge educated PM since Baldwin, as indeed would Burnham
FFS can't we look a little wider afield than oxbridge tossers?
Nah. They have "unattractive" accents. The Oxbridge ones are "too posh". Vote Tory. No one else is right and proper.
As OGH frequently reminds us the last non Oxbridge leader to win a general election against an Oxbridge educated leader was Churchill in 1951 v Attlee but then Churchill went to the superior public school, Harrow to Attlee's Haileybury, even if Churchill unlike Attlee did not go to Oxford.
Plus of course Attlee did beat Churchill in 1945 and 1950
I remember when looking for work after graduating in the 1980s reading one of the really small ads in the Thursday Telegraph jobs pages. It read "... only first class honours graduates OR those educated at a good Public School need apply" So two years to get good A levels, then three or four years to get a good 2:1 wasn't as good as a CSE in woodwork from Clifton College.
Well, as Mrs May was gleefully saying yesterday, they were warned!
I can see why she stayed on the backbenches. She is having a great time with the schadenfreude.
If she’d got her way, we’d be stuck indefinitely in the Backstop, eating yet another of Macron’s “Screw the British” pieces of EU legislation over which we had no say.
The issue with the Protocol was always the sequencing, it was destined to be revisited in light of the later trade agreement. That the EU have no intention of doing this, and refuse to implement the trusted trader scheme or the electronic border, is a show of bad faith on their part.
A16 is the mechanism by which they can be forced to actually negotiate on the stalled points, and a lack of agreement acceptable to all comunities in NI exacerbates political tensions there.
We've just indefinitely delayed the imposition of the inbound checks mandated by the oven-ready deal. Which means for an indefinite period the EU are responsible for safety standards of goods coming into the UK.
In theory we can set our own standards. But as we're unable to enforce them...
Really interesting, thanks. Personally have been wondering about swings to the Tories in the Kingdom of Mercia.
I was driving through some of the villages on the karst above Trieste yesterday, and it was striking how many of them had red flags hung out for May Day. Not just from individual windows or balconies, but some of them on large poles high above houses, so they could be seen from a distance on approaching the village, or hung above the main road from trees. A lot of trouble has been gone to hanging all those flags, and there must be a good degree of support given the number of buildings involved.
Most of them were the plain red workers’ flag but one or two carried a symbol on them, which a bit of research later found to be the flag of Trieste when it was briefly an independent free republic (if non functioning) in the late 40s and early 50s.
Well, as Mrs May was gleefully saying yesterday, they were warned!
I can see why she stayed on the backbenches. She is having a great time with the schadenfreude.
If she’d got her way, we’d be stuck indefinitely in the Backstop, eating yet another of Macron’s “Screw the British” pieces of EU legislation over which we had no say.
The issue with the Protocol was always the sequencing, it was destined to be revisited in light of the later trade agreement. That the EU have no intention of doing this, and refuse to implement the trusted trader scheme or the electronic border, is a show of bad faith on their part.
A16 is the mechanism by which they can be forced to actually negotiate on the stalled points, and a lack of agreement acceptable to all comunities in NI exacerbates political tensions there.
You are describing the situation from November last year. Since then the EU has published their trusted trader proposal, and the Northern Ireland Select Committee has reported significant progress.
Article 16 is the weapon to be used if and when the EU drags their feet again. It is not to be used when they are - thanks to the threat - actually moving.
Yes, but the DUP arent objecting to how the NIP is implemented in terms of electronic processing, they are objecting to its very existence.
Comments
It is an absolutely discredited journal. Which is sad
I have a bit in US tech stocks via a Unit Trust but mostly my portfolio is in businesses that I understand how they make their money.
You are just wrong: it varies by product. Tesco jaffa cakes are jaffa cakes (I know a bloke who drives the lorry from the jaffa cake factory to tescos); Tesco Dorito knock offs are seemingly offcuts from a North Korean cardboard factory (but own brand salsa is acceptable, so buy Doritos and dip them in that).
Bonus tip:Tesco's Finest wines are almost all excellent vfm.
Quite astonishing. More than two years into the pandemic and China is now imposing “its strictest quarantine yet” - and this is in its richest, probably most important city (you can argue a case for Beijing - but that’s also in quasi-lockdown)
I wonder if Xi is in real trouble
This also raises the question Why on earth doesn’t China just make vaccination compulsory (and buy and rebadge western MRNA vax if necessary). Surely that would be better than the economic and social horror of lockdown? And China is quite happy to coerce its people
Most peculiar
I remember one old farmer being emphatic. "I don't want any of that Fisons rubbish boy, I want Hadfields." It was the work of seconds to exchange the Fisons bags for the Hadfields ones. He paid close to £2 a ton extra for the privilege. This was when £2 was a lot of money.
Some people never learn.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/may/08/crypto-muggings-thieves-in-london-target-digital-investors-by-taking-phones
David Frost: Why Brexit deal needs renegotiating
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNQo4nSAkdM
Northern Ireland and so on.
Daily Mail
Daily Express
The Sun
The Times
Telegraph
New Statesman
How Keir Starmer trapped himself
By positioning himself as a defender of the law, the Labour leader set himself up to be seen as a hypocrite.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/labour/2022/05/how-keir-starmer-trapped-himself
“The majority of shadow ministers said they were grimly resigned to Starmer’s pledge – but said there were likely to be internal consequences. “I think once you start talking up the prospect of your own resignation you are on dangerous ground,” one said.
Another veteran MP, a Starmer loyalist, said they suspected ulterior motives from some shadow cabinet members. “If you fancy Keir’s job, this is win-win,” they said.”
Doesn’t sound like a happy place: the Shadow Cabinet
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/may/10/beergate-labour-mps-wary-internal-manoeuvring-starmer-pledge
Different branded fish fingers
Different own brand fish fingers
Local authority ff for school
Government ff for prisons
All coming out of the same factory, but all with very different contents.
Now I agree the branded might not taste better, in fact when it comes to fish fingers I prefer own brand because I'm not bothered about fish content. I also agree that some products might be identical, but you can't claim it is all down to advertising.
I will always try the cheaper stuff first before being suckered into the branded goods and generally find it fine but it isn't necessarily the same and usually isn't.
Coffee Notes:
I asked for thoughts on coffee machines for a small cafe the other week.
We ended up going for a consumer bean-to-cup on the basis that it does make a nice coffee, but is also inexpensive enough that it will do the job whilst trade is low and starts to build, and we can either take it home and buy a larger machine if required, or just get another one to go next to it.
We went for one of these at around £300.
https://www.delonghi.com/en-gb//etam29-510-sb-autentica-bean-to-cup-coffee-machine/p/ETAM29.510.SB
Simple, and makes a very nice cup off coffee, but is quite customisable. A slight annoyance is that it works in "low medium high" rather than grams of coffee per shot.
But DeLonghi need some serious attention to their incomprehensible model numbers.
Theresa May was good at pointing out to the DUP that voting down her deal was rather self defeating for them.
https://twitter.com/DarranMarshall/status/1524065734132965378?t=M-kG13hIJsUbY1_K6BmEoQ&s=19
And on that note, Happy Birthday @MikeSmithson
Then there's the 'want to have' stuff - sports entertainment, artwork, vapid celebrity.
Often the 'want to have' stuff can be of high value - Warhol's painting of Monroe sold for $200m, and the Prem is obviously worth a few billion.
Currencies lie somewhere between the two - people can produce the needs and wants and exchange between the two with various currency.
Crypto is worth as much or as little as any other currency - see the recent movements of the Turkish Lira, Sterling, ruble and the USD.
NFTs are different - Jack's recent tweet sale demonstrates the fact that these are highly dependant on WHO is selling it at the time... the 'value' can't hold up so well once the owner is AN Other Joe
The EU requested that we sequence sorting NI first, then the Withdrawal Agreement, then the Trade Agreement, then go back to revisit NI once we knew our Trade arrangements.
We're now at the last step, and the EU are wanting to welch on their own sequencing by not revisiting NI.
Time to invoke Article 16. That's what its there for.
Bro-in-law used to work for a big confectionary manufacturer. Made sweets for several big firms. The difference was frequently, although not always, the packaging.
And years ago I knew a chap who was production manager at a firm which made the sort of vitamin products advertised as being 'finest'.
Yes, you've guessed it. Often off the same production line as their 'competitors'.
… and yet this is a government which until recently brutally enforced a law restricting how many kids you can have, and is also engaged on a genocide on its Muslim minorities, still ongoing
So that doesn’t make sense
My only conclusion is that Xi is personally wedded to the “zero Covid” idea via lockdown, and he is too invested in it to back away. Which does imply his leadership is in trouble, as lockdowns are so damaging and unpopular
All the other coins and NFTs have very little tangible value beyond speculation and money laundering. They’re 21st century tulip bulbs.
(Did you manage to move your safe?).
https://twitter.com/KevinASchofield/status/1524035698688409600
And apparently Frosty the no-man
When I started working on the land in my early teens, we did piece-work, or days-work. A days pay was calculated at £2.
We were lucky.
Like a Tulip bulb.
The problem is that you can't guarantee that will stay the same. I've seen quite a few times where the supermarket switches supplier for their own brand product, the packaging and price are the same and the quality drops. That doesn't tend to happen with branded!
Quite simply, yet you pay a premium for brands and they spend some of that on marketing. But no marketing can hawk an inferior product. The reason why Beanz Meanz Heinz is because their beans are the best on the market. Don't like the price? Buy them on promotion in bulk.
Job done.
That was never going to happen to tulips
https://twitter.com/wizbates/status/1524098882375983106
They've really been around the houses on this one
I started off by suggesting a consumer machine that could be thrown away if it did not work well as an option, and that has turned out to be the low risk option.
I'm now wondering about a bean to cup for home to go alongside the Gaggia Classico for convenience.
https://twitter.com/valen10francois/status/1524040709862576131?s=21&t=IOg4K6mcrXuXQP0OoLrvIA
He needs to get a billion Western vaccines, call them “Future Prosperity for the Love of Xi”, and get them into a billion arms yesterday.
Unless, as you suggest, he’d rather keep everyone locked up a little longer.
Meanwhile, the world’s supply chains get a little more screwed up.
One now wonders which of the 21st Century Axis powers will lose their job first. Xi is not educated in science but he has plenty around him who are. One can only assume he’s adopted a bunker mentality and is ignoring them.
If somebody is spending $5 so you can buy a stick of gum, that is not sustainable.
Although the tasting occurred not a million miles away from the location of one of Ruskin's best-known quotes, involving fools. So it was an apt location for us ....
So the deal is there to be had. "We're sticking to what you set, so why don't you join us in dropping checks?" Will drive BR mad but he isn't in government. Would be a relief in Ireland and to all the exporters who are uniquely and uncompetitively expensive in their EU export markets.
I agree with RP that own-brand carries the risk that they change supplier or ingredients, but branded products do that too. It's commonplace to see products advertising that you're getting more per £ than last week, but the reverse is common too, and of course unadvertised.
Bottom line is try different products and see what you like and whether you think the branded one is worth the extra cost.
A share may have a low yield because profits are re-invested, or because analysts anticipate larger profits in the future.
Crypto has no yield or use-value. At least gold is pretty.
There isn't with bitcoin, quite the opposite in fact, the extremely high running costs of Bitcoin means it has a long-term negative EV. It is worse than a pyramid scheme.
And the fanbois will cheer...
...so she pushes for wholesale unravelling of a Protcol that a clear majority of MLAs elected in last week's Assembly election support??
...extraordinary position to be in. #brexit https://twitter.com/pmdfoster/status/1524284791130144768/photo/1
Shares in Tesla or Amazon or Tesco are productive assets. Property is a productive asset.
Basically, you get paid to own them (most of the time).
Bitcoin is not a productive asset.
The Good Friday Agreement was about power sharing across communities and not about winner-takes-all majoritarianism.
At the Assembly election as far as I can see zero unionist MLAs were elected who support the NI Protocol.
So by the standards of the Good Friday Agreement (cross-community consensus is needed) the NI Protocol has failed.
I can see why she stayed on the backbenches. She is having a great time with the schadenfreude.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenehrlich/2022/05/10/unstable-stablecoin-how-cryptos-crash-broke-the-buck-for-terrausd/?sh=18543ef06ff4
What could possibly go wrong there?
Even with the rudimentary sensors they had at the time, the machines would 'drift' over time, meaning the line would run for an hour or two and then beans would be spilled, or the lids miss the cans, or the labels wrap themselves around the mechanism. After which everything would have to be cleaned up, the timings altered, and a run done again. He said over the week it took to get it working properly, there was tremendous wastage.
The moment I tasted those beans, I knew those beans had not been wasted ...
Time to do that. That's literally what its there for.
Now they're wanting to welch on that, but we have the safety net of Article 16. Time to use it.
[the government will] “further restrict access to food and hospitals”…. Err you what?
The issue with the Protocol was always the sequencing, it was destined to be revisited in light of the later trade agreement. That the EU have no intention of doing this, and refuse to implement the trusted trader scheme or the electronic border, is a show of bad faith on their part.
A16 is the mechanism by which they can be forced to actually negotiate on the stalled points, and a lack of agreement acceptable to all comunities in NI exacerbates political tensions there.
I wonder if there's a correlation between people who overpay for 'luxury' coffee and those who overpay by worshipping at the altar of Apple?
(Runs for cover...)
1) break our word on the treaty with our major trading partner.
2) start a trade war
What could possibly go wrong?
Personally have been wondering about swings to the Tories in the Kingdom of Mercia.
Did you write the ad?
Article 16 is the weapon to be used if and when the EU drags their feet again. It is not to be used when they are - thanks to the threat - actually moving.
You need decent pressure to make coffee properly and get a decent crema on your espresso. That doesn't happen with any instant coffee I've ever seen.
Its like saying there's no difference between an old-fashioned landline and an iPhone. The branding doesn't matter, they're completely different products.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/05/05/brussels-refusing-access-data-could-solve-northern-ireland-protocol/
In theory we can set our own standards. But as we're unable to enforce them...
Most of them were the plain red workers’ flag but one or two carried a symbol on them, which a bit of research later found to be the flag of Trieste when it was briefly an independent free republic (if non functioning) in the late 40s and early 50s.
An interesting hangover from the past.