I don't think that this would particularly put of voters in the Republic. I think voters there would believe that the spending wouldn't happen, and instead there would be cuts in NI instead.
But it would almost certainly put a lot of doubt into the minds of NI voters, they Dublin's pockets wouldn't be as deep as London's.
The challenge then for Sinn Fein is whether they can turn around the NI economy, so that it can pay its own way, and make this less of an issue. The structure of the Stormont Assembly might help them here, as it makes it harder to play the SNP-style divisive political strategy without collapsing the institutions.
That's more a failure of government to plan, rather than Brexit itself.
As is the impending closure of our last train manufacturer in Derby.
This period of Conservative government has been completely inept, whatever you think of their political choices.
Talking of trains - was watching a Portillo train thing, and he was visiting Spain. They are putting into service trams with no overhead wires. Battery power, with ground contact charging at stops. This answers problems about historic views, trees and the cost of maintenance.
The later makes them cheaper to install and run, just by itself (battery costs are less than overhead wires).
I was skim reading the...... altercation............ between CorrectHorseBattery and Barty Roberts last night.
I must admit I'm somewhat in CHB's favour here. Israel has gone far to far with its response to 7th October. Their is no justification to destroying aid convoys and killing aid workers. And I don't believe them when they say it was an accident. It wasn't, and they know it.
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
Slapping charges on imports increases competitiveness?
No wonder your grasp of economics is so slight.
It's what the EU has done for the last 50 years. Maybe you hadnt noticed ?
I had indeed noticed the benefits of being part of the larges single market in the world.
Still, blue passports, eh. Rejoice!
Black surely?
At least one of the Brit aid workers ‘accidentally’ taken out by the IDF had a blue/black passport, somewhat battered and blood stained in the photo. In the old days possession of such a passport would have merited a gunboat in response to a severe blowing up, now it’s a toothless verbal mauling by Rishi.
You appear to be advocating restarting the British Empire.
Can I have India, please?
I’m sure the blue passport shaggers would love to restart it, it was a thing to be proud of after all.
I don't think that this would particularly put of voters in the Republic. I think voters there would believe that the spending wouldn't happen, and instead there would be cuts in NI instead.
But it would almost certainly put a lot of doubt into the minds of NI voters, they Dublin's pockets wouldn't be as deep as London's.
The challenge then for Sinn Fein is whether they can turn around the NI economy, so that it can pay its own way, and make this less of an issue. The structure of the Stormont Assembly might help them here, as it makes it harder to play the SNP-style divisive political strategy without collapsing the institutions.
I suspect the EU would be only too happy to help out to dovetail the North in with the South when that day arrives.
That's more a failure of government to plan, rather than Brexit itself.
As is the impending closure of our last train manufacturer in Derby.
This period of Conservative government has been completely inept, whatever you think of their political choices.
Talking of trains - was watching a Portillo train thing, and he was visiting Spain. They are putting into service trams with no overhead wires. Battery power, with ground contact charging at stops. This answers problems about historic views, trees and the cost of maintenance.
The later makes them cheaper to install and run, just by itself (battery costs are less than overhead wires).
Like the ones in Birmingham then.
And the upcoming converted tube train on the Greenford to West Ealing.
I was in the supermarket yesterday and is undoubtable that the range and shelf life of fresh food in particular has declined dramatically since leaving the single market. Disgruntled Brits continue to post pics on twitter of shelves groaning under bounteous fresh fruit and veg in the EU but my supermarket - at the heart of the transport network and thus presumably better off in terms of logistics than more distant stores, resembles a wasteland.
I know the last bastion of Brexiters is 'well, it's all worth it because we have glorious sovereignty', but, for the millionth time, Brexit was sold as painless. Only considerable upsides. It's abundantly clear that simply isn't, could never be, the case.
Not even Rees-Mogg could find any real Brexit benefits.
I know the two main parties, and the media that pushed Leave so heavily, are keen to avoid all mention of Brexit, the costs it has imposed and the damage it is doing, for reasons, but this omerta cannot hold indefinitely.
I've been saying for some time that Brexit would prove the ultimate Pyrrhic victory for the Conservative Party, and it seems that it is coming to pass. It's still tearing the party apart. I think it is a significant part of why the Tories are polling so badly. I think people have drawn their own conclusions that Brexit is making everything worse - it is like a poisonous catalyst. There's an article in the Guardian today saying farmers are calling for a UBI for their sector because they cannot survive without EU subsidies.
I'm sure the Singapore-on-Thames types are sanguine about all this, but they are only a relatively small part of the populace.
Farmers wanted subsidies to continue but higher tariffs on EU food imports and no new free trade deals unless they could expand food exports more than new imports from that deal.
Low paid sectors have also seen the highest post Brexit wage rises where they were most reliant on EU workers before. Most of those voters did get what they voted Leave for
I see Hillary Clinton has lost none of her common touch: "In a separate development, Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 election to Trump despite winning the popular vote, told voters to “get over yourself” and vote for Biden instead of his challenger."
Voters who don't want to vote for Biden do not have to vote for Trump instead. They can not vote, or find a third-party candidate. It's what happened in 2016 when enough voters decided they didn't want to vote for Clinton, regardless of how awful Trump was.
I see quite a few people who struggle to draw a distinction between Trump and Biden now. To younger, lefty voters they're both ancient, senile white guys who will support Israel to commit genocide.
What about abortion you might say? Well, what has Biden done to provide access to abortion? People have suggested that he could have made abortion available in states where it is banned on Federal land, but that hasn't happened. In what way would a second Biden term improve access to abortion? These voters need convincing, and they aren't being offered anything at all.
Biden in 2024 is a much weaker candidate than in 2020. Do we really think there are enough voters who thought Trump was good enough to vote for in 2020 who will have finally come to their senses in 2024?
Hillary Clinton is demonstrating that she's learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.
Biden is a better candidate than she was, but, that's not saying much.
You have to say “Basket of Deplorables” was one of the most memorable political quotes of the last decade.
Not in a good way for Mrs Clinton, but memorable nonetheless!
It was very accurate as well as we saw during the attempted insurrection.
It was an example of a politician actually 'telling it like it is' rather than using that phrase as cover for spreading lies and bigotry.
It was also piss-poor politics. Whether or not Trump's coalition included a load of deplorables - it did and does - it was foolish in the extreme to seem to label the whole lot of them as such. 'Don't insult voters, even when they are being idiots' is a pretty good maxim for any politician to live by. Indeed, don't even insult their ideas: just take them apart - ridicule the logic, the assumptions, the lack of evidence, the magic thinking and so on (but even then, tie it to the political opponent), but never, ever insult the electorate.
Fully agree, but the success of a Trump or a Johnson shows the limitations of doing politics by Queensbury rules. You can't ridicule the logic of a populist, because there isn't any. And magic thinking is what they sell. To point out that there is no magic is to be a doomster or a gloomster. And nobody wants that.
Which isn't to say that HRC's remarks didn't make a bad situation worse. But I'm not sure what she could have done that would have worked. The Republican establishment haven't found anything in a decade. Biden is a much better natural politician than Clinton, H. and he's not finding it easy to take Trump apart.
Part of that is because of a partisan media who repeat Trump’s lies. That’s what doomed US politics, perhaps.
You are delusional if you think they don't, or can be negotiated with.
I've proposed a solution to this cycle of violence, you have not.
You are just delusional, with no solutions.
So you think the US and UK are also delusional with no solutions?
Yes.
I think they're pandering to people like you, safe in the knowledge that they don't need to come up with a solution themselves.
You are unhinged.
No I'mAn not, I'm being a realist.
A real realist, not one of those fake ones who wants to kowtow to Russia.
Oh sod off with this Russia nonsense. You are a warmonger and you're lost.
War is necessary sometimes.
When faced by absolute evil, yes it needs to be destroyed at war sometimes.
You are an appeaser.
You think everyone on this board is an appeaser. You are crazy.
No I think only those who don't want Russia and Hamas defeated are appeasers.
I think I am the only PBer who wants both a free, secure Ukraine restored to its 1991 borders, and a free, secure Israel restored to its 1967 borders.
Not the only one. Me too.
Where do you stand on the whole North America thing.
I think those countries should stick to their internationally agreed borders too.
Israel annexed the West Bank and Gaza following a war with its Arab neighbours. We whiteys annexed the United States of America following a conquest of the indigenous peoples.
If you want a return to 1967 borders then presumably you want a return of America to its 1492 state also.
The current borders of the USA are agreed internationally.
Israel has occupied the West Bank and Gaza but not annexed them. It has annexed East Jerusalem. Hence the WB and Gaza are referred to as Occupied Territories.
Yes. But who agreed that the current borders of the USA are sacrosanct. The Navajo?
The Navajo did sign a treaty with the US in 1868, yes.
And Egypt and Jordan have sign peace agreements with Israel too, without demanding their land back.
There is no international agreement as to who owns that land, because Egypt and Jordan relinquished the land but Israel hasn't (yet) annexed it.
Perhaps it will end with Israel annexing the WB and Gaza, and there's nothing wrong with that if that happens, but the Oslo accords said that the land would be negotiated between Israel and a future Palestinian state. I would like to see that happen, once Hamas are vanquished.
The Oslo accords died on 11 September 2001.
What on earth does this bit mean: "There is no international agreement as to who owns that land, because Egypt and Jordan relinquished the land but Israel hasn't (yet) annexed it."?
Could you name some countries that have agreed to the Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem, and perhaps some that have agreed to the Israeli annexation of West Jerusalem?
Israel doesn't make international law, whether by its declarations of annexation or by any other means. TREATIES make international law.
Yes, treaties make international law, and there's no treaty covering who owns Gaza and the West Bank.
The closest to a treaty covering it is the Oslo Accords which agrees the border as a matter for future negotiations.
Resolution 181, passed in 1947, gave the West Bank to Arab Palestine, as well as much of the territory that Israel captured the following year, i.e. the 1948 Occcupied Territories.
As far as I'm aware, no major country in the world (not even the United States) recognises Israeli de jure sovereignty over ANY PART of Jerusalem. To be clear: that means over no part of Jerusalem either West or East.
Israeli annexation doesn't count for SHIT in international law.
I don't think that this would particularly put of voters in the Republic. I think voters there would believe that the spending wouldn't happen, and instead there would be cuts in NI instead.
But it would almost certainly put a lot of doubt into the minds of NI voters, they Dublin's pockets wouldn't be as deep as London's.
The challenge then for Sinn Fein is whether they can turn around the NI economy, so that it can pay its own way, and make this less of an issue. The structure of the Stormont Assembly might help them here, as it makes it harder to play the SNP-style divisive political strategy without collapsing the institutions.
Ive always said the numbers would stop a UI. The RoI doesnt want to pay more taxes and the North doesnt want a 30% drop in their standard of living.
Add in that the numbers will only move upwards and that the RoI has an economy heavily dependent on other peoples taxes and its a brave call.
I was in the supermarket yesterday and is undoubtable that the range and shelf life of fresh food in particular has declined dramatically since leaving the single market. Disgruntled Brits continue to post pics on twitter of shelves groaning under bounteous fresh fruit and veg in the EU but my supermarket - at the heart of the transport network and thus presumably better off in terms of logistics than more distant stores, resembles a wasteland.
I know the last bastion of Brexiters is 'well, it's all worth it because we have glorious sovereignty', but, for the millionth time, Brexit was sold as painless. Only considerable upsides. It's abundantly clear that simply isn't, could never be, the case.
Not even Rees-Mogg could find any real Brexit benefits.
I know the two main parties, and the media that pushed Leave so heavily, are keen to avoid all mention of Brexit, the costs it has imposed and the damage it is doing, for reasons, but this omerta cannot hold indefinitely.
I've been saying for some time that Brexit would prove the ultimate Pyrrhic victory for the Conservative Party, and it seems that it is coming to pass. It's still tearing the party apart. I think it is a significant part of why the Tories are polling so badly. I think people have drawn their own conclusions that Brexit is making everything worse - it is like a poisonous catalyst. There's an article in the Guardian today saying farmers are calling for a UBI for their sector because they cannot survive without EU subsidies.
I'm sure the Singapore-on-Thames types are sanguine about all this, but they are only a relatively small part of the populace.
Farmers wanted subsidies to continue but higher tariffs on EU food imports and no new free trade deals unless they could expand food exports more than new imports from that deal.
Low paid sectors have also seen the highest post Brexit wage rises where they were most reliant on EU workers before. Most of those voters did get what they voted Leave for
The Independent vote, much of which voted for Haley in the Republican primaries and which dislikes both Biden and Trump, will certainly be decisive in November.
The outcomes of Trump's criminal cases will also have an impact as much as abortion. Remember too while Independents and the median US voters wants to keep abortion legal up to a time limit evangelicals and conservative Roman Catholics, including some Hispanics, don't.
Opposition to abortion might help Trump and the GOP therefore if it drives up evangelical turnout in the South and Bible belt in particular
There have been over 50,000 pregnancies resulting from rape in US states with abortion bans.
74% of white evangelicals and almost half of Catholics say abortion should be mostly illegal. So it will help the GOP with evangelical turnout, even if it turns off Independents
In that survey, it’s only 42% of Catholics wanting abortion to be illegal. That survey’s a couple of years old and support for legal abortion has grown since then. That’s not really what I’d describe as “almost half”.
Most Americans support legal abortion. In a democracy, that helps the party that supports legal abortion.
The rumour is Trump will come out soon for a 15 week abortion time limit, while respecting states' rights.
The problem he then faces is that will not be enough for his evangelical core vote, who want an outright ban on abortion US wide, while still being too low a limit for Independents who probably want a 22-24 week limit
Are the judges are possibly overstepping the mark when they interfere in political decisions.
In America judges are political appointees. That's their system, and one that MAGA Republicans have enthusiastically used for their own agenda.
Sauce for the goose and all that.
Florida judges in trouble with DeSantis for allowing voters a say on abortion.
Also in Nebraska the Trumpites trying to change the electoral college setup to nab a useful single electoral college vote from Biden.
If they do, Maine can retaliate and negate the effect.
Probably not in time even if they wanted to, but the Nebraska effort also likely to fail against the clock.
One of the not-yet-dealt-with new scandals is nationwide bans on things (eg morning after pill) by District Judges in places like the Texas version of Hazzard County, and astroturf single issue campaign organisations created in such places.
Even the conservatives on the SC are getting tired of the 5th Circuit picking up these manufactured cases. To the extent that they've pushed back a bit, and will take up only those which dovetail most neatly with their personal agendas.
I see Hillary Clinton has lost none of her common touch: "In a separate development, Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 election to Trump despite winning the popular vote, told voters to “get over yourself” and vote for Biden instead of his challenger."
Voters who don't want to vote for Biden do not have to vote for Trump instead. They can not vote, or find a third-party candidate. It's what happened in 2016 when enough voters decided they didn't want to vote for Clinton, regardless of how awful Trump was.
I see quite a few people who struggle to draw a distinction between Trump and Biden now. To younger, lefty voters they're both ancient, senile white guys who will support Israel to commit genocide.
What about abortion you might say? Well, what has Biden done to provide access to abortion? People have suggested that he could have made abortion available in states where it is banned on Federal land, but that hasn't happened. In what way would a second Biden term improve access to abortion? These voters need convincing, and they aren't being offered anything at all.
Biden in 2024 is a much weaker candidate than in 2020. Do we really think there are enough voters who thought Trump was good enough to vote for in 2020 who will have finally come to their senses in 2024?
Hillary Clinton is demonstrating that she's learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.
Biden is a better candidate than she was, but, that's not saying much.
You have to say “Basket of Deplorables” was one of the most memorable political quotes of the last decade.
Not in a good way for Mrs Clinton, but memorable nonetheless!
It was very accurate as well as we saw during the attempted insurrection.
It was an example of a politician actually 'telling it like it is' rather than using that phrase as cover for spreading lies and bigotry.
It was also piss-poor politics. Whether or not Trump's coalition included a load of deplorables - it did and does - it was foolish in the extreme to seem to label the whole lot of them as such. 'Don't insult voters, even when they are being idiots' is a pretty good maxim for any politician to live by. Indeed, don't even insult their ideas: just take them apart - ridicule the logic, the assumptions, the lack of evidence, the magic thinking and so on (but even then, tie it to the political opponent), but never, ever insult the electorate.
If you look at the full quote she isn't referring to all of Trump's voters. Not by a long chalk.
"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? They're racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic – you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people – now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, some of those folks – they are irredeemable, but thankfully, they are not America."
That is flawlessly accurate. About half of those who would describe themselves as Trump Supporters (as opposed to reluctantly voting for him) are indeed 'deplorable' individuals who you wouldn't want to get within a mile of.
But I agree with your point. It was unwise of her to say it during an election campaign. You don't diss the voters when you're trying to win votes.
Yes, the import tax. The government says it is to pay for the inspections that most goods won't have to have. But whilst there is a cost per item it is capped at £145 per consignment.
All that means is that people like me will bring in stuff in bulk to reduce both the cost of this and of the veterinary certificate and TRACES information and customs paperwork. Which means products with less life on it, more waste and more costs.
Remember how Brexit was supposed to cut food costs by 10%?
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
Slapping charges on imports increases competitiveness?
No wonder your grasp of economics is so slight.
It's what the EU has done for the last 50 years. Maybe you hadnt noticed ?
I had indeed noticed the benefits of being part of the larges single market in the world.
Still, blue passports, eh. Rejoice!
Yeah, ducking the point.
The point being that Brexit has become a total sh*tshow for most people - higher prices, ridiculous passport queues at ports and airports, random customs charges on parcels from abroad, these are the things people experience every day. And the variety and quality of goods available in the UK has declined - the range of cheeses sold in my local supermarket is now much more limited than it was before Brexit, to take one example.
And for what? What benefits can we see in our everyday lives? Or for the UK on the international stage? There are none.
You would have higher prices no matter what due to Covid and Putin. Personally I fly via Schipol to Hamburg every month and never face a long wait. As for supermarket stocking policies they change all the time. The selection of cheese at my local Waitrose has got better, lots of local artisan cheese. If cheese is your thing change supermarket.
Your issue is you are stuck in the past. You lost a vote because you couldnt sell a positive view of the EU.
Waitrose is OK as a shop. It's the customers I can't stand.
I don't think that this would particularly put of voters in the Republic. I think voters there would believe that the spending wouldn't happen, and instead there would be cuts in NI instead.
But it would almost certainly put a lot of doubt into the minds of NI voters, they Dublin's pockets wouldn't be as deep as London's.
The challenge then for Sinn Fein is whether they can turn around the NI economy, so that it can pay its own way, and make this less of an issue. The structure of the Stormont Assembly might help them here, as it makes it harder to play the SNP-style divisive political strategy without collapsing the institutions.
I suspect the EU would be only too happy to help out to dovetail the North in with the South when that day arrives.
It would stick one to Brexit Britain too.
The North would qualify for some regional funding from the EU, but I don't see the EU that forced the Troika on Ireland suddenly turning up with €400bn for Irish reunification when they're going to need at least that much for Ukraine.
The article quotes Prof Fitzgerald from the radio this morning: "Looking for somebody else to pay for unification is not going to happen. If it happens, we've got to pay for it ourselves."
But perhaps if they put it on the side of a green bus the idea that the EU (or US) will pay for it might be enough to win the vote.
I was skim reading the...... altercation............ between CorrectHorseBattery and Barty Roberts last night.
I must admit I'm somewhat in CHB's favour here. Israel has gone far to far with its response to 7th October. Their is no justification to destroying aid convoys and killing aid workers. And I don't believe them when they say it was an accident. It wasn't, and they know it.
Barty's point is that Hamas must be destroyed, which I think we will all agree on. Where we diverge is Bart is of a mind that if the eradication of Hamas means the eradication of Gaza so be it. He won't put an acceptable collateral casualty number on his plan, just "whatever it takes". "Whatever it takes" is code for ethnic cleansing. The man is either amoral or just plain daft.
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
Slapping charges on imports increases competitiveness?
No wonder your grasp of economics is so slight.
It's what the EU has done for the last 50 years. Maybe you hadnt noticed ?
I had indeed noticed the benefits of being part of the larges single market in the world.
Still, blue passports, eh. Rejoice!
Yeah, ducking the point.
The point is Brexit has been an utter failure.
And yet, have you seen the state of the EU? It's not exactly a bed of roses over there either (though I'm sure the reports we get are no less cherry picked than the reports of British travails.) With every year that passes my certainty that we are better off out increases.
The EU no longer dominates our domestic political narrative here (aside from the issue of Brexit itself).
Before, every 6 months - and in the period leading up to it and after - we had battles to rebut or modify new EU legislation and initiatives that didn't land well here at all, and encroached into our domestic sphere.
All that has now ended. But, we need to solve our own problems.
I was in the supermarket yesterday and is undoubtable that the range and shelf life of fresh food in particular has declined dramatically since leaving the single market. Disgruntled Brits continue to post pics on twitter of shelves groaning under bounteous fresh fruit and veg in the EU but my supermarket - at the heart of the transport network and thus presumably better off in terms of logistics than more distant stores, resembles a wasteland.
I know the last bastion of Brexiters is 'well, it's all worth it because we have glorious sovereignty', but, for the millionth time, Brexit was sold as painless. Only considerable upsides. It's abundantly clear that simply isn't, could never be, the case.
Not even Rees-Mogg could find any real Brexit benefits.
I know the two main parties, and the media that pushed Leave so heavily, are keen to avoid all mention of Brexit, the costs it has imposed and the damage it is doing, for reasons, but this omerta cannot hold indefinitely.
I've been saying for some time that Brexit would prove the ultimate Pyrrhic victory for the Conservative Party, and it seems that it is coming to pass. It's still tearing the party apart. I think it is a significant part of why the Tories are polling so badly. I think people have drawn their own conclusions that Brexit is making everything worse - it is like a poisonous catalyst. There's an article in the Guardian today saying farmers are calling for a UBI for their sector because they cannot survive without EU subsidies.
I'm sure the Singapore-on-Thames types are sanguine about all this, but they are only a relatively small part of the populace.
Except the Singapore-on-Thames types aren't happy either- see that "if we're too cowardly to Brexit Properly, we might as well rejoin" piece in the Telegraph earlier this week. After all, they're not much closer to their Nirvana, despite Sunak being PM.
We have disappointed them by failing to embrace the fully free life.
The vote was close. There wasn't an enthusiastic majority for any available position in 2016. FOM undoubtedly tipped the balance to Brexit winning.
For this to be a success by now the following needed to be in place:
Net migration in the tens of thousands. A clear plan and large scale implementation already for social care, NHS, agriculture etc to be fully staffed from within the UK population going forward.
And excellent communication of the direction of travel.
It's an epic fail so far.
Yes, unfortunately there's a strong correlation between the sort of politicians who favoured Leave and the sort who couldn't run a piss-up in a brewery.
I see Hillary Clinton has lost none of her common touch: "In a separate development, Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 election to Trump despite winning the popular vote, told voters to “get over yourself” and vote for Biden instead of his challenger."
Voters who don't want to vote for Biden do not have to vote for Trump instead. They can not vote, or find a third-party candidate. It's what happened in 2016 when enough voters decided they didn't want to vote for Clinton, regardless of how awful Trump was.
I see quite a few people who struggle to draw a distinction between Trump and Biden now. To younger, lefty voters they're both ancient, senile white guys who will support Israel to commit genocide.
What about abortion you might say? Well, what has Biden done to provide access to abortion? People have suggested that he could have made abortion available in states where it is banned on Federal land, but that hasn't happened. In what way would a second Biden term improve access to abortion? These voters need convincing, and they aren't being offered anything at all.
Biden in 2024 is a much weaker candidate than in 2020. Do we really think there are enough voters who thought Trump was good enough to vote for in 2020 who will have finally come to their senses in 2024?
Hillary Clinton is demonstrating that she's learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.
Biden is a better candidate than she was, but, that's not saying much.
You have to say “Basket of Deplorables” was one of the most memorable political quotes of the last decade.
Not in a good way for Mrs Clinton, but memorable nonetheless!
It was very accurate as well as we saw during the attempted insurrection.
It was an example of a politician actually 'telling it like it is' rather than using that phrase as cover for spreading lies and bigotry.
It was also piss-poor politics. Whether or not Trump's coalition included a load of deplorables - it did and does - it was foolish in the extreme to seem to label the whole lot of them as such. 'Don't insult voters, even when they are being idiots' is a pretty good maxim for any politician to live by. Indeed, don't even insult their ideas: just take them apart - ridicule the logic, the assumptions, the lack of evidence, the magic thinking and so on (but even then, tie it to the political opponent), but never, ever insult the electorate.
It's great she's learnt her lesson give the 8 years she's had to reflect on it and the 16 years since she lost to Obama in the primaries.
I'm sure "get over yourselves" will go down really well.
As long as they don't get rid of the smart checkouts at Sainsbury's. They are a real time-saver when shopping, and I'd hate to have to go back to standing in a queue and then unloading and reloading my trolley.
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
No. Our own farmers have been Absolutely Fucked by the scrapping of the CAP and its replacement with basically nothing. Go ask a farmer.
Nor can they casually export any more - costs of export are uneconomic. Again, go ask a farmer.
Well I live in the countryside and speak to a lot of farmers. My next door neighbour is one. His lamb is consumed domestically. Most of their complaints are that the supermarkets you work for screw them on price. Exports dont come up that much.
You are delusional if you think they don't, or can be negotiated with.
I've proposed a solution to this cycle of violence, you have not.
You are just delusional, with no solutions.
So you think the US and UK are also delusional with no solutions?
Yes.
I think they're pandering to people like you, safe in the knowledge that they don't need to come up with a solution themselves.
You are unhinged.
No I'mAn not, I'm being a realist.
A real realist, not one of those fake ones who wants to kowtow to Russia.
Oh sod off with this Russia nonsense. You are a warmonger and you're lost.
War is necessary sometimes.
When faced by absolute evil, yes it needs to be destroyed at war sometimes.
You are an appeaser.
You think everyone on this board is an appeaser. You are crazy.
No I think only those who don't want Russia and Hamas defeated are appeasers.
I think I am the only PBer who wants both a free, secure Ukraine restored to its 1991 borders, and a free, secure Israel restored to its 1967 borders.
Not the only one. Me too.
Where do you stand on the whole North America thing.
I think those countries should stick to their internationally agreed borders too.
Israel annexed the West Bank and Gaza following a war with its Arab neighbours. We whiteys annexed the United States of America following a conquest of the indigenous peoples.
If you want a return to 1967 borders then presumably you want a return of America to its 1492 state also.
The current borders of the USA are agreed internationally.
Israel has occupied the West Bank and Gaza but not annexed them. It has annexed East Jerusalem. Hence the WB and Gaza are referred to as Occupied Territories.
Yes. But who agreed that the current borders of the USA are sacrosanct. The Navajo?
The Navajo did sign a treaty with the US in 1868, yes.
And Egypt and Jordan have sign peace agreements with Israel too, without demanding their land back.
There is no international agreement as to who owns that land, because Egypt and Jordan relinquished the land but Israel hasn't (yet) annexed it.
Perhaps it will end with Israel annexing the WB and Gaza, and there's nothing wrong with that if that happens, but the Oslo accords said that the land would be negotiated between Israel and a future Palestinian state. I would like to see that happen, once Hamas are vanquished.
The Oslo accords died on 11 September 2001.
What on earth does this bit mean: "There is no international agreement as to who owns that land, because Egypt and Jordan relinquished the land but Israel hasn't (yet) annexed it."?
Could you name some countries that have agreed to the Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem, and perhaps some that have agreed to the Israeli annexation of West Jerusalem?
Israel doesn't make international law, whether by its declarations of annexation or by any other means. TREATIES make international law.
Yes, treaties make international law, and there's no treaty covering who owns Gaza and the West Bank.
The closest to a treaty covering it is the Oslo Accords which agrees the border as a matter for future negotiations.
Resolution 181, passed in 1947, gave the West Bank to Arab Palestine, as well as much of the territory that Israel captured the following year, i.e. the 1948 Occcupied Territories.
As far as I'm aware, no major country in the world (not even the United States) recognises Israeli de jure sovereignty over ANY PART of Jerusalem. To be clear: that means over no part of Jerusalem either West or East.
Israeli annexation doesn't count for SHIT in international law.
Yes, mostly. I think the US and Australia recognise west Jerusalem as de jure Israeli. Taiwan, Vanuatu, Nauru and a few others recognise all of Jerusalem as Israeli.
I don't think that this would particularly put of voters in the Republic. I think voters there would believe that the spending wouldn't happen, and instead there would be cuts in NI instead.
But it would almost certainly put a lot of doubt into the minds of NI voters, they Dublin's pockets wouldn't be as deep as London's.
The challenge then for Sinn Fein is whether they can turn around the NI economy, so that it can pay its own way, and make this less of an issue. The structure of the Stormont Assembly might help them here, as it makes it harder to play the SNP-style divisive political strategy without collapsing the institutions.
I suspect the EU would be only too happy to help out to dovetail the North in with the South when that day arrives.
It would stick one to Brexit Britain too.
Yes and a referendum on Irish unity would not necessarily be decided by considerations of economic rationality - Brexiteers won a referendum on the basis of vague notions about sovereignty in defiance of economic logic - the same could easily happen in Ireland.
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
No. Our own farmers have been Absolutely Fucked by the scrapping of the CAP and its replacement with basically nothing. Go ask a farmer.
Nor can they casually export any more - costs of export are uneconomic. Again, go ask a farmer.
As we passed Operation Stack to first Ashford and then Dover on Friday, I pondered the lack of UK registered vehicles in the 10 mile queue at each location. Do we not export consumables any more?
The Independent vote, much of which voted for Haley in the Republican primaries and which dislikes both Biden and Trump, will certainly be decisive in November.
The outcomes of Trump's criminal cases will also have an impact as much as abortion. Remember too while Independents and the median US voters wants to keep abortion legal up to a time limit evangelicals and conservative Roman Catholics, including some Hispanics, don't.
Opposition to abortion might help Trump and the GOP therefore if it drives up evangelical turnout in the South and Bible belt in particular
There have been over 50,000 pregnancies resulting from rape in US states with abortion bans.
74% of white evangelicals and almost half of Catholics say abortion should be mostly illegal. So it will help the GOP with evangelical turnout, even if it turns off Independents
In that survey, it’s only 42% of Catholics wanting abortion to be illegal. That survey’s a couple of years old and support for legal abortion has grown since then. That’s not really what I’d describe as “almost half”.
Most Americans support legal abortion. In a democracy, that helps the party that supports legal abortion.
The rumour is Trump will come out soon for a 15 week abortion time limit, while respecting states' rights.
The problem he then faces is that will not be enough for his evangelical core vote, who want an outright ban on abortion US wide, while still being too low a limit for Independents who probably want a 22-24 week limit
Trump has a long history of teasing announcements that never come.
Mr. Nick, to be fair, the Leave campaign was hugely aided by the Remain side's decision to focus on net/gross bickering of a huge sum, instead of simply pointing out the benefits. It remains, ahem, remarkable that the pro-EU side didn't win the economic argument.
I was skim reading the...... altercation............ between CorrectHorseBattery and Barty Roberts last night.
I must admit I'm somewhat in CHB's favour here. Israel has gone far to far with its response to 7th October. Their is no justification to destroying aid convoys and killing aid workers. And I don't believe them when they say it was an accident. It wasn't, and they know it.
Barty's point is that Hamas must be destroyed, which I think we will all agree on.
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
Slapping charges on imports increases competitiveness?
No wonder your grasp of economics is so slight.
It's what the EU has done for the last 50 years. Maybe you hadnt noticed ?
I had indeed noticed the benefits of being part of the larges single market in the world.
Still, blue passports, eh. Rejoice!
Yeah, ducking the point.
The point being that Brexit has become a total sh*tshow for most people - higher prices, ridiculous passport queues at ports and airports, random customs charges on parcels from abroad, these are the things people experience every day. And the variety and quality of goods available in the UK has declined - the range of cheeses sold in my local supermarket is now much more limited than it was before Brexit, to take one example.
And for what? What benefits can we see in our everyday lives? Or for the UK on the international stage? There are none.
You would have higher prices no matter what due to Covid and Putin. Personally I fly via Schipol to Hamburg every month and never face a long wait. As for supermarket stocking policies they change all the time. The selection of cheese at my local Waitrose has got better, lots of local artisan cheese. If cheese is your thing change supermarket.
Your issue is you are stuck in the past. You lost a vote because you couldnt sell a positive view of the EU.
Waitrose is OK as a shop. It's the customers I can't stand.
This is a supermarket version of the cyclists vs motorists vs pedestrians fallacy.
Most adults drive, walk and ride bikes at different times. Likewise most adults shop at various different supermarkets.
I get shopping deliveries from Waitrose, do regular in-person shops at Lidl, frequently pop into the local Tesco express and Sainsbury’s local, and occasionally look in on Aldi or M&S. The only supermarkets I don’t often visit are ASDA and Morrisons, the latter because it reminds me of my Yorkshire in laws with its aisle labelled “fancy cheese” and a range called “extra special” (and they’re few and far between in the south anyway).
I was in the supermarket yesterday and is undoubtable that the range and shelf life of fresh food in particular has declined dramatically since leaving the single market. Disgruntled Brits continue to post pics on twitter of shelves groaning under bounteous fresh fruit and veg in the EU but my supermarket - at the heart of the transport network and thus presumably better off in terms of logistics than more distant stores, resembles a wasteland.
I know the last bastion of Brexiters is 'well, it's all worth it because we have glorious sovereignty', but, for the millionth time, Brexit was sold as painless. Only considerable upsides. It's abundantly clear that simply isn't, could never be, the case.
Not even Rees-Mogg could find any real Brexit benefits.
I know the two main parties, and the media that pushed Leave so heavily, are keen to avoid all mention of Brexit, the costs it has imposed and the damage it is doing, for reasons, but this omerta cannot hold indefinitely.
I've been saying for some time that Brexit would prove the ultimate Pyrrhic victory for the Conservative Party, and it seems that it is coming to pass. It's still tearing the party apart. I think it is a significant part of why the Tories are polling so badly. I think people have drawn their own conclusions that Brexit is making everything worse - it is like a poisonous catalyst. There's an article in the Guardian today saying farmers are calling for a UBI for their sector because they cannot survive without EU subsidies.
I'm sure the Singapore-on-Thames types are sanguine about all this, but they are only a relatively small part of the populace.
Except the Singapore-on-Thames types aren't happy either- see that "if we're too cowardly to Brexit Properly, we might as well rejoin" piece in the Telegraph earlier this week. After all, they're not much closer to their Nirvana, despite Sunak being PM.
We have disappointed them by failing to embrace the fully free life.
The vote was close. There wasn't an enthusiastic majority for any available position in 2016. FOM undoubtedly tipped the balance to Brexit winning.
For this to be a success by now the following needed to be in place:
Net migration in the tens of thousands. A clear plan and large scale implementation already for social care, NHS, agriculture etc to be fully staffed from within the UK population going forward.
And excellent communication of the direction of travel.
It's an epic fail so far.
People don't want many of those jobs at the prevailing rate of pay. So if you want Brits to do them then you have to pay a lot more, which obviously impacts on prices, which in turn impacts on cost of living (or in the case of farms, would drive many out of growing what they do) - which people also don't want. The failure to join the dots together on these sort of questions has been a serious political failing of leadership, enabling too many of the public to indulge in the magic thinking that the likes of Reform promote.
1. Supermarkets don't make a lot of money selling various categories of food, neither do the packers, producers, farmers. A big increase in wages can't be passed on to consumers who are broke - we see big declines in volume as prices soar. 2. There aren't sufficient workers in the places needed. Even where factories pay good money they still can't find workers locally as they already have jobs 3. You can't send people from Widnes to Wisbech to fill these jobs as there is nowhere for them to live - and if you build new houses there at market prices they can't afford them even on boosted wages.
So we have migrant labour. If we wanted to build new towns of council rentals offered a below market prices and then encourage people to move there, we could remove migrants. Bt we don't want that either. 80% of people in Wisbech voted for Brexit because they are sick of foreign workers. But don't want to take those jobs or build new council houses either...
I don't think that this would particularly put of voters in the Republic. I think voters there would believe that the spending wouldn't happen, and instead there would be cuts in NI instead.
But it would almost certainly put a lot of doubt into the minds of NI voters, they Dublin's pockets wouldn't be as deep as London's.
The challenge then for Sinn Fein is whether they can turn around the NI economy, so that it can pay its own way, and make this less of an issue. The structure of the Stormont Assembly might help them here, as it makes it harder to play the SNP-style divisive political strategy without collapsing the institutions.
Ive always said the numbers would stop a UI. The RoI doesnt want to pay more taxes and the North doesnt want a 30% drop in their standard of living.
Add in that the numbers will only move upwards and that the RoI has an economy heavily dependent on other peoples taxes and its a brave call.
I think there's a window of opportunity in which private sector investment from US companies might boost the NI economy, and reduce the funding gap. The report authors take the view that this rosy economic scenario is dependant on desegregating education in NI which, if achieved peaceably, would also go some way to reconciling the two communities.
I'm not sure Sinn Fein are that interested in desegregating education, but perhaps I missed something.
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
No. Our own farmers have been Absolutely Fucked by the scrapping of the CAP and its replacement with basically nothing. Go ask a farmer.
Nor can they casually export any more - costs of export are uneconomic. Again, go ask a farmer.
As we passed Operation Stack to first Ashford and then Dover on Friday, I pondered the lack of UK registered vehicles in the 10 mile queue at each location. Do we not export consumables any more?
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
Slapping charges on imports increases competitiveness?
No wonder your grasp of economics is so slight.
It's what the EU has done for the last 50 years. Maybe you hadnt noticed ?
I had indeed noticed the benefits of being part of the larges single market in the world.
Still, blue passports, eh. Rejoice!
Yeah, ducking the point.
The point being that Brexit has become a total sh*tshow for most people - higher prices, ridiculous passport queues at ports and airports, random customs charges on parcels from abroad, these are the things people experience every day. And the variety and quality of goods available in the UK has declined - the range of cheeses sold in my local supermarket is now much more limited than it was before Brexit, to take one example.
And for what? What benefits can we see in our everyday lives? Or for the UK on the international stage? There are none.
You would have higher prices no matter what due to Covid and Putin. Personally I fly via Schipol to Hamburg every month and never face a long wait. As for supermarket stocking policies they change all the time. The selection of cheese at my local Waitrose has got better, lots of local artisan cheese. If cheese is your thing change supermarket.
Your issue is you are stuck in the past. You lost a vote because you couldnt sell a positive view of the EU.
We have an excellent fruit and veg market with produce from all around the world in our sleepy little Dorset town each Saturday.
Those reliant upon supermarkets might want to look elsewhere.
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
No. Our own farmers have been Absolutely Fucked by the scrapping of the CAP and its replacement with basically nothing. Go ask a farmer.
Nor can they casually export any more - costs of export are uneconomic. Again, go ask a farmer.
As we passed Operation Stack to first Ashford and then Dover on Friday, I pondered the lack of UK registered vehicles in the 10 mile queue at each location. Do we not export consumables any more?
In a word, no. Too expensive, too difficult.
Also, I rsecall that last year when there were shortages in fruit and veg, the EU suppliers tended to cut down on UK customers instead because less hassle/cost to prioritise their EU suppliers.
Will be interesting to see what happens with the weather issues developing as they are, at least at present.
Mr. Nick, to be fair, the Leave campaign was hugely aided by the Remain side's decision to focus on net/gross bickering of a huge sum, instead of simply pointing out the benefits. It remains, ahem, remarkable that the pro-EU side didn't win the economic argument.
Largely because the Leave side said the Remain economic rationale was a false narrative and their economic prospectus was superior. Operation Fear was the claim.
Mind you, far better it for me to justify the Remain campaign, it was disastrous.
I don't think that this would particularly put of voters in the Republic. I think voters there would believe that the spending wouldn't happen, and instead there would be cuts in NI instead.
But it would almost certainly put a lot of doubt into the minds of NI voters, they Dublin's pockets wouldn't be as deep as London's.
The challenge then for Sinn Fein is whether they can turn around the NI economy, so that it can pay its own way, and make this less of an issue. The structure of the Stormont Assembly might help them here, as it makes it harder to play the SNP-style divisive political strategy without collapsing the institutions.
I suspect the EU would be only too happy to help out to dovetail the North in with the South when that day arrives.
It would stick one to Brexit Britain too.
Yes and a referendum on Irish unity would not necessarily be decided by considerations of economic rationality - Brexiteers won a referendum on the basis of vague notions about sovereignty in defiance of economic logic - the same could easily happen in Ireland.
A big part of the Brexit vote was a promise of more money, due to stopping sending any to Brussels. So the perception was that Britain would be financially better off - Osborne's doom budget threat didn't convince.
The simplicity of the financial transfer from London to NI coming to an end will be hard to counter, to convince people they will be better off in a United Ireland. Some potential voters for Irish Unity will definitely be lost as a result.
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
Slapping charges on imports increases competitiveness?
No wonder your grasp of economics is so slight.
It's what the EU has done for the last 50 years. Maybe you hadnt noticed ?
I had indeed noticed the benefits of being part of the larges single market in the world.
Still, blue passports, eh. Rejoice!
Yeah, ducking the point.
The point being that Brexit has become a total sh*tshow for most people - higher prices, ridiculous passport queues at ports and airports, random customs charges on parcels from abroad, these are the things people experience every day. And the variety and quality of goods available in the UK has declined - the range of cheeses sold in my local supermarket is now much more limited than it was before Brexit, to take one example.
And for what? What benefits can we see in our everyday lives? Or for the UK on the international stage? There are none.
You would have higher prices no matter what due to Covid and Putin. Personally I fly via Schipol to Hamburg every month and never face a long wait. As for supermarket stocking policies they change all the time. The selection of cheese at my local Waitrose has got better, lots of local artisan cheese. If cheese is your thing change supermarket.
Your issue is you are stuck in the past. You lost a vote because you couldnt sell a positive view of the EU.
We have an excellent fruit and veg market with produce from all around the world in our sleepy little Dorset town each Saturday.
Those reliant upon supermarkets might want to look elsewhere.
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
Slapping charges on imports increases competitiveness?
No wonder your grasp of economics is so slight.
It's what the EU has done for the last 50 years. Maybe you hadnt noticed ?
I had indeed noticed the benefits of being part of the larges single market in the world.
Still, blue passports, eh. Rejoice!
Black surely?
At least one of the Brit aid workers ‘accidentally’ taken out by the IDF had a blue/black passport, somewhat battered and blood stained in the photo. In the old days possession of such a passport would have merited a gunboat in response to a severe blowing up, now it’s a toothless verbal mauling by Rishi.
You appear to be advocating restarting the British Empire.
Can I have India, please?
Last night:
TOPPING said: » show previous quotes "Where do you stand on the whole North America thing."
And then I replied:
"We should just reoccupy the whole lot , in order to:
"STOP them playing football with their hands STOP them driving on the wrong side of the road STOP them being obsessed with guns STOP them mispronouncing words like "water" STOP them spelling words like "color", er, I mean "colour" incorrectly.
"There!"
Valid points. But to be honest, wart-a is a word my daught-a don't say like what she ought-a. We should put our own house in order first - I'm trying, but failing so far. Not us, so I blame the teachers/common kids
I see Hillary Clinton has lost none of her common touch: "In a separate development, Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 election to Trump despite winning the popular vote, told voters to “get over yourself” and vote for Biden instead of his challenger."
Voters who don't want to vote for Biden do not have to vote for Trump instead. They can not vote, or find a third-party candidate. It's what happened in 2016 when enough voters decided they didn't want to vote for Clinton, regardless of how awful Trump was.
I see quite a few people who struggle to draw a distinction between Trump and Biden now. To younger, lefty voters they're both ancient, senile white guys who will support Israel to commit genocide.
What about abortion you might say? Well, what has Biden done to provide access to abortion? People have suggested that he could have made abortion available in states where it is banned on Federal land, but that hasn't happened. In what way would a second Biden term improve access to abortion? These voters need convincing, and they aren't being offered anything at all.
Biden in 2024 is a much weaker candidate than in 2020. Do we really think there are enough voters who thought Trump was good enough to vote for in 2020 who will have finally come to their senses in 2024?
Hillary Clinton is demonstrating that she's learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.
Biden is a better candidate than she was, but, that's not saying much.
You have to say “Basket of Deplorables” was one of the most memorable political quotes of the last decade.
Not in a good way for Mrs Clinton, but memorable nonetheless!
It was very accurate as well as we saw during the attempted insurrection.
It was an example of a politician actually 'telling it like it is' rather than using that phrase as cover for spreading lies and bigotry.
It was also piss-poor politics. Whether or not Trump's coalition included a load of deplorables - it did and does - it was foolish in the extreme to seem to label the whole lot of them as such. 'Don't insult voters, even when they are being idiots' is a pretty good maxim for any politician to live by. Indeed, don't even insult their ideas: just take them apart - ridicule the logic, the assumptions, the lack of evidence, the magic thinking and so on (but even then, tie it to the political opponent), but never, ever insult the electorate.
If you look at the full quote she isn't referring to all of Trump's voters. Not by a long chalk.
"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? They're racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic – you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people – now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, some of those folks – they are irredeemable, but thankfully, they are not America."
That is flawlessly accurate. About half of those who would describe themselves as Trump Supporters (as opposed to reluctantly voting for him) are indeed 'deplorable' individuals who you wouldn't want to get within a mile of.
But I agree with your point. It was unwise of her to say it during an election campaign. You don't diss the voters when you're trying to win votes.
I generally agree but nowhere near 'half' as she said. 'Some' would work.
As long as they don't get rid of the smart checkouts at Sainsbury's. They are a real time-saver when shopping, and I'd hate to have to go back to standing in a queue and then unloading and reloading my trolley.
We've done this I'm sure, but if they keep self checkouts, they should get rid of the 'random' [1] checks they do which introduce a significant delay to the process.
[1] They don't seem to be random to me. I get one almost every other shop. [2] I've even once, when I bought six items and got a 'check' just walked away and went through the manned checkout next to it.
I was skim reading the...... altercation............ between CorrectHorseBattery and Barty Roberts last night.
I must admit I'm somewhat in CHB's favour here. Israel has gone far to far with its response to 7th October. Their is no justification to destroying aid convoys and killing aid workers. And I don't believe them when they say it was an accident. It wasn't, and they know it.
...He won't put an acceptable collateral casualty number on his plan, just "whatever it takes". "Whatever it takes" is code for ethnic cleansing. The man is either amoral or just plain daft.
I don't think that this would particularly put of voters in the Republic. I think voters there would believe that the spending wouldn't happen, and instead there would be cuts in NI instead.
But it would almost certainly put a lot of doubt into the minds of NI voters, they Dublin's pockets wouldn't be as deep as London's.
The challenge then for Sinn Fein is whether they can turn around the NI economy, so that it can pay its own way, and make this less of an issue. The structure of the Stormont Assembly might help them here, as it makes it harder to play the SNP-style divisive political strategy without collapsing the institutions.
Direct government funding isn't the only consideration from the Northern Irish point of view however. No-one can claim the economy and the civic setup are anything other than basket cases. The Union would be in an unassailable position if the economy and government were doing well.
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
Slapping charges on imports increases competitiveness?
No wonder your grasp of economics is so slight.
It's what the EU has done for the last 50 years. Maybe you hadnt noticed ?
I had indeed noticed the benefits of being part of the larges single market in the world.
Still, blue passports, eh. Rejoice!
Yeah, ducking the point.
The point being that Brexit has become a total sh*tshow for most people - higher prices, ridiculous passport queues at ports and airports, random customs charges on parcels from abroad, these are the things people experience every day. And the variety and quality of goods available in the UK has declined - the range of cheeses sold in my local supermarket is now much more limited than it was before Brexit, to take one example.
And for what? What benefits can we see in our everyday lives? Or for the UK on the international stage? There are none.
You would have higher prices no matter what due to Covid and Putin. Personally I fly via Schipol to Hamburg every month and never face a long wait. As for supermarket stocking policies they change all the time. The selection of cheese at my local Waitrose has got better, lots of local artisan cheese. If cheese is your thing change supermarket.
Your issue is you are stuck in the past. You lost a vote because you couldnt sell a positive view of the EU.
Waitrose is OK as a shop. It's the customers I can't stand.
This is a supermarket version of the cyclists vs motorists vs pedestrians fallacy.
Most adults drive, walk and ride bikes at different times. Likewise most adults shop at various different supermarkets.
I get shopping deliveries from Waitrose, do regular in-person shops at Lidl, frequently pop into the local Tesco express and Sainsbury’s local, and occasionally look in on Aldi or M&S. The only supermarkets I don’t often visit are ASDA and Morrisons, the latter because it reminds me of my Yorkshire in laws with its aisle labelled “fancy cheese” and a range called “extra special” (and they’re few and far between in the south anyway).
Morrison's meal deal, in which the main is a fill your own substantial box from the salad bar, plus the obligatory snack and drink for £3.50 is the most filling, healthy and value one available anywhere. I have it for my lunch and usually have plenty left for a side with evening meal.
I don't think that this would particularly put of voters in the Republic. I think voters there would believe that the spending wouldn't happen, and instead there would be cuts in NI instead.
But it would almost certainly put a lot of doubt into the minds of NI voters, they Dublin's pockets wouldn't be as deep as London's.
The challenge then for Sinn Fein is whether they can turn around the NI economy, so that it can pay its own way, and make this less of an issue. The structure of the Stormont Assembly might help them here, as it makes it harder to play the SNP-style divisive political strategy without collapsing the institutions.
Ive always said the numbers would stop a UI. The RoI doesnt want to pay more taxes and the North doesnt want a 30% drop in their standard of living.
Add in that the numbers will only move upwards and that the RoI has an economy heavily dependent on other peoples taxes and its a brave call.
I think there's a window of opportunity in which private sector investment from US companies might boost the NI economy, and reduce the funding gap. The report authors take the view that this rosy economic scenario is dependant on desegregating education in NI which, if achieved peaceably, would also go some way to reconciling the two communities.
I'm not sure Sinn Fein are that interested in desegregating education, but perhaps I missed something.
I'm never convinced the RoI know what they would do with NI if they got it. Despite stuff the English bit, the North is different in lots of ways to the south and the people are a bit prickly to say the least. History sort of says anyone getting involved in NI in a big way tends to regret it.
I’ve used it, by accident. Was in the store where it is being trialled. It asks you at the start if a list of shopping is what you have in your basket. Seems to work.
As to the article - it comes down to how well run the stores are. The ones who actually know what they are doing redeploy staff from tills to roving “fixers” - fixing various customer problems.
I was skim reading the...... altercation............ between CorrectHorseBattery and Barty Roberts last night.
I must admit I'm somewhat in CHB's favour here. Israel has gone far to far with its response to 7th October. Their is no justification to destroying aid convoys and killing aid workers. And I don't believe them when they say it was an accident. It wasn't, and they know it.
Barty's point is that Hamas must be destroyed, which I think we will all agree on.
No. We all don't.
OK, a fair point.
I'll reconfirm.
Barty's point is that Hamas must be destroyed, which I think we all ( except @Dura_Ace ) agree on.
Issue with self checkouts is alcohol. They are usually full, with a queue. And half a dozen folk standing around for their purchase to be OKed by a single member of staff. See also kiosks. Where parcels, returns, lottery, tobacco and vapes are all dealt with extraordinarily slowly by one person.
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
No. Our own farmers have been Absolutely Fucked by the scrapping of the CAP and its replacement with basically nothing. Go ask a farmer.
Nor can they casually export any more - costs of export are uneconomic. Again, go ask a farmer.
As we passed Operation Stack to first Ashford and then Dover on Friday, I pondered the lack of UK registered vehicles in the 10 mile queue at each location. Do we not export consumables any more?
In a word, no. Too expensive, too difficult.
Also, I rsecall that last year when there were shortages in fruit and veg, the EU suppliers tended to cut down on UK customers instead because less hassle/cost to prioritise their EU suppliers.
Will be interesting to see what happens with the weather issues developing as they are, at least at present.
The UK border is a massive pain in the arse to cross. Client uses a variety of big EU hauliers including giants like STEF. You have to add a 24 hour allowance for vehicle movements in either direction - a Full Day of slack. Because if there is a paperwork issue on one of the products on one of the 30+ pallets in the back, you have a problem.
And getting the paperwork done for import is itself so much of a problem in parts of France that the government has stepped in to pay providers to try and fast track the paperwork. Any food items shipped from France need 48 hours between submitting the paperwork and collection. 2 days sat picked on a pallet in the warehouse before they can leave, then a further day to get through the border.
Anything coming in now takes 3 days longer than it did. For anything fresh that is a lifetime. Which is why hauliers like STEF will simply refuse loads unless your paperwork has been validated by yet another service provider before they turn up after the government-mandated 48 hours to try to cross the border.
I was skim reading the...... altercation............ between CorrectHorseBattery and Barty Roberts last night.
I must admit I'm somewhat in CHB's favour here. Israel has gone far to far with its response to 7th October. Their is no justification to destroying aid convoys and killing aid workers. And I don't believe them when they say it was an accident. It wasn't, and they know it.
Barty's point is that Hamas must be destroyed, which I think we will all agree on.
No. We all don't.
OK, a fair point.
I'll reconfirm.
Barty's point is that Hamas must be destroyed, which I think we all ( except @Dura_Ace ) agree on.
I wouldn't bet on that, even, given some of the posts on here.
The Independent vote, much of which voted for Haley in the Republican primaries and which dislikes both Biden and Trump, will certainly be decisive in November.
The outcomes of Trump's criminal cases will also have an impact as much as abortion. Remember too while Independents and the median US voters wants to keep abortion legal up to a time limit evangelicals and conservative Roman Catholics, including some Hispanics, don't.
Opposition to abortion might help Trump and the GOP therefore if it drives up evangelical turnout in the South and Bible belt in particular
There have been over 50,000 pregnancies resulting from rape in US states with abortion bans.
74% of white evangelicals and almost half of Catholics say abortion should be mostly illegal. So it will help the GOP with evangelical turnout, even if it turns off Independents
In that survey, it’s only 42% of Catholics wanting abortion to be illegal. That survey’s a couple of years old and support for legal abortion has grown since then. That’s not really what I’d describe as “almost half”.
Most Americans support legal abortion. In a democracy, that helps the party that supports legal abortion.
The rumour is Trump will come out soon for a 15 week abortion time limit, while respecting states' rights.
The problem he then faces is that will not be enough for his evangelical core vote, who want an outright ban on abortion US wide, while still being too low a limit for Independents who probably want a 22-24 week limit
Trump has a long history of teasing announcements that never come.
The question will then be would he veto a 6 week abortion ban as President if it passed Congress . And given he’s a pathological liar the Dems can still attack him . Abortion is a losing issue for the GOP and what’s left of the saner candidates know it .
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
No. Our own farmers have been Absolutely Fucked by the scrapping of the CAP and its replacement with basically nothing. Go ask a farmer.
Nor can they casually export any more - costs of export are uneconomic. Again, go ask a farmer.
As we passed Operation Stack to first Ashford and then Dover on Friday, I pondered the lack of UK registered vehicles in the 10 mile queue at each location. Do we not export consumables any more?
In a word, no. Too expensive, too difficult.
Also, I rsecall that last year when there were shortages in fruit and veg, the EU suppliers tended to cut down on UK customers instead because less hassle/cost to prioritise their EU suppliers.
Will be interesting to see what happens with the weather issues developing as they are, at least at present.
The UK border is a massive pain in the arse to cross. Client uses a variety of big EU hauliers including giants like STEF. You have to add a 24 hour allowance for vehicle movements in either direction - a Full Day of slack. Because if there is a paperwork issue on one of the products on one of the 30+ pallets in the back, you have a problem.
And getting the paperwork done for import is itself so much of a problem in parts of France that the government has stepped in to pay providers to try and fast track the paperwork. Any food items shipped from France need 48 hours between submitting the paperwork and collection. 2 days sat picked on a pallet in the warehouse before they can leave, then a further day to get through the border.
Anything coming in now takes 3 days longer than it did. For anything fresh that is a lifetime. Which is why hauliers like STEF will simply refuse loads unless your paperwork has been validated by yet another service provider before they turn up after the government-mandated 48 hours to try to cross the border.
Sounds like you should be developing your local suppliers.
Issue with self checkouts is alcohol. They are usually full, with a queue. And half a dozen folk standing around for their purchase to be OKed by a single member of staff. See also kiosks. Where parcels, returns, lottery, tobacco and vapes are all dealt with extraordinarily slowly by one person.
The worst I think is scratch cards take up in small shops feels like forever. What on earth does the customer/shop assistant do with those ?!
I don't think that this would particularly put of voters in the Republic. I think voters there would believe that the spending wouldn't happen, and instead there would be cuts in NI instead.
But it would almost certainly put a lot of doubt into the minds of NI voters, they Dublin's pockets wouldn't be as deep as London's.
The challenge then for Sinn Fein is whether they can turn around the NI economy, so that it can pay its own way, and make this less of an issue. The structure of the Stormont Assembly might help them here, as it makes it harder to play the SNP-style divisive political strategy without collapsing the institutions.
Ive always said the numbers would stop a UI. The RoI doesnt want to pay more taxes and the North doesnt want a 30% drop in their standard of living.
Add in that the numbers will only move upwards and that the RoI has an economy heavily dependent on other peoples taxes and its a brave call.
I think there's a window of opportunity in which private sector investment from US companies might boost the NI economy, and reduce the funding gap. The report authors take the view that this rosy economic scenario is dependant on desegregating education in NI which, if achieved peaceably, would also go some way to reconciling the two communities.
I'm not sure Sinn Fein are that interested in desegregating education, but perhaps I missed something.
I'm never convinced the RoI know what they would do with NI if they got it. Despite stuff the English bit, the North is different in lots of ways to the south and the people are a bit prickly to say the least. History sort of says anyone getting involved in NI in a big way tends to regret it.
Wasn't there a thing in one of the Irish/UK talks in the 70s where a UK politicians pranked his opposite number - told them that they were going to announce handing over NI in 48 hours or some such? The Irish chap nearly threw himself out of the window....
The biggest problem in politics in the South (aside from the money), is the effect on the Dail of bringing in NI politicians. Not just the Unionists, the non-unionists would mean big shifts in the power balance.
I see Hillary Clinton has lost none of her common touch: "In a separate development, Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 election to Trump despite winning the popular vote, told voters to “get over yourself” and vote for Biden instead of his challenger."
Voters who don't want to vote for Biden do not have to vote for Trump instead. They can not vote, or find a third-party candidate. It's what happened in 2016 when enough voters decided they didn't want to vote for Clinton, regardless of how awful Trump was.
I see quite a few people who struggle to draw a distinction between Trump and Biden now. To younger, lefty voters they're both ancient, senile white guys who will support Israel to commit genocide.
What about abortion you might say? Well, what has Biden done to provide access to abortion? People have suggested that he could have made abortion available in states where it is banned on Federal land, but that hasn't happened. In what way would a second Biden term improve access to abortion? These voters need convincing, and they aren't being offered anything at all.
Biden in 2024 is a much weaker candidate than in 2020. Do we really think there are enough voters who thought Trump was good enough to vote for in 2020 who will have finally come to their senses in 2024?
Hillary Clinton is demonstrating that she's learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.
Biden is a better candidate than she was, but, that's not saying much.
You have to say “Basket of Deplorables” was one of the most memorable political quotes of the last decade.
Not in a good way for Mrs Clinton, but memorable nonetheless!
It was very accurate as well as we saw during the attempted insurrection.
It was an example of a politician actually 'telling it like it is' rather than using that phrase as cover for spreading lies and bigotry.
It was also piss-poor politics. Whether or not Trump's coalition included a load of deplorables - it did and does - it was foolish in the extreme to seem to label the whole lot of them as such. 'Don't insult voters, even when they are being idiots' is a pretty good maxim for any politician to live by. Indeed, don't even insult their ideas: just take them apart - ridicule the logic, the assumptions, the lack of evidence, the magic thinking and so on (but even then, tie it to the political opponent), but never, ever insult the electorate.
If you look at the full quote she isn't referring to all of Trump's voters. Not by a long chalk.
"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? They're racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic – you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people – now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, some of those folks – they are irredeemable, but thankfully, they are not America."
That is flawlessly accurate. About half of those who would describe themselves as Trump Supporters (as opposed to reluctantly voting for him) are indeed 'deplorable' individuals who you wouldn't want to get within a mile of.
But I agree with your point. It was unwise of her to say it during an election campaign. You don't diss the voters when you're trying to win votes.
I generally agree but nowhere near 'half' as she said. 'Some' would work.
Nowhere near half of his voters are bad eggs but of his proper supporters, ie that MAGA crowd, I'd say a half is verging on kind.
I don't think that this would particularly put of voters in the Republic. I think voters there would believe that the spending wouldn't happen, and instead there would be cuts in NI instead.
But it would almost certainly put a lot of doubt into the minds of NI voters, they Dublin's pockets wouldn't be as deep as London's.
The challenge then for Sinn Fein is whether they can turn around the NI economy, so that it can pay its own way, and make this less of an issue. The structure of the Stormont Assembly might help them here, as it makes it harder to play the SNP-style divisive political strategy without collapsing the institutions.
Ive always said the numbers would stop a UI. The RoI doesnt want to pay more taxes and the North doesnt want a 30% drop in their standard of living.
Add in that the numbers will only move upwards and that the RoI has an economy heavily dependent on other peoples taxes and its a brave call.
I think there's a window of opportunity in which private sector investment from US companies might boost the NI economy, and reduce the funding gap. The report authors take the view that this rosy economic scenario is dependant on desegregating education in NI which, if achieved peaceably, would also go some way to reconciling the two communities.
I'm not sure Sinn Fein are that interested in desegregating education, but perhaps I missed something.
I'm never convinced the RoI know what they would do with NI if they got it. Despite stuff the English bit, the North is different in lots of ways to the south and the people are a bit prickly to say the least. History sort of says anyone getting involved in NI in a big way tends to regret it.
I am involved in environmental training in the North and there seems to be under the counter harmonisation between NIEA and the ROI Environmental Protection Agency already in several areas ( rivers don't stop at international boundaries) although for the most part NIEA waste harmonisation remains with Sepa, NRW and the EA .
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
No. Our own farmers have been Absolutely Fucked by the scrapping of the CAP and its replacement with basically nothing. Go ask a farmer.
Nor can they casually export any more - costs of export are uneconomic. Again, go ask a farmer.
As we passed Operation Stack to first Ashford and then Dover on Friday, I pondered the lack of UK registered vehicles in the 10 mile queue at each location. Do we not export consumables any more?
In a word, no. Too expensive, too difficult.
Also, I rsecall that last year when there were shortages in fruit and veg, the EU suppliers tended to cut down on UK customers instead because less hassle/cost to prioritise their EU suppliers.
Will be interesting to see what happens with the weather issues developing as they are, at least at present.
The UK border is a massive pain in the arse to cross. Client uses a variety of big EU hauliers including giants like STEF. You have to add a 24 hour allowance for vehicle movements in either direction - a Full Day of slack. Because if there is a paperwork issue on one of the products on one of the 30+ pallets in the back, you have a problem.
And getting the paperwork done for import is itself so much of a problem in parts of France that the government has stepped in to pay providers to try and fast track the paperwork. Any food items shipped from France need 48 hours between submitting the paperwork and collection. 2 days sat picked on a pallet in the warehouse before they can leave, then a further day to get through the border.
Anything coming in now takes 3 days longer than it did. For anything fresh that is a lifetime. Which is why hauliers like STEF will simply refuse loads unless your paperwork has been validated by yet another service provider before they turn up after the government-mandated 48 hours to try to cross the border.
Sounds like you should be developing your local suppliers.
Hard to develop suppliers who can provide fresh fruit and veg in the UK in Winter. Let them eat turnips?
I don't think that this would particularly put of voters in the Republic. I think voters there would believe that the spending wouldn't happen, and instead there would be cuts in NI instead.
But it would almost certainly put a lot of doubt into the minds of NI voters, they Dublin's pockets wouldn't be as deep as London's.
The challenge then for Sinn Fein is whether they can turn around the NI economy, so that it can pay its own way, and make this less of an issue. The structure of the Stormont Assembly might help them here, as it makes it harder to play the SNP-style divisive political strategy without collapsing the institutions.
Ive always said the numbers would stop a UI. The RoI doesnt want to pay more taxes and the North doesnt want a 30% drop in their standard of living.
Add in that the numbers will only move upwards and that the RoI has an economy heavily dependent on other peoples taxes and its a brave call.
I think there's a window of opportunity in which private sector investment from US companies might boost the NI economy, and reduce the funding gap. The report authors take the view that this rosy economic scenario is dependant on desegregating education in NI which, if achieved peaceably, would also go some way to reconciling the two communities.
I'm not sure Sinn Fein are that interested in desegregating education, but perhaps I missed something.
Neither side are interested in desegregating education.
The last person (civil servant) to propose it in a white paper still has police protection, IIRC.
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
No. Our own farmers have been Absolutely Fucked by the scrapping of the CAP and its replacement with basically nothing. Go ask a farmer.
Nor can they casually export any more - costs of export are uneconomic. Again, go ask a farmer.
As we passed Operation Stack to first Ashford and then Dover on Friday, I pondered the lack of UK registered vehicles in the 10 mile queue at each location. Do we not export consumables any more?
In a word, no. Too expensive, too difficult.
Also, I rsecall that last year when there were shortages in fruit and veg, the EU suppliers tended to cut down on UK customers instead because less hassle/cost to prioritise their EU suppliers.
Will be interesting to see what happens with the weather issues developing as they are, at least at present.
The UK border is a massive pain in the arse to cross. Client uses a variety of big EU hauliers including giants like STEF. You have to add a 24 hour allowance for vehicle movements in either direction - a Full Day of slack. Because if there is a paperwork issue on one of the products on one of the 30+ pallets in the back, you have a problem.
And getting the paperwork done for import is itself so much of a problem in parts of France that the government has stepped in to pay providers to try and fast track the paperwork. Any food items shipped from France need 48 hours between submitting the paperwork and collection. 2 days sat picked on a pallet in the warehouse before they can leave, then a further day to get through the border.
Anything coming in now takes 3 days longer than it did. For anything fresh that is a lifetime. Which is why hauliers like STEF will simply refuse loads unless your paperwork has been validated by yet another service provider before they turn up after the government-mandated 48 hours to try to cross the border.
Sounds like you should be developing your local suppliers.
Yes. People buying continental meats actually voted to eat British. Let them eat Haslet was the cry!
I look at Biden's approval ratings and I just don't see how he can win. Biden's ratings are worse even than Trump's were during Trump's term in office.
If Haley was Biden's opponent he would almost certainly lose as Independents as well as Republicans would vote for her.
Only Trump as his opponent gives him a chance of re election as Independents dislike Trump as much as Biden
People in the UK often don't realise that Independent in America ≠ independent in the UK.
American Independents heavily lean GOP. This is because more Democrat-leaners self-identify as Democrats and fewer Republican-leaners self-identify as Republican.
So for Trump to have worse ratings with Independents than Biden is truly awful. It should be almost as unlikely as Sunak having worse ratings with Tories than Starmer in a poll here.
I don't think that this would particularly put of voters in the Republic. I think voters there would believe that the spending wouldn't happen, and instead there would be cuts in NI instead.
But it would almost certainly put a lot of doubt into the minds of NI voters, they Dublin's pockets wouldn't be as deep as London's.
The challenge then for Sinn Fein is whether they can turn around the NI economy, so that it can pay its own way, and make this less of an issue. The structure of the Stormont Assembly might help them here, as it makes it harder to play the SNP-style divisive political strategy without collapsing the institutions.
Ive always said the numbers would stop a UI. The RoI doesnt want to pay more taxes and the North doesnt want a 30% drop in their standard of living.
Add in that the numbers will only move upwards and that the RoI has an economy heavily dependent on other peoples taxes and its a brave call.
I think there's a window of opportunity in which private sector investment from US companies might boost the NI economy, and reduce the funding gap. The report authors take the view that this rosy economic scenario is dependant on desegregating education in NI which, if achieved peaceably, would also go some way to reconciling the two communities.
I'm not sure Sinn Fein are that interested in desegregating education, but perhaps I missed something.
I'm never convinced the RoI know what they would do with NI if they got it. Despite stuff the English bit, the North is different in lots of ways to the south and the people are a bit prickly to say the least. History sort of says anyone getting involved in NI in a big way tends to regret it.
Wasn't there a thing in one of the Irish/UK talks in the 70s where a UK politicians pranked his opposite number - told them that they were going to announce handing over NI in 48 hours or some such? The Irish chap nearly threw himself out of the window....
The biggest problem in politics in the South (aside from the money), is the effect on the Dail of bringing in NI politicians. Not just the Unionists, the non-unionists would mean big shifts in the power balance.
SF North would be fun to watch. They have been used to running their own show so I suspect there will be some tensions. Dublin is the big beast in the same way as London is in the UK, SF North having to knuckle under wont be easy. As I have pointed out before people in the North do "rights" not citizenship.
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
No. Our own farmers have been Absolutely Fucked by the scrapping of the CAP and its replacement with basically nothing. Go ask a farmer.
Nor can they casually export any more - costs of export are uneconomic. Again, go ask a farmer.
As we passed Operation Stack to first Ashford and then Dover on Friday, I pondered the lack of UK registered vehicles in the 10 mile queue at each location. Do we not export consumables any more?
In a word, no. Too expensive, too difficult.
Also, I rsecall that last year when there were shortages in fruit and veg, the EU suppliers tended to cut down on UK customers instead because less hassle/cost to prioritise their EU suppliers.
Will be interesting to see what happens with the weather issues developing as they are, at least at present.
The UK border is a massive pain in the arse to cross. Client uses a variety of big EU hauliers including giants like STEF. You have to add a 24 hour allowance for vehicle movements in either direction - a Full Day of slack. Because if there is a paperwork issue on one of the products on one of the 30+ pallets in the back, you have a problem.
And getting the paperwork done for import is itself so much of a problem in parts of France that the government has stepped in to pay providers to try and fast track the paperwork. Any food items shipped from France need 48 hours between submitting the paperwork and collection. 2 days sat picked on a pallet in the warehouse before they can leave, then a further day to get through the border.
Anything coming in now takes 3 days longer than it did. For anything fresh that is a lifetime. Which is why hauliers like STEF will simply refuse loads unless your paperwork has been validated by yet another service provider before they turn up after the government-mandated 48 hours to try to cross the border.
Sounds like you should be developing your local suppliers.
Yes. People buying continental meats actually voted to eat British. Let them eat Haslet was the cry!
How dull. We have lots of local farm shops selling anything from local chorizo to mortadella. You just need to upscale and have some imagination.
I was skim reading the...... altercation............ between CorrectHorseBattery and Barty Roberts last night.
I must admit I'm somewhat in CHB's favour here. Israel has gone far to far with its response to 7th October. Their is no justification to destroying aid convoys and killing aid workers. And I don't believe them when they say it was an accident. It wasn't, and they know it.
What evidence do you have that it wasn't, other than a dislike of Israel, when they're saying it was an accident and they've apologised and said there'll be an investigation.
Its rather naive to believe wars can be carried out without mistakes being made.
Under Tony Blair we in NATO managed to bomb a Chinese embassy during a war, did you think that was on purpose? Bombing the wrong car should be a far more plausible accident.
I do have to laugh at the @Alanbrooke position (not personal to you - its the argument). "Just buy local" is fine. If we were self-sufficient in food production. Which we are not.
I absolutely support people buying British where that is an option. Why not buy fresh lamb from Alanbrooke's local farmer vs one that Barty wants shipped frozen from NZ?
But what about all the stuff we eat which we don't produce? Or can't produce all year round? Or at a cost people are willing to pay?
I do remember some nutter interviewed before the referendum saying they would be happy eating grass of it meant leaving the EU. And that "fuck you" mentality is still there. You can't feed your familiy with sovereignty...
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
No. Our own farmers have been Absolutely Fucked by the scrapping of the CAP and its replacement with basically nothing. Go ask a farmer.
Nor can they casually export any more - costs of export are uneconomic. Again, go ask a farmer.
As we passed Operation Stack to first Ashford and then Dover on Friday, I pondered the lack of UK registered vehicles in the 10 mile queue at each location. Do we not export consumables any more?
In a word, no. Too expensive, too difficult.
Also, I rsecall that last year when there were shortages in fruit and veg, the EU suppliers tended to cut down on UK customers instead because less hassle/cost to prioritise their EU suppliers.
Will be interesting to see what happens with the weather issues developing as they are, at least at present.
The UK border is a massive pain in the arse to cross. Client uses a variety of big EU hauliers including giants like STEF. You have to add a 24 hour allowance for vehicle movements in either direction - a Full Day of slack. Because if there is a paperwork issue on one of the products on one of the 30+ pallets in the back, you have a problem.
And getting the paperwork done for import is itself so much of a problem in parts of France that the government has stepped in to pay providers to try and fast track the paperwork. Any food items shipped from France need 48 hours between submitting the paperwork and collection. 2 days sat picked on a pallet in the warehouse before they can leave, then a further day to get through the border.
Anything coming in now takes 3 days longer than it did. For anything fresh that is a lifetime. Which is why hauliers like STEF will simply refuse loads unless your paperwork has been validated by yet another service provider before they turn up after the government-mandated 48 hours to try to cross the border.
Sounds like you should be developing your local suppliers.
Yes. People buying continental meats actually voted to eat British. Let them eat Haslet was the cry!
How dull. We have lots of local farm shops selling anything from local chorizo to mortadella. You just need to upscale and have some imagination.
So the consumer is to blame? You absolutely can make those things in the UK. But they aren't authentic. Which is what consumers want - why do you think supermarkets pay more for authentic products made in Italy / Spain etc and stick the respective flag on them?
Also, have you seen the cost per kilo of your artisan UK chorizo vs the authentic imported Spanish chorizo? British farmers have done a great job in producing small batch niche super premium products. Great! But that isn't want most punters want, and certainly isn't what they can afford.
Wasn't there a thing in one of the Irish/UK talks in the 70s where a UK politicians pranked his opposite number - told them that they were going to announce handing over NI in 48 hours or some such? The Irish chap nearly threw himself out of the window....
The biggest problem in politics in the South (aside from the money), is the effect on the Dail of bringing in NI politicians. Not just the Unionists, the non-unionists would mean big shifts in the power balance.
I quite like the solution offered by Varadkar a few years back before Brexit. RoI rejoins the United Kingdom. [1]
I do have to laugh at the @Alanbrooke position (not personal to you - its the argument). "Just buy local" is fine. If we were self-sufficient in food production. Which we are not.
I absolutely support people buying British where that is an option. Why not buy fresh lamb from Alanbrooke's local farmer vs one that Barty wants shipped frozen from NZ?
But what about all the stuff we eat which we don't produce? Or can't produce all year round? Or at a cost people are willing to pay?
I do remember some nutter interviewed before the referendum saying they would be happy eating grass of it meant leaving the EU. And that "fuck you" mentality is still there. You can't feed your familiy with sovereignty...
I do have to laugh at the @Alanbrooke position (not personal to you - its the argument). "Just buy local" is fine. If we were self-sufficient in food production. Which we are not.
I absolutely support people buying British where that is an option. Why not buy fresh lamb from Alanbrooke's local farmer vs one that Barty wants shipped frozen from NZ?
But what about all the stuff we eat which we don't produce? Or can't produce all year round? Or at a cost people are willing to pay?
I do remember some nutter interviewed before the referendum saying they would be happy eating grass of it meant leaving the EU. And that "fuck you" mentality is still there. You can't feed your familiy with sovereignty...
We can and do import produce from around the entire planet.
There is no reason to only buy local, whether that means local to your county, country or continent.
And we manage to import just fine from the rest of the world goods without being in the EU. Just as almost every other country on the entire planet does too.
If paperwork is causing unnecessary delays we should address that inefficiency for the whole planet, not just one tiny fraction of it.
I do have to laugh at the @Alanbrooke position (not personal to you - its the argument). "Just buy local" is fine. If we were self-sufficient in food production. Which we are not.
I absolutely support people buying British where that is an option. Why not buy fresh lamb from Alanbrooke's local farmer vs one that Barty wants shipped frozen from NZ?
But what about all the stuff we eat which we don't produce? Or can't produce all year round? Or at a cost people are willing to pay?
I do remember some nutter interviewed before the referendum saying they would be happy eating grass of it meant leaving the EU. And that "fuck you" mentality is still there. You can't feed your familiy with sovereignty...
There are certainly products we cant grow, but most of those are already outside the EU - bananas. prineapples etc,
What we import from the EU could be grown locally in many instances.
You appear to want to fill in paperwork rather than talk to your suppliers. Maybe if you paid them a decent price they would be able to invest back in to their businesses. But I suppose the paperwork is more fun.
I look at Biden's approval ratings and I just don't see how he can win. Biden's ratings are worse even than Trump's were during Trump's term in office.
If Haley was Biden's opponent he would almost certainly lose as Independents as well as Republicans would vote for her.
Only Trump as his opponent gives him a chance of re election as Independents dislike Trump as much as Biden
People in the UK often don't realise that Independent in America ≠ independent in the UK.
American Independents heavily lean GOP. This is because more Democrat-leaners self-identify as Democrats and fewer Republican-leaners self-identify as Republican.
So for Trump to have worse ratings with Independents than Biden is truly awful. It should be almost as unlikely as Sunak having worse ratings with Tories than Starmer in a poll here.
Trump is toast.
My current feeling is that the 2.44 available on Biden (bf) is a good price. His state of the union speech has enhanced my confidence in his chances.
I don't think that this would particularly put of voters in the Republic. I think voters there would believe that the spending wouldn't happen, and instead there would be cuts in NI instead.
But it would almost certainly put a lot of doubt into the minds of NI voters, they Dublin's pockets wouldn't be as deep as London's.
The challenge then for Sinn Fein is whether they can turn around the NI economy, so that it can pay its own way, and make this less of an issue. The structure of the Stormont Assembly might help them here, as it makes it harder to play the SNP-style divisive political strategy without collapsing the institutions.
Ive always said the numbers would stop a UI. The RoI doesnt want to pay more taxes and the North doesnt want a 30% drop in their standard of living.
Add in that the numbers will only move upwards and that the RoI has an economy heavily dependent on other peoples taxes and its a brave call.
I think there's a window of opportunity in which private sector investment from US companies might boost the NI economy, and reduce the funding gap. The report authors take the view that this rosy economic scenario is dependant on desegregating education in NI which, if achieved peaceably, would also go some way to reconciling the two communities.
I'm not sure Sinn Fein are that interested in desegregating education, but perhaps I missed something.
I'm never convinced the RoI know what they would do with NI if they got it. Despite stuff the English bit, the North is different in lots of ways to the south and the people are a bit prickly to say the least. History sort of says anyone getting involved in NI in a big way tends to regret it.
Wasn't there a thing in one of the Irish/UK talks in the 70s where a UK politicians pranked his opposite number - told them that they were going to announce handing over NI in 48 hours or some such? The Irish chap nearly threw himself out of the window....
The biggest problem in politics in the South (aside from the money), is the effect on the Dail of bringing in NI politicians. Not just the Unionists, the non-unionists would mean big shifts in the power balance.
SF North would be fun to watch. They have been used to running their own show so I suspect there will be some tensions. Dublin is the big beast in the same way as London is in the UK, SF North having to knuckle under wont be easy. As I have pointed out before people in the North do "rights" not citizenship.
I look at Biden's approval ratings and I just don't see how he can win. Biden's ratings are worse even than Trump's were during Trump's term in office.
If Haley was Biden's opponent he would almost certainly lose as Independents as well as Republicans would vote for her.
Only Trump as his opponent gives him a chance of re election as Independents dislike Trump as much as Biden
People in the UK often don't realise that Independent in America ≠ independent in the UK.
American Independents heavily lean GOP. This is because more Democrat-leaners self-identify as Democrats and fewer Republican-leaners self-identify as Republican.
So for Trump to have worse ratings with Independents than Biden is truly awful. It should be almost as unlikely as Sunak having worse ratings with Tories than Starmer in a poll here.
Trump is toast.
Not UK. In Scotland Independent is usually a Tory who is too ashamed to be a Tory, or wants to fiddle the electoral system. But sometimes it's someone the Tories are ashamed of. This can happen in sequence - IIRC recently in a local gmt by election.
I do have to laugh at the @Alanbrooke position (not personal to you - its the argument). "Just buy local" is fine. If we were self-sufficient in food production. Which we are not.
I absolutely support people buying British where that is an option. Why not buy fresh lamb from Alanbrooke's local farmer vs one that Barty wants shipped frozen from NZ?
But what about all the stuff we eat which we don't produce? Or can't produce all year round? Or at a cost people are willing to pay?
I do remember some nutter interviewed before the referendum saying they would be happy eating grass of it meant leaving the EU. And that "fuck you" mentality is still there. You can't feed your familiy with sovereignty...
There are certainly products we cant grow, but most of those are already outside the EU - bananas. prineapples etc,
What we import from the EU could be grown locally in many instances.
You appear to want to fill in paperwork rather than talk to your suppliers. Maybe if you paid them a decent price they would be able to invest back in to their businesses. But I suppose the paperwork is more fun.
We import bananas etc largely from the EU. Global logistics doesn't give a rat fuck about Brexit, it ships to Europe and then goods are punted onwards to the local markets in Europe. Rotterdam is the hub where so much global stuff comes into Europe.
EDIT - even the stuff we receive direct into the UK have to use our new BTOM. Same checks, same paperwork, same costs...
Which suppliers do you suggest I talk to? They're all in Europe, so if there is a magic way to bypass our trade barriers I am all ears.
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
No. Our own farmers have been Absolutely Fucked by the scrapping of the CAP and its replacement with basically nothing. Go ask a farmer.
Nor can they casually export any more - costs of export are uneconomic. Again, go ask a farmer.
As we passed Operation Stack to first Ashford and then Dover on Friday, I pondered the lack of UK registered vehicles in the 10 mile queue at each location. Do we not export consumables any more?
In a word, no. Too expensive, too difficult.
Also, I rsecall that last year when there were shortages in fruit and veg, the EU suppliers tended to cut down on UK customers instead because less hassle/cost to prioritise their EU suppliers.
Will be interesting to see what happens with the weather issues developing as they are, at least at present.
The UK border is a massive pain in the arse to cross. Client uses a variety of big EU hauliers including giants like STEF. You have to add a 24 hour allowance for vehicle movements in either direction - a Full Day of slack. Because if there is a paperwork issue on one of the products on one of the 30+ pallets in the back, you have a problem.
And getting the paperwork done for import is itself so much of a problem in parts of France that the government has stepped in to pay providers to try and fast track the paperwork. Any food items shipped from France need 48 hours between submitting the paperwork and collection. 2 days sat picked on a pallet in the warehouse before they can leave, then a further day to get through the border.
Anything coming in now takes 3 days longer than it did. For anything fresh that is a lifetime. Which is why hauliers like STEF will simply refuse loads unless your paperwork has been validated by yet another service provider before they turn up after the government-mandated 48 hours to try to cross the border.
Sounds like you should be developing your local suppliers.
Yes. People buying continental meats actually voted to eat British. Let them eat Haslet was the cry!
How dull. We have lots of local farm shops selling anything from local chorizo to mortadella. You just need to upscale and have some imagination.
So the consumer is to blame? You absolutely can make those things in the UK. But they aren't authentic. Which is what consumers want - why do you think supermarkets pay more for authentic products made in Italy / Spain etc and stick the respective flag on them?
Also, have you seen the cost per kilo of your artisan UK chorizo vs the authentic imported Spanish chorizo? British farmers have done a great job in producing small batch niche super premium products. Great! But that isn't want most punters want, and certainly isn't what they can afford.
You have to work with them to help them upscale, hence supplier development. The car industry did this for years and developed their supply base. You might have to invite some of your mainland suppliers to set up in the UK.
One of the things I always admire is how the dutch, who have weather much like ours can have a dynamic food industry. Big green houses, hydroponics, powered by green energy in East Anglia or Kent would be pretty much the same. Cut down the paperwork, the food miles and BoP deficit. Theyre just tomatoes and lettuce after all.
The IDF killing of the aid people in Gaza is atrocious. Even *if* it was a mistake - and I doubt it was.
It might be nice if the people loudly condemning it also loudly condemned the Russian system of 'double-tapping' targets in Ukraine - hitting a civilian structure, then hitting it again a short while afterwards, whilst rescuers are on site.
I do have to laugh at the @Alanbrooke position (not personal to you - its the argument). "Just buy local" is fine. If we were self-sufficient in food production. Which we are not.
I absolutely support people buying British where that is an option. Why not buy fresh lamb from Alanbrooke's local farmer vs one that Barty wants shipped frozen from NZ?
But what about all the stuff we eat which we don't produce? Or can't produce all year round? Or at a cost people are willing to pay?
I do remember some nutter interviewed before the referendum saying they would be happy eating grass of it meant leaving the EU. And that "fuck you" mentality is still there. You can't feed your familiy with sovereignty...
There are certainly products we cant grow, but most of those are already outside the EU - bananas. prineapples etc,
What we import from the EU could be grown locally in many instances.
You appear to want to fill in paperwork rather than talk to your suppliers. Maybe if you paid them a decent price they would be able to invest back in to their businesses. But I suppose the paperwork is more fun.
We import bananas etc largely from the EU. Global logistics doesn't give a rat fuck about Brexit, it ships to Europe and then goods are punted onwards to the local markets in Europe. Rotterdam is the hub where so much global stuff comes into Europe.
EDIT - even the stuff we receive direct into the UK have to use our new BTOM. Same checks, same paperwork, same costs...
Which suppliers do you suggest I talk to? They're all in Europe, so if there is a magic way to bypass our trade barriers I am all ears.
LOL You have to talk to your own suppliers, thats what supplier management is all about. It starts by making it interesting to change their behaviour.
There was no charge for that piece of consultancy.
You are delusional if you think they don't, or can be negotiated with.
I've proposed a solution to this cycle of violence, you have not.
You are just delusional, with no solutions.
So you think the US and UK are also delusional with no solutions?
Yes.
I think they're pandering to people like you, safe in the knowledge that they don't need to come up with a solution themselves.
You are unhinged.
No I'mAn not, I'm being a realist.
A real realist, not one of those fake ones who wants to kowtow to Russia.
Oh sod off with this Russia nonsense. You are a warmonger and you're lost.
War is necessary sometimes.
When faced by absolute evil, yes it needs to be destroyed at war sometimes.
You are an appeaser.
You think everyone on this board is an appeaser. You are crazy.
No I think only those who don't want Russia and Hamas defeated are appeasers.
I think I am the only PBer who wants both a free, secure Ukraine restored to its 1991 borders, and a free, secure Israel restored to its 1967 borders.
Not the only one. Me too.
Where do you stand on the whole North America thing.
I think those countries should stick to their internationally agreed borders too.
Israel annexed the West Bank and Gaza following a war with its Arab neighbours. We whiteys annexed the United States of America following a conquest of the indigenous peoples.
If you want a return to 1967 borders then presumably you want a return of America to its 1492 state also.
The current borders of the USA are agreed internationally.
Israel has occupied the West Bank and Gaza but not annexed them. It has annexed East Jerusalem. Hence the WB and Gaza are referred to as Occupied Territories.
Yes. But who agreed that the current borders of the USA are sacrosanct. The Navajo?
The Navajo did sign a treaty with the US in 1868, yes.
And Egypt and Jordan have sign peace agreements with Israel too, without demanding their land back.
There is no international agreement as to who owns that land, because Egypt and Jordan relinquished the land but Israel hasn't (yet) annexed it.
Perhaps it will end with Israel annexing the WB and Gaza, and there's nothing wrong with that if that happens, but the Oslo accords said that the land would be negotiated between Israel and a future Palestinian state. I would like to see that happen, once Hamas are vanquished.
The Oslo accords died on 11 September 2001.
What on earth does this bit mean: "There is no international agreement as to who owns that land, because Egypt and Jordan relinquished the land but Israel hasn't (yet) annexed it."?
Could you name some countries that have agreed to the Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem, and perhaps some that have agreed to the Israeli annexation of West Jerusalem?
Israel doesn't make international law, whether by its declarations of annexation or by any other means. TREATIES make international law.
Yes, treaties make international law, and there's no treaty covering who owns Gaza and the West Bank.
The closest to a treaty covering it is the Oslo Accords which agrees the border as a matter for future negotiations.
Resolution 181, passed in 1947, gave the West Bank to Arab Palestine, as well as much of the territory that Israel captured the following year, i.e. the 1948 Occcupied Territories.
As far as I'm aware, no major country in the world (not even the United States) recognises Israeli de jure sovereignty over ANY PART of Jerusalem. To be clear: that means over no part of Jerusalem either West or East.
Israeli annexation doesn't count for SHIT in international law.
Yes, mostly. I think the US and Australia recognise west Jerusalem as de jure Israeli. Taiwan, Vanuatu, Nauru and a few others recognise all of Jerusalem as Israeli.
Thanks for this. So Taiwan, which few countries recognise as sovereign, plus some tiny islands recognise East Jerusalem as de jure Israeli.
I don't think the US does recognise West Jerusalem as de jure Israeli. They say
"The United States continues to take no position on any final status issues. The specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations between the parties. The United States is not taking a position on boundaries or borders."
It's possible to read the word "specific" as suggesting a recognition in principle of de jure Israeli sovereignty over at least some part of Jerusalem...but the third sentence suggests the opposite.
In 2022 Australia reversed its decision to recognise West Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.
I look at Biden's approval ratings and I just don't see how he can win. Biden's ratings are worse even than Trump's were during Trump's term in office.
If Haley was Biden's opponent he would almost certainly lose as Independents as well as Republicans would vote for her.
Only Trump as his opponent gives him a chance of re election as Independents dislike Trump as much as Biden
People in the UK often don't realise that Independent in America ≠ independent in the UK.
American Independents heavily lean GOP. This is because more Democrat-leaners self-identify as Democrats and fewer Republican-leaners self-identify as Republican.
So for Trump to have worse ratings with Independents than Biden is truly awful. It should be almost as unlikely as Sunak having worse ratings with Tories than Starmer in a poll here.
Trump is toast.
US Independents are of course more rightwing than Independents in the UK (the closest equivalent would probably be LDs here at a national level) as the USA is a more rightwing nation than the UK and indeed most other western nations.
However Independents did vote for Biden in 2020 and Obama in 2008, they are effectively swing voters although as you say they do lean fractionally GOP overall eg Romney won Independents in 2012 even though Obama won overall due to massive Black and Democrat turnout
I don't think that this would particularly put of voters in the Republic. I think voters there would believe that the spending wouldn't happen, and instead there would be cuts in NI instead.
But it would almost certainly put a lot of doubt into the minds of NI voters, they Dublin's pockets wouldn't be as deep as London's.
The challenge then for Sinn Fein is whether they can turn around the NI economy, so that it can pay its own way, and make this less of an issue. The structure of the Stormont Assembly might help them here, as it makes it harder to play the SNP-style divisive political strategy without collapsing the institutions.
Ive always said the numbers would stop a UI. The RoI doesnt want to pay more taxes and the North doesnt want a 30% drop in their standard of living.
Add in that the numbers will only move upwards and that the RoI has an economy heavily dependent on other peoples taxes and its a brave call.
I think there's a window of opportunity in which private sector investment from US companies might boost the NI economy, and reduce the funding gap. The report authors take the view that this rosy economic scenario is dependant on desegregating education in NI which, if achieved peaceably, would also go some way to reconciling the two communities.
I'm not sure Sinn Fein are that interested in desegregating education, but perhaps I missed something.
I'm never convinced the RoI know what they would do with NI if they got it. Despite stuff the English bit, the North is different in lots of ways to the south and the people are a bit prickly to say the least. History sort of says anyone getting involved in NI in a big way tends to regret it.
Wasn't there a thing in one of the Irish/UK talks in the 70s where a UK politicians pranked his opposite number - told them that they were going to announce handing over NI in 48 hours or some such? The Irish chap nearly threw himself out of the window....
The biggest problem in politics in the South (aside from the money), is the effect on the Dail of bringing in NI politicians. Not just the Unionists, the non-unionists would mean big shifts in the power balance.
SF North would be fun to watch. They have been used to running their own show so I suspect there will be some tensions. Dublin is the big beast in the same way as London is in the UK, SF North having to knuckle under wont be easy. As I have pointed out before people in the North do "rights" not citizenship.
Anyway, Rishi is trying to stop The S*n backing Labour by giving them a big interview. We absolutely should quit the ECHR as it is a "foreign court" apparently. Despite being an international court which we are a member of (and helped establish).
Logically I assume that we need to quit other foreign things like NATO, the UN and FIFA.
'The project also proposed providing a voter ID card for the app’s users. Civil liberties campaigners have said rules introduced in 2022 requiring voters to produce government-issued identification, such as passports and driving licences, at polling stations risks disenfranchising marginalised groups. Any change that would benefit Tory members would be likely to renew controversy.'
Interesting, because of the implications of whether it is to be more legally acceptable at a polling station than, say, a Tesco cheapo shopping card.
So our own farmers become more competitive and can increase their incomes and we cut back on food miles.
Sounds good.
No. Our own farmers have been Absolutely Fucked by the scrapping of the CAP and its replacement with basically nothing. Go ask a farmer.
Nor can they casually export any more - costs of export are uneconomic. Again, go ask a farmer.
As we passed Operation Stack to first Ashford and then Dover on Friday, I pondered the lack of UK registered vehicles in the 10 mile queue at each location. Do we not export consumables any more?
In a word, no. Too expensive, too difficult.
Also, I rsecall that last year when there were shortages in fruit and veg, the EU suppliers tended to cut down on UK customers instead because less hassle/cost to prioritise their EU suppliers.
Will be interesting to see what happens with the weather issues developing as they are, at least at present.
The UK border is a massive pain in the arse to cross. Client uses a variety of big EU hauliers including giants like STEF. You have to add a 24 hour allowance for vehicle movements in either direction - a Full Day of slack. Because if there is a paperwork issue on one of the products on one of the 30+ pallets in the back, you have a problem.
And getting the paperwork done for import is itself so much of a problem in parts of France that the government has stepped in to pay providers to try and fast track the paperwork. Any food items shipped from France need 48 hours between submitting the paperwork and collection. 2 days sat picked on a pallet in the warehouse before they can leave, then a further day to get through the border.
Anything coming in now takes 3 days longer than it did. For anything fresh that is a lifetime. Which is why hauliers like STEF will simply refuse loads unless your paperwork has been validated by yet another service provider before they turn up after the government-mandated 48 hours to try to cross the border.
Sounds like you should be developing your local suppliers.
Yes. People buying continental meats actually voted to eat British. Let them eat Haslet was the cry!
How dull. We have lots of local farm shops selling anything from local chorizo to mortadella. You just need to upscale and have some imagination.
So the consumer is to blame? You absolutely can make those things in the UK. But they aren't authentic. Which is what consumers want - why do you think supermarkets pay more for authentic products made in Italy / Spain etc and stick the respective flag on them?
Also, have you seen the cost per kilo of your artisan UK chorizo vs the authentic imported Spanish chorizo? British farmers have done a great job in producing small batch niche super premium products. Great! But that isn't want most punters want, and certainly isn't what they can afford.
You have to work with them to help them upscale, hence supplier development. The car industry did this for years and developed their supply base. You might have to invite some of your mainland suppliers to set up in the UK.
One of the things I always admire is how the dutch, who have weather much like ours can have a dynamic food industry. Big green houses, hydroponics, powered by green energy in East Anglia or Kent would be pretty much the same. Cut down the paperwork, the food miles and BoP deficit. Theyre just tomatoes and lettuce after all.
Work with who to upscale? Artisan UK producers? Again, most consumers Do Not Want That. They want Chorizo from Spain, not Salisbury.
I’ve used it, by accident. Was in the store where it is being trialled. It asks you at the start if a list of shopping is what you have in your basket. Seems to work.
As to the article - it comes down to how well run the stores are. The ones who actually know what they are doing redeploy staff from tills to roving “fixers” - fixing various customer problems.
I much prefer the scan as you shop idea.
Been using it for years at Sainsbury’s and elsewhere.
The IDF killing of the aid people in Gaza is atrocious. Even *if* it was a mistake - and I doubt it was.
It might be nice if the people loudly condemning it also loudly condemned the Russian system of 'double-tapping' targets in Ukraine - hitting a civilian structure, then hitting it again a short while afterwards, whilst rescuers are on site.
I condemn Russians killing civilians and rescuers in this way. I condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
I was skim reading the...... altercation............ between CorrectHorseBattery and Barty Roberts last night.
I must admit I'm somewhat in CHB's favour here. Israel has gone far to far with its response to 7th October. Their is no justification to destroying aid convoys and killing aid workers. And I don't believe them when they say it was an accident. It wasn't, and they know it.
What evidence do you have that it wasn't, other than a dislike of Israel, when they're saying it was an accident and they've apologised and said there'll be an investigation.
Its rather naive to believe wars can be carried out without mistakes being made.
Under Tony Blair we in NATO managed to bomb a Chinese embassy during a war, did you think that was on purpose? Bombing the wrong car should be a far more plausible accident.
It may well have been on purpose. A US stealth plane had been lost - the story was that various components were being held in the Embassy, prior to onward shipment to China.
Anyway, Rishi is trying to stop The S*n backing Labour by giving them a big interview. We absolutely should quit the ECHR as it is a "foreign court" apparently. Despite being an international court which we are a member of (and helped establish).
Logically I assume that we need to quit other foreign things like NATO, the UN and FIFA.
To be fair, they should all be run like IFAB (footballs rules committee). A permanent seat for each of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (not sure how Irish reunification would impact this?), and another four for all other members. Can't say fairer than that really.
I see Hillary Clinton has lost none of her common touch: "In a separate development, Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 election to Trump despite winning the popular vote, told voters to “get over yourself” and vote for Biden instead of his challenger."
Voters who don't want to vote for Biden do not have to vote for Trump instead. They can not vote, or find a third-party candidate. It's what happened in 2016 when enough voters decided they didn't want to vote for Clinton, regardless of how awful Trump was.
I see quite a few people who struggle to draw a distinction between Trump and Biden now. To younger, lefty voters they're both ancient, senile white guys who will support Israel to commit genocide.
What about abortion you might say? Well, what has Biden done to provide access to abortion? People have suggested that he could have made abortion available in states where it is banned on Federal land, but that hasn't happened. In what way would a second Biden term improve access to abortion? These voters need convincing, and they aren't being offered anything at all.
Biden in 2024 is a much weaker candidate than in 2020. Do we really think there are enough voters who thought Trump was good enough to vote for in 2020 who will have finally come to their senses in 2024?
Trump will still get almost all the 47% who voted for him in 2020 again. Biden however increased the Democrat vote to 51% from the 48% Hillary got in 2016, mainly by squeezing third party candidates, even if Trump got even more votes in 2020 than he had in 2016.
So to win Biden needs to get almost all his 2020 voters to back him again
Trump increased his vote share in 2020, from 46.1% in 2016 to 46.8% in 2020. Even after another four years of him showing the US public what a reprehensible, self-interested embarrassment of a man he was.
I do not share the certainty that some have that now, finally, Trump voters will have seen the light and will stop voting for him. With Biden being a much weaker candidate this time than last, Trump might even increase his vote share again.
The 2020 vote was before the insurrection and indictments. Presidents get to look presidential, so he had that going for him too.
The insurrection was more than three years ago, and there have been plenty of indictments over a considerable period since then. If these were going to put off voters from Trump then we would see some evidence of this in the polls by now. We don't.
And yet people here are confident that, any month now, something will happen and voters will - after nine years of the daily Trump show, of him showing very clearly who he is and what he's about - now, just you wait, now, they will finally turn away from Trump.
I think you're filling yourself because you don't want to accept the evidence in front of you. Trump is heading for the White House.
I do have to laugh at the @Alanbrooke position (not personal to you - its the argument). "Just buy local" is fine. If we were self-sufficient in food production. Which we are not.
I absolutely support people buying British where that is an option. Why not buy fresh lamb from Alanbrooke's local farmer vs one that Barty wants shipped frozen from NZ?
But what about all the stuff we eat which we don't produce? Or can't produce all year round? Or at a cost people are willing to pay?
I do remember some nutter interviewed before the referendum saying they would be happy eating grass of it meant leaving the EU. And that "fuck you" mentality is still there. You can't feed your familiy with sovereignty...
There are certainly products we cant grow, but most of those are already outside the EU - bananas. prineapples etc,
What we import from the EU could be grown locally in many instances.
You appear to want to fill in paperwork rather than talk to your suppliers. Maybe if you paid them a decent price they would be able to invest back in to their businesses. But I suppose the paperwork is more fun.
We import bananas etc largely from the EU. Global logistics doesn't give a rat fuck about Brexit, it ships to Europe and then goods are punted onwards to the local markets in Europe. Rotterdam is the hub where so much global stuff comes into Europe.
EDIT - even the stuff we receive direct into the UK have to use our new BTOM. Same checks, same paperwork, same costs...
Which suppliers do you suggest I talk to? They're all in Europe, so if there is a magic way to bypass our trade barriers I am all ears.
LOL You have to talk to your own suppliers, thats what supplier management is all about. It starts by making it interesting to change their behaviour.
There was no charge for that piece of consultancy.
OK thanks. So. I am talking to existing suppliers. In France, Spain, Italy, Belgium. What is it you think I should be saying to them?
You may have missed the rather basic point that the cause of the issues is the BTOM, which is this government's 2nd attempt at a border model. The steps imposed on them by the French / Spanish / Italian / Belgian governments are those they are treaty-bound to implement at the UK's request.
What we really need to do is to get shut of this stupid government. And that is coming...
Self checkouts are an interesting business question. Customers are divided but more dislike them than like them; staff hate them - more because they don't work very smoothly and staff get the grief from customers than because the machines put them out of a job; they cost more than manned tills when maintenance and increased theft are factored in.
So why, given they are net negatives for customers, staff and the business itself, do businesses persevere with self checkouts? It seems to be a version of "one final push". Businesses believe a technical solution will be found to make the self checkout system work better.
Comments
https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0404/1441589-united-ireland/
I don't think that this would particularly put of voters in the Republic. I think voters there would believe that the spending wouldn't happen, and instead there would be cuts in NI instead.
But it would almost certainly put a lot of doubt into the minds of NI voters, they Dublin's pockets wouldn't be as deep as London's.
The challenge then for Sinn Fein is whether they can turn around the NI economy, so that it can pay its own way, and make this less of an issue. The structure of the Stormont Assembly might help them here, as it makes it harder to play the SNP-style divisive political strategy without collapsing the institutions.
I must admit I'm somewhat in CHB's favour here.
Israel has gone far to far with its response to 7th October. Their is no justification to destroying aid convoys and killing aid workers. And I don't believe them when they say it was an accident. It wasn't, and they know it.
https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/9954-britain-proud-its-empire?redirect_from=/news/2014/07/26/britain-proud-its-empire/
It would stick one to Brexit Britain too.
Cleverly's requirement for skilled migrants worldwide to the UK to have a job earning £38,700 minimum to get a visa will build on that
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/james-cleverly-migration-figures-salary-requirement-home-office-b1124705.html
As far as I'm aware, no major country in the world (not even the United States) recognises Israeli de jure sovereignty over ANY PART of Jerusalem. To be clear: that means over no part of Jerusalem either West or East.
Israeli annexation doesn't count for SHIT in international law.
Add in that the numbers will only move upwards and that the RoI has an economy heavily dependent on other peoples taxes and its a brave call.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-teasing-announcement-abortion-dodges-specifics/story?id=108805261
The problem he then faces is that will not be enough for his evangelical core vote, who want an outright ban on abortion US wide, while still being too low a limit for Independents who probably want a 22-24 week limit
To the extent that they've pushed back a bit, and will take up only those which dovetail most neatly with their personal agendas.
"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? They're racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic – you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people – now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, some of those folks – they are irredeemable, but thankfully, they are not America."
That is flawlessly accurate. About half of those who would describe themselves as Trump Supporters (as opposed to reluctantly voting for him) are indeed 'deplorable' individuals who you wouldn't want to get within a mile of.
But I agree with your point. It was unwise of her to say it during an election campaign. You don't diss the voters when you're trying to win votes.
All that means is that people like me will bring in stuff in bulk to reduce both the cost of this and of the veterinary certificate and TRACES information and customs paperwork. Which means products with less life on it, more waste and more costs.
Remember how Brexit was supposed to cut food costs by 10%?
The article quotes Prof Fitzgerald from the radio this morning:
"Looking for somebody else to pay for unification is not going to happen. If it happens, we've got to pay for it ourselves."
But perhaps if they put it on the side of a green bus the idea that the EU (or US) will pay for it might be enough to win the vote.
Nor can they casually export any more - costs of export are uneconomic. Again, go ask a farmer.
Before, every 6 months - and in the period leading up to it and after - we had battles to rebut or modify new EU legislation and initiatives that didn't land well here at all, and encroached into our domestic sphere.
All that has now ended. But, we need to solve our own problems.
I'm sure "get over yourselves" will go down really well.
Most adults drive, walk and ride bikes at different times. Likewise most adults shop at various different supermarkets.
I get shopping deliveries from Waitrose, do regular in-person shops at Lidl, frequently pop into the local Tesco express and Sainsbury’s local, and occasionally look in on Aldi or M&S. The only supermarkets I don’t often visit are ASDA and Morrisons, the latter because it reminds me of my Yorkshire in laws with its aisle labelled “fancy cheese” and a range called “extra special” (and they’re few and far between in the south anyway).
2. There aren't sufficient workers in the places needed. Even where factories pay good money they still can't find workers locally as they already have jobs
3. You can't send people from Widnes to Wisbech to fill these jobs as there is nowhere for them to live - and if you build new houses there at market prices they can't afford them even on boosted wages.
So we have migrant labour. If we wanted to build new towns of council rentals offered a below market prices and then encourage people to move there, we could remove migrants. Bt we don't want that either. 80% of people in Wisbech voted for Brexit because they are sick of foreign workers. But don't want to take those jobs or build new council houses either...
I'm not sure Sinn Fein are that interested in desegregating education, but perhaps I missed something.
Those reliant upon supermarkets might want to look elsewhere.
Will be interesting to see what happens with the weather issues developing as they are, at least at present.
Mind you, far better it for me to justify the Remain campaign, it was disastrous.
The simplicity of the financial transfer from London to NI coming to an end will be hard to counter, to convince people they will be better off in a United Ireland. Some potential voters for Irish Unity will definitely be lost as a result.
[1] They don't seem to be random to me. I get one almost every other shop.
[2] I've even once, when I bought six items and got a 'check' just walked away and went through the manned checkout next to it.
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/4736911/#Comment_4736911
...Whatever it takes. The death toll of the Iraq War was over a quarter of a million, and this is an order of magnitude more justified than that war, so let's say double that half a million? If that's what it takes?..
I have it for my lunch and usually have plenty left for a side with evening meal.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/amazon-ends-ai-powered-store-checkout-which-needed-1000-video-reviewers/
But Tesco are trialing a system that tries to work out your shopping in the basket
https://www.tescoplc.com/tesco-to-introduce-new-scan-free-technology-on-self-service-tills-at-getgo-store/
I’ve used it, by accident. Was in the store where it is being trialled. It asks you at the start if a list of shopping is what you have in your basket. Seems to work.
As to the article - it comes down to how well run the stores are. The ones who actually know what they are doing redeploy staff from tills to roving “fixers” - fixing various customer problems.
I'll reconfirm.
Barty's point is that Hamas must be destroyed, which I think we all ( except @Dura_Ace ) agree on.
They are usually full, with a queue. And half a dozen folk standing around for their purchase to be OKed by a single member of staff.
See also kiosks. Where parcels, returns, lottery, tobacco and vapes are all dealt with extraordinarily slowly by one person.
And getting the paperwork done for import is itself so much of a problem in parts of France that the government has stepped in to pay providers to try and fast track the paperwork. Any food items shipped from France need 48 hours between submitting the paperwork and collection. 2 days sat picked on a pallet in the warehouse before they can leave, then a further day to get through the border.
Anything coming in now takes 3 days longer than it did. For anything fresh that is a lifetime. Which is why hauliers like STEF will simply refuse loads unless your paperwork has been validated by yet another service provider before they turn up after the government-mandated 48 hours to try to cross the border.
The biggest problem in politics in the South (aside from the money), is the effect on the Dail of bringing in NI politicians. Not just the Unionists, the non-unionists would mean big shifts in the power balance.
The last person (civil servant) to propose it in a white paper still has police protection, IIRC.
American Independents heavily lean GOP. This is because more Democrat-leaners self-identify as Democrats and fewer Republican-leaners self-identify as Republican.
So for Trump to have worse ratings with Independents than Biden is truly awful. It should be almost as unlikely as Sunak having worse ratings with Tories than Starmer in a poll here.
Trump is toast.
Its rather naive to believe wars can be carried out without mistakes being made.
Under Tony Blair we in NATO managed to bomb a Chinese embassy during a war, did you think that was on purpose? Bombing the wrong car should be a far more plausible accident.
I absolutely support people buying British where that is an option. Why not buy fresh lamb from Alanbrooke's local farmer vs one that Barty wants shipped frozen from NZ?
But what about all the stuff we eat which we don't produce? Or can't produce all year round? Or at a cost people are willing to pay?
I do remember some nutter interviewed before the referendum saying they would be happy eating grass of it meant leaving the EU. And that "fuck you" mentality is still there. You can't feed your familiy with sovereignty...
Also, have you seen the cost per kilo of your artisan UK chorizo vs the authentic imported Spanish chorizo? British farmers have done a great job in producing small batch niche super premium products. Great! But that isn't want most punters want, and certainly isn't what they can afford.
RoI rejoins the United Kingdom. [1]
[1] I jest, but only a bit.
There is no reason to only buy local, whether that means local to your county, country or continent.
And we manage to import just fine from the rest of the world goods without being in the EU. Just as almost every other country on the entire planet does too.
If paperwork is causing unnecessary delays we should address that inefficiency for the whole planet, not just one tiny fraction of it.
What we import from the EU could be grown locally in many instances.
You appear to want to fill in paperwork rather than talk to your suppliers. Maybe if you paid them a decent price they would be able to invest back in to their businesses. But I suppose the paperwork is more fun.
No one in the North does “rights”.
Just “wrongs”
EDIT - even the stuff we receive direct into the UK have to use our new BTOM. Same checks, same paperwork, same costs...
Which suppliers do you suggest I talk to? They're all in Europe, so if there is a magic way to bypass our trade barriers I am all ears.
https://www.highlandwildlifepark.org.uk/events-experiences/keeper-experiences/
One of the things I always admire is how the dutch, who have weather much like ours can have a dynamic food industry. Big green houses, hydroponics, powered by green energy in East Anglia or Kent would be pretty much the same. Cut down the paperwork, the food miles and BoP deficit. Theyre just tomatoes and lettuce after all.
It might be nice if the people loudly condemning it also loudly condemned the Russian system of 'double-tapping' targets in Ukraine - hitting a civilian structure, then hitting it again a short while afterwards, whilst rescuers are on site.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/04/tories-planned-to-make-millions-from-members-data-with-true-blue-app
There was no charge for that piece of consultancy.
I don't think the US does recognise West Jerusalem as de jure Israeli. They say
"The United States continues to take no position on any final status issues. The specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations between the parties. The United States is not taking a position on boundaries or borders."
It's possible to read the word "specific" as suggesting a recognition in principle of de jure Israeli sovereignty over at least some part of Jerusalem...but the third sentence suggests the opposite.
In 2022 Australia reversed its decision to recognise West Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.
However Independents did vote for Biden in 2020 and Obama in 2008, they are effectively swing voters although as you say they do lean fractionally GOP overall eg Romney won Independents in 2012 even though Obama won overall due to massive Black and Democrat turnout
Logically I assume that we need to quit other foreign things like NATO, the UN and FIFA.
Interesting, because of the implications of whether it is to be more legally acceptable at a polling station than, say, a Tesco cheapo shopping card.
Been using it for years at Sainsbury’s and elsewhere.
Is that what you wanted?
Independents are moving towards Biden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJCMkbHgk68
Florida may not be as safely Republican as assumed due to a new six week abortion ban and a new ballot on abortion in November.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOpUsRVmTdk
So, all still to play for.
You may have missed the rather basic point that the cause of the issues is the BTOM, which is this government's 2nd attempt at a border model. The steps imposed on them by the French / Spanish / Italian / Belgian governments are those they are treaty-bound to implement at the UK's request.
What we really need to do is to get shut of this stupid government. And that is coming...
So why, given they are net negatives for customers, staff and the business itself, do businesses persevere with self checkouts? It seems to be a version of "one final push". Businesses believe a technical solution will be found to make the self checkout system work better.