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.
It would, but I don't think it matters. It won't stop anyone in the Republic from voting for unification, or any politician from advocating for it.
It's been eye-opening how different the mindset is here (compared to Britain) in relation to the North. In Britain the news treated NI pretty much like a foreign news story. In Ireland, news from NI is domestic news. There will be a road collision, a murder, a court case, etc, and you won't know that it's in NI, unless you pay attention to the County name, or details like the PSNI being involved.
Perhaps they'd regret it at leisure afterwards, but if the North votes for it, nothing and no-one on the Republic would stand in the way.
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.
Yeah - I use it all the time, at Sainsburys. The phone app for it has got quite good.
The Tesco thing seems to be scanning the basket at the checkout. Just asks you "Is this the contents of your basket?". Used it a handful of times so far - seems to work well.
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.
Nonesense
No one in the North does “rights”.
Just “wrongs”
Yes, but we're very good at it.
I learnt many things from being born there. I apply them every time I vote. Which is early. And often.
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.
The swing states are decided by tiny margins, the economy is volatile, both candidates are of an age where they can decline suddenly, and one has a shedload of court cases coming up, yet most posters feel the need to nail their colours to one mast or the other.
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.
Well two points firstly chorizo isnt the only product in what we import It;s one I threw in as an example. People dont give shit where tomatoes cucumbers or any of the other standard products we import come from. Cut any of those imports and youre doing the Lords work. Secondly there are lots of products where we have chipped in at experts Somerset Brie, English wine where you need to get your marketing bods doing some promotion.
Your position seems to be you cannot change the status quo. You dont have to substitue everyhing but if you move 25% its a big shift.
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.
If SF North manage to win a vote for Irish unification, Michelle O'Neill becomes the next Taoiseach.
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.
Nonesense
No one in the North does “rights”.
Just “wrongs”
Yes, but we're very good at it.
I learnt many things from being born there. I apply them every time I vote. Which is early. And often.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
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.
Nonesense
No one in the North does “rights”.
Just “wrongs”
Yes, but we're very good at it.
I learnt many things from being born there. I apply them every time I vote. Which is early. And often.
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.
If SF North manage to win a vote for Irish unification, Michelle O'Neill becomes the next Taoiseach.
I feel I must fess up to being torn between her and Emma Little-Pengelly
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.
The swing states are decided by tiny margins, the economy is volatile, both candidates are of an age where they can decline suddenly, and one has a shedload of court cases coming up, yet most posters feel the need to nail their colours to one mast or the other.
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 had a few checks when I started using them (and they are pretty annoying) but haven't had one for ages now. I think I must have proved my honesty to the satisfaction of their algorithm.
Edit: smart checkouts, that is, not self checkouts
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...
This government will go and that will be overdue, but the new one if its Starmer wont do much different. Its Civil Service is still staffed by the same people who will inevitably do the same things.
You should talk to different suppliers and pressurise the current ones to shift. At worst - and I suspect you are doing it anyway - tell them they have to absorb the costs.
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.
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.
I sincerely hope you have hired staff to scan, so all you need do is point at products from the comfort of your sedan chair.
That's nothing, they tried to do it with the whole population - NHS data.
The 2020s Conservative problem in a nutshell. People are somethings you do things to for the Government's benefit, not somethings you do things for for their benefit.
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 Tory approach reminds me of a reclusive former neighbour of mine - he had fallen out with his family many years ago but was involved with many local community organisations. But gradually he rejected all of them because he felt slighted for one reason or another. Then he fell out with his neighbours over his failure to maintain his garden (which he was physically unable to do but refused to ask for help). He ended up living a solitary life and spent his time nursing imaginary grievances against the world in general;. This is the future for the UK under the Tories,
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.
Yeah - I use it all the time, at Sainsburys. The phone app for it has got quite good.
The Tesco thing seems to be scanning the basket at the checkout. Just asks you "Is this the contents of your basket?". Used it a handful of times so far - seems to work well.
Say its a trolley with 50 items in and it charges you for 47. Would they have a case against a customer for theft of the other 3? It would seem absurd if they did.
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.
Is there more than anecdotal evidence that customers dislike them? I much prefer them (despite twinges of guilt over possible job losses), in the same way that I prefer filling up the car with petrol to the old days when you awaited an attendant. Most customers in the places I shop go for them, or for the scan-as-you-shop option - standing in a queue while the person three places ahead of you chats to the cashier is really irritating. Obviously it does depend on how well the systems work and the number of tills/self-checkouts available.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
England as ever is somewhat hypocritical on meat. We'll kick the crap out of farmers on welfare standards and then import anything from anywhere if its cheap.
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.
Or painkillers. If you buy paracetamol or ibuprofen it has to be approved
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.
If SF North manage to win a vote for Irish unification, Michelle O'Neill becomes the next Taoiseach.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
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.
If must means accepting Barty's half a million dead, then no, we can't.
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.
This is the twitchy thing in the back of my head. The big social issues for this election are abortion, trans and immigration. If the Republican prospectus of anti-abortion, anti-trans and anti-immigration meshes with the Florida electorate then Trump wins Florida and maybe the country. But if it doesn't, Florida may flip to Biden. Which would be...weird.
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.
Or painkillers. If you buy paracetamol or ibuprofen it has to be approved
Or weight:item anomalies.
But it’s solvable. In our local Tesco the checkout assistant just gazes over at the auto tills whenever the buzzer goes and presses a button on her screen, without having to walk over.
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.
Look, I like Israel, and was on the Executive of Labour Friends of Israel. But bombing three different cars of the same convoy in succession, as shown by the BBC last night, seems to be pretty deliberate.
But I'm getting bored with Western governments saying it's all very worrying and Israel should exercise restraint. Either we should stop sending arms to them until they actually do show some restraint, or stop pretending that we care.
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.
Is there more than anecdotal evidence that customers dislike them? I much prefer them (despite twinges of guilt over possible job losses), in the same way that I prefer filling up the car with petrol to the old days when you awaited an attendant. Most customers in the places I shop go for them, or for the scan-as-you-shop option - standing in a queue while the person three places ahead of you chats to the cashier is really irritating. Obviously it does depend on how well the systems work and the number of tills/self-checkouts available.
Its another age thing. Under 50 prefer self checkouts, over 50 prefer human cashier.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural techniques must have advanced since then as well though.
Good for Ukraine on conducting long range strikes into the Russian federation.
If a foreign country invaded the U.S., it would be outrageous for anyone to take the position that the U.S. could not strike back against the territory of that country right? https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1775540566387826919
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.
If must means accepting Barty's half a million dead, then no, we can't.
This is a statement taken out of context. On my original post I caveated that by questioning Bart's collateral value to achieve his aim. I was specific in that I last night asked Bart for numbers. He declined and simply retorted with "whatever it takes".
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
(What this conversation highlights is the whole "it's difficult to have a sucessful Brexit if we don't have a shared realistic vision of that success looks like" thing. Is it to bring food production back to the UK and cut imports, or is it to be open door to anywhere, shortcuts be dammed, especially if it forces farmers to look for new jobs in cyber?)
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.
If must means accepting Barty's half a million dead, then no, we can't.
Occasional reminder to all those who are very very upset (performatively, or otherwise) about people dying in Gaza, that they are very welcome to do any or all of the following: - Demand the UK government puts pressure on Qatar to expel the Hamas political cadres they are hosting, if their military colleagues don't immediately surrender - Demand the UK government puts pressure on Qatar and Egypt to force Hamas to accept the ceasefire deal that has been on the table for several weeks now - Demand Hamas accept the ICJ ruling and UN Security Council resolution and release all hostages immediately, and without precondition - Insist that Egypt accepts its international obligations under the UN refugee convention, opens the Rafah border and accepts as many refugees as want to cross the border
Any or all of these would be far more effective in stopping bloodshed than whining about Israel's conduct in a war it did not start and did not want, and certainly preferable to indulging in medieval era-type blood libels by claiming - without a shred of evidence whatsoever - that Israel is deliberately targeting aid workers.
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.
If must means accepting Barty's half a million dead, then no, we can't.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
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.
"Independent" candidates in local elections are usually closet Tories. See also:
- Residents' Association - Ratepayers - Someplace Independents
The best descriptor I've seen on a ballot was "Local Farmer" - definitely a Tory!
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.
If must means accepting Barty's half a million dead, then no, we can't.
This is a statement taken out of context. On my original post I caveated that by questioning Bart's collateral value to achieve his aim. I was specific in that I last night asked Bart for numbers. He declined and simply retorted with "whatever it takes".
Here's the context.
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/4736911/#Comment_4736911 BartholomewRoberts Mexicanpete said: » show previous quotes 1. Bollocks it is! 2. At what cost in lives, give me a number (whatever it takes isn't a number). 3. I said pushing bastards out of windows and the like. Have you never seen Munich? 4. 1. Yes it is. 2. 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 lets say double that half a million? If that's what it takes? 3. Real life isn't a James Bond movie. Pushing a few people out of windows won't end Hamas.
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.
If must means accepting Barty's half a million dead, then no, we can't.
Besides. It's perfectly feasible to kill half a million Gazans, and still not destroy Hamas. Partly because (unlike in the olden days) the leadership of Hamas can scatter to the four corners and still do their leadership thing, thanks to modern communications tech. But also because the hatred they feed on is a powerful meme and you can't destroy that by destroying an imaginable number of people.
It's a shame that life isn't simple any more. But here we are.
A potentially underestimated driver for a coup against Sunak's leadership of the Conservative Party is that a number of hopefuls for the subsequent leadership contest occupy seats at Westminster they may lose at the next election. Which would make them ineligible.
Question: if a current leader loses their seat at an election do they automatically lose their party leadership role as well?
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
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.
Is there more than anecdotal evidence that customers dislike them? I much prefer them (despite twinges of guilt over possible job losses), in the same way that I prefer filling up the car with petrol to the old days when you awaited an attendant. Most customers in the places I shop go for them, or for the scan-as-you-shop option - standing in a queue while the person three places ahead of you chats to the cashier is really irritating. Obviously it does depend on how well the systems work and the number of tills/self-checkouts available.
Its another age thing. Under 50 prefer self checkouts, over 50 prefer human cashier.
Also depends on how much shopping you have. I do a big shop once a fortnight for a family of 5, filling a large trolley, and it takes a very long time and also does my back in to scan it all myself. So I queue for the checkouts with a human cashier. I am under 50, just about!
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.
If SF North manage to win a vote for Irish unification, Michelle O'Neill becomes the next Taoiseach.
Cant see that myself, it will be Mary Lou.
Ironically of course SF are currently in government in NI, with Michelle O'Neill FM but not in the Republic where FG still provide the Taoiseach.
Indeed it seems that even the DUP are more willing to work with SF now than FG or FF
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
This is the abstract from a 1976 paper.
"Abstract The yield of wheat in England has increased more than six-fold during the last 750 years, from 0.5 tonne/ha in the first half of the 13th century to 3.4 tonne/ha in the third quarter of the 20th century. Present yields are nearly 4.5 tonne/ha/year representing a nine-fold increase from beginning to end of the period. ..
More than three quarters of the increase has occurred in the last 300 years when yields rose almost exponentially, doubling every 150 years. However, most of the increase was in two comparatively short periods, 1820–1860 and post-Second World War. In the last 30 years the national wheat yield has increased at 0.079 tonne/ha/year, twice as fast as in the accelerating phase of the previous century."
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.
If must means accepting Barty's half a million dead, then no, we can't.
This is a statement taken out of context. On my original post I caveated that by questioning Bart's collateral value to achieve his aim. I was specific in that I last night asked Bart for numbers. He declined and simply retorted with "whatever it takes".
Here's the context.
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/4736911/#Comment_4736911 BartholomewRoberts Mexicanpete said: » show previous quotes 1. Bollocks it is! 2. At what cost in lives, give me a number (whatever it takes isn't a number). 3. I said pushing bastards out of windows and the like. Have you never seen Munich? 4. 1. Yes it is. 2. 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 lets say double that half a million? If that's what it takes? 3. Real life isn't a James Bond movie. Pushing a few people out of windows won't end Hamas.
Thank you. I had lost interest after "whatever it takes" and ignored the value figure and gone to bed.
Half a million is good to know. So we are at circa 10% down so far.
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.
If must means accepting Barty's half a million dead, then no, we can't.
Besides. It's perfectly feasible to kill half a million Gazans, and still not destroy Hamas. Partly because (unlike in the olden days) the leadership of Hamas can scatter to the four corners and still do their leadership thing, thanks to modern communications tech. But also because the hatred they feed on is a powerful meme and you can't destroy that by destroying an imaginable number of people.
It's a shame that life isn't simple any more. But here we are.
I think Hamas will be a larger and more potent force in 10 years time than they were a year ago. Look at our experience of Afghanistan and the Taliban.
This is an interesting and astute read, as an analysis of the forthcoming EU elections and the internal divisions within the right of European politics:
A potentially underestimated driver for a coup against Sunak's leadership of the Conservative Party is that a number of hopefuls for the subsequent leadership contest occupy seats at Westminster they may lose at the next election. Which would make them ineligible.
Question: if a current leader loses their seat at an election do they automatically lose their party leadership role as well?
Yes, on current polls it suggests the likely leadership candidates to succeed Rishi will be Barclay, Badenoch, Braverman, Tugendhat and Patel. Mordaunt, Hunt, Shapps, Chalk would lose their seats, Cleverly too on a few polls
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.
I used to hate them and would approach them full of negativity. They seemed to sense this and react badly since I would never get through the procedure, even with a small shop, without at least one thing, and often several, going wrong. My nuts wouldn't scan, it wouldn't recognise a meal deal, no red pepper on the look-up, my bag in the wrong place, carrots not properly on the scales etc etc. I'd end up almost weeping with frustration.
But then I changed my mental attitude. I started walking up there with a smile and with confidence. "Hello, clever machine, you're going to zip this straight through, aren't you?" This was now the vibe. Along with that I dropped my tentative way of presenting things to it and instead acted firmly and decisively.
It worked. They changed their ways and started co-operating with me. I really like them now and have become almost insouciant when using them.
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.
If SF North manage to win a vote for Irish unification, Michelle O'Neill becomes the next Taoiseach.
Cant see that myself, it will be Mary Lou.
Ironically of course SF are currently in government in NI, with Michelle O'Neill FM but not in the Republic where FG still provide the Taoiseach.
Indeed it seems that even the DUP are more willing to work with SF now than FG or FF
In fairness the DUP don’t really get too many choices in the matter. It’s work with SF or direct rule which potentially benefits SF electorally.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
(What this conversation highlights is the whole "it's difficult to have a sucessful Brexit if we don't have a shared realistic vision of that success looks like" thing. Is it to bring food production back to the UK and cut imports, or is it to be open door to anywhere, shortcuts be dammed, especially if it forces farmers to look for new jobs in cyber?)
The main reason for Switzerland, Norway etc not to be in the EU Customs Union was to protect their farmers. Given the UK government is actually eager to screw over its farmers in its international dealings, I think the UK could quite easily join the Customs Union if and when it gets over its hangups about 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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
Statistics like this always astonish me. Do people not eat everything on their plate and save leftovers? I doubt we throw away more than a few percent of our food in our house.
Chase Bank in the US just announced the same, with a wild marketing-bollocks-speak announcement clearly aimed at investors rather than the unwitting targets of the data mining.
The new scheme: "serves as a key conduit for brands, connecting them with consumers' personal passions and interests. In turn, Chase customers benefit from personalized offers and the ability to earn cash back with brands they love or are discovering for the first time."
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
Statistics like this always astonish me. Do people not eat everything on their plate and save leftovers? I doubt we throw away more than a few percent of our food in our house.
Im afraid its true. I normally try to use everything, so any veg looking a little tired gets shoved in to a soup and used up.
Salad however has the highest disposal rate its something like 45% has a holiday in the fridge and then goes in to the bin.
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.
If must means accepting Barty's half a million dead, then no, we can't.
Besides. It's perfectly feasible to kill half a million Gazans, and still not destroy Hamas. Partly because (unlike in the olden days) the leadership of Hamas can scatter to the four corners and still do their leadership thing, thanks to modern communications tech. But also because the hatred they feed on is a powerful meme and you can't destroy that by destroying an imaginable number of people.
It's a shame that life isn't simple any more. But here we are.
I think Hamas will be a larger and more potent force in 10 years time than they were a year ago. Look at our experience of Afghanistan and the Taliban.
Yes. Israel has killed 10 000 Hamas and created 100 000 more.
Over reaction is self defeating in irregular warfare. Bloody Sunday was the IRAs best recruiting sergeant.
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.
I used to hate them and would approach them full of negativity. They seemed to sense this and react badly since I would never get through the procedure, even with a small shop, without at least one thing, and often several, going wrong. My nuts wouldn't scan, it wouldn't recognise a meal deal, no red pepper on the look-up, my bag in the wrong place, carrots not properly on the scales etc etc. I'd end up almost weeping with frustration.
But then I changed my mental attitude. I started walking up there with a smile and with confidence. "Hello, clever machine, you're going to zip this straight through, aren't you?" This was now the vibe. Along with that I dropped my tentative way of presenting things to it and instead acted firmly and decisively.
It worked. They changed their ways and started co-operating with me. I really like them now and have become almost insouciant when using them.
It does take a certain insouciance to scan your nuts at a checkout, I would imagine.
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.
If must means accepting Barty's half a million dead, then no, we can't.
This is a statement taken out of context. On my original post I caveated that by questioning Bart's collateral value to achieve his aim. I was specific in that I last night asked Bart for numbers. He declined and simply retorted with "whatever it takes".
Here's the context.
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/4736911/#Comment_4736911 BartholomewRoberts Mexicanpete said: » show previous quotes 1. Bollocks it is! 2. At what cost in lives, give me a number (whatever it takes isn't a number). 3. I said pushing bastards out of windows and the like. Have you never seen Munich? 4. 1. Yes it is. 2. 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 lets say double that half a million? If that's what it takes? 3. Real life isn't a James Bond movie. Pushing a few people out of windows won't end Hamas.
Thank you. I had lost interest after "whatever it takes" and ignored the value figure and gone to bed.
Half a million is good to know. So we are at circa 10% down so far.
Life must be cheap on Merseyside.
Top marks for reading to the end.
"Official" death toll (possibly exaggerated) is around 32,000, and of that, between a quarter and a half (depending on whether you believe Israel or Hamas - and potentially the difference is who counts as a terrorist and who doesn't) are Hamas members.
Presumably the half million was meant as civilians, and Hamas members do not count towards it.
So no, we are nowhere near "10% down so far" - more like 4%. And IDF operational efficiency is getting better as the war goes on - for example, there were no civilian deaths recorded during the recent Shifa hospital operation. And all the heavy bombing has been done for a while - you'll notice the death toll has remained fairly static for some time. There is no way the death toll ends up anywhere near half a million.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
Statistics like this always astonish me. Do people not eat everything on their plate and save leftovers? I doubt we throw away more than a few percent of our food in our house.
Im afraid its true. I normally try to use everything, so any veg looking a little tired gets shoved in to a soup and used up.
Salad however has the highest disposal rate its something like 45% has a holiday in the fridge and then goes in to the bin.
It's quite noticeable that fruit and veg goes off more quickly since Brexit. Slower supply chains I imagine. Perhaps @RochdalePioneers can confirm/refute.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
It depends how far you go with modern farming. Which is much, much more mechanised and much, much more productive.
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.
The staff cost savings (80-90% compared to manned tills, one person for 5 or 10 unmanned tills in larger stores), make up for the customer inconvenience in the eyes of the bean-counters, and they’re hoping these savings continue to grow as the technology matures.
Yes they’ll couch it in fluffy language about freeing up till workers for customer service work, but that’s just to avoid headlines about redundancies, and you can bet overall headcount will decrease over time as people leave and aren’t replaced.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
Statistics like this always astonish me. Do people not eat everything on their plate and save leftovers? I doubt we throw away more than a few percent of our food in our house.
I was also surprised by this. We have a toddler, who certainly doesn't eat everything on his plate (he can't yet communicate what he wants or us really have the discussion about needing to eat it up). He may well waste 25%, but that will decrease significantly in the next 6 months or so as he gets talking and understands more. The other kids will get away with bits and pieces, but not much. 5% maybe. Pre-cooking, waste is tiny - the occasional bit of fruit or veg that goes off unexpectedly early, well under 5%.
But my brother's family's fridge is an impenetrable nightmare of half-eaten things, leftovers from cooking ingredients and uneaten leftovers many of which they eventually chuck out a few days later. I can well believe they throw away over 25% of what comes in. If we have leftovers, their either next day's lunch or, if enough, next day's dinner, but others appear to do thins differently: keep, forget, discard.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
(What this conversation highlights is the whole "it's difficult to have a sucessful Brexit if we don't have a shared realistic vision of that success looks like" thing. Is it to bring food production back to the UK and cut imports, or is it to be open door to anywhere, shortcuts be dammed, especially if it forces farmers to look for new jobs in cyber?)
The main reason for Switzerland, Norway etc not to be in the EU Customs Union was to protect their farmers. Given the UK government is actually eager to screw over its farmers in its international dealings, I think the UK could quite easily join the Customs Union if and when it gets over its hangups about it.
What the UK needs is the French attitude to international rules.
If it is in our interest, awesome.
If it isn't, we are implementing it. Honest. Sometime. Maybe. Don't be so rude!
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
Statistics like this always astonish me. Do people not eat everything on their plate and save leftovers? I doubt we throw away more than a few percent of our food in our house.
I suspect it’s more stuff which goes straight from fridge to bin or compost.
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.
Is there more than anecdotal evidence that customers dislike them? I much prefer them (despite twinges of guilt over possible job losses), in the same way that I prefer filling up the car with petrol to the old days when you awaited an attendant. Most customers in the places I shop go for them, or for the scan-as-you-shop option - standing in a queue while the person three places ahead of you chats to the cashier is really irritating. Obviously it does depend on how well the systems work and the number of tills/self-checkouts available.
Its another age thing. Under 50 prefer self checkouts, over 50 prefer human cashier.
I have sent you a proposed article on transhumanism. The latest version is around 900 words long. It has had all the personal data removed. It is submitted to you on the condition that you do not breach my anonymity: please accept that or return it unpublished. I hope that you look kindly upon 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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
Statistics like this always astonish me. Do people not eat everything on their plate and save leftovers? I doubt we throw away more than a few percent of our food in our house.
Im afraid its true. I normally try to use everything, so any veg looking a little tired gets shoved in to a soup and used up.
Salad however has the highest disposal rate its something like 45% has a holiday in the fridge and then goes in to the bin.
It's easier to minimize waste if you adopt a just-in-time daily shopping habit. If you only shop once a week, say, it takes considerable skill and discipline to get just the right amount of everything.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
Statistics like this always astonish me. Do people not eat everything on their plate and save leftovers? I doubt we throw away more than a few percent of our food in our house.
You must also remember that 78% of statistics are based on dubious assumptions and 51% simply made up on the spot
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
Statistics like this always astonish me. Do people not eat everything on their plate and save leftovers? I doubt we throw away more than a few percent of our food in our house.
Im afraid its true. I normally try to use everything, so any veg looking a little tired gets shoved in to a soup and used up.
Salad however has the highest disposal rate its something like 45% has a holiday in the fridge and then goes in to the bin.
It's quite noticeable that fruit and veg goes off more quickly since Brexit. Slower supply chains I imagine. Perhaps @RochdalePioneers can confirm/refute.
Cant honestly say Ive noticed that.
Statistically food waste fell during Covid presumably because people ate up what was in their fridge faster. It has now climbed back to pre Covid levels.
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.
If must means accepting Barty's half a million dead, then no, we can't.
This is a statement taken out of context. On my original post I caveated that by questioning Bart's collateral value to achieve his aim. I was specific in that I last night asked Bart for numbers. He declined and simply retorted with "whatever it takes".
Here's the context.
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/4736911/#Comment_4736911 BartholomewRoberts Mexicanpete said: » show previous quotes 1. Bollocks it is! 2. At what cost in lives, give me a number (whatever it takes isn't a number). 3. I said pushing bastards out of windows and the like. Have you never seen Munich? 4. 1. Yes it is. 2. 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 lets say double that half a million? If that's what it takes? 3. Real life isn't a James Bond movie. Pushing a few people out of windows won't end Hamas.
Thank you. I had lost interest after "whatever it takes" and ignored the value figure and gone to bed.
Half a million is good to know. So we are at circa 10% down so far.
Life must be cheap on Merseyside.
Top marks for reading to the end.
"Official" death toll (possibly exaggerated) is around 32,000, and of that, between a quarter and a half (depending on whether you believe Israel or Hamas - and potentially the difference is who counts as a terrorist and who doesn't) are Hamas members.
Presumably the half million was meant as civilians, and Hamas members do not count towards it.
So no, we are nowhere near "10% down so far" - more like 4%. And IDF operational efficiency is getting better as the war goes on - for example, there were no civilian deaths recorded during the recent Shifa hospital operation. And all the heavy bombing has been done for a while - you'll notice the death toll has remained fairly static for some time. There is no way the death toll ends up anywhere near half a million.
The official Hamas figure is 32,000. Some argue this could be exaggerated others say it is merely their body count figure and when the rubble is removed more will be found.
Either way Bart's figure only needs discussion on the basis of Bart's casual disregard for life.
Remember he was content to pile the bodies high ( as prescribed by Johnson) in the COVID crisis.
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.
I used to hate them and would approach them full of negativity. They seemed to sense this and react badly since I would never get through the procedure, even with a small shop, without at least one thing, and often several, going wrong. My nuts wouldn't scan, it wouldn't recognise a meal deal, no red pepper on the look-up, my bag in the wrong place, carrots not properly on the scales etc etc. I'd end up almost weeping with frustration.
But then I changed my mental attitude. I started walking up there with a smile and with confidence. "Hello, clever machine, you're going to zip this straight through, aren't you?" This was now the vibe. Along with that I dropped my tentative way of presenting things to it and instead acted firmly and decisively.
It worked. They changed their ways and started co-operating with me. I really like them now and have become almost insouciant when using them.
It does take a certain insouciance to scan your nuts at a checkout, I would imagine.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
(What this conversation highlights is the whole "it's difficult to have a sucessful Brexit if we don't have a shared realistic vision of that success looks like" thing. Is it to bring food production back to the UK and cut imports, or is it to be open door to anywhere, shortcuts be dammed, especially if it forces farmers to look for new jobs in cyber?)
The main reason for Switzerland, Norway etc not to be in the EU Customs Union was to protect their farmers. Given the UK government is actually eager to screw over its farmers in its international dealings, I think the UK could quite easily join the Customs Union if and when it gets over its hangups about it.
What the UK needs is the French attitude to international rules.
If it is in our interest, awesome.
If it isn't, we are implementing it. Honest. Sometime. Maybe. Don't be so rude!
Isn’t the standard response that our legal system (and the fact we follow rules) is what allows our financial sector to be trusted?
On the other topic, places which might be in the EU or EEA today if not for CAP/CFP:
Norway Iceland Faroe Islands Greenland UK Switzerland
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
This is the abstract from a 1976 paper.
"Abstract The yield of wheat in England has increased more than six-fold during the last 750 years, from 0.5 tonne/ha in the first half of the 13th century to 3.4 tonne/ha in the third quarter of the 20th century. Present yields are nearly 4.5 tonne/ha/year representing a nine-fold increase from beginning to end of the period. ..
More than three quarters of the increase has occurred in the last 300 years when yields rose almost exponentially, doubling every 150 years. However, most of the increase was in two comparatively short periods, 1820–1860 and post-Second World War. In the last 30 years the national wheat yield has increased at 0.079 tonne/ha/year, twice as fast as in the accelerating phase of the previous century."
In 2020 the wheat yield was 7 tonnes/hectare.
It also takes a ridiculously tiny workforce to get that yield, compared to 1940.
From memory, it was 10-15% of total employment in the 30s and 40s. Less than 2% today.
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.
I hope you're using a British passport and not cheating with an Irish one!
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
Statistics like this always astonish me. Do people not eat everything on their plate and save leftovers? I doubt we throw away more than a few percent of our food in our house.
Im afraid its true. I normally try to use everything, so any veg looking a little tired gets shoved in to a soup and used up.
Salad however has the highest disposal rate its something like 45% has a holiday in the fridge and then goes in to the bin.
It's easier to minimize waste if you adopt a just-in-time daily shopping habit. If you only shop once a week, say, it takes considerable skill and discipline to get just the right amount of everything.
Thats roughly what I do now. It was different when I had 3 teenage kids, then it was a big shop once a week. But since its now just myself and Mrs B we generally just shop 2-3 days ahead based on what we fancy.
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.
I hope you're using a British passport and not cheating with an Irish one!
I have both. But currently Im travelling on the Blue\black one.
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.
If must means accepting Barty's half a million dead, then no, we can't.
This is a statement taken out of context. On my original post I caveated that by questioning Bart's collateral value to achieve his aim. I was specific in that I last night asked Bart for numbers. He declined and simply retorted with "whatever it takes".
Here's the context.
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/4736911/#Comment_4736911 BartholomewRoberts Mexicanpete said: » show previous quotes 1. Bollocks it is! 2. At what cost in lives, give me a number (whatever it takes isn't a number). 3. I said pushing bastards out of windows and the like. Have you never seen Munich? 4. 1. Yes it is. 2. 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 lets say double that half a million? If that's what it takes? 3. Real life isn't a James Bond movie. Pushing a few people out of windows won't end Hamas.
Thank you. I had lost interest after "whatever it takes" and ignored the value figure and gone to bed.
Half a million is good to know. So we are at circa 10% down so far.
Life must be cheap on Merseyside.
Top marks for reading to the end.
"Official" death toll (possibly exaggerated) is around 32,000, and of that, between a quarter and a half (depending on whether you believe Israel or Hamas - and potentially the difference is who counts as a terrorist and who doesn't) are Hamas members.
Presumably the half million was meant as civilians, and Hamas members do not count towards it.
So no, we are nowhere near "10% down so far" - more like 4%. And IDF operational efficiency is getting better as the war goes on - for example, there were no civilian deaths recorded during the recent Shifa hospital operation. And all the heavy bombing has been done for a while - you'll notice the death toll has remained fairly static for some time. There is no way the death toll ends up anywhere near half a million.
Considering the level of destruction of buildings and of social and health infrastructure that 32 000 deaths is likely to be a significant underestimate.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
Statistics like this always astonish me. Do people not eat everything on their plate and save leftovers? I doubt we throw away more than a few percent of our food in our house.
We do quite a bit of juicing. I guess the pulp that goes in the compost bin would be part of the "thrown away" 25%.
Then there's the stuff we've forgotten about in the fridge that has gone off. Always annoying - could have saved the effort of buying it and just thrown a five pound note in the bin.
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.
I used to hate them and would approach them full of negativity. They seemed to sense this and react badly since I would never get through the procedure, even with a small shop, without at least one thing, and often several, going wrong. My nuts wouldn't scan, it wouldn't recognise a meal deal, no red pepper on the look-up, my bag in the wrong place, carrots not properly on the scales etc etc. I'd end up almost weeping with frustration.
But then I changed my mental attitude. I started walking up there with a smile and with confidence. "Hello, clever machine, you're going to zip this straight through, aren't you?" This was now the vibe. Along with that I dropped my tentative way of presenting things to it and instead acted firmly and decisively.
It worked. They changed their ways and started co-operating with me. I really like them now and have become almost insouciant when using them.
Yes, you need to be friendly but firm. Nigh on 30 years ago, when I was doing my A-levels, I paid my dues piloting a checkpoint in the local Iceland. Like you I was afraid of them initially and they always seemed to cause problems but youthful insouciance and sangfroid soon saw me mastering the recalcitrant tills. I'll always have a particular fondness for till no 2, she flew like a dream.
But let's not consider the horror of the cheque printing machines we had back then. I still wake up at 3am in a cold sweat thinking of them. Whenever I saw someone brandishing a chequebook - remember them? - a little piece of me died.
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.
I hope you're using a British passport and not cheating with an Irish one!
I have both. But currently Im travelling on the Blue\black one.
So Brexit was a win win for you. Foreigners kicked out and you retain your freedom of movement. Happy days!
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.
I hope you're using a British passport and not cheating with an Irish one!
I have both. But currently Im travelling on the Blue\black one.
So Brexit was a win win for you. Foreigners kicked out and you retain your freedom of movement. Happy days!
Three former Supreme Court justices are among over 600 lawyers and academics who have signed a 17-page letter to warn the present situation in Gaza is "catastrophic".
The government has been facing growing calls to suspend arms exports to Israel after three British aid workers were killed in an airstrike.
Three former Supreme Court justices are among over 600 lawyers and academics who have signed a 17-page letter to warn the present situation in Gaza is "catastrophic".
The government has been facing growing calls to suspend arms exports to Israel after three British aid workers were killed in an airstrike.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
Statistics like this always astonish me. Do people not eat everything on their plate and save leftovers? I doubt we throw away more than a few percent of our food in our house.
Im afraid its true. I normally try to use everything, so any veg looking a little tired gets shoved in to a soup and used up.
Salad however has the highest disposal rate its something like 45% has a holiday in the fridge and then goes in to the bin.
It's easier to minimize waste if you adopt a just-in-time daily shopping habit. If you only shop once a week, say, it takes considerable skill and discipline to get just the right amount of everything.
It also helps if you don't mind eating the same thing for three days in a row, lunch and dinner.
This is Thai green curry week. Looking forward to some pasta next week. Burritos in May perhaps. Toast for breakfast till the bread runs out, then I'm back to yoghurt and fruit.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
Statistics like this always astonish me. Do people not eat everything on their plate and save leftovers? I doubt we throw away more than a few percent of our food in our house.
I was also surprised by this. We have a toddler, who certainly doesn't eat everything on his plate (he can't yet communicate what he wants or us really have the discussion about needing to eat it up). He may well waste 25%, but that will decrease significantly in the next 6 months or so as he gets talking and understands more. The other kids will get away with bits and pieces, but not much. 5% maybe. Pre-cooking, waste is tiny - the occasional bit of fruit or veg that goes off unexpectedly early, well under 5%.
But my brother's family's fridge is an impenetrable nightmare of half-eaten things, leftovers from cooking ingredients and uneaten leftovers many of which they eventually chuck out a few days later. I can well believe they throw away over 25% of what comes in. If we have leftovers, their either next day's lunch or, if enough, next day's dinner, but others appear to do thins differently: keep, forget, discard.
If you buy too much fresh food it's difficult to eat it all before something goes off and is wasted. If you eat leftovers for lunch then the bread goes mouldy. If you have a choice of soft cheese, hummus, sliced ham, etc, for your sandwiches, then it's easy for all the packs to only be half used before they expire. And with people living in smaller households the turnover of food in a household is slower and the potential for waste greater.
Obviously the answer is to not always have all the choice available at home at the same time, but when people are in the supermarket they tend to be more worried about the potential to run out of something than of having too much.
And, also obviously, the supermarket is straining every sinew, and using every strategem, to sell you as much as possible.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
Statistics like this always astonish me. Do people not eat everything on their plate and save leftovers? I doubt we throw away more than a few percent of our food in our house.
Im afraid its true. I normally try to use everything, so any veg looking a little tired gets shoved in to a soup and used up.
Salad however has the highest disposal rate its something like 45% has a holiday in the fridge and then goes in to the bin.
It's easier to minimize waste if you adopt a just-in-time daily shopping habit. If you only shop once a week, say, it takes considerable skill and discipline to get just the right amount of everything.
It also helps if you don't mind eating the same thing for three days in a row, lunch and dinner.
This is Thai green curry week. Looking forward to some pasta next week. Burritos in May perhaps. Toast for breakfast till the bread runs out, then I'm back to yoghurt and fruit.
Also helps if you have room for a proper freezer, not just the compartment at the top of the fridge like many in small flats.
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.
I hope you're using a British passport and not cheating with an Irish one!
I have both. But currently Im travelling on the Blue\black one.
So Brexit was a win win for you. Foreigners kicked out and you retain your freedom of movement. Happy days!
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.
If must means accepting Barty's half a million dead, then no, we can't.
This is a statement taken out of context. On my original post I caveated that by questioning Bart's collateral value to achieve his aim. I was specific in that I last night asked Bart for numbers. He declined and simply retorted with "whatever it takes".
Here's the context.
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/4736911/#Comment_4736911 BartholomewRoberts Mexicanpete said: » show previous quotes 1. Bollocks it is! 2. At what cost in lives, give me a number (whatever it takes isn't a number). 3. I said pushing bastards out of windows and the like. Have you never seen Munich? 4. 1. Yes it is. 2. 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 lets say double that half a million? If that's what it takes? 3. Real life isn't a James Bond movie. Pushing a few people out of windows won't end Hamas.
Thank you. I had lost interest after "whatever it takes" and ignored the value figure and gone to bed.
Half a million is good to know. So we are at circa 10% down so far.
Life must be cheap on Merseyside.
Top marks for reading to the end.
"Official" death toll (possibly exaggerated) is around 32,000, and of that, between a quarter and a half (depending on whether you believe Israel or Hamas - and potentially the difference is who counts as a terrorist and who doesn't) are Hamas members.
Presumably the half million was meant as civilians, and Hamas members do not count towards it.
So no, we are nowhere near "10% down so far" - more like 4%. And IDF operational efficiency is getting better as the war goes on - for example, there were no civilian deaths recorded during the recent Shifa hospital operation. And all the heavy bombing has been done for a while - you'll notice the death toll has remained fairly static for some time. There is no way the death toll ends up anywhere near half a million.
The official Hamas figure is 32,000. Some argue this could be exaggerated others say it is merely their body count figure and when the rubble is removed more will be found.
Either way Bart's figure only needs discussion on the basis of Bart's casual disregard for life.
Remember he was content to pile the bodies high ( as prescribed by Johnson) in the COVID crisis.
Remember he is a pragmatist (of course he can speak for himself).
Just idly looking at the BBC Verify page. They are trying to fact check the IDF's claim that they have killed 10,000 Hamas customer service agents. They go to great lengths to work out whether the number is accurate (viewing over 270 IDF YouTube videos) and accept the "Hamas run Gaza Health Ministry" figures without so much as a you what.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
Statistics like this always astonish me. Do people not eat everything on their plate and save leftovers? I doubt we throw away more than a few percent of our food in our house.
Im afraid its true. I normally try to use everything, so any veg looking a little tired gets shoved in to a soup and used up.
Salad however has the highest disposal rate its something like 45% has a holiday in the fridge and then goes in to the bin.
It's easier to minimize waste if you adopt a just-in-time daily shopping habit. If you only shop once a week, say, it takes considerable skill and discipline to get just the right amount of everything.
Thats roughly what I do now. It was different when I had 3 teenage kids, then it was a big shop once a week. But since its now just myself and Mrs B we generally just shop 2-3 days ahead based on what we fancy.
Yes it's a luxury to be able to shop daily. It's great if you can, though, because you can take your time and this is not only enjoyable it leads to better choices. In activities generally I'm increasingly finding that rushing things is the mortal enemy of quality outcomes.
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.
If must means accepting Barty's half a million dead, then no, we can't.
This is a statement taken out of context. On my original post I caveated that by questioning Bart's collateral value to achieve his aim. I was specific in that I last night asked Bart for numbers. He declined and simply retorted with "whatever it takes".
Here's the context.
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/4736911/#Comment_4736911 BartholomewRoberts Mexicanpete said: » show previous quotes 1. Bollocks it is! 2. At what cost in lives, give me a number (whatever it takes isn't a number). 3. I said pushing bastards out of windows and the like. Have you never seen Munich? 4. 1. Yes it is. 2. 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 lets say double that half a million? If that's what it takes? 3. Real life isn't a James Bond movie. Pushing a few people out of windows won't end Hamas.
Thank you. I had lost interest after "whatever it takes" and ignored the value figure and gone to bed.
Half a million is good to know. So we are at circa 10% down so far.
Life must be cheap on Merseyside.
Top marks for reading to the end.
"Official" death toll (possibly exaggerated) is around 32,000, and of that, between a quarter and a half (depending on whether you believe Israel or Hamas - and potentially the difference is who counts as a terrorist and who doesn't) are Hamas members.
Presumably the half million was meant as civilians, and Hamas members do not count towards it.
So no, we are nowhere near "10% down so far" - more like 4%. And IDF operational efficiency is getting better as the war goes on - for example, there were no civilian deaths recorded during the recent Shifa hospital operation. And all the heavy bombing has been done for a while - you'll notice the death toll has remained fairly static for some time. There is no way the death toll ends up anywhere near half a million.
Considering the level of destruction of buildings and of social and health infrastructure that 32 000 deaths is likely to be a significant underestimate.
Considering the identity of the people providing the number, it's likely to be a significant overestimate. And again, you need to deduct the terrorists, since Hamas is including them in the total.
The only thing I know for certain about the actual number of civilians dead, is you have no clue.
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.
I hope you're using a British passport and not cheating with an Irish one!
I have both. But currently Im travelling on the Blue\black one.
So Brexit was a win win for you. Foreigners kicked out and you retain your freedom of movement. Happy days!
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
Statistics like this always astonish me. Do people not eat everything on their plate and save leftovers? I doubt we throw away more than a few percent of our food in our house.
Im afraid its true. I normally try to use everything, so any veg looking a little tired gets shoved in to a soup and used up.
Salad however has the highest disposal rate its something like 45% has a holiday in the fridge and then goes in to the bin.
It's easier to minimize waste if you adopt a just-in-time daily shopping habit. If you only shop once a week, say, it takes considerable skill and discipline to get just the right amount of everything.
It also helps if you don't mind eating the same thing for three days in a row, lunch and dinner.
This is Thai green curry week. Looking forward to some pasta next week. Burritos in May perhaps. Toast for breakfast till the bread runs out, then I'm back to yoghurt and fruit.
Why not have more than one dish on the go, at one time?
Also freeze stuff - use silicon soap molds to freeze sauces etc in blocks.
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...
Britain could easily be self-sufficient in food if meat consumption decreased a bit. I look forward to Farage fronting a vegan food campaign to break Britain's reliance on food imports.
Really? I thought Britain couldn't be self-sufficient during WW2 with rationing and 20 million fewer people.
Agricultural productivity has increased a lot since WWII, and you have things like Quorn these days to act as a protein-rich meat substitute.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
There's also the issue that we waste about 25% of all the food we buy and throw it away.
Statistics like this always astonish me. Do people not eat everything on their plate and save leftovers? I doubt we throw away more than a few percent of our food in our house.
Im afraid its true. I normally try to use everything, so any veg looking a little tired gets shoved in to a soup and used up.
Salad however has the highest disposal rate its something like 45% has a holiday in the fridge and then goes in to the bin.
Comments
It's been eye-opening how different the mindset is here (compared to Britain) in relation to the North. In Britain the news treated NI pretty much like a foreign news story. In Ireland, news from NI is domestic news. There will be a road collision, a murder, a court case, etc, and you won't know that it's in NI, unless you pay attention to the County name, or details like the PSNI being involved.
Perhaps they'd regret it at leisure afterwards, but if the North votes for it, nothing and no-one on the Republic would stand in the way.
The Tesco thing seems to be scanning the basket at the checkout. Just asks you "Is this the contents of your basket?". Used it a handful of times so far - seems to work well.
Why? It will be close.
Your position seems to be you cannot change the status quo. You dont have to substitue everyhing but if you move 25% its a big shift.
and whatever you say. say nothing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Emoy54R7Y
Edit: smart checkouts, that is, not self checkouts
You should talk to different suppliers and pressurise the current ones to shift. At worst - and I suspect you are doing it anyway - tell them they have to absorb the costs.
But it’s solvable. In our local Tesco the checkout assistant just gazes over at the auto tills whenever the buzzer goes and presses a button on her screen, without having to walk over.
But I'm getting bored with Western governments saying it's all very worrying and Israel should exercise restraint. Either we should stop sending arms to them until they actually do show some restraint, or stop pretending that we care.
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/consumer/survey-results/daily/2022/05/20/7d1fc/2
Good for Ukraine on conducting long range strikes into the Russian federation.
If a foreign country invaded the U.S., it would be outrageous for anyone to take the position that the U.S. could not strike back against the territory of that country right?
https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1775540566387826919
https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN03339/SN03339.pdf
Couldn't tell you whether that's enough.
(What this conversation highlights is the whole "it's difficult to have a sucessful Brexit if we don't have a shared realistic vision of that success looks like" thing. Is it to bring food production back to the UK and cut imports, or is it to be open door to anywhere, shortcuts be dammed, especially if it forces farmers to look for new jobs in cyber?)
- Demand the UK government puts pressure on Qatar to expel the Hamas political cadres they are hosting, if their military colleagues don't immediately surrender
- Demand the UK government puts pressure on Qatar and Egypt to force Hamas to accept the ceasefire deal that has been on the table for several weeks now
- Demand Hamas accept the ICJ ruling and UN Security Council resolution and release all hostages immediately, and without precondition
- Insist that Egypt accepts its international obligations under the UN refugee convention, opens the Rafah border and accepts as many refugees as want to cross the border
Any or all of these would be far more effective in stopping bloodshed than whining about Israel's conduct in a war it did not start and did not want, and certainly preferable to indulging in medieval era-type blood libels by claiming - without a shred of evidence whatsoever - that Israel is deliberately targeting aid workers.
He has scaled back his ambitions.
Livestock are a very inefficient use of land if that land is suitable for use growing grain or vegetables.
- Residents' Association
- Ratepayers
- Someplace Independents
The best descriptor I've seen on a ballot was "Local Farmer" - definitely a Tory!
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/4736911/#Comment_4736911
BartholomewRoberts
Mexicanpete said:
» show previous quotes
1. Bollocks it is!
2. At what cost in lives, give me a number (whatever it takes isn't a number).
3. I said pushing bastards out of windows and the like. Have you never seen Munich?
4.
1. Yes it is.
2. 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 lets say double that half a million? If that's what it takes?
3. Real life isn't a James Bond movie. Pushing a few people out of windows won't end Hamas.
It's a shame that life isn't simple any more. But here we are.
Question: if a current leader loses their seat at an election do they automatically lose their party leadership role as well?
Sounds tasty.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68725649
Indeed it seems that even the DUP are more willing to work with SF now than FG or FF
"Abstract
The yield of wheat in England has increased more than six-fold during the last 750 years, from 0.5 tonne/ha in the first half of the 13th century to 3.4 tonne/ha in the third quarter of the 20th century. Present yields are nearly 4.5 tonne/ha/year representing a nine-fold increase from beginning to end of the period. ..
More than three quarters of the increase has occurred in the last 300 years when yields rose almost exponentially, doubling every 150 years. However, most of the increase was in two comparatively short periods, 1820–1860 and post-Second World War. In the last 30 years the national wheat yield has increased at 0.079 tonne/ha/year, twice as fast as in the accelerating phase of the previous century."
In 2020 the wheat yield was 7 tonnes/hectare.
Half a million is good to know. So we are at circa 10% down so far.
Life must be cheap on Merseyside.
Top marks for reading to the end.
https://unherd.com/2024/04/the-coming-civil-war-on-europes-right/
But then I changed my mental attitude. I started walking up there with a smile and with confidence. "Hello, clever machine, you're going to zip this straight through, aren't you?" This was now the vibe. Along with that I dropped my tentative way of presenting things to it and instead acted firmly and decisively.
It worked. They changed their ways and started co-operating with me. I really like them now and have become almost insouciant when using them.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68731273
https://slashdot.org/story/24/04/03/158249/jpmorgan-chase-is-about-to-let-advertisers-target-customers-based-on-their-spending
The new scheme: "serves as a key conduit for brands, connecting them with consumers' personal passions and interests. In turn, Chase customers benefit from personalized offers and the ability to earn cash back with brands they love or are discovering for the first time."
Salad however has the highest disposal rate its something like 45% has a holiday in the fridge and then goes in to the bin.
Over reaction is self defeating in irregular warfare. Bloody Sunday was the IRAs best recruiting sergeant.
Presumably the half million was meant as civilians, and Hamas members do not count towards it.
So no, we are nowhere near "10% down so far" - more like 4%. And IDF operational efficiency is getting better as the war goes on - for example, there were no civilian deaths recorded during the recent Shifa hospital operation. And all the heavy bombing has been done for a while - you'll notice the death toll has remained fairly static for some time. There is no way the death toll ends up anywhere near half a million.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/lebanon-s-billionaire-prime-minister-denies-allegations-of-money-laundering-in-france/ar-BB1l3RNv?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=6771973d57b34984b98250b5317dd2d1&ei=23
Yes they’ll couch it in fluffy language about freeing up till workers for customer service work, but that’s just to avoid headlines about redundancies, and you can bet overall headcount will decrease over time as people leave and aren’t replaced.
But my brother's family's fridge is an impenetrable nightmare of half-eaten things, leftovers from cooking ingredients and uneaten leftovers many of which they eventually chuck out a few days later. I can well believe they throw away over 25% of what comes in. If we have leftovers, their either next day's lunch or, if enough, next day's dinner, but others appear to do thins differently: keep, forget, discard.
If it is in our interest, awesome.
If it isn't, we are implementing it. Honest. Sometime. Maybe. Don't be so rude!
So I've heard.
From: @viewcode
Good morning to you both
I have sent you a proposed article on transhumanism. The latest version is around 900 words long. It has had all the personal data removed. It is submitted to you on the condition that you do not breach my anonymity: please accept that or return it unpublished. I hope that you look kindly upon it.
Regards, @viewcode
Statistically food waste fell during Covid presumably because people ate up what was in their fridge faster. It has now climbed back to pre Covid levels.
https://wrap.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases/household-food-waste-rising-restrictions-relaxed
Either way Bart's figure only needs discussion on the basis of Bart's casual disregard for life.
Remember he was content to pile the bodies high ( as prescribed by Johnson) in the COVID crisis.
The world has changed a great deal in that time; the need for NATO has not.
On the other topic, places which might be in the EU or EEA today if not for CAP/CFP:
Norway
Iceland
Faroe Islands
Greenland
UK
Switzerland
Hope France think it was worth it.
From memory, it was 10-15% of total employment in the 30s and 40s. Less than 2% today.
Considering the level of destruction of buildings and of social and health infrastructure that 32 000 deaths is likely to be a significant underestimate.
Then there's the stuff we've forgotten about in the fridge that has gone off. Always annoying - could have saved the effort of buying it and just thrown a five pound note in the bin.
But let's not consider the horror of the cheque printing machines we had back then. I still wake up at 3am in a cold sweat thinking of them. Whenever I saw someone brandishing a chequebook - remember them? - a little piece of me died.
This is Thai green curry week. Looking forward to some pasta next week. Burritos in May perhaps. Toast for breakfast till the bread runs out, then I'm back to yoghurt and fruit.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/04/04/electric-car-demand-slows-petrol-vehicles/
Obviously the answer is to not always have all the choice available at home at the same time, but when people are in the supermarket they tend to be more worried about the potential to run out of something than of having too much.
And, also obviously, the supermarket is straining every sinew, and using every strategem, to sell you as much as possible.
Did I miss Starmer's proposed rerun?
Just idly looking at the BBC Verify page. They are trying to fact check the IDF's claim that they have killed 10,000 Hamas customer service agents. They go to great lengths to work out whether the number is accurate (viewing over 270 IDF YouTube videos) and accept the "Hamas run Gaza Health Ministry" figures without so much as a you what.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68387864
The only thing I know for certain about the actual number of civilians dead, is you have no clue.
Also freeze stuff - use silicon soap molds to freeze sauces etc in blocks.
https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/business/tesco-launches-pre-binned-bagged-salad-20170601128641