O/T I spent some time with a friend the other day telling me the absolute horror of what online gambling addiction does to families. I am normally not in favour of banning anything for consenting adults but I am now definitely in favour of banning it if possible. Are there any PBers with information or views on this?
It's truly shocking. I don't know about banning it, but I'd certainly like to see the banning of gambling adverts on television and for sporting events.
The first sport I got hooked on as a kid was F1 and I was exposed to Rothmans, Marlboro, Benson & Hedges, etc., etc. And in no way did it make me want to start smoking! I think the tobacco industry used to claim that advertising was all about market share, though I can imagine it wasn't great for people trying to stop smoking.
But I can imagine the gambling adverts on TV do have an influence on kids. And I think if tobacco adverts are banned, then gambling ads should be banned too.
The gambling companies gather vast amounts of data on the behaviour of their users and use that data to close off gamblers who won money from them and encourage gamblers who lose money to them. They know exactly what they're doing with addicted gamblers.
I'd ban all instant-play gambling. At least when someone is staking money on football matches, horse races, etc, there's a limit due to the number of events. It's the instant games that are the biggest problem.
There was a problem with certain companies issuing pre-pay credit cards, which could be used for gambling sites. These allowed loading money onto the card from a normal credit card. Which entirely circumvented the blocks on using credit cards in gambling....
Strangely it took a lot of effort to block this route - I believe it is still a problem.
It is a problem but whether it is one worth bothering about is less clear. Does it happen a lot? It is hardly the spur of the moment use of a credit card that was the original concern.
Nor am I happy about anti-gambling campaigners using the word addiction to describe excessive play. Often the problem is not that people are addicted but they are trying to dig themselves out of a hole and end up, almost inevitably, even deeper.
Though if I were HMG and serious about this, I'd simply ban (or remove from gambling operators' licences) all betting on games of chance: draw games; casino games; fruit machines and so on. That is where most (not all) of the harm is done.
I was angry when Cummings broken the rules to have a holiday in Barnard Castle and I'm angry now.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
I'm not a fan of Question Time these days, but I watched the first question last night, which was about letting in UEFA big-wigs, sponsors and so on the watch the UEFA Cup Final. All, I think, except one of the audience, and he was somewhat half-hearted, thought it was wrong, and only Robert Buckland ..... well, he had to to, didn't he ...... of the panel defended it. He wasn't all that keen either.
Similar in the pub the other afternoon...... except of course that RB wasn't there!
I am beginning to feel that 'peak Boris' has passed, and things are going downhill quite rapidly. Might give a new dimension to B&S, too.
Interestingly, on my shopping trip out yesterday, I noticed for the first that mask wearing was starting to slip. Several people (men mainly) had them on but pushed down under their chins so it was pointless. To date my patch has been pretty strict on the rules from what I've seen. Things are starting to slip.
I wonder whether the rows over the elite being exempted all over the place are part of this?
It’s certainly a possibility. I despise wearing a mask in shops and pubs and at work. I am not the only one. Adam Finn of the JVCI this meaning says he wears his with pride, and will continue to do so to protect others, for instance if he has a cold and is on the tube. Most people follow social convention. If people start slipping in mask use in shops etc, others will follow.
O/T I spent some time with a friend the other day telling me the absolute horror of what online gambling addiction does to families. I am normally not in favour of banning anything for consenting adults but I am now definitely in favour of banning it if possible. Are there any PBers with information or views on this?
It's truly shocking. I don't know about banning it, but I'd certainly like to see the banning of gambling adverts on television and for sporting events.
The first sport I got hooked on as a kid was F1 and I was exposed to Rothmans, Marlboro, Benson & Hedges, etc., etc. And in no way did it make me want to start smoking! I think the tobacco industry used to claim that advertising was all about market share, though I can imagine it wasn't great for people trying to stop smoking.
But I can imagine the gambling adverts on TV do have an influence on kids. And I think if tobacco adverts are banned, then gambling ads should be banned too.
The gambling companies gather vast amounts of data on the behaviour of their users and use that data to close off gamblers who won money from them and encourage gamblers who lose money to them. They know exactly what they're doing with addicted gamblers.
I'd ban all instant-play gambling. At least when someone is staking money on football matches, horse races, etc, there's a limit due to the number of events. It's the instant games that are the biggest problem.
There was a problem with certain companies issuing pre-pay credit cards, which could be used for gambling sites. These allowed loading money onto the card from a normal credit card. Which entirely circumvented the blocks on using credit cards in gambling....
Strangely it took a lot of effort to block this route - I believe it is still a problem.
It is a problem but whether it is one worth bothering about is less clear. Does it happen a lot? It is hardly the spur of the moment use of a credit card that was the original concern.
Nor am I happy about anti-gambling campaigners using the word addiction to describe excessive play. Often the problem is not that people are addicted but they are trying to dig themselves out of a hole and end up, almost inevitably, even deeper.
Though if I were HMG and serious about this, I'd simply ban (or remove from gambling operators' licences) all betting on games of chance: draw games; casino games; fruit machines and so on. That is where most (not all) of the harm is done.
When you include auto-load when the balance on the pre-paid card, so when the the amount on it drops below x, it loads from the real credit card..... Yes, that makes it completely seamless. Spur of the moment spending limited only by the credit limit on your credit card.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
Stopping to exploitation of foreign workers is fine. I am in full support.
Still looking forward to all this cheap Brexit food though, as promised.
Chlorinated chicken is on it's way to a supermarket near you. Rule Britannia!
At what time are we supposed to break out the singing of "four legs good, two legs bad" or whatever the patriotic song of the day is?
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
Indeed. There's no shortage of people able to drive and able to be trained to drive HGVs.
Having a shortage of people willing to work for crap wages isn't a problem.
In isolation to the rest of the economy that may be true.
In aggregate if we need extra workers in several big sectors like hospitality, health, care, farming and transport then it may not just be a case of increasing wages.
We will continue to get high levels of immigration over the next decade, once covid is done, because we need it due to our demographics. Whether we want it or not will be secondary.
Or possibly in some cases this may have the desirable effect of forcing substitution with better technology.
My local area is blighted by the presence of hundreds of HGVs trucking limestone and cement from cement kilms to distributors. All the kilms are rail served, but currently its cheaper to take substantial amounts of it out be road. Forcing a modal switch to rail would be no bad thing (although it might require Network Rail to sort out some of the real bottlenecks on the system).
And in your final sentence you reveal the real problem - it's a issue within Network Rail that won't be easy to fix, especially when the kilns probably require 24/7 regular and consistent supplies.
But the reason that the rail bottlenecks aren't fixed is that it's as cheap to shift goods by road, even though its a terribly sub-optimal outcome. If road transport becomes more expensive, then some of this stuff might get fixed.
I was angry when Cummings broken the rules to have a holiday in Barnard Castle and I'm angry now.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
I'm not a fan of Question Time these days, but I watched the first question last night, which was about letting in UEFA big-wigs, sponsors and so on the watch the UEFA Cup Final. All, I think, except one of the audience, and he was somewhat half-hearted, thought it was wrong, and only Robert Buckland ..... well, he had to to, didn't he ...... of the panel defended it. He wasn't all that keen either.
Similar in the pub the other afternoon...... except of course that RB wasn't there!
I am beginning to feel that 'peak Boris' has passed, and things are going downhill quite rapidly. Might give a new dimension to B&S, too.
Interestingly, on my shopping trip out yesterday, I noticed for the first that mask wearing was starting to slip. Several people (men mainly) had them on but pushed down under their chins so it was pointless. To date my patch has been pretty strict on the rules from what I've seen. Things are starting to slip.
I wonder whether the rows over the elite being exempted all over the place are part of this?
How do you even get access to cctv footage like that? In the hours and hours of footage you would have specifically to go looking for something for something like that. Not something to stumble upon.
I’m sure security keeps a note of anything interesting as they watch it live
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
2) Automated car washes are suddenly making a comeback.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
Not 100% they were also using tax avoidance (forcing "employees" to use PSC) as well.
It's worth noting that logistics wasn't a big issue back in January to March, it was the April changes that resulted in problems as people's weekly pay packets halved on April 16th - and the issue really started to appear on April 19th - logistic recruitment issues appeared on my radar towards the end of that week.
Ok. Still failing to see why the logistics companies shouldn’t be paying a fair wage. And if they have to increase their prices to make a margin then so be it
And paying salaries. Why should IR35 be an issue? Truck drivers should be on the payroll.
The issue is very large end customers, and far smaller companies beneath them. So the end customers (supermarkets) dictated the price they want to pay and the smaller companies used every trick they could to maximise their profits - which meant as soon as one agency discovered the PSC tax avoidance scheme everyone else jumped on it.
Sadly the market structure is such that unless there is a big shock (even bigger than the current market issues) the customers won't be willing to increase what they are paying so the market won't be properly fixed - instead bodges will be made to keep things going while delaying what will eventually be a disaster.
The average age of an HGV driver is well over 50 and it's currently increasing by about 8 months every year
BTW, the first postal vote opening will have happened by now in B&S, but nothing much seems to be happening in Betfair Exchange - the very thin market is drifting gently to the Tories but only to the tune of a few pounds. So either the parties' observers are being nobly reticent about betting on what they think they see, or the trend looks like a Tory win but somewhat inconclusively so.
There's a good read about the by-election here, which doesn't really tell us much more, except for an anecdotal report that young Muslims are moving to Galloway and older Muslims are not.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
The minimum wage is supposed to be a minimum, not a maximum.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
Stopping to exploitation of foreign workers is fine. I am in full support.
Still looking forward to all this cheap Brexit food though, as promised.
Chlorinated chicken is on it's way to a supermarket near you. Rule Britannia!
At what time are we supposed to break out the singing of "four legs good, two legs bad" or whatever the patriotic song of the day is?
Might be dating myself here, but when I was a child there was a Doctor Who series I vaguely remember with a planet led by an oligarchy and after most statements, people would say "Praise The Company".
Perhaps that is where we are headed. "This chlorinated chicken is cheap and it tastes damn good. Praise Brexit". "Yes and Praise Boris" will be the required reply.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
Indeed. There's no shortage of people able to drive and able to be trained to drive HGVs.
Having a shortage of people willing to work for crap wages isn't a problem.
In isolation to the rest of the economy that may be true.
In aggregate if we need extra workers in several big sectors like hospitality, health, care, farming and transport then it may not just be a case of increasing wages.
We will continue to get high levels of immigration over the next decade, once covid is done, because we need it due to our demographics. Whether we want it or not will be secondary.
Or possibly in some cases this may have the desirable effect of forcing substitution with better technology.
My local area is blighted by the presence of hundreds of HGVs trucking limestone and cement from cement kilms to distributors. All the kilms are rail served, but currently its cheaper to take substantial amounts of it out be road. Forcing a modal switch to rail would be no bad thing (although it might require Network Rail to sort out some of the real bottlenecks on the system).
There’s a massive rail capacity upgrade currently under construction. For some reason, the Greens and Lib Dems are opposed to it.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
It's coming from Australia. Or don't you remember?
For a large proportion of the population, a labour shortage is great news. Maybe not for lawyers, but it is for anyone currently earning at or just above minimum wage.
Agreed. Still looking forward to all this cheap food though
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
Not 100% they were also using tax avoidance (forcing "employees" to use PSC) as well.
It's worth noting that logistics wasn't a big issue back in January to March, it was the April changes that resulted in problems as people's weekly pay packets halved on April 16th - and the issue really started to appear on April 19th - logistic recruitment issues appeared on my radar towards the end of that week.
Ok. Still failing to see why the logistics companies shouldn’t be paying a fair wage. And if they have to increase their prices to make a margin then so be it
And paying salaries. Why should IR35 be an issue? Truck drivers should be on the payroll.
The issue is very large end customers, and far smaller companies beneath them. So the end customers (supermarkets) dictated the price they want to pay and the smaller companies used every trick they could to maximise their profits - which meant as soon as one agency discovered the PSC tax avoidance scheme everyone else jumped on it.
Sadly the market structure is such that unless there is a big shock (even bigger than the current market issues) the customers won't be willing to increase what they are paying so the market won't be properly fixed - instead bodges will be made to keep things going while delaying what will eventually be a disaster.
The average age of an HGV driver is well over 50 and it's currently increasing by about 8 months every year
Yeah, and they don't seem to be the healthiest. Sitting down all day and eating at truck stops isn't good for you.
Really should be a game for youngsters, make a bit of money before settling down with your family and then go back to something more local. But the structure of the industry doesn't lead to that.
Thanks for the info by the way, I will go back and have a look at the links when I'm not supposed to be at work.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
Indeed. There's no shortage of people able to drive and able to be trained to drive HGVs.
Having a shortage of people willing to work for crap wages isn't a problem.
In isolation to the rest of the economy that may be true.
In aggregate if we need extra workers in several big sectors like hospitality, health, care, farming and transport then it may not just be a case of increasing wages.
We will continue to get high levels of immigration over the next decade, once covid is done, because we need it due to our demographics. Whether we want it or not will be secondary.
Or possibly in some cases this may have the desirable effect of forcing substitution with better technology.
My local area is blighted by the presence of hundreds of HGVs trucking limestone and cement from cement kilms to distributors. All the kilms are rail served, but currently its cheaper to take substantial amounts of it out be road. Forcing a modal switch to rail would be no bad thing (although it might require Network Rail to sort out some of the real bottlenecks on the system).
There’s a massive rail capacity upgrade currently under construction. For some reason, the Greens and Lib Dems are opposed to it.
I think you’ll find the Lib Dems are in favour. *snigger*
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
Not 100% they were also using tax avoidance (forcing "employees" to use PSC) as well.
It's worth noting that logistics wasn't a big issue back in January to March, it was the April changes that resulted in problems as people's weekly pay packets halved on April 16th - and the issue really started to appear on April 19th - logistic recruitment issues appeared on my radar towards the end of that week.
Ok. Still failing to see why the logistics companies shouldn’t be paying a fair wage. And if they have to increase their prices to make a margin then so be it
And paying salaries. Why should IR35 be an issue? Truck drivers should be on the payroll.
The issue is very large end customers, and far smaller companies beneath them. So the end customers (supermarkets) dictated the price they want to pay and the smaller companies used every trick they could to maximise their profits - which meant as soon as one agency discovered the PSC tax avoidance scheme everyone else jumped on it.
Sadly the market structure is such that unless there is a big shock (even bigger than the current market issues) the customers won't be willing to increase what they are paying so the market won't be properly fixed - instead bodges will be made to keep things going while delaying what will eventually be a disaster.
The average age of an HGV driver is well over 50 and it's currently increasing by about 8 months every year
BiB: So sounds like letting a big shock play out then is working as intended.
Economics is rather simple here, it is supply and demand in action. If there's a shortage of supply of drivers, those drivers can work for the highest bidders. So either the companies that want to hire them pay what they need to pay, in which case wages go up attracting more supply of drivers as it becomes more attractive, or the companies find themselves without any drivers as more competitive companies get their stock moved instead.
So the less competitive companies go out of business and a new equilibrium is reached.
O/T I spent some time with a friend the other day telling me the absolute horror of what online gambling addiction does to families. I am normally not in favour of banning anything for consenting adults but I am now definitely in favour of banning it if possible. Are there any PBers with information or views on this?
It's truly shocking. I don't know about banning it, but I'd certainly like to see the banning of gambling adverts on television and for sporting events.
The first sport I got hooked on as a kid was F1 and I was exposed to Rothmans, Marlboro, Benson & Hedges, etc., etc. And in no way did it make me want to start smoking! I think the tobacco industry used to claim that advertising was all about market share, though I can imagine it wasn't great for people trying to stop smoking.
But I can imagine the gambling adverts on TV do have an influence on kids. And I think if tobacco adverts are banned, then gambling ads should be banned too.
The gambling companies gather vast amounts of data on the behaviour of their users and use that data to close off gamblers who won money from them and encourage gamblers who lose money to them. They know exactly what they're doing with addicted gamblers.
I'd ban all instant-play gambling. At least when someone is staking money on football matches, horse races, etc, there's a limit due to the number of events. It's the instant games that are the biggest problem.
There was a problem with certain companies issuing pre-pay credit cards, which could be used for gambling sites. These allowed loading money onto the card from a normal credit card. Which entirely circumvented the blocks on using credit cards in gambling....
Strangely it took a lot of effort to block this route - I believe it is still a problem.
It is a problem but whether it is one worth bothering about is less clear. Does it happen a lot? It is hardly the spur of the moment use of a credit card that was the original concern.
Nor am I happy about anti-gambling campaigners using the word addiction to describe excessive play. Often the problem is not that people are addicted but they are trying to dig themselves out of a hole and end up, almost inevitably, even deeper.
Though if I were HMG and serious about this, I'd simply ban (or remove from gambling operators' licences) all betting on games of chance: draw games; casino games; fruit machines and so on. That is where most (not all) of the harm is done.
My solution would be to go for the jugular; outlaw the bookmakers edge.
How do you even get access to cctv footage like that? In the hours and hours of footage you would have specifically to go looking for something for something like that. Not something to stumble upon.
I’m sure security keeps a note of anything interesting as they watch it live
That’s a serious allegation. Government security monitoring ministers.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
The minimum wage is supposed to be a minimum, not a maximum.
Yes, but it is at a level that prevents exploitation.
It seems though that the problem in so many sectors is lack of workers with the right skills rather than their pay. We shall see soon enough if the market plugs the gap. Personally, I will be quite happy for exploitative capitalist employers go bust because of Labour demands.
Indeed, the bar on EU doctors looks like giving me as much leverage on overtime rates as I want. Wasn't that the point of Brexit, to empower sturdy British yeomen like myself?
On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
If you're willing to back Putin over the Black Sea incident because he's 'sticking a finger' up to Johnson then you're backing a war criminal, your backing someone with the blood of innocent Syrians on his hands, someone whose regime murderers journalists and opposition figures....
...If you think Britain shouldn't help protect the borders of its EU and NATO allies then your an idiot. Putin is a clear and present threat to Western democracy - not some one the democratic left should see as an ally,
On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
O/T I spent some time with a friend the other day telling me the absolute horror of what online gambling addiction does to families. I am normally not in favour of banning anything for consenting adults but I am now definitely in favour of banning it if possible. Are there any PBers with information or views on this?
It's truly shocking. I don't know about banning it, but I'd certainly like to see the banning of gambling adverts on television and for sporting events.
The first sport I got hooked on as a kid was F1 and I was exposed to Rothmans, Marlboro, Benson & Hedges, etc., etc. And in no way did it make me want to start smoking! I think the tobacco industry used to claim that advertising was all about market share, though I can imagine it wasn't great for people trying to stop smoking.
But I can imagine the gambling adverts on TV do have an influence on kids. And I think if tobacco adverts are banned, then gambling ads should be banned too.
The gambling companies gather vast amounts of data on the behaviour of their users and use that data to close off gamblers who won money from them and encourage gamblers who lose money to them. They know exactly what they're doing with addicted gamblers.
I'd ban all instant-play gambling. At least when someone is staking money on football matches, horse races, etc, there's a limit due to the number of events. It's the instant games that are the biggest problem.
Yes. The biggest issue is asymmetric information.
The companies using data to shut winning customers down, and the insidiousmarketing of poor value accumulators and long-odds bets during matches.
Oh, and Football Index, which anyone looking from the outside could see was a Ponzi scheme.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
I thought the argument of many on the left was that minimum wage was too low and especially with many minimum wage jobs being ZHC, it was exploitative?
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
The minimum wage is supposed to be a minimum, not a maximum.
Yes, but it is at a level that prevents exploitation.
It seems though that the problem in so many sectors is lack of workers with the right skills rather than their pay. We shall see soon enough if the market plugs the gap. Personally, I will be quite happy for exploitative capitalist employers go bust because of Labour demands.
Indeed, the bar on EU doctors looks like giving me as much leverage on overtime rates as I want. Wasn't that the point of Brexit, to empower sturdy British yeomen like myself?
Should skilled workers be on minimum wage? Would you be happy to earn minimum wage yourself?
On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
Alternatively moving his love life into the office seems an efficiency time saving gain to support the 24/7 working! Real dedication there.
How do you even get access to cctv footage like that? In the hours and hours of footage you would have specifically to go looking for something for something like that. Not something to stumble upon.
How do you even get access to cctv footage like that? In the hours and hours of footage you would have specifically to go looking for something for something like that. Not something to stumble upon.
I’m sure security keeps a note of anything interesting as they watch it live
That’s a serious allegation. Government security monitoring ministers.
You monitor things that appear on camera. You don't introduce a rule that says "monitor everything but ignore XYZ" as that way really does create problems.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
The minimum wage is supposed to be a minimum, not a maximum.
Yes, but it is at a level that prevents exploitation.
It seems though that the problem in so many sectors is lack of workers with the right skills rather than their pay. We shall see soon enough if the market plugs the gap. Personally, I will be quite happy for exploitative capitalist employers go bust because of Labour demands.
Indeed, the bar on EU doctors looks like giving me as much leverage on overtime rates as I want. Wasn't that the point of Brexit, to empower sturdy British yeomen like myself?
Well you guys are amongst the best paid and pensioned in Europe even though the BMA has convinced the Great British Public (they that can never be gulled) you are overworked and underpaid lol!
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
The minimum wage is supposed to be a minimum, not a maximum.
Yes, but it is at a level that prevents exploitation.
It seems though that the problem in so many sectors is lack of workers with the right skills rather than their pay. We shall see soon enough if the market plugs the gap. Personally, I will be quite happy for exploitative capitalist employers go bust because of Labour demands.
Indeed, the bar on EU doctors looks like giving me as much leverage on overtime rates as I want. Wasn't that the point of Brexit, to empower sturdy British yeomen like myself?
Minimum wage is exploitation. You can't live on it, at least not in the south east, and especially if having to rent. Families on it are having their employers subsidised through Universal Credit. Single people will probably be having to work all the hours there are, or get a second job. A childless couple can probably just about manage.
On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
Could it be why this lady has become part of his inner cycle. So that the time spent with her counts as "work"..
A new (potential) COVID wave in Finland, they have had a 36% WoW increase, (from a low base about a tenth of UK in cases/million), but they are about 5% behind France/Germany/Spain in vaccinations, and 20% behind UK, also with less infection induced immunity, it could get reasonably bad quickly, not panic stations but....
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
The minimum wage is supposed to be a minimum, not a maximum.
Yes, but it is at a level that prevents exploitation.
It seems though that the problem in so many sectors is lack of workers with the right skills rather than their pay. We shall see soon enough if the market plugs the gap. Personally, I will be quite happy for exploitative capitalist employers go bust because of Labour demands.
Indeed, the bar on EU doctors looks like giving me as much leverage on overtime rates as I want. Wasn't that the point of Brexit, to empower sturdy British yeomen like myself?
Well you guys are amongst the best paid and pensioned in Europe even though the BMA has convinced the Great British Public (they that can never be gulled) you are overworked and underpaid lol!
And by cutting out the foreign competition looking likely to be better still. Locum rates are going through the roof, if you can find one in the first place.
Hence, enthusiastically pushed by Boris’s cuckbitch, Harry Cole.
It frequently bemused me why Boris Johnson needed to hire Allegra Stratton when Cole was doing the job for free.
What does Allegra actually do?
Keeps Carrie Antoinette entertained and happy.
Remind me, why was the televised lobby briefing ditched again? I seemed a perfectly sensible move, rather than us getting 3rd hand reporting of what the PM thinks via an invisible spokesperson to an invisible journalist.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
Stopping to exploitation of foreign workers is fine. I am in full support.
Still looking forward to all this cheap Brexit food though, as promised.
Chlorinated chicken is on it's way to a supermarket near you. Rule Britannia!
At what time are we supposed to break out the singing of "four legs good, two legs bad" or whatever the patriotic song of the day is?
Might be dating myself here, but when I was a child there was a Doctor Who series I vaguely remember with a planet led by an oligarchy and after most statements, people would say "Praise The Company".
Perhaps that is where we are headed. "This chlorinated chicken is cheap and it tastes damn good. Praise Brexit". "Yes and Praise Boris" will be the required reply.
Possibly the Tom Baker serial ‘The Sunmakers’, which was written as a satire on the inland revenue. Can’t recall the details but it was the writers way of complaining about the labour government’s tax rises.
On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
Alternatively moving his love life into the office seems an efficiency time saving gain to support the 24/7 working! Real dedication there.
Not so much the benefits of working from home as the benefits of home at work.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
The minimum wage is supposed to be a minimum, not a maximum.
Yes, but it is at a level that prevents exploitation.
It seems though that the problem in so many sectors is lack of workers with the right skills rather than their pay. We shall see soon enough if the market plugs the gap. Personally, I will be quite happy for exploitative capitalist employers go bust because of Labour demands.
Indeed, the bar on EU doctors looks like giving me as much leverage on overtime rates as I want. Wasn't that the point of Brexit, to empower sturdy British yeomen like myself?
Minimum wage is exploitation. You can't live on it, at least not in the south east, and especially if having to rent. Families on it are having their employers subsidised through Universal Credit. Single people will probably be having to work all the hours there are, or get a second job. A childless couple can probably just about manage.
Also to add: I am not sure how many people have been not getting minimum wage. How big is the grey economy? Tacitly paying less than MW but offering big hours may have worked with a subset of the immigrant community. Recent stories that there may be 1.6m more EU citizens here than we thought may be an exaggeration or just indicate that government records are shit, but may also indicate that a substantial number are off the books.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
It won't happen. People will pay what they need to pay for food, so the shops will pay what they need to pay to stock it. The rest is fluff.
Just because businesses would prefer to pay less doesn't mean they won't pay more if they realise there is no alternative.
My local Tesco's now has a Costa Coffee machine. Indeed they seem to be everywhere nowadays. Not as much need for actual coffee shops or baristas making coffees for minimum wage if a machine can do it instead.
A new (potential) COVID wave in Finland, they have had a 36% WoW increase, (from a low base about a tenth of UK in cases/million), but they are about 5% behind France/Germany/Spain in vaccinations, and 20% behind UK, also with less infection induced immunity, it could get reasonably bad quickly, not panic stations but....
On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
maybe he is "Mr Quickie"?
You still have to keep on top of the cover stories, forensics and keep knocking the nail in on the home front to allay suspicion. Nah, it ain't for the quitter.
I see Brillo is 'taking a break' from Gammon Boomer News. I wonder if it's health related. The revolting fucker looks like he's being force fed so his liver can be made into pâté.
Summer holiday mate
less than 2 weeks after the channel launched - seems a strange time for a holiday.
Least GBNews has lasted longer than the SuperLeague.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
The minimum wage is supposed to be a minimum, not a maximum.
Yes, but it is at a level that prevents exploitation.
It seems though that the problem in so many sectors is lack of workers with the right skills rather than their pay. We shall see soon enough if the market plugs the gap. Personally, I will be quite happy for exploitative capitalist employers go bust because of Labour demands.
Indeed, the bar on EU doctors looks like giving me as much leverage on overtime rates as I want. Wasn't that the point of Brexit, to empower sturdy British yeomen like myself?
Well you guys are amongst the best paid and pensioned in Europe even though the BMA has convinced the Great British Public (they that can never be gulled) you are overworked and underpaid lol!
And by cutting out the foreign competition looking likely to be better still. Locum rates are going through the roof, if you can find one in the first place.
Can't blame you for being pleased. Perhaps you can tell the BMA you have had a "Brexit dividend" and tell them to stop moaning?
Hence, enthusiastically pushed by Boris’s cuckbitch, Harry Cole.
It frequently bemused me why Boris Johnson needed to hire Allegra Stratton when Cole was doing the job for free.
What does Allegra actually do?
Keeps Carrie Antoinette entertained and happy.
Remind me, why was the televised lobby briefing ditched again? I seemed a perfectly sensible move.
Imagine that briefing today and the next few weeks.
It would all be about Matt Hancock's willy.
Belatedly Boris Johnson realised it would give the media a regular opportunity to kick the government.
The PM doesn't like scrutiny remember.
Which is why he is trying to abolish/castrate anyone who has criticised him.
Perhaps....but they try that on the COVID pressers and the public seem to have sympathy with the government over knobhead journalists asking knobhead questions.
SNP reaction to Hancock is in. Calls for investigation into Gina Coldangelo's appointment and ends with obligatory claim that this is a reason for Scottish independence.
On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
He knew her anyway. If you're both working together flat out 24/7 then 10 minutes of stress relief across a desk would seem a good use of time.
A new (potential) COVID wave in Finland, they have had a 36% WoW increase, (from a low base about a tenth of UK in cases/million), but they are about 5% behind France/Germany/Spain in vaccinations, and 20% behind UK, also with less infection induced immunity, it could get reasonably bad quickly, not panic stations but....
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
The minimum wage is supposed to be a minimum, not a maximum.
Yes, but it is at a level that prevents exploitation.
It seems though that the problem in so many sectors is lack of workers with the right skills rather than their pay. We shall see soon enough if the market plugs the gap. Personally, I will be quite happy for exploitative capitalist employers go bust because of Labour demands.
Indeed, the bar on EU doctors looks like giving me as much leverage on overtime rates as I want. Wasn't that the point of Brexit, to empower sturdy British yeomen like myself?
Minimum wage is exploitation. You can't live on it, at least not in the south east, and especially if having to rent. Families on it are having their employers subsidised through Universal Credit. Single people will probably be having to work all the hours there are, or get a second job. A childless couple can probably just about manage.
Also to add: I am not sure how many people have been not getting minimum wage. How big is the grey economy? Tacitly paying less than MW but offering big hours may have worked with a subset of the immigrant community. Recent stories that there may be 1.6m more EU citizens here than we thought may be an exaggeration or just indicate that government records are shit, but may also indicate that a substantial number are off the books.
Well indeed it's worth noting that the minimum wage at full time is well above the threshold for Employers NI, Employees NI and Income Tax.
So paying less than minimum wage but cash in hand means more income for the employees, lower costs for the company and the taxpayers and reputable businesses that compete are screwed. 😡
On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
maybe he is "Mr Quickie"?
You still have to keep on top of the cover stories, forensics and keep knocking the nail in on the home front to allay suspicion. Nah, it ain't for the quitter.
Perhaps he thought it would get his boss's admiration? maybe he thought that imitation is the highest form of flattery and all that, but perhaps took it a bit far when he asked if he could have a turn on Carrie?
My 19 year old daughter has had her first dose now. I do feel that this is nearly over for us now.
My 20 year old son had his yesterday, pleased to say.
I spent the day in the Lakes yesterday taking the twins to Kendal for theirs (they are working there in a friend's hotel for the Summer). It was incredibly well organised with free parking (saving me a whole £3.20)
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
It won't happen. People will pay what they need to pay for food, so the shops will pay what they need to pay to stock it. The rest is fluff.
Just because businesses would prefer to pay less doesn't mean they won't pay more if they realise there is no alternative.
My local Tesco's now has a Costa Coffee machine. Indeed they seem to be everywhere nowadays. Not as much need for actual coffee shops or baristas making coffees for minimum wage if a machine can do it instead.
Obviously people will pay what they need to in order not to starve. But they were told food was going to be cheaper and in more plentiful supply. And that's why the government will be forced to act. Making life more expensive when it can easily be prevented is never popular.
How do you even get access to cctv footage like that? In the hours and hours of footage you would have specifically to go looking for something for something like that. Not something to stumble upon.
Why do you assume it was a needle in a haystack?
There must be hundreds of cameras in the DoH. That's a pretty big haystack to hide Hancock's needle.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
I was angry when Cummings broken the rules to have a holiday in Barnard Castle and I'm angry now.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
I'm not a fan of Question Time these days, but I watched the first question last night, which was about letting in UEFA big-wigs, sponsors and so on the watch the UEFA Cup Final. All, I think, except one of the audience, and he was somewhat half-hearted, thought it was wrong, and only Robert Buckland ..... well, he had to to, didn't he ...... of the panel defended it. He wasn't all that keen either.
Similar in the pub the other afternoon...... except of course that RB wasn't there!
I am beginning to feel that 'peak Boris' has passed, and things are going downhill quite rapidly. Might give a new dimension to B&S, too.
Interestingly, on my shopping trip out yesterday, I noticed for the first that mask wearing was starting to slip. Several people (men mainly) had them on but pushed down under their chins so it was pointless. To date my patch has been pretty strict on the rules from what I've seen. Things are starting to slip.
I wonder whether the rows over the elite being exempted all over the place are part of this?
Isn’t more that people are starting to click that ‘positive tests’ aren’t translating into deaths, and that the vaccines - guess what?! - work?
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
It won't happen. People will pay what they need to pay for food, so the shops will pay what they need to pay to stock it. The rest is fluff.
Just because businesses would prefer to pay less doesn't mean they won't pay more if they realise there is no alternative.
My local Tesco's now has a Costa Coffee machine. Indeed they seem to be everywhere nowadays. Not as much need for actual coffee shops or baristas making coffees for minimum wage if a machine can do it instead.
Obviously people will pay what they need to get food. They were told it was going to be cheaper and more plentiful, though. And that's why the government will be forced to act. Making life more expensive for people when it can be prevented is never popular.
I would suspect that there are many more contracts in worldwide next year from UK food retailers.
On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
In normal times it shouldn’t matter. But he has been warning people off hugging close family, or interacting with work colleagues without wearing a mask etc, and here he is snogging/shagging a woman who lives in a different house, with her family etc. It’s about 100 times worse than Cummings trip to Durham
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
It won't happen. People will pay what they need to pay for food, so the shops will pay what they need to pay to stock it. The rest is fluff.
Just because businesses would prefer to pay less doesn't mean they won't pay more if they realise there is no alternative.
My local Tesco's now has a Costa Coffee machine. Indeed they seem to be everywhere nowadays. Not as much need for actual coffee shops or baristas making coffees for minimum wage if a machine can do it instead.
Obviously people will pay what they need to get food. They were told it was going to be cheaper and more plentiful, though. And that's why the government will be forced to act. Making life more expensive for people when it can be prevented is never popular.
Inflation is a fact of life and this is only one small element of the overall cost.
Besides weren't you lot just complaining about cheap food from Australia being about to rock the system?
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
The UK has a much freer labour market than France.
I was angry when Cummings broken the rules to have a holiday in Barnard Castle and I'm angry now.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
I'm not a fan of Question Time these days, but I watched the first question last night, which was about letting in UEFA big-wigs, sponsors and so on the watch the UEFA Cup Final. All, I think, except one of the audience, and he was somewhat half-hearted, thought it was wrong, and only Robert Buckland ..... well, he had to to, didn't he ...... of the panel defended it. He wasn't all that keen either.
Similar in the pub the other afternoon...... except of course that RB wasn't there!
I am beginning to feel that 'peak Boris' has passed, and things are going downhill quite rapidly. Might give a new dimension to B&S, too.
Interestingly, on my shopping trip out yesterday, I noticed for the first that mask wearing was starting to slip. Several people (men mainly) had them on but pushed down under their chins so it was pointless. To date my patch has been pretty strict on the rules from what I've seen. Things are starting to slip.
I wonder whether the rows over the elite being exempted all over the place are part of this?
Isn’t more that people are starting to click that ‘positive tests’ aren’t translating into deaths, and that the vaccines - guess what?! - work?
Los Angeles County says nearly all coronavirus cases over the past 6 months were in those who weren't vaccinated:
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
Employing people is a lot more complicated (and more expensive) in many EU jurisdictions.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
Unionisation? Just a guess but I seem to recall the French labour market is rather more restricted.
O/T I spent some time with a friend the other day telling me the absolute horror of what online gambling addiction does to families. I am normally not in favour of banning anything for consenting adults but I am now definitely in favour of banning it if possible. Are there any PBers with information or views on this?
It's truly shocking. I don't know about banning it, but I'd certainly like to see the banning of gambling adverts on television and for sporting events.
The first sport I got hooked on as a kid was F1 and I was exposed to Rothmans, Marlboro, Benson & Hedges, etc., etc. And in no way did it make me want to start smoking! I think the tobacco industry used to claim that advertising was all about market share, though I can imagine it wasn't great for people trying to stop smoking.
But I can imagine the gambling adverts on TV do have an influence on kids. And I think if tobacco adverts are banned, then gambling ads should be banned too.
The gambling companies gather vast amounts of data on the behaviour of their users and use that data to close off gamblers who won money from them and encourage gamblers who lose money to them. They know exactly what they're doing with addicted gamblers.
I'd ban all instant-play gambling. At least when someone is staking money on football matches, horse races, etc, there's a limit due to the number of events. It's the instant games that are the biggest problem.
There was a problem with certain companies issuing pre-pay credit cards, which could be used for gambling sites. These allowed loading money onto the card from a normal credit card. Which entirely circumvented the blocks on using credit cards in gambling....
Strangely it took a lot of effort to block this route - I believe it is still a problem.
It is a problem but whether it is one worth bothering about is less clear. Does it happen a lot? It is hardly the spur of the moment use of a credit card that was the original concern.
Nor am I happy about anti-gambling campaigners using the word addiction to describe excessive play. Often the problem is not that people are addicted but they are trying to dig themselves out of a hole and end up, almost inevitably, even deeper.
Though if I were HMG and serious about this, I'd simply ban (or remove from gambling operators' licences) all betting on games of chance: draw games; casino games; fruit machines and so on. That is where most (not all) of the harm is done.
My solution would be to go for the jugular; outlaw the bookmakers edge.
A simple and elegant solution.
That wouldn't be enough as the bookmakers would increase their focus on the more profitable "casino" market.
What needs to be done is:-
Remove instant gratification (or at least restrict how much can be gambled per hour / day / week / month). Remove the ability to ban winners In game gambling is an interesting issue as is advertising. Remember a lot of gambling company profits comes from markets that don't actually exist.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
Indeed. There's no shortage of people able to drive and able to be trained to drive HGVs.
Having a shortage of people willing to work for crap wages isn't a problem.
In isolation to the rest of the economy that may be true.
In aggregate if we need extra workers in several big sectors like hospitality, health, care, farming and transport then it may not just be a case of increasing wages.
We will continue to get high levels of immigration over the next decade, once covid is done, because we need it due to our demographics. Whether we want it or not will be secondary.
Or possibly in some cases this may have the desirable effect of forcing substitution with better technology.
My local area is blighted by the presence of hundreds of HGVs trucking limestone and cement from cement kilms to distributors. All the kilms are rail served, but currently its cheaper to take substantial amounts of it out be road. Forcing a modal switch to rail would be no bad thing (although it might require Network Rail to sort out some of the real bottlenecks on the system).
There’s a massive rail capacity upgrade currently under construction. For some reason, the Greens and Lib Dems are opposed to it.
I think you’ll find the Lib Dems are in favour. *snigger*
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
It won't happen. People will pay what they need to pay for food, so the shops will pay what they need to pay to stock it. The rest is fluff.
Just because businesses would prefer to pay less doesn't mean they won't pay more if they realise there is no alternative.
My local Tesco's now has a Costa Coffee machine. Indeed they seem to be everywhere nowadays. Not as much need for actual coffee shops or baristas making coffees for minimum wage if a machine can do it instead.
Obviously people will pay what they need to get food. They were told it was going to be cheaper and more plentiful, though. And that's why the government will be forced to act. Making life more expensive for people when it can be prevented is never popular.
Inflation is a fact of life and this is only one small element of the overall cost.
Besides weren't you lot just complaining about cheap food from Australia being about to rock the system?
Not me. The Aussie trade deal is almost entirely irrelevant to anything as far as I can see. Farmers are a bit miffed though, I believe. Like the fishermen, they were told that Brexit would be an unalloyed blessing. It turns out that may not be right. Whoever would have thought it?
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
Unionisation? Just a guess but I seem to recall the French labour market is rather more restricted.
We are about the least efficient most backward in the world at construction. Even the smallest 1 house site in France will have a crane and other tools to minimise construction time. In Britain we just throw cheap labourers at it to move things round.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
Or indeed German.
Or practically anywhere else in Western Europe.
Remember “Auf wiedersehn pet”? When the Germans were using our builders as cheap labour. And they have been using Turks for decades.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
The UK has a much freer labour market than France.
No merde Sherlock !!
( I was going to say Hercule, but then I knew someone would point out he was Belgian)
On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
In normal times it shouldn’t matter. But he has been warning people off hugging close family, or interacting with work colleagues without wearing a mask etc, and here he is snogging/shagging a woman who lives in a different house, with her family etc. It’s about 100 times worse than Cummings trip to Durham
Yes, this is it. I’m intensely relaxed about people’s private lives, but not - as you say - when these hypocrites are lecturing others.
At what time are we supposed to break out the singing of "four legs good, two legs bad" or whatever the patriotic song of the day is?
Whatever time it is, one should be suitably attired. It's ok lads, you don't have to wear them on your feet.
Very silly. Somewhat similar to people wearing skirts that were invented by an Anglo-German royal family in the belief they were traditional Scottish highland dress.
I was angry when Cummings broken the rules to have a holiday in Barnard Castle and I'm angry now.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
I'm not a fan of Question Time these days, but I watched the first question last night, which was about letting in UEFA big-wigs, sponsors and so on the watch the UEFA Cup Final. All, I think, except one of the audience, and he was somewhat half-hearted, thought it was wrong, and only Robert Buckland ..... well, he had to to, didn't he ...... of the panel defended it. He wasn't all that keen either.
Similar in the pub the other afternoon...... except of course that RB wasn't there!
I am beginning to feel that 'peak Boris' has passed, and things are going downhill quite rapidly. Might give a new dimension to B&S, too.
Interestingly, on my shopping trip out yesterday, I noticed for the first that mask wearing was starting to slip. Several people (men mainly) had them on but pushed down under their chins so it was pointless. To date my patch has been pretty strict on the rules from what I've seen. Things are starting to slip.
I wonder whether the rows over the elite being exempted all over the place are part of this?
Isn’t more that people are starting to click that ‘positive tests’ aren’t translating into deaths, and that the vaccines - guess what?! - work?
Los Angeles County says nearly all coronavirus cases over the past 6 months were in those who weren't vaccinated:
On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
The problem is that because of the use of a conveyor-belt* of low end workers from low cost countries, you can suppress wages below a sustainable level**.
Hence MHO (may adults living in a property) etc etc...
*They come in on the lowest end jobs, either move up and replaced, leave or get stuck in the shitty conditions. **Sustainable in the sense of actually living a decent life.
Comments
Nor am I happy about anti-gambling campaigners using the word addiction to describe excessive play. Often the problem is not that people are addicted but they are trying to dig themselves out of a hole and end up, almost inevitably, even deeper.
Though if I were HMG and serious about this, I'd simply ban (or remove from gambling operators' licences) all betting on games of chance: draw games; casino games; fruit machines and so on. That is where most (not all) of the harm is done.
Most people follow social convention. If people start slipping in mask use in shops etc, others will follow.
CON: 42% (-3)
LAB: 30% (-1)
LDEM: 9% (+3)
GRN: 7% (-)
via
@YouGov
Chgs. w/ 17 Jun
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
2) Automated car washes are suddenly making a comeback.
Sadly the market structure is such that unless there is a big shock (even bigger than the current market issues) the customers won't be willing to increase what they are paying so the market won't be properly fixed - instead bodges will be made to keep things going while delaying what will eventually be a disaster.
The average age of an HGV driver is well over 50 and it's currently increasing by about 8 months every year
There's a good read about the by-election here, which doesn't really tell us much more, except for an anecdotal report that young Muslims are moving to Galloway and older Muslims are not.
https://news.sky.com/story/the-accidental-by-election-how-labour-triggered-another-divisive-vote-for-the-people-of-batley-and-spen-12340984
Perhaps that is where we are headed. "This chlorinated chicken is cheap and it tastes damn good. Praise Brexit". "Yes and Praise Boris" will be the required reply.
Really should be a game for youngsters, make a bit of money before settling down with your family and then go back to something more local. But the structure of the industry doesn't lead to that.
Thanks for the info by the way, I will go back and have a look at the links when I'm not supposed to be at work.
Economics is rather simple here, it is supply and demand in action. If there's a shortage of supply of drivers, those drivers can work for the highest bidders. So either the companies that want to hire them pay what they need to pay, in which case wages go up attracting more supply of drivers as it becomes more attractive, or the companies find themselves without any drivers as more competitive companies get their stock moved instead.
So the less competitive companies go out of business and a new equilibrium is reached.
A simple and elegant solution.
Great Britain*
Strong Hancock!
Whiskers on kittens.
*Excludes Northern Ireland which is in another customs union.
It seems though that the problem in so many sectors is lack of workers with the right skills rather than their pay. We shall see soon enough if the market plugs the gap. Personally, I will be quite happy for exploitative capitalist employers go bust because of Labour demands.
Indeed, the bar on EU doctors looks like giving me as much leverage on overtime rates as I want. Wasn't that the point of Brexit, to empower sturdy British yeomen like myself?
Hence, enthusiastically pushed by Boris’s cuckbitch, Harry Cole.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
The companies using data to shut winning customers down, and the insidiousmarketing of poor value accumulators and long-odds bets during matches.
Oh, and Football Index, which anyone looking from the outside could see was a Ponzi scheme.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/weekly-trends/#weekly_table
She must have criticised Carrie’s colour scheme or something.
Just because businesses would prefer to pay less doesn't mean they won't pay more if they realise there is no alternative.
My local Tesco's now has a Costa Coffee machine. Indeed they seem to be everywhere nowadays. Not as much need for actual coffee shops or baristas making coffees for minimum wage if a machine can do it instead.
It would all be about Matt Hancock's willy.
Belatedly Boris Johnson realised it would give the media a regular opportunity to kick the government.
The PM doesn't like scrutiny remember.
Which is why he is trying to abolish/castrate anyone who has criticised him.
https://twitter.com/ChrisMusson/status/1408347071258705923?s=20
Unluckily for him they will not. He’s finished, how could he lead a covid press conference ever again. Gone by the 6 O Clock news.
So paying less than minimum wage but cash in hand means more income for the employees, lower costs for the company and the taxpayers and reputable businesses that compete are screwed. 😡
Or practically anywhere else in Western Europe.
Besides weren't you lot just complaining about cheap food from Australia being about to rock the system?
- Cases: 99.6% unvaccinated
- Hospitalized: 98.7% unvaccinated
- Deaths: 99.8% unvaccinated
https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1408222055607242757?s=19
While Sydney is going into lockdown again.
What needs to be done is:-
Remove instant gratification (or at least restrict how much can be gambled per hour / day / week / month).
Remove the ability to ban winners
In game gambling is an interesting issue as is advertising. Remember a lot of gambling company profits comes from markets that don't actually exist.
( I was going to say Hercule, but then I knew someone would point out he was Belgian)
Hancock's Half Hour.
Julia Hartley Brewer.
Secondary attack rate has been updated, delta is 35% higher than alpha in this weeks report.
https://twitter.com/ThatRyanChap/status/1408347594913239042?s=20
Which encouragingly is towards the lower end of some estimates:
https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/five-things-we-know-about-delta-coronavirus-variant-and-two-things-we-still-need
Hence MHO (may adults living in a property) etc etc...
*They come in on the lowest end jobs, either move up and replaced, leave or get stuck in the shitty conditions.
**Sustainable in the sense of actually living a decent life.