Passed three petrol station on way to the gym - all out of fuel. I hear that the closest motorway (M1) service station is out too.
My in-laws have their 50th Anniversary Party this Saturday, with people travelling by car 100 miles each way from London, similar from Bath and 50 miles from Cambridge.
PB brains trust: What are the chances of the Party having to be cancelled?
Seems to me that the tankers will be in demand everywhere - who knows when the petrol stations will be replenished with fuel? I think there are many like me who haven't panic-bought fuel but will be quick off the mark should fuel become available so I can see this dragging on for weeks.
Many in the countryside live 15 miles + from nearest petrol station - do they risk a journey on spec for fuel? I think not. Quasi-lockdown I guess.
The problem is that the wrong kind of people are buying petrol.
The wrong kind of people will soon have nowhere left to store it.
In the bath, maybe.....
The govt says that if everyone just bought £20 of petrol every week as per usual we'd be fine.
Does anyone do that?
No. Always run to 1/4 of tank to yellow light then fill.
When I was driving 40k miles per year I would always run from full to nearly empty and then re-fill.
The range computer on a couple Audis and a Merc I had were a little pessimistic. You could drive for 5-10 miles with zero range left.
Three times I over-cooked it. Once I had to get a very disgruntled Mrs P to come and rescue me 5 miles from home. Twice, I coasted into filling stations with the engine having literally died seconds before, brakes and steering very heavy. Once with a diesel that took ages to restart.
Passed three petrol station on way to the gym - all out of fuel. I hear that the closest motorway (M1) service station is out too.
My in-laws have their 50th Anniversary Party this Saturday, with people travelling by car 100 miles each way from London, similar from Bath and 50 miles from Cambridge.
PB brains trust: What are the chances of the Party having to be cancelled?
Seems to me that the tankers will be in demand everywhere - who knows when the petrol stations will be replenished with fuel? I think there are many like me who haven't panic-bought fuel but will be quick off the mark should fuel become available so I can see this dragging on for weeks.
Many in the countryside live 15 miles + from nearest petrol station - do they risk a journey on spec for fuel? I think not. Quasi-lockdown I guess.
The problem is that the wrong kind of people are buying petrol.
The wrong kind of people will soon have nowhere left to store it.
In the bath, maybe.....
The govt says that if everyone just bought £20 of petrol every week as per usual we'd be fine.
Does anyone do that?
Yes. Last time I saw figures on this, most people do.
I've always filled my tank in full from empty, but most people get £10 or £20 at a time. Though I don't know if cards wiping out cash has changed things.
Its worth noting how often when you go to the pump, that the person before you at the pump stopped it at £20 or so. Its how most people normally use the pumps.
I do normally just chuck in £20. Or £25 if I go to £20.01. Or £30 if I go to £25.01, and so on
Don't you find you eventually get very wet, smelly and scared doing this?
I'm sorry, I don't follow?
I think he was implying that you keep going, even after the tank is full, absolutely determined to carry on pumping until you’ve hit a round figure…
You cannot seriously be telling me you pay for anything in cash?
Covid changed my petrol buying behaviour. Before I paid in cash - usually £20. Now I pay by card - usually for 15 litres - and it removes the need to be precise on the dial.
Random question, totally OT. I've always wondered about the camouflage paint jobs on WWII aeroplanes, such as spitfires etc. Was the camouflage pre-deteremined and the same or did the painting vary between planes?
I suspect the camouflage was standard. Special paint I suppose, comes out of the tin in that pattern.
But you had to be very careful to get the right tins if your Spitfire was even-numbered as opposed to odd-numbered: Type A versus mirror image Type B.
"Brexit to blame for Britain's truck driver crisis, lectures favourite to succeed Merkel Olaf Scholz takes aim at UK over HGV shortfall despite Germany facing its own shortages of up to 60,000 drivers"
Wasn't he asked directly about this by a UK reporter, in the usual solipsistic way of UK reporters? He could have just told him (politely) to foxtrot oscar I guess.
'Scholz insults UK by refusing to comment on the most important situation of the moment!'
With regard to student loan repayment issue; it is worth reflecting on how we got in to this mess. Many people on here view the coalition years (2010-2015) as a glorious example of strong and mature government. My view to the contrary is that this was the worst government in living history.
The student loans are nothing but a con. The degree courses people were directed in to going on, at £9k per annum to go on were, in a very, very large number of cases, completely and utterly useless and a waste of 3 years of young peoples lives when they could have been doing something economically productive instead. The con gets worse when one looks at the repayment system. The absolute scandal is the interest rates, they are set at RPI, which is 1.5%, not the actual bank of england interest rate which is 0.1%. The interest rate increases to 4.5% when students start earning any significant salary. It is effectively a system of cynical exploitation of young people.
There is a lot of anger about this, it is the one policy area where it is possible to sympathise with people like Andrea Rayner.
So, between 1.5% and 4.5% for unsecured personal debt, where repayments are automatically paused in the event of unemployment, is a bad deal?
And, don't people who choose to do degrees in Film Studies bear some responsibility for their choices? Or do only you get to choose?
Why should eg a successful middle aged lawyer or businessman who owns their own home be on a lower real marginal tax rate than that Film Studies graduate who has a lower income and rent to pay?
Ooo goodie!
Why should a middle aged supermarket check out lady subsidise the teenage son of a QC to spend 3 years drinking his way through a film studies degree?
The middle aged supermarket checkout lady shouldn't have much tax to pay but the QC should so its the QC paying for it not the check out lady ultimately.
I answered your question, now can you answer mine?
I'm sure she'd notice when taxes went up to pay for the £8bn or so needed to fund it.
If my proposal that all income were taxed at the same rate regardless of how it was taxed (so merging NI, Income Tax and graduate tax etc together) then her taxes as a worker ought to be able to go down not up. It would be those living on unearned incomes that see their taxes rise to match those of earned incomes.
Regardless of your tax proposals, she would be paying more tax if the taxpayer had to fund the £8bn a year needed to cover tuition fees.
The taxpayer does have to fund tuition fees as it stands.
However as it stands even relatively low-earning but young graduates have to pay higher taxes, while even high earning older graduates don't have to pay higher taxes.
Its pure age discrimination.
No it doesn't, that's the whole point of tuition fees. We are talking about the difference between the current situation, and one where tuition fees are abolished. In the latter, the checkout lady would certainly notice it in her pay packet.
No she wouldn't. Not with my proposal, indeed her taxes could go down.
The people who benefit from the current system aren't checkout ladies, they're landlords and elderly lawyers and pensioners etc who can earn lots of income without seeing that income taxed at the same rates that others get taxed at.
We're talking about two separate things. Regardless of whether we are using the current tax system, or your tax system, abolishing tuition fees would result in a net cost to the taxpayer of around £8bn a year.
Which is absolutely a rounding error compared to the cost to the exchequer of ensuring the retired, landlords, inheritees etc don't pay the same rate of income tax as those actually working for their income pay.
Just to give a sense of scale, that "rounding error" is about the same as the revenue from the new NI tax hike.
Which again wouldn't have been needed if everyone paid the same share.
Tax everyone on the same income the same rate, regardless of how its earned. Don't punish people for being workers, or punish them even more for being young workers.
Yes, but regardless of what tax system you use, abolishing tuition fees will result in a net cost of £8bn, which will be a noticeable tax increase, at least based on the reaction to the NI one.
It will only be a tax increase for those who aren't paying their share. For those who are paying their share it will be a tax cut.
If you're going to charge for education then charge for education, but if you're going to charge based on earnings then that's income tax. Charging some different rates of income tax than others is not equitable.
Again you are conflating your proposed tax reforms with the narrow point regarding whether or not taxpayers should pay for tuition. If taxpayers are paying for it, regardless of the system, you will be in the situation Charles described right back at the start of this thread.
Taxpayers are already paying for it.
Its just the taxpayers are simply only some of the taxpayers paying a tax surcharge.
Come off it. Only graduates are paying for it, not all taxpayers.
Come off it. Via PAYE some taxpayers are paying for it, not all graduates.
Not all taxpayers are repaying student loans, maybe something like 20-25%? Many more taxpayers would have to foot the bill if tuition fees were abolished, including the checkout lady mentioned at the start.
Not all graduates are paying the graduate tax.
Taxpayers would have a fairer bill if all taxpayers were taxed the same rather than being taxed differently based upon age etc.
Its not a tax. Its repayment of a loan.
It is a tax.
If I am making a loan repayment then I have a fixed amount I repay each month. If I increase my earnings, I don't suddenly start having to pay more out of PAYE as a result.
This is a PAYE tax levied on certain people but not others. If it walks like a tax, and quacks like a tax ...
No. Its a variable loan repayment. Its not a tax, it never was a tax.
The student loan system is a graduate tax that is structured legally as a loan for political reasons.
But if it walks like a tax, talks like a tax & quacks like a tax then we should call it what it is - a tax on graduates.
Correct, unfortunately named a loan but is it a much more a graduate tax (in effect a higher rate of income tax) - with a novel features.
1) you are not put on to the higher tax rate until your income* is above a certain figure; 2) the liability to incur the higher tax rate ends at 30 years (or earlier death) and 3) you have the opportunity to buy yourself out of the punitive tax rate early by paying a lump sum (you would be mad to do so).
* note that it is taxable income that counts not earnings. So, for mature student, pensions can be liable and for everyone investment income too.
What appals me about the Chancellor's musing is the retrospective nature of the changes he contemplates. Any changes should apply to new students only, or it is retrospective taxation.
Why would you be mad to buy yourself out? I give my kids the money rather them taking out a student loan as an extra 9% tax for half their lives seems unfair when I got a grant.
If they made it into a real graduate tax and applied it to everyone that has a degree, including those that went through universities before the loan scheme, I wonder what the rate would be...
Unless they avoid taking out a penny in loans the interest charged is such that it will not be repaid and will likely increase in size at a rate that is more rapid them the repayments reduce it.
So given that I don't have £60,000 spare cash lying around, I've adopted the more pragmatic approach of giving them £20k or so when they decide to buy a house and then sub the mortgage a bit as well if need be.
Yes, much better to give a lump sum for other purposes, not least because it is quite likely that at some point there will be a write off of outstanding loans paid off in a different way.
Random question, totally OT. I've always wondered about the camouflage paint jobs on WWII aeroplanes, such as spitfires etc. Was the camouflage pre-deteremined and the same or did the painting vary between planes?
I suspect the camouflage was standard. Special paint I suppose, comes out of the tin in that pattern.
The tartan paint manufacturers really came into their own.
Passed three petrol station on way to the gym - all out of fuel. I hear that the closest motorway (M1) service station is out too.
My in-laws have their 50th Anniversary Party this Saturday, with people travelling by car 100 miles each way from London, similar from Bath and 50 miles from Cambridge.
PB brains trust: What are the chances of the Party having to be cancelled?
Seems to me that the tankers will be in demand everywhere - who knows when the petrol stations will be replenished with fuel? I think there are many like me who haven't panic-bought fuel but will be quick off the mark should fuel become available so I can see this dragging on for weeks.
Many in the countryside live 15 miles + from nearest petrol station - do they risk a journey on spec for fuel? I think not. Quasi-lockdown I guess.
The problem is that the wrong kind of people are buying petrol.
The wrong kind of people will soon have nowhere left to store it.
In the bath, maybe.....
The govt says that if everyone just bought £20 of petrol every week as per usual we'd be fine.
Does anyone do that?
Yes. Last time I saw figures on this, most people do.
I've always filled my tank in full from empty, but most people get £10 or £20 at a time. Though I don't know if cards wiping out cash has changed things.
Its worth noting how often when you go to the pump, that the person before you at the pump stopped it at £20 or so. Its how most people normally use the pumps.
I do normally just chuck in £20. Or £25 if I go to £20.01. Or £30 if I go to £25.01, and so on
Don't you find you eventually get very wet, smelly and scared doing this?
I'm sorry, I don't follow?
I think he was implying that you keep going, even after the tank is full, absolutely determined to carry on pumping until you’ve hit a round figure…
Passed three petrol station on way to the gym - all out of fuel. I hear that the closest motorway (M1) service station is out too.
My in-laws have their 50th Anniversary Party this Saturday, with people travelling by car 100 miles each way from London, similar from Bath and 50 miles from Cambridge.
PB brains trust: What are the chances of the Party having to be cancelled?
Seems to me that the tankers will be in demand everywhere - who knows when the petrol stations will be replenished with fuel? I think there are many like me who haven't panic-bought fuel but will be quick off the mark should fuel become available so I can see this dragging on for weeks.
Many in the countryside live 15 miles + from nearest petrol station - do they risk a journey on spec for fuel? I think not. Quasi-lockdown I guess.
The problem is that the wrong kind of people are buying petrol.
The wrong kind of people will soon have nowhere left to store it.
In the bath, maybe.....
The govt says that if everyone just bought £20 of petrol every week as per usual we'd be fine.
Does anyone do that?
No. Always run to 1/4 of tank to yellow light then fill.
When I was driving 40k miles per year I would always run from full to nearly empty and then re-fill.
The range computer on a couple Audis and a Merc I had were a little pessimistic. You could drive for 5-10 miles with zero range left.
Three times I over-cooked it. Once I had to get a very disgruntled Mrs P to come and rescue me 5 miles from home. Twice, I coasted into filling stations with the engine having literally died seconds before, brakes and steering very heavy. Once with a diesel that took ages to restart.
The closest I ever got was over the A62 Standedge Pass, when I realised it was tight I imagined I would be fine for the next petrol station on the main road, not realising it was about 4 miles further on after the descent. Conked out literally as I turned into the petrol station and glided to a rather backwards position on the pump.
You cannot seriously be telling me you pay for anything in cash?
Covid changed my petrol buying behaviour. Before I paid in cash - usually £20. Now I pay by card - usually for 15 litres - and it removes the need to be precise on the dial.
Why bother with cash full stop? It’s an obsolete inconvenience
Just filled up at Morris ons. Short queue but no diesel. Apparently they've been getting their usual deliveries every two days. The Tesco and BP had no fuel.
Random question, totally OT. I've always wondered about the camouflage paint jobs on WWII aeroplanes, such as spitfires etc. Was the camouflage pre-deteremined and the same or did the painting vary between planes?
I suspect the camouflage was standard. Special paint I suppose, comes out of the tin in that pattern.
But you had to be very careful to get the right tins if your Spitfire was even-numbered as opposed to odd-numbered: Type A versus mirror image Type B.
Random question, totally OT. I've always wondered about the camouflage paint jobs on WWII aeroplanes, such as spitfires etc. Was the camouflage pre-deteremined and the same or did the painting vary between planes?
I suspect the camouflage was standard. Special paint I suppose, comes out of the tin in that pattern.
There were a number of factories in Scotland that were making tartan paint pre-war that could be quickly repurposed for the war effort.
You cannot seriously be telling me you pay for anything in cash?
I remember an old comedy sketch. Maybe Not The Nine O Clock News. A customer taking ages gently dribbling in fuel a penny at a time to get it to exactly £10.00. And then the attendant hit a button to click it over to £10.01.
Passed three petrol station on way to the gym - all out of fuel. I hear that the closest motorway (M1) service station is out too.
My in-laws have their 50th Anniversary Party this Saturday, with people travelling by car 100 miles each way from London, similar from Bath and 50 miles from Cambridge.
PB brains trust: What are the chances of the Party having to be cancelled?
Seems to me that the tankers will be in demand everywhere - who knows when the petrol stations will be replenished with fuel? I think there are many like me who haven't panic-bought fuel but will be quick off the mark should fuel become available so I can see this dragging on for weeks.
Many in the countryside live 15 miles + from nearest petrol station - do they risk a journey on spec for fuel? I think not. Quasi-lockdown I guess.
The problem is that the wrong kind of people are buying petrol.
The wrong kind of people will soon have nowhere left to store it.
In the bath, maybe.....
The govt says that if everyone just bought £20 of petrol every week as per usual we'd be fine.
Does anyone do that?
No. Always run to 1/4 of tank to yellow light then fill.
When I was driving 40k miles per year I would always run from full to nearly empty and then re-fill.
The range computer on a couple Audis and a Merc I had were a little pessimistic. You could drive for 5-10 miles with zero range left.
Three times I over-cooked it. Once I had to get a very disgruntled Mrs P to come and rescue me 5 miles from home. Twice, I coasted into filling stations with the engine having literally died seconds before, brakes and steering very heavy. Once with a diesel that took ages to restart.
It is a bad idea to run a diesel down to the dregs.
If you get air in the injectors it can kill them, and even if you don't kill anything you may have to bleed all the air out.
Random question, totally OT. I've always wondered about the camouflage paint jobs on WWII aeroplanes, such as spitfires etc. Was the camouflage pre-deteremined and the same or did the painting vary between planes?
I suspect the camouflage was standard. Special paint I suppose, comes out of the tin in that pattern.
The tartan paint manufacturers really came into their own.
It was actually a mixture - they were supposed to be camouflaged according to designed patterns, for the RAF, but there was a lot of variation due to variations in updating schemes, patched up aircraft etc, time, lack of the right paint or even squadron level ideas about what worked. Tons of notices sent round saying "paint the roundels properly, or else".
I didn't realise that student loan interest rates were 6%. That's actually daylight robbery.
Someone said earlier that early repayment was penalised - I forget whom. Is this literally true, or just the nature of the thing whereby debts are written off after n years of time or age?
It's the latter. For most graduates, if they pay back a small proportion early, that repayment will get swallowed up in the 6% interest on the remainder and they'll have wasted it. Conversely, if you're a young lawyer earning £120K+ a year, you can pay the whole thing off early and save yourself loads in the longer term. But you need to pay it all, or substantially all, off.
It is a tax/loan (a bit of both, really) with the most perverse attributes, and very few graduates understand it. For example, changing the interest rate would make very little difference for the vast majority of graduates, who will never pay it off anyway; for them, the interest rate only affects the notional remaining value which gets written off at the end. Reducing the interest rate would only benefit the small number of very high earners who have a sporting chance of eventually paying it off.
Thanks. So you need a sum of the order of £10K+ to make a decent bite in the loan? - and yet most young professional persons would have much better use for that money right now. Nasty thing. Did the LDs really think that up??
I hadn't paid much attention to it till the subject of a friend's daughter and her windfall of a (somewhat smaller) lump sum from a legacy came up in conversation. I was very surprised when my friend said he'd strongly advise her to put the money aside for a house rather than repay some of the student loan - so contrary to normal good financial advice.
Yes. It is a graduate tax in all but name, with one practical advantage and a few political advantages.
The practical advantage is that you can't escape the tax by emigrating. The political advantages are that it isn't called a tax, and there's no pressure to charge it to graduates of earlier generations.
It means that for most students all the normal rules of borrowing don't apply. There's no penalty to borrowing more than you need, using a lump sum to pay off a chunk of the debt is money thrown away/donated to the government, and the interest rate is irrelevant - it's set high enough to try to ensure that you can never repay all the debt and escape the tax. I shudder to think what effect this might have on that generation's attitude to normal debt.
It's the cherry on top that a small portion of the most successful graduates will manage to repay their debt and then enjoy a lower tax rate on their income. How gloriously regressive is that?
Insane. And (as I queried earlier) the LDs came up with it? Like privatising the GPO?
I don't know the ins and outs completely, but I think it was a compromise between the Lib Dems, who wanted a graduate tax, and the Tories who didn't. So they came up with a mostly-graduate tax (with an escape for the rich) but that was called a loan. And the Lib Dems suffered mightily.
"Brexit to blame for Britain's truck driver crisis, lectures favourite to succeed Merkel Olaf Scholz takes aim at UK over HGV shortfall despite Germany facing its own shortages of up to 60,000 drivers"
Wasn't he asked directly about this by a UK reporter, in the usual solipsistic way of UK reporters? He could have just told him (politely) to foxtrot oscar I guess.
'Scholz insults UK by refusing to comment on the most important situation of the moment!'
Random question, totally OT. I've always wondered about the camouflage paint jobs on WWII aeroplanes, such as spitfires etc. Was the camouflage pre-deteremined and the same or did the painting vary between planes?
I suspect the camouflage was standard. Special paint I suppose, comes out of the tin in that pattern.
But you had to be very careful to get the right tins if your Spitfire was even-numbered as opposed to odd-numbered: Type A versus mirror image Type B.
like in the old war films?
That was much easier - all you needed was Black and White paint.
Compared to most western European countries, Britain is a "low trust" society. Although the situation isn't anywhere near as bad as it is the United States.
Passed three petrol station on way to the gym - all out of fuel. I hear that the closest motorway (M1) service station is out too.
My in-laws have their 50th Anniversary Party this Saturday, with people travelling by car 100 miles each way from London, similar from Bath and 50 miles from Cambridge.
PB brains trust: What are the chances of the Party having to be cancelled?
Seems to me that the tankers will be in demand everywhere - who knows when the petrol stations will be replenished with fuel? I think there are many like me who haven't panic-bought fuel but will be quick off the mark should fuel become available so I can see this dragging on for weeks.
Many in the countryside live 15 miles + from nearest petrol station - do they risk a journey on spec for fuel? I think not. Quasi-lockdown I guess.
The problem is that the wrong kind of people are buying petrol.
The wrong kind of people will soon have nowhere left to store it.
In the bath, maybe.....
The govt says that if everyone just bought £20 of petrol every week as per usual we'd be fine.
Does anyone do that?
No. Always run to 1/4 of tank to yellow light then fill.
My dad always said never let it get to the yellow light - if you let it go too low, you can start pulling in some of the sludge and contaminants that settle over time to the bottom of the tank. Don't know if that's still the case for modern cars and petrol supplies, though.
At uni I was surprised a friend always let his car get down to the red light, and would then put a fiver's worth in (this was early 1990s). That was all he could afford at any one time. I guess many people don't want to have fifty or sixty pounds lying in their petrol tank for weeks, when it could be feeding their family...
(I remember seeing a JCB's diesel tank that needed welding. We drained it and then steam-cleaned the interior. There was a thick sludge at the bottom, which probably would not have helped the rust.)
A different brother-in-law of mine, when first driving a new car, would fill a can with spare fuel and then drive the car dry so that he would know exactly how far he could push it.
You cannot seriously be telling me you pay for anything in cash?
Covid changed my petrol buying behaviour. Before I paid in cash - usually £20. Now I pay by card - usually for 15 litres - and it removes the need to be precise on the dial.
Why bother with cash full stop? It’s an obsolete inconvenience
You'll probably be shocked to hear that we still use cheques occasionally.
Passed three petrol station on way to the gym - all out of fuel. I hear that the closest motorway (M1) service station is out too.
My in-laws have their 50th Anniversary Party this Saturday, with people travelling by car 100 miles each way from London, similar from Bath and 50 miles from Cambridge.
PB brains trust: What are the chances of the Party having to be cancelled?
Seems to me that the tankers will be in demand everywhere - who knows when the petrol stations will be replenished with fuel? I think there are many like me who haven't panic-bought fuel but will be quick off the mark should fuel become available so I can see this dragging on for weeks.
Many in the countryside live 15 miles + from nearest petrol station - do they risk a journey on spec for fuel? I think not. Quasi-lockdown I guess.
The problem is that the wrong kind of people are buying petrol.
The wrong kind of people will soon have nowhere left to store it.
In the bath, maybe.....
The govt says that if everyone just bought £20 of petrol every week as per usual we'd be fine.
Does anyone do that?
No. Always run to 1/4 of tank to yellow light then fill.
My dad always said never let it get to the yellow light - if you let it go too low, you can start pulling in some of the sludge and contaminants that settle over time to the bottom of the tank. Don't know if that's still the case for modern cars and petrol supplies, though.
At uni I was surprised a friend always let his car get down to the red light, and would then put a fiver's worth in (this was early 1990s). That was all he could afford at any one time. I guess many people don't want to have fifty or sixty pounds lying in their petrol tank for weeks, when it could be feeding their family...
(I remember seeing a JCB's diesel tank that needed welding. We drained it and then steam-cleaned the interior. There was a thick sludge at the bottom, which probably would not have helped the rust.)
A different brother-in-law of mine, when first driving a new car, would fill a can with spare fuel and then drive the car dry so that he would know exactly how far he could push it.
Presumably unintentionally ambiguous wording, but unusually it makes excellent sense both ways!
Passed three petrol station on way to the gym - all out of fuel. I hear that the closest motorway (M1) service station is out too.
My in-laws have their 50th Anniversary Party this Saturday, with people travelling by car 100 miles each way from London, similar from Bath and 50 miles from Cambridge.
PB brains trust: What are the chances of the Party having to be cancelled?
Seems to me that the tankers will be in demand everywhere - who knows when the petrol stations will be replenished with fuel? I think there are many like me who haven't panic-bought fuel but will be quick off the mark should fuel become available so I can see this dragging on for weeks.
Many in the countryside live 15 miles + from nearest petrol station - do they risk a journey on spec for fuel? I think not. Quasi-lockdown I guess.
The problem is that the wrong kind of people are buying petrol.
The wrong kind of people will soon have nowhere left to store it.
In the bath, maybe.....
The govt says that if everyone just bought £20 of petrol every week as per usual we'd be fine.
Does anyone do that?
No. Always run to 1/4 of tank to yellow light then fill.
My dad always said never let it get to the yellow light - if you let it go too low, you can start pulling in some of the sludge and contaminants that settle over time to the bottom of the tank. Don't know if that's still the case for modern cars and petrol supplies, though.
At uni I was surprised a friend always let his car get down to the red light, and would then put a fiver's worth in (this was early 1990s). That was all he could afford at any one time. I guess many people don't want to have fifty or sixty pounds lying in their petrol tank for weeks, when it could be feeding their family...
(I remember seeing a JCB's diesel tank that needed welding. We drained it and then steam-cleaned the interior. There was a thick sludge at the bottom, which probably would not have helped the rust.)
A different brother-in-law of mine, when first driving a new car, would fill a can with spare fuel and then drive the car dry so that he would know exactly how far he could push it.
Don't most vehicles take fuel from the bottom of the tank even when it is full? I never quite understood that one (sludge at the bottom).
Passed three petrol station on way to the gym - all out of fuel. I hear that the closest motorway (M1) service station is out too.
My in-laws have their 50th Anniversary Party this Saturday, with people travelling by car 100 miles each way from London, similar from Bath and 50 miles from Cambridge.
PB brains trust: What are the chances of the Party having to be cancelled?
Seems to me that the tankers will be in demand everywhere - who knows when the petrol stations will be replenished with fuel? I think there are many like me who haven't panic-bought fuel but will be quick off the mark should fuel become available so I can see this dragging on for weeks.
Many in the countryside live 15 miles + from nearest petrol station - do they risk a journey on spec for fuel? I think not. Quasi-lockdown I guess.
The problem is that the wrong kind of people are buying petrol.
The wrong kind of people will soon have nowhere left to store it.
In the bath, maybe.....
The govt says that if everyone just bought £20 of petrol every week as per usual we'd be fine.
Does anyone do that?
No. Always run to 1/4 of tank to yellow light then fill.
My dad always said never let it get to the yellow light - if you let it go too low, you can start pulling in some of the sludge and contaminants that settle over time to the bottom of the tank. Don't know if that's still the case for modern cars and petrol supplies, though.
At uni I was surprised a friend always let his car get down to the red light, and would then put a fiver's worth in (this was early 1990s). That was all he could afford at any one time. I guess many people don't want to have fifty or sixty pounds lying in their petrol tank for weeks, when it could be feeding their family...
(I remember seeing a JCB's diesel tank that needed welding. We drained it and then steam-cleaned the interior. There was a thick sludge at the bottom, which probably would not have helped the rust.)
A different brother-in-law of mine, when first driving a new car, would fill a can with spare fuel and then drive the car dry so that he would know exactly how far he could push it.
I believe most F1 teams do that during pre-season testing. It probably calibrates their predictions with the reality, especially as they need to finish the race with a certain amount in the tank (as Vettel discovered to his cost earlier this season).
Whilst on F1: it seems the minor rule changes they made this season have made the grid much more competitive. IMV it's a shame there's some large changes coming next year, which means one team will probably dominate...
Based on those forward contracts, ofgems April cap will be much much higher. Average energy bills gonna be >£1800
Ouch
1 therm = 29.31 kwh.
6.8p wholesale price then, my 2 yr fix is at 4.08p...
What might happen is that the cap doesn't go up to what it otherwise would have done, with the Gov't paying the difference. The Gov't might be paying it's own green levy at this rate
I didn't realise that student loan interest rates were 6%. That's actually daylight robbery.
Someone said earlier that early repayment was penalised - I forget whom. Is this literally true, or just the nature of the thing whereby debts are written off after n years of time or age?
There is no penalty for early repayment like you might have for a mortgage.
They discourage it though, make sure you really do want to online when you seek to make additional payments.
You cannot seriously be telling me you pay for anything in cash?
Covid changed my petrol buying behaviour. Before I paid in cash - usually £20. Now I pay by card - usually for 15 litres - and it removes the need to be precise on the dial.
Why bother with cash full stop? It’s an obsolete inconvenience
You'll probably be shocked to hear that we still use cheques occasionally.
Paid my allotment subs with a cheque. I checked the last cheque used. Yep - it was the allotment subs for last year...
Compared to most western European countries, Britain is a "low trust" society. Although the situation isn't anywhere near as bad as it is the United States.
Halfords reveal the sale of jerry cans went up 1,656 per cent this weekend.
Somebody is having a good crisis.
I was sitting in the dentist waiting room earlier, noting the lack of magazines since they were taken away as a covid precaution. Replicated across doctors and dentists all over the UK, magazines like Ideal Home and Country Life and various travel magazines must have lost tons of subscribers.
Is the fix less than the new price cap or does the fixed rate extend into October next year? That will answer your question
Martin lewis is very good on this sort of thing. But he might not give a straight answer. Might be more like if you think X will happen do this, or if not X do that.
If the fee for exitting the fix is low might be a good way of avoiding the worst pain.
Is the fix less than the new price cap or does the fixed rate extend into October next year? That will answer your question
Martin lewis is very good on this sort of thing. But he might not give a straight answer. Might be more like if you think X will happen do this, or if not X do that.
If the fee for exitting the fix is low might be a good way of avoiding the worst pain.
Got a 2 yr fix a week ago with Scottish Gas. The exit fee is IIRC £40. Not too bad.
I didn't realise that student loan interest rates were 6%. That's actually daylight robbery.
Someone said earlier that early repayment was penalised - I forget whom. Is this literally true, or just the nature of the thing whereby debts are written off after n years of time or age?
There is no penalty for early repayment like you might have for a mortgage.
They discourage it though, make sure you really do want to online when you seek to make additional payments.
That is presumably because it may not be in your interest to do so. For instance if you are about to experience a drop in income then it may be in your interest to avoid repayment, as you would effectively have a loan holiday. You could use the money for other legitimate purposes that better serve your interests, ie for a house deposit.
The real scandal here is the extortionate interest rates. It is pure robbery. And, unfortunately for the tories, a system they are completely responsible for!
Spoiler - its actually 10 years old....but the attitude hasn't evolved...
And there is an obvious get out clause that apple will use, they will just remove all sockets from the iPhone and insist on wireless charging.
Yep -they will not put a USB-C in a phone - too big.
If you spend any time on Hackaday, you'll find people have managed to frankengraft USB C connectors into iPhones.
What it would mean is that there's no way iPhones could get any thinner.
When the first iphone without headphone jack was released someone opened it up and discovered there was a headphone jack shaped gap in the circuit board and there were analogue audio contacts available to solder onto exactly where you would expect them to be if there was a jack installed. So he installed one and it worked perfectly.
I've had a few conversations today. Everyone is topping up with petrol. Apocalyptic worries about the direction of the economy (and civilisation as a whole) seem to be bubbling away under the surface. But also trivial concerns like needing petrol to get to work and needing to go on planned holidays.
Almost 38K Covid cases today. Some early signs though that the rate of increase is slowing down. Deaths still falling.
Covid looks on the surface like it has reached endemic oscillation in the UK, but it can't be there yet because it is now disproportionately infecting (And thus immunising) unvaccinated school age children. This wouldn't be the case if we'd reached true endemicity.
Petrol update, Brighton, on foot. Absolute gridlock on one of the arteries. It's single carriageway, small garage, but the road both ways is completely blocked by folk trying to turn left/right into the forecourt. Most of those in the queue don't want petrol, but they can't move because of those who do. Tempers are frayed. This petrol station is normally really quiet, so I can only assume that the bigger ones with plenty of room to queue, e.g. Asda, are now closed.
It's interesting IMO how there used to be almost no debate about the fact that ordinary people were subsidising a small percentage of people to go to university and college. It was just taken for granted by almost everyone that it was the right thing to do. People implicitly accepted that (a) Some people would go to university, (b) It would only be a small percentage of the population, and (c) Everyone should help to pay for it through taxation.
This is fundamental to the fuel thing. In say Norway there'd be a real hope they people would think I trust my neighbours not to fill up before they need to, so I'll do the same.
Boris and Sir Keir tied for best (most capable) PM in the new IPSOS - Sir Keir has always been at 37-38% with IPSOS, but Boris has dropped 7 points in this one
Other than that though, Boris still has the best satisfaction ratings for a PM other than Blair at this stage, and Sir Keir is only thought of as better than IDS, Foot and Corbyn as a LotO
Boris GP 39 Net -12 Sir Keir GP 25 Net -25
Sir Keir is -3 w Lab voters, Boris is +56 w Tories
I didn't realise that student loan interest rates were 6%. That's actually daylight robbery.
Someone said earlier that early repayment was penalised - I forget whom. Is this literally true, or just the nature of the thing whereby debts are written off after n years of time or age?
There is no penalty for early repayment like you might have for a mortgage.
They discourage it though, make sure you really do want to online when you seek to make additional payments.
That is presumably because it may not be in your interest to do so. For instance if you are about to experience a drop in income then it may be in your interest to avoid repayment, as you would effectively have a loan holiday. You could use the money for other legitimate purposes that better serve your interests, ie for a house deposit.
The real scandal here is the extortionate interest rates. It is pure robbery. And, unfortunately for the tories, a system they are completely responsible for!
And I think they are linked to RPI inflation? Which is really having a laugh.
It's interesting IMO how there used to be almost no debate about the fact that ordinary people were subsidising a small percentage of people to go to university and college. It was just taken for granted by almost everyone that it was the right thing to do. People implicitly accepted that (a) Some people would go to university, (b) It would only be a small percentage of the population, and (c) Everyone should help to pay for it through taxation.
The reality is that it suited everyone to not have this debate.
What I found frustrating with the student loan protests in the 2010's was the idea that higher education should be a right, and that there should be no fees at all.
“Sperm Banks report shortage of donors, as every w@#%er in the UK is queuing at the petrol station!”
Just logged onto Facebook (not used it in ages) and my whole feed is people taking the piss out of panic buyers. Not a single one I've seen blaming Brexit or the Government or anyone other than idiots panic buying.
My favourite one was quite simple:
"Back in my day the only time we started panic buying was when the bartender yelled "last call""
You cannot seriously be telling me you pay for anything in cash?
Covid changed my petrol buying behaviour. Before I paid in cash - usually £20. Now I pay by card - usually for 15 litres - and it removes the need to be precise on the dial.
It surely used to be quicker to slap £30 or £40 on the counter and walk out than to stand there while the credit card machine received and checked your pin and dialled up payments HQ? But with contactless the time advantage in using cash has pretty much disappeared, even if you manage to stop the pump at a round number.
I didn't realise that student loan interest rates were 6%. That's actually daylight robbery.
Someone said earlier that early repayment was penalised - I forget whom. Is this literally true, or just the nature of the thing whereby debts are written off after n years of time or age?
There is no penalty for early repayment like you might have for a mortgage.
They discourage it though, make sure you really do want to online when you seek to make additional payments.
That is presumably because it may not be in your interest to do so. For instance if you are about to experience a drop in income then it may be in your interest to avoid repayment, as you would effectively have a loan holiday. You could use the money for other legitimate purposes that better serve your interests, ie for a house deposit.
The real scandal here is the extortionate interest rates. It is pure robbery. And, unfortunately for the tories, a system they are completely responsible for!
The interest rates are largely irrelevant. You are not going to pay it off anyway. 30 years will likely come first.
The reasons not to pay off or reduce a Student Loan include:
- you may not be liable for any repayments in the future (i.e. if your salary drops or you win the lottery and jack it in or the rules change) and so you would have used capital for no reason - 30 years will zero the "debt" anyway - you may die and that will zero the debt - and, most importantly, Corbyn made it part of his policy platform to cancel student debts. If a future government did this then someone who had already voluntarily paid off their debt would have absolutely no chance of asking for their money back.
It's interesting IMO how there used to be almost no debate about the fact that ordinary people were subsidising a small percentage of people to go to university and college. It was just taken for granted by almost everyone that it was the right thing to do. People implicitly accepted that (a) Some people would go to university, (b) It would only be a small percentage of the population, and (c) Everyone should help to pay for it through taxation.
Which worked when only 10-20% of the population went to university. It fell apart when 50% started going to university....
Almost 38K Covid cases today. Some early signs though that the rate of increase is slowing down. Deaths still falling.
Covid looks on the surface like it has reached endemic oscillation in the UK, but it can't be there yet because it is now disproportionately infecting (And thus immunising) unvaccinated school age children. This wouldn't be the case if we'd reached true endemicity.
If COVID-19 doesn't obey Farr's Law it will be the first time in 180 years.
NEW: Understand that councils do not intend to activate local fuel plans, despite the current situation. Councils have the power to intervene and prioritise key workers.
Those powers have never been used before, but care providers are crying out for them to be implemented.
NEW: Understand that councils do not intend to activate local fuel plans, despite the current situation. Councils have the power to intervene and prioritise key workers.
Those powers have never been used before, but care providers are crying out for them to be implemented.
Almost 38K Covid cases today. Some early signs though that the rate of increase is slowing down. Deaths still falling.
Covid looks on the surface like it has reached endemic oscillation in the UK, but it can't be there yet because it is now disproportionately infecting (And thus immunising) unvaccinated school age children. This wouldn't be the case if we'd reached true endemicity.
If COVID-19 doesn't obey Farr's Law it will be the first time in 180 years.
Doing todays stats. But we are not in as oscillation. Cases are going down in the vaccinated groups (overall). Cases are skyrocketing among the unvaccinated groups (children).
It's interesting IMO how there used to be almost no debate about the fact that ordinary people were subsidising a small percentage of people to go to university and college. It was just taken for granted by almost everyone that it was the right thing to do. People implicitly accepted that (a) Some people would go to university, (b) It would only be a small percentage of the population, and (c) Everyone should help to pay for it through taxation.
Which worked when only 10-20% of the population went to university. It fell apart when 50% started going to university....
Yet we don't we take that attitude to pensioners?
'Pensions worked when only 10-20% of the population lived a few years receiving pensions. It fell apart when 50% started living for decades ....'
That costs much more to the Exchequer yet we haven't reacted like that there? Funny that!
It's interesting IMO how there used to be almost no debate about the fact that ordinary people were subsidising a small percentage of people to go to university and college. It was just taken for granted by almost everyone that it was the right thing to do. People implicitly accepted that (a) Some people would go to university, (b) It would only be a small percentage of the population, and (c) Everyone should help to pay for it through taxation.
The reality is that it suited everyone to not have this debate.
What I found frustrating with the student loan protests in the 2010's was the idea that higher education should be a right, and that there should be no fees at all.
Just like it used to be when we had a far-left government. Under PM Thatcher.
Passed three petrol station on way to the gym - all out of fuel. I hear that the closest motorway (M1) service station is out too.
My in-laws have their 50th Anniversary Party this Saturday, with people travelling by car 100 miles each way from London, similar from Bath and 50 miles from Cambridge.
PB brains trust: What are the chances of the Party having to be cancelled?
Seems to me that the tankers will be in demand everywhere - who knows when the petrol stations will be replenished with fuel? I think there are many like me who haven't panic-bought fuel but will be quick off the mark should fuel become available so I can see this dragging on for weeks.
Many in the countryside live 15 miles + from nearest petrol station - do they risk a journey on spec for fuel? I think not. Quasi-lockdown I guess.
The problem is that the wrong kind of people are buying petrol.
The wrong kind of people will soon have nowhere left to store it.
In the bath, maybe.....
The govt says that if everyone just bought £20 of petrol every week as per usual we'd be fine.
Does anyone do that?
Yes. Last time I saw figures on this, most people do.
I've always filled my tank in full from empty, but most people get £10 or £20 at a time. Though I don't know if cards wiping out cash has changed things.
Its worth noting how often when you go to the pump, that the person before you at the pump stopped it at £20 or so. Its how most people normally use the pumps.
I do normally just chuck in £20. Or £25 if I go to £20.01. Or £30 if I go to £25.01, and so on
Don't you find you eventually get very wet, smelly and scared doing this?
I'm sorry, I don't follow?
Just my poor sense of humour. Eventually you will be dowsed in petrol.
I also have to admit in the days before credit cards I did the same.
Petrol update, Brighton, on foot. Absolute gridlock on one of the arteries. It's single carriageway, small garage, but the road both ways is completely blocked by folk trying to turn left/right into the forecourt. Most of those in the queue don't want petrol, but they can't move because of those who do. Tempers are frayed. This petrol station is normally really quiet, so I can only assume that the bigger ones with plenty of room to queue, e.g. Asda, are now closed.
Demand outstripping supply, why aren't they significantly raising prices?
Reminds me of the economists Thaler and Kahneman's snow shovels argument:
"Customers don’t expect companies to maximize profits in all situations. For example, when there’s a blizzard, people don’t expect stores to raise the price of shovels, even though demand will naturally soar as the snow piles up. Thaler and his co-authors showed that customers will tend to punish businesses that do. This is a surprising result since it shows that businesses that maximize profits in the short term, as many do, can be penalized in the long term if customers think the companies are acting unfairly."
Passed three petrol station on way to the gym - all out of fuel. I hear that the closest motorway (M1) service station is out too.
My in-laws have their 50th Anniversary Party this Saturday, with people travelling by car 100 miles each way from London, similar from Bath and 50 miles from Cambridge.
PB brains trust: What are the chances of the Party having to be cancelled?
Seems to me that the tankers will be in demand everywhere - who knows when the petrol stations will be replenished with fuel? I think there are many like me who haven't panic-bought fuel but will be quick off the mark should fuel become available so I can see this dragging on for weeks.
Many in the countryside live 15 miles + from nearest petrol station - do they risk a journey on spec for fuel? I think not. Quasi-lockdown I guess.
The problem is that the wrong kind of people are buying petrol.
The wrong kind of people will soon have nowhere left to store it.
In the bath, maybe.....
The govt says that if everyone just bought £20 of petrol every week as per usual we'd be fine.
Does anyone do that?
Yes. Last time I saw figures on this, most people do.
I've always filled my tank in full from empty, but most people get £10 or £20 at a time. Though I don't know if cards wiping out cash has changed things.
Its worth noting how often when you go to the pump, that the person before you at the pump stopped it at £20 or so. Its how most people normally use the pumps.
I do normally just chuck in £20. Or £25 if I go to £20.01. Or £30 if I go to £25.01, and so on
Don't you find you eventually get very wet, smelly and scared doing this?
I'm sorry, I don't follow?
Just my poor sense of humour. Eventually you will be dowsed in petrol.
I also have to admit in the days before credit cards I did the same.
I always like to pay at pump and do all the card business before I fill up. Then I wont be embarrassed if my bank is having a tech outage.
"An MP has been accused of threatening to use acid against a woman she believed to be in a relationship with her partner, a court has heard.
Claudia Webbe, 56, allegedly became “obsessed” with Michelle Merritt due to her friendship with the Leicester East MP’s partner, Lester Thomas.
Webbe also threatened to reveal naked photographs and videos she supposedly had of Merritt to her family, Westminster magistrates court heard on Monday.
Webbe, who was elected as a Labour MP but has since had the whip withdrawn, denies the charge."
“Sperm Banks report shortage of donors, as every w@#%er in the UK is queuing at the petrol station!”
Just logged onto Facebook (not used it in ages) and my whole feed is people taking the piss out of panic buyers. Not a single one I've seen blaming Brexit or the Government or anyone other than idiots panic buying.
My favourite one was quite simple:
"Back in my day the only time we started panic buying was when the bartender yelled "last call""
That is the dangerous echo chamber that is FB Philip. Quite a few on mine blaming Brexit. One or two trying to claim it has nothing to do with it. I don't "do" politics on FB or LinkedIn so I have resisted temptation to point out that if it has nothing to do with the government's post-Brexit policy, why are they in a flat panic themselves and have u-turned on visas for drivers? Nothing to do with Brexit? Ostriches spring to mind!
Almost 38K Covid cases today. Some early signs though that the rate of increase is slowing down. Deaths still falling.
Covid looks on the surface like it has reached endemic oscillation in the UK, but it can't be there yet because it is now disproportionately infecting (And thus immunising) unvaccinated school age children. This wouldn't be the case if we'd reached true endemicity.
If COVID-19 doesn't obey Farr's Law it will be the first time in 180 years.
I'd argue that our interventions are showing it isn't obeying Farr's law right now.
Comments
The range computer on a couple Audis and a Merc I had were a little pessimistic. You could drive for 5-10 miles with zero range left.
Three times I over-cooked it. Once I had to get a very disgruntled Mrs P to come and rescue me 5 miles from home. Twice, I coasted into filling stations with the engine having literally died seconds before, brakes and steering very heavy. Once with a diesel that took ages to restart.
Moorhens and Conkers having a very good year. Blackberry yield well down on 2020.
And a rat has just brazenly stepped out in front of me.
If you get air in the injectors it can kill them, and even if you don't kill anything you may have to bleed all the air out.
I am not sure anyone actually took my tip on the SPD at 18/1 (or 15/1 a few minutes later) but I will claim credit for it nonetheless.
Gas hits all time high
199.48p/therm
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cxwdwz5d8gxt/natural-gas
Was 40p this time last year
https://www.theice.com/products/910/UK-Natural-Gas-Futures/data?marketId=5188705&span=1
Based on those forward contracts, ofgems April cap will be much much higher. Average energy bills gonna be >£1800
Ouch
Not a mask in sight.
Whilst on F1: it seems the minor rule changes they made this season have made the grid much more competitive. IMV it's a shame there's some large changes coming next year, which means one team will probably dominate...
6.8p wholesale price then, my 2 yr fix is at 4.08p...
What might happen is that the cap doesn't go up to what it otherwise would have done, with the Gov't paying the difference. The Gov't might be paying it's own green levy at this rate
And to whoever posted the boxing tip over the weekend. Didnt back that either.
Stay on your current fix if you have one. If it ends, don’t do anything. Let it roll over onto the svr capped tariff.
Until April when the cap shoots up. At that point it will almost certainly make sense to get a new fix.
Average bill up from £1404 to £1799.
Doubt there's much fixed left near the price cap now. If you can find anything near the current cap*, take it otherwise don't bother.
* Probably doesn't exist now.
If the fee for exitting the fix is low might be a good way of avoiding the worst pain.
I think Helen Lewis’ point is perfectly reasonable. I find it hard to see how anyone could disagree with it without going full woo woo
https://twitter.com/J_Bloodworth/status/1442489967482179587?s=20
Just put my usage into British Gas calculator and they are coming out at £170 a month for any of their 3 fixed tariffs !! (SSE = £132)
The real scandal here is the extortionate interest rates. It is pure robbery. And, unfortunately for the tories, a system they are completely responsible for!
“Sperm Banks report shortage of donors, as every w@#%er in the UK is queuing at the petrol station!”
This is fundamental to the fuel thing. In say Norway there'd be a real hope they people would think I trust my neighbours not to fill up before they need to, so I'll do the same.
Other than that though, Boris still has the best satisfaction ratings for a PM other than Blair at this stage, and Sir Keir is only thought of as better than IDS, Foot and Corbyn as a LotO
Boris GP 39 Net -12
Sir Keir GP 25 Net -25
Sir Keir is -3 w Lab voters, Boris is +56 w Tories
https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2021-09/Ipsos MORI September 2021 Political Monitor Charts_270921_PUBLIC_0.pdf
We can only hope the wind gets up as once people start demanding gas for heating supply issues are only going to get worse!
What I found frustrating with the student loan protests in the 2010's was the idea that higher education should be a right, and that there should be no fees at all.
My favourite one was quite simple:
"Back in my day the only time we started panic buying was when the bartender yelled "last call""
The reasons not to pay off or reduce a Student Loan include:
- you may not be liable for any repayments in the future (i.e. if your salary drops or you win the lottery and jack it in or the rules change) and so you would have used capital for no reason
- 30 years will zero the "debt" anyway
- you may die and that will zero the debt
- and, most importantly, Corbyn made it part of his policy platform to cancel student debts. If a future government did this then someone who had already voluntarily paid off their debt would have absolutely no chance of asking for their money back.
No fuel at local BP or Shell. Glad I'm on foot.
http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2021-09/Ipsos MORI September 2021 Political Monitor Charts_270921_PUBLIC_0.pdf
This govt second only to Blair's
Those powers have never been used before, but care providers are crying out for them to be implemented.
https://twitter.com/PaulBrandITV/status/1442513225749172230
NEW: Understand that councils do not intend to activate local fuel plans, despite the current situation. Councils have the power to intervene and prioritise key workers.
Those powers have never been used before, but care providers are crying out for them to be implemented.
'Pensions worked when only 10-20% of the population lived a few years receiving pensions. It fell apart when 50% started living for decades ....'
That costs much more to the Exchequer yet we haven't reacted like that there? Funny that!
I also have to admit in the days before credit cards I did the same.
KSICWNBPM
Demand outstripping supply, why aren't they significantly raising prices?
Reminds me of the economists Thaler and Kahneman's snow shovels argument:
"Customers don’t expect companies to maximize profits in all situations. For example, when there’s a blizzard, people don’t expect stores to raise the price of shovels, even though demand will naturally soar as the snow piles up. Thaler and his co-authors showed that customers will tend to punish businesses that do. This is a surprising result since it shows that businesses that maximize profits in the short term, as many do, can be penalized in the long term if customers think the companies are acting unfairly."
Claudia Webbe, 56, allegedly became “obsessed” with Michelle Merritt due to her friendship with the Leicester East MP’s partner, Lester Thomas.
Webbe also threatened to reveal naked photographs and videos she supposedly had of Merritt to her family, Westminster magistrates court heard on Monday.
Webbe, who was elected as a Labour MP but has since had the whip withdrawn, denies the charge."
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/sep/27/mp-accused-of-making-acid-threat-to-friend-of-her-partner-court-hears-claudia-webbw
I'm disappointed with Boris lately, but there's no getting away from the fact that he does confound expectations and is popular.