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Why being anti-lockdown might not be popular – politicalbetting.com

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  • Mars bar shortage leaves supermarket shelves empty

    A shortage of Mars bars has led to empty supermarket shelves and hit Scottish chip shops who serve the chocolate treat deep-fried in batter.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/28/mars-bar-shortage-leaves-supermarket-shelves-empty/ (£££)
  • kjh said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    kjh said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    FF43 said:

    ping said:

    Right, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and make a prediction;

    We’re going to see real energy demand destruction across Europe, this winter.

    20%, perhaps.

    A mixture of industry and business shutting down, poor people going cold and the wealthy elderly only heating one room etc.

    Futures markets are right now, near their peak and will come down, gradually, as traders realise actual use is meaningfully falling.

    Indeed. The key is to reduce demand without completely destroying our industrial base and economy for what will be a temporary shock. Our feckless leaders appear not to give the slightest thought to the problem.

    Basically three messages:
    1. Things will be tough. Suddenly and unavoidably we are poorer.
    2. The vulnerable will be protected.
    3. Reduce your energy consumption to minimise your direct costs and help bring prices down
    The government should be relentlessly focused on these three things.
    3 easier said than done when the temperature drops below zero in winter
    You should have lived in Berwick in the 1950s when we had no heating other than a coal fire, the windows froze inside, and we got dressed under the bed clothes but we survived
    You won't be able to have a coal fire now either because of climate change
    The Coalman who lives down the hill from me must be running some sort of money laundering enterprise then?
    Already now restricted due to its impact on health and the environment
    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/restrictions-on-sale-of-coal-and-wet-wood-for-home-burning-begin
    Thanks to this (and it is yet another Mikey Gove meddling policy) my log delivery man will be bringing the new legal minimum of 28 sacks of seasoned logs to the house next week. I can store that much, although it is an inconvenience.

    Somehow those who deliver seasoned logs have been caught up with stuff about wet wood which nobody who understand their stove would burn anyway.
    Yes the law seems bizarre. Nobody would surely buy small quantities of wet wood. You would buy large quantities of wet wood to store or small quantities of dry wood to burn now. What idiot buys a small bag of wet wood they have to keep for a year to burn in just a day or so.

    Fortunately I have enough wet wood from my garden and enough space and I enjoy chopping it and I season it over about 3 years.
    Apparently the string bags of logs you see at garages are wet wood and the whole Gove-is-a-genius policy was to stop these sales.

    But who was buying them? No one who understands a wood burner would use wet wood unless there was no alternative.

    Plenty of people who don't understand wood burners obv, and reasonably assumed that what is sold as firewood is suitable for burning in fires. Seems to me a clear rip off and entirely appropriate for state intervention.

    It does mean that the standard unit of a pickup load of logs is now illegal. Technically.
    I get 20 tonne loads of cord wood which my wife and I process and store ourselves. We have also spent the last decade planting woodland for rotation as well as more permanent woodland.

    Trouble is to do any of this you need space and most people don't have it.

    But I thought the new rules only covered wet wood and that kiln dried was exempt?
    Yes that was my understanding.

    People should only being buying wet wood to season. In which case you would only be buying in quantity and therefore need storage which would be a challenge for many.

    Anyone selling wet wood in small quantities (ie to burn now) is not selling stuff fit for purpose. I would have thought current law should have taken care of that. Nobody goes to a garage to buy 6 logs to burn in a years time. If wet that should be a trading standards issue.

    I am actually pretty happy with the rules. There were a number of occasions in the past before we had the space for doing processing ourselves when you would order a cube bag of wood supposedly ready to burn and could see the water draining out of it as it stood on the drive. That at least has mostly been stopped by he new regulations.
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415
    edited August 2022
    I think you are about to be banned Horse. Apologies, I didn’t notice Leon had started using it to bully people until I had posted a robot horse as CHB2 - I was genuinely trying to offer an avatar 🙁

    I live in hope of seeing the horse droid as CHB3 one day.
  • Truss considering cutting VAT to 10%.

    I have no ideological objection to cutting taxes. Indeed I would welcome properly considered tax cuts but this just smacks of desperation and far more about looking like she is doing something than actually taking action which might make a difference.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,042

    HYUFD said:

    pigeon said:

    Prediction: Starmer will face Johnson at GE 2024/5

    Please, somebody, make it stop.
    Unfortunately nobody is going to make it stop as the solutions are overwhelming and beyond our politicians of all parties

    This is the time for a cross party government but tribal politics will get in the way
    Agreed. Lab-LD coalition would be our best bet.
    Not if that means no new fracking as vetoed by the LDs reducing our potential energy supplies and hugely unaffordable subsidies from Starmer which give the rich as much as the poor instead of focusing on the latter.

    Sunak to be fair to him has the best plans on that

    Fracking in UK is such a total red herring. It's what right wingers grasp onto when they have no meaningful answers.


    Yep. I am hoping it should say something that there are a few of us on here who are in no way anti-hydrocarbons but who see fracking in the UK as a dead end. The economics and practicality just don't work. If you want to go that way then look at Underground Coal Gasification. Far more practical in the UK than fracking.
    Richard, there are companies who've already drilled holes, and who are prepared to start fracking again - they have been restricted from doing so by the fact that they cause earth tremors that you can sleep through. OK, there may not be a golden future, but where is the harm on telling companies that want to do it, that they can do it?

    I am sure your idea of coal gasification has great merit, but it cannot be turned on right now and make any sort of difference this winter.
    There are companies who have drilled holes and found... nothing. At least not in terms that would be of use to us. And as I explained yesterday, drilling a single hole for exploration and appraisal does nothing more than tell you if there are exploitable reserves there. To actually turn that into something useful you need to drill hundreds of holes. Each taking weeks to drill and each needing equipment, resources and people we don't have.
    I understand that, but we can perhaps all agree that if the companies have existing wells, and the means and desire to exploit them, we should reduce restrictions on such activity to a level commensurate with the current situation. No?
    There is no point. Those wells can produce nothing on their own. Indeed if they are like any normal exploration well they will already have been plugged and abandoned - which would have happened whether they found gas or not. It is very rare that the place where you drill your exploration and appraisal wells is the same place that you drill your development wells.
    They have not been plugged and abandoned, the decision on whether to do so was (thankfully) delayed. They are not exploration wells, they are viable wells.

    So I say again, if Cuadrilla want to do it, why not let them?

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/31/cuadrilla-allowed-to-delay-closure-of-lancashire-fracking-wells
  • It does rather feel like someone unplugged the bath in 2016 (or perhaps 2014, or maybe even 2001) and we have been circling the plug-hole ever since.

    It all went wrong around 1880.
    From the 1880s a mounting sense of the limits of the liberal, regulative state became apparent. One reflection of this awareness was the increasing perception of national decline, relative to the increasing strength of other European countries and the United States…

    …One consequence of this and other developments was the growth of movements aimed at “national efficiency” as a means of establishing a more effective state machine. The recognition of social problems at home—such as the “discovery” of urban poverty in 1880s in the assumed presence of plenty and increasing anxiety about the “labour question”—also raised questions about the adequacy of the state in dealing with the mounting problems of an increasingly populous and complex society.
    Without taking anything away from your posting, I do love the idea that urban poverty was only 'discovered' in 1880.
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415

    Truss considering cutting VAT to 10%.

    I have no ideological objection to cutting taxes. Indeed I would welcome properly considered tax cuts but this just smacks of desperation and far more about looking like she is doing something than actually taking action which might make a difference.
    I love the sound of it 🤗 I feel some fantastic shopping trips coming up!
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415

    Mars bar shortage leaves supermarket shelves empty

    A shortage of Mars bars has led to empty supermarket shelves and hit Scottish chip shops who serve the chocolate treat deep-fried in batter.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/28/mars-bar-shortage-leaves-supermarket-shelves-empty/ (£££)

    Is Dijon mustard in trouble too. I use it LOTS in cooking. 😦
  • HYUFD said:

    pigeon said:

    Prediction: Starmer will face Johnson at GE 2024/5

    Please, somebody, make it stop.
    Unfortunately nobody is going to make it stop as the solutions are overwhelming and beyond our politicians of all parties

    This is the time for a cross party government but tribal politics will get in the way
    Agreed. Lab-LD coalition would be our best bet.
    Not if that means no new fracking as vetoed by the LDs reducing our potential energy supplies and hugely unaffordable subsidies from Starmer which give the rich as much as the poor instead of focusing on the latter.

    Sunak to be fair to him has the best plans on that

    Fracking in UK is such a total red herring. It's what right wingers grasp onto when they have no meaningful answers.


    Yep. I am hoping it should say something that there are a few of us on here who are in no way anti-hydrocarbons but who see fracking in the UK as a dead end. The economics and practicality just don't work. If you want to go that way then look at Underground Coal Gasification. Far more practical in the UK than fracking.
    Richard, there are companies who've already drilled holes, and who are prepared to start fracking again - they have been restricted from doing so by the fact that they cause earth tremors that you can sleep through. OK, there may not be a golden future, but where is the harm on telling companies that want to do it, that they can do it?

    I am sure your idea of coal gasification has great merit, but it cannot be turned on right now and make any sort of difference this winter.
    There are companies who have drilled holes and found... nothing. At least not in terms that would be of use to us. And as I explained yesterday, drilling a single hole for exploration and appraisal does nothing more than tell you if there are exploitable reserves there. To actually turn that into something useful you need to drill hundreds of holes. Each taking weeks to drill and each needing equipment, resources and people we don't have.
    I understand that, but we can perhaps all agree that if the companies have existing wells, and the means and desire to exploit them, we should reduce restrictions on such activity to a level commensurate with the current situation. No?
    There is no point. Those wells can produce nothing on their own. Indeed if they are like any normal exploration well they will already have been plugged and abandoned - which would have happened whether they found gas or not. It is very rare that the place where you drill your exploration and appraisal wells is the same place that you drill your development wells.
    They have not been plugged and abandoned, the decision on whether to do so was (thankfully) delayed. They are not exploration wells, they are viable wells.

    So I say again, if Cuadrilla want to do it, why not let them?

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/31/cuadrilla-allowed-to-delay-closure-of-lancashire-fracking-wells
    LOL. I am not sure that what Cuadrilla claims has any relation to reality. They are just desperate to keep the idea alive by any means possible. If it were viable in the UK I would support it. I have no ideological objection to fracking. But it isn't. Whatever they might try and claim.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206

    I think you are about to be banned Horse. Apologies, I didn’t notice Leon had started using it to bully people until I had posted a robot horse as CHB2 - I was genuinely trying to offer an avatar 🙁

    I live in hope of seeing the horse droid as CHB3 one day.

    Bullying? You what?

    Read the thread. I never interacted with @CorrectHorseBattery2 until he personally addressed me and said “why don’t you fuck off”

    Literally out of the blue. So I responded by teasing him with a picture. That’s not bullying

    If he doesn’\t want reaction he shouldn’t tell people, unprovoked, to “fuck off”
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415

    It does rather feel like someone unplugged the bath in 2016 (or perhaps 2014, or maybe even 2001) and we have been circling the plug-hole ever since.

    It all went wrong around 1880.
    From the 1880s a mounting sense of the limits of the liberal, regulative state became apparent. One reflection of this awareness was the increasing perception of national decline, relative to the increasing strength of other European countries and the United States…

    …One consequence of this and other developments was the growth of movements aimed at “national efficiency” as a means of establishing a more effective state machine. The recognition of social problems at home—such as the “discovery” of urban poverty in 1880s in the assumed presence of plenty and increasing anxiety about the “labour question”—also raised questions about the adequacy of the state in dealing with the mounting problems of an increasingly populous and complex society.
    That is very good. Can I ask where you copied it from?
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,042

    HYUFD said:

    pigeon said:

    Prediction: Starmer will face Johnson at GE 2024/5

    Please, somebody, make it stop.
    Unfortunately nobody is going to make it stop as the solutions are overwhelming and beyond our politicians of all parties

    This is the time for a cross party government but tribal politics will get in the way
    Agreed. Lab-LD coalition would be our best bet.
    Not if that means no new fracking as vetoed by the LDs reducing our potential energy supplies and hugely unaffordable subsidies from Starmer which give the rich as much as the poor instead of focusing on the latter.

    Sunak to be fair to him has the best plans on that

    Fracking in UK is such a total red herring. It's what right wingers grasp onto when they have no meaningful answers.


    Yep. I am hoping it should say something that there are a few of us on here who are in no way anti-hydrocarbons but who see fracking in the UK as a dead end. The economics and practicality just don't work. If you want to go that way then look at Underground Coal Gasification. Far more practical in the UK than fracking.
    Richard, there are companies who've already drilled holes, and who are prepared to start fracking again - they have been restricted from doing so by the fact that they cause earth tremors that you can sleep through. OK, there may not be a golden future, but where is the harm on telling companies that want to do it, that they can do it?

    I am sure your idea of coal gasification has great merit, but it cannot be turned on right now and make any sort of difference this winter.
    There are companies who have drilled holes and found... nothing. At least not in terms that would be of use to us. And as I explained yesterday, drilling a single hole for exploration and appraisal does nothing more than tell you if there are exploitable reserves there. To actually turn that into something useful you need to drill hundreds of holes. Each taking weeks to drill and each needing equipment, resources and people we don't have.
    I understand that, but we can perhaps all agree that if the companies have existing wells, and the means and desire to exploit them, we should reduce restrictions on such activity to a level commensurate with the current situation. No?
    There is no point. Those wells can produce nothing on their own. Indeed if they are like any normal exploration well they will already have been plugged and abandoned - which would have happened whether they found gas or not. It is very rare that the place where you drill your exploration and appraisal wells is the same place that you drill your development wells.
    They have not been plugged and abandoned, the decision on whether to do so was (thankfully) delayed. They are not exploration wells, they are viable wells.

    So I say again, if Cuadrilla want to do it, why not let them?

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/31/cuadrilla-allowed-to-delay-closure-of-lancashire-fracking-wells
    LOL. I am not sure that what Cuadrilla claims has any relation to reality. They are just desperate to keep the idea alive by any means possible. If it were viable in the UK I would support it. I have no ideological objection to fracking. But it isn't. Whatever they might try and claim.
    Then where lies the harm in changing the restrictions? If they find a shit load of gas, great, if they find nothing, your point is proven, and if (as seems likely) the truth is somewhere in between, every little helps. I just can't see the issue here.
  • Mars bar shortage leaves supermarket shelves empty

    A shortage of Mars bars has led to empty supermarket shelves and hit Scottish chip shops who serve the chocolate treat deep-fried in batter.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/28/mars-bar-shortage-leaves-supermarket-shelves-empty/ (£££)

    Is Dijon mustard in trouble too. I use it LOTS in cooking. 😦
    Dunno. There have been gaps on shelves this last couple of weeks; it's like Covid all over again. Possibly staffing problems as well, although both might be due to its being August.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206
    That said, I’m not sure why @CorrectHorseBattery2 was banned? He was just his usual volatile self

    Unless he said something so bad it’s been deleted?
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,812

    It does rather feel like someone unplugged the bath in 2016 (or perhaps 2014, or maybe even 2001) and we have been circling the plug-hole ever since.

    It all went wrong around 1880.
    From the 1880s a mounting sense of the limits of the liberal, regulative state became apparent. One reflection of this awareness was the increasing perception of national decline, relative to the increasing strength of other European countries and the United States…

    …One consequence of this and other developments was the growth of movements aimed at “national efficiency” as a means of establishing a more effective state machine. The recognition of social problems at home—such as the “discovery” of urban poverty in 1880s in the assumed presence of plenty and increasing anxiety about the “labour question”—also raised questions about the adequacy of the state in dealing with the mounting problems of an increasingly populous and complex society.
    That is very good. Can I ask where you copied it from?
    https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom/Late-Victorian-Britain
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206

    Mars bar shortage leaves supermarket shelves empty

    A shortage of Mars bars has led to empty supermarket shelves and hit Scottish chip shops who serve the chocolate treat deep-fried in batter.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/28/mars-bar-shortage-leaves-supermarket-shelves-empty/ (£££)

    Is Dijon mustard in trouble too. I use it LOTS in cooking. 😦
    Dunno. There have been gaps on shelves this last couple of weeks; it's like Covid all over again. Possibly staffing problems as well, although both might be due to its being August.
    Sainsburys in Camden ran out of bottled water. It hasn’t been THAT hot
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415
    edited August 2022
    Leon said:

    I think you are about to be banned Horse. Apologies, I didn’t notice Leon had started using it to bully people until I had posted a robot horse as CHB2 - I was genuinely trying to offer an avatar 🙁

    I live in hope of seeing the horse droid as CHB3 one day.

    Bullying? You what?

    Read the thread. I never interacted with @CorrectHorseBattery2 until he personally addressed me and said “why don’t you fuck off”

    Literally out of the blue. So I responded by teasing him with a picture. That’s not bullying

    If he doesn’\t want reaction he shouldn’t tell people, unprovoked, to “fuck off”
    One persons teasing is just another persons taking it step too far, maybe? You might stop posting too any moment Leon.

    I’ll miss the instagram dinners, even if Foxy don’t. 🙁

    Another unnecessarily sad and messy evening on PB.

    Edit. Who was it who asked for the “currently in the cooler” widget to check each morning?
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415
    Leon said:

    That said, I’m not sure why @CorrectHorseBattery2 was banned? He was just his usual volatile self

    Unless he said something so bad it’s been deleted?

    Doxing is very much frowned on. Rightly.

    This is a very liberal site by modern social media standards, but there has to be limits, to be fair I would be very cross being doxxed much like that.

    I take it that brief flash of reality was you? I don’t know if this is a compliment or not, but it wasn’t the aged, tired,, balding, wan, shrivelled, greasy, mean looking, just crawled out the sulphuric seas to dump my eggs creature I always imagined. You looked mostly reasonable.
  • edmundintokyoedmundintokyo Posts: 17,136
    IshmaelZ said:

    Truss considering cutting VAT to 10%.

    Inflationary as fuck. No effect on food or gas prices. Demented.
    Technically I think it's automatically deflationary and makes the CPI go down?
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415

    IshmaelZ said:

    Truss considering cutting VAT to 10%.

    Inflationary as fuck. No effect on food or gas prices. Demented.
    Technically I think it's automatically deflationary and makes the CPI go down?
    A huge rush to,buy cheap luxury goods? Like Ishmael I think, like Gordon Brown before her, it’s recession she’s thinkin with this?
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    IshmaelZ said:

    Truss considering cutting VAT to 10%.

    Inflationary as fuck. No effect on food or gas prices. Demented.
    Technically I think it's automatically deflationary and makes the CPI go down?

    IshmaelZ said:

    Truss considering cutting VAT to 10%.

    Inflationary as fuck. No effect on food or gas prices. Demented.
    Technically I think it's automatically deflationary and makes the CPI go down?

    IshmaelZ said:

    Truss considering cutting VAT to 10%.

    Inflationary as fuck. No effect on food or gas prices. Demented.
    Technically I think it's automatically deflationary and makes the CPI go down?
    Yes probably right, I was thinking people would rush out and buy things but yes, duh, at a lower price.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    Leon said:

    That said, I’m not sure why @CorrectHorseBattery2 was banned? He was just his usual volatile self

    Unless he said something so bad it’s been deleted?

    Doxing is very much frowned on. Rightly.

    This is a very liberal site by modern social media standards, but there has to be limits, to be fair I would be very cross being doxxed much like that.

    I take it that brief flash of reality was you? I don’t know if this is a compliment or not, but it wasn’t the aged, tired,, balding, wan, shrivelled, greasy, mean looking, just crawled out the sulphuric seas to dump my eggs creature I always imagined. You looked mostly reasonable.
    CHB2 was always living dangerously what with CHB being currently banned
  • edmundintokyoedmundintokyo Posts: 17,136
    edited August 2022
    IshmaelZ said:


    Yes probably right, I was thinking people would rush out and buy things but yes, duh, at a lower price.

    There's that, OTOH they know in advance that it's going to happen so you potentially delay purchases before the rate changes, then bring them forward again at some point in the future when you put the rate back up. That might be what you want here, ie:

    1) People are still spending despite there not being enough stuff to go around, slow that down a bit with the pre-announced cut which makes them hold off until they can get the lower rate
    2) Winter comes, consumers freak out seeing their fuel bills and cut back on everything else, the cut kicks in and the pent-up demand keeps retailers alive
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415
    IshmaelZ said:

    Leon said:

    That said, I’m not sure why @CorrectHorseBattery2 was banned? He was just his usual volatile self

    Unless he said something so bad it’s been deleted?

    Doxing is very much frowned on. Rightly.

    This is a very liberal site by modern social media standards, but there has to be limits, to be fair I would be very cross being doxxed much like that.

    I take it that brief flash of reality was you? I don’t know if this is a compliment or not, but it wasn’t the aged, tired,, balding, wan, shrivelled, greasy, mean looking, just crawled out the sulphuric seas to dump my eggs creature I always imagined. You looked mostly reasonable.
    CHB2 was always living dangerously what with CHB being currently banned
    Why can’t we all just respect each other more, instead of insulting and goading each other so much - be more like House of Commons respect where some things are unparliamentary so you don’t go there without being banned and marched out by man with sword (which is only really used these days to cut the ceremonial cheese after state openings of the houses) which itself is based on court room etiquette?
  • pingping Posts: 3,724
    edited August 2022
    The Mirror are really cutting through with their political journalism, recently.

    From r/unitedkingdom (not a specifically political sub);

    https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/wzq5fz/tory_efficiency_minister_jacob_reesmogg_spent/

    10,700 upvotes and it’s hit the Reddit UK front page.
  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 3,054
    ping said:

    The Mirror are really cutting through with their political journalism, recently.

    From r/unitedkingdom (not a specifically political sub);

    https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/wzq5fz/tory_efficiency_minister_jacob_reesmogg_spent/

    10,700 upvotes and it’s hit the Reddit UK front page.

    No, not specifically. But rampantly. r/casualuk had to be created just to stop the teenage marxists spoiling the semi-adult conversation.

    r/unitedkingdom is widely acknowledged as one of the worst country-specific subs.

    (For avoidance of doubt, I am not a redditard, despite the knowledge in the previous two paragraphs. One just runs across these things.)

    You are right about the mirror, though. They are advertising heavily on twitter. Oddly, I keep seeing stories from the Irish mirror mirror.ie trending in recent weeks.
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415

    IshmaelZ said:


    Yes probably right, I was thinking people would rush out and buy things but yes, duh, at a lower price.

    There's that, OTOH they know in advance that it's going to happen so you potentially delay purchases before the rate changes, then bring them forward again at some point in the future when you put the rate back up. That might be what you want here, ie:

    1) People are still spending despite there not being enough stuff to go around, slow that down a bit with the pre-announced cut which makes them hold off until they can get the lower rate
    2) Winter comes, consumers freak out seeing their fuel bills and cut back on everything else, the cut kicks in and the pent-up demand keeps retailers alive
    Even if the psychology goes to plan, how much impact on inflation?

    What about on borrowing and paying off the national debt with this policy?

    Could it have been done before Brexit, so it’s chance for eye catching Brexit benefit coming to UKs aid?

    Is it regressive, in that those with spending power do well, those without spending power can’t join the other half in high street bargains? Especially regressive if foreign aid is raided still more to very partially fund it?
  • Leon said:

    Mars bar shortage leaves supermarket shelves empty

    A shortage of Mars bars has led to empty supermarket shelves and hit Scottish chip shops who serve the chocolate treat deep-fried in batter.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/28/mars-bar-shortage-leaves-supermarket-shelves-empty/ (£££)

    Is Dijon mustard in trouble too. I use it LOTS in cooking. 😦
    Dunno. There have been gaps on shelves this last couple of weeks; it's like Covid all over again. Possibly staffing problems as well, although both might be due to its being August.
    Sainsburys in Camden ran out of bottled water. It hasn’t been THAT hot
    Same here. I'm not sure they do not intentionally run down stocks during the peak holiday season but of course, many families have stayed home. They'd also taken away trolley parking points from around the car park suggesting not enough staff to collect them.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206

    Leon said:

    That said, I’m not sure why @CorrectHorseBattery2 was banned? He was just his usual volatile self

    Unless he said something so bad it’s been deleted?

    Doxing is very much frowned on. Rightly.

    This is a very liberal site by modern social media standards, but there has to be limits, to be fair I would be very cross being doxxed much like that.

    I take it that brief flash of reality was you? I don’t know if this is a compliment or not, but it wasn’t the aged, tired,, balding, wan, shrivelled, greasy, mean looking, just crawled out the sulphuric seas to dump my eggs creature I always imagined. You looked mostly reasonable.
    Ah, did he try and dox me? Fuck him then
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,279
    Max Headroom — the 1985 version of this image generating thing.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO-QsumKvdw
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    That said, I’m not sure why @CorrectHorseBattery2 was banned? He was just his usual volatile self

    Unless he said something so bad it’s been deleted?

    Doxing is very much frowned on. Rightly.

    This is a very liberal site by modern social media standards, but there has to be limits, to be fair I would be very cross being doxxed much like that.

    I take it that brief flash of reality was you? I don’t know if this is a compliment or not, but it wasn’t the aged, tired,, balding, wan, shrivelled, greasy, mean looking, just crawled out the sulphuric seas to dump my eggs creature I always imagined. You looked mostly reasonable.
    Ah, did he try and dox me? Fuck him then
    You know we were both had like fools on the Alabamian Rush?

    Mail had a secret military briefing about how many criminal Albanians were in the late asylum crowd - my mail reading mum was wittering on about it but I wasn’t taking much notice, until I read it in the telegraph, and instantly believed it was true.

    Turns out the actual military and home office percentages doesn’t remotely match the home office press releases, nor the newspaper reports.

    I fell for it 🤦‍♀️
  • Cyclefree said:

    In other happier news, this was my breakfast this morning. Delicious plum and apple jam.




    I will have the same tomorrow before a lovely day's racing at Cartmel.

    Also I wrote and sent in my work article, sitting in my garden in a balmy 22 degrees. Fingers crossed that the US client commissioning it likes it.

    Like & salute your jam AND your gig. Re: former consider myself a much-deprived aficionado.

    Re: latter, hopefully the writing you've done for PB, and criticism (constructive & otherwise) from PBers (learned & ditto) has proven helpful in some ways, including comic relief.
  • Leon said:

    Leon said:

    That said, I’m not sure why @CorrectHorseBattery2 was banned? He was just his usual volatile self

    Unless he said something so bad it’s been deleted?

    Doxing is very much frowned on. Rightly.

    This is a very liberal site by modern social media standards, but there has to be limits, to be fair I would be very cross being doxxed much like that.

    I take it that brief flash of reality was you? I don’t know if this is a compliment or not, but it wasn’t the aged, tired,, balding, wan, shrivelled, greasy, mean looking, just crawled out the sulphuric seas to dump my eggs creature I always imagined. You looked mostly reasonable.
    Ah, did he try and dox me? Fuck him then
    You know we were both had like fools on the Alabamian Rush?

    Mail had a secret military briefing about how many criminal Albanians were in the late asylum crowd - my mail reading mum was wittering on about it but I wasn’t taking much notice, until I read it in the telegraph, and instantly believed it was true.

    Turns out the actual military and home office percentages doesn’t remotely match the home office press releases, nor the newspaper reports.

    I fell for it 🤦‍♀️
    Are you talking about Alabamans OR Albanians? And does it really matter?

    Some crossover but remarkably little considering uncanny resemblance between Tuscaloosa and Tirana.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 24,583

    Truss considering cutting VAT to 10%.

    I can't begin to imagine the loss to the Exchequer halving VAT would generate. It would be mind boggling.

    Surely it must be a proposed temporary cut?

    I am beginning to suspect my desire to see the back of Johnson was a case of "be careful what you wish for".
  • Yo Leon! Just happened upon a map on Map Porn that purports to show "the Worst Attraction in Every State"

    And noted for Alabama the entry is "Helen Keller's Birthplace".

    Which as you know (because you told us on PB) is in Tuscumbia NOT Tuscaloosa.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/x008ve/i_dont_make_the_rules/

    List actually seems pretty reasonably from standpoint of tacky and/or over-touristed.

    Though do note that
    a) Route 66 does NOT cross Nevada Nevada.
    b) "the" North Pole is NOT in Alaska, though the town of North Pole is (Santa Claus is on city council).
  • swing_voterswing_voter Posts: 1,435

    Truss considering cutting VAT to 10%.

    I can't begin to imagine the loss to the Exchequer halving VAT would generate. It would be mind boggling.

    Surely it must be a proposed temporary cut?

    I am beginning to suspect my desire to see the back of Johnson was a case of "be careful what you wish for".
    that's very much the narrative that has bedevilled most Conservative leadership contests since Thatcher...esp since the membership was given the final say.
  • edmundintokyoedmundintokyo Posts: 17,136

    Truss considering cutting VAT to 10%.

    I can't begin to imagine the loss to the Exchequer halving VAT would generate. It would be mind boggling.

    Surely it must be a proposed temporary cut?
    VAT-free Friday, it'll be wild
  • Jim_MillerJim_Miller Posts: 2,395
    Yes, Tuscaloosa is different from Tirana. For one thing. it's a better place to hunt elephants, because the Tuscaloosa, there. Though you do sometimes find elephants in your pajamas. (If Groucho Marx said it, it must be true.)
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,766
    @Luckyguy1983 :

    There is no harm in removing the ban on hyrdaulic fracturing* in the UK, and - indeed - it is the right thing to do.

    * I would note that not all hydraulic fracturing is banned, otherwise plenty of bog standard conventional wells would also be impacted
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 23,926
    edited August 2022

    Truss considering cutting VAT to 10%.

    I can't begin to imagine the loss to the Exchequer halving VAT would generate. It would be mind boggling.

    Surely it must be a proposed temporary cut?
    VAT-free Friday, it'll be wild
    We shall need to wait and see what Liz Truss's proposal really is, rather than wild guesses about what she *might* be considering. Perhaps she will show a bit of ankle at Wednesday's hustings but more likely not. Remember though that she does want to grow the economy so real overall tax cuts might well be part of that, even without the cost of living crisis.
  • New thread.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,727
    Leon said:

    Someone for a lark asked it to draw a Japanese radish in a tutu pulling a dog on a string.

    You literally made my point.

    The computer was instructed by a person to do a thing.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,042
    rcs1000 said:

    @Luckyguy1983 :

    There is no harm in removing the ban on hyrdaulic fracturing* in the UK, and - indeed - it is the right thing to do.

    * I would note that not all hydraulic fracturing is banned, otherwise plenty of bog standard conventional wells would also be impacted

    Thanks. Nice to have a little consensus on something.
  • TinkyWinkyTinkyWinky Posts: 134
    rcs1000 said:

    @Luckyguy1983 :

    There is no harm in removing the ban on hyrdaulic fracturing* in the UK, and - indeed - it is the right thing to do.

    * I would note that not all hydraulic fracturing is banned, otherwise plenty of bog standard conventional wells would also be impacted

    No harm removing a ban of something, which is never going to be viable in England for a variety of different reasons, which also damages houses and health?

    Aside from that, it was banned because it was good politics for Boris just before an election. Perhaps that calculation has shifted now as fracking seems to have appeared as the magic bullet for a particular band of thinkers.
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    That said, I’m not sure why @CorrectHorseBattery2 was banned? He was just his usual volatile self

    Unless he said something so bad it’s been deleted?

    Doxing is very much frowned on. Rightly.

    This is a very liberal site by modern social media standards, but there has to be limits, to be fair I would be very cross being doxxed much like that.

    I take it that brief flash of reality was you? I don’t know if this is a compliment or not, but it wasn’t the aged, tired,, balding, wan, shrivelled, greasy, mean looking, just crawled out the sulphuric seas to dump my eggs creature I always imagined. You looked mostly reasonable.
    Ah, did he try and dox me? Fuck him then
    You know we were both had like fools on the Alabamian Rush?

    Mail had a secret military briefing about how many criminal Albanians were in the late asylum crowd - my mail reading mum was wittering on about it but I wasn’t taking much notice, until I read it in the telegraph, and instantly believed it was true.

    Turns out the actual military and home office percentages doesn’t remotely match the home office press releases, nor the newspaper reports.

    I fell for it 🤦‍♀️
    Are you talking about Alabamans OR Albanians? And does it really matter?

    Some crossover but remarkably little considering uncanny resemblance between Tuscaloosa and Tirana.
    No wonder I didn’t get a reply 🤦‍♀️
This discussion has been closed.