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Never knew that about Seneffe Ali-B - interesting stuff - I hadn't realised that BL even had a plant in Belgium
I can understand why the militant UK unions would had been frothing at the mouth about that - hahahaha
There obviously was a plan to de-industrialise large parts of the 'richer' EU areas in a move to 'Services' - maybe they thought they were doing us a favour, all that dirty metal bashing, and digging underground - lets get the poorer areas of the EU to do it - thay'll be glad of it - they were probably right in a way - can you see some of the metrosexual snowflakes working in a Car Plant or down a Mine now
Can't help but think that getting rid of all industry was good idea though, looking back.
Erm, Germany is doing pretty from its industrial economy!
It was a really bad idea of Thatcher to move from Industry to Services! Boosting the services industry was good, but needn't have been at the expense of Industry. A diverse economy will always be stronger!
The UK is really the only country in Europe that moved away from industry; Germany, France and Italy (the largest EU members) still have very large industrial sectors as well as services sectors.
Another huge f-up of the Brexit deal is it includes measures to help the industrial sectors which benefits the EU more than the UK, yet has no provisions for services which really screws the UK 80% service sector, while helping the rest of the EU grow their services which was previously hampered by the UK dominance!
Never knew that about Seneffe Ali-B - interesting stuff - I hadn't realised that BL even had a plant in Belgium
I can understand why the militant UK unions would had been frothing at the mouth about that - hahahaha
There obviously was a plan to de-industrialise large parts of the 'richer' EU areas in a move to 'Services' - maybe they thought they were doing us a favour, all that dirty metal bashing, and digging underground - lets get the poorer areas of the EU to do it - thay'll be glad of it - they were probably right in a way - can you see some of the metrosexual snowflakes working in a Car Plant or down a Mine now
Can't help but think that getting rid of all industry was good idea though, looking back.
Some people in the UK had grand visions, sad to say the unravelling really is the result of our industries never fully recovering from the damages (physically and financially) caused during WW1 and WW2. Deindustrialisation has been going on ever since as we become ever more uncompetitive to emerging economies (first Japan, then the Tiger economic regions, Eastern Europe and China). We can draw a lot of parallels with Belgium's Wallonia district (where Seneffe is located), it had a big coal industry, now gone, also other heavy industries that suffered.
The interesting difference though, and this applies to EU interaction, is the power/control of the Walloon government within the EU. Belgium laws dictate that all provinces must agree unanimously to proposed policies. What that means is the Walloons can veto the EU. Why did the EU-Canada trade deal initially collapse? The Walloons! They also propped up their steel industry with public funds (albeit illegally; Which the EU ordered to be payed back).
Of course the EU eventually found ways to placate and sidestep them, but it goes to show how a tiny little area desecrated by deindustrialisation can support its people and still "take control" whilst in the EU.
Now imagine if England was politically annexed like Belgium rather than the two-party Westminster based bunch. Where a regional veto could scupper an entire EU policy. Of course, UK politics don't want that; We'd have so much infighting nothing would get done.
There's been two general election where the Etonian buddy boys could have been ousted and instead tory majority increased: Boris will be here until he gets bored, toddles off with his knighthood, writes a biography and then follows a retirement career path like his predecessors making speeches or hosting talk at various events whilst generally avoiding the hoi polloi.
And this history repeating will remain like that until the 33% of the feckless population that didn't vote, actually votes.
The figures for NHS haven't tallied for decades. £350M/yr was peeing into the ocean. As is the 1.25%.
Considering it is in the the top ten of the WORLDS largest employer (5th from some sources, 7th according to wiki as of 2015) and it is STILL understaffed and underfunded. About 49% of what it employs is non medical/clerical/technical staff.
pre-pandemic NHS alone requires at least £3227 per capita (2018 ONS), just to tread water and that doesn't include council social care. Considering that National Insurance on a basic rate employee on £24.1k only contributes £180/yr... So where's the other £3047/yr comming from? Magic money tree?
Realistically to cover shortfall on both the per capita spending should be tripled. Post pandemic it probably needs to be six times to cover both the pandemic fallout and cover previous shortfalls in order to bring it up to world class (I'm talking emergency housing, care homes, rehab, long term illness care, routine cancer screening, immunisation programs, it goes on and on).
Now, if every person in the UK paid a ring fenced £20K per year direct to the NHS and social services, everything would be ticketyboo. The average 20% income tax rate alone on the average income doesn't even come close to that.
As an aside just to show how little we are directly paying, in the USA, non-subsidised healthcare for a family of 4 is about $17000 plus deductibles which can take it up to $25k/yr!
It is because of customs, everything from the UK now gets customs charges added to it and handling fee aswell. I have stopped buying stuff from the UK as I have had to pay import duty and a €6 handling fee on everything so far, even posting stuff back to the UK is well expencive as we can no longer send goods letter post. DP wanted to charge me €16 to send a t shirt to a friend in the UK as it now has to go parcel post instead of the €3.70 letter post.
It is because of customs, everything from the UK now gets customs charges added to it and handling fee aswell. I have stopped buying stuff from the UK as I have had to pay import duty and a €6 handling fee on everything so far, even posting stuff back to the UK is well expencive as we can no longer send goods letter post. DP wanted to charge me €16 to send a t shirt to a friend in the UK as it now has to go parcel post instead of the €3.70 letter post.
Things are only set to get worse in October as the UK starts controlling the imports!
If anyone is planning to order anything from the EU, then get your orders in now before the backlogs start and prices increase.
Basically, they realised that with supermarket shelves already half empty, they can't risk implementing Brexit in full, so kicking the bucket down the road in the hope that a bunch of truck drivers will miraculously appear!
Good stuff this Brexit! I was on a small Island in Italy last week, the local supermarket couldn't have been any fuller! Supermarkets here in Germany are also fully stocked! Apparently there is also a shortage of truck drivers in Germany too, but I'm not really seeing the evidence! I call bulls***, empty supermarkets = Brexit!
Basically, they realised that with supermarket shelves already half empty, they can't risk implementing Brexit in full, so kicking the bucket down the road in the hope that a bunch of truck drivers will miraculously appear!
Good stuff this Brexit! I was on a small Island in Italy last week, the local supermarket couldn't have been any fuller! Supermarkets here in Germany are also fully stocked! Apparently there is also a shortage of truck drivers in Germany too, but I'm not really seeing the evidence! I call bulls***, empty supermarkets = Brexit!
Indeed, my local Netto usually has more stock than shelves and is currently having an extension built that will increase the shop size by 50%, I can't see what all the fuss is about empty shelves, I am not seeing it anywhere here. I was also in Real yesterday and that was full to the rafters aswell
I really wonder how much further the once mighty UK can sink. You have all these restrictions and so on in place yet you are still 4th in the planetary covid worst places list, I get the feeling something isn't working.
I really wonder how much further the once mighty UK can sink. You have all these restrictions and so on in place yet you are still 4th in the planetary covid worst places list, I get the feeling something isn't working.
My mistake, so all your government restrictions are working.
Restrictions cannot mitigate what is a social issue with each individual's personal responsibility and understanding of aerosol dispersion.
When we have those campaigning over children having to quarantine after being pinged in the classroom, then not understanding how that dominoes into jeopardising those that are at risk unless we lock them up like prisoners. Meanwhile folk moan about vaccine passports affecting their civil liberties when other countries have employed it and the public have took it onboard without issue (I was in France earlier in the month; had to show proof of vaccination pretty much everywhere)... It's pretty obvious why statistics don't work in the UK's favour.
El País once again has done a good piece on aerosol spread (They were one of the first news media outlets to publish this in a manner that showed clearly the results of research findings of viral aerosol - you'll find my post showing it from over a year ago when British press didn't even scratch the surface on it).
You are only in 8th place for number of deaths worldwide
And 4th place in number of overall cases.
My mistake, so all your government restrictions are working.
Somewhat meaningless stats, if you deliberately count deaths without taking into account size of population, and if you also blindly ignore the vast differences in reporting accuracy between various countries. But keep plugging away, if that amuses you
I call bulls***, empty supermarkets = Brexit!
