Newly Corona Lockdown in GB

Tell us about your other hobbies & none QL related items here :)
User avatar
ppe
Trump Card
Posts: 171
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2010 10:48 am
Location: Espoo, Finland

Re: Newly Corona Lockdown in GB

Post by ppe »

Ruptor wrote:...If the EU can't give a member...
But the UK isn't a member any more.

Also, I feel it's natural that the level playing field has a bigger role in negotiations with the UK than with Canada. Physical access from the UK to the EU market is much, much easier than from Canada which is a big deal from the logistics/supply chain point of view. Also, for the services industry, the UK being in roughly the same time zone and hour's train ride away from, e.g., Brussels makes the UK a much bigger potential competitor than Canada.


User avatar
dilwyn
Mr QL
Posts: 2753
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:39 pm

Re: Newly Corona Lockdown in GB

Post by dilwyn »

Derek_Stewart wrote:Hi,
The simple answer is that the EU is punishing the UK for daring to terminate the member to their private member club, some might even say the EU is a Cartel, trying to dictate to the rest of the world.

UK government is not the best in the world and being the Conservative party is adding Brexit to its ever increasing mistakes that they have made over the last 40 years...
I broadly agree of course, Derek. I read a BBC article seeking to dispel myths, that the phrase "punishing the UK" can't be true in the context of the quick reaction to block ports by some of the individual EU nations - some will ironically be hurt more by sealing the ports or lack of trade deal because of the balance of trade in those areas.

I hesitate to use the word 'country' in a EU context because of the EU super-state meaning that Germany, Netherlands, France etc are not countries now, merely constituent nations of the EU super-state. Exactly the same as Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, England are all UK nations. Even BoJo uses the term "4 Nations" and he's not exactly the most pro-devolutionist ever.

Rather than punishing the UK (although the likes of Macron are probably out to do that) it's more about protecting itself. The EU is probably scared that Brexit will be a success causing other nations to follow the same path which would begin to spell the end for the gravy train bureaucrats. That is why they will not allow a trade deal, although BoJo and Co are making a very good job of shooting themselves in the foot anyway. Even if the EU negotiators could agree a trade deal, they'd probably have a hard time selling it to all the others. Most, like the UK, voted to join a "common market", a free trading bloc, not a EU super-state, and the EU is scared to show its true colours, knowing that it'll probably lead to *.exit of more countries.

Ironically, the very phrase "taking back control" is leading to loss of control - so many businesses (including many with remainer bosses) are quitting the UK for Europe to maintain access to the EU market.

Now you think I'm a brexiteer, let me explain that I voted "remain" and am still a remainer (Hello EU, I am one of the 48% who wanted to remain friends). I spit equal amounts of venom at both right and left wing parties in this country, but also at our population who are stupid and gullible enough to vote for the lies of right and left wings. At the politicians who made such a poor job of controlling the pandemic, but also at the 20% to 70% (it depends on which area in the UK you live in) of the great British public whom research indicates regularly take the "rules don't apply to me" selfish approach to breaking lockdown rules. It's easy to criticise the Conservatives for everything that is wrong in this country, but remember also that the likes of Corbyn and his lefty cronies essentially made the Labour party unelectable for years, so the right wing in this country has had a free hand to do what they like for too long with no effective opposition. A one party state pretty much.

We made our bed by voting this way, so now we have to lie in it.

See, I can have as good a political rant as anyone in this group ;)
I will now go and find the nearest bunker and hide (self-isolate with a QL?) until the flames have subsided...


User avatar
mk79
QL Wafer Drive
Posts: 1349
Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2014 10:54 am
Location: Esslingen/Germany
Contact:

Re: Newly Corona Lockdown in GB

Post by mk79 »

Ruptor wrote:None of this seems to add up. Denmark and the Netherlands have the Covid variant but because we have a better plot of where it is spread across Britain and have warned others we get shut borders.
What else do you propose? Do nothing? Close more borders? You could certainly argue for the latter, but not doing anything doesn't seem proper. Mind you, one of the leading virologist in Germany thinks the new strain might not be such a big deal, but the UK itself said it's much more contagious (maybe just to say "hey, it's not our fault this is spreading, it's new and much more aggressive!"), so what is one to do?
One has to query whether it is a Brexit shot across the bows to force capitulation.
Yeah, it's not about the virus, it's about fishing rights and stuff... right. That's currently the main problem of the EU :roll:
If the EU can't give a member the same or similar deal they have given to Canada then we are better off without a deal and zero ties.
I didn't know the EU had a common border with Canada, so the situation is certainly very comparable. :roll:
A few thoughts for the new year that medicine needs to learn are that electricity was harnessed in the 20th century to kill pathogens but they ignore it and we are still at the mercy of pathogens that have been known about for 200 years. :roll: If electronics had made the same progress as medicine over the last 100 years we would still be using spark transmitters. The trouble is there is no money in cures. :(
We can genetically splice the Corona virus spike protein onto other viruses, we can engineer vaccines that make our own cells produce the spike protein. This is all done at a scale where it's even too small for the wavelength of light. I'm well enough versed into everything from software to electronics, but to me this is more impressive than frigging rocket science.


User avatar
dilwyn
Mr QL
Posts: 2753
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:39 pm

Re: Newly Corona Lockdown in GB

Post by dilwyn »

Ruptor wrote:
dilwyn wrote: As for Asda they asked us to order early for Christmas so they would know what to stock but it seems you were very unlucky with your branch. Often there is normally one or two items missing or substituted but this time a week ago I ordered £130 worth for mum and everything arrived. :shock: It took two trolley loads from the van and the bloke was knakered. When he checked to see what substitute I was going to return he said that's a first none. It does seem ridiculous that Asda can't make sure they maintain depot stock to cover fixed orders and prefer to put it on the shelves where it might not sell.
Yup, they forced me to order for Christmas back in November too. Back then I didn't know it didn't guarantee me anything other than last minute panic (it probably explains this in the small print somewhere). Many people, knowing orders can be amended until night before delivery, just stick a £40 bottle of spirits or something high value into their baskets two months ahead, just to book a slot, then the night before delivery remove that and type in their real order last minute, or even cancel the slot last minute when the reminder email arrives after they've had a better deal elsewhere, so ordering stock to cover customer orders probably wouldn't work for that reason alone.

I've been lucky enough to have a regular slot with them for home deliveries all year, which I'm happy with on the whole, even though there's been an average of three unavailable or substituted items per order all year. Their substitution items are not exactly intelligent - I order gluten free items for my partner which are often not in stock and they often supply non-gluten-free products in their place, which I always reject and complain about and nobody listens and nobody learns (or if they do they leave me convinced they don't). The same old items are always out of stock, I always tell them this in their regular feedback emails and they never learn to stock more of those. In clothing sales, look what's always left over for the sale, men's Small and Medium sizes, never the larger sizes which are always sold out - they still work to 1950s stock calculations which haven't moved on to recognise and learn that the population generally buys larger clothing sizes nowadays. Much like the size of car park parking bays, which is another bugbear of mine. Even though I drive a small car (by modern standards!), it's rare to be able to fully open a door without touching the adjacent car, because the bay sizes are based on car sizes from the last century.

Asda staff have been excellent, never complaining, always on time and say all the right things. One even saw a QL in the distance in the house and said his father "used to have one of those" (a quick chat made me realise he thought it was a Spectrum, but hey, the thought was there). Not all the drivers wear masks, which is worrying as the doorstep contact is often worryingly close - many don't wait for me to step back when moving delivery baskets etc. Some do admit they sometimes have impossible schedules, especially at this time of year.

I used to work in admin for a national supermarket chain and I can tell you that one thing they are scared of is empty shelves. This is why you'll often see a price ticket under the wrong items - because they see an empty slot on the shelves as failure, they would rather fill with the wrong items and confuse the customers with wrong price tickets than leave the slots empty. Customers think it's not rocket science, but the supply chain and logistics were horrendously complicated back when I worked for them (I often wondered why stores weren't largely empty with the endless problems which cropped up), don't know if better nowadays. But then, this is Britain, you don't seriously expect everything to be right, do you?


User avatar
XorA
Site Admin
Posts: 1359
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2011 11:31 am
Location: Shotts, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK

Re: Newly Corona Lockdown in GB

Post by XorA »

I used to work in admin for a national supermarket chain and I can tell you that one thing they are scared of is empty shelves.
It's not that they are scared there are interesting psychology things going on. If a shelf is full people are much more likely to buy something they don't actually need. But if the shelf is half empty people actually think about if they need the item. An awful lot of my time working in a shop was spent making shop shelves look full! (and that includes continuously going round moving all the cans to the front of the shelf)


User avatar
dilwyn
Mr QL
Posts: 2753
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:39 pm

Re: Newly Corona Lockdown in GB

Post by dilwyn »

mk79 wrote:Yeah, it's not about the virus, it's about fishing rights and stuff... right. That's currently the main problem of the EU :roll:
And having the rights to overrule and bind the UK to all sorts of things even after leaving. The fishing is such a small part of UK GNP that it shouldn't matter (a) it gives the EU something to use as a convenient smokescreen for things the EU would rather its citizens didn't think about, how it aims to *control* even a non-member state, and (b) it knows how stubborn the UK is about unimportant things like blue passports, so fishing dispute was convenient to both sides, even if it's not the real reason for the stubbornness of both sides.
mk79 wrote:I didn't know the EU had a common border with Canada, so the situation is certainly very comparable. :roll:
lol
mk79 wrote:We can genetically splice the Corona virus spike protein onto other viruses, we can engineer vaccines that make our own cells produce the spike protein. This is all done at a scale where it's even too small for the wavelength of light. I'm well enough versed into everything from software to electronics, but to me this is more impressive than frigging rocket science.
Ha, nice one Marcel. Puts it into context!

Now all we need is for the Covid deniers to behave themselves until the world is vaccinated (not sure if vaccinating against the virus or against the deniers is the best approach :D ). Wonder if we should round up and intern all the Covid and vaccine deniers and put them to the back of the queue for vaccinations? Oh, wait, I forgot, they own and run all the businesses and society would collapse without them...


User avatar
dilwyn
Mr QL
Posts: 2753
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:39 pm

Re: Newly Corona Lockdown in GB

Post by dilwyn »

XorA wrote:
I used to work in admin for a national supermarket chain and I can tell you that one thing they are scared of is empty shelves.
It's not that they are scared there are interesting psychology things going on. If a shelf is full people are much more likely to buy something they don't actually need. But if the shelf is half empty people actually think about if they need the item. An awful lot of my time working in a shop was spent making shop shelves look full! (and that includes continuously going round moving all the cans to the front of the shelf)
Same thing in the end.

People think of working in a supermarket as shelf-stacking more than anything. In fact, for shop floor workers, MUCH more time (in my days there) was spent in the soul-destroyingly repetitive "facing up" of shelves to make them look full and tidy for the psychological reasons XorA said. Apart from the poor pay, the soul-destroying nature of the job was why I left.

Anyone with sense would go into a supermarket (a) when they're not hungry (they know shoppers buy more when they're hungry), and (b) armed with a strict shopping list, that way you buy what you know you need rather than what you let them make you buy without you even realising it. If you want a bargain, look on the lower shelves - the more profitable items they want you to buy are generally at eye level.


Tinyfpga
Gold Card
Posts: 252
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2018 1:59 am

Re: Newly Corona Lockdown in GB

Post by Tinyfpga »

It's good to read that QL enthusiasts are so animated by current affairs.

It was the following remark made by mk79 that caught my eye:-

"I didn't know the EU had a common border with Canada, so the situation is certainly very comparable"

What about Greenland, I thought. It is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark and is designated as one of the
EU's overseas countries and territories. Its nationals are EU citizens.
92% of exports go to the EU and it is a mere 35km from Canada (separated by the Nares straight).

The info I like is as follows:-

Greenland voted to leave the EU in 1982 and left in 1985, to become an OCT. The main reason for leaving was disagreements about the EU's Common Fisheries Policy
and to regain control of Greenlandic fish resources such that they remain outside EU waters.

The EU Common Fisheries Policy is an important reason why Greenland, Norway and Iceland stay outside the EU.

An EU fishing deal with Greenland was struck down by the European Court of Auditors, who felt the amount the EU was paying
was too high for the quantity of fish caught

Who would have thought that fishing was such an important geopolitical subject.


User avatar
Ruptor
Gold Card
Posts: 418
Joined: Fri Dec 20, 2019 2:23 pm
Location: London

Re: Newly Corona Lockdown in GB

Post by Ruptor »

An interesting report on topic
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-55364445
Off topic Asda could restrict order amendments to only adding a few items a week before and deleting being unrestricted since deleting increases stock for others. It is annoying we need anti dork measures everywhere but there are a lot of dorks around.
Like you say we joined the common market for ease of trading and I don't remember joining a control state at any point so our successive governments let us down. Only interested in business and not the people or considering the consequences of free movement when the country members increased to 27. Britain is the worse hit because everybody on the planet thinks this is the land of milk and honey handouts and they speak English. Germany lost 100,000 asylum seekers once they attained their EU papers and I wonder where they went. We just can't have open borders there isn't room. Even my Asian friend from India complains about the asylum seekers sponging off the state and his taxes. :shock: While there are better and worse areas around the world open borders will never work. The moon sounds like a nice place to live, quiet, sea views & no roof ripping storms.


User avatar
Ruptor
Gold Card
Posts: 418
Joined: Fri Dec 20, 2019 2:23 pm
Location: London

Re: Newly Corona Lockdown in GB

Post by Ruptor »

mk79 wrote:This is all done at a scale where it's even too small for the wavelength of light.
Just a small point. Standard compound microscopes suffer from the light limit(x1000) but there are different configurations using light that can see live viruses and other pathogens at much higher magnification (x10,000+) like the Grayfield in Germany. They are expensive at £100,000 but they sell and I wonder if it is the bio weapons laboratories buying them because I don't know of any being used to benefit the NHS.


Post Reply