Posts by codejunky

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@gandalfcn

"Bess. You won, get over it."

You are aware I am replying to your crying comment. So maybe you need to internalise that 'get over it' bit.

"Remain didn't make a mess of anything"

Now thats a dull thud of a dumb comment. From a remain perspective providing the vote itself seems to meet the criteria of a mess. As a brexiter a lack of good reasons to remain and using the weight of government to directly threaten the population seems a bit of a mess.

"Why don't you tell the truth instead of blaming others?"

Blame who for what? I do blame remain and leave for varying reasons of various things but what specifically do you mean? And also what lies do you think you have spotted me tell? Exactly?

"Your hero BoJo"

And so another dull thud as you obviously dont have a clue about me. You might find I wasnt even convinced Boris would pull the trigger until he actually did it. That would be like me calling your hero Mandelson just because he is a remainer. Idjit

Re: What exactly did we get from the EU for £40bn divorce settlement?

@tip pc

"As I understand it, the UK could not have to pay if it forwent the “deal”. The deal went hand in hand with the settlement."

The UK would have to pay it. Thats the racked up bill we owe for our part of the EU (as calculated by the EU). The reason its so high is the desperate attempts to remain by former PM's interfered with actual negotiation. When brexiters were negotiating we were presenting them a bill for the assets we owned as part of the EU.

"I understand the settlement is to do with paying the UK’s share of EU investments while we where a member"

Investments is one word but costs of being in is more accurate. Investments would suggest a return but this is government investing which often doesnt.

"Doesn’t look like we get great value from our £40bn."

Agreed, but that £40bn is what we agreed to spend as part of the EU, not the price for leaving. Hell this is the figure after accounting for EU fines the UK gets a share of-

https://www.continentaltelegraph.com/2021/07/its-not-a-40-billion-brexit-bill-its-actually-0/

The £40bn isnt the cost of leaving, its part of what it would have cost to remain and that would be continually growing.

Re: What exactly did we get from the EU for £40bn divorce settlement?

@tip pc

"Our friends in the EU have come up with a figure of £40bn that we owe them for that last minute deal British campaigners forced us into."

Erm that doesnt make sense. That £40bn is the figure racked up by being in the EU. By leaving the EU we stopped the bill at £40bn owed to the EU which would be considerably higher had we remained (and been forced into the covid recovery fund too, again GBP bailing out the Euro).

"what exactly have we got for that £40bn?"

The difficulty of answering that is a very good leave argument. Of course had we continued with brexiters negotiating that £40bn would likely be much less as we would be charging them for our share of the assets. But remainers kept claiming it was more like a gym, aka a waste of money you get nothing for but the membership put us in billions of debt.

Re: I see no ships

@Fruit and Nutcase

"And the foreigners have been forewarned to be cooperative as otherwise they will get a visit from Boris in his BoatyMcBorisFace "Royal Yacht" which he has landed on the MOD budget"

Wasnt it a destroyer that the gov threatened to send over to Gibraltar which made the Spanish piss their pants and change their aspirations of taking Gibraltar due to brexit? Seemed to work too. Probably because the UK was one of the few Military mights of the EU.

Re: We're slashing red tape!

@Fruit and Nutcase

"Blue tape, just like the new British Blue Passport, made in the EU"

I am amazed at how much of a sticking point this is for remainers. Almost like they are against foreigners or something. A kind of nationalistic look. A similar nationalistic outlook as the EU has come to think of it...

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@gandalfcn

"If your comment had any merit whatsoever then a;; other countries would be having exactly the same economic problems as the UK. They aren't."

Damn! What universe are you in? Except the EU has vaccinated and looking to come out of lockdown (about bloody time) while EU members are very mixed in their opinions (depending if they rely on tourism).

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@Miss Config

Isnt Switzerland that other place in Europe that recently decided against EU membership?

https://www.politico.eu/article/switzerland-eu-talks-partnership-treaty-end/

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@gandalfcn

"It's hilarious watching them try to rationalise the f$ckupfest that is Brexit,especially BoJo and the Wibblers."

Except this doesnt seem to be the case (in my experience anyway). After remains failure to make a half decent case, their doom warnings being exposed as bull and the EU acting like the EU to the pandemic crisis there has been a swift quiet and lack of will to defend the utopia of light and hope.

As per this thread is the usual crying losers with little to actually say.

Re: What could possibly go wrong?

@PeterM42

What could go right? A lot!

Re: Highly regulated sectors are essential for export

@gandalfcn

"The UK was aligned with the EU, i.e. by far its biggest partner and therefore the only really important partner."

Oh yikes thats a terrible view to have. So our only really important partner is a sinking ship in perpetual self made crisis? I think the word we should look to is diversify. There is a growing world out there vs the EU shrinking portion of the worlds wealth.

"EU regs had been agreed with many other countries"

In the EU you mean? Or do you mean countries outside the EU who dont have their domestic economy managed by the EU yet still manage to trade with the EU?

"The UK niw has to either renegotiate or roll-over, i.e. no change from being in the EU."

How do you mean roll over? The UK doesnt have to accept the diktat of the EU because we are no longer a member. So no we dont have to roll over. In areas we do want to trade with the EU the exporting company must meet EU import rules, but then how is that different to trading with every other country on the planet?

Sounds like we got a better deal.

"As for the PRC, for example, we import goods that the PRC produces to agreed standards, or hadn't you noticed? The PRC has accepted EU standards for years."

So? If you want an example of the difference in regulation there is a recent example. The AZ vaccine has been approved and used in the UK to help deal with the pandemic. The EU still hasnt approved the vaccine as acceptable. So bureaucratic idle hands cant act fast enough or with enough sense when dealing with a pandemic.

Another advantage of not being aligned with the EU is that was demonstrated in Ireland where NI was being vaccinated but ROI could only watch because EU regs didnt approve the vaccines yet. So the Dublin minister suggesting going over the border and bringing back vaccine was shot down by the EU.

Are you saying you want to wait for the great utopia of light EU to figure out arse from elbow before having a vaccine available?

Re: Highly regulated sectors are essential for export

@sad_loser

"For UK companies to be able to sell products and services overseas we need aligned regulations,"

Aligned with who? US? EU? China? Russia? India? Iceland?

Or is it the companies exporting would need to meet the importers standards? Which is how trade works. Its difficult to align with everyones differing regulations which all impose their own costs and not necessarily for safety or quality.

Re: Wow

@ColinPa

"the implication being that this is currently not true."

Yes

Re: reason us politics are so toxic

@Mooseman

"What you have in US politics is the far right, and the centre right."..."People in this forum have claimed that there is an extreme left in US politics but are unable to provide a single example"

From the perspective of Europe which is (undeniably) further to the left. However in the US there does seem to be a difference. For example you wouldnt have libertarian Rand Paul on the left just as you wouldnt get AOC on the right.

@IceC0ld

"surely a LEFT wing rabid dog can also spout their shite, again, without fear of censorship"

Thats already the case isnt it?

@Dan 55

"One would have thought it would have had something more in France or Germany's ballpark."

Why?

Re: Oh, right.

@H in The Hague

"The staff shortages could be solved by raising wages in the hospitality sector"

Actually such wage increases have already been happening as the supply of cheap labour isnt so easily available. It does show the remain argument wrong that such open borders didnt suppress wages. Another success of brexit.

Re: Oh, right.

@nematoad

"it amuses me now to hear the likes of Tim Martin of JD Wetherspoons pleading for special treatment now that the reduction of labour in the hospitality industry caused by Brexit means that he can't get enough staff."

Was that the selective quotes chosen to say the opposite of his opinion? After them being published he had to publicly correct the paper for misrepresenting him?

@Doctor Syntax

"Getting swamped by it all seems more likely."

Same situation as the EU enforcers then. Wernt they complaining about how underfunded their GDPR enforcement was?

Re: If it's not on the side of a bus...

@anothercynic

"I would suggest you read FullFact's statement more carefully. Their statement was made in 2018 for starters"

If you would like to find a more up to date one that agrees with you feel free but it was only to point out the NHS is funded more as it usually is.

"Correlation is not causation."

As I agreed its not the same figure and I am oddly amused that they keep trying to find some way of putting that money into the NHS (Hammond planned for it and now they are making plans for 2024).

"None other than the Bank of England has published that figure. Can't get any better than that."

Cool so it should be the one that makes the UK look like we took a bigger hit than if we measured the same way as other countries. Which also means from opening up we should get a bigger jump in growth as the public services get counted as productive again. This is what happens when we lock down an economy from a pandemic. How much will be due to brexit is kinda hard to measure (there will be some change). Covid has been the most damaging as we can see globally, and being out of the EU has been good for the UK in that respect.

"David Frost was happy to just condemn God only knows how many small and medium businesses to extinction because he didn't really care as long as he got the hardest Brexit him and his paymasters from the Tory backbenches wanted."

Maybe there is fair reason for that? We voted brexit with leaving the EU appearing to be the goal and so his negotiations being to actually leave being the objective. And the hit on the few small/medium businesses dealing with the EU vs the majority who dont was the idea for some leave voters.

"The government has spectacularly failed the country in that it locked down too late"

I will be interested to see the autopsy of covid response. I expect lockdowns have caused more harm than good. Especially the indiscriminate lockdowns every time someone sneezes. Hell the UK is pretty much vaccinated and long since vaccinated the vulnerable so locking down should be at the back of anyones mind.

"But there we are. We've made our beds. We've to lie in them. It's just a shame that those business people who now bleat on about how voting Leave was a mistake categorically dismissed the warnings from experts in economy and politics because 'they knew better than experts'."

The comment on experts was at the time of extreme bull from the 'experts'. It was so bad that the 'expert' claims were being shot regularly for being the lie that it was. And both official campaigns did it, it was embarrassing. I thought the leave campaign was a set up to help remain win until I saw the standard of the remain campaign. Both were shocking.

Re: If it's not on the side of a bus...

@anothercynic

"The NHS is *still* not funded more (regardless of the £350 million a week we supposedly save)"

The certainly not brexit supporting 'fullfact.org' doesnt agree- https://fullfact.org/health/nhs-england-394-million-more/

Looks like the NHS is continually increasing even if its not the £350 million figure. Apparently the aim is to now hit that figure in 2023/24. Not that I trust any of these buggers about it but then both official campaigns were full of bull.

"Currently this festering mess of a Tory/UKIP fantasy is costing £440 million a week in lost growth, lost business, increased red tape, lost fishing and seafood industry... just to name a few."

Where do you get that? Not disputing the figure I just wonder if its the correctly calculated one the UK is using or the bull number used in other countries. The UK economy was shown to take a huge hit because we correctly calculated the value of public services to be zero when they were doing nothing even though we were paying for them. But then the lockdown has been very expensive. Good job we got out of the EU or the economy would be much worse.

"It is not a case of 'neener-neener-told you so-told you so' but rather an exasperated 'why did you not listen?"

I am finding myself in the situation of having to ask some remainers how they can keep their delusions. Now that we are out we can see a clear divergence (similar to the financial crisis) where the EU is stuck and the UK like the rest of the developed world deals with the issue and moves on. The corona crisis seems to have woken up some remainers though. the vociferous defence of the EU regardless of its self inflicted harm has died down a lot recently. Maybe its because unlike the Euro-crisis this one hits here as well as over there and its hard to accuse our gov of negligence without comparing with the utter shambles of the EU response.

It has taken a while for a good cry baby article against brexit. The last was something to do with a harddrive from the Netherlands.

Re: If it's not on the side of a bus...

@Dr. Vagmeister

"Can we all agree that Boris Johnson, aka The Johnson, is the patron saint of liars ?"

I dunno. He could be a contender but he is in close running with Blair, Cameron, Brown, etc. And thats just the UK

Re: To blatantly unnecessarily turn this political

@gandalfcn

"The point was that Trump emboldened Putin"

How? It was under Obama that the US was warned to watch out as Russia will be firing missiles into Syria at a specific time. That wet lettuce did the US no favours dealing with Russia

Re: That looks cool

@tiggity

"I still use notes"

Me too. It feels very different handing over notes and getting back coins or smaller notes than giving a piece of plastic which gets returned to you.

Re: Great Position/Opportunity

@Roland6

"This would be the Great British Union and Great British Market"

As I said, the EU is far too illiberal and requires too much subsidy.

"you play by the rules, but we do what we like because we're sovereign."

Sounds very much like the EU playbook. One of the reasons to vote leave.

"But you are probably right, the Conservatives, over many years, have demonstrated their ability to cock things up and then compound matters..."

I dont reserve that ability to the Conservatives. Labour aint much better and they are only the electable parts of government. At least its not compounded to EU levels though (just look at any of their crises)

Re: Great Position/Opportunity

@gandalfcn

"Why would anyone make such a dumb comment?"

It seems we both hold a similar opinion over the others comment.

Re: Great Position/Opportunity

@gandalfcn

"For them maybe but not for the country. There is a difference."

Really? Are you in the UK or EU (believe me it could colour your perspective). If the UK were to rejoin that means none of the opt outs that remainers were clinging to as one of the few reasons to remain. With those there isnt a majority to be in the EU so why would the country want to rejoin without them?

One of those serious opt outs being the Euro. That currency causing so much harm and causing the EU proper to struggle (polite wording for crisis).

While of course the benefits of leave are already showing publicly the harm of remain is also visible just over there. Even the Swiss have just dropped their years of negotiation to join the EU because it isnt worth it.

@AC

"You see, brexiters voted to remove EU's access to the UK, but to keep our status the same."

I would love to know who these people are. I hear about them and am sure there must be someone out there fitting this description but from what I see its remainers mentioning this hypothetical brexiter who wants to remain in the EU (read that oxymoron).

"They expected to stop paying the gym membership, but still use the pool."

Actually the EU kept pissing in the pool so we wanted to stop paying gym membership for 'facilities' that are undesirable. See vaccine procurement, financial crisis, migration crisis and increasing reliance on Russia.

@Whiskers

"Too bad there wasn't any real preparation in advance, or even proper negotiation of its terms."

I think you can have both leave and remain agree to that. Cameron did his best to stop any preparation from being possible and May started promising only to chicken out and try to remain.

Re: Great Position/Opportunity

@Roland6

England already subsidizes Wales, Scotland and NI, why would we want to add such a basket case as the EU?

Also they are far too illiberal.

Re: Great Position/Opportunity

@Adrian 4

"Because even Boris and his Cretins have seen how stupid an idea it was and would like to correct it as rapidly as possible ?"

Even Boris and his cretins can see how stupid an idea it would be to rejoin, I should hope so.

Re: Erm

@Ben Tasker

"You seem to think that this suggested change in rules would result in no (meaningful) change in behaviour."

Removing government interference into something that really isnt theirs to interfere with is meaningful. Government should be doing the few things we really need them for. And amusingly as I said the French president seems to agree with me.

"FWIW, I disagree that nothing would change"

Since you have a different interpretation of my comment than I intended we actually both agree there would be change. Instead of having some anal retentive using the weight of government to force sellers how to market their product it would be up to people to market their product as is useful in the market. Something that moves too quick for government (or anyone) to effectively control.

"it seems fairly evident that a certain category of seller would drop metric"

So what? If people dont trust/understand what they are buying they wont buy and the seller changes their ways (or loses out to others). So who cares?

"leaving at least 2 generations of people looking at their pricing and not knowing how much they're going to end up paying."

So you are claiming that 2 generations are too stupid to function in this world and should be wiped out by natural selection? So thick are these people that walking and breathing at the same time may cause injury or death? Amazingly there has been this glorious development called the internet where you can look stuff up, and a lot of people use it on their pocket sized phones!!!! Or shop somewhere you understand the measurement.

It is very insulting to claim people to be so incapable of functioning in this world. We cant bubble wrap people, they will suffocate in there.

"Entered into a computer, built on standards"

Yeah I see why you have a problem. The egg came before the chicken. And falls into a further problem, there can be standards without government weight to dictate them!

"The world is built and operates on standards"

And yet we are discussing some power freak dictating multiple standards must be displayed for their own self pleasure. An interference from government on the little day to day transaction over something that doesnt concern them.

"What you actually mean, is you don't like *this rule* because you associate it with the EU, so lets get rid of it and fuck anyone that didn't grow up with pounds and ounces."

No but it is funny to watch the toys leave the pram. I dont like the rule because its another stupid rule over something the gov shouldnt be enforcing. Yes the EU has form for doing so and also why we have such a dumb rule but the gov can make its own dumb rules too.

The amusement is watching people crying that they or others are too thick to function in this world without nanny government wiping their arses. That suddenly nobody will understand anything because big cuddly government isnt making the bad man convert something for them. Even as we already have a mixed system of imperial and metric which is foreign to those in a completely metric country.

Re: Erm

@Ben Tasker

"Because *no-one* would complain if we changed all the road signs to use KM instead of Miles? Or switched to them needing to ask for 568ml rather than a pint?"

Not sure what you are getting at here. Sounds like you are saying people use a system that works and we are happy with and wouldnt appreciate some clipboard idiot changing things for their own self pleasure.

"The rule you're talking about, btw, doesn't prevent imperial being used"

Exactly. And without the rule it wouldnt ban metric either. Some commenters seem to think everything would suddenly change to imperial for some reason.

"it simply states that metric should be present too"

And that is necessary because? It aint. Not at all. Its just another bureaucratic paper pusher with nothing better to do telling everyone else to add more work. And why does this matter? Go ask the French village of fishermen who refuse to use this rule and even had a visit from the president telling them to ignore the EU law.

"So what the suggestion to remove that rule is saying, is that we should make it needlessly harder."

On who? How is it not simple to let people get on with their lives without telling them every minutia of how to interact with other people? The world spins without these stupid rules. People achieve this without stupid rules. So why must we have another stupid rule adding to the many to drown out the few we should actually care about?