BRFR Cake Stop 'breaking news' miscellany

[Pross]

Trump's wannabee, Farage, was on the Welsh news last night discussing Reform aiming to take control of the Senedd next year. His big idea is re-industrialising South Wales by doing away with 'net zero nonsense' so we can keep having highly polluting steel production and re-open some mines. Having grown up on the edge of the coal fields and gone to school in a town in the industrial valleys as that era was coming to a close that is something that has no appeal to me. Whilst there may have been some significant damage to the economy of those areas it is a far more pleasant area to live now than when everything was caked in black dust, the rivers were polluted and lacking in life and there were clouds of smoke. I'd much rather see us become a leader in green energy production and manufacturing the technology associated with that. Yet again Reform trying to appeal to Boomers and others with a rose tinted view of a Britain that didn't really exist, who'd have thought? Still, I guess it wouldn't have much impact on Farage's rural life in Kent so why would he care?

 

[Pblakeney]

A question for Farage. Who is going to be doing the mining these days?
Serious question.

 

[secretsqirrel]

Trump's wannabee, Farage, was on the Welsh news last night discussing Reform aiming to take control of the Senedd next year. His big idea is re-industrialising South Wales by doing away with 'net zero nonsense' so we can keep having highly polluting steel production and re-open some mines. Having grown up on the edge of the coal fields and gone to school in a town in the industrial valleys as that era was coming to a close that is something that has no appeal to me. Whilst there may have been some significant damage to the economy of those areas it is a far more pleasant area to live now than when everything was caked in black dust, the rivers were polluted and lacking in life and there were clouds of smoke. I'd much rather see us become a leader in green energy production and manufacturing the technology associated with that. Yet again Reform trying to appeal to Boomers and others with a rose tinted view of a Britain that didn't really exist, who'd have thought? Still, I guess it wouldn't have much impact on Farage's rural life in Kent so why would he care?

I didn’t see that. It sounds pretty grim.

I‘m hoping that the Welsh industrial boomer would remember the filth and hardship, and will struggle with any memories of prosperity? They may however recall the likes of the Sony and Panasonic factories taking over in the 80s, providing a much better quality of work, thanks largely to that lefty eco-warrior Thatcher .

Here’s to hoping that the post industrial boomers can see through their smog covered rose-tinted glasses and he completely tanks with his endeavours.

 

[secretsqirrel]

A question for Farage. Who is going to be doing the mining these days?
Serious question.

He will probably be dreaming of the locals getting the old tin bath out of the back yard putting old dusty clothes back on and singing their way back down the road in their droves with their pick axe over their shoulder.

While the rest of us envisage economic migrants.

 

[Psamathe]

Everyone knows that the US is a country and the EU is a group of countries.

From a Trade perspective I tend to regard the EU as a single trading block (common rules, common policies, etc.). Might have different climates and different nationality tastes but the US has different tclimatres and tastes in the different states.

As to EU vs US in terms of being considered as a "country" then I see it as a question of degree not an absolute and where on thgat continuum depnds on what aspect one is considering. A lot depends on what is devolved (to individual states or countries).

All gets more complex when it seems US trade policy is maybe being set illegally given that it is Congress who set such things (under the Constitution) though Congress has delegated some of those powers to the Executive (eg President can change tariff levels by up to 50% of their previous levels or can act to address national security threats).

Ian

 

[BoldonLad]

Trump's wannabee, Farage, was on the Welsh news last night discussing Reform aiming to take control of the Senedd next year. His big idea is re-industrialising South Wales by doing away with 'net zero nonsense' so we can keep having highly polluting steel production and re-open some mines. Having grown up on the edge of the coal fields and gone to school in a town in the industrial valleys as that era was coming to a close that is something that has no appeal to me. Whilst there may have been some significant damage to the economy of those areas it is a far more pleasant area to live now than when everything was caked in black dust, the rivers were polluted and lacking in life and there were clouds of smoke. I'd much rather see us become a leader in green energy production and manufacturing the technology associated with that. Yet again Reform trying to appeal to Boomers and others with a rose tinted view of a Britain that didn't really exist, who'd have thought? Still, I guess it wouldn't have much impact on Farage's rural life in Kent so why would he care?

There were coal mines in Kent, granted, not as many as Wales, or the North East

It is a rose tinted view of the past which is the problem IMHO, speaking as a "boomer", things were most definitely NOT better in the past.

It would be very interesting to see what the take-up of jobs would be, if coal mining restarted, I suspect we would have to "import" the workers.

 

[orraloon]

Miners in the 80s were really well rewarded and happy, never went on strike for example. There were never any health conditions arising from their work. A lot of them were so well reimbursed that they became tax dodging land owners, just like Niggly Fartrage.

Is on the internet so it must be troo.

 

[icowden]

Miners in the 80s were really well rewarded and happy, never went on strike for example. There were never any health conditions arising from their work. A lot of them were so well reimbursed that they became tax dodging land owners, just like Niggly Fartrage.

It's going to be difficult to lure them back from their successful striptease career though.

 

[Beebo]

It's going to be difficult to lure them back from their successful striptease career though.

I think you’ll find they are all playing in brass bands these days.

 

[Stevo 666]

So if the UK records imports and exports from the constituent nations and English regions would this, by the same rationale, mean the UK isn’t a single trading entity?

Does it? No idea. What about my second point?

 

[bobzmyunkle]

What about my second point?

You had a second point?
Did we even establish what your first point was?

 

[Stevo 666]

Now to be fair, the EU figures are for goods and services whereas the US figures are for goods only. We do sell a lot of services to the USA.

Your last bit is very telling as you're hot comparing applues with apples. The link I posted upthread compared total imports and exports.

 

[Stevo 666]

You had a second point?
Did we even establish what your first point was?

Read my post. I gave 2 examples. In case you can't work out which one it was, here's the second bit:
"Also in my own group, we have sales companies set up in each EU country where we do business - to service the markets in Germany, in Spain, in Poland etc. If the EU truly was a single market them we wouldn't need all those companies and would just have one company selling throughout the EU. Common sense for people in business, maybe less obvious for (say) patent lawyers or retired Trumpet teachers with no commercial experience 😉"

 

[Dorset Boy]

Read my post. I gave 2 examples. In case you can't work out which one it was, here's the second bit:
"Also in my own group, we have sales companies set up in each EU country where we do business - to service the markets in Germany, in Spain, in Poland etc. If the EU truly was a single market them we wouldn't need all those companies and would just have one company selling throughout the EU. Common sense for people in business, maybe less obvious for (say) patent lawyers or retired Trumpet teachers with no commercial experience 😉"

But surely having separate companies is your business's choice, and there will be other companies with a single company structure covering the whole of Europe / EU. Having multiple companies allows your group to play the transferring profits to the lowest tax regime game that multi nationals love, at the expense of the local tax payer.

 

[bobzmyunkle]

Having multiple companies allows your group to play the transferring profits to the lowest tax regime game that multi nationals love, at the expense of the local tax payer.

Actually, we don't know why @Stevo 666's group have multiple companies. Perhaps he could explain further to help us understand why he's right. My guess is he only knows they exist because he's been in the different offices on his cleaning round? I did ask him to come up with some figures on trade with the various countries, but it seems he'd rather his 'point' (now 2 points) remains amorphous. Why's that Stevo?