Jingsamichty

I agree that the Labour Party has probably at least another decade in the wilderness unless and until someone can mollify both the liberal intelligentsia and the old shipyard commie factions. Until then, the country will be destroyed by the out of touch poshoes who are bewilderingly elected by our idiot nation.

But not all is lost; hopefully, traditional Labour voters like me can see that many other people are in exactly the same boat, therefore it feels increasingly hopeful that a vote for parties like the Greens or the SNP is not a wasted vote. I really do think that the Tories (hopefully) made a fatal strategic error by hitching themselves so closely to the xenophobic older generation. The more their supporters mock the likes of Greta Thunberg and Marcus Rashford, the more out of touch they seem.

dbd33

I actually had a big hole in the ground built this past summer. In Canada. It involved 130.7 tonnes of material to create a surface area 80x160 feet. Unbidden, the contractor used metric units for some stuff (the tonnes, at least I assume that's metric) and real world units for the visible part. As one might expect, the imperial units are exact numbers, the metric ones fractional.

scrubbedexpat142

Those pesky decimal places again!

Former Lancastrian

No matter how long this disagreement goes on for us Brits living outside the EU it becomes less important and apparent how much voters in the UK are split for whatever reasons. Although we all harp on about democracy and the ability to vote etc etc the UK really dropped the ball by holding a non binding referendum and expecting the average voter to fully understand the implications and ramifications.

I had to laugh this morning about the petrol shortage in some areas and how many Brits? had filled up with the wrong type of fuel. Seriously if they don't know what petrol they should be using then offering to give them a vote is just crying out for mayhem.

How do you convince almost 17.5 million people that they made the wrong decision. I am pretty sure there are thousands of lads like Jimmy from Liverpool who just about finished high school, speak no 2nd language and has no desire to work in any other of the 27 EU countries. How is remaining in the EU beneficial to him?

I will chime in now and again with my observations but seriously some posters need to let it go and just get on with life and think about will the real PSG turn up tonight against City or will the US finally decide which vaccines can be mixed and matched.

Johnboyuk

You may want to know the weight of the water in the pool if you need to fit a hydrostatic valve. That is a relief valve in the base of the pool usually intalled in areas with high water tables to prevent the following.

Almost Canadian

I don't believe that anyone can sensibly argue that Brexit was a good thing. The UK recovered its ability to decide who was allowed to live in the UK for the future and it now has the ability to negotiate on its own. I think the number of people that chose to live and work in the EU was, likely, statistically insignificant, but one would have to have head one's head in the sand to not realise that the best consumer protection and labour laws for the last 30 years came from the EU.

I also agree that it is completely pointless arguing the issue now and, to do so, paints one as similar to the Scots that cannot accept the recent vote for independence resolved that issue for a generation too. In time, both may come back onto the agenda but both are equally as unlikely anytime soon.

Mordko

Brits who happen to be engineers work in SI. Its only an issue of tradition in matters like buying a pound of X and the silliness of banning it.

In Canada we seem to be bipolar in the matters of prices per unit of X in the supermarket. Nobody is going to prison for using lb as far as I can tell.

BristolUK

Does that work both ways?
Unpicked food in the fields and now - according to the Haulage association - a quarter of the number of the driver shortage down to Brexit contributing to petrol shortages at the pumps and other supply issues, with the likelihood of the army being called in.
Maybe, but aren't we supposed to learn from history and not repeat mistakes? If these things can't be pointed out then mistakes don't get highlighted.

Jingsamichty

I am not a Scottish nationalist but I disagree with you that the Scottish independence referendum put the issue to bed for a generation. A key argument in the Scottish independence referendum was the notion of EU membership - the UK government argued that an independent Scotland would not automatically gain EU membership, and knowing how important that was to the majority of Scots voters, insisted that the best way, or indeed only way, to retain EU membership was to remain in the UK. And a mere 2 years later Scotland was dragged out of the EU by the UK.

I'm sure that any competent lawyer could find a 'material change' argument in there somewhere.

There are many people who are coming to the realisation that a 51.8% result in a vote is, correctly, not a ringing endorsement. The sooner we as a nation accept that you can't force almost half the country to agree with you, the better the place will be. Consensus politics will always be better than simply denial of opposition.

dbd33

What can be learned from Brexit? It's not likely that there will be another opportunity to throw away a major trading alliance. The only point in remembering it is that, if someone is exposed as having been a Brexiteer, they shouldn't be trusted with matches.

Mordko

The jury is still out. It was always clear that in the short term consequences will be negative. Except to the truck drivers whose pay is going up fast. And similar blue colour workers. Lets see what happens to the EU over the next 20 years or so.

Jingsamichty

"There are no downsides to Brexit, only considerable upsides." - David Davis, Brexit Secretary.

Mordko

Quite. And the Japanese Minister for Toilets said that better toilets would empower women. Talking heads don’t say what they think. That would be careless. They say what their title tells them to say.

The real issue is that the EU has built in problems and its far from clear how it would play out. Whether it was the Greek default saga, Merkel’s unilateral policy on refugees, how EU aristocracy dealt with Britain, dumb energy policy or pathetic economic growth, the EU did not exactly cover itself in glory.

dbd33

For whom is that the real issue? The UK has chosen economic decline over continued concern with pathetic economic growth. It's like walking rather than riding in a car with a cracked rear light.

Mordko

I am only good at predicting the past bit glad we have soothsayers around. Which stocks should I pick?