General Chat

The penny just don't drop with some Allan ;-)

:-D :-D :-DLG

Would that be 'old pence'?

I making an assumption here that the UK will now abandon all things European, including the decimal system ;-) :-D :-D

I still think in old measurements Allan :-D :-D :-D I still use the old terms for money like some folk are sixpence short of a shilling :-D :-D :-D

I thought the 50p joke was very clever Allan, except that strictly speaking Remainers presumably want us to remain in this Brexit-in-Name-Only state, where we are subject to EU rules but have no say in them. The rest of the country are either Rejoiners or Rejoicers.

As far as decimal currency goes, I think it started in Asia. Anyway we had it a couple of years before joining the EEC. I liked it when you could actually buy things for one (old) penny and a half crown seemed like a small fortune.

Allan, of course you jest.

The decimal system makes calculation much easier and, anyway, those who remember £ s d and imperial measurements are getting older and greyer and who would like to try to teach the majority of the population the old systems - night school for all those middle-aged and younger, let alone the nation's educators, many of whom will have to begin from scratch themselves. :-0 :-S

Of course I was jesting :-D

I would hate to go back to the old Imperial weights and measures, etc..

Funnily enough, here in Australia, despite the decimal system, draught beer is still sold in the old measurements of glasses, midis, ponies and the like :-S

In the last few years pints have come into vogue, but again only for beer :-D :-D

I still weigh in ounces when cooking, all the old recipe books ;-) I still measure in feet and inches if I don't need to be exact, eg my hand span is about 8 and a half inches, nine at a stretch :-)

The change in currency from £sd to £p ( Feb 1971) had nothing to do with the Common Market/EU as the change happened before the UK joined. The change was several years in the planning and was driven by the costs and complexities for large firms of running £sd on computers . Instead they had the joy of dealing with the now forgotten half p and running both systems in parallel.

As I recall the coins were 1/2 1 2 5 10 50 ; the 20p came later and the 50p was much bigger than now. I think the 10p has shrunk too. The £1 and £2 coins came much later.

There is not the slightest chance of the UK reverting back to the £ s d currency. In any case cash is rapidly running out of favour and a lot of people rarely use it preferring electronic transactions. That is why ATMs are disappearing.

Metrification started way back in the C19 with the introduction of the 2s coin "florin". It went on by fits and starts mainly in high tech engineering such as aircraft mfg. It became official govt policy in 1968 by which time a great deal of work had already been done and many firms were working in decimal. Retail remained something of a hold out even after the UK joined the EU which mandates the metric system. The main opt outs are road signs, speed limits and pints for draught beer.

Again there is not the faintest chance of the UK reverting to the pre metric system.

For those whose brexit vote was based on hopes of an end to the metric system, a return to £ s d, and other totems there is only disappointment in store.

Sheesh! I did say that I was only joking :-P

You mean that jar of coins I've had stashed away isn't going to be any good now after brexit....I'd dusted them off and everything...

My very first 'wage' as a youngster consisted of two half-crowns.

My first job was picking blackcurrents at Lyons Hall Farm in Essex.
The fruit was weighed in lbs and we were paid in cash ( no paperwork) per lb picked. I made around £ 2 for 8 hours work - 5 shillings /hr - once I got up to speed. The fruit all went to Tiptree.

Don’t anyone start on the building industry as they can’t make their minds up. They will ask for a bit of wood as a bit of 2’ by 4’ 8mm thick.

Tawny - :-D :-D :-D :-D

Oh, goodness, RTR, your first job was about 5 miles from where I was an Agricultural Labourer, at Wavers Farm, Blackmore End, in 1977 - 1980 (ish). Jobs included riddling potatoes, planting potatoes, cabbage, cauliflowers, lettuce etc, picking potatoes, cabbage cauliflowers, lettuce etc
Then owned by Julien Courtauld - now, it appears, not!

Well it's now a week since Brexit was done. Where are all these super deals that we would sign up to, the moment we left the EU?

Where is all the doom and gloom?

Shops large and small old and new (Inc the Bunnings fiasco) closing down all over the place, lots of eateries closing too. Car sales down 20% along with production and exports. Terrible crime figures with a record low in detection. Climate change movement added to official terrorist list. Disabled man denied benefits starved to death. Little settlement and minimal pa yment for Windrush victims. BBC under attack by govt. Guernsey starts fishing war with France. BRAVE NEW WORLD.

I am sick to the back teeth of the climate change brigade ramming their opinions down my throat.

A 'right-on' neighbour runs an electric car but has a 4WD drive for long journeys and uses a wood burner - what's that about, I ask? Something she seems not to ask herself.

Apparently, electric vehicles need neodymium for battery manufacture and mining the stuff releases radioactive contamination as well as other toxins so, it appears, that only China allows such mining. It can't only be found in China, surely, but China has its eye on the ball and beggar the consequences.

Meanwhile our government pushes the use of electric cars in the same way that a previous government promoted diesel vehicles.

The use of nuclear power seems also to defeat the objective. It may leave some feeling righteous and smug but, to me, totally oblivious to and uncaring for, future generations who have no option but to cope, somehow, with the fall-out from deteriorating and, possibly, weeping storage facilities. This is not clean power.

Some people just seem to love a good march and demo and will turn out at the drop of a hat. Others NEED to work to support selves and families. I often wonder who is sneakily behind all the environmental demonstrations in the western world; and why. Money, power, domination? The impetus has to come from someone. My suspicions have been aroused.

As far as the environment is concerned, it is my opinion, the UK needs to reboot its manufacturing and be quick about it before we discover the real cost of imported items. That is, not only living wages to those employed to make 'our stuff' but the real cost of transportation that includes manufacturing ships (sadly, now rare in the UK) and the power to propel them - oil supply can easily be interrupted at the behest of other countries.

I believe we, in the UK, may be in for some steep rises in cost of living - but not because of Brexit, rather due to our reliance on overseas nations a little too much. BoJo needs to don his thinking cap cos he is no dunderhead.

The carbon energy era is coming to an end , the problems with it are not a matter of opinion.

The various rare earth elements needed for modern technologies are not in fact "rare" but can be found all over the place. Neodymium , used for making powerful permanent magnets, in particular is plentiful.

China, an authoritarian state, can ignore the environmental fallout of its actions at least in the short term. The toxic waste resulting from rare earth mining is an example of this. As the costs of environmental security to mining are high Chinese policy has pretty well crowded others out of the market. Nevertheless non Chinese sources account for a third of world production.

The technology of electric cars is constantly improving and the switch from ICE should not be all that difficult. Due to the weight of the battery pack all other elements of electric cars are as light and strong as poss.
A fallout from this is that they are rust free while electric motors last for a very long time. Given a massive reduction in parts reliability is much better too.
Hybrids are not the way to go. The jury is out on using hydrogen cells but most analysis sees hydrogen as too expensive.

Commercial short haul flying with electric planes will happen ( 75 people, 300 miles ) but nowhere near as soon as Johnson believes.

Wood burning stoves are carbon neutral 'cos the treets trap carbon but their days are numbered 'cos of the particulates they emit.

None of this has anything to do with brexit.

As to manufacturing, which does ...

The Brits declined to modernise both their manufacturing methods and organisation back in the 60s and 70s. Shipbuilders were far too late in dropping rivetting and one off designs with plans literally chalked onto the plates. They were glacial in uptake of welded components and such. Much the same was true of everything else from autos and trains to wallpaper.

Consequently most of what remained was defence based. With Cobham sold to the USA (take back control) and BAE wings to Airbus there is no signficant UK mfg not controlled by foreigners based in the EU, India and China.

It is far too late in the day to change this while brexit could easily be the nail in the coffin as steel, autos and aviation depart. Much the same is true of Big Pharma while the chances of theCity ( 7% of tax revenue) getting an EU passport diminish by the day. In any case most of the population are innumerate ( taking maths A level as a minimum ) and do not have the skills.

Johnson's plan to avoid a steep rise in the cost of living post brexit is to run a tariff free ( and regulation lite) import regime in everything from chicken legs and wine to manufactured goods of all kinds and services esp NHS. That is all very well but hardly helpful to native farmers and manufacturers. The penny has dropped and they are squealing loudly. Johnson's response os to ban them ( eg CBI ) from government contacts.

The gigantic housing Ponzi scheme is also coming to an end and that is the key reason for large scale failure in retail not the internet.

The C20 is over.

"The life of man is nasty brutish and short" - Leviathan, Hobbes.

What I would like to know is what happens when we've all gone electric and there's a power cut. :-| :-| :-|