BREXIT(?)

xbacksideslider said:
It's crazy . . . . how the socialist establishment of Deutchland cons the German people into paying for the free riders - the PIGS, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain, etcetera. The reason of course is that the Merkel and her pals sell favoritism to major German interest groups - big labor, big industry, and big banks.

Haha, Mr Obama didn't bail out the American banking system ??? !!!
Not to mention GM, Chrysler, HD and others.

Folks with good memories will remember the great banking disasters of the mid and late 19th Century.
Banks went down like ninepins, and lotsa folks were left with NOTHING.
Took decades to recover from those....

Good job too the Publicans weren't in charge during the recent GFC,
they'da got on their high horse about 'socialism*' and let banks and everyone turn to dust.... ?

(*socialism = common sense, not ideology ?)
 
xbacksideslider said:
It's crazy . . . . how the socialist establishment of Deutchland cons the German people into paying for the free riders - the PIGS, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain, etcetera. The reason of course is that the Merkel and her pals sell favoritism to major German interest groups - big labor, big industry, and big banks.


What's crazy is, you can hang a few pigeonhole terms on the highest-producing, best economy in the world and make it seem like a den of do-nothings awaiting their handouts. Are you sure you're not confusing Germany with Alaska? Whatever the hell the Germans are doing, everyone else in the world should be doing too. Of course, they don't have a large class of non-participants who think everything else but themselves is the problem. Their brand of Socialism seems to be working far better than any Libertarianism or Conservatism, two philosophies which can claim zero success at accomplishing anything in history.
 
Maybe the nomal poeple are just getting sick of all the major Political parties, it has just happened here in Aussie land once a proud and rich nation, but our Politictions have let us all down, they are selling everything to overseas buyers, all our major assets are now gone and the country is spending more money than it produces, we had a Prime minster saying his party will win the election big time just a few days before the voting, his head doubled in size, telling everyone how good he and his party is and they were the only ones that can save us from ourselfs, well the Prime minster and his party has just got a big kick in the arse by the poeple, then on election night when he knew he has made a big mistake he gets up for a late night speech and starts to blame everyone else and sort of said the poeple were a bunch of morons, no wonder he's got a kick in the arse.
Who ever wins will have troubles but the poeple have spoken, where just sick of all the BS, all the lies that we have had to put up with for so long and its not only happening here its happening all over the world, cost of living is going through the roof, the rich are getting richer, our next gen will not be able to afford a roof over their heads, no wonder poeple are getting older before they have kids as both parents have to work full time just to stay a head.
What ever happens in The UK will settle down over time, but its time the politicians start to listen to the poeple, instead of themselfs and to start looking after their own country and of course the nomal poeple, we all deserve it.

Ashley
 
The problem is, the media and the politicians have people all stirred up and scared when, for the most part, their lives are much better than previous generations could have ever imagined. This opens up the field for these "saviors" who try to convince people things are much worse than they really are and only "they" can save us from more doom and gloom. Donald Trump's slogan is "Make America Great Again" When were Americans any better off than they are now? People are living longer than ever. More and more people have swimming pools in their back yards and multiple cars (and motorcycles!) in their driveways and garages. Of course there is still crime and poverty. probably always will be. But the sensationalizing of every depressing occurance makes folks think we're going to hell in a handbasket. Things aren't perfect. But point me to an era when they were better? It's all in the perception.

The gun folks want to go back to the Wild West when God created all men and Winchester made 'em equal. Those days were better when lawmen made cowboys check their guns at the city limits.

The middle class wants to go back to the post WWII era when any young man coming out of the Army and later, graduating from high school had a decent job he could support a young family on.

The rich want to go back to the era of the robber barons where their kind dictated terms and common folks were wage slaves with no hope of improving their lives.

NONE of these times were better than right now. So let's get past the fatalistic viewpoint that we're on the edge of destruction and start taking realistic looks at the roots of our problems. Hitler rose to power blaming all the problems on the Jews. He picked some low-hanging fruit for frustrated Germans to focus their fear on. Fear is a piss-poor basis for rational thought.
 
Rohan, my post was in response to the link about "Dexit" and how Germans on the street likely want to spend their tax money on Germany instead of on bail outs for the EU and its PIGS.

And, yes there are bail outs in the US, never said or even suggested otherwise.

As for bank failures, there is no industry on the planet that is more regulated than banking. That was true even in the 19th century and it remains so today. So . . . . that says something about why banks fail. To wit, either the regulations enable it, or they don't work. Since politicians sell regulatory favors to the regulated, I'd say both. The regulators allow fractional reserve banking; that is, they allow lending 10 times or more beyond deposits. They allow banks to create money out of thin air. The politicians solicit the bankers to pay the politicians for the right to do so. Central banks fool with interest rates and that misallocates investment; when rates are forced down there is too much "investment" in stupid projects and when rates are forced up there is too little investment in all projects, including the good and worthy ones.

I have no truck with the Republicans In Name Only, the RINOs, the crony capitalist "Publicans;" they aren't for truly free markets or for true free trade. Just like the Democrats, they sell favors. Politicians have the power and duty to NOT sell favors and that puts the onus on them more than on the crooked guy who pays the bribe. The bribe payer is evil but the bribe taker is always the worse of the two. The politician is the guy who can, and should, say "no."

Danno, yeah things are OK here and in Germany but you have to ask how much better they could be if the fat fingers of the regulatory confiscatory and cronyized state weren't always and ever taking a piece of the producer's pie.
 
Fair enough, I just mentioned it - in case anyone was getting the feeling that their system was above that...

Lately, more than a few commentators have suggested that far too few seem to be getting a share of the pie. ?
Don't know what the solution to that might be, but more than a few wars and revolutions have boiled down to this.
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité and all that. And all the copyists since....

Brexit seems to be notably lacking in detail on how this may pan out for the Brits ?
Meanwhile, the Bank of England is preparing to unleash a flood of ££ to defend themselves from themselves !
Good Luck and toodlepip, we say...
 
Do what the Germans do - no thanks, they have just realised it is about to come crashing down about their ears. Thier system is flawed and to compete Merkel invited 3 million immigrants / refugees in to produce cheap labour - basically what we have done in the past 10 years and so to BREXIT. If we did what they do, then Norton parts would cost a whole lot more rest assured.

Competing with the chinese - yes the UK can do it depending on the volumes involved, but some of the quality coming out of china exceeds what can be produced here sadly. There is even one casting company in the UK that has been bought out and modernised by the chinese - maybe why TATA have pulled the plug on the South Wales steel plant sale, maybe the chinese were eyeing that up too.

Here in the UK we can work out and engineer out the problems associated with BREXIT. We have some excellent engineering companies here - must be good as one place I visit processes parts for the US that I was not allowed to recognise and other parts that are shipped from Boeing, processed and sent back - the comapny is US owned but does not have the capability at it's US plants. There are parts that are made in the UK that Royal Enfield import to India as they have tried and failed to make them of sufficient quality in India.

As for the scams, they have already started - unsurprisingly with the pound so low I can not buy stock from a German company that has a warehouse in the UK 'Sorry no stock of that'' - I bet if I rang up from France they would sell it tomorrow so they get max profit via the UK as they can still bring the product to the UK without duty or tariffs and sell it back into europe. They can choose the currency they wish at the moment to maximise profit

The UK has evolved and I reckon 7 years ahead of the continent in terms of manufacturing - the French and Italians are starting to realise that they can not support and susidise their manufacturing base like they have in the past. Interesting times ahead and the UK is well placed to weather the sunami that will happen in europe - thankfully we will only experience the ripples!!
 
To compete in a world market, you either have to bring the cheap labor in or build factories where they live already. Compare the price of a 961 to a Thruxton R and you'll have a clue. Isn't the newest Triumph factory in Thailand?

We are hearing the same noise here about Hispanic and Middle Eastern immigrants as when the Irish, Italians and freed Africans hit the job market in droves. Gloom and doom and predictions of catastrophe and calamity. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

If you Brits are in any kind of catbird seat, it'll be the first time in a long time. You've always refused to admit being in deep shit even when it was up to your necks. Possibly a great survival instinct, but a pretty tenuous connection with reality. The next two years will tell as your oligarchs scramble to neutralize the effect of the recent referendum. The leader of the LEAVE movement has already abdicated.
 
The English Channel is a great shock absorber against European problems. A well-known British politician once said "The Wogs begin at Calais". Wog is a derogatory name for foreigners, originally used for Africans and an abbreviation of the word "Golliwog", which was a child's doll in the image of a curly headed African.

Many Brits are annoyed when called "European", since the country has no land connection with any part of Europe.

It will be interesting to see if the UK reverts to its old standards of defining measurements instead of scaling the Metric system. After joining the EU, everything except the mile and the pint were changed to metric measure, though mabye the height of a horse is still in "hands". The cost of changing all the road signs to kilometers was declared too expensive and the government didn't dare tamper with the drinkers' beer measure. You can't ask for five pounds of potatoes at the greengrocery or 10 gallons of petrol for the car. It has to be kilograms and liters. I think people still talk about vehicle fuel consumption in "mpg" rather than "litres per 100 kilometers".
 
Some consolation - in France last weekend beer was sold in pints and the toilets are like those designed by Thomas Crappa - looks like they know a good thing when they try it!
 
frankdamp said:
The cost of changing all the road signs to kilometers was declared too expensive and the government didn't dare tamper with the drinkers' beer measure.

I remember a letter in the local paper when UK metrification had just begun.
Someone had left a note out asking the milkman for 1136 cc of milk.
In the morning, nothing there !
When he rang and asked what happened, the milkman said he didn't know what that was.
2 pints, of course.

Metrification hadn't really happened...
 
Away for too long - or not long enough Frank? You can order stuff by weight in lbs or kgs, there is no law to say you have to use either. The failure to change stuff like road signs was taken before the EU existed and was a sign of the economic weakness of the UK as a solitary entity.

And please lets not return to the overt racist past - hopefully gone, but not forgotten,because history is something you should learn from.
In case fox news finds it not the sort of thing it wants to report - although many of its viewers may think it good thing - there has been a massive jump in racist and fascist attacks since the referendum, something like 30+%.

The British Isles exist on the European continental shelf, and until a few thousand years ago were indeed very much part of the European land mass, with a walkable connection.
We are also ethnically and culturally part of the European continent - where do you think all the "true" British or English/Scottish/Welsh people came from?
 
nickguzzi said:
You can order stuff by weight in lbs or kgs, there is no law to say you have to use either.

"Order" yes, but the seller had to use metric units.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1826503.stm

The men were brought to court after the government complied with European metrication directives by making it a criminal offence in 2000 to weigh and sell goods in imperial measures.


It is legal for customers to ask for goods by the pound and to know what goods cost by the pound, but the trader has to deal in kilogrammes when weighing goods for sale.
 
And as we have seen, the people who thought it mattered at all have decided to bring the world down on us.
 
frankdamp said:
The English Channel is a great shock absorber against European problems. A well-known British politician once said "The Wogs begin at Calais". Wog is a derogatory name for foreigners, originally used for Africans and an abbreviation of the word "Golliwog", which was a child's doll in the image of a curly headed African.

Many Brits are annoyed when called "European", since the country has no land connection with any part of Europe.

Frankdamp, The British have several good reasons to leave the EU, xenophobia is NOT one of them imo.
 
nickguzzi said:
And as we have seen, the people who thought it mattered at all have decided to bring the world down on us.

The sky hasn't fallen in yet and I doubt it actually will. No doubt we shall muddle through as usual.
 
Problem now is, that on mainland Europe, the negative aspects of Brexit are overexposed by the media, and our media are largely controlled by leftists ane europhiles.
 
I was one of the first intake to be taught the Metric system at school, but still order my cold meats from the Deli in 1/4 pounds and get served too :mrgreen: . Its an odd mix and you have to be able to go either way, never did like temps in F and in C its easy, 0 is ice, 100 is boiling water but stones and pounds for a person's weight is stuck in my head and even lbs only let alone Kg as a person's weight and it does not register but show me a pallet and tell me its 200kg and then I know its light for a fork lift.
 
Either or for me, just done a CAD course and the instructor was amazed when I said it did not matter what I used inches or mm - they are just set in units with the relevant number of decimal places, the same drawing will be produced as if you used mm or inches in model space - it's just a number, scaling or plotting to produce the item, then obviously it would matter. He would convert a paper drawing from inches to mm because that was they way he had always done it.

As a diesel submariner and then nuclear, Gallons, Litres, Bar and PSI are exactly that I don't convert them in my head - I know what they are. As for the UK using the old measurements, why bother, just use what we have now. And when America rule the world, we may end up with that real oddity - the English Gallon that is used which as we all know is nothing like what we use here!

Now we have a new PM role on BREXIT.
 
Madnorton said:
Either or for me, just done a CAD course and the instructor was amazed when I said it did not matter what I used inches or mm - they are just set in units with the relevant number of decimal places, the same drawing will be produced as if you used mm or inches in model space - it's just a number, scaling or plotting to produce the item, then obviously it would matter.

Correct, it doesn't matter IF THE SYSTEM EMPLOYED IS CLEARLY IDENTIFIED ON THE DRAWING!!!

Also, I much prefer a scale legend that includes a ruled, dimensioned reference. That way, if a copy of a print-out is made, and then subsequently scaled, it can be cross-checked. That is THE FIRST thing I look for on a hard copy drawing, scale/reference.
 
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