Brexit, for once some facts.

Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
20,375
16,875
Southend on Sea
wooshbikes.co.uk
Actually it isn't free is it? it has a complex set of rule of it's own, otherwise it would be unable to operate, and we would have to detach ourselves from EU membership and renegotiate with lord knows how many countries and that could take years.
those rules do not concern the products, just the way to conduct trades.
Consumer protection is left to member countries to decide.
That is why WTO regime suits a large number of importers and exporters.
 

anotherkiwi

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 26, 2015
7,845
5,786
The European Union
  • Agree
  • Like
Reactions: robdon and flecc

oldgroaner

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 15, 2015
23,461
32,613
80
those rules do not concern the products, just the way to conduct trades.
Consumer protection is left to member countries to decide.
That is why WTO regime suits a large number of importers and exporters.
And ruin everyone's health for profit.. and make our goods unsaleable to the EU
 
  • Like
Reactions: robdon

oldgroaner

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 15, 2015
23,461
32,613
80
  • :D
  • Like
Reactions: robdon and tommie

oldgroaner

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 15, 2015
23,461
32,613
80
But that's not harmful, the air pollution is.
.
I disagree on so many levels, the disagree button is inadequate
And the reason? this is another case where our Scientists have repeatedly failed to properly understand the nature of the problems that have created, so their assessment of the safety of releasing LLW into the sea can, only if you apply the greatest possible optimism achieve
"Not Proven"
Throughout the debacle of the Atomic Program's history they have repeatedly found to their surprise that they didn't know what they were doing.
Proving the old saying
"Nothing is foolproof to the talented fool"
This Guardian article covers the subject
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/apr/19/sellafield-nuclear-plant-cumbria-hazards

And the final paragraphs apply to the future after Brexit too
"
In fact, Sellafield is a classic illustration of the failure of British industry. We were pioneers of nuclear power but in our desire to build our own atomic weapons, failed abysmally when it came to developing and managing our own civil reactors and reprocessing plants.

As a result, we have been left with a multibillion-pound clean-up bill and the prospect of buying either American or French reactors for our next generation nuclear plants. The lesson of Sellafield is not so much that nuclear power is dangerous but that Britain seems incapable of implementing any long-term engineering plan that comes its way, from high-speed trains to wind turbines or rocket launchers."

My feelings exactly
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: robdon and oyster

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,199
30,603
I disagree on so many levels, the disagree button is inadequate
And the reason? this is another case where our Scientists have repeatedly failed to properly understand the nature of the problems that have created, so their assessment of the safety of releasing LLW into the sea can, only if you apply the greatest possible optimism achieve
"Not Proven"
Throughout the debacle of the Atomic Program's history they have repeatedly found to their surprise that they didn't know what they were doing.
Proving the old saying
"Nothing is foolproof to the talented fool"
This Guardian article covers the subject
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/apr/19/sellafield-nuclear-plant-cumbria-hazards

And the final paragraphs apply to the future after Brexit too
"
In fact, Sellafield is a classic illustration of the failure of British industry. We were pioneers of nuclear power but in our desire to build our own atomic weapons, failed abysmally when it came to developing and managing our own civil reactors and reprocessing plants.

As a result, we have been left with a multibillion-pound clean-up bill and the prospect of buying either American or French reactors for our next generation nuclear plants. The lesson of Sellafield is not so much that nuclear power is dangerous but that Britain seems incapable of implementing any long-term engineering plan that comes its way, from high-speed trains to wind turbines or rocket launchers."

My feelings exactly
I fully agree with your last paragraph but you are mixing up two different things. Just because our scientists, and indeed America's too, have done some things without thinking them through doesn't mean they were always dangerous. Most weren't.

In the course of their mistakes some places on earth have been exposed to extraordinary levels of radiation far in excess of anything going into the Irish Sea, but still without proven harm after many decades and successive generations of people.
.
 
  • Like
Reactions: robdon

oldgroaner

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 15, 2015
23,461
32,613
80
I fully agree with your last paragraph but you are mixing up two different things. Just because our scientists, and indeed America's too, have done some things without thinking them through doesn't mean they were always dangerous. Most weren't.

In the course of their mistakes some places on earth have been exposed to extraordinary levels of radiation far in excess of anything going into the Irish Sea, but still without proven harm after many decades and successive generations of people.
.
I suspect that "without proven harm" is pretty much the same as saying no one has made a connection, but who is to say that is proof none exists?
lots of people have made such claims of connections
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/3920761.stm

I'm sticking with "Not Proven"
 
  • Like
Reactions: robdon

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,199
30,603
I suspect that "without proven harm" is pretty much the same as saying no one has made a connection, but who is to say that is proof none exists?
lots of people have made such claims of connections
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/3920761.stm

I'm sticking with "Not Proven"
Fine, but not when "not proven" is quoted as evidence of harm. Then it's merely innuendo.

Personally I think the safe case is well proven, human lifetimes lived in supposedly lethally dangerous levels of radiation, eating only foods grown in that heavily radiated area while giving birth to and rearing healthy unaffected children into and through adulthood. And that's just one of many examples.

But of course the fanatically anti-nuclear lobby just don't want to know. They just keep on repeating the unproven mantra that any nuclear radiation is dangerous. In that they remind me of Brexiters, blind, prejudiced faith superceding evidence.
.
 

oldgroaner

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 15, 2015
23,461
32,613
80
Fine, but not when "not proven" is quoted as evidence of harm. Then it's merely innuendo.

Personally I think the safe case is well proven, human lifetimes lived in supposedly lethally dangerous levels of radiation, eating only foods grown in that heavily radiated area while giving birth to and rearing healthy unaffected children into and through adulthood. And that's just one of many examples.

But of course the fanatically anti-nuclear lobby just don't want to know. They just keep on repeating the unproven mantra that any nuclear radiation is dangerous. In that they remind me of Brexiters, blind, prejudiced faith superceding evidence.
.
That last paragraph does not apply to me, having contracted Prostate Cancer the use of Radiation Therapy saved my life.

There is nothing prejudiced about my view on this, there exists plenty of quotable evidence that high levels of radiation only improve your life if they are used to kill cancerous cells.
And this is not without taking collateral damage in that process, it has taken me five years to get over Radiation Proctitis resulting from that treatment.
 
  • Like
Reactions: robdon

tillson

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 29, 2008
5,252
3,197
Is there any truth in the following? I know many of the product manufacturing bases have moved whilst we have been EU members, so how can people say that leaving will cost jobs? (All of below is a copy & paste from someone else words).

Cadbury moved factory to Poland 2011 with EU grant.
Ford Transit moved to Turkey 2013 with EU grant.
Jaguar Land Rover has recently agreed to build a new plant in Slovakia with EU grant, owned by Tata, the same company who have trashed our steel works and emptied the workers pension funds.
Peugeot closed its Ryton (was Rootes Group) plant and moved production to Slovakia with EU grant.
British Army's new Ajax fighting vehicles to be built in SPAIN using SWEDISH steel at the request of the EU to support jobs in Spain with EU grant, rather than Wales.
Dyson gone to Malaysia, with an EU loan.
Crown Closures, Bournemouth (Was METAL BOX), gone to Poland with EU grant, once employed 1,200.
M&S manufacturing gone to far east with EU loan.
Hornby models gone. In fact all toys and models now gone from UK along with the patents all with with EU grants.
Gillette gone to eastern Europe with EU grant.
Texas Instruments Greenock gone to Germany with EU grant.
Indesit at Bodelwyddan Wales gone with EU grant.
Sekisui Alveo said production at its Merthyr Tydfil Industrial Park foam plant will relocate production to Roermond in the Netherlands, with EU funding.
Hoover Merthyr factory moved out of UK to Czech Republic and the Far East by Italian company Candy with EU backing.
ICI integration into Holland’s AkzoNobel with EU bank loan and within days of the merger, several factories in the UK, were closed, eliminating 3,500 jobs
Boots sold to Italians Stefano Pessina who have based their HQ in Switzerland to avoid tax to the tune of £80 million a year, using an EU loan for the purchase.
JDS Uniphase run by two Dutch men, bought up companies in the UK with £20 million in EU 'regeneration' grants, created a pollution nightmare and just closed it all down leaving 1,200 out of work and an environmental clean-up paid for by the UK tax-payer. They also raided the pension fund and drained it dry.
UK airports are owned by a Spanish company.
Scottish Power is owned by a Spanish company.
Most London buses are run by Spanish and German companies.
The Hinkley Point C nuclear power station to be built by French company EDF, part owned by the French government, using cheap Chinese steel that has catastrophically failed in other nuclear installations. Now EDF say the costs will be double or more and it will be very late even if it does come online.
Swindon was once our producer of rail locomotives and rolling stock. Not any more, it's Bombardier in Derby and due to their losses in the aviation market, that could see the end of the British railways manufacturing altogether even though Bombardier had EU grants to keep Derby going which they diverted to their loss-making aviation side in Canada.
39% of British invention patents have been passed to foreign companies, many of them in the EU
The Mini cars that Cameron stood in front of as an example of British engineering, are built by BMW mostly in Holland and Austria. His campaign bus was made in Germany even though we have Plaxton, Optare, Bluebird, Dennis etc., in the UK. The bicycle for the Greens was made in the far east, not by Raleigh UK but then they are probably going to move to the Netherlands too as they have said recently.
GKN. A great British business founded in 1759 with an ironworks foundry in South Wales. Recently acquired by assett stripper Melrose who are already planning to sell one of its most important divisions which may take its tech and know how to China.

Anyone who thinks the EU is good for British industry or any other business simply hasn't paid attention to what has been systematically asset-stripped from the UK. Name me one major technology company still running in the UK, I used to contract out to many, then the work just dried up as they were sold off to companies from France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, etc., and now we don't even teach electronic technology for technicians any more, due to EU regulations.

I haven't detailed our non-existent fishing industry the EU paid to destroy, nor the farmers being paid NOT to produce food they could sell for more than they get paid to do nothing, don't even go there.
I haven't mentioned what it costs us to be asset-stripped like this, nor have I mentioned immigration, nor the risk to our security if control of our armed forces is passed to Brussels or Germany.

Find something that's gone the other way, I've looked and I just can't. If you think the EU is a good idea,
1/ You haven't read the party manifesto of The European Peoples' Party.
2/ You haven't had to deal with EU petty bureaucracy tearing your business down.
3/ You don't think it matters.
 

oldgroaner

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 15, 2015
23,461
32,613
80
Is there any truth in the following? I know many of the product manufacturing bases have moved whilst we have been EU members, so how can people say that leaving will cost jobs? (All of below is a copy & paste from someone else words).

Cadbury moved factory to Poland 2011 with EU grant.
Ford Transit moved to Turkey 2013 with EU grant.
Jaguar Land Rover has recently agreed to build a new plant in Slovakia with EU grant, owned by Tata, the same company who have trashed our steel works and emptied the workers pension funds.
Peugeot closed its Ryton (was Rootes Group) plant and moved production to Slovakia with EU grant.
British Army's new Ajax fighting vehicles to be built in SPAIN using SWEDISH steel at the request of the EU to support jobs in Spain with EU grant, rather than Wales.
Dyson gone to Malaysia, with an EU loan.
Crown Closures, Bournemouth (Was METAL BOX), gone to Poland with EU grant, once employed 1,200.
M&S manufacturing gone to far east with EU loan.
Hornby models gone. In fact all toys and models now gone from UK along with the patents all with with EU grants.
Gillette gone to eastern Europe with EU grant.
Texas Instruments Greenock gone to Germany with EU grant.
Indesit at Bodelwyddan Wales gone with EU grant.
Sekisui Alveo said production at its Merthyr Tydfil Industrial Park foam plant will relocate production to Roermond in the Netherlands, with EU funding.
Hoover Merthyr factory moved out of UK to Czech Republic and the Far East by Italian company Candy with EU backing.
ICI integration into Holland’s AkzoNobel with EU bank loan and within days of the merger, several factories in the UK, were closed, eliminating 3,500 jobs
Boots sold to Italians Stefano Pessina who have based their HQ in Switzerland to avoid tax to the tune of £80 million a year, using an EU loan for the purchase.
JDS Uniphase run by two Dutch men, bought up companies in the UK with £20 million in EU 'regeneration' grants, created a pollution nightmare and just closed it all down leaving 1,200 out of work and an environmental clean-up paid for by the UK tax-payer. They also raided the pension fund and drained it dry.
UK airports are owned by a Spanish company.
Scottish Power is owned by a Spanish company.
Most London buses are run by Spanish and German companies.
The Hinkley Point C nuclear power station to be built by French company EDF, part owned by the French government, using cheap Chinese steel that has catastrophically failed in other nuclear installations. Now EDF say the costs will be double or more and it will be very late even if it does come online.
Swindon was once our producer of rail locomotives and rolling stock. Not any more, it's Bombardier in Derby and due to their losses in the aviation market, that could see the end of the British railways manufacturing altogether even though Bombardier had EU grants to keep Derby going which they diverted to their loss-making aviation side in Canada.
39% of British invention patents have been passed to foreign companies, many of them in the EU
The Mini cars that Cameron stood in front of as an example of British engineering, are built by BMW mostly in Holland and Austria. His campaign bus was made in Germany even though we have Plaxton, Optare, Bluebird, Dennis etc., in the UK. The bicycle for the Greens was made in the far east, not by Raleigh UK but then they are probably going to move to the Netherlands too as they have said recently.
GKN. A great British business founded in 1759 with an ironworks foundry in South Wales. Recently acquired by assett stripper Melrose who are already planning to sell one of its most important divisions which may take its tech and know how to China.

Anyone who thinks the EU is good for British industry or any other business simply hasn't paid attention to what has been systematically asset-stripped from the UK. Name me one major technology company still running in the UK, I used to contract out to many, then the work just dried up as they were sold off to companies from France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, etc., and now we don't even teach electronic technology for technicians any more, due to EU regulations.

I haven't detailed our non-existent fishing industry the EU paid to destroy, nor the farmers being paid NOT to produce food they could sell for more than they get paid to do nothing, don't even go there.
I haven't mentioned what it costs us to be asset-stripped like this, nor have I mentioned immigration, nor the risk to our security if control of our armed forces is passed to Brussels or Germany.

Find something that's gone the other way, I've looked and I just can't. If you think the EU is a good idea,
1/ You haven't read the party manifesto of The European Peoples' Party.
2/ You haven't had to deal with EU petty bureaucracy tearing your business down.
3/ You don't think it matters.
Try Toyota Nissan Honda and BMW and the fact that the UK investors moved these businesses you mentioned to be both inside the EU and to benefit from cheap labour inside it.
So what does that make this argument ?
Nonsense is the answer.
By the way the fishing policy was initiated by our government to control fish stocks.
And lets look at the companies involved
Cadburys for a start Great British company? No actually it owned by
Mondelēz International, Inc.

Mondelēz International, Inc. (/ˌmoʊndəˈliːz/),[2] is an American multinational confectionery, food, and beverage company based in Illinois which employs about 107,000 people around the world.

Do you imagine they care a toss for the UK?
Ford ; American
land Rover; indian

The author of this nonsense has missed the Elephant in the room
These companies struggle here and since most of their sales are either into the EU or to countries that have trade agreements with the EU, it makes sense to shorten supply lines and take advantage of EU loans to move.
Why didn't we oppose these movements using our MEP's? the answer of course is that our Government didn't bother , did they, so how is the EU to blame for that?

The UK Government isn't into supporting British industry and never has been other than to sell it to the highest bidder, and they are the ones who having bought it at knock down prices, move from this country to where the going is cheaper.
All of these companies have moved to the EU because there is money to be made there and there isn't a future here.
He or she should be asking why?

lets imagine we have left the EU, Why would they move back? What possible incentive is there to do that? we have lost the biggest market through our own stupidity and can offer them what?
Something that wasn't worth their while staying here for in the first place?

Surely no one is expecting them to be stupid enough to give up a dead cert market for the pie in the sky nonsense of the UK becoming "World class" when they moved because it obviously isn't?

Are we expected to fall for this utter hogwash? it's like a rerun of the Monty Python "What did the Romans do for us?" sketch
But it isn't funny and you can't say "Well there's always the wine"
All we can offer is Sour grapes.
 
Last edited:

oldgroaner

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 15, 2015
23,461
32,613
80
Amazing, something in the Express
"
'UK needs a Robert Mueller inquiry!' - MP DEMANDS probe on Russia meddling in Brexit vote
LEADING Conservative MP Damien Collins has issued a dramatic call for a police investigation into allegations of Russia interference during the Brexit campaign, demanding an inquiry like that led by Robert Mueller in the US.
 
  • Informative
  • Like
Reactions: robdon and oldtom

oyster

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 7, 2017
10,422
14,609
West West Wales
"World class"
I am so sick of that term! Seems to be applied to companies just before major problems surface and they get shown to be no better than others. Or have a gigantic hole in their pension fund.

Funny how Parliament is still asking how we can get world class internet connectivity when we have that revered world class company, BT with its very own pension fund hole...

Establishing world-class connectivity throughout the UK

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmcumeds/147/14702.htm


The ability of the UK to achieve even best practices seem lamentably poor:

Companies with best practice generally perform better than others. To be effective across a whole business, best practice activity needs to be appropriate for the business and deliver a competitive advantage. The efficiency of a company relative to others determines its market share. Finding, adapting and implementing best practice can deliver significant competitive advantage and lead to increased market share.

Within the UK, best practice is most evident within automotive and aerospace companies, followed by plastics and general engineering. It is more prevalent in foreign owned and multinational businesses with UK sites than in domestic companies; and within companies that value and promote education for their employees. There are pockets of individual best practice in some sectors, but UK industry lacks a homogeneous adoption. SME businesses lag behind larger organizations, but all have the opportunity and ability to adopt best practice if the leadership and strategic intent is present. Successful implementation of best practice happens when there is a strategic commitment, top management and workforce engagement, effective communication, and appropriate skills amongst the employees. There is no one prescriptive solution, but each company must assess what is best for them and implement accordingly. The UK has some way to go to achieve best in class performance across the manufacturing sector. However, there is no national or size restriction on adopting best practice to deliver world class performance.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/283895/ep21-manufacturing-best-practice-uk-productivity.pdf

And yes, OG, the bigger issue by far would appear to be globalisation. At least within Europe we have seen some major efforts to improve infrastructure. We might have out own views on some projects, but many Welsh roads have been hugely improved due to EU funding. No-one is going to be able to manufacture in a place without adequate roads and acceptable journey times.
 

oyster

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 7, 2017
10,422
14,609
West West Wales
Amazing, something in the Express
"
'UK needs a Robert Mueller inquiry!' - MP DEMANDS probe on Russia meddling in Brexit vote
LEADING Conservative MP Damien Collins has issued a dramatic call for a police investigation into allegations of Russia interference during the Brexit campaign, demanding an inquiry like that led by Robert Mueller in the US.
I wonder who could take the lead role?


Just adding my first thought when I saw your post: Have you washed your hands properly? :)
 
  • :D
Reactions: robdon

oldtom

Esteemed Pedelecer
This is from a well-known, left-of-centre website and is well-directed towards the millions, well thousands........ok hundreds dozens of nazi extremists who idolise the nasty piece of work who likes to be known as Tommy Robinson.

I'm sure even in these pages, there are some who admire this despicable creature, judging by some of the outlandish, right-wing views expressed and the failure by many to acknowledge the vicious murder of Jo Cox MP by another of that ilk.

'Just a quick reminder to supporters of Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon).
Yaxley-Lennon's first conviction was for violent assault against a policeman who was attempting to stop him from beating up his girlfriend.
Yaxley-Lennon's most recent conviction was for deliberately jeopardising several linked court cases into child sex abuse gangs as a self-publicity stunt.
In between, Yaxley-Lennon has been convicted of mortgage fraud, contempt of court, more assault, and the use of a false passport and fake identity documents.
If you're idolising a violent serial criminal as some kind of folk hero simply because you agree with the bigoted extreme-right nonsense he spews, you need to give your head a wobble don't you?
And if you're a mainstream media journalist giving this violent lawless thug a platform because you think you'll get lots of clicks out of it, you should be utterly ashamed of yourself.'

Tom
 
Last edited:

Advertisers