| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| dpack |
i have no idea what you might need buti have been getting stuff that is in the uk that soon will be much more expensive or unavailabledrill bits, camera stuff(yep, one of the last two grips in the uk), consumables like abrasive paper and rechargeable batteries light bulbs was done a while back ummm  
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| gz |
Very sensible. My brother has been doing this since 2016.... |
| dpack |
sensible chap, that was when i started on LV solar and portable +water purifying stuff
i just added sous vide vacpack bags (guess where i had to cull the dubious typo of"g"  ) and more silicon carbide papers
a couple of months ago the direct from china route was getting impossible(covid, brexit and a lot of containers being stored rather than returned has made the iron silk road and huge boat thing difficult) a cubic meter of bogroll has never seemed vital, regardless of popular opinion, food is always available even if it has to be small, spineless and wriggling(eating a gove might make me gag but prepping it would be fun) and strangely there have been some rather nice bonus buys in the food department(langoustine tails at £15 a kilo is rather nice)as the top end catering and export stuff is stuffed. i have been getting nice local meat from the catering and farm shop folk delivered(hence vacbags) etc this is a slightly odd but understandable problem i still have, replacing my 1 litre saucepan is an issue, a good one at a decent price may be a footnote in history
stuff like drill bits, well decent ones, are very much fear of being left out considering where such things get made. the brexit lies of "buy britsh, it bee best" fell at the first fence as there is very little i need manufactured in the uk, unless i went shopping for half decent ordinance 
when the cccp fell to bits and into the hands of kleptocratic oligarchs the cubans who had been looked after with assorted supplies were in deep trouble, hence window boxes of veg and chooks on the balcony clucking rumbas , the ex soviet locals in eurasia had a lot of problems as well. the uk is not quite at that stage yet unless you have no money(like many) but it seems to be heading that way i recon we are only a couple of degrees of separation from "failed state status" |
| Slim |
I'm sure the trade deals will be coming. Prices may not ever be as low again for the quality expected, but it'll likely be closer to normal after getting worse for a bit.
Our country has no reason to not want to sell to you. |
| dpack |
i like quality and a bargain
much as i respect things like milwarkee power tools(ace kit but not cheap although considering how strong they are they are a bargain if they get a lot of use) the extra 40%£ on a decent camembert is unlikely to be offset by cheap orange cheese(no offence to "mother" who became a proper cheese maker) getting one of the last two , "in country" battery grips that fit my camera japanese brand but made in china before they were either unavailable or far more expensive made sense was rather revealing of current and probably ongoing conditions decent abrasive papers, well EU or china, either have now become more expensive or difficult
there is scope for "free trading" at a profit, much like the old school thing of television sets, cornflakes, cows and fuel etc over the english border in ireland or the good folk of kernow with brandywine and tobacco from france when german george got worried about revolutions sanctions have advantages, but they come with a risk, the disadvantages hit most folk hard while typing this i started to wonder how this will impact on basmati rice "self" imposed sanctions are stupid and deserve the contempt i have for them 
there is also outgoing, i have some rather nice old ceramics i want to sell on, confining me to a domestic market without export barriers and vastly extra costs for globally would have been better
a pandemic, even handled like the uk scumgov have, is a blip, making global sales harder long term is no way to make england great again. |
| Shane |
If EU exporters to the UK have lost enough sales, they will presumably open up UK distribution centres, the same as UK exporters to the continent are having to do in the EU (shutting down half their UK operations and moving them to the EU, with the associated "transfer" of employee headcount - see here).
I predict less EU exporters opening up shop in the UK than the inverse, as they can still sell to their biggest market with no trade barriers so the percentage hit in turnover is far, far lower and may not justify the additional hassle. |
| dpack |
from btl
Tim1960 5m ago 0 1 This is interesting: Michael M. @vivamjm It might be worse than "economists warned about" but not worse than we mere (ex) Freight Fowarding/Customs Agents tried to warn of.... https://eand.co/congrats-america-youre-not-the-dumbest-country-in-the-world-anymore-britain-is-badad4d64754">https://eand.co/congrats-america-youre-not-the-dumbest-country-in-the-world-anymore-britain-is-badad4d6475">https://eand.co/congrats-america-youre-not-the-dumbest-country-in-the-world-anymore-britain-is-badad4d64754 The reality of Brexit is much, much worse than we economists warned about. It goes like this. The British economy is starting to shut down like a heart attack. Europe is simply stopping sending goods to Britain, and Britain to Europe. The costs involved have soared from “nothing” to “impossible.” ... Faced with mountains of paperwork for each shipment, businesses are just giving up, throwing their hands up in despair. And that means a) mass unemployment, as they go bankrupt b) shortages and c) higher prices. Sound dire? It is. British people are shocked, suddenly — after voting for Brexit — to discover that ordering stuff from Europe, which used to be as simple as a click, now comes with massive taxes, customs, and suspicious “handling charges,” which they have to pay, or else. Charges that easily add 25% to 50% to the cost of basic things. And while we economists warned Brexit would make Brits poorer, even we underestimated the effect. We thought tariffs would rise, but we didn’t think that trade would come to a sudden stop, which means mass unemployment and shortages and higher prices are all exploding. That’s the worst case scenario, and it’s fast becoming real. There's more. Much more. Pointing out, with some digs at the sort of entitled twats who pushed this lunacy, the catastrophic effect of a nation imposing sanctions on itself in a fit of nationalistic delusion. Only now it isn't Project Fear, it's Project Here and Now. |
| dpack |
ps sending gifts or goods to the eu now has restrictions, taxes, tariffs and extra handling charges as well
there was a notice on the postal self-service machine in the post office mentioning it and to ask at the counter if that was the destination as an aside the city centre was not a ghost town, mcdonalds had quite a few unmasked teens milling about etc, more than half the shops are shut an extra 15% are empty, no tourists who usually are most of the footfall, getting a key cut or shoe mended might be tricky, few workers etc to buy the assorted fast food snacks even if they are open many have shut dismal
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| dpack |
pps stock up on things already in the uk now seems even more sensible as this deliberate disaster/stupidity voter's consequences develops.
37% voters and 43% of the votes are not mandates |
| Slim |
It's all gone according to plan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics
It just wasn't our plans. It's crazy how in the open their planning has been, and how little that has mattered |
| dpack |
umm fascinating, fairly obvious in effect in some places such as here where a combo of useful idiots and easily bought politicals(also useful idiots for the most part cos they have been very cheap to buy) seem to have enacted the uk part of things.
re planning openly, another branch of the same firm(big fossil and milkit+some locals) planned redrawing the map of the middle east in shade but not darkness has had considerable success. i dought the average "red wall new tory" or brexit voter even has the reading skills* let alone the analytical ones to see how they have been duped at a domestic level, let alone at a geopolitical one(that summat about places and rocks ? might be beyond many of them)
give them three word slogans and a flag/face colour/comforting lie or fear to follow, and they are easy meat odd this is in shopping, but it is as relevant here as everywhere
*sun readers have an average RA expected of a 9 year old, even grauniad readers only get up to 14 year old standards, how those who get their info from facesell groups and assorted "blacksites" fit on that metric i do not know ( i cannot be bothered with uppercase on DS but i do know how to use it and punctuation etc and spellcheck is very ace, but i can write a dissertation or post for strangers in a formal way, read technical stuff and analyse smoke and mirrors to establish the most likely truths )
the average brexit voter considers anyone with a book without 20 pictures and 40 words in the house metropolitan elite sorry to rant but living in an idiocracy is a bit annoying. |
| Slim |
Are tariffs reducing Brawndo consumption?
*It has electrolytes! |
| dpack |
no idea, such things were popular but that is a brand/generic/satire name we do not have afaik
monster and redbull are two with names that were popular here sugar, caffeine,taurine, i prefer meth although i decided i was too old for artificial bouncy and daft a long while back
a nice coffee is about as class A upper as i get |
| Slim |
Have you not actually seen idiocracy?!
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| dpack |
no, i will seek it out
i do live in one, putting this crew into power only took around 40% of the votes, i assume most of those were under average intelligence rather than in line for some very nice kleptocratic contracts admittedly corbyn was unelectable for a variety of reasons but that reflects badly on the intelligence/judgement of those in the plp at the time who believed they could gain power with a lexit platform |
| dpack |
one for my "to do"reading list
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| Slim |
no, i will seek it out
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It's not exactly high art... But beyond being funny if you don't mind some stupid humor, it does ring true for the previous four years here in America, and was clearly meant to be social commentary (by the creator of beavis and butthead and king of the hill).
i have several million words i intend to or should read, but it comes in far faster than one distracted old chap can manage
trading two
that is just local over a few waves, how the now voided long distance trading stuff will impact on us i have no idea as many of the trade deals we had for that were as part of the EU and are now void
covid has hidden quite a bit of this as trade has been hit by that globally although as mentioned new tariffs apply to parts in things so things direct will have similar issues
exporting antiques is almost certain to have extra layers of complexity and costs to many places that were fairly simple in or outside the EU
i really do not care if a brexit voter gets harmed by it but to harm those who saw these issues and voted accordingly is unforgivable
i recon i was wise to get my canon (and other) bits while i could
just for fun i wonder how the racist/xenophobic brexit fans will feel when up to 5 million hongkongers with british overseas passports arrive over the next couple of years, badly i expect, although many of the britHK folk might decide other places are a better idea
just dont tell em about the terms of any trade deal that might be made with india
however i did get the dremel router adapter and a selection of wood cutting bits to go with it(i have plenty for metals and stones)
it has only taken a bit over a year
i must have another go at getting a milling vice that is dremel size, huge ones are easy
a very nice engineers set out protractor for bevel edges was actually available when i knew i needed one
tis nice and ace value, some of the reviews were funny as they got upset it was what it was and not a joiners bevel gauge or carpenter's square
"it would not lie flat on the board" is marvellous, spose if they could not mark it they did not risk using a circular saw
the hounds dried chicken, non sorbitol or glycerine version, is unavailable at least until august
"things" are available with patience, grab the best available if it is needed now. ummm
i do not know what "normal" things are like to source at the mo, im not much of a customer for branded food stuffs, fashion etc
tools and materials seem to need more work to procure, fresh foods are more limited and expensive, food is more random with a smaller product range at any instant, apparently getting the "widget" on time is a bit difficult if you need "widgets" to make what you make, that can be parts or consumables
my current city always adapts but it is short of footfall to be thriving
my home town, always in the top 3 worst towns in the UK rankings
, is not looking in the slightest prosperous.
the early 80's ex industrial landscape was apocalyptic, now it is the 90's and noughties service industries that have lost their trades and are providing derelict spaces like rotten teeth, almost all "shopping" areas have a significant amount of unused premises, public services have not been decimated they have been reduced to less than one third of 15 years ago
if you know how to madmax shop it is quite a good hunting ground
this is rather disturbing, dog treats, as i mentioned the dried chicken is from the reserves so we got some bunny ears, popular and we are into bag 3 or 4, we just got one out with a 10 letter and number code tattooed on it, even peeled and dried the lettering is quite crisp, not a post mortem mark
why would a bunny have a serial number? and should it be in the hound's food chain?
gulp, modern shopping just got very weird while i was typing this