Westministenders: The Truth Isn't A Made Up Concept

[RedToothBrush]

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

Not George Orwell but often attributed to him. But a powerful statement with resonance nonetheless

BigChoc
I studied oversupply in the European Car manufacturing market
......
at O Level in 1979 !!!!

....saying the Falkland Islanders were British after all. ....But the Chagos Islanders weren't.

Ooh, let me guess. The Falkland Islanders had white skins, and the Chagos Islanders brown? No, it couldn't be that, could it?

Consumers don't buy cars as often and the markets are saturated

Ah now, the Brexiters have the answer to that. Turn the clock back to at least the 1970s when British made cars were crap and fell apart, and bingo - we all need to keep replacing them.

Don't turn the clock back much further, because early 20th century cars were sturdily built.

I expect many firms, large & small, to take advantage of the Coronavirus crisis and make a large number of people reducancy

but the real opportunity for them is that they can legally sack - without paying reducancy - all those workers, mostly women,
who can't continue working because of the gaps in previous childcare, including those who had relied on GPs

Also those who are shielded or the nervous vulnerable, who cannot / are refused WFH

We will likely see firms taking the opportunity to get rid of everyone who has had a lot of sick leave, those aged 50+,
women with kids or of child-bearing age, anyone they think of as (potentially) less productive,
or just those whose faces don't fit

reducancy redundant

I've seen a couple of "20" plate cars while driving around over the last couple of months.
Every one was being driven badly (too fast / swerving / too close)
Therefore I conclude that people who feel the need to buy new cars at the moment are wazzocks

Consumers don't buy cars as often and the markets are saturated

The same for a lot of things - especially tech. Hence my running a 5 year old phone.

There needs to be a fundamental shift in the concepts of "growth". Which should not come as a shock to anyone who has been using a brain cell these past 15 years. The problem is even the people who did see it coming were forced to play the rigged game with the people who didn't (or wouldn't).

The post Covid landscape of geo-economics will be fascinating if not comfortable. The idea that around the world disparate political systems might suddenly wake up in unison and say "Huh ?" is probably the one thing the go-for-broke-growth-merchants never dreamed could possibly happen.

Nissan have shares in Renault (43% i think) so if they pull the plug this side of the channel it's not difficult to see where they would move the european base to.

also

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey tells banks to ramp up plans for a no-deal Brexit
www.standard.co.uk/business/bank-of-england-governor-bailey-tells-banks-to-plan-for-nodeal-brexit-a4458341.html

LQ You've met my neighbour?🚗🚦🚑🛠

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey tells banks to ramp up plans for a no-deal Brexit

Of course, "people" who have 3-4 year old bets on Brexit going to no-deal are going to make a killing.

The only upside is a no-deal Brexit will have as many - if not more - unforeseen and unintended consequences than Covid.

Therefore I conclude that people who feel the need to buy new cars at the moment are wazzocks

We are in the market for buying a new car in the near future.

My car is 8 years old and DH isn't using his as much (and wasn't prelockdown) so we are planning to go to one small car. I currently have a small city car, but we will probably go one size up from that. It will not be a 'badged' purchase but a practical purchase.

We've saved a fair amount during lockdown too so it seems a sensible move as we don't want the hassle of constantly fixing something that is starting to beyond unreliable.

Strangely enough our area isn't big on badged vehicles. People have put money into houses and don't need a status car too.

I haven't bought a new car for almost 30 years.
My last one was 18 months old, less than 4000 miles, from one of those car warehouses that shift vast quantities of nearly new with minimal profit margins.
Cost me almost 50% off price at new.
That's alot of extra cash for a new plate.

I send to get a new car every 6 months through work. The novelty soon wears off.

RTB
I would never buy a new car.
DH's most recent car had 8000 miles on the clock when we bought it
for half the list price
It was 16 months old and came with the remains of a 5 year free service plan [wow]
the man who bought it new really was a wazzock

There are going to be some real bargains in nearly new cars. Grab one

Will people need as many cars in a WFH future ? The "demand" for a second car in many households is only created by the need for one-for-work and one-for-school-runs.

Of course a collapse - or even reduction in WFO would lead to a slump in the rents on commercial properties and a potential refactoring of the property market as land previously held by high-rent high prestige offices joins that prime high-street real estate in competing for survival.

If commercial property contracts then the rates gouged from them also contracts - less money for Rishi.

Of course a lot of this could be delayed by tinkering with market forces. But given that's allegedly socialist, I can't see too many Tories gladhanding that. (Although trying to convince me the Tories are in any way less interventionist than Labour would be aking to convincing me the earth is flat ...)

*used (not send)

LQ I'm intending to grab one. My car is nearly 4 years old, but I have the money to get something newer and lower mileage.

BA is only one so far intending to do this. It's taking government money for furlough (35 mill in April alone) and then threatening the workers with redundancy

I don't have an issue with that. That's what furlough is for. Encouraging companies to keep staff with the hope that they will be able to carry on after the lockdown. It avoids a massive influx of unemployed people during the lockdown, support companies. But I don't think that anyone thought that it also meanst said companies wouldn't make people redundant once the furlough is over (I suspect this will sart in July when companies are supposed to start paying some of the wages as well as pensions).
If the furlough scheme hadnt been there many companies, not just BA, would just have made people redundant from the word go. Think retail shops, some manufacturing, builders etc etc etc

What isn't right is to make people redudnnant and then taking them on again at a reduced wage..... I thought this wasn't legally possible.

Will people need as many cars in a WFH future ? The "demand" for a second car in many households is only created by the need for one-for-work and one-for-school-runs.

Dh cycles and wants to do more but his current office didn't really have facilities for it. The company is moving in the new year and will do so he intends to do so more. DS's school is quicker to walk to than drive. Lockdown has proved I don't need a car as much as I thought and I don't want to get back into the habit of multiple supermarket visits / shop visits.

We've saved loads and that with me going slightly mental in buying gardening stuff (something we were going to do regardless of lockdown because garden had nothing in it but a lawn when we moved in last year).

I really want to make some long term changes and generally spend less on pointless shit.

We've done a lot of bulk purchasing sharing with a group of friends. The quality has been better. I can see us continuing with that too.

I do think lockdown will make people reflect on lifestyles and what they want to do in the future. Whilst some people will slip back into old habits, we've certainly had long enough to create and get into new ones ourselves.

That's something that retailers and manufacturers are going to have to adjust to. The market post lockdown won't be the same as pre-lockdown and it won't necessarily all be because of the number of people who immediately lose their jobs but because of an invisible restructuring of the market that's gone on during lockdown.

Also it's being reported that a fifth of people are now following lockdown restrictions less strictly because of Mr Cummings... Don't know how true it is, but if that's right it does prove how damaging the incident was.

Dh cycles and wants to do more but his current office didn't really have facilities for it.

Cycles and cars don't mix, and that's an end to it. Roads are not designed or maintained for cyclists. When they are I would happily cycle. No idea what DW could do though ? Watch through a window I guess. So no change there.

TBH the warm sunny weather had as much impact on lockdown as Cummings round here.
The roads are very quiet again now its raining

RTB
I do think car use will fall significantly.
If husbands are taking the car to the station to commute to London two days a week rather than five
then the household can shop on the other three days.
If she is WFH then she can walk the kids to school on the days he is out and vice versa

London cutting free buses for kids will encourage people to go to nearer schools
which will reduce travel

a more fragmented but a cleaner country

I think that is true - his 250 mile jaunt has done incalculable damage.
I still think he will end up "resigning" sooner rather than later.
The backbenchers must be sick to death of him.

Will all those Hong Kong residents want to come to the UK? At a guess, I think they would probably prefer Australia and New Zealand.

Or Vancouver, which is where an enormous number of HK citizens emigrated to leading up to 1997 and where successive waves of immigration from Taiwan and China have made the city very Asian influenced.

However, will people in the UK really want an influx of people who are ethnic Chinese?

That seems highly unlikely, given how thoroughly Britons have been trained to view immigrants as the cause of all their problems.