Westminstenders: Tachographs and Empty Shelves

[pointythings]

So Grant Shapps' solution to the shortage of lorry drivers is to allow them to drive longer hours.

Leading to more accidents and deaths on the UK's roads. But Brexit is Job Done and all is well - isn't it?

DGR That Ian Hislop R4 series is terrific. I’m rationing listening to eke it out - I listen only while ironing sheets (which I do, not because I’m an ironer, but because it’s the best way to ensure they’re properly dry off the line when the weather is less than sunny. But I get the added advantage of lovely smooth sheets as well!).

@borntobequiet

DGR That Ian Hislop R4 series is terrific. I’m rationing listening to eke it out - I listen only while ironing sheets (which I do, not because I’m an ironer, but because it’s the best way to ensure they’re properly dry off the line when the weather is less than sunny. But I get the added advantage of lovely smooth sheets as well!).

Funnily enough I knocked off the first two episodes today, while driving.

It's almost at every turn you are being reminded that far from being at the arse end of Europe - no matter what the pea-brained Brexiteers delusions may be - Britain has never not been part of the wider continent. From Phoenicians trading wine for tin, to finest English wool commanding a premium.

In much the same way the Augustinian missionaries were shocked (and later had to erase from history) the lively existing Christian church in Britain, the arrival of the Romans was not some sort of shock and awe moment for the local tribes. Some of whom may even have spoken some sort of cod Latin picked up from cross channel trade.

In fact, in recent reflection, I found myself wondering that maybe the reason the US has less in common with Britain than some people may think is because ultimately the US is not an island but a fucking continent.

In the episode I listened to today, an expert explained how connected the world was even then, with kings of Mercia modelling coins on examples from Muslim kingdoms - even down to copying (incorrectly) the Arabic inscriptions on them.

Mercia itself was later written out by rival Anglo-Saxon kingdoms “like Trotsky”, according to the programme

It's interesting that funerary rites are keystones of archaeology. Especially since the HS2 excavations in Brum managed to turn up some mysteries in burials that are less than two centuries old - which you'd think would be heavily documented.

Funny people don't seem so willing to express themselves in death as they do life. I like the idea of a crouch burial myself.

Incidentally, speaking of Mercia ... if anyone is passing through Brum in the next few days I can't recommend the art installation "Gratitude" highly enough. Although it's on tour soon.

thisisgratitude.co.uk/

Mrs Rossetti and I had our first post-Covid day out since March 2020, and I'm not afraid to admit I became very choked up.

It's almost at every turn you are being reminded that far from being at the arse end of Europe - no matter what the pea-brained Brexiteers delusions may be - Britain has never not been part of the wider continent.

My impression is that a lot of Brexiters think that the UK is some islands of the east coast of the USA - a bit to the south west of Iceland and somewhere east of New York in latitude.

Long distance trade links existed in the early Neolithic - I was once at an excavation on the edge of the Bodensee, where you can see Switzerland on the other side, and we found a flint scraper that was absolutely made of flint from the mine at Rijckholt in the south of the Netherlands. Europe was never all that big.

@pointythings

Long distance trade links existed in the early Neolithic - I was once at an excavation on the edge of the Bodensee, where you can see Switzerland on the other side, and we found a flint scraper that was absolutely made of flint from the mine at Rijckholt in the south of the Netherlands. Europe was never all that big.

There was a fascinating BBC doc a few years ago that showed a map of Europe with the land removed and rivers highlighted. They really were the motorways of old. Connected everywhere

The semi-precious stones in the Staffordshire hoard clearly show there was a sophisticated and reliable trade to and from the rest of Europe and Asia in the so called "Dark Ages". In fact it was probably easier to import some garnet then than it is now, in post-Brexit Britain.

We visited the Great Orme copper mine in Llandudno this summer. It was one of the biggest mines in Europe, and Bronze Age weapons made with Great Orme copper have been found at sites in France and the Netherlands.

I read today about Ireland's official languages bill.
coincidence that's it's proposed to be rolled out a few years earlier than originally planned?

@pointythings, I read recently about a hoard of silver coins from the Carolingian Empire which had been found in Poland, perhaps lost en route to Scandinavia.

I'm very hopeful that the official languages bill will be enacted and I'll be able to use the fada in my name on my passport.

The target dates for implementation are a response to criticism that the bill was yet another example of lip service to the Irish language, with no concrete goals or target dates, and no mechanism by which to measure effects.

The silver hoard was found near Truso on the Vistula estuary.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truso
In the 9th century, the merchant Wulfstan of Hedeby travelled to Truso in the service of the English King Alfred the Great and wrote his account of the place at a prominent location of the Amber Road, which attracted merchants from central and southern Europe, who supplied the markets in the Mediterranean and the Middle East with the highly valued commodity...

... Truso was situated in a central location upon the Eastern European trade routes, which led from Birka in Sweden via Visby on the island of Gotland towards the southern Baltic Sea shore, where in the 13th-century the Hanseatic city of Elbing was established. From there, trade continued further south along the Amber Road to Carnuntum in the Alps. These ancient roads led further south-west and south-east to the Black Sea and eventually to North Africa and the Middle East.[3] Gimbutas has observed that

<span class="italic">'For Old Prussia, Truso played the same central role as Haithabu for north-western Germany or the Slavic Vineta for Pomerania'.[2]</span>

East–western trade routes lead from Truso and Wiskiauten (a rival trading centre in Old Prussia, at the south-western corner of the Courish Lagoon), along the Baltic Sea to Jutland and from there up the Slien inlet to Haithabu (Hedeby), the large trading center in Jutland. This town, located close to the modern city of Schleswig in Schleswig-Holstein, was centrally located and could be reached from all four directions over land as well as from the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.[1][4]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truso#/media/File:Amber_Road.jpg

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So the shops are running out of food because of the shortage of HGV drivers, but meanwhile the Government thinks that it's more important to tinker with GDPR.

I assume that this is to show how we 'make our own laws'- except we will probably find that we can't tinker all that much. A little like how we have extended the CE marking for another year - making our own regulations there doesn't seem to have been the sterling success the Brexiters promised.

They can't tinker very much because they need to maintain data flows between us and the EU. So whatever it is will be cosmetic and expensive - sort of a Brexit Botox GDPR.

Exactly my point, pointythings - when there are things which desperately need to be sorted out.....

Were we really expecting better from this government? You get what you vote for oh no, I'm not bitter and most of the electorate seem perfectly content because you know, Jeremy Corbyn. Or something.

This going to be another UKCA. An extra layer of accreditation for UK companies to have to pay for, when they'll still have to have the CE accreditation in order to trade with most of the rest of the world.

And, frankly, it'll be done in such a way as to allow Tory donors to sell all our personal information to whomever they want.

@Peregrina

So the shops are running out of food because of the shortage of HGV drivers, but meanwhile the Government thinks that it's more important to tinker with GDPR.

I assume that this is to show how we 'make our own laws'- except we will probably find that we can't tinker all that much. A little like how we have extended the CE marking for another year - making our own regulations there doesn't seem to have been the sterling success the Brexiters promised.

With data equivalence, I notice as with the Lugano situation, the UK has taken it upon itself to tell the EU what it needs to do next.

And in further government news, NHS trusts (along with government ministers, obviously) have been told to describe building work on existing sites as ‘new hospitals’

Sajid Javid declares new hospital open in his kitchen after applying plaster to cut on his finger

And in further government news, NHS trusts (along with government ministers, obviously) have been told to describe building work on existing sites as ‘new hospitals’

I suppose you could try to argue that the unit is 'new' if it could stand alone - so a new maternity or children's wing might just pass that test. The key thing is will the public buy it - especially Johnson's favourite Red Wall? Favourite in the sense of making announcements which he thinks will pander to them, not actually doing anything to 'level up'.

@Peregrina

And in further government news, NHS trusts (along with government ministers, obviously) have been told to describe building work on existing sites as ‘new hospitals’

I suppose you could try to argue that the unit is 'new' if it could stand alone - so a new maternity or children's wing might just pass that test. The key thing is will the public buy it - especially Johnson's favourite Red Wall? Favourite in the sense of making announcements which he thinks will pander to them, not actually doing anything to 'level up'.

WEll it's a new day every fucking morning ...

And in further government news, NHS trusts (along with government ministers, obviously) have been told to describe building work on existing sites as ‘new hospitals’

And are we still at war with Eastasia? I can't keep up.

That Independent article is chilling - Trust press releases to be vetted by the DoH - WTAF?

Fishing fiasco
Vaccines fiasco
Car manufactures closing in the UK
Supermarket shortages
No fruit pickers
Top Brexit businessmen packing up their UK offices for oversea (Dison etc)
Shortages at Nandos, KFC, Greggs etc
EU friends that have lived here for ages, had to apply for status even though their kids are born here
Increase in postal prices to EU etc.
My vodaphone bill went sky high when my DC went overseas recently, despite them not making any calls, just using data.

Sorry to not have read the full thread, but I am still to see the advantages on Brexit. So that's it, that's my post as a fed up UK resident.