Current Affairs

[david63]

Shoppers told there is no need to panic buy (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57924264)

Yeah, right - that's not going to happen then!

[Kendhni]

Made no difference when we were in it. The French just waved them through. Built them camps handy for Eurostar and ferry terminals. And as far as I'm concerned their country of origin is France. This is their problem not ours and it's about time they addressed it instead of the usual Gallic shrig.

Reality dictates otherwise

[Manoverboard]

Shoppers told there is no need to panic buy (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57924264)

Yeah, right - that's not going to happen then!

I have assumed that Iceland's problem is that holiday makers are filling their holiday stay freezers.

[Kendhni]

Shoppers told there is no need to panic buy (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57924264)

Yeah, right - that's not going to happen then!

Telling someone not to panic buy guarantees they will.
It has been happening for a while. My Tesco delivery, which was originally for just under £60, ended up costing me £11.47 after all non-available items were removed ... a very disappointing haul this week.

Fortunately we are still working our way through the carnage we had last year without a kitchen ... I just kept putting in the same weekly order having no idea what we actually had since the entire contents of our kitchen including food and bathroom was buried in a room upstairs ... when we finally got around to sorting it all out the most valuable item in our house was the mound of toilet rolls (I think it was close to 300).

[barney]

I sometimes wonder if I live in an alternative universe, because I went to Tesco yesterday and every shelf looked normal and all bar two youngsters wore masks.
We do love a good old knee jerk to every situation.

It’s a bit like some getting their knickers in a twist about the NI protocol.
The deal was signed.
It was a poor deal but non the less, it was agreed and signed by both parties.

So now, the halfwits have realised that they are going to be barred from sending meat products to NI.
It’s always been the case that chilled meat etc cannot enter the Eu from a third country and NI is considered part of the Eu single market.

So, the media have made light of it by calling it sausage gate. It’s not sausages, it all fresh chilled meat including the ham in an M&S sandwich and Turkeys.

There are only three options available in my opinion.
The Eu capitulate. Unlikely.
The U.K. rip up the agreement. Possibly.
The U.K. abide by what they signed and U.K. companies stop exporting chilled meat products to NI. Most likely.

Given that NI voted to remain as part of the Eu, it could hopefully be a significant step in the reunification of Ireland.
Our politicians made a huge mistake a hundred years ago and we are still picking the bill up for it.

[Stephen]

Just seen on the beeb news that the Home Secretary wants to pay the French to improve their border security to stop migrants crossing. Unbelievable

We should be fining the bl**dy French not giving them hand outs to do the job they’re already paid to do.

If a load of migrants were trying to leave England to get to France would you stop them?

No, because they can filter out across the whole of Europe, whereas coming to the UK that is it, a one way trip to a country that can only take so many migrants. There has to come a point when enough is enough and the border security in France need to be held to account, but not to the cost of us.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Just seen on the beeb news that the Home Secretary wants to pay the French to improve their border security to stop migrants crossing. Unbelievable

We should be fining the bl**dy French not giving them hand outs to do the job they’re already paid to do.

If a load of migrants were trying to leave England to get to France would you stop them?

No, because they can filter out across the whole of Europe, whereas coming to the UK that is it, a one way trip to a country that can only take so many migrants. There has to come a point when enough is enough and the border security in France need to be held to account, but not to the cost of us.

Agreed. But while we're daft enough to pay they'll let us.

[Manoverboard]

The French should send them back to the Country where they entered the EU ... that's the rule as I understand it. Problem is that some of the Greek Islands could sink

[Kendhni]

The French should send them back to the Country where they entered the EU ... that's the rule as I understand it. Problem is that some of the Greek Islands could sink

That WAS the rule ,,, but we chose not to apply it ... then we chose not to have it all.
So now we are legally obliged to follow the 1951 convention.

[Gill W]

I see that the ‘empty shelves’ thing has finally made it into the mainstream media.

I haven’t mentioned if before, as people would have got testy about it, but this has been building for several months.

Unfortunately, the original cause of this was Brexit related. Delays with shipping, EU people no longer work here in haulage and manufacturing and agriculture have all contributed to this.

Empty shelves, especially in the fruit and veg sections have been widely reported, and less choice in other product lines and higher prices.

This is now exacerbated by the growing wave of the pandemic.

On a superficial level, people who didn’t know this was happening probably haven’t noticed.. I have most of my shopping delivered and apart from some substitutions and the week I didn’t get any milk, I haven’t noticed too much difference. However, I like to get a few things from M&S, and, if you know what to look for, it’s clear that there is something going on. Our local M&S had a new food hall in summer 2019. In 2019 and 2020, there were mounds of beautiful tomatoes and fruits. Now, looking superficially, it looks ok, until you realise there’s very little choice of fruit and tomatoes, but piles of potatoes and carrots instead. When you go round the store, it is apparent that gaps are appearing on shelves, sometimes the staff try to hide this by careful arrangement of the goods that they do have in stock

My Brexit store cupboard came in handy when there was a demand problem in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic. Since then I have kept my stocks at a high level, so it will be useful if the supply chain issues become worse.

This also illustrates that, as I said, it’s very difficult to keep an economy going if a virus is allowed to run unchecked

[oldbluefox]

Not noticed any difference in availability up here - plenty of locally grown tomatoes and never been short of fruit. I haven't noticed the predicted 10 miles of lorry queues on the motorway leading into Dover either.
Of course shortages will happen when the panic brigade start clearing the shelves and hoard so the rest of us suffer the consequences of their selfish behaviour. Must dash now and get a couple of hundred toilet rolls.

[barney]

I will be honest and confess that we tend to get most of our fruit and veg from our local greengrocer but do buy a bit from a supermarket if I’m there.
He sells as local as is humanly possible with some things obviously imported.
I can’t say I’ve noticed any shortage from them or Tesco but I suppose that’s dictated by what you want to buy.

[Mervyn and Trish]

There are one or two things missing here but not many. But anyway, this is hardly the result of letting the virus run unchecked, rather the opposite, with ultracautious use of track, trace and isolate leading to double jabbed and tested people sitting at home instead of working. But the biggest factor is the usual idiotic reporting...... "a few shelves are empty in particular places and those are the ones we are choosing to photograph, but there's no need to panic buy." Which is interpreted by the great unwashed as "the end of the world is nigh, go out and buy stuff you don't need immediately". And next week we'll have the follow up reports of wasted fresh food dumped in bins.

[Onelife]

Not noticed any difference in availability up here - plenty of locally grown tomatoes and never been short of fruit. I haven't noticed the predicted 10 miles of lorry queues on the motorway leading into Dover either.
Of course shortages will happen when the panic brigade start clearing the shelves and hoard so the rest of us suffer the consequences of their selfish behaviour. Must dash now and get a couple of hundred toilet rolls.

Sounds like you've got the runs Foxy

[Quizzical Bob]

There are one or two things missing here but not many. But anyway, this is hardly the result of letting the virus run unchecked, rather the opposite, with ultracautious use of track, trace and isolate leading to double jabbed and tested people sitting at home instead of working. But the biggest factor is the usual idiotic reporting...... "a few shelves are empty in particular places and those are the ones we are choosing to photograph, but there's no need to panic buy." Which is interpreted by the great unwashed as "the end of the world is nigh, go out and buy stuff you don't need immediately". And next week we'll have the follow up reports of wasted fresh food dumped in bins.

Don't panic! Don't panic!

There's a reason that this message is never used in an emergency situation. If you listen to the emergency drill at the start of a cruise the words are, "You should remain calm"

[Stephen]

Not noticed any difference in availability up here - plenty of locally grown tomatoes and never been short of fruit. I haven't noticed the predicted 10 miles of lorry queues on the motorway leading into Dover either.
Of course shortages will happen when the panic brigade start clearing the shelves and hoard so the rest of us suffer the consequences of their selfish behaviour. Must dash now and get a couple of hundred toilet rolls.

…….from Onelife’s garage supply from last time when he cleared the shelves over stocked.

[oldbluefox]

Invariably these photo opportunities are part true and part stage managed. I don't take too much notice nowadays of anything the papers publish as they sensationalise a story and embellish as much as they can in order to boost sales, especially where proper news is thin on the ground. My own experience of such matters is that much of what they write has little or no substance in truth. Complain and they offer no apologies. "It sells papers".

[Kendhni]

before anyone gets the wrong idea, this week was an exception. I am used to maybe 3-4 items being unavailable each week, but this week it is more than half the items could not be fulfilled and , where applicable, no substitutions available. I am guessing that was a specific issue and am hoping to make up for it next week.

We do have a shortage of several items, but most things are available. The quality of some produce (fruit in particular) has been 'weak' with short dates and some items only being available intermittently. I can't compare pre/post brexit because we never got orders delivered before the pandemic - however several neighbours who have had their groceries delivered for several years, have commented about there being more substitutions, missing items and more short dated products.

[towny44]

I popped into a Coop supermarket yesterday after having my "lugs lowered", (hair cut) and some of the fresh fruit and veg area had empty shelves. However this was in a chiller section which presumably is replenished daily to guarantee freshness.

[Bensham33]

If there are shortages then these are mainly due to staff in the supermarkets isolating and drivers not delivering
Probably fit and healthy people that have been pinged by track and trace. They should do what I have done and turn the useless, not fit for purpose thing off.

It's only well off people, those with plenty of money that stock pile as well. Millions of people who ain't got loads of money simply couldn't afford to do that.

[Gill W]

There are one or two things missing here but not many. But anyway, this is hardly the result of letting the virus run unchecked, rather the opposite, with ultracautious use of track, trace and isolate leading to double jabbed and tested people sitting at home instead of working.

It's not the app's fault, its doing what it's programmed to do. It's pinging more because an increasing amount of people are getting the virus i.e. the virus running unchecked

If there are shortages then these are mainly due to staff in the supermarkets isolating and drivers not delivering
Probably fit and healthy people that have been pinged by track and trace. They should do what I have done and turn the useless, not fit for purpose thing off.

As I said this has been building up for months - the so called 'pingdemic' is making the situation worse.

Surely, turning off the app is like taking the batteries out of the fire alarm?

[Bensham33]

I don't think it is doing what it was meant to do. It's too sensitive. It's pinging perfectly healthy fit people. I wouldn't take the batteries out of the fire alarm but i know a few who are worrying that if they get the ping and have to isolate then they would lose money because their employer wouldn't pay them. Like me I think they have turned their apps off as well.

[Mervyn and Trish]

It's not the app's fault, its doing what it's programmed to do.

Correct

The virus (is) running unchecked

Incorrect. To check the virus we don't have to lock everyone up indefinitely.

We have, as you point out, an app which is doing what it is intended to do, trace people who may be at risk and encourage them to isolate, reducing the spread.

We have a test system where we are testing more per head than almost any other major country, so we have a more accurate picture of what's going on.

We sequence more samples of the virus to check for variants than the rest of Europe, and indeed most of the rest of the world, put together.

We have one of the most successful vaccine roll outs in the world.

Hardly unchecked in my book. Remove all those then you'd see what unchecked looks like.

[Bensham33]

It's not the app's fault, its doing what it's programmed to do.

Correct

Incorrect it's pining far to often. It's to sensitive. If you are double jabbed there is no need to isolate.

[Kendhni]

If you are double jabbed there is no need to isolate.

Yes and no. Being double jabbed will never offer full protection and if you are in an at-risk category there is a lot of merit in taking some precautions. In particular, in the early days it was suggested that the protection the vaccines offered had a finite lifespan - I have never heard an update on this but, given some of the projections in the early days then the half-life was thought to be about 6 months - we have passed that for those vaccinated in Dec and Jan. Tests in SA have have also found that OAZ can have as little as 10% efficacy against some of the variants.

On the plus side we have to hope that they are doing their main job of reducing the impact of COVID on the body and what a few months ago may have been a killer is now just a mild/severe flu that can be mostly managed at home.