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Govt one off giveaways


oowee
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8 hours ago, JohnfromUK said:

I believe the problem we have with gas is that we have very little storage.  We have worked on a 'just in time' basis for gas imports and have enough terminal capacity for peak winter demand.  But we only have storage capacity for 2% of our annual usage (less than 5 days in winter).  Hence we always need to have a regular supply arriving and passing through the terminals.  Most of the rest of Europe has much more storage (about 25% of annual demand I believe) but few terminals as they have relied on gas being piped in from Russia rather than shipped in by tanker (as we have).

Whilst gas may be cheap now - we have no means to store it  ........ and I imagine the 'buy forward price' for the winter isn't cheap.

I believe this government actually “retired” a load of gas storage 2 or 3 years ago so they didn’t have to fork out to upgrade the capacity. Short term thinking again - “well, gas is cheap enough we don’t need to store it”

Sorry - closed in 2017

https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/24/how-uk-energy-policies-have-left-britain-exposed-to-winter-gas-price-hikes

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10 hours ago, Westward said:

don't get me started on the 10s of thousands of tradesmen, probably the overwhelming majority and including a good number I know personally, who claimed furlough money but never missed a day's work throughout the lockdowns.

"Furlough" money was not supplied for the self-employed.  The self-employed were invited to apply for a different payment called the Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS).

Many self-employed people are still feeling the pinch from covid now, myself included.  There may be many who claimed the SEISS money during 2020-21 and didn't really need it then, but it has helped them through the knock-on effect afterwards.

My trade (carpet & upholstery cleaning) is a good example.  After the 2007 financial meltdown I was still going great guns in 2009-10 and wondering what all this fuss was about a recession.... but then the hangover of the crash hit many businesses in my sector, as lots of typical customers for my sort of business fell victim to their employers' cost-cutting measures via redundancy.  I've always kept my overheads low so I can weather such a storm but many others in my trade fell by the wayside.

Don't forget, self-employed people don't get sick pay, holiday pay, statutory sick pay, paternity pay, company-paid pensions, health care perks etc etc etc.... It's as simple as this: when you're not at work you're not earning money to pay today's bills or invest in your future, so you have to make plenty today in order to have security tomorrow.

Imagine if your boss called you at 8am on Monday and told you they'd changed their mind about you coming to work today so you can just sit at home earning nothing and there's naff all you can do about it.  Welcome to being self-employed.

Imagine going to work on Monday, there's some sort of unexpected technical malfunction with an important piece of equipment and you earn no money the whole day and your pay gets docked £500 to sort it out.  Welcome to being self-employed.

If you think being self-employed is such a doss, give it a go ;)

 

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21 hours ago, Westward said:

…..don't get me started on the 10s of thousands of tradesmen, probably the overwhelming majority and including a good number I know personally, who claimed furlough money but never missed a day's work throughout the lockdowns.

 

You’ve already started. OH’s mother has a gardener who is paid 50 per day, quite a bit off the 500 you’ve plucked out of the air, much along the same lines as you statement regarding the self employed and furlough. 
We weren’t entitled to furlough; we were entitled to pay outs based on your previous years earnings which HMRC are totally aware of. 

I claimed for two out of ( if I recall ) a total of four. All totally legit’ and above board. 
Think it through. 

Edited by Scully
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I see that Gump aka Johnson is wanting to re-introduce pounds and ounces! I was born in 1957 and grew up learning these at school and, indeed, the pre-decimal £sd system. That Johnson thinks it a vote winner shows, to me, how out of touch he is. Even me, at sixty-four, now can "cope" with ordering loose vegetables in half kilos and etc. or buying cheese in 100 grams. So are exporters of pre-packed food to the EU going now to have to run two production lines? One printing labels in pounds and ounces and the other in grammes?

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4 minutes ago, enfieldspares said:

I see that Johnson is wanting to re-introduce pounds and ounces! I was born in 1957 and grew up learning these at school and, indeed, the pre-decimal £sd system. That Johnson thinks it a vote winner shows, to me, how out of touch he is. Even me, at sixty-four, now can "cope" with ordering loose vegetables in half kilos and etc. or buying cheese in 100 grams. So are exporters of pre-packed food to the EU going now to have to run two production lines? One printing labels in pounds and ounces and the other in grammes?

I agree this is totally idiotic.

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31 minutes ago, enfieldspares said:

No. We still measure road distances in the UK in miles so mpg makes sense. 

Have you never noticed that the mile posts on motorways were changed years ago to kilometre posts? No doubt in readiness for total EU control.

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12 minutes ago, London Best said:

Have you never noticed that the mile posts on motorways were changed years ago to kilometre posts? No doubt in readiness for total EU control.

I've never noticed that . When did that happen?.

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7 minutes ago, mel b3 said:

I've never noticed that . When did that happen?.

The signs that say London 97 (miles) or Leeds 110 (miles)? On April 1st! As for the mile posts? It'd be like telling me we must now only measure the distance from my house to the Man in the Moon's house in kilometres it'd still take the same amount of time to travel there. And anyway as I ain't never going to the moon it's all, literally, all well over my head.

Edited by enfieldspares
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18 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver_location_sign

What is often not clear is where the measurement (quoted in Km) is taken from.

 

I misunderstood enfieldspares post . I thought that miles had been changed to kilometres on drivers navigation signposts , and I just hadn't noticed.

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Just now, mel b3 said:

I misunderstood enfieldspares post . I thought that miles had been changed to kilometres on drivers navigation signposts , and I just hadn't noticed.

Understandable as we have this very odd mixed system where the normal signs drivers use are in miles (as are their car speedometers etc.).  But the smaller signs (like the "driver Location Signs") and the signs/posts indicating the nearest emergency phones (direction and distance) are in metric, as are things like maximum width and height (those the height ones are often duplicated in feet).

Similarly, you buy fuel in litres - but most people think of a journey in miles, and consumption in miles per gallon. 

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On 27/05/2022 at 19:23, mel b3 said:

They struggle to make claims because they're working people , and don't know how to navigate the benefits system . It's made particularly difficult for them when they're told to come back another day (they'll probably be working another day, and can't afford to lose any more wages), so they just don't claim. Trust me , I've seen this every day for years , and I've lost count of the times I've bought lunch for one of the lads because he was flat broke because he'd been laid off for a few days , and had to chose between food and rent . it's not great when many on benefits will be sitting in wetherspoons having a couple of pints with their full English. 

A few years ago , the target for some of the guys was to have three kids , because once they had three kids , benefits were higher than their wages , and they could walk away from a working life . That just can't be right Grant.

I'd be more than happy to see individuals investigated , that are fleecing the state , and I'd be even more happy to see big business investigated if they were fleecing the state .

Mel, seems like no incentive to investigate either end of the spectrum?

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On 26/05/2022 at 21:23, Weihrauch17 said:

£650 to anyone on benefits, really.  How much will be spent on the cost of living, no way should be handing over cash.

It is ridiculous giving an extra £650 to people on working tax credits. My brother for example,works 18 hours for £180,wife not wanting to work,they claim working tax credits as they have for about 20 years. This benefit is not means tested,so despite owning an expensive property and having about £180,000 savings they can still get the extra money every 4 weeks,the  less hours worked means more cash from the government!

Even got a new gas boiler and all new radiators fitted free of charge too.

2 hours ago, TOPGUN749 said:

Actually it could have been, my employer asked everyone the question whether to prefer working or take furlough,then gave those who wanted 4 weeks off at 80% pay,

 

On 26/05/2022 at 13:08, oowee said:

 If you have the time to watch this stuff its hilarious. 

 

The £650 additional handout to the most in need is given as two payments direct to bank. The £400 comes I think as a lump sum in Oct. 

The £400 will be paid to your energy supplier in 6 monthly instalments from October credited to everyone’s bills.

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On 29/05/2022 at 11:10, enfieldspares said:

No. We still measure road distances in the UK in miles so mpg makes sense. 

To be fair they are not re-introducing pounds and ounces. They are proposing to remove the ridiculous risk of a fine or even prison for selling (or advertising) goods by the pound.

Now we are out of the EU we can exercise these freedoms  

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8 minutes ago, Vince Green said:

To be fair they are not re-introducing pounds and ounces. They are proposing to remove the ridiculous risk of a fine or even prison for selling (or advertising) goods by the pound.

Now we are out of the EU we can exercise these freedoms  

Exactly - they are just allowing the vendors to sell in the units they choose (presumably based on what they think their customers will prefer).  Simply the overbearing 'must do it our preferred way' from  the 'authorities' has been removed.

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13 hours ago, TOPGUN749 said:

It is ridiculous giving an extra £650 to people on working tax credits. My brother for example,works 18 hours for £180,wife not wanting to work,they claim working tax credits as they have for about 20 years. This benefit is not means tested,so despite owning an expensive property and having about £180,000 savings they can still get the extra money every 4 weeks,the  less hours worked means more cash from the government!

The other side of the picture is the bigger scandal IMHO is that the Government allows companies to use agency workers and so in effect these companies have you, the tax payer, subsidise their 1920's employment practices.

I had the misfortune to be doing agency work at DHL at East Midlands Airport when the Ukraine war started. My contracted hours were Saturday 7pm to 5am and Sunday 6pm to 4am.

Enough with my private pension and small service pension for what I need to have money coming in if I am not getting income from working as a self-employed worker in the low season of Winter and Spring.

Then when Russian 'planes were banned from the UK they tell everyone to come in at 8pm on the Sunday and send them all home at 2am. So that's four hours at £15 an hour lost. Monthly it was £240 lost.

So by the time you took off the journey cost (and the travelling time of forty minutes there and forty minutes back) the Sunday work I'd be better off at the local....three miles away and ten minutes travel...car parts warehouse. 

As I said to them "I don't come here...a twenty-two mile journey each way...to be told to come in two hours late and go home two hours early." My journey cost remain the same. I'm OK but a lot I do know then went on to Universal Credit to make up that lost money...which we tax payers then stump up for.

The non-agency staff of course, those on a DHL contract, got paid for those four hours regardless. The agency workers didn't. So the DWP made up their lost monies. That, as said, is the other side of the picture. A government allowing 1920's employment practices to be subsidised by the taxpayer.

Edited by enfieldspares
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With Russian fuel embargo and the countries inability to sell elsewhere in the same quantities (lack of ships and insurance) expect demand for other supplies to go through the roof.  Fuel prices must easily go north of £2. With World recession looming it can't be long before all of this stuff falls apart. 

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