That would be better than all the Chinese rubbish we import nahadays. Absolute crap most of it, and it's sometimes hard to buy something that's not made in China. And they've kept the factories open through the pandemic, so there will be a load more of even cheaper stuff ready to flood the market.
If you buy a new bathroom don't use Victoria Plumb .... there's a good reason why it's so cheap.... when you come to try to connect to existing pipework, nothing fits!
I visited a herring smokery in Northumberland quite recently. They import their herring from Norway. Shockin, juss shockin.
In the last few years I've had several gadgets which have simply stopped working shortly after the guarantee expires, all made in China. And they are always sealed units, which you can't get repaired. Co-incidence?.....................
I have just repaired a dead 3rd Generation iPod by putting in a 64GB card. It's something I saw on YouTube and thought I would try it. I am going to take my 2006 iMac to pieces next and put in an SSD with Linux running. With the right tools it's possible to beat Apple's built-in obsolescence.
I'm yet to do a mobile device and don't think I'd be able to, they're too fiddly. I've built a PC with the help of friends that are particularly savvy though. It was surpisingly easy and significantly cheaper than buying pre-built!
I have built my own PCs since the 90s, I just upgraded my main desktop. Get a motherboard bundle from someone like Scanshot and drives from Amazon. My granddaughters are each getting good units from my spare parts
Let's have another round of panic buying shall we? Here's a scare story to set the ball rolling... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55230463 Food and drink supplies in the UK face more disruption after the end of the Brexit transition period than they did from Covid, the industry has said. Oh dear. The was no disruption of food supplies because of Covid. Some selfish idiots just ran around like headless chickens buying car loads of bog roll & baked beans. Meaning NHS workers couldn't buy those things on their way home after a 12 hour shift. This wouldn't be the food industry just trying to whip up some extra trade in the next few weeks would it? Surely they'd never stoop to that.
Another deadline comes and goes How much longer are we going to be left in limbo? Huge factors that are screwing up the ability of businesses (including the small firm I work for) to trade with mainland European suppliers and customers cannot be resolved because we simply don't know where we stand. The last-minute nature of these negotiations is an embarrassing let down. Armies of negotiators have had all year to sort this out. If the EU is not negotiating in good faith that should have been out in the open ages ago. I have to question now whether even the 31st December deadline will be observed. I won't be surprised at all if an announcement is made at the end of December that the UK will be sticking with all EU regulations for another 3 or 6 months - to allow yet more time for negotiations (which will barely tick over until the last week, again). At least we will have some clarity in the short term. But this simply is not good enough. If we don't get a deal (the "million-to-one" scenario) there should be resignations. Our leaders will have failed us yet again.
My theory is that career politicians don't really know how to negotiate. Whereas they used to come from a union or business background, now politics is all they know, or journalism in the PM's case.
I had a mate who used to watch games of chess (he never played) and after a while would yell out 'I can see mate in three'. The mate he saw would generally involve one player making no moves at all, just sitting back and letting the other player box him in. Negotiations are the same. While one side wants x, y and z, the other side also have a list of things they want. Expecting to get everything you want while surrendering nothing is an exercise in futility, you always have to make concessions. But if you wander into the negotiations having proclaimed it will be 'the easiest deal in history', you run the risk of putting a lot of noses out of joint when it all goes pear shaped. Better to keep quiet and just negotiate, but for politicians, keeping quiet isn't an option generally.
The tribal nature of our politics doesn't help. The older I get the more I favour PR. There are disadvantages, but listen to PMQ's and you can see what has happened to the level of debate.
Looks like we will be getting a trade deal after all Blimey, that was hard work I'm sure not everybody will be happy with it. But our relationship with the EU can at least move on next year. And we'll all (more or less) know where we stand. One thing worth remembering in all the wrangling and grumbling that is bound to follow; This deal is NOT some kind of lingering tether binding the UK to the EU. It is not a surrender of sovereignty. Britain has left the European Union. This s a deal between independent sovereign powers. If we aren't happy with it, the person we should be taking issue with is Boris Johnson - Our Prime Minister. Anything EU politicians or bureaucrats say from now on is entirely up to them. We are free to pay as much or as little heed as we wish. We are no longer part of their Federation. Here's to a better future and a new relationship with our important trading partners
Logically, it's probably going to upset more people than it pleases, but as no deal was going to be the worst of sll worlds, a deal of some sort would be good news.
