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Off Topic Corona virus - non football

Discussion in 'Sunderland' started by SAFCDRUM, Mar 16, 2020.

  1. Kittenmittons

    Kittenmittons Well-Known Member

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    I'm wary of getting to a point where healthy dissent to the government is seen as a fifth column. Remember that in the early days of world war 2, our government very much got it wrong, and it was only the dissent of people that allowed us to find a path that ultimately worked.
     
    #741
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  2. Sunderpitt

    Sunderpitt Well-Known Member

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    I will never understand why strategically we no longer produce steel... it will be needed for defence of the realm
     
    #742
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  3. Smug in Boots

    Smug in Boots Well-Known Member

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    Most people can simultaneously see various sides of an argument, voice their discontent with certain things yet still pull together at the same time.

    I couldn't be following the guidelines more closely.

    As soon as I could see the situation in Italy I cancelled all our travel, told our little team not to come back until they were contacted then went to our nearest neighbours to say 'au revoir' and to let us know if they needed anything. We've been out once to shop, seen by some as panic buying, and are currently devising meals to make sure everything is used.

    Yet I still feel at liberty to voice my feelings at some of the inadequacies both here and in the UK. I'm aggrieved at the way government ministers are all wearing 'I love the NHS' T-shirts as if they've always made sure it was adequately funded, staffed and provisioned when they know that's totally untrue.
    I have a friend, in management at Kings Mill Hospital in Mansfield, who says they didn't even have enough equipment for the totally expected winter flu.

    Some of the behaviour of the public has been shameful but the government, in my opinion, have been worse in many ways ...

    ... it's totally expected that they're blaming the public for everything.
     
    #743
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2020
  4. Sandy Camel

    Sandy Camel Well-Known Member

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    We basically sacked our heavy manufacturing off in the 80's and went to a services economy as the powers that be thought that was a better idea. I think the government's industrial strategy at that time was not to have one and just buy in what we needed, especially if it was cheaper. All China have done is take massive advantage of this attitude by manipulating their economy to basically provide state aid to their industries, hence why we now buy steel from them while our own foundries disappear.
     
    #744
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  5. Ozzymac

    Ozzymac Well-Known Member

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    I dunno, seemed like he wasn't even thinking properly.

    The host (Sky News Breakfast) asked him if he meant that the borders needed to be open to which he replied "their is provision for 10,000 seasonal workers to come from Europe but we need at least 80,000.

    Now, the UK government has announced various support packages for stood down/furloughed workers. Why not still offer this but allow them to supplement their income with picking fruit and veg if they wish to?

    He made particular comment that the farms up north would need to start this within the next week or "the crops would rot in the ground"
     
    #745
  6. Ozzymac

    Ozzymac Well-Known Member

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    I think that we're going to see a lot more countires return to manufacturing their own goods when this is all over.

    Whilst i think globalisation has been beneficial in many aspects the asian countries were always going to prosper due to lower wages and as such lower production costs.

    More countries need to look at tariffs to protect their own industries. It's cheaper to buy Australian lamb in the USA than it is in Aus ffs.
     
    #746
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  7. Sandy Camel

    Sandy Camel Well-Known Member

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    Yep, that is completely mental. It all is to me though, the whole financial system favours a tiny handful of incredibly rich people and everyone else gets a tiny slice of money pie to share between them. My idea for radical change is for everyone to say we need health and security, and that starts with somewhere to live. So everyone now owns the place they live in and rents and mortgages no longer exist. Let's see it as a rebalancing of funds, the banks got a load in 08, now the people are taking it back. Viva la Revolution.
     
    #747
  8. Nig

    Nig Well-Known Member

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    Like i said yesterday

    "Boris is trying to save the strain on the NHS,
    That will be the same NHS his tory party has decimated and would of coped much better without so many cuts then."


    There is still no clear understanding of how far this virus may go.
    The consensus is it will be as devastating as most other viruses/flu's yet here we are in a police state with a lot of changes here to stay.

    https://fullfact.org/health/coronavirus-compare-influenza/
     
    #748
  9. Ozzymac

    Ozzymac Well-Known Member

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    Not sure what it's like over their but we have compulsory superannuation funds.

    Basically 9.5% of our wage (14.5% if you're a public/civil servant) gets put into a fund for when you retire with the aim that society is less dependent on the age pension.

    The problem i see is that in an economical climate such as this the super funds, which are invested in a mixture of shares, cash and property are tanking. Most peoples biggest debt is their mortgage yet we can't access the funds until we've passed retirement age (for me that's about 72 i think).

    In a nutshell, my super fund is reducing and the economists are predicting a 20% drop in housing values so i'm losing both ways. It's fine for those in their 30's as the funds will recover but those of us over 50 are seeing our nest eggs/security disappear before our very eyes. The government has kindly allowed us to withdraw $20,000 over the next 2 financial years if we meet the criteria for which my wife does but i don't as i'm self employed. If they let us withdraw all our super we could clear our mortgage and remove the biggest stress that we have ie losing the house.
     
    #749
  10. Smug in Boots

    Smug in Boots Well-Known Member

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    I've worked for over a dozen millionaires and their greed knows no limits. Even those I've liked and admired are so greedy it beggars belief.

    The worst of the English ones, at his huge French holiday home, complained to Mrs Smug that he'd noticed that on most days there was one loaf of bread unused.

    If we were out and about I'd personally tip people out of embarrassment because he'd never part with a penny too much.

    Expecting people like that to share could never happen, they have a totally different mentality.
     
    #750
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  11. Sandy Camel

    Sandy Camel Well-Known Member

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    All this is what I'm on about, money being used to make a really complicated system that is based on nothing more than imagination. Rip it up, start again. Personally think it's a question of when, not if, the global financial sytem breaks down completely. It's been on life support since 08 and sooner or later the sticking plaster that you have isn't big enough to cover the cut.
     
    #751
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  12. Sandy Camel

    Sandy Camel Well-Known Member

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    Completely agree. And those types are the gatekeepers of the economy and the current set up favours them quite nicely. Which is no surprise as they managed to shape it by buying influence through a donation to a political party of choice who then implement economic policies that favour said donors.
     
    #752
  13. Sandy Camel

    Sandy Camel Well-Known Member

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    #753
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  14. Sunderpitt

    Sunderpitt Well-Known Member

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    Spot on, pay slave wages plus state aid (iirc most of there industry run on coal from privately owned very dangerous mines, something a 100 odd years ago we know a lot about in this area) and wipe out the rest of the worlds manufacturing ability...
     
    #754
  15. Smug in Boots

    Smug in Boots Well-Known Member

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    Cabin fever is starting to set in at the Smug household ....

     
    #755
  16. Nads

    Nads Well-Known Member

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    Just been told to stay home until ‘at least the 10th’.

    I’ve got nowt left to clean. I’ve nowt to paint. There’s nowt left to watch.

    Cabin fever level 12. My bird lives about 120 metres away on other side of river but she’s fully skitz about it so I can’t even go and do that.

    Bollocks.
     
    #756
  17. Smug in Boots

    Smug in Boots Well-Known Member

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    Keep a journal of daily news, your feelings and the practicalities ...

    ... so your kids and grandkids will know how best to behave if it happens to them.
     
    #757
  18. Nacho

    Nacho Well-Known Member

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    Have you cleaned that handprint off the wall yet?
     
    #758
  19. Nads

    Nads Well-Known Member

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    How the **** do people not work mate? Being off is fine, in normal times, but effectively this is what it be like being off work and having no money.

    How the **** do people do it, I’m going loopy here now.
     
    #759
  20. Nads

    Nads Well-Known Member

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    Haha, that whole room got redone as I moved the wall back a foot so it will be gone <laugh>
     
    #760
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