Brexit matters

[najaB]

I thought the formal definition of the yard is still 36 inches. The inch is defined as exactly 25.4 mm. Same final number, but a different derivation.

You'd think so (as did I) but apparently that's not the case. From Wikipedia:

Definition of the yard in terms of the meter
Subsequent measurements revealed that the yard standard and its copies were shrinking at the rate of one part per million every twenty years due to the gradual release of strain incurred during the fabrication process.[48][49] The international prototype meter, on the other hand, was comparatively stable. A measurement made in 1895 determined the length of the meter at 39.370113 inches relative to the imperial standard yard. The Weights and Measures (Metric) Act of 1897[50] in conjunction with Order in Council 411 (1898) made this relationship official. After 1898, the de facto legal definition of the yard came to be accepted as 36/39.370113 of a meter.

The yard (known as the "international yard" in the United States) was legally defined to be exactly 0.9144 meter in 1959 under an agreement in 1959 between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.[51] In the UK, the provisions of the treaty were ratified by the Weights and Measures Act of 1963. The Imperial Standard Yard of 1855 was renamed the United Kingdom Primary Standard Yard and retained its official status as the national prototype yard.[52][53]

Link to reference 51: https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/PUBS_LIB/FedRegister/FRdoc59-5442.pdf

 

[eoff]

As noted, the yard is defined as 0.9144m.
Other imperial length units are defined from this (so 1 inch = 1/36 yard)

As per...

Weights and Measures Act 1985

An Act to consolidate certain enactments relating to weights and measures.

www.legislation.gov.uk

Weights and Measures Act 1985

An Act to consolidate certain enactments relating to weights and measures.

www.legislation.gov.uk

Imperial units are still used in transport of course, altitute in ft for aviation for example. I don't know if the railway is metric but am sure others here are fully aware. It seems the writing was on the wall some time ago...

End of the line for the mile, the chain and the yard | Railnews | Today's news for Tomorrow's railway

www.railnews.co.uk

 

[Ediswan]

As noted, the yard is defined as 0.9144m.
Other imperial length units are defined from this (so 1 inch = 1/36 yard)

Still seems a weird way to go about things, but there it is. Maybe whoever drafted that was keen to define the conversion in relation to the SI base unit, for which the yard is the closest match.

 

[yorksrob]

Apparently there was never any ruling to say they weren't allowed the crown, rather that the glasses were bought (clearly in bulk - pubs must go through them quite quickly) from Europe and it was likely pointless asking for the crown to be added on. Why not? Because until the Express mentioned it, I doubt anyone cared. Now it has been mentioned, the most rabid Brexiteers can pretend it meant everything to them, just as I remember growing up and having to listen to daily rants about the colour of our passports.

I've only watched a bit of GB News but there's no news and all it seems to do is spend every day going over the same limited number of topics to remind people what to be angry about! Meghan Markle seems to feature an awful lot, yet she's another person I doubt anyone would care about either way day to day if it wasn't constantly rammed down their throat.

I don't count myself as a "rabid Brexiteer", however as a committed drinker, I had noticed that it had gone.

Satire is dead:

https://twitter.com/thetimes/status/1438548409636556800

I disagree with this policy.

As someone who's grown up with metric, I think it should be displayed, although I have no problem with Imperial being displayed as well

 

[Typhoon]

I'm 83, and I've got vague memories of rods, poles and perches. Possibly length and area measure?

I think they are the same thing. I seem to remember the back of the exercise book (#3138) used to use 'Rod. Pole or Perch'.

I'm pretty certain they were used in surveying*. When I started teaching, I was given a bottom set and access to surveying equipment, and told to keep them amused If the weather was OK we'd wander round the school field measuring stuff with some heavy metal chains, I'm pretty certain in came in there. The kids could spend a fair amount of time chatting, they only had to do drawing when they got back so largely happy, It was on the CSE syllabus.

* probably in the Domesday Book or something similar.

 

[johncrossley]

The BBC news website has removed 'Brexit' as one of the tabs at the top, replaced by 'Climate'.

 

[Typhoon]

The BBC news website has removed 'Brexit' as one of the tabs at the top, replaced by 'Climate'.

Maybe Nad has had a word!!

 

[birchesgreen]

This imperial/media thing is total drivel. One of the right wing radio "commentators" was lauding the fact that people would be now able to go into supermarkets and buy cheese and ham by the pound.

Er, they could do this already. My foreign born wife had to learn imperial measures when she started working at her supermarket's deli counter. It wasn't for the lulz.

 

[REVUpminster]

Brixham brexit news. Six months ago all the fishermen betrayed by the government. Today Brixham Harbour at capacity and want government grants to expand upsetting the yacht club. Businesses adapt.

 

[Ediswan]

Brixham brexit news. Six months ago all the fishermen betrayed by the government. Today Brixham Harbour at capacity and want government grants to expand upsetting the yacht club. Businesses adapt.

That seemed familiar ...

This was announced last March. The news is the Yacht Club objection. The proposal is to expand the fish market and associated quay. I can't find any information on where the boats catching the fish would be based.

 

[bspahh]

That seemed familiar ...

This was announced last March. The news is the Yacht Club objection. The proposal is to expand the fish market and associated quay. I can't find any information on where the boats catching the fish would be based.

This was a discussion about the Brixham fish market in July:

Brexit matters

Can you deny England supporters wave the English flag whereas they used to wave the Union flag. Is it because Scottish and Welsh nationalism is pushed at the English more than ever? Or perhaps, the increase in England supporters flying English flags at England matches has more to do with a rise...

www.railforums.co.uk

A recent article
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/brexit-row-over-huge-15million-5920258 says:

Brixham’s fish market is currently enjoying a boom in business, with fish landed in ports hundreds of miles away being brought by road to be sold at the online auctions on the quayside.

A boom in business for the Brixham fish market is a slump in business for the fish markets in Aberystwyth and Lowestoft, and the extra travel time will mean that the fish is less fresh. Why is that a good use of government money?

 

[najaB]

Today Brixham Harbour at capacity and want government grants to expand upsetting the yacht club. Businesses adapt.

Brixham Harbour is at capacity because less fish is being landed elsewhere. This is not a Brexit good news story.

 

[DelayRepay]

This imperial/media thing is total drivel. One of the right wing radio "commentators" was lauding the fact that people would be now able to go into supermarkets and buy cheese and ham by the pound.

Except they won't - most of the supermarkets around here have closed their deli counters.

I don't think I've ever bought food by the kg or lb anyway. Before the deli counter closed, I would ask for five slices of ham, or a small piece of cheese (followed by 'no, a bit bigger - yep that's fine').

 

[birchesgreen]

Except they won't - most of the supermarkets around here have closed their deli counters.

I don't think I've ever bought food by the kg or lb anyway. Before the deli counter closed, I would ask for five slices of ham, or a small piece of cheese (followed by 'no, a bit bigger - yep that's fine').

Oh i've asked for 200g of cheese though these days i don't bother with the deli counter (seldom staffed anyway).

 

[Typhoon]

Except they won't - most of the supermarkets around here have closed their deli counters.

I don't think I've ever bought food by the kg or lb anyway. Before the deli counter closed, I would ask for five slices of ham, or a small piece of cheese (followed by 'no, a bit bigger - yep that's fine').

I'm not certain that in the 'good old days' of the wire-cutter we asked for cheese by weight, I am sure you just pointed to where you wanted the cut to be and just adjusted (as you say). Even though our local Morrisons has a deli (which is understaffed - its quite popular) the cheese is usually cut into different sized chunks and priced (seemingly in-store).

 

[REVUpminster]

Fish isn't coming to Brixham by road to be sold. What is being sold is landed at Brixham because the trawlers find their computerised selling does the paperwork for them. Luckily for us that live nearby all the huge lorries depart in the middle of the night as there is only one main single carriageway road out of the town. The ring road round Paignton is a mixture of dual carriage way and single carriageway and part of the single carriage way is up the steep King's Ash Hill.

Part of the land they want to expand is Oxen Cove car park which includes Brixham Yacht Club and Brixham Junior Sailing Club. There is also a photonics factory there. The population is 17000 which is a few less than they had in 2001

 

[johncrossley]

The Netherlands is accepting the UK’s vaccine proof and hence passengers who are vaccinated are de facto exempt. I legally entered the Netherlands yesterday at Schiphol airport for three hours and was admitted. They accepted the QR code although the rules strictly suggest paper confirmation only is acceptable (I had this too).

They are allowing vaccinated travellers from outside the EU to enter without quarantine from tonight. However, they still require visitors from 'very high risk' countries (including the UK) to take a test before arrival in the Netherlands. Vaccinated travellers from all EU countries can enter the Netherlands without a test regardless of risk. So that's undoubtedly an issue caused by Brexit.

 

[birchesgreen]

BJ has finally admitted that a US trade deal won't happen any time soon, though to be honest that isn't a bad thing.

 

[jon0844]

You know how they said the HGV driver shortage had absolutely NOTHING to do with Brexit?

..well now that it seems some drivers are enjoying some rather large cash incentives to work, it is now apparently okay to say this was in fact due to Brexit, which was all about getting British workers more money!

This is a nice bit of revisionist history, but of course if all workers are suddenly going to get massive pay rises then even I'd have to concur that it is one good thing (let's ignore higher transport costs will get passed down the line to the customer).

But do we really believe these are going to be permanent increases in pay? Most are initial cash bonuses to work for a firm (no doubt linked to staying with said firm for a minimum time, so likely not paid all up front to make sure they don't take the money and run) and I am not convinced all lorry drivers will see their hourly rates increase.

And if and when we get the driver numbers up through rushed-through training (skipping important things like reversing or coupling etc) and the are allowed to drive for 23.5 hours a day, the extra money will almost certainly end.

 

[AY1975]

Faffing around getting SIMs when you roam is horrible (and sometimes impossible in locations where you need to be a resident of that country), but now becoming a necessary evil of travelling it seems. Many networks have sought to sell single SIM versions of phones sold on contract precisely to make it harder for this sort of thing, but now it does seem that most phones are dual SIM (or some have an eSIM option).

Using Wi-Fi abroad is also a PITA, with slow congested 2.4GHz hotspots that are totally saturated or have poor connections behind them, as well as the security issues and the inability to move around freely when using them.

So nice to see how hard we worked for many years to axe roaming fees (within the EU at least) and now we've gone beyond back to square one.. we're getting even worse!

So your safest bet when travelling in any of the remaining EU countries as a UK citizen post-Brexit is to keep your phone switched off when outside the UK and live as if you were living in the days before mobile phones (or even in the days before there were phones at all - payphones are nowhere near as common now as they were 20+ years ago, at least in the UK) and give the landline number of the place where you will be staying to anyone who might need to contact you urgently such as your next of kin. And if you want to arrange to meet any friends who live in the country that you are visiting, you just have to do the kind of planning ahead that you would have done when arranging to meet up with someone in pre-mobile phone days. Welcome back to the 20th century!

I know someone who is a rabid Brexiteer, and if you complain to him about all these problems that Brexit is causing to us Brits he says there is an easy solution: don't go abroad. He is convinced that his way of thinking is the only way of thinking: he has no desire to travel abroad and experience different cultures, so he thinks why should anyone else want to? Why can't people just be content with what their own country has to offer? But in the days before Brexit, and before we knew that an in/out referendum was coming, those of us who are pro-EU never forced our Eurosceptic friends and relatives to go abroad if they didn't want to, so what right do they have to impose their way of life on us?

 

[najaB]

Why can't people just be content with what their own country has to offer? But in the days before Brexit, and before we knew that an in/out referendum was coming, those of us who are pro-EU never forced out Eurosceptic friends and relatives to go abroad if they didn't want to, so what right do they have to impose their way of life on us?

Because they're right and we should put up or shut up.

 

[AY1975]

Because they're right and we should put up or shut up.

The most ardent Eurosceptics didn't "shut up" after losing the 1975 referendum, though: they carried on campaigning and plotting behind the scenes to get us out of the EEC/EU until they finally got their way 45 years later. It was their democratic right to carry on fighting for what they believed in, so it's also the pro-Europeans' democratic right to fight to preserve European values in the UK as much as we can and to campaign to rejoin the EU ASAP. Democracy is an ongoing process, not a once-only event.

I've set up a separate thread for people's thoughts about the EU before 2013 (when David Cameron first pledged to hold an in/out referendum if re-elected in 2015) at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/your-thoughts-about-the-eu-pre-2013.222646/

 

[najaB]

Democracy is an ongoing process, not a once-only event.

Oh, I agree. I was role-playing a Brexiteer.

 

[GusB]

Oh, I agree. I was role-playing a Brexiteer.

Counselling is available should you require it.

 

[DelW]

The most ardent Eurosceptics didn't "shut up" after losing the 1975 referendum, though: they carried on campaigning and plotting behind the scenes to get us out of the EEC/EU until they finally got their way 45 years later. It was their democratic right to carry on fighting for what they believed in, so it's also the pro-Europeans' democratic right to fight to preserve European values in the UK as much as we can and to campaign to rejoin the EU ASAP. Democracy is an ongoing process, not a once-only event.

I wonder if Ms Sturgeon and her successors will subscribe to that idea if or when Scotland votes for independence? My feeling is that the SNP regards "no" to independence as a temporary decision, but will regard "yes" as permanent and never to be questioned again.

To get back on topic, I expect that they will want one or maybe more "should Scotland rejoin the EU?" referendums until they've got the answer they want there too.

 

[najaB]

I wonder if Ms Sturgeon and her successors will subscribe to that idea if or when Scotland votes for independence? My feeling is that the SNP regards "no" to independence as a temporary decision, but will regard "yes" as permanent and never to be questioned again.

If Scotland were to become independent and then a pro-Union party/coalition was to form the Government then the feelings of the SNP would be irrelevant. That government would have the power to hold any plebiscites that they felt necessary or appropriate.

 

[birchesgreen]

The Johnson blinked.

Supply chain crisis: Tories poised to U-turn on foreign worker visas

Boris Johnson believed to have overruled ministers unwilling to compromise on post-Brexit immigration as forecourt queues mount

www.theguardian.com

Ministers are poised to agree an extraordinary post-Brexit U-turn that would allow foreign lorry drivers back into the UK to stave off shortages threatening fuel and food supplies.

Boris Johnson ordered a rapid fix on Friday to prevent the crisis escalating. Ministers met in an attempt to agree a short-term visa scheme permitting potentially thousands more lorry drivers from abroad to come to the UK.

Of course the question will be whether that many will want to come?

 

[Revilo]

The most ardent Eurosceptics didn't "shut up" after losing the 1975 referendum, though: they carried on campaigning and plotting behind the scenes to get us out of the EEC/EU until they finally got their way 45 years later. It was their democratic right to carry on fighting for what they believed in, so it's also the pro-Europeans' democratic right to fight to preserve European values in the UK as much as we can and to campaign to rejoin the EU ASAP. Democracy is an ongoing process, not a once-only event.

I've set up a separate thread for people's thoughts about the EU before 2013 (when David Cameron first pledged to hold an in/out referendum if re-elected in 2015) at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/your-thoughts-about-the-eu-pre-2013.222646/

The ‘ardent Eurosceptics’ post 1975 were largely the left of the Labour Party eg Tony Benn, Michael Foot in the 1983 manifesto. Their support for exit was to allow the UK to follow their dream of a socialist utopia which the EC/EU wouldn’t allow. Plenty of left wing voters supported Brexit too.

 

[GusB]

When I was watching BBC News earlier today, I had to chuckle when I heard the "don't panic" message, because that's exactly what will happen.

Of course, broadcasting news reports from filling stations where they show queues of cars is hardly going to reassure people.

 

[brad465]

When I was watching BBC News earlier today, I had to chuckle when I heard the "don't panic" message, because that's exactly what will happen.

Of course, broadcasting news reports from filling stations where they show queues of cars is hardly going to reassure people.

Word/phrase of the day should be "reverse psychology", something large sections of the media and the Government's messaging telling us not to panic buy has shown.