Boomer54

16 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

That is my point - it is not like French are nationalists, or that they somehow protective of their produce, but they simply care more about what they are buying and are kind of passionate about what they eat. If there are products that are better, they buy those items regardless where they coming from. However, quite a lot of fresh vegetables and food products are local, just because they are better.

Can't help ,but feel we are not quite getting a meeting of minds because you keep taking this back to fresh produce. No one is arguing about that stuff. In France one can't drive through a Village ,or Town of any size without tripping over market stalls. That kind of consumer activity rarely happens in the UK anymore where local people buy small batch produce from local producers.  For example data points. French agri GDP 1.6%. Uk equivalent 0.5% ...enough said I think.

I am talking about the entire world of stuff not so classified and on that issue I think the French are inordinately protective and that has nothing to do with consumer behaviour per se, or some belief in the higher perceptive ability of French people to discern 'better'. It's simple French bureaucracy.

5 minutes ago, Malc1 said:

CAR ROAD TAX 

maybe a simple sedum green roof affixed on every car to reduce / cancel the VED …… and to make that vehicle automatically ULEZ proofed  🤔

Malc 

Get back to you after I work out how that plays with the roof down.

2 hours ago, Malc1 said:

no don't ..............  the weeds help with  Carbon Capture  ....... part offsets the carbon emmision effects of the car   🤞

Malc

"Carbon capture"...hmm, I feel a new board game about to be born ! It's 'Monopoly' for the 21st century. We've gone from trying to 'buy' the world to 'saving' it. New dating lines will not be 'do you want to see my penthouse', but 'would you like to see my carbon credits'. "Even my underpants are biodegradable"

13 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Mostly agree... perhaps French supermarkets are just better, providing better range of products/produce, than comparable 4-5 biggest supermarkets in UK. Based on my observation they just generally sell more fresh foods and less ultra-super-duper-uber-over processed junk that hardly passes as food and chemically has more in common with rubber in tyres that something that is suppose to be edible.

Also - I understand it may be easier to get to farmers market somewhere in country side (and generally quality of life tends to be better further away from huge cities like London, perhaps same applies to Paris). However, whereas in UK one has to go out of their way to find good quality and fresh products, in France (at least in my experience) you can stop at any supermarket and find great quality products/produce. 

This perhaps is just consumer expectation and choice, observing what Brits puts in their basket it seems that large part of population isn't very picky and just takes any junk that was on the shelve, in France (again just my observation), people tend to select food much more carefully, pack individual vegetable, inspect each of them etc. Just cultural difference perhaps - French are quite particular about their food, have high expectation for quality. So it is just market forces at play - consumer demands fresh food and does not mind to pay little extra for it and business delivers that, consumer wants anything with caloric value for cheap... likewise business delivers for that need. In British supermarket there are at least 3 isles dedicated just for frozen "ready to eat" foods, there is literally shop dedicated for that (Iceland), in France one would really need to try hard to find any such foods, there is usually like 1 single fridge for that (perhaps for British tourists). I know I am kind of digging at what British people like to eat here, but French cuisine probably isn't top 1 in the world for nothing.

As for French being "protective"... they come nowhere close to Americans... and also British are quite proud about their brands... but perhaps most recognise that food stuff is nothing to be proud about and not worth fighting for. 

Last paragraph we are oceans apart. In my experience, and this is the point I was making to start with if you look at UK shelves/shops they are packed with products made allaround the world. Accessing our markets is generally easy. France, basically the opposite in relative terms.

3 hours ago, Mossypossy said:

Bodged and scarpered. Heat shield now secure using any old bits I had in the shed.

 

Can't comment on the heatshield, but I recommend Sodium Hypochlorite for the weeds.  10% plus strength dilute 1:1

2 hours ago, Linas.P said:

On an off, depends on the bank really... the "company cars" were dropped around 2008, then there were "salary sacrifice schemes", but due to continuous government meddling with the conditions of what qualifies and what doesn't these were phased out around 2018. But now there is resurgence with BEVs, most companies do offer some sort of electric car scheme. It is not "company car", it is again more like "salary sacrifice", but they are there. Basically, it went from "key retention benefit", to something companies were ashamed-off (offering staff car schemes), to something companies are proud to offer again (being "green" and all that with BEVs), but obviously now it is very small part of staff retention. Certainly nothing like in 80s, 90s or before that, where mere choice of company car could attract talent.

 But... it is fair to say that French produce is just better, there was never a time where in French supermarket I thought to myself "I wish I had choice of tasteless British foods". Certainly not the case for the cars, if I had to choose any French car I would rather walk. 

I said "product". Could be a tin of xyz. You said "produce" which is more akin to a term for fresh veg/meat/fish etc. The latter is in my view also of good quality , but I could match that quite easily from my local Booths supermarket. You see as usual it depends what you need and where you buy it. It 's a fallacy we don't have good "produce" in the UK, we do it just is not usually found in the top 4, or 5 supermarkets where most people tend to shop.

As to "product" which is a much wider term the French are very protective of their brands which of course includes cars.

14 minutes ago, Mossypossy said:

I drove from Switz to uk last week. 700m.

Cost me two tanks. £200

For those who may be numerically challenged that equates to one tank per one clog foot.

51 minutes ago, Malc1 said:

418,475.  Signatures just now 

Malc 

yeah, working my way through the "T's" now. Last application from Mr P S Taker

18 minutes ago, MemoryDealer said:

Car is currently located in north Italy. So, overall, do you think it looks good? 

 

I like everything except some of the exhaust tail pipes. Given it's age and locality my money is it's had some prior undersealing treatment, but you would be advised to update that to keep it in it's good condition.

See if I can't dig out my underside shots to give you some comparison.

13 hours ago, GMB said:

When we lived there the price of second hand cars was crazy, whereas new cars were similar across Europe. Having said that, our French neighbours bought their cars in Belgium and Spain and saved a lot of money.

Just a check -  VW golf 1.5 tsi UK  £29K  VW golf same model France  32K Euros. At 1.17 Euros to the pound that makes the French car cheaper.

The reality:

The high cost of the Yaris GR in France is due to the Malus tax on high performance ( not French ) polluting vehicles. It's the french way of making you buy a crappy Renault Citroen or Peugeot.

 

La nouvelle Toyota GR Yaris 2024 est disponible en deux versions : la première dotée d'une boîte de vitesses manuelle à 6 rapports est affichée à partir de 46.300 euros TTC, mais ce n'est pas tout. En effet, avec des émissions de CO2 de 190 g/km, celle-ci se voit sanctionnée d'un malus écologique de 45.990 euros, soit une facture totale de 92.290 euros !
La seconde version de la GR Yaris est dotée d'une nouvelle boîte de vitesses automatique à 8 rapports, et s'affiche à partir de 48.800 euros TTC : là aussi, en raison de ses émissions de CO2 de 210 g/km, vous écopez de la taxe écologique maximale de 60.000 euros ! Soit une facture totale de pas moins de 108.800 euros...

Yes, the French have been very pro buy French for literally decades. If you go to a supermarket there you instantly notice the absence, minimalisation of non French product. It has changed a little over the years, but still it is very much in evidence now

4 minutes ago, Phil xxkr said:

Yes Malc, it reminds me of the poem/song from the early sixties called The Snake. 

There once was a tender-hearted woman who rescued a poor, half-frozen snake from near death in the winter cold. “Take me in, oh tender woman,” the snake cries out. “Take me in, for heaven’s sake.”

So the tender-hearted woman takes the snake into her own home, warms it by the fire and feeds it milk and honey: “If I hadn’t brought you in, by now you might have died.” But instead of saying thanks, the snake gave her a vicious bite.

“I saved you,” cried the woman. “And you’ve bitten me, but why? You know your bite is poisonous, and now I’m going to die.” “Oh shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin. “You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.”

Good taste...Al Wilson.

4 hours ago, Phil xxkr said:

From today's DMail, 

Cabinet ministers were branded 'hypocrites' last night for claiming soaring amounts on expenses to heat their second homes while stripping ten million pensioners of their winter fuel payments.

Eleven of Sir Keir Starmer's Cabinet have relied on taxpayer-funded help to pay their energy bills, analysis of expenses receipts reveals

Including Reeves Rayner Kendall😱

Sorry to say this is not really news nor is it limited to just these few politicians. How many in the past 'crapped' all over pension rights whilst having both hands out to maintain their ridiculously attractive pensions?. Clearly they cannot spell the word irony.

52 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

But you do already have "pay per mile road" tax when buying fuel... don't you? 

Only like I have a crumb rather than the whole cake. "pay per miie" in the sense you are using it there is a small part of 'tax' paid per mile' and an even smaller part of the overall cost summed by the term "pay per mile" that incorporates the element that is tax per mile.

I did like your earlier comment about just making that whole issue of 'road tax' inclusive into the cost of fuel. I mean that cuts right through a whole wagonload of nonsensicial bull.st nevermind eradicating a lot of bureacratic cost. Irony is that kind of effective policy initiative in a commercial business would get you fast tracked to senior management. In the public sector it will get buried so deep it will never see the light of day.

56 minutes ago, J Henderson said:

Agreed. The current system seems unfair when the VED for a 2500kg SUV with horrific fuel economy, or a £400K supercar, is the same cost for a family car with an efficient 60MPG engine. That's a loophole that needs to be closed.

And EVs should definitely be taxed, yes. They might not produce any tailpipe emissions, but they're a nuisance in other areas. Even if we ignore the resources required to build an EV, and the dubious practices involved in gaining said resources, they've been proven to throw huge amounts of rubber particles into the environment, which are just as harmful as exhaust gases.

As well as burning through tyres, they're tearing the roads apart with their massive weight and huge amounts of torque. 

New cars should probably be taxed according to kerb weight as well as emissions going forward, both EVs and fuel-powered cars, since modern cars are so big and heavy now. The latest BMW M5 weighs in at 2.5 tonnes for crying out loud. 

Perhaps set a threshold somewhere around 1200kg, where there would be zero influence towards VED, but heavier cars would be punished on a sliding scale, just like CO2 emissions currently are. This would let smaller cars go relatively unpunished.

Or if anyone is concerned about the environment then find a way to tax for that. The fact remains that wear and tear on roads in general is a function of the traffic they bear. So, you drive more miles then in general you cause more and wear. Obvious, exclusion issue to the former statement is the weight of the vehicle, but even that could only be realistically differentiated between cars in general and HGV.  Going further than that seems difficult to justify.

What I am suggesting is logical if you think road tax and road maintenance costs should be connected. Unfortunately, for reasons best known to them politicians would rather ignore behavioural psychology in favour of theirown mindless ideology.

8 minutes ago, Jgtcracer said:

Interesting, though no mention of how road tax specifically is used.  I’ll have to do some googling.

https://www.newcarsonline.co.uk/blog/what-is-road-tax-used-for/#:~:text=Understanding Vehicle Tax&text=So%2C what does VED really,council tax and corporation tax.

 Motorways and major A-roads seem fine, though I’m only ever exposed to the A1.  It’s the local authority that seems to be lacking.  I can only imagine this is because there’s no money or it’s being diverted to more ‘important’ projects.

 As an operations guy, I’d love to have at crack at it, my local council doesn’t seem to be managing well at all….

Digging into this in even a superficial way suggests the major road network is centrally funded. However, it is still obvious this funding is derived from multiple sources. Hence, it is anything, but clear how much of our road tax is actually used for this purpose. By contrasts it appears local roads come under the responsibility of local councils. That is where it stops being clear, because whilst your council tax statement tells you what % of your tax goes towards road maintenance it appears there is also a contribution made to the council by govt. Again, it is not clear what tax funds that contribution. 

The above does however probably explain why major roads tend to be maintained better than local roads.

In conclusion, funding is bizarre in it's complexity. There is no clear explanation how our road tax payments connect to the purpose we make them for. Exactly why council tax payments contribute to road maintenance at all could only be explained by an Alien from the planet Lunacy.

45 minutes ago, Malc1 said:

AGE. UK.  Petition up to

396,074       overnight 

 

Malc 

396,075 after Ox Y Moron just signed up.

14 minutes ago, Jgtcracer said:

Seems simple to me.  If we decide that car tax stays, everyone pays it…. As far as I’m concerned it comes down to what road tax is supposed to do.

 I’d understand if my car somehow caused a bigger burden on the road network and supporting infrastructure but it doesn’t.  I feel road tax should ring fenced and used for maintenance and capital investment, not as a tool to manipulate the public’s behaviour and encourage policies such as electric cars.  I already pay a premium in fuel duty for driving a ‘polluting’ car, why should I get punished twice.  

As said above, I wouldn’t mind if we had quality roads but they are shocking!  I live on the England/Scotland border and it’s terrible everywhere I go…I’d be interested to see financial accounts to understand where the money goes actually.  Bet it goes into flowers on roundabouts!

 Just charge everyone a reasonable, fair and equal amount per year, to use the roads with no one getting off because their car is electric.  Notice I said everyone, that includes £10 a year for a bicycle/horse/scooter etc.

What chance does the road tax payer really have of understanding what they get for paying road tax? Read the following and tell me you can make a tangible connection between what you pay and what you get.

"The Department for Transport (DfT) is responsible for funding local road renewals and upgrades, while the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government provides revenue support to local highways authorities. Local road maintenance expenditure can also be funded by local governments own revenues¹². State and local governments provide the bulk of the funding for repairing and maintaining highways and surface transportation in general³. Nearly as much of the cost of building and maintaining highways now comes from general taxes such as income and sales taxes as comes from gasoline taxes or other “user fees” on drivers"

Could it BE anymore convoluted?

11 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

I'm nearly an old codger, ukinell I feel like it lately. 

Car Tax. Too much BS on tinternet and too many good folk falling for it.

The charge per mile is for those daft wats who foolishly bought one of those so called planet saving electric cars. Tho some wine swilling pot smoking dim witted toffy nosed t wat has put their ore in to say wot a gud idea for all motorists. 

Woke. Those ucking bottom holes are to blame for All the s hite that's going on around us. What the hell happened to common sense? 

I feel sorry for the younger generation. Having to put up with the krap given by this utter s hite government. To those who voted for them I put a curse on you. You cretins. 

One cannot help, but feel, that you are holding back. Why don't you tell us how you really feel? 😉

19 minutes ago, Malc1 said:

How do you cross from Swissieland to France ?

Malc 

Singing the Marseillaise of course.

45 minutes ago, Scotlex said:

Why do we require so many MP's and councillors etc..(who don't seem to achieve much 🙄).

We could easily make half redundant and save a fortune 😀

I actually find it strange that in this digital world in which we live one of the areas that hardly ever seems to come for discussion is the potential effect of AI on government and how it could all be utilised to bring down the costs of same and indeed improve it's effectiveness. So much of what government does is just numbers when you think about it. The stuff that isn't necessarily numbers can easily be farmed out to voters via referendums.

Let us be frank it cannot have escaped all of us that many of our elected officials did not come off the top shelf when it came to handing out that grey stuff between our ears. Consequently, who would doubt that AI capable of giving a Grand Master a good game could also be much better at decision making than our elected officials?

Just now, Boomer54 said:

Panic over they tell me I am being taken to be inducted into The Hall Of Fame !

What do you mean "hard of hearing" ...Flame !!

1 minute ago, Boomer54 said:

The point you are making is very much at the heart of the conflict of interest between the govt and the electorate. Namely, that wherever you look it is nigh impossible to match up what you pay for with what you get in return. That tangible point of connection is missing. You name it healthcare, education, transportation etc etc. They are all swept up in a collective tax sweep irrespective of use . I am just cynical enough to believe this system has not arisen by accident. Now those of us with some kind of social conscience can see the upside to this, but I think along the way many of us have begun to wonder at what point does this stop being what we thought it should be. Not just caring for vunerable people ,but rewarding people/groups who frankly have no right being rewarded. Tomorrow I shall post my grand solution !!!

 

NOoooo, it's gone dark, where are you taking me?????

Panic over they tell me I am being taken to be inducted into The Hall Of Fame !

2 hours ago, Scotlex said:

I already pay quite a lot of vehicle tax etc. and don't mind too much but it is very annoying when so little of the money is used for maintaining and improving the roads.

Some of the main trunk roads in Scotland are an absolute disgrace.

The point you are making is very much at the heart of the conflict of interest between the govt and the electorate. Namely, that wherever you look it is nigh impossible to match up what you pay for with what you get in return. That tangible point of connection is missing. You name it healthcare, education, transportation etc etc. They are all swept up in a collective tax sweep irrespective of use . I am just cynical enough to believe this system has not arisen by accident. Now those of us with some kind of social conscience can see the upside to this, but I think along the way many of us have begun to wonder at what point does this stop being what we thought it should be. Not just caring for vunerable people ,but rewarding people/groups who frankly have no right being rewarded. Tomorrow I shall post my grand solution !!!

NOoooo, it's gone dark, where are you taking me?????

14 minutes ago, DavidCM said:

I take it you are referring to Rachel Reeves, Queen of Thieves.

Despite the winter fuel issue I am still willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. However, that will run out fast if I see anymore social engineering policies heading my way.