bendan

Jesus, this is absolutely spot on. Well except the £10k bit - too low!

He described it as 'less distressing than the nasal one'.

A friend of mine just completed 21 days of quarantine getting into China. Got an anal swab done for final test.

That's true, too, at least in terms of the economics of it. There are few issues in recent times that have produced such an outpouring of bollocks from both sides.

People get carried away with the 'UK vaccine success' stuff without any seeming thought as to what the final result will be. We're not even a fifth of the way through the vaccination program, and there's every chance many EU countries will end up doing just as well, if not better. Denmark (a small northern European country with a population of a bit over 5 million) is quite sure it is going to be done with second doses by the end of June.

There must be at least 9% who don't even know what pre-decimal means and just want to wind back the clock in any way possible.

Oh, sorry. Hard to keep up.

Am I in the right thread? AZ vaccine said to fail to prevent mild to moderate disease from SA variant. Bit of a spanner in the works if true.

And a few months later he was saying 'that was the science at the time'

Over 18 might be a bit excessive, but you hope they wouldn't just anally stick to the national schedule. Jab any fatty unhealthy looking person around when you're in the area and this will be over.

You've got to factor in the early Friday finish. A pan-what?

I'm not sure I get this - they're having to cut services because of a lack of staff rather than a lack of passengers?

Neither can I, though plenty of young people in both countries seem interested in spending time in places like London and Edinburgh.

Minor shipments and shipments of products of plant/animal origin are having far more problems than big shipments of things like shoes. Big companies know how to fill in customs forms, small traders don't. The problems with plant/animal products are probably going to get worse, though, as the UK hasn't really implemented checks on imports yet. I admire people's optimism in ordering small items from the EU at the worst possible moment.

I think CANZUK is a bit of a strange idea - but in terms of the question above, I think the backers of the idea suggest a reciprocal arrangement. I don't suppose anyone has asked, but I'd be confident India and China wouldn't be offering!

About 40% of Covid deaths in Scotland in the last seven days have been in people 85+ - which is pretty much what it has been throughout the pandemic. Seems a bit early to say we've done well here.

That's just horrendous

Surely it's not as funny as the EU invoking article 16 of the NI protocol just 29 days in.

Being in the EU really took tariffs off the radar for most consumers, in the same way people in the US probably don't know much about them. People are going to become much more aware about tariff rates and other trade barriers (which are often more significant than the tariff). While it's obviously less efficient to be in a smaller market now, it might make people have a wider horizon than just Europe. A well run, trustworthy company operating out of China could probably do quite well in directly supplying Chinese-made goods to UK consumers, but there are a lot of factors making that unlikely to happen in the short to medium term.

That's what I was meaning. The proportion of over 85s in new hospitalisations seems about the same as it is for the running total - you'd expect it to fall as the vaccine takes effect.

Is there any evidence yet of vaccines having an impact in the UK? From what I can see, hospitalisations of people 85 and over are still about the same proportion they've been over the course of the pandemic.

Government helplines are generally shite for any kind of technical question. I had HMRC once give me 'advice' that would have landed me a tax bill of about 25k if I had believed them. It's a pish situation with buying online from the EU now, but in a lot of cases being highlighted the stuff has actually come from China. There are probably more efficient ways of getting it to the UK.

In theory, yes, but delivery will now include a cost of clearing customs and I think you'd be in danger of additional fees being added that weren't obvious at the time of ordering. Personally, I wouldn't buy anything from outside the UK at the moment because the delivery companies are struggling. Even in the long term, I'm not sure I'd buy something from the EU that wasn't produced in the EU.

Information technology products are (generally) tariff free as a result of: https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/inftec_e/inftec_e.htm The key point is then how to differentiate: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/classifying-monitors-for-import-and-export#classifying-monitors-other-than-the-crt-type---legal-precedents There are probably products that straddle the two functions, but most manufacturers will make a monitor that is clearly for primary use as a monitor in order to avoid tariffs. On VAT, would amazon.fr really quote the price excluding VAT?

A computer monitor would be 0% tariff. For it to be 14% it would have to have a tv/entertainment function. VAT is certainly 20%, but that's same as before - I can't see why you'd be paying it twice. Edit to add: It's still going to be more than before, because someone has to do customs declarations/clearance and they are going to charge you for it.