Spartacus

Interesting question Sue And in reverse, will any Scots in England need to apply to live in the UK in the same way EU nationals did or a visa if they arrive after independence ? It opens up so many questions that may change the opinion oolls either way

I read a couple of articles today that questions if Scotland could afford to go independent. Whilst support for the vote to be independent has for the moment risen, the possible factors that may not allow it includes Scotland's current deficit and how long would it take then to become an EU member once they become independent. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/Can-Scotland-afford-independence https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/scottish-independence-if-scotland-breaks-free-uk-it-faces-bankruptcy-and-eu-cant-afford-let-it-rejoin-soon-jim-duffy-3100330 Both articles paint a bleak future with austerity a big factor. It would be interesting to see what the figures, calculations and projections are and I believe that with part of Scotland's projected income being oil and gas revenues , both of which are declining in use (shift to electric cars and shifts away from gas for heating) then the model may be even less plausible over the next twenty years. There is part of the current plan that sees Scotland becoming a major offshore wind farm but as that's a free resource that can be farmed virtually anywhere there's wind then that could be a risky strategy. I think there's a lot more to the debate than Scotland wanting to get out of the UK, including finance, reentry to Europe and it's future in the world market.

JohnL Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > London needs some form of devolution ... bring > back the GLC :) > Oh lord yes bring back Red Ken from the 80s We might end up with the old design routemasters coming back.

Seabag Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > . Good point 😆

That's all it can be Seabag , theoretical, as none of us are actually in power or a position to change it. All we can do is discuss it, get wound up / down by it or speculate about it, but unless Boris / Kier is on here we can't do much more at this juncture. So my stance is look at what can be done as a conversation point and not play the blame game and you never know , as a collection of bright people we may actually solve the conundrum 🤔

And the politics slip in 😭 Rather than looking at the bigger picture of how can the vaccine be distributed to protect as many people as it can globally, it falls down to I am / am not all right Jack on here. Given the issues with production, the lack of leadership by WHO, how can this global humanitarian crisis be turned around to protect as many as possible. If Europe can't get vaccines soon then countries like France (already approaching lock down 3 and 75 thousand deaths) may soon overtake us as the highest death rate in the European area. I don't advocate robbing Peter to pay Paul so what are the practical steps that can be taken by the EU, UK and WHO to save as many lives as possible here, across Europe and the world. After all if a country (say Africa) doesn't vaccinate most off the population then there is a risk that the virus will mutate there and spread around the world again.

I'd have a pint with them all, listen to what they say and make a decision on what's best for London and Conversely for myself Then I'd still want Count BinFace (but not necessarily Vote for) to win as the whole concept of a London assembly and mayor is an expensive bureaucratic model and funds supporting it could be better deployed.

SpringTime Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Sorry Spart, but they all look the same. LOL You're not wrong , which is a telling statement about our politicians They are all the same and have the same basic personality traits otherwise they wouldn't be politicians nor would they be have ambitions to get on top. I often wonder if politicians and top business people have the same traits, ruthless, ambition and willing to step on the people below them to get to the top.

SpringTime Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Which one is binface? Count binface has a bin on his head Fairly easy to spot in a crowd of other losers TBH

gabys1st Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Need to ear masks with 2 way filters N95, or next > lot down to filter nano particles that linger in > the air Ear mask ? Wow that's going to add to my ppe

BBC News - London mayoral race 2021: The candidates who say they will be standing https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55748037 It's gotta be binface.

You're not wrong springtime but sadly the countries who invested in the drug companies to do the r&d want returns, that's why they invested The UK is however the second biggest contributor to COVAC which helps distribute the vaccines to countries who can't get on the global race on their own. I still think WHO should be stepping up and managing the issue (either in Europe or the rest of the world)

Did you build a bridge from your mansion to their loft Bob ? MTH (Must try harder)

Sad thing is that this seems a game of vaccine chess being played with the residents of the EU and the UK as pawns. Absolutely not acceptable by either side and I know there is panic over procurement (the EU want to vaccinate as many as they can as do we) but for either side to restrict supply is simply unacceptable. What's the solution, I don't know maybe the EU needs to invest heavily in the factories in Belgium where the production problem lies, but even then will that be enough to vaccinate everyone who is high on the list. Strangely the Germans have made a decision, right or wrong, not to give the Oxford vaccine to the over 65s so they appear to be sacrificing some of their Pawns in the game. Let's hope history doesn't judge them for such terrible humanity decision. Overall rather than blame game being played with the EU accusing us of hogging (as a friend in southern Ireland told me yesterday) or the UK not being able to find a way to ramp up supplies (possibly with the EUs help) then it will get very very messy and the human toll won't be acceptable. Maybe WHO needs to step up 🤔

I was disappointed with your song choice johnl I was predicting it was you and me and a dog named Boo

This does highlight a bigger problem. GDPR was supposed to assist in keeping your data private by giving explicit consent on sharing, yet we see more and more personalised ads as the data the big companies have on us all is giving them an insight into our daily lives. For example Amazon (there are other online retailers) know our browsing habits, what we tend to buy and using predictive algorithms even what we don't know we want to buy. Tie that into tools like smart speakers and the internet of things and the insights they will have into us will lead to even more targeted selling. Link that to voice recognition and face recognition (ring doorbell , CCTV and so on) and the personalised adverts as you walk (as shown in the minority report) may not be so far fetched. Every decision you make on the internet can be used to build a picture of who you are, what consumer box to put you in and how to market to you. Even clicking on deny cookies can be circumnavigated as there is often a "legitimate purposes" toggle that you don't always see or disable. I agree with spring time that the outdoor space is a battle ground and whilst I don't really think it will get to be a constant wall of personalised advertising, as we remove adverts from platforms like the internet, we will see advertisers switch to other more effective mediums including street space.

Sue Not only still used by vital in some businesses as legacy systems are running on it and can't easily be converted or not worth converting COBOL is also still in use as well as some if the 4gls (forth generation languages) that emerged in the mid 80s Some people make good money supporting legacy systems 🤔

Let it all out Kid, free your mind as its put "a hex on you" You will feel a whole dos better once you can get back to basic86

SpringTime Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think the most useful are the posters above > urinals reminding us to have a prostate check up - > though these are more about publicity as opposed > to the endless spam we see everywhere else, > encouraging would-be consumers to buy tat they > don't need, but are being manipulated to want. So you're not a lady then ... or if you are "respect" on your free style peeing

Assembler is all 01000111 01010010 01000101 01000101 01001011 to me 😆

Ohhhh There's an idea for the EDF A sin bin Admin ... Oh don't worry, it's called the lounge and we are already all here

Sue A diagonal line in marker pen across the top of the punched cards helped get them back in order if you dropped them. I always laughed at things like the Italian job, or space 1999 where tape drives made a noise (they didn't in real life)

I can't wait for holographic outdoor adverts as shown in films like back to the future 2 or minority report where the adverts are tailored to each pedestrian Now that would be annoying

Dial up ? Wow that was posh. I used punch cards and mounted tapes to get a computer the size of a room to send a message to another computer (equally the same size) in the next building Them were the days when the ARPANET wasn't cluttered by trivia and malice 😱

Cadburys kmew as this advert shows