1 minute ago, Mark-UK said:

That's probably because a lot of it is the same food just in a different package.

 

Absolutely correct! Local bakery here called Ormo made the bread for M&S, except M&S charged a premium to satisfy their snobby customers LOL I am positive too that many phones are made in the same factory with different brands stamped on them 🤣

There's a book called No Labels, about the global fashion business, which I read years ago, in the back was the address for some of the large training shoe factories, Nike, Adidas and somebody else all had the same address on a China industrial site 🤣

It was only a couple of years ago when there was a food bug issue at an Irish pizza plant, and half the supermarkets in the UK had to withdraw their own brand pizza.

Many years ago my father sold canoeing clothing, got very friendly with the local cagoule manufacture, and on a trip to the homeworker sewing saw they had 4 different boxes of labels and just randomly pick them to sew in to the clothing, They were  companies from Bolton, Brighton , Germany and one I forget, all sewn by the same lady in Bolton.

5 minutes ago, Mark-UK said:

There's a book called No Labels, about the global fashion business, which I read years ago, in the back was the address for some of the large training shoe factories, Nike, Adidas and somebody else all had the same address on a China industrial site 🤣

And... as an aside, 65% of the 'designer' labels sold in TK Maxx are made up names backed by TK Maxx themselves, sshhhh, don't tell the Mrs, she'd be shocked!

2 hours ago, iantt said:

I can't taste the difference between a lot of food stuffs( and I mean the same type of food but differing brands.)

Coincidentally, current issue of Which magazine (out today), did a consumer test on various brands of Baked Beans. Top of the list was Lidl (priced at 8p/100g), and way down in 8th place was Heinz (at 24p/100g)... So... Beans Meanz not always Heinz 🤣

Even parking charges  has become emmisions based!! 

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/1598557/petrol-diesel-parking-costs-electric-cars-emissions-based-charging-london

On 4/22/2022 at 3:37 PM, iantt said:

I can't taste the difference between a lot of food stuffs

That’s classic covid right there..lol 

34 minutes ago, Alex.S said:

That’s classic covid right there..lol 

Unfortunately my lack of taste buds was before COVID. 🤣

And the electric revolution continues.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/ford/transit/357844/new-ford-e-transit-2022-review

How much hp does a transit need?? 

7 minutes ago, iantt said:

How much hp does a transit need?? 

I don't know but the level of stupidly seems to know no bounds 🤔

What next, an all electric Battle Tank ?

Wait, sorry just heard some old fool has just thought of that !!

5 minutes ago, iantt said:

And the electric revolution continues.

 

Just thought there'll be a whole new tier of excuse for non arrival of deliveries, tradesmen etc. "Sorry guv, we left on time but the young lad forgot to plug the van in last night!" LOL

I saw what I thought was an electric transit today. Covered in Graphics saying 100 percent electric, green energy ,bla bla. 

So I went up to it and popped bonnet expecting to see nothing but electronics to find a dirty diesel ecoblue engine in there.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I found out later the graphics dept were testing the graphics design  on a diesel van as they didn't have electric one. 

1 minute ago, iantt said:

I saw what I thought was an electric transit today...

 

Amazon already run a fleet of them here. Though if you don't like them, you can send them right back 🤣

All this save the earth stuff is about 50 years too late 

A complete waste off time and yet another excuse for the government to STEAL from us hard working tax payers who are bieng ripped off by the government yet again with extra taxes banning off petrol and diesel cars , higher national insurance , do I need to carry on , and I have just read they want a ban on petrol powered garden apparatus 🤣🤣

what an absolute joke this country has become 

It's alright people like you and me protesting about all these things but to be honest we are all wasting our breaths because the government will not listen to us peasants but if it wasn't for us normal people they would be earning £100,000+ a year , it's about time they started to take notice off what people like you and me have to say 

8 minutes ago, Richard McCann said:

earning £100,000+ a year

I think you missed a zero off that !!

more like £1,000,000 +

Like most of us I'm sure, I hate to see wasted resources and unnecessary pollution and would like to think I'm doing the "right thing" when I come to change our cars. Unfortunately it's becoming less clear what that might be.

It's always seemed to me that we would have made faster progress on reducing emissions by taking a more pragmatic approach, much earlier, on issues like the size and weight of vehicles (e.g. 2.5 tonne + SUVs).

Interestingly the same seems to apply even when EVs are taken into consideration:

https://www.drivingelectric.com/news/41404/green-ncap-whole-life-car-emissions-study-confirms-small-evs-are-greenest#:~:text=Anomalies include the electric Ford Mustang Mach-E%2C which,tonnes of CO2 over 16 years and 240%2C000km.

Sure, the study I quote there concludes that small EVs are the "greenest" but also that larger ones are even worse than some diesels. So size does matter, after all! 

I was reading a test the other day on a car that looked great - comfortable, spacious, bags of torque for motorway driving, no range anxiety as it has a range of 800 miles plus. It was a Skoda Superb 2.0TDI Estate.😀

2 hours ago, Richard McCann said:

It's alright people like you and me protesting about all these things but to be honest we are all wasting our breaths because the government will not listen to us peasants

The government have NEVER listened to us 'peasants', plenty of historical data. From the most recent example when the Brexit referendum was passed by a majority of the electorate, and the government (and opposition) stalled for years. To lesser recent when almost 1 Million protesters marched to express to Tony Blair their dissatisfaction at entering the Iraq war. Also, more at home (for me) The Peace People movement marching in the 70s in support of an immediate peaceful solution in Northern Ireland.

To expect any government to listen to the public is simply naive.

Were all doomed! 

2 minutes ago, iantt said:

Were all doomed! 

 

Who do you think you are kiddin' Mr Putin... if you think old...... 😅

3 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Who do you think you are kiddin' Mr Putin... if you think old...... 😅

😂😂

If Putin gets his way, then all this talk of saving the planet will be for nothing. BOOM!! 

2 minutes ago, iantt said:

😂😂

If Putin gets his way, then all this talk of saving the planet will be for nothing. BOOM!! 

On a positive note, Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain, St Greta, and all the other nutters will all go too!

Just a few cockroaches left to run around. So piers Morgan may be a sole survivor. 😂😂😂😂😂

2 hours ago, iantt said:

😂😂

If Putin gets his way, then all this talk of saving the planet will be for nothing. BOOM!! 

I remember the time of the Cuban missile crisis and my Dad seeming really worried. This is the first time in my life I've really understood how he must have felt.

BP has just announced profits for the last 12 weeks of (£4.9 Billion) £4,900,000,000. Roughly £409 Million/week.

I am usually against a 'windfall' tax primarily because the government as an institution is one of the last places you'd want to give money to as they are so incompetent at spending it wisely. However, there is something immoral at making a £82 Million PROFIT on a daily basis when most of us struggle to pay to full up our cars.

The 5p/liter tax drop on fuel is a joke, I can drive 100 yards and find a 15p differential in pump prices. Against my slumping principals, I'd be quite in favour of a windfall tax, IF the government put it directly to cutting the price of fuel...

21 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Against my slumping principals, I'd be quite in favour of a windfall tax, IF the government put it directly to cutting the price of fuel...

I share your concerns about government spending and vfm - getting quite annoyed about the surplus PPE mountain at the mo, for instance!

However, I have doubts that, even if the proceeds of a fuel windfall tax did not drop into a black hole, they are unlikely to go to reducing the cost of fossil fuel - something "green" is probably more likely - like more of those blasted electric scooters!

SHELL has just announced profits for the last 12 weeks of (£7.3 Billion) £7,300,000,000. Roughly £608 Million/week.

I am usually against a 'windfall' tax primarily because the government as an institution is one of the last places you'd want to give money to as they are so incompetent at spending it wisely. However, there is something immoral at making a £121 Million PROFIT on a daily basis when most of us struggle to pay to full up our cars.

Oh, wait a minute, this sounds awfully familiar! Yep, my last post was about exactly the same but with BP. 🤣 So together, 2 major fuel suppliers are making profits of £203 Million/day!!

Well, a £Billion here, a £Billion there, sooner or later it starts to add up to real money!