Not sure if this news item fits in this thread or not, but just wanted to share. There is a chain of car showrooms here in NI (all brands sold) who not only have announced bumper profits, but because of that, they have returned all the money they got in 2021 under the 'Corona Virus Job Retention Scheme), 'furlough'! Who knew car dealers actually had a heart...

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/agnew-group-returns-furlough-money-after-bumper-profits-42055498.html?

44 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Not sure if this news item fits in this thread or not, but just wanted to share. There is a chain of car showrooms here in NI (all brands sold) who not only have announced bumper profits, but because of that, they have returned all the money they got in 2021 under the 'Corona Virus Job Retention Scheme), 'furlough'! Who knew car dealers actually had a heart...

It's not something that happens often.........but I'm lost for words !! 👍

3 hours ago, StephenFord said:

Not sure if this news item fits in this thread or not

Well, this seems to have become the general Covid thread, and this is a Covid related item, so it's a lot more on topic than many of our posts!😀

Don't know if any other dealers intend to give back furlough cash, but it's been pretty well reported that some substantial profits have been made by both dealers and manufacturers using the supply shortages to advantage.

Just been reading that Vertu have increased profit per sale by 25% in the last year, similar story here:

https://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/vindis-group-recovers-from-mammoth-losses-to-post-pre-tax-profit-of-over-7m/272726

Seems that the industry have caught on that you can make more profit by selling a smaller number of units with a higher transaction price, than the high volume low margin model that has prevailed in recent years.

It'll be interesting to see if this continues. I suspect that a lot of this (including the rise in EV sales) has been fuelled by company cars or those on other tax efficient schemes such as salary sacrifice. Some analysts are predicting an eventual consumer pushback when the peasants who buy/lease with their own money begin to have to renew cars in large numbers. 

13 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Seems that the industry have caught on that you can make more profit by selling a smaller number of units with a higher transaction price, than the high volume low margin model that has prevailed in recent years.

My whole career has been in retail. I have managed a discount store which would sell 12,000 items on a busy Saturday, and a luxury goods store which may have sold 3 or 4 items. Profitability was very similar though obviously selling 12,000 items is s shed load more work, staff, resources, supply chain etc etc The holy grail is the 'luxury' market,, though that precludes the vast majority of the population...

59 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

The holy grail is the 'luxury' market,, though that precludes the vast majority of the population...

It's always better to avoid mixing with the peasants whenever possible 🤣

3 minutes ago, unofix said:

It's always better to avoid mixing with the peasants whenever possible 🤣

I know, but I make an exception with you 🤣🤣

3 hours ago, StephenFord said:

I know, but I make an exception with you 🤣🤣

You took the words out of my mouth🤣🤣

And that was with my silver spoon I've had in my mouth since birth. 

23 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

I entirely accepted the seriousness of the 1st lockdown, no one knew what we were dealing with. However, after the 1st month. there was enough 'scientific' evidence, worldwide, that the most vulnerable were the elderly. The average age of death was 84 years old, which to this date has never changed. We could have protected the elderly & most most vulnerable without enforcing such a blunt tool as a generic lockdown. Still, this isn't the place to debate such an issue, (way off DashCam topic LOL) and the current public inquiry into our leaders actions will vindicate the view that the government could have made such a better job than they actually did...

Lol, moved to the appropriate thread so I could agree with you. I also was fully supportive of Lockdown 1, which I expected was an opportunity to gather the facts, assess the situation and come up with clear and sensible advice as to how best to proceed. It didn't quite seem to work out like that........

 

Edit PS: I must say that at least we are now being sensible, unlike the Chinese!

Whilst not wanting to run this any further. A blunt tool was needed for the idiots that ignored it as people are wont to do and as we all witnessed from neighbours to politicians etc partying and still going about their normal lives. Apart from putting the military on the streets what were they supposed to do. Then came each new variant which reset the game clock and will continue to do so possibly till the end of days. It has proved tho that if science gets its finger out it can deal with outbreaks, tho the long game has yet to emerge from Covid.

Mysterious deaths are mysterious, probably climate change? More excessive deaths than the first lockdown. Considering it's not being covered by MSM raises more questions

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/29/disastrous-legacy-left-lockdown-non-covid-excess-deaths-overtake/

4 minutes ago, 59bhp said:

Mysterious deaths are mysterious, probably climate change? More excessive deaths than the first lockdown. Considering it's not being covered by MSM raises more questions

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/29/disastrous-legacy-left-lockdown-non-covid-excess-deaths-overtake/

Not a subscriber!

38 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Not a subscriber!

Nore me but I can read it. 

23 minutes ago, iantt said:

Nore me but I can read it. 

Mustn't like folk from NI then, just keeps asking me to log in! 

2 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Mustn't like folk from NI then, just keeps asking me to log in! 

Or Yorkshire. Similar story has run elsewhere though at various times over the last 18 months or so.

26 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Mustn't like folk from NI then, just keeps asking me to log in! 

You can generally get round that by temp switching off java script 

 

For those who are adamant that masks are/were a waste of time ( @StephenFord ?) you probably won't be prepared to change your mind but I challenge you to listen to this episode of The Infinite Monkey Cage on BBC Radio 4 which deals with what has been learnt over the period of the Covid pandemic. If you don't want to listen to the whole programme scroll to 18:38 in.

 

 

1 minute ago, mjt said:

For those who are adamant that masks are/were a waste of time (@StephenFord?) you probably won't be prepared to change your mind but I challenge you to listen to this episode of The Infinite Monkey Cage on BBC Radio 4 which deals with what has been learnt over the period of the Covid pandemic. If you don't want to listen to the whole programme scroll to 18:38 in.

Here's my argument. In January 2021, Austria, France, Italy & Germany ALL banned the use of stupid cotton face coverings, and legally mandated that an N95 or FP2 medical grade mask must be worn. This was an experiment that involved 220 Million people.

During that year, all 4 countries had a massive increase in infection, Austria to such an extent that introduced a further lockdown coming up to Christmas in 2021. 

Yep, I'll never be persuaded otherwise that masks for general public use are an absolute waste of time. In a medically controlled environment like an operating theater, they're fine...

Well that was a totally predictable response. It shows that you would rather believe reports that fit with your preconceived ideas than accept the results of proper scientific studies.

Having had a reasonable time without the mask mandate together with all the other weird restrictions that didn’t make any sense - looking back, freedom should never of been gave away so readily.

5 hours ago, mjt said:

Well that was a totally predictable response. ...

I know, it's a darn nuisance when facts get in the way of a good story...

In addition, you also state the very weakness in your own argument.

" rather believe reports that fit with your preconceived ideas than accept the results of proper scientific studies..."

This is like Ford telling you your car gets 45Mpg, but when you drive it on a real road, as a real driver, you struggle to get 35Mpg. Basically because you are not in a chemistry test lab!

When you have empirical evidence of what actualy happens when 220 million people carry out a real life experiment, that's when you should take note of the outcome..

Not to mention the billions of masks floating around in the oceans and littering our countryside.

3 hours ago, williamweb said:

Not to mention the billions of masks floating around in the oceans and littering our countryside.

While this is the fault of the morons who discarded them carelessly, rather than of the masks themselves, I guess it is yet another example of the law of unintended consequences, the long term effects of which (e.g. on the food chain) we can't yet assess.

 

Zero Covid going well in China ha ha. Looks like some of the population have had enough of lockdowns with Covid running rabid.’Do as you’re told little people’.We want an apology from our lockdown maniacs that got it so wrong.Our freedom was curtailed and i will never forget.

We both had our 3rd covid booster and flu jab last week.

Covid jab in left arm still aches and is very tender so keeps me awake at night if I roll over but the Flu jab ( my first one)  was just a dead arm with little movement the following day. It made work a little more interesting the following day but still glad we didn't have them done prior to our holiday.

1 hour ago, Wino said:

Covid jab in left arm still aches and is very tender so keeps me awake at night if I roll over but the Flu jab ( my first one)  was just a dead arm with little movement the following day.

Some very interesting variations in this, not only between different people, but different doses of the same thing in the same person.

I had AZ for Nos 1 and 2, never even felt the needle, Pfizer for No 3, floored the next day, Pfizer again for No 4, no effect this time.

Mrs had 2xAZ, 1 Moderna, and 1 Pfizer, no effect with any of them.

We both had slightly sore arms after flu jabs, but no other effects. 

Most of our friends/relations have reported being floored at least once from the Covid jabs, some every time.

We arranged our Covid and flu jabs ourselves seperately, but a month after we had them were contacted by the local health consortium of GP practices offering Covid/flu in one appointment. That would have been convenient had we been contacted earlier, but it seems from yours and other comments we've had that we might have done the best thing anyway.