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Emkaybee
I am sure travel is going to take a different flavour or 2, and perhaps for the better, slower, more enjoyable. Allows time to smell the roses, so to speak. My point was about the inconsistency in the narrative and need for social distancing by our governments and chief medical officers. How can a govt tell you can only have 5 visitors over to their house at one time and may only meet in groups of 10 outside of the home. Restaurants and bars will be allowed to serve 20 patrons..and then allow airlines to stuff 200 people into a plane (with no warning that this is what is going to happen)? I cant help but think there is a game being played ( because they do not seem to be serious? - the lockdown of 25% of Australia's GDP is laughable and I look forward to the netflix saga?).
The cost of this is monumental, and we are so far from the mean, that I do not think we will revert to the mean. Hence looking at past variations in gold price or share trading patterns and relationships is not going to be useful. In Oz there is a massive rotation out of banks and financials into (Gold + quality) resources, healthcare and technology stocks. So investors are after QUALITY GOLD STOCKS, with demonstrated ability to deploy capital wisely, and reward shareholders rather than directors (etc)
I am hoping that there will be more good than bad come out of the pandemic...
best
the gnome
The UK remains the only country in Europe to use First Past the Post. Any political leader serious about redistributing power must make tackling the democratic crisis a priority.
we’ve got to address the fact that millions of people vote in safe seats and they feel their vote doesn’t count. That’s got to be addressed. We will never get full participation in our electoral system until we do that at every level.”
https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/keir-starmer-weve-got-to-address-the-fact-that-millions-of-people-vote-in-safe-seats-and-they-feel-their-voice-doesnt-count/
https://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/proportional-representation?gclid=EAIaIQobChMImq-s57j_6gIVCOJ3Ch3ZDAKpEAMYASAAEgL_jfD_BwE
Archive information
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/how-unfair-or-disproportionate-is-the-uk’s-voting-system-for-general-elections/
https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/nearly-200000-sign-petition-calling-for-the-unelected-house-of-lords-to-be-overhauled/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=ers-email&utm_campaign=ers+news&utm_content=blogs+30th+july+jm
It is no credit to British democracy that we have the second largest legislative chamber in the world. The only one larger than the 792-strong House of Lords is the 2,980-member Chinese National People’s Congress.
OK faced up to it but subject to scrutiny from others more able here.
Between 1998 and 2003 the labour government under Blair and Brown 3.67
sold 415 tons of Treasury gold at an average price of $275 an ounce. I have taken this as Troy ounce. There are 32150 troy ounces in 1 ton of gold. viz 32150 x 415 x $275 =$3.67 billion.
Taking the value at $1970 an ounce today that represents approx £26.3 billion Exchange rate dollar to pounds at 1.30 = approx 20 billion pounds.
Hoping my poor maths about right and sufficiently goldie to deserve a place on this board.
Good luck all for tomorrows announcement
Hi Tibbs
You make my point well. If the MAJORITY of voters wished to change the voting system to say a proportional representation one put up by any Party and wins so be it. A lot to be said for it. Boris# water cannon debacle a mere micro drop in the ocean of politician fiascos when compared to the Labour PRUDENT CHANCELLOR Brown selling UK gold into the open market at 200 an ounce. Too frightened to work out what the current value of that would be if in the Countries Exchequer today.!!!
A leftie is someone who believes anyone with an opinion opposite to them is uneducated, ill informed or thick. Is that you mrT?
Mr Gnome, always enjoy your observations of Australian and world events interspersed with constructive criticism and political cynicism of the situation, keep it coming!
You will no doubt remember the late Clive James, great TV show, I would to like to see our cabinet including Demonic Cummings in the Endurance game!
https://www.britishclassiccomedy.co.uk/clive-james-on-television-1982
p.s. I had better go to confession now or I will get burnt at the stake or (banned or blocked ) for accused of being a leftie (Whatever they are?).
Best
Tibbs,
what's this to do with a mine based in Egypt Mrtibbles?
The UK first past the post electoral system is undemocratic and ensures that the choice is really between the Tories or Labour, even the Liberals/Democrats could not form a government!
Over time and certainly in the past decade the Tory party have reorganised ward boundaries to their electoral advantage.
https://fullfact.org/news/how-many-seats-could-ukip-have-under-different-voting-system/
https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-what-might-have-happened-under-proportional-representation
p.s.
Remember Boris Johnson's unused water cannon sold for scrap at £300,000 loss!
London mayor Sadiq Khan fails to find buyer for crowd-control vehicles after lengthy search
Hi Emkaybee,
Great to hear your news, reminds me of some of the early days on here when we all knew a lot less about Centamin but you were able to offer some reassurance on certain matters .
Camper vans and motor homes have always held up well against depreciation, less scrupulous of shady car sales franchises luv rob them off some gullible owners in part exchange against ordinary cars because often considerably more profit is made on the resale of the camper camper vans or motor than the mark up on two or three cars sales!
Hi Emkaybee!
Apparently RV and camper van sales are strongly up due to Covid19.
In effect, you take your own hotel room with you on your business trip or holiday. No airports, no airplanes, no taxis or buses, no hotel rooms. It's a whole lot less contact with strangers!
Emkaybee.....lovely tale. Thanks for sharing.
Goldgnome,
My employers asked me to go to Frankfurt last month to install a new server in our Colo datacentre, usually I would fly out on BA from Gatwick and grab a hire car and find a nice 5* hotel for the night, but with Covid I had a change of plans. Day 1 I drove to Liege in Belgium and stayed overnight at a quiet campsite. Day 2 drove to Frankfurt did the install and drove back to Liege and stayed for 2 more nights enjoying the tranquility. Day 4 drove to Dunkirk and spent far too much in Auchan hypermarket before getting the ferry back to the UK. Total mileage 1281 !! But it was actually a lot more fun than the usual method.
Emkaybee....yawnzzzzzz
Stop being such a Jobsworth Zambianminer.
Hi Zambian miner well said. I think the most important part of his posts are " to win an election" Try electing a politician in Fascist Russia or China (I know technically commie but state ruled by a few individuals who jail all dissent) I take comfort in that if I dont like the decision makers I can use my free vote to get rid of them or peacefully protest on any matter . Try that in Hong Kong , Moscow or Beijing.!!!!!!!
mrtibbles, we all know where you stand but can you please stop posting this stuff on the board. I don't want to block you as I enjoy most of your pots!!
In the UK our Ex game show and ex journo PM,his toady cabinet and Dominic Cummings have been encouraging people to go back to work, but not to travel on public transport, although its safe for the schools to reopen, but that may only happen if the pubs remain closed!
Our PM has found time to award peerages to his brother, a bunch of Brexiteer profiteers and other right wing ex cabinet members who will now able to claim £350 plus expenses tax free for each time they sign in to the House of Lords!
Covid -19 lock down has highlighted that so many business trips , corporate jolly's and even commuting are all unnecessary and the general public have come to appreciate the need to respect and preserve our environment for future generations, so our lousy government is pushing on with spending £68 billion building an HS2 railway line which is destroying natural habitat and people homes just so that business commuters can get to the outskirts of some northern city 20m minutes sooner!
I really enjoyed your thoughts on the present situation, hit a few nails on the head, sadly though politicians and leaders the world over remain in denial of the situation for fear to be rely honest would be an election losing strategy.
In the UK
If people did stop travelling (good arguments they should, if not for their own sake) .... the effects would ricochet through nearly every community, industry and business, from manufacturing to real estate, restaurants, luxury goods, financial services (etc). All this would risk setting off a raft of corporate insolvencies, high unemployment and a sharp downturn.
Now the coronavirus-related collapse in world tourism, which represents more than 10 per cent of global economic output according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, may well trigger the next stage of this crisis, in which we move from a public health emergency and mass unemployment to widespread insolvencies in myriad industries, and we enter into the down spiral.
Even with billions of dollars in government aid programs (assumes the parties can agree LOL), US commercial bankruptcies were up 43 per cent in June compared with the same month of 2019.
The fact that people are not travelling – not even as far as the office – affects real estate, too. The value of global real estate is greater than that of stocks and bonds combined. According to Green Street Advisors, the unleveraged value of commercial real estate in the US is down by 11 per cent since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Transaction volumes in the second quarter of the year dropped by 68 per cent – the lowest level since the post-2008 financial crisis. There was distress across every property type in every part of the USA.
Real estate is the largest portion of the tax base in New York and other cities. Neighbourhoods where expensive office towers sit empty have a spooky, deserted atmosphere. Big tech firms such as Google, among the top real estate spenders in many big US cities, are not sending workers back until the next northern summer. How do councils provide services. What happens if they don't?
As AG Bisset put it in a June research note, the collapse in mass tourism and the potential reverberations from it recall the 1928 collapse in grain prices that ultimately helped to trigger the 1929 market crash and the Depression.
What we are seeing is the demise of an industry that has supported many other sectors. I suspect that once vacation season has come and gone, particularly if the US fails to provide more (how much more...who knows) stimulus money, we will see ramifications that stretch far beyond the travel and tourism business itself. Out for decades...to the next generation and beyond...
good luck ...
go to the local pub and have a beer? buy some gold or gold shares?
best
the gnome
One of the weakest links in the virus infection line or net, is what happens on our planes. you can have social isolation enforced in the airports, and business lounges, but as soon as you get on the planes, its pack 'em in like sardines. On a recent flight I queried the consistency with the airlines and the government rhetoric. Answer: Simply if they practiced social isolation the flights, the airline companies would be uneconomic, and NOT FLY. That's the reality.
So I packed into a plane, 150 in a 180 seat plane, put my mask on (which some doctors say does not do the job), and hung on for my 2.5 hour flight (not like a glancing blow at a butchers shop?), but a flight with people who had signed off that they did not exhibit any of the covid19 symptoms. There were coughs, splutters, noses blown. I cringed ...
https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-victoria-jetstar-flight-melbourne-to-darwin-northern-territory/dccea473-2972-4534-af96-6b8008572eb2
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-03/jetstar-says-sunshine-coast-covid-19-flight-almost-full/12518676
good luck, but that was my last flight ... I am driving home or catching a camel ...
best
the gnome...