Member Info for big-blue

Lloyds, bear in mind the printing of money, sorry, I mean quantitative easing, lasted until just a few years ago and was effectively reintroduced due to covid. There was always going to be a bump to the world economic system when QE was finished proper. The resulting inflation originally was expected to be offset by growth but covid has turned that one end up and the post-covid recovery is being stunted by a lack of labour worldwide. What I see is a significant return to austerity to dampen longer term inflation where stopping and reducing even government spending will be the international tool to halt inflation.

Putin assured Xiixying Bing Yan face to face that Russia would not be invading during the Olympics. Little understood, Putin was effectively 'summoned' to Beijing to be 'told' what he may not do during February and Putin has complied as a good Russian lapdog should! Now there's an alternative view for you!

Putin has about two weeks to ramp it up, ramp it down, play various factions in the west against each other and then due for peace with ethnic territorial gains. The UK should keep away from getting involved with the EU mash-up so a s not have any association and thereby secure more favourable trade conditions with Russia and its allies [aka China] post Ukraine. UK should keep every utterance tied exclusively to NATO and nothing else. I suspect the US will also end up doing the same pretty quickly. Putin's end game /escape route will come through a ballsed up settlement with France/Germany/EU commission along the lines of the applying deal done with Iran on Iranian nuclear development [what a car crash that was - another great day for EU negotiating diplomacy].

'they work'. To be clear, what is it that works and for whom?

"If the police use them blue they must work … do you not think??"

They are under orders! As a uniformed service they have no option to comply and follow orders. But who created the orders and why? I don't actually know if officers are using them or where or under what directives. I presume you are saying that, irrespective of the relaxation of mask use, uniformed are still wearing them all the time? Maybe as the kick back against masks evolves we will hear the reps of uniformed speaking out asking for masks to be removed [if they are currently required]. I like reviewing a wide range of media outlets [no shi.t!!] and there is a very consistent theme planet wide. This mask business is causing a great deal of trouble, division and stress. It is clear the overwhelming majority of people are clued up on the fact they don't stop the spread and the forced use, or even just suggested use, is perceived as an act of intrusion and coercion. If you think about it, it is an enforcement right inside everybody's personal space which might explain that it is more talked about in media worldwide than anti-vaxxers. If I posted every mask story, there would be dozens and dozens a day!

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/australian-police-barge-into-catholic-mass-to-check-for-mask-compliance/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=blog-post&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=top-bar-latest&utm_term=third

Still want the mask lobby to keep their hold? It's the masks, they are causing a huge amount of trouble, and they do not stop the spread of and covid variant. I've complained about those who believe they are social superior, the next step up is as this story intimates, mask lobby nazies!!!

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-cambridge-professor-admits-he-was-over-optimistic-at-the-start-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic-12534429

Enjoy this one. It is absolutely asstonishing. This 'expert' is clearly looking ahead to the inquiry where he is going to be called up and is marking his card to evade responsibility. This is a twisting of the argument on lockdown that you will never have expected. And to reveal he is also an 'expert witness' simply underlines the problem of experts having their own bias. This is an extraordinary read!!

https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/nagaworld-protesters-summonsed-over-obstruction-covid-measures

With a more heightened self-awareness, how does this story read? Especially the bit
"The commission made a plea to protesters to cooperate with the directive – “for the sake of their lives and those of their families” – and to avert the catastrophic effects that would be brought upon by a potential community outbreak."
Yeah, you see, that omicron variation, 'catastrophic effects'! Nudge, nudge.

Danphonic, you forget about 'margins'. The load factor is still very poor whilst the opex goes up. Look how big the fuel supplement had to be last time. And that was required to stop airlines going under. Higher oil stresses the business, invokes caution in investors who are risk averse and dump stock. Elementary inveting.

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2022/02/06/restrictions-drop-around-world-covid-hypocrisy-revealed/9317726002/

It is interesting to see how the equivalent of 'party gate' is used elsewhere around the world by various political and media factions to suite their agendas. This article is the sounding out that is emerging within many of the smaller media organisations. It is yet to surface and become the narrative of the main TV outlets yet, they have other narratives to pursue since they, the TV gods, have found untold power of control and are simply loving it and some way off letting go. But it will happen, it might require another storming of the Capitol and Westminster. The masks are going to be the final battleground. As more real world facts about those bloody masks become more widespread even without the reach of the TV gods, the most prominent nudge theory control symbol will come under increasing attack. And the smug gits driving and wandering around the streets thinking they are so much more socially superior wearing a mask will find the world turning against them. I predict in not to many months time people complaining about having their masks ripped off their faces and being accused of seeking to perpetuate the mask oppression of the people. Sounds funny? The opposition is growing and there will be a tipping point. Either they are 'outlawed' in all but critical environments [where they were used pre pandemic] or there is going to be anti-mask vigilanties out there.

I admit bobbins, when I offer my pearls of wisdom, that the vast majority of people are quite unaware that the position they have formed in their mind is not one they have arrived at themselves freely. Thereby people react with horror and outright consternation because the other possible viewpoint has been completely covered up. So rather than debating points, the idea that points even exist does not enter into people's minds. This thought control has been going on for many years now. It doesn't always work. It failed with Brexit, failed with Trump. The deployment in the states is practically an all out psychological war and the result is people with their minds ripped in two, an internal free rational voice competing with a barely perceived opposite external voice. The root to it all is mass media, TV, the TV gods. That is the seat of mind control. How to combat it is unknown, but people have a resilience to being told to do and think something they don't want to. In the interim a lot of damage is done.

So, am I the odd one out - or are you? Both of us can't be right.

"The behavioural science tentacles extend far beyond the public health domain. For example, a recent document outlining a collaboration between Sky TV and the Behavioural Insights Team, titled The Power of TV: Nudging Viewers to De-carbonise, suggests that news, drama and documentary programmes could soon be underpinned by covert messages prompting us to adopt lifestyles that enable the realisation of the zero-carbon goal. No doubt the ‘nudgers’ would argue that they are enabling the British people to do the right thing, but who decides what is ‘right’? In democratic societies desirable goals, and subsequent policies are typically included in political parties’ election manifestoes and voted for (or rejected) via the ballot box, rather than being unilaterally determined by the state."

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/britain-s-unethical-covid-messaging-must-never-be-repeated

https://sandbaram.com/

If twisted bull in their website sell is anything to go by, this is one fund doomed to fail. It's a hedging setup which believes in Paris climate agreement. A lot of investment companies are heavily exposed to all the climate change money. When that tower of cards falls, a lot of those investments will collapse too. People and businesses can't keep paying never ending increases in energy and fuel. By 2030 everybody will have had to pay for a new boiler to replace a gas one, install an expensive car catching point, scrap their current car with little more than scrap value in return, use that to buy a old knackered ev needing at least ten grand spending on a new battery, spend thousands on home insulation that will have little or no impact on energy costs and pay for additional inflation on meat, holidays, water and on and on and on and on.....

Can't wait for this to operate in my area!!!

https://www.verdictfoodservice.com/news/kfc-begins-drone-delivery-pilot-with-wing-in-australia/

Ed1, you forgot KFC running a half-price bargain bucket campaign for the whole of March.

https://sputniknews.com/20220205/yellow-vests-hit-the-streets-of-paris-to-protest-against-covid-19-restrictions-macrons-policies-1092768687.html

More protests. All over the world, the peasants are revolting.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/COVID-19-Recovery-Index/Living-with-COVID-Cambodia-jumps-to-2nd-in-Nikkei-Recovery-Index

Interesting perspective. Scroll down for the table. UK ranked joint 15, ahead of most EU countries. This is a useful snapshot of the relative differentiation between countries wrt recovery stage. Also more news of countries opening up. It is as if politicians are nervously moving towards removing restrictions and noting that neighbouring countries are not AWOL and hysterical and in fact, politically, opening up is gaining popularity brownie points.

The problem is Emerald, other countries are out of it already. It is the testing that has always stopped the travelling and continues to do so. Some countries are stopping the testing and there is movement in selling seats, price changes on skyscanner show it. But the big one is the US, they need to drop all travel testing. That will be the big news suggesting the corner has turned and the term pandemic and all the tropes keeping the fear going can stop - like daily case numbers. A lot of people and organisations are going to have to let go of a level of power and control they never ever thought they could have. It is going to be a difficult year looking at the difficulty getting the 'totally and utterly obvious' to be absorbed and promoted. Lots of protests kicking off again, especially downunder. If Australia and New Zealand are not careful, they are going to have full blown insurrections on their hands and independence movements splitting the counties up. The exit of covid is going to be a long and winding road.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10479231/Covid-Australia-Dr-Nick-Coatsworth-shares-shock-mask-mandate-graph-rallies-against-mandates.html

Few brave voices trying to start the back peddling on the mask debate. But there is clearly an uphill struggle. A lot of people who consider themselves important have pinned their colours to the mast saying they work and it is now going to be a major claim down for a lot of people as real world evidence comes through. As long as this mask nonsense continues, it is a psychological tool to keep the pandemic and associated controls going. If you think the anti-vacc arguments have been poisonous, wait until the mask debate takes center stage.

If you think that's cheap, check out the spread from destination 'Everywhere'.

https://www.skyscanner.net/transport/flights-from/lond/?adults=1&adultsv2=1&cabinclass=economy&children=0&childrenv2=&inboundaltsenabled=false&infants=0&iym=2203&originentityid=27544008&outboundaltsenabled=false&oym=2203&preferdirects=false&ref=home&rtn=1

Last week saw a return to Dubai for £20. It was a real one - went all the way through to payment to see!!

Click on 17th out, 17th ret. £10 :) But if you go through to the list of flights, will probably be £12.