Member Info for big-blue

No UK resident trolls showing their hands not knowing when the market is closed in the UK.

Such a major policy announcement on a bank holiday. I am having trouble getting my head around this. I can only assume that this is intensely political. There has been a very big row within cabinet about holiday travel and open/closed borders. Some severe restrictions came in and a delay in opening up holiday travel was introduced as a result but it was a bit of a half measure as there wasn't a total lockdown of borders.
Has the travel review been brought forward from April 12th to today as a way to override the opposition to travel? Is this to get one-step ahead of EU as their green passport is in consultation to avoid the UK being pushed into signing up to by the Europhiles? Is this system being rushed in to allow other countries, especially independent minded EU states, a criteria to work towards to allow bilateral travel arrangements.

Thinking it through. If the UK got pushed into the EU green card we would have significant barriers to open up travel between the US and UK. However, if the UK defines it's own scheme with total control over the criteria allowing or restricting travel, then we will not be bound by EU rules derived form infighting and petty nationalism. EU central commission may retaliate by closing it's borders to UK travel, that is guaranteed based on past performance, but there is a basic breakdown in the grand unity with individual countries and perhaps regions announcing their own border control restrictions and specifically aimed at markets like UK holiday travel.

Whatever is happening, there is a very definite jumping of the gun today. Let's hope it is the beginning of the end of all the restrictions and real world wise heads start to get more of an upper hand and the masks go soon too.

It is a six and two threes. The vacc passport argument has clearly been won within the cabinet if event passports are being put forward. I never understood why such a knee jerk response to vacc passports came about. If one person can't go somewhere then nobody can go? That is old school loony left politics. I suspect the hand of Europe may have got in on that debate before it even surfaced in the UK media as that was being discussed over there much earlier as internal movement document. Remember there are many people in very well placed positions who will continue to write in the EU philosophy and methodologies to our laws and practices as far as they possibly can to maintain as much alignment as if we continued to be part of the EU.
So, the overseas travel resumption is going to be a hotchpotch of different requirements for different countries and a testing regime that now seems to include chargeable testing on the return leg. Any hint of profiteering from this and it will be an instant turn off for travellers. It seems the 'scientific' lobby still holds the reigns on the useless testing process. It has been shown to be almost worthless in most applications for the basic simple fact there is a two week incubation period. That has from the start rendered the whole idea of track and trace and management of the spread through testing a nonsense but, like masks, when presented in a simplistic fashion if is easy to dupe the final decision makers into believing there must be some sort of silver bullet in there.
The spread of covid will only recede when the mask wearing stops. It is that simple. A spreader wearing a mask is pumping up a covid saturated sponge, constantly touching it and dabbing the virus all over surfaces that other people touch and pass to themselves in a concentration high enough for the virus to take hold. Rinse and repeat.
The messy uncoordinated travel vacc passport scheme will open up some routes but what is really needed is a common global system, and end to the useless travel testing and no mask wearing in airports and on planes. The only valid tests will be for non vacced people and then they need two, two weeks apart and it should be at cost if that.
The belief the whole system is opening up will send the sp rocketing and I think I will be taking profits across the board before the reality of the situation becomes more apparat. Next sp increase phase will be announcements of coalescence of vacc passport schemes and the need for testing to be challenged and dropped. For the travel and holiday sector, I suppose at least get bums back up in the stratosphere and then move on the stupid useless restrictions.
Until mask wearing is ended, we will forever be on the cusp of more runaway spreading even with mass vaccination programs. I am not the only one on the planet pointing this out!!!

I always knew it from the 80s big bang of 'doing' a Hagrid when it was first exposed by a famous news video of group of young men drinking Champagne in their lunch hour on Threadneedle Street in the sunshine [celebrating a stag party as it turned out]. They were not wearing jackets which was the big give away they were not muggles. Being only a half-blood I am not allowed access to the bank holiday or Sunday trading market which is very unfair.

Although to be fair TP, Y11 didn't say which Monday. These highly sophisticated multi-millionaire day traders are tricky little buggers and if we don't watch our backs they will dupe us into trading into their hands. From his Dubai base she probably got her dates a little mixed up. At those giddy levels of trading it is easily done. So let us all cut these people some slack, who don't know what date Monday is or whether the markets are open. Their creditability is not in question. Well not much, lol.

"Slight downside: on Monday 4 April,"

Monday is the 5th April, Easter Monday.

It was on R4 too. USA most likely a green light country. But the other suggestion [leak?] that will have by far the biggest impact, returning passengers may need to test but a FREE test. Oh yes, it was clear, a FREE test. That will be the game changer. No fine detail in what is meant by red 'country' as in will a blanket amber light for Spain also cover the Canaries, or will the island groups like the Canaries be considered as separate zones.

I still find this news timetable very, very odd. This is a major announcement on how international travel restrictions are to be changed and it is to be announced on a Bank holiday. That is usually how you bury bad news. From what has been leaked so far, there is very good news. And what then is April 12th all about? It does seem the travel restrictions part of the review on travel restrictions {huh?} has been brought forward from the 12th to the 5th. Will make Tuesday an interesting trading day!

My 250 maybe seen a few days before April 12th.

Travel related all up by large margin - speculators taking positions for the Monday?? big announcement. OK, so Tuesday could be a roller coaster day trading day, I think fingers on the triggers first thing Tuesday 6th.

"It's a twister, its' a twister"

groots, make absolutely certain you get excess cover for the car. Focus on ensuring underside and windscreen cover. Much cheaper to search online before you go than pay massive excess cover at the airport. Important because you will most likely go off paved roads onto compacted gravel roads - very common in Iceland. Windscreen an underside therefore more vulnerable than most locations.

There are a few KFC around for quick food but no MacDonalds. I tend to hit the supermarkets. Alcohol in the shops is very weak larger, no wine or spirits except from a couple of specific outlets that I never find. Other wise it is a really silly fortune in a bar or restaurant - and I mean stupid prices. What most people do is as you leave the airport you will be directed through a duty free supermarket. Stock up there, where you will get your first hint of Icelandic prices! Lots of plastic bottle wine for twenty quid for example. Icelanders do round trips to UK on Easyjet just to go through the duty free, their version of a booze cruise.

Check out boiling mud pools on route 42. Just by the huge aluminium smelting plant there is a turning that looks like it goes into an industrial estate but 42 carries on into some fantastic scenery and at Krysuvik there are mud pools to explore. A but further south on 42 is a good place to go Aurora spotting as it is away from city lights but not to far away from emergency help. Same if you head north to Geysir in the evening. However, you should check the volcano incident before going as it was close to the main road from the airport and there may be travel issues. The authorities get very nervous about volcano sight seers and you may not get to Ryeykjavik hotel if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction.

Have fun, the place is stunning.

groots, Have you been to Iceland before? I have 5 trips now Auroa chasing and whale watching. HIRE A CAR! Best way to see Iceland is forget the very expensive tours, grab a library tour book and DIY. I normally end up there in March for some reason but might try earlier in the spotting season this year if flights are good. Pre-pandemic Iceland had returned to is former eye watering level of expense, I dread to think of what it will be like now. Oddly, petrol was just a little more than the UK and the hire car almost paid for itself cutting out the airport transfers.

R4 bigged up announcement 'next week' when we would apparently find out about what the new travel arrangements will be. It does sound like either Gove's review has been brought forward a week, Gove has been usurped or the original April 12th review date has had to be brought forward due to industry and public pressure. I suspect the main meat of the proposed arrangements will be known next week then. But not 5th April which is a Bank Holiday. In fact tomorrow is the start of the long weekend and it is a bit weird such important planning news is to be finalised over the long Bank Holiday weekend for release, on a Bank Holiday. That bit doesn't add up but clearly lobbying is continuing in the background.

I wouldn't want to spell it out because some people might decide to take offence and get all uppety. But people will read into the market reaction to France lockdown and decide just what position and level of influence France has in the real world compared to it's bluster.

France goes into lockdown and all my stocks go green, lol. What does that tell us, ha ha

It is shaping up that the UKs policy on returning holiday makers will be the key. Malta announced today that it will grant entry to double dosed visitors form UK. Spain, Greece, Turkey, Croatia [I think] are announcing border policies independently of the EU and it looks like the EU green pass is being used for political leverage for access for travellers from outside the EU, although it is a bit up in the air with some non-Schengen countries included (but of course not the UK).

The vacc passport is the way forward and is widely recognised as such but the implementation is turning into a real messy nationalistic botch job. Fingers crossed the G7 scheme will result in global coordination.

But if the UK puts too many conditions on returning passengers, than all the open access sin the world will not help UK holiday makers and travellers get abroad. Also, if the UK has too broad a brush when defining green light zones and , err - 'red light' zones [can't wait for the Sun et al headlines for that one], then perfectly legitimate zones like the Canaries might get cut out as they are 'Spanish' or somewhere like Dallas is red lighted as it is int he US despite it might be 100% free.

World governments can not on one hand tell everybody to get vaccinated to save them from covid and return to normal activities but then deny those normal activities. The restraints will have to come off at some point or the riots will increase up to very significant disorder and the odd coup here and there. Will Germany see a military leader within 12 months? Anything could happen if this opening up is not handled well.

Hindenburg.

That is all we need to know about hydrogen powered flight. Hydrogen and oxygen create the most intensive chemical reaction of all the elements. Also, the hydrogen is oxidized with the oxygen combined with the atmosphere, which includes nitrogen. A range of by-products from Hydrogen peroxide to nitric acid are created. No build a long term viable engine reactor and exhaust that does not breakdown in such an environment.

These are great logical ideas at first glance and as long as there is no higher level scrutiny, then billions will be pocketed with these schemes. But will they produce viable technology? Ask yourself this question. Knowing the the calorific value of all possible fuel types, why was the complicated process of extracting and producing petroleum based fuels favoured over using the far higher calorific hydrogen throughout over a century of engine development? Answer, there are significant technical reasons to overcome. And using hydrogen in a fuel cell has severe limitations since the catalyst required is palladium and there is a very finite supply on this planet. There are sound reasons why these technologies have been routinely looked at in the past and abandoned each time.

As long as BA can pocket some of those research billions floating around then fair enough. But do not ever expect a functioning power plant to result.

Deliveroo! Did you? I didn't, too much spin around it and the rather odd Primarybid email specifically targeting the pi community in way that gave a slight hint of not enough subscribers. I've never used Deliveroo so not registered to take part anyway. Market price has crashed on first day of trading. Big pi losses, another big transfer of pi money into iis accounts. Meanwhile my RTN rights issue will trade 27% up by the last price - -and that is before sentiment as pubs and restaurants reopen.

wake me up when it touches 250

when somebody is trying to argue the toss despite not knowing how a vaccine actually works, then that person's input must be wholly disregarded. If a vaccine does not protect you from the illness, then why does the world have such huge massive vaccination programs for a wide variety of illnesses? And if they do not work, why is the incidence of the diseases post vaccination program so low they are almost forgotten? In 50 years from now, covid will have joined a list that will be ever growing. Vaccines will be combined, some modified to protect against a whole family of bugs in one go and so on. covid got our attention because it had a high death rate and rampant transmission. Just like the black death or Spanish flu. We live in an age that was able to identify, mitigate and then develop protection. We are very lucky people.
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/diseases/forgot-14-diseases.html

The under 35's, club 18-30 type, are generally confined to a couple of holiday islands like Ibiza in the med. If holiday islands are accepted to act like social bubbles, and the local authority is trusted to report covid levels then it would be easy for Ibiza to be given a green travel light where no vaccination is required, and maybe a dreaded but cheap return test. However, if blood alcohol level was to be tested on return to UK, then everybody have to go into isolation, you see the young just can't take their booze.

An interesting statistic for the yoof holiday islands, the death rate from drinking v the death rate from covid19. mmmm, when these numbers start being put into perspective, there will be some interesting comparisons. More people killed by tea cossies and toasters for example.......

Today everything is drifting up a few % in travel stocks, feels like a tide ebbing and flowing over the days as the stocks are day traded hard, especially by iis making up for lost divies. The down side to that is it means a lot of pi money is simply being passed over to the iis. Old adage, profit is profit, as long as you take out a profit then you have defeated the iis, however big or small.

Curry houses, very decent chippies and the best all you can eat Chinese buffets in the Kingdom - Buckfast galore and tizer by the bucket - and the Hilton up there ain't half bad.

Oh yes, why on Earth would they all want to go to Scotland? Nothing to do with the fishing, oh yeah I'm sure!!!!!!