Interesting Links for 06-10-2021

[andrewducker]

'No alternative' to rising inflation, Boris Johnson says

(tags:inflation economics uk BorisJohnson Conservatives )

Yes, it's a big deal when Facebook goes down. This is why

(tags:Facebook socialmedia society )

UK Supreme Court upholds challenge to two Scottish bills (I am completely unsurprised)

(tags:Scotland UK law )

Covid pass to be introduced in Wales after Tory MS misses vote due to Zoom error (This feels wrong to me, not sure what the answer would be)

(tags:politics Technology failure wales )

You are allowed to leave

(tags:advice )

Sunlight affects whether languages have a word for 'blue'

(tags:light colour biology )

Henrietta Lacks heirs sue biotech firm for stealing her cells

(tags:racism research medicine intellectual_property rights women viaSwampers )

Comments

Re: Inflation

[andrewducker]

Probably not!

And yes, if I felt they understood the fundamentals I'd be a lot happier.

Is there actually increased demand in the UK versus, say, 2019?

Re: Inflation

[danieldwilliam]

I'm not sure there is a huge amount of additional demand now than in 2019. There will be a bit of a backlog in demand and some things will be in the wrong place or wrong configuration (see the problems with loo roll back at the beginging of lockdown when half the loo roll produced in the UK was for offices).

I think specifically on HGV drivers the numbers of drivers have been steadily falling for years I believe and then the impact of Brexit on drivers and lorries from the EU.

Re: Inflation

[andrewducker]

Yeah, drivers were slowly declining, but we were making do. And then Brexit pushed us over the edge and made it clear quite how fragile the system is.

Re: Inflation

[danieldwilliam]

I do incidently have quite a lot of sympthay for the government position that it is not their job to prevent shortages at Christmas - when shortages are defined as sausages being more expensive or in short supply and not inadequate calories are available.

Re: Inflation

[andrewducker]

I have a certain amount of sympathy for it not being their job to make sure that we must all have the food we expect, rather than there just being sufficient food.

Except that I largely view it as their fault. If Brexit had *necessitated* the level of cutting ourselves off that we did then one could say "They followed through on what they were told to do, and the consequences must now be accepted." But there were many middle grounds they could have gone with, and I can totally hold them responsible for not having done so, and the consequences thereof.

Re: Inflation

[danieldwilliam]

This is true.

At one level it is not the government's job to make sure that specific goods are in specific shops at specific times at a specific price.

At a higher level it is the government's job to create the container where it is easy for people to buy and sell the things they want to (allowing for other societal considerations) by e.g. not ruining our membership of the Single Market.