Interesting Links for 22-09-2026

[andrewducker]

1. The government wants UK households to stock up on food in case of extreme weather, cyber attacks, and war

(tags:UK food war doom OhForFucksSake )

2. Men aren't lonelier than everyone else. Poor people are.

(tags:inequality loneliness society usa )

3. U.S. small biz can't ship to the EU anymore

(tags:trade usa Europe )

4. Astley Ainslie hospital is being sold off - Consultation on the draft plan

(tags:Edinburgh hospital planning consultation )

5. Has inequality ever been worse? (with lots of stats)

(tags:video inequality economics history )

Comments

[armiphlage]

"U.S. small biz can't ship to the EU anymore"

Which is only fair, as the US eliminated de minimus shipping from everywhere to the US.

*chortles in new Associate EU Member-ese*

[andrewducker]

Unfortunately, it's not just the US this applies to. Also applies to people sending items from the UK. Lots of UK small businesses now can't send packages to the EU.

[soemand]

(1) seems prudent. But we live in a place that gets hit by nor’easter and hurricanes.

[aldabra]

I am very much relieved to have a government which is talking about this, finally.

[soemand]

chortles in new Associate EU Member-ese

Do you realize the lead time for this is measured in decades, not months?

[armiphlage]

Interesting, I'm banned from replying to Soemand's comments.

[andrewducker]

Huh, I didn't know that was possible.

[helen_keeble]

All small businesses, including ones in the UK and even ones in other EU countries, are now unable to ship to the EU, but not for the reasons in that article. The real problem is the insane PPWR legislation that came into force last month, which has the noble goal of making sellers responsible for minimising packaging imported into the EU. Unfortunately, this now means you have to report every single gram of cardboard etc used (including outer envelopes and shipping boxes) to each country’s relevant authority, AND pay to have an authorised specialist compliance representative in EACH country where you ship. To be compliant across the whole EU costs tens of thousands of euros in fees annually; even just to ship to a single country like Germany costs hundreds of euros in fees. There are no exemptions for “micro businesses” (which the EU commission defines as “under 2 million euro turnover per year and fewer than 10 employees” which… is still wildly beyond the scale of most small businesses) - the same requirements apply to one person hand-making earrings at their kitchen table as they do to Temu, Amazon, etc (who can obviously afford all this without blinking an eye).

It’s a complete mess and it has completely killed small business trade with (and within!) the EU. It’s so disproportionate that one has to wonder if that was in fact the intent.

[helen_keeble]

(Oh yeah, and there’s no minimum number of parcels that trigger all this. A single parcel to one customer locks you into having to pay annual fees and spending hours battling red tape. Oh, and there’s no centralised system for all this. You have to deal with every country individually, and they all have different databases, forms, and procedures. Every small business I know has simply shut off shipping to EU entirely)

[andrewducker]

It's a ridiculous situation, and there should have been a single, manageable, approach for shipping anywhere in the EU.