Life in the UK

[hoborob]

I have been involved in doing some 3 Phase wiring for a residence. I must point out however that it was a very high end home that had a lot of power requirements, much beyond that of a normal residence. I also helped to bring in a 3 phase circuit for a home owner that needed a piece of 3 phase equipment in his garage for his business. Both of these are out of the ordinary as the normal residences here use a 200 Amp 240/120V single phase power but I also did a home that needed a 400A system which used 2 separate main panels of 200A each. New homes these days are starting to have dual main panels as well so that critical home systems are in one and non critical are in the other so that installing a backup generator, whether installed at construction or intended for installation later, can be done with a transfer switch into the critical panel and not into the non critical one.

[Sinned]

Firstly this shouldn't really be posted here but since two have commented out of order then I will place it at this point.

Ray and kilty, you're quite the optimists, aren't you? Experts are only experts because they have had a specialisation for a number of years- it doesn't give them any modicum of common sense or good judgement, particularly at forecasting. Certainly not shown by Cameron, Osborne and a lot of MPs and leaders in industry and he arts. Virtually all of the polls in the most recent events have got it wrong. Financial experts, very highly paid, in such as the IMF have got their forecasts wrong. Hell, even the mighty Bank of England have got their forecasts wrong and then have had to adjust their figures or dream up an excuse why the economy didn't follow in the way that they said it would. And they have reams and reams of data and statistics. Uncertainty, sure, a bit of adjusting as financial leaders get used to new ways of working and with probably different people. Sterling and the FTSE are bouncing back. If I'd had the money I'd have bought blue chips when they were down low on Friday. I bought dollars on Thursday before the pound fell - it's recovering. Did anyone have any real plans for moving forward? Dave's disastrous renegotiations before Brexit produced nothing more than fag packet agreements that EU leaders were saying that as they weren't written down formally could be ignored. So Dave was supposed to renegotiate after the referendum based on a mandate from Britain that yes it's ok we don't like you but trust you EU leaders to listen to us and give us some concessions. If they couldn't do it when threatened with exit then they sure as wouldn't when that threat no longer existed. Not politics - just human nature. In the news as I type those inners are already raising a petition to have a second referendum ( this smacks of the EU dictat to Ireland over the Maastricht Treaty which they rejected - you've voted but I don't like your answer, now vote again and get it right this time ) and the EU leaders are already telling us what to do in applying for exit now rather than when we want to do it. Bullying again. Once a bully ....

Disaster - I doubt it. There's the old saying that those saying it can't be done should queue up behind those doing it. Not saying I am right - only time will vindicate that. Much will depend upon the calibre of those negotiating exit but it surely can't be done by any of those advocating staying, which thankfully puts out Osborne.

I see that old Barrack has now changed his tone by insisting that the special relationship, if ever there is one, would still be important. Trumpy has even said, but maybe the fact that he was in Scotland had something to do with it - marvellous that being surrounded by imagined hostility can do for one, that the result was a "great thing" and, "People want to take their country back. They want to have independence in a sense. You see it with Europe, all over Europe." Probably the only sensible thing he has said since he started his presidential campaign and I don't like or trust him but then I really don't know much about him. I could say that Trump as President would be the equivalent of us leaving by the exit door but then I admit that I don't know enough about their strengths, weaknesses and policies. But then you have your own crisis coming up with your election, so good luck on whichever candidate you choose.

Not meaning to upset anyone but such negativity is unwarranted.

[dillon]

It's mainly an amusement here...though the jittery markets see it otherwise, apparently. But it's your boat to row now, sink or swim.

[Disaffected.citizen]

Not saying I am right - only time will vindicate that.

This is impossible to prove. We have chosen a path; we cannot say where it will lead nor whether the other path would have been better.

Not meaning to upset anyone but such negativity is unwarranted.

We do need to just get on with it, now. The future is "out", the country voted and a slight majority decided. I can understand David Cameron wanting to hand over the reins first, but it's hardly surprising that the EU want us to get a move on. It's not bullying, it's reality. If you (not you Dennis, but anyone) had such an argument with Y.O.H. that it was irreconcilable and they said they were leaving, you'd want them gone a.s.a.p. Suddenly, all the "Leave" are saying we need to take our time. Why? They want out, so, bluntly, we should get out! It will take time, but we should get the ball rolling. Truth is nobody was prepared for "leave". I'd even go so far as to say that Boris, who switched, early on, from remain to leave, saw it as his opportunity to seize the party leadership, rather than a genuine desire to leave; collateral damage, so to say!

By the way, if we trade with the EU member states, we'll have to abide by their regulations, just as Norway and Switzerland do. The £350m per week that we're not going to pay to the EU, but instead was supposedly for the NHS, will actually not be available to that extent because c£280m was spent, and probably still will be spent, on other UK needs. Some of the balance will be spent on UK bureaucracy rather than EU bureaucracy.

Worryingly, police in UK are now investigating postings that might be racist hate crime against Poles, in particular, and other European migrants, in general. Latent xenophobia is turning to overt, albeit isolated, racism.

Far right parties in Europe now want their countries to follow the UK lead. We've had 70+ years of "peace" in Europe; I sincerely hope that the changes now afoot do not jeopardise that.

I could continue the pros and cons, but it's just hot air now. Let's just get on with it.

[Sinned]

The backlash has started with a petition calling for the referendum to be reversed and with the majority of MPs wanting to remain there are calls for the referendum to be demoted to just advisory. I hope that they don't go down that route as it just smacks of sour grapes and hat the remain camp seem unable to grasp is that there is a vast swell of people, approximately 50 per cent or even more, for whom staying in the EU is morally repugnant and I'm one of them. It strikes me that the democratic process is taking a back seat here. We had a referendum and an answer was given by a sizeable turnout so we should abide by that, not start changing the rules after the event. Turnout should be at least 75 per cent and the majority should be at least 60 per cent. That's BS. MPs trying to overturn the result would become even more unpopular and the accusations of being our of touch with mainstream opinion seem even more true. This issue has the potential to split the nation as nothing else can and at the very least has polarised opinions. It has been said that the UKIP party is now redundant, having fulfilled its remit of getting us to leave the EU, but I can actually see it as being now more important although fulfilling a slightly different role. If the remainers get their way I can see the next election being two party in having UKIP as the leavers and the rest, Conservative, Labour and the Liberal Democrats being the remainers. Thus the elections to Parliament would be over leaving as opposed to remaining and that certainly would settle the issue and who would like to forecast the outcome of that little battle. I would be willing to stand as an MP for the leavers even though the life as an MP would be against my natural family-orientated nature.

Incidentally I did my own little poll among customers yesterday and there was only one that thought the result appalling, with a few that weren't sure. Of course we were too busy for me to ask everyone and I had to be careful how I approached the issue but there were more leavers than remainers. Not scientific I must admit and not all the ones I asked were in the older bracket either.

I can understand the EUs reaction. If as a landlord I had several properties and a tenant approached me and said that they were thinking of leaving I would want them out as soon as possible rather than them drag out the leaving and so that I could start the process of getting another tenant. Although apparently not in the rules the EU could try and force the issue and start the leaving process without our enacting Article 50. Talk about setting the cat among the pigeons. When you looked at the vast areas of the country shaded blue for leaving and the fewer shaded yellow for leaving there is somehow a very bitter taste to all this. The law of unintended consequences is certainly in operation now. Watch this space.

[dillon]

I'm pretty sure that Britain was a homeowner, and not a renter. Regardless, it's not my fight. But I have seen what happens when people vote with emotion rather than logic, and the result isn't pretty. It gave us the Iraq War. It is hard to resist the emotional temptations of patriotism and distrust, and I will grant that EU domain extended entirely too far. But emotion is a poor Mistress, and a worse cause for a referendum. Working for reform is a far better option than saying "I quit"; quitting is also a form of capitulation, just as surely as not debating the extent of EU rules in the existing forum. I can't help but feel Britain rushed into this without exhausting every option. Point out the bad stuff, and reject it, but preserve the rest. Now you will be also looking at the potential end of the UK. Perhaps it is a karmic full circle - the final collapse of the Empire, wrought by it's own Britishness.

[Ray]

I will post a more considered response, but there never should have been a referendum. Such matters are beyond the knowledge of the average citizen. Elected governments act on our behalf. Most of the Brexiters were reacting to perceived injustice. No rational thinking.

More later. This will get worse. Did the Brexiters foresee a schism in the governing party and a tearing apart of the opposition?