adrianc
Member of DD Central
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Post by adrianc on Feb 11, 2021 9:35:32 GMT
Apples in Jan and Feb? Umm, do you have an apple tree in your garden...? They're apples that were picked in autumn and stored...
Along with most of the rest of that list. We're on our last couple of last year's squashes. Our leeks are more like spring onions at the moment. The vast majority of European fruit and veg comes from mahoosive greenhouses - mostly in southern Spain and Italy, with a lot of very high-tech ones near Rotterdam. Most other stuff is airfreighted from Africa and South America.
We used to have masses of commercial greenhouses in this country, round the Lea Valley, back when anything outside a very short list of produce was dangerously exotic and not to be trusted... They're all suburban sprawl housing now.
The very fact that brexiteers are promoting self-sufficiency shows just what an almighty mess we've put ourselves into. The UK built its entire economy, the industrial revolution, the empire (and, yes, for better or worse) on global trading, from the 16th century onwards. And that was centuries after Roman globalism civilised this island, with the Vikings and the Normans bringing trade routes, interspersed with periods in the isolated wilderness...
Promoting global isolation as a good thing...? It's no more or less than economic and historical illiteracy fuelled by xenophobia.
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Nomad
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Post by Nomad on Feb 11, 2021 10:33:30 GMT
Apples in Jan and Feb? Umm, do you have an apple tree in your garden...? They're apples that were picked in autumn and stored... Along with most of the rest of that list. We're on our last couple of last year's squashes. Our leeks are more like spring onions at the moment. The vast majority of European fruit and veg comes from mahoosive greenhouses - mostly in southern Spain and Italy, with a lot of very high-tech ones near Rotterdam. Most other stuff is airfreighted from Africa and South America. Glasshouses (plastic) in Andalucia. The main area is 30 miles across... Aerial view
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travolta
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Post by travolta on Feb 11, 2021 10:34:51 GMT
Not if we decide not to waste money on them and buy our own. What UK-grown fruit and veg is in-season currently? Come on Adrian , you live in the land of polytunnels. I used to live above the Lea Valley and there were lots of hot houses. I reclaimed 392 huge earthenware flower pots when they demolished Rochfords . They were just left for the kids to smash. Quite amazing. If the demand is there ,then people can make money out of it. The potential is huge. Just needs to get going .You are a wet blanket
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Greenwood2
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Post by Greenwood2 on Feb 11, 2021 10:41:05 GMT
Not if we decide not to waste money on them and buy our own. What UK-grown fruit and veg is in-season currently? Currently picking in the garden: Purple Sprouting, Brussel sprouts, Black Kale, Leeks, Carrots, Swedes and Parsnips (and a bit of ropey Swiss Chard, perpetual Spinach and cabbage that haven't quite died!). Under glass you could have almost anything, there are some huge industrial sized heated greenhouses around (in the UK), using waste heat.
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Post by dan1 on Feb 11, 2021 11:59:28 GMT
Are people really proposing the UK head down the route of an autarkic society?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2021 12:23:34 GMT
Are people really proposing the UK head down the route of an autarkic society? I'm looking forward to the loonies restarting their lectures about how great rationing was in the utopian 1950s...
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Post by bernythedolt on Feb 11, 2021 12:37:23 GMT
Are people really proposing the UK head down the route of an autarkic society? I very much doubt that's achievable, but when your trading partners stop playing nicely, you do have to stop and reassess. So readily invoking Article 16 - without even bothering to notify Ireland or the UK - shows what they really think of us.
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Post by dan1 on Feb 11, 2021 12:41:49 GMT
Are people really proposing the UK head down the route of an autarkic society? I very much doubt that's achievable, but when your trading partners stop playing nicely, you do have to stop and reassess. So readily invoking Article 16 - without even bothering to notify Ireland or the UK - shows what they really think of us. Do you honestly think this is ALL the fault of the EU? Do you really believe that? Do you not think the UK persistently threatening the EU has not had consequences. Look, I'm sure the EU are having fun at our expense but please, can you not for once just own your decision?
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Post by bernythedolt on Feb 11, 2021 12:47:28 GMT
I very much doubt that's achievable, but when your trading partners stop playing nicely, you do have to stop and reassess. So readily invoking Article 16 - without even bothering to notify Ireland or the UK - shows what they really think of us. Do you honestly think this is ALL the fault of the EU? Do you really believe that? Do you not think the UK persistently threatening the EU has not had consequences. Look, I'm sure the EU are having fun at our expense but please, can you not for once just own your decision? Why do you excuse them so easily for invoking that nuclear option? And can you expand a little on the UK persistently threatening the EU, because I must have missed that! At least we agree the EU are having fun at our expense. Confiscating ham sandwiches from our lorry drivers included.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2021 12:49:56 GMT
I very much doubt that's achievable, but when your trading partners stop playing nicely, you do have to stop and reassess. So readily invoking Article 16 - without even bothering to notify Ireland or the UK - shows what they really think of us. The EU has stopped playing nicely!?!?! The lack of self-awareness is just astonishing. After numerous threats by the UK including 'perfidious Albion on speed' to sabotage the EU from within, breaking international law over NI, using gunships against foreign fishermen, and god knows how many others... ... is it REALLY a surprise that our trading partners don't really think very highly of us??
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Post by captainconfident on Feb 11, 2021 12:51:39 GMT
Are people really proposing the UK head down the route of an autarkic society? I very much doubt that's achievable, but when your trading partners stop playing nicely, you do have to stop and reassess. So readily invoking Article 16 - without even bothering to notify Ireland or the UK - shows what they really think of us. Trade is not a game, where countries have a duty to be 'nice' to each other. If the UK did badly in negotiations it's because they chose to play a poor hand badly. I think I can speak for my fellow Europeans, and they all think that the UK has set other EU countries an example. An example of what happens if weak democratic systems and the media power of certain rich individuals can lead a country to make itself poorer, less influential and irrelevant as a world power. Or do you think that the UK is providing an inspiring example?
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Post by dan1 on Feb 11, 2021 12:53:19 GMT
Do you honestly think this is ALL the fault of the EU? Do you really believe that? Do you not think the UK persistently threatening the EU has not had consequences. Look, I'm sure the EU are having fun at our expense but please, can you not for once just own your decision? Why do you excuse them so easily for invoking that nuclear option? And can you expand a little on the UK persistently threatening the EU, because I must have missed that! At least we agree the EU are having fun at our expense. Confiscating ham sandwiches from our lorry drivers included. Look, you miss the point, this is not about tit for tat of "he said this, she said that" kind of, well, quite frankly ![>:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/superangry.png) . It's about how the UK-EU relationship proceeds from here. How do we resolve our differences because with your attitude we're heading into decades long period of trade disputes being referred for arbitration and that will kill UK-EU trade. A little less of nationalist tub thumping so prevalent in The Telegraph, Mail, Express and bit more reconciliation. Blaming the EU for every downside will get you knowhere except further division in UK society - perhaps that's what you want, I don't know.
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Post by bernythedolt on Feb 11, 2021 13:03:33 GMT
I very much doubt that's achievable, but when your trading partners stop playing nicely, you do have to stop and reassess. So readily invoking Article 16 - without even bothering to notify Ireland or the UK - shows what they really think of us. The EU has stopped playing nicely!?!?! The lack of self-awareness is just astonishing. After numerous threats by the UK including 'perfidious Albion on speed' to sabotage the EU from within, breaking international law over NI, using gunships against foreign fishermen, and god knows how many others... ... is it REALLY a surprise that our trading partners don't really think very highly of us?? Merely our responses to EU threats to delay or frustrate Brexit. The difference is, we never carried them out. They DID invoke article 16 on a whim, yet some can just airbrush it out! Navy guarding your territorial waters is perfectly standard. Iceland rightly did the same.
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Greenwood2
Member of DD Central
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Post by Greenwood2 on Feb 11, 2021 13:09:02 GMT
Are people really proposing the UK head down the route of an autarkic society? I'm looking forward to the loonies restarting their lectures about how great rationing was in the utopian 1950s... I seem to remember it as the 'loonies' deliberately misinterpreting a discussion about how comparatively good nutrition was (under extremely difficult conditions) during rationing, but hey ho.
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Post by bernythedolt on Feb 11, 2021 13:09:29 GMT
I very much doubt that's achievable, but when your trading partners stop playing nicely, you do have to stop and reassess. So readily invoking Article 16 - without even bothering to notify Ireland or the UK - shows what they really think of us. Trade is not a game, where countries have a duty to be 'nice' to each other. If the UK did badly in negotiations it's because they chose to play a poor hand badly. I think I can speak for my fellow Europeans, and they all think that the UK has set other EU countries an example. An example of what happens if weak democratic systems and the media power of certain rich individuals can lead a country to make itself poorer, less influential and irrelevant as a world power. Or do you think that the UK is providing an inspiring example? Indeed I agree we have set a great example to the EU27. They are incredibly frustrated that, having thrown off the shackles that tie them all to the slowest country's decision-making, we have been able to leap streets ahead in the race to vaccinate our people.
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