Seen in the News

[Tizer]

Another case of an American corporation, formerly Kraft, trying to force a little UK business to stop using what the US company claims is `their' brand's packaging colour - although the colour isn't the same and the UK product is a range with a lot of different pack colours...
`Mondelez threatens trademark battle over bar's lilac packaging' LINK
`A multinational confectionery company has threatened legal action against a London vegan snack maker over the colour of one of its fruit bars. Mondelez alleges that the Primal Pantry's cocoa bar "exploits" the trademark of its Milka chocolate range. Lawyers for Mondelez are demanding the use of lilac packaging for the bar must stop, warning of a £5,200 penalty each time the trademark is infringed. Nurture Brands, which owns the Primal Pantry, denies "hurting" the trademark. The snack bars were launched in 2016 in a range of colours so that "they have good differentiation on a shelf together", said Adam Draper, managing director of Nurture Brands. "We don't think it is the same colour or even in the same spectrum," Mr Draper added.

I notice this sentence: A spokeswoman for Mondelez said: "We own a colour trademark in Europe for the distinctive lilac Milka colour for food products". Making `trademarks' of colours should be banned

[plaques]

Meanwhile more and more young people are entering university in the hope that they will secure a job that pays a reasonable wage, gives them more quality time at home and not subject to the vagaries of a market that could see them out of a job as technology develops. The answer it appears is to make education so expensive that only the top 10% can afford it. Then we would have plenty of truck drivers.

[Tripps]

Making `trademarks' of colours should be banned

Allong the same lines, what about patenting genes ?

[Stanley]

Both David and Peter are right. Some things should not be patented. Musical chords and smells will be next....
Ken, could it be that we are seeing the start of a brave new world where there is no work for people below a certain educational standard? Are we seeing the first tip of the wedge entry of the destruction of labour by machines and Artificial Intelligence? Is a labouring job giving a living wage and dignity already dead?
I'm old enough to remember a time when there was almost full employment at school leaving age. Everyone made the transition from school discipline and punctuality to the same values in industry and formed habits which guided them for the rest of their lives. How much of that is left? perhaps even more pertinent, does it matter and what are we replacing it with?
Take opportunity for advancement away from young people and you create a mob. Discuss.

[PanBiker]

There is plenty of work for the traditional skilled trades, joiners, electricians and plumbers, decent builders. You have to be prepared to work and get your hands dirty though. A degree is not required but skill is. An extra advantage is that you don't end up with a huge debt round your neck when you have finished your training you are set to go with unlimited work if you want it.

[Tripps]

I'm old enough to remember a time when there was almost full employment at school leaving age. Everyone made the transition from school discipline and punctuality to the same values in industry and formed habits which guided them for the rest of their lives. How much of that is left? perhaps even more pertinent, does it matter and what are we replacing it with?

I watched an episode of "Look at Life" on Talking Pictures TV . It was from 1961, and about manufacturing Christmas novelties (mainly rubbish ) and showed rows and rows of, mainly ladies, manufacturing stuff - largely by hand. All working very hard at a boring repetitive job. I can't find that episode on Youtube, but there's a lot more that are worth a look.

Got me comparing and contrasting that with the situation today, and thinking how we moved from that situation to today's position. There's a dissertation and a PhD in that for someone - but it won't be me.

[Stanley]

David. I think the same thing when I look at Youtube videos of manufacturing in mainly Chinese factories but some in other countries. Some of the conditions equate to what it was like here 80 years ago. In today's terms, atrocious but look how many bottom drawers were filled ready for marriage. That's what was always said about the textile industry. Workers saw it as a means to an end and didn't go into terminal angst about how hard it was, they just got on with it.
I'm not advocating bad conditions but pointing out that perceptions were different in those days.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report about the end of the furlough scheme today. Nobody is sure what is going to happen to the jobs that were protected. in fact nobody is even sure how many are still protected. There is a feeling that there could be zombie companies who have been protected and through them the true nature of employment has been masked....

[Stanley]

I see that Joe Biden has passed a Bill that gives the US government until December to sort out the annual haggle over the budget. That's an improvement on recent years. I suspect it might be because the consequences could be much worse this year as the stock markets are ultra sensitive to problems.
If you don't believe that, watch Threadneedle Street as the shortages and current changes take hold. We are in for a rough ride.

[Stanley]

I saw an interesting piece on the economics of making fertilizer with CO2 as a by-product. Chemical companies, as major energy users, buy their energy forward to guard against price shocks. If the price of energy suddenly doubles then triples it makes more profit to sell energy futures than fertilizer so that is most likely what they did. Then the government comes in to bankroll them to make fertilizer with energy bought on the spot market at record prices so they still make a profit. Trebles all round.... Discuss!

[Tripps]

There's more to this fuel fiasco than meets the eye. Don't ask me what though.

I always assumed that tanker delivery drivers were the top of the tree in the haulage business. Being a simple soul - if they are short of drivers - then advertise and recruit more I thought. Well they are certainly doing that. Jobs at HOYER The wages don't seem to be as high as we read about in the press, though I guess their drivers don't travel long distance, and sleep in their own beds every night.

A chap phoned in to a radio station I heard this morning - he seemed credible - saying that you can only get 'on the tankers' if you know someone in the firm.

Someone somewhere is enjoying the nation's discomfort, and is it perhaps a warning as to the shambles which will ensue, following the drive to zero carbon. How are those 30 tonne lorry batteries coming along?

Get fracking. . . .

[Stanley]

I completely agree David. There is also a lot of crap being talked about the speed at which HGV drivers can be trained and specially skilled drivers like the fuel tanker drivers produced.
I must have been a bit thick but I reckon I could drive a wagon in a week, was fit to go on the road inside a year and really became a skilled driver after a couple of years picking milk up. Then I went on to general haulage and started learning all over again. Cattle wagon driving was another learning curve and you had to know about cows before you started that.
Politicians know nothing about these skills and think of a wagon driver as a car driver with a long car. They don't realise how foolish they sound to people like me and Kev who have actually been there and got the tee shirt.

[PanBiker]

With regard to the tanker drivers it's not just an HGV driver job, you also need one of these. ADR Licence either as new trainee from scratch or on top of an existing HGV qualification and two years experience.

[Big Kev]

With regard to the tanker drivers it's not just an HGV driver job, you also need one of these. ADR Licence either as new trainee from scratch or on top of an existing HGV qualification and two years experience.

It was 5 days in a classroom, with an exam at the end, when I did my ADR in 1995. They need renewing every 5 years too.

[Tizer]

Something to lighten the the tone.
`Fuel supplies: Mortar tanker tailed by drivers looking for petrol' LINK
`A tanker driver has told how he was tailed by about 20 drivers who were dismayed to discover he was not transporting petrol. Johnny Anderson, who drives for Weaver Haulage, was transporting 44 tonnes of mortar from Bilston, Wolverhampton, to a building site in Northamptonshire. When he reached his destination, he saw a line of traffic backed up behind him. "The man at the front... actually said 'You could have stopped and told us you weren't a petrol tanker," he said...'.

[Wendyf]

That reminds me of an old Giles cartoon. Must see if I can find it.

[Tizer]

We're about to brave the heavy rain to walk to the surgery for our influenza jabs. I'll have a look to see if you found it when we return!

[Wendyf]

Nope, I can't find it. In my memory there is a line of cars following a tanker up a narrow road in snow but we can see that it says MILK on the side.

[Tripps]

Mortar tanker tailed by drivers looking for petrol'

After a few moments intensive research - I now know the rough difference between mortar and cement.

Perhaps someone should tell the BBC.

[Big Kev]

We're about to brave the heavy rain to walk to the surgery for our influenza jabs. I'll have a look to see if you found it when we return!

Good stuff. We had ours last week, no side effects

[Tizer]

No side effects for us too and we don't expect any, from previous experience. I hope they got enough people turning up, some might have bottled out because of the heavy rain. The surgery did send out reminders during the week but there didn't seem many people about when we attended.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report of the wide reaction in America against the abolition of abortion rights. Triggered mainly be the possibility of a direct attack on the landmark ruling of Roe v. Wade.

[Tizer]

I guess this was bound to happen when the NHS appeared to give people's personal data to Google...
`DeepMind faces legal action over NHS data use' LINK

[Stanley]

The pay out isn't the point, it's the fact that the data was transferred in the first place!

[Tripps]

I thought this was interesting. lorry driver shortage and it sounds about right to me.

I read also the meat processors in Tipperary are complaining that they can't recruit enough workers, despite having free access to the whole of the EU, and are lobbying to be allowed to recruit from outside the EU.

Bumbling Buffoon Boris now has pressed Ctrl Alt Delete, and says he is going for a high wage high skilled economy.

Betyond comment.