Virtual Piss-Up

[davidgillon]

Tis the season to get jolly, and normally at this time of year I'd be meeting up with friends from university for a pre-Christmas drink. And we still managed it on Friday, even if none of us were in the same room, or even a pub. In fact we had better attendance than normal as doing it virtually meant one of the two Yorkshire residents could make it (the other one can't be doing with this modern stuff).

Rather than Zoom and its limitations on long meetings (which apparently can be worked around), we went for Google Meet, which I must say worked seamlessly. We had six attending computers, three with couples in front of them (two of those date all the way back to uni). One of the couples did note that it seemed unfair to send their 27yo daughter to her room, but if she will move back in with her parents she has to take what comes. We did have a guest appearance from one of the other couple's 15yo when she appeared to scavenge the remains of her parent's curry.

I hadn't laid on a curry for myself, but did have an ample selection of nicely-chilled German weissbiers within easy reach and it made for an excellent three hours, and for once without needing to dash out early to catch the last train.

Subjects covered, in no particular order:

How the f*ck did we get to be this old?

Covid, and how I'm living 100m from 1,000 cases/100,000.

Brexit. Even our token right-winger expects it to be a disaster (everyone agreed I'm totally screwed when I described where I live in relation to potential escape routes from the M2/M20).

Why there's now a shortage of shipping containers in the UK (clue, Brexit, and none of the shipping firms wants them stuck here)

Trump, seriously?

Why you must never release a rehabbed hedgehog near badgers

Danish zombie mutant mink.

WTF did they do to the college bar?

Why field ecologists now need PPE (cf 27yo daughter and Danish zombie mutant mink)

Brexit lorry parks, and explaining why no, she's not using the same portaloo as the builders (cf 27yo field ecologists and no, you're not grubbing out that hedge, either!)

Covid hair cuts

Children raiding their parent's record collections (cf 15yo daughter)

How have I not killed myself yet? (someone's glass clearly rolled off their desk, for once it wasn't mine).

Didn't you used to have hair? (Every year I'm surprised one friend doesn't)

Covid, all the extra fun of getting home when you were in New Zealand when it started

Working virtually, including starting a new job virtually, and also how it's a bit of a bugger if you're a dressmaker, or a driving instructor

Floor show provided by Sally the Jack Russell puppy (until she fell asleep)

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

That sounds like a right festival!

Can you translate in relation to potential escape routes from the M2/M20 to this US person who has only reconnected with any political news 7 November 2020?

Shipping container shortages were one of the first signs of the 2008 crash, though the internet's memory is so short I can't find the link I heard 12 years ago.

[davidgillon]

Right, the M20 and to a lesser extent the M2 are the main motorways running towards the coast and Dover and the Channel Tunnel and ferry links to Calais. Every time there is any sort of hiccup in processing HGVs (tractor-trailers in US usage) at either Dover or Calais, huge queues build up along the motorways as there is nowhere for them to go.

We know there will be chaos when Brexit comes into effect on the 1st because France tried its processes for a few hours a month or so back and HGVs quickly started backing up. That was without the UK running its own revised processes, and it's just been announced yesterday that the new lorry park ('Sevington Inland Border Facility') where those were supposed to happen won't be ready before the end of February. It's expected to be so bad that HGVs will need a special permit just to enter the county (That's not a mis-spelling, it's definitely 'county', not 'country'). They haven't tried out the system for issuing those either, the software was due to release about the 12th IIRC, I don't know if it did or not.

So anyway, we're pretty much guaranteed absolute chaos, and queues of HGVs backing uo for miles, potentially tens of miles, down the motorways. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Brock for the plans for dealing with that. There are only a limited number of exits from the motorways, so if drivers decided to try and avoid the chaos, they'll be funneled into a handful of roads. One place they can get off both is the road leading into Chatham, and past the sole entrance to my small estate. Also running through Chatham is the A2, which used to be the main road to the coast pre M2/M20. Any HGV drivers thinking that might be a sneaky way to avoid queueing will run into first Chatham town centre, which backs up on a normal morning, and second the A2 itself, which is pretty decent heading into Chatham from London, where it's motorway standard as the A2(M), but out of Chatham coast-bound it rapidly turns into a poor quality country road (which is why they built the M2 in the first place).

Trials of Operation Brock when Brexit was expected in 2019 did not go well https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/operation-brock-been-place-two-2689129

The up-to-date county level resilience planning is here https://www.kentprepared.org.uk/end-of-transition-plans It actually states:

"In the event of disruption following the end of the Transition Period, it is anticipated that some communities may experience disruption to local road networks and the provision of some local services such as waste management and health and social care services. We are working hard with local authorities to anticipate and minimise any impact, and are encouraging residents to consider how they can build their own resilience:

​Residents are encouraged to develop household contingency plans and to put measures in place to ensure they are prepared in the event of an emergency or any likely disruption"

So I fully expect there to be chaos on the M2/M20, with a high chance of it being joined by similar jams on the only road out of the estate I live on.

HOLY SHIT!

[jesse_the_k]

My god what a fuckup!

Wow. wow. wow. This is terrible. I'm so sorry that this is on your horizon, both nationally and personally. In addition to being trapped at home, there's the hideous Diesel stink -- are there air quality regs which prohibit idling while parked?

I assume there's some civil engineer named Brock to blame, but I propose it's because the plan was chickenshit (i.e., brock brock for cluck cluck or buc buc).

Re: HOLY SHIT!

[davidgillon]

There's nothing to mandate not idling while parked, and we just today had road-related air pollution ruled as a contributory factor in the death of a little girl with asthma in a precedent setting ruling https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/16/girls-death-contributed-to-by-air-pollution-coroner-rules-in-landmark-case

UK practice is generally to just use random names for operations, either military or civil, there's no specific meaning attached. So for instance where the US had Operation Desert Storm, we had Operation Granby. (OTOH Operation Brock's predecessor was Operation Stack)

The actual etymology for brock is a badger.

Re: HOLY SHIT!

[jesse_the_k]

Idling regulation exists in the US at Federal, state, and city levels. Like Ella Kissi-Debrah, lower-income and particularly Black kids have much higher asthma rates because affordable housing is close to big roads.

Badgers are the official state mammal in Wisconsin--in part because white settlers' first economic engine was lead and silver mining. Turns out I was first learned about Badger-brock from Tom Bombadil in the The Fellowship of the Ring. (I'm still angry that Jackson deleted Tom Bombadil!)

Re: HOLY SHIT!

[davidgillon]

Turns out I'm wrong on idling. It's an offence under the Road Traffic (Vehicle Emissions) (Fixed Penalty) (England) Regulations 2002. But it's only a £20 fine (and that only if you don't turn off your engine when told to) and I don't think I've ever heard of it being enforced. OTOH there's a consultation on bringing in bigger fines, but that will still depend on it being enforced.

[davidgillon]

Oh, and the container shortage thing was from someone with a management job with a firm importing from China. He says the Chinese shippers are starting to just avoid the UK.