You guys must be heavy drinkers...

[D_W]

..I saw on American news this morning (well, internet - I don't watch the overproduced crap on TV) that France's wine sector has been hit hard by Brexit.

It's 2021, and England is still beating the French.

(also saw that someone in the UK proposed increasing the BBC license fee to 400 pounds figuring that the BBC is losing out on revenue based on what folks are willing (as in voluntarily) to pay or the streaming service of their choice).

That's a giggle. For us here in the states where there is no obligation to pay anything, that's still an odd concept to me - entitlement of an entity via self-designated eminence.

 

[John Brown]

..I saw on American news this morning (well, internet - I don't watch the overproduced rubbish on TV) that France's wine sector has been hit hard by Brexit.

It's 2021, and England is still beating the French.

(also saw that someone in the UK proposed increasing the BBC license fee to 400 pounds figuring that the BBC is losing out on revenue based on what folks are willing (as in voluntarily) to pay or the streaming service of their choice).

That's a giggle. For us here in the states where there is no obligation to pay anything, that's still an odd concept to me - entitlement of an entity via self-designated eminence.

You have television in America?

 

[D_W]

I think it's still here (of course, it was invented here in what's typical of earlier american type individualism stories - by a mormon kid on a farm who was obsessed with einstein and electrical physics). But as far as what's left, you would hardly notice it, though. Most people are streaming now. Live TV high ratings is about 1/3rd of what it used to be despite the population increasing by 50% in the last several decades.

Almost humorous when you see a live TV show struggling for ratings (with arrogant stars complaining that the lack of success is because the audience isn't sophisticated enough to understand the show), and you see they are getting 1 to 2 million viewers when something like Roseanne drew the equivalent of 40-50 million viewers against today's population size (they drew 33 million average over the first 6 years).

 

[D_W]

I should say most would hardly notice it - but I'm sure there's a large elderly contingent that still subscribes to the newspaper, listens to the radio and watches TV (and talks on phones connected to the wall).

10% of the population here doesn't have a computer or internet, never did and has no interest in it (mostly older folks).

 

[danst96]

Yeh we are heavy drinkers, got to sanitize the insides. I think alcohol sales are at a record high in the UK. Not sure whats going on with French wine though. Blame Brexit.

 

[flying haggis]

NO not really..........................................

 

[Doug B]

It’ll definitely be Brexit’s fault as is all this snow we’ve had & why my porridge was runny this morning, everything’s brexits fault it says so on Facebook

 

[Cabinetman]

And all the fear mongering that the shops would be empty and we would all starve to death because of Brexit, I think the only thing that I noticed a bit short for one day only was bags of lettuce leaves.

 

[Doug B]

So true @Cabinetman though to be fair I’ve not heard anyone whining on about Brexit & how well their vaccine roll out has been going.

 

[artie]

(also saw that someone in the UK proposed increasing the BBC license fee to 400 pounds figuring that the BBC is losing out on revenue based on what folks are willing (as in voluntarily) to pay or the streaming service of their choice).

Unfortunately this is what our news is becoming and the main reason I stopped listening to it.
In my opinion the news should consist of , well, news, you know, things that have happened and have had an impact on someone or something.

Last time I listened , a good number of years ago.. it was full of.
It is thought that the chancellor will......

The PM will announce this evening....

etc, etc, etc.

Speculation and fortune telling.

O and why do they have to go out and stand in a storm and shout about it.

That's not news that's melodrama

 

[Doug B]

O any why do they have to go out and stand in a storm and shout about it.

Isn’t that simply because there’s so much fake news out there that unless folks can see the storm with their own eyes they don’t believe it’s happening.

 

[gregmcateer]

Not supporting nor denigrating the BBC or any mainstream media, but if we're going to be reliant on the whims of eg fb, yt or whatever streaming service or social media outlet comes along next, I think we'd better improve our cognitive processing to filter out the extremist anonymous **** that is and will continue to be spewed withiut any form of journalistic answerability.

 

[Rorschach]

Just to point out, we are not obliged to have a TV license. I haven't had one for well over 10 years.

 

[clogs]

French wine is good.....
but
due to foreign Johny's over the water being complete A holes we should just buy Ozz n S African etc etc wines....
play the same game as them.....let em drown in it I say...........
besides we have our own wines now.....(that keep winning awards).... hahaha.......

 

[D_W]

Yeh we are heavy drinkers, got to sanitize the insides. I think alcohol sales are at a record high in the UK. Not sure whats going on with French wine though. Blame Brexit.

The statistics here suggest the overall alcoholism rate is only slightly behind the UK. On a day to day level, if college international exchange students are any indication, it does seem like post-dinner pub time is much more common there (or evening drinking) at a level that doesn't affect daily functioning.

We had a few exchange students in mathematics who thought that it was completely unreasonable that you could have assignments that may prevent you from drinking for a week or two. They attempted to ignore the workload (sloshing around after dinner no matter what) and went back to England early. I'm sure if you go up the ladder from the low first tier schools into the ivies, there would be more serious English students who don't drink during the week.

My spouse went to England for a semester (East Anglia? I can't remember the exact name of the school) and mid-week evening drinking was much more common.

The universities here have a lot of virtue signaling crap about drinking and often overreach their authority. One of the dumbest things here is sending kids off to college, having a drinking age 3 years later (though I understand the outcomes are better with the drinking age, I don't think it's worth limiting individual freedoms) than the starting college age, and then causing absurd trouble for college students who drink under age and never got remotely close to a car.

 

[D_W]

Just to point out, we are not obliged to have a TV license. I haven't had one for well over 10 years.

The interesting part to us as americans is that you can be subject to inspection to see if you are watching any live TV and then fined if it's discovered you are. At this point, it sounds like even if you watch live events on the internet, even foreign sporting events or something, you are violating the license terms.

I do remember from that discussion that you can opt out, but to say the very least, the terms are extremely absurd. You don't want any BBC products? Fine. You can't watch anything from halfway around the world on the internet, either, unless it was taped earlier. Very soviet.

 

[Rorschach]

The interesting part to us as americans is that you can be subject to inspection to see if you are watching any live TV and then fined if it's discovered you are. At this point, it sounds like even if you watch live events on the internet, even foreign sporting events or something, you are violating the license terms.

I do remember from that discussion that you can opt out, but to say the very least, the terms are extremely absurd. You don't want any BBC products? Fine. You can't watch anything from halfway around the world on the internet, either, unless it was taped earlier. Very soviet.

It's complicated and rather stupid I agree.
As for the inspection, they don't actually have the power to enter your property, it's inspection by consent. Needless to say they aren't ever coming through my door!

 

[D_W]

French wine is good.....
but
due to foreign Johny's over the water being complete A holes we should just buy Ozz n S African etc etc wines....
play the same game as them.....let em drown in it I say...........
besides we have our own wines now.....(that keep winning awards).... hahaha.......

I'm guessing that in greece, you have enough heat to make wines. We used to make jokes about the US wines, because they were really terrible (some still are), but cheap to make up for it.

I don't think I ever saw my parents drink a wine that wasn't on a TV commercial in prime time (yuck). But we've got some wonderful wine and port making on the west coast here. There are local wineries even where I am, and state specific stores (pennsylvania). I don't know if they get favorable liquor tax treatment, but I've never had anything that seemed particularly good - at all. Not into that "support local by drinking something that tastes worse for the same price. Yay!" thing.

Presume for the UK folks here that there may be a lack of climatological heat to make good wine?

No shortage of hard liquor making in the US, though (especially whiskey and the moonshine varieties - now commercially available).

 

[Trainee neophyte]

of course, it was invented here in what's typical of earlier american type individualism stories - by a mormon kid on a farm who was obsessed with einstein and electrical physics)

Are you absolutely sure? I've not heard of your Mormon, but that may well be my lack of education.

 

[D_W]

It's complicated and rather stupid I agree.
As for the inspection, they don't actually have the power to enter your property, it's inspection by consent. Needless to say they aren't ever coming through my door!

That last part is at least good. Police can request to come into properties here, too, but every piece of legal advice I've ever seen is to tell them "if you want to come in, go get a warrant", as it looks no worse to a judge that someone got a warrant than it would if they didn't. And police usually ask to look around when they're not sure if they can get a warrant or wouldn't go to the effort.

Even if you feel like you've followed every law ever, there is likely something that could be found worth investigation or referral to another agency.