OT: Kellingley pit shuts and causes leftist dilemma

[Mike Lander]

No one ever said anything like that.

[Martin]

Oh YES THEY DID!

[Martin]

That's not possible Cameron signed a treaty that countries wou;d give up using fossil fuels. Incidentally the Dutch stopped using cheap imported South American coal not just because it was mined using child labour but also because it had a high sulphur level.

I look forward to the day that people like you find out their jobs can be done for far less and better in the third world. Probably after UK leaves the EU and the UK economy collapses.

[Martin]

YES!

Countries are forbidden from charging less corporate tax than the normal level. Starbucks is the first one to go from NL. They have a very small operation in NL. Anything received in corporation tax was an increase on taxes received from the Dutch branches. They were paying far less than the rate Dutch companies were paying.

[bert]

Increased GDP should not be confused with increased wealth. We have the fifth largest GDP in the world but our public debt is £1.5 trillion and our personal debt is about the same.

[bert]

In article , Martin writes

Tony Blair?

[Mike Lander]

Yes it is.

Cameron signed a treaty that countries wou;d give up using

Doesn't mean they can't be used while the nukes are built.

Incidentally the Dutch stopped using cheap imported South American

It never was with export open cast coal.

but also because it had a

They can't.

That isn't going to happen.

and

And that wouldn't happen even if the UK did leave the EU.

[Mike Lander]

NO!!!

But can't do anything about operations like Apple and Google showing the profit in jurisdictions that have much lower or zero corporate tax rates.

Pity about Apple, Google, Amazon, News etc etc etc.

[Max Demian]

Reminds me of Victorian anti child labour campaigners claiming that five year olds worked down the pits. Usually illustrated by pictures of naked children hauling coal wagons. Didn't happen. Hauling wagons was women's work. The children (probably not less than ten years old) would have at least been wearing underwear and were mostly used to open and close the doors that controlled the ventilation. Conditions were bad enough, so why over egg the pudding?

[Bill Wright]

My grandad was a ventilation door operative. Percy Williamson, as I think of him now, was a rather sad figure. A reasonably intelligent and sensitive man, he had been condemned by a lack of education and a slight physique to a lowly colliery job. A lifetime down the pit! But of course he wasn?t the only collier to have such a miserable working life; far from it. I can?t imagine that he fitted in well with the coal miners? camaraderie, although as a ?door trapper? he would spend almost the whole shift on his own, and since he was a day worker (a ?daykler?) he would not be ?part of the gang?. At intervals along the tunnels were large air-tight doors made from brattice cloth, which had to be kept closed except when trucks were travelling through. The door trapper would sit for long hours alone in a dark recess, coming out to open and close the doors as necessary. Until child labour laws had prevented young children from working in the mines it was a job often done by kids as young as six, so it was not a prestigious job for an adult man.

Bill

[News]

In message , tony sayer writes

Indeed. Talking of such sites, most will be aware of Shorpy?

His story is interesting, but the rest of the site is simply amazing. Stunning photos from yesterday. Most are US, but some 'foreign', too.