Yes I am Doug. I have had to reapply for permanent residency. It is proving to be quite a task. I have to get everything translated into Hungarian. I managed to send in my application yesterday. We will see how long this takes from here.

No need to be sorry Peter.
I enjoy a bit of Boris Bashing myself.😁
Especially now as I'm in (hopefully) the last throws of revalidating various documents as a British Citizen (tolerated 🙄 under the Withdrawal Agreement) instead of as a European Union Citizen, as it says on my unlimited Residents Permit obtained 36 years ago!
Hope you're not having the same aggro in Hungary 🤞
Cheers, Doug 😎

Son informs me lots of chips were manufactured in the UK - so of course Covid and factories shutting caused the shortage. Interesting - always thought they were made in "Silicone Valley" California - not so - it seems they only make a few types.......

Real blame lies with China - both for the release of the virus and the shortage...........

Sorry Doug but I have to disagree. We can blame Boris for everything. Makes me feel a lot better.😊

As an addition to Dougs' piece, one of the main reasons for stuff not coming from China, is that they have sent out thousands of containers all round the world, and because (as Doug said) they are stuck in all sorts of places, the Chinese have virtually run out of containers, as they are not getting them back. China makes most of the worlds containers, but they don't want to make the thousands they need at present, as once things are back to normal, there will be a massive glut of containers (not to mention the cost to China).

I have just received a note on my latest Ali Exp order, saying it is not expected to arrive here till Sept ?! (ordered end of June) Might as well not bother😐. Perhaps they are having another lockdown we haven't heard about, which is holding things up? It's about time we went back to making our own, even if it would cost more, at least it would be better made, and more importantly, available today, not next year!.

Just playing with my small generator tonight (decided not to work in a power cut) Always been a pig to get going. Found a bullet connector in the coil circuit had not been plugged in properly, and just fell off when I lifted the tank off, plus the float in the carburettor had no pin and was just floating around in the bowl (flooding it constantly,- ended up fitting a split pin) Gave up tonight,- power came back on before I could fix it (as you might expect😠) after struggling by torchlight for 40 mins. That's the quality we've come to accept unfortunately. We used to make brilliant stuff here,- TVs, stereos, toasters, fridges, washing machines, tools, - car assembly (Ford, Toyota, Rootes Group, Austins, Mazda, Nissan, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, GM, Chrysler, Peugeot, Hino, Isuzu, Renault, Rambler, Honda etc etc, can't think of much we make now😴 - except cool carbon fibre rockets, (Rocket Lab)😊- Hamilton Jet, -more tech stuff now. ( and lots of wine)

At least I still have a NZ assembled 1988 Toyota Corolla 1600 I've kept for nostalgia, (had it for 16yrs) and a 1990 Australian assembled Toyota Cressida 3L, (oldies but goodies) - no more cars made in either country now (Ford and Holden manufacturing in Aust has gone now as well.) Hard to even find anything made in Japan any more which is a shame, as they made quality stuff, (still have an ETC socket set from 1978 which has never broken a socket) The sky is falling😁

JB

Shades of 1984.....................

Thanks for your explanation Doug, I knew that the situation with containers and huge rises in freight charges existed. As I see it, it can only lead to higher prices for many quite ordinary commodities as well as computer bits. And, of course, when, or perhaps I should say if, the covid situation calms down and gets back to normal, those inflated freight charges will no doubt be the then base price.

Cheers, Nerys

Hi Nerys,
"there is a general shortage of some computer hardware etc. What do we blame, covid or Brexit?"
Basically the answer is Covid 🤔
Main reason behind it is the Covid Lockdowns in various Chinese ports and elsewhere, no ship can/could enter or leave.
Which has led to thousands of containers in the wrong place, not being able to unload/load.
It's not just us, any industry which uses chips (without fish😁); i.e. anything to do with computers in any shape or form (including mobile phones and RC gear☹️), car makers (I pine for the days when I could check all my car electrics with a multimeter🤔) is affected.
Apparently charter prices for containers are going through the roof, as are freight costs due to containers having to be shuffled around the world empty!
All this is going to raise prices of all sorts of stuff☹️
Sorry, this one we can't blame on Boris 🙄
Cheers, Doug 😎

Quite right Martin. Alice is setting up internet in our campervan and has been telling me how much various bits and pieces she needs have gone up. She also says that there is a general shortage of some computer hardware etc. What do we blame, covid or Brexit? I'd rather say lack of understanding in government and most of all, big business greed.

Cheers, Nerys

Nerys,
They are giving out all sorts of excuses now blaming Covid and Brexit and even backlogs and the lack of staff in the hope that we will forget about complaining.

Also the price of almost everything will be going up as these companies need to claw back the profits that they lost.

I think i had better leave it there before i raise my blood pressure.LOL!

Martin555.

I've noticed the same thing in many commodities, less product for the same or more money. It's particularly rampant in food, but there they also manipulate sizes tell you it's a new product, smaller size, less product but higher price. Many items seem to shrink in size every time you buy them, I had noticed, as Colin did, the shrinking epoxy, the Poundland version is still the best value by a long way. Something different, but this is as good a place to talk about it. Alice bought on E bay a set of mini screwdriver bits, apart from the box being broken, two of the sixteen bits had no blade. She complained through E bay and was told there was nobody available to answer her complaint until the end of the year because they were receiving too many emails.

Nerys

Martin, all the manufacturers seem to be going the same way with all packaging.
I had some 2 pack epoxy glue that the label had peeled off from and I was surprised at the little amount of glue inside.
About 25% less than my pound land version and at 5 times the price.
I even think the rattle can sprays don't go as far as the old cellulose cans.
Sorry moan over, cheers Colin.