UK budget changes to be the same here?

[The Bastard]

2 hours ago, doc.fixit said:

Do road vehicles go on those things?

Quite an interesting thread of conversation - did some looking up around ferries, and there are measures out there like the Fire Isolator that are aimed at controlling an fire to give ferry operators enough time to reach a place of safety where it can be dealt with. I wonder whether there's already provisions like this on the Racket ?

Edited November 18, 2022 by The Bastard

[John Wright]

31 minutes ago, The Bastard said:

Quite an interesting thread of conversation - did some looking up around ferries, and there are measures out there like the Fire Isolator that are aimed at controlling an fire to give ferry operators enough time to reach a place of safety where it can be dealt with. I wonder whether there's already provisions like this on the Racket ?

Not as far as I’m aware on the SPCo. It’d be difficult on the aluminium fast craft  - it’s likely to melt. The Ben is too old and difficult and expensive to retrofit.

Not sure about the Manxman.

I’m travelling on SPCo, Stena, Brittany Ferries, Grimaldi Lines and ANEK in the first half of January. Boats range from 25 years old to very new. Only one asks for information about whether your vehicle is an EV, that’s BF. They’ve all got wide open garage decks, no ability to seal of sections.

Three are super ferries on journeys of 30, 20 and 18 hours. One from Ireland, across the Bay of Biscay, to Bilbao is LNG/hybrid and has its own batteries for manoeuvring in port. The other two long distance ones cross the Med through the straits between Corsica and Sardinia from Barcelona to Civitavecchia or cross the Adriatic from Ancona to Igoumenitsa hugging the Italian coast before crossing and hugging the Albanian coast before slipping into Greek waters behind Corfu.

Under IMO Solas the SPCo must have a safety plan. IMO is consulting about updated regulations for carriage of EV on RoPax.

[doc.fixit]

4 hours ago, GD4ELI said:

Wind, Solar pollute? Explain please.

C'mon now. The production of the metals and chemicals, the transportation to the factories, the production of the objects, the transportation to the sites, the erection of the objects, the maintenance, the removal at end of life, the transport, the dismantling and re-cycling, (except the carbon fibre blades). I haven't mentioned the workers' transport, the designers environmental load, office lights and heating. I've made my point. There are no pollution free methods of producing energy at the moment.

[doc.fixit]

2 hours ago, John Wright said:

Not as far as I’m aware on the SPCo. It’d be difficult on the aluminium fast craft  - it’s likely to melt. The Ben is too old and difficult and expensive to retrofit.

Not sure about the Manxman.

I’m travelling on SPCo, Stena, Brittany Ferries, Grimaldi Lines and ANEK in the first half of January. Boats range from 25 years old to very new. Only one asks for information about whether your vehicle is an EV, that’s BF. They’ve all got wide open garage decks, no ability to seal of sections.

Three are super ferries on journeys of 30, 20 and 18 hours. One from Ireland, across the Bay of Biscay, to Bilbao is LNG/hybrid and has its own batteries for manoeuvring in port. The other two long distance ones cross the Med through the straits between Corsica and Sardinia from Barcelona to Civitavecchia or cross the Adriatic from Ancona to Igoumenitsa hugging the Italian coast before crossing and hugging the Albanian coast before slipping into Greek waters behind Corfu.

Under IMO Solas the SPCo must have a safety plan. IMO is consulting about updated regulations for carriage of EV on RoPax.

Do you have any idea what safety plans there are for EVs on current ferries? Quite interesting.

[John Wright]

1 minute ago, doc.fixit said:

Do you have any idea what safety plans there are for EVs on current ferries? Quite interesting.

No idea. They should have manuals and protocols under Solas. But as there are no explicit regulations yet it’ll vary on assessment operator by operator.

Its a bit hard if you don’t know which car is which and they’re randomly distributed.

[doc.fixit]

Totally agree. I wonder if there is some 'orrible chemical that will smother electrical fires?

[John Wright]

9 minutes ago, doc.fixit said:

Totally agree. I wonder if there is some 'orrible chemical that will smother electrical fires?

Even if there were Im not sure about the ability of crew to cope. 

Grimaldi crew is mixed Spanish, Italian and North African. The route is Tánger Med to Barcelona to Civitavecchia ( but sometimes calling in at Porto Torres ) and back. They should have a very accurate loading manifest, not only for height, weight, trim, but getting off in intermediate ports. They don’t. Frequent mix ups.

ANEK does Ancona to ( occasionally Corfu ) Igoumenitsa to Patras. With an Italian Greek crew. Same thing.

None of the crew are on car deck at disembarkation. So it’s a free for all, aggravated by the odd car going to the next port being wrongly parked and blocking.

Makes the SPCo car deck crew seem the most professional organised and communicative crew you could ever meet. Fun though, car deck, hands on horn!

[Happier diner]

2 hours ago, John Wright said:

Even if there were Im not sure about the ability of crew to cope. 

Grimaldi crew is mixed Spanish, Italian and North African. The route is Tánger Med to Barcelona to Civitavecchia ( but sometimes calling in at Porto Torres ) and back. They should have a very accurate loading manifest, not only for height, weight, trim, but getting off in intermediate ports. They don’t. Frequent mix ups.

ANEK does Ancona to ( occasionally Corfu ) Igoumenitsa to Patras. With an Italian Greek crew. Same thing.

None of the crew are on car deck at disembarkation. So it’s a free for all, aggravated by the odd car going to the next port being wrongly parked and blocking.

Makes the SPCo car deck crew seem the most professional organised and communicative crew you could ever meet. Fun though, car deck, hands on horn!

Ooeer missus.  Surely both hands on the wheel. 

[John Wright]

18 minutes ago, Happier diner said:

Ooeer missus.  Surely both hands on the wheel. 

"Corrrrr", "Ooh, nasty...", "Oh lumme!",  "Left hand down a bit", "'Ello, Intelligence 'ere",  "This is intelligence speakin'"

[The Bastard]

Interesting video showing a Tesla fire from 9:30 - not what I was expecting. They let the front of the vehicle catch fire for the demo, after overheating the battery. Once the frontal fire is out, cooling the battery shut down the fire. I imagined it would be far more complex. 

 

[Anyone]

18 hours ago, John Wright said:

Yes, and no. But you, or a partnership, can build up a business, once established you’ve been paying tax and class 2 & 4. Then you set up a company, sell the business at a valuation confirmed by accountants. No money changes hands. There’s a book keeping entry showing a loan for the purchase price.

For the first few years there are no dividends, just loan repayment out of profit. No taxes or NI for anyone. The shareholders will pay themselves a tiny salary, about £600 a month to pay £0.20 a year in NI and maintain their pension contributions. ( it’s cheaper than class 3 voluntary - and spouses can be paid for the same benefit ). They may pay dividends to ensure they receive full benefit of tax free allowances and drag out the time the loan is repaid over.

Once the loan is repaid, then it’s the lowest salary for NI pension record. Then dividends that attract tax but no NI, not even class 2 or class 4.

Some do that but not all. There are other reasons that end up tax neutral , just deferral. Those who do , well let’s be honest - is it not our USP? The IOM has spent its recent life helping anyone avoid paying their fare share of tax wherever they happen to live. What comes around goes around. 

[Andy Onchan]

20 hours ago, John Wright said:

Battery fires have sunk a large car transporter ferry - Id call that a “ catastrophe on that scale “

And two cargo aircraft in recent years.

[John Wright]

5 hours ago, Anyone said:

Some do that but not all. There are other reasons that end up tax neutral , just deferral. Those who do , well let’s be honest - is it not our USP? The IOM has spent its recent life helping anyone avoid paying their fare share of tax wherever they happen to live. What comes around goes around. 

We need to simplify and stream line tax and NI and apply it fairly domestically. By taxing ( & NI is a tax ) higher earners less we place the burden on low and middle earners.

[WTF]

9 minutes ago, John Wright said:

We need to simplify and stream line tax and NI and apply it fairly domestically. By taxing ( & NI is a tax ) higher earners less we place the burden on low and middle earners.

as both tax and NI are based on income i don't see why we need both , just tax at what ever level the tax and NI add up to and call it living tax or something.  it can't be too difficult,  no tax below 10k ,   10k - 15k  20%  ,  15k - 20k 25% ,  pick numbers that equate to what folks are paying now so it simplifies things for people and streamlines the admin .

[Gladys]

Agree with the need to simplify tax, 100%.  The issue is it is used as a tool in economic engineering as much as a way to raise revenue.