....more armchair politics (Part 2)

Problem is that Labour are going to find it very difficult to find any candidate who hasn’t called Trump a cunt at some point

Eeehm…in the 80`s

  1. The UK was then part of the EEC/EU
  2. The Japanese had a language barrier, so UK was most convenient.
  3. Japanese car makers were only interested in economics
  4. Japan is a democracy
  5. Europa had an own automotive base, the Japanese joined that in Europe

But now

  1. The UK is not part of the EU, so face third country tariffs
  2. Language is now less of an issue for the Chinese
  3. It is less about EV makers, but more about strategic consumer goods as part of the Chinese government policies, where certain parts of the supply chain are almost 100% Chinese
  4. The Chinese government aims for global influence/domination and is far from democratic but more authoritarian and suppressive…
  5. Renewable energy and EVs are hardly developed/industrialized in Europe and are now more strategic products, not per se consumer, even if it`s for consumer use…
  6. Especially for EV production, eastern Europe has lower wages, no chance for the UK (or western Europe)

Could you elaborate? :face_with_monocle:

Yeah, I weep for the UK, with an industry policy almost as stupid as the one of Zha Zjermans overhere.

So, are you agreeing with Philip Hammond that the UK should let Chinese companies invest & build EVs in the UK (for sale to the rest of the world in competition with EU based manufacturers) or are you agreeing with the UK government and its ‘stupid’ industrial policy?

Khan evidently annoying all the right people :laughing:

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And in other news Andrew has just managed to find £10 million to pay his rent.

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Sadiq Khan - Elected in London 3 times as Mayor = Failure

Baron Shaun Bailey. Unelected Tory Mayoral candidate best known for Covid partying, ennobled without any comment from these same rags.

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For services to the vole au vent industry?

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@flapland

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I attend my first meeting on this subject back in 2000. Suspect I will certainly be retired by the time its starts, and most likely before a decision is made. And even if it starts, in a box before it finished.

However it’s the tip of a very long list of buildings that are listed but outliving their useful life/in need of major refurbishments/restoration.

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We have a perfect substitute ready to go down here in Devon. Incorporates accommodation too. Think of the savings to the taxpayer not having to pay for all those 2nd homes up in London.

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Jeezuz, i thought they were on with this following the works to the bing-bong tower.

Unfortunately it will be delayed for a while yet i fear, Starmer won’t want this expenditure.

The factory clock as I call it was a proof of concept and took a little longer than planned. However the quality of the restoration is excellent. But it’s a tiny bit compared to the rest of the building.

They need to build the decant chamber and that can’t start until Norman Shaw North(one half of the original New Scotland Yard) is finished as it’s required for office decant.

And current plan for the HOC decant chamber is within Richmond House with many alternations/additions. House of Lords a likely to move into the QEII centre but retain their office buildings outside of the Palace.

My personal opinion is the alternative option of doing one half and then the other isn’t workable. And if started would be abandoned fairly early on, with the chaos that brings.

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Seem to remember some civil servant telling me that it would be cheaper and quicker to flatten and rebuild than the current restoration plan.

Yep, I suspect a replica would be cheaper. But slightly bigger or smaller if you decide to build it in metric :wink:

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Hygiene Banks.

Yes, austerity Britain is working so well, isn’t it… :raised_hands::raised_hands::raised_hands:

Sleaford Mods just about covered it in this song. Which I thought of immediately on seeing the above article…

Hygiene products don’t really go out of date, so we don’t see nearly so much of them at the food distribution place I volunteer at as we see food, at least not through our main supplier FareShare.

However the individual supermarkets do generate ‘waste’ of this sort and for a while at least we were getting some in that way. The usual scenario seemed to be that a bottle of, say, shampoo would split or burst and the stuff would then pour/drip down over the three packs of bottles stacked below it. The shop staff wouldn’t have the time needed to clean the coated bottles individually, taking care not to wash off the paper labels, so they’d just scrap the whole lot and it would come to us.

We also get a bit donated directly by shoppers if/when we run charity drive weekends at supermarket entrances. Contrary to what the food bank volunteer in I, Daniel Blake says we get loads and loads of tampons and pant liners that way. What we hardly ever get is loo roll.

It’s the wild west again