[Politics] Tory meltdown finally arrived [was: incoming]...

[The Oldman]

I'm an academic who has done some research into the 1978-79 winter-of-discontent, and without denying the inconvenience and grief that many people suffered, a lot of the hardships were predictably exaggerated, for political reasons, by the Tories and the press.

For example, a notorious tabloid headline "Now they won't even let us bury our dead", about cancelled funerals because of cruel grave-diggers being on strike, was apparently in response to a cancelled funeral in Liverpool." Of course, this was then sensationally reported as if thousands of funerals were being cancelled throughout the country, every day.

This is what always happens during strikes - the Tories and the press look for one isolated or one-off example or tragedy, and then portray it as universal, in order to smear and discredit trade unions and strikers, and indirectly, the Labour Party.

Of course, if funerals are cancelled due to staff shortages caused by government cuts to local authority funding, then there are no crocodile tears or pretend outrage by the Tories or their tabloids on behalf of the grieving bereaved.

I can assure you that where I worked our hospitals had more bodies than our mortuaries could cope with, same with undertakers. We had to buy in portable freezers cabins to cope. Forget your tabloid headlines, this was reality.

 

[vegster]

Back on topic.

The great levelling up, high wage, high quality employed Britishvolt has finally died on it's arse.

Look at his cheeky face...

Investor Relations - Britishvolt

Investor Relations

www.britishvolt.com

Should have been a state owned enterprise.

Whenever a Tory says he wants a High Wage Economy, remember that they are funded by people who specificaly want the exact opposite in order to increase their profits.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I can't comment anymore. Guinness Boy has threatened me with a ban.

What do you expect? You need to calm yourself down.

 

[beorhthelm]

Back on topic.

The great levelling up, high wage, high quality employed Britishvolt has finally died on it's arse.

Look at his cheeky face...

Investor Relations - Britishvolt

Investor Relations

www.britishvolt.com

Should have been a state owned enterprise.

sorry, you want the state to pump near £4bn in to a business with unproven technology and no customers?

 

[chickens]

sorry, you want the state to pump near £4bn in to a business with unproven technology and no customers?

Not sure about the customers, but I feel batteries are a fairly well-proven technology.

This was the flagship levelling up poster company for our new “Levelled Up” Britain. Though we both know that it was always a fig leaf to hide the absence of any form of long term industrial strategy.

 

[clapham_gull]

sorry, you want the state to pump near £4bn in to a business with unproven technology and no customers?

To be fair, the Government pumped billions into businesses with unproven technology and one customer to get hold of PPE.

 

[beorhthelm]

Not sure about the customers, but I feel batteries are a fairly well-proven technology.

This was the flagship levelling up poster company for our new “Levelled Up” Britain. Though we both know that it was always a fig leaf to hide the absence of any form of long term industrial strategy.

they were trying to pitch a "better" battery, more efficient and recyclable than others. it's a poster company for something, trying to catch of waves of funding. they had investment from Glencore as i recall, who've decided its not worth it anymore.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

 

[Pevenseagull]

sorry, you want the state to pump near £4bn in to a business with unproven technology and no customers?

there's one factory in Sunderland doing similar (owned by China) and over 30 factories in the EU in various stages of development looking to steal the march of progress in this.

 

[Pevenseagull]

sorry, you want the state to pump near £4bn in to a business with unproven technology and no customers?

I'd rather the state punt £4bn on emerging technology that would be on line within 5 years than many times that on nuclear power stations that won't be operating for a decade.

The U.K. Is missing the boat on development and it needs to be developed under a state owned growth fund.

 

[The Clamp]

I agree Cameron is responsible for the shit show we have now. It's like a school teacher saying they were just nipping out and never came back.
But there appears to be no actual alternative that can galvanise the country.
The opposition can't even agree with themselves, anyone who even speaks diffsrently is stupid, the country is gone..
But in the morning, we wake up, life is still good.

You think life is still good for everyone?

New research from Shelter shows at least 271,000 people are recorded as homeless in England, including 123,000 children. Shelter's detailed analysis of official homelessness figures and responses to a Freedom of Information request shows that one in 208 people in England are without a home as of 11 Jan 2023.


For the first time outside of the first year of the pandemic, food banks in the Trussell Trust network have distributed over 2.1 million food parcels in 2021-22.
...
Total.

TOTAL	London
2018/19	167,727
2019/20	204,335
2020/21	423,263
2021/22	283,563

 

[Thunder Bolt]

sorry, you want the state to pump near £4bn in to a business with unproven technology and no customers?

Better than billions pumped to cronies for unusable PPE.

 

[TomandJerry]

Here we go....

Patients should be charged for GP appointments and A&E visits, Sajid Javid has said, as he called the present model of the NHS “unsustainable”.

The former health secretary said “extending the contributory principle” should be part of radical reforms to tackle growing waiting times.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Here we go....

Patients should be charged for GP appointments and A&E visits, Sajid Javid has said, as he called the present model of the NHS “unsustainable”.

The former health secretary said “extending the contributory principle” should be part of radical reforms to tackle growing waiting times.

They'll be hard at work now looking for possibilities to bring in private companies at huge cost, getting friends and relatives setting up those private companies and figuring out a way of illegally awarding contracts completely dependant on being referred by Ministers, MPs, SPADS and donors.

Because they would never bleed money out of the NHS like that would they. Luckily we actually only voted for another 2 years of this

 

[chickens]

I'd rather the state punt £4bn on emerging technology that would be on line within 5 years than many times that on nuclear power stations that won't be operating for a decade.

The U.K. Is missing the boat on development and it needs to be developed under a state owned growth fund.

Absolutely. We’re so completely backwards at the moment, missing opportunities to develop battery technology and expertise in harnessing tidal power, and instead granting licenses for new coal mines.

We do look like the Ralph Wiggum of the international community. It’s embarrassing. The world has moved on around us, and here’s us, fighting the battles of the 20th Century.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

there's one factory in Sunderland doing similar (owned by China) and over 30 factories in the EU in various stages of development looking to steal the march of progress in this.

Germany has had huge foreign investment regarding these chip and battery things. I read they literally use Brexit and the general instability of the UK in their sales pitch.

Germany wins big as Intel spreads chip investment across six EU countries

Production in Germany will attempt to produce chips smaller than 2 nanometers, something the company has yet to achieve.

europe.autonews.com

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

sorry, you want the state to pump near £4bn in to a business with unproven technology and no customers?

Given the UK government’s recent woeful history with tech absolutely no.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Absolutely. We’re so completely backwards at the moment, missing opportunities to develop battery technology and expertise in harnessing tidal power, and instead granting licenses for new coal mines.

We do look like the Ralph Wiggum of the international community. It’s embarrassing. The world has moved on around us, and here’s us, fighting the battles of the 20th Century.

This current cabal know they only have another 2 years until they sink into oblivion and the Conservatives start working on getting their party back. The next 2 years will be exactly like the first 3 with them concentrating solely on lining their pockets while they can and fuelling culture wars to try to hang on to power for as long as possible, and **** what happens to the country.

Incredible though it seems, 5 years of absolutely no leadership, complete incompetence and no plan other than bleeding the system dry is going to take decades to recover from with a lot of suffering for normal people

 

[beorhthelm]

there's one factory in Sunderland doing similar (owned by China) and over 30 factories in the EU in various stages of development looking to steal the march of progress in this.

right, we are building capacity for batteries. shouldnt pour public money in to another without clear demand. then 5 years later we're complaining how we spent all the money on unusable batteries and why didnt we spend that on something else. much better to money spent on nuclear tech (SMR) that will solve a very pressing problem of generating enough power in near term.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

right, we are building capacity for batteries. shouldnt pour public money in to another without clear demand. then 5 years later we're complaining how we spent all the money on unusable batteries and why didnt we spend that on something else. much better to money spent on nuclear tech (SMR) that will solve a very pressing problem of generating enough power in near term.

You already have peer reviews of the batteries being unusuable? Remarkable.