Prices of the electricity we use to charge

PC2017

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Kirin 9000S chip using a modified version of Deep UV from ASML
Hasn't the global west sanctioned China or any subsidiary from purchasing EUV lithography machines? No wonder there is an increased suspicion of spies.
 

Woosh

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May 19, 2012
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Hasn't the global west sanctioned China or any subsidiary from purchasing EUV lithography machines? No wonder there is an increased suspicion of spies.
China spies on the West for a very long time and still do if not more than never before. They send every year hundreds of thousands if not millions of their brightest young people to our universities to study and research then when they go back to China, they bring the best and latest of Western innovations with them. They also have the money to fund those efforts because of the artificially 'competitive' exchange rates. The Yuan is priced low enough to help exporting goods and entice Western companies to set up manufacturing there. It's a war on skills that the West can't win because of the sheer headcount and their determination to fight. The EU is obsessed with keeping state subsidies as low as possible for the benefit of free market economy. It can't compete on R&D with a directed economy like China's. I reckon in as little as one generation, China will become stronger in R&D than the USA + EU.
 

PC2017

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The EU is obsessed with keeping state subsidies as low as possible
Capitalism vs Socialist Capitalism. It does seem like there is to much kudos in the west given to the free market when clearly the hands that steer it are far from free.
 
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guerney

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 7, 2021
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Divided we're conquered - China and Russia have run such an effective set disinformation campaigns, many reasonable people can no longer discern their arse from their elbow. The Chinese industrial revolution will take over the world, it's time I learned Chinese. I'll start with Chinese for "Arse" and "Elbow".
 
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flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
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it's time I learned Chinese. I'll start with Chinese for "Arse" and "Elbow".
Here your go:

Arse over Elbow. =

屁股超过肘部
Pìgu chāoguò zhǒu bù

Can't help much with the pronunciation though, just make it sound like you have a Jews/jaws Harp between your teeth when you speak.
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guerney

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Sep 7, 2021
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Here your go:

Arse over Elbow. =

屁股超过肘部
Pìgu chāoguò zhǒu bù

Can't help much with the pronunciation though, just make it sound like you have a Jews/jaws Harp between your teeth when you speak.
.
I will of course have to verify these facts you stated, and if anyone cites sources I'll check those too and question who funds those sources, and attempt to dive deeply into as many rabbit holes as possible with no apparent reliable frames of reference, until I'm utterly and hopelessly confused and unable to trust anything or anyone whatsoever; eventually resorting to a selection of whatever confirms my bias, then inevitably accuse you of being in cahoots with the CIA and possibly E.T.
 

PC2017

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Sep 19, 2017
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possibly E.T.
It is highly plausible, tracing my family tree, that all my genetic problems started with that pregnant E.T.
 

guerney

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 7, 2021
11,396
3,237
 

Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
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Southend on Sea
wooshbikes.co.uk
Sunak won't be PM for long enough to change anything.
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
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Sunak won't be PM for long enough to change anything.
Maybe not, but who to replace him with?

Johnson? No, they wouldn't get away with that.

And the rest of the old guard are unlikely, all tainted with either Brexit, Covid mishandling, personal faux-pas or the period of rapid PM and policy changes.

Sunak is astute, he might yet pull off winning the general election, given some added luck. Presenting a popular budget, Labour failing to win enough Scottish seats and enough of the usual Tory lies and smears about Labour during the campaign could result in a close thing.

Starmer has ruled out a coalition, the Tories haven't.
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Peter.Bridge

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Apr 19, 2023
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.. the usual Tory lies and smears about Labour during the campaign could result in a close thing...
Interesting to compare UK with the 'Nordic Model' that seem to be the happiest countries in the world
  • Generous social safety net and public pension system with well-funded public services in a relatively high-tax economy
  • Free trade combined with collective risk sharing
  • Low levels of corruption
  • High levels of unionisation
  • A partnership between government, businesses and unions
  • A relatively high personal tax burden.
Can just imagine the press / establishment furore on any party that ran on that sort of manifesto in the UK !
 

sjpt

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Jun 8, 2018
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It's a shame, but it seems that Sunak's aggressively anti-environment position (already bad before yesterday's leaks, now terrible) is likely to gain him a significant number of votes at the next election.

I guess the Uxbridge by-election result has fed a bias he already had; making him realize such a position will help rather than hinder electoral chances.
 
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flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,196
30,602
Interesting to compare UK with the 'Nordic Model' that seem to be the happiest countries in the world
  • Generous social safety net and public pension system with well-funded public services in a relatively high-tax economy
  • Free trade combined with collective risk sharing
  • Low levels of corruption
  • High levels of unionisation
  • A partnership between government, businesses and unions
  • A relatively high personal tax burden.
Can just imagine the press / establishment furore on any party that ran on that sort of manifesto in the UK !
Indeed, points I've made extensively during our Brexit debating. Their model works so well thanks to its inherent fairness and justice. But Britain's powerful influencers, backed by the US hatred of any form of socialism, ensure such policies remain an impossibly distant prospect.
.
 
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flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
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It's a shame, but it seems that Sunak's aggressively anti-environment position (already bad before yesterday's leaks, now terrible) is likely to gain him a significant number of votes at the next election.

I guess the Uxbridge by-election result has fed a bias he already had; making him realize such a position will help rather than hinder electoral chances.
Indeed, the public pay lip service to tackling climate change, but in truth share the position of the COP negotiators, stating what is necessary and then expecting everyone else to apply it.

Nimby as always.

Sunak probably will announce a five year delay in the ban on ic cars, which is already angering the motor industry, but there is a middle way if he has the intelligence to realise it.

Split taxation and benefits, which already exist in such things as free VED, free parking and free charging for e-cars,

Instead of just shifting back the ic car ban date 5 years, just add a substantial car purchase tax to all ic cars purchased between 2030 and 2035 (new ban date) and sharply increased VED for all ic cars from 2030 on. Also cancel the existing plan to apply VED to e-cars from 2025.

A more subtle change to please the industry and petrol-heads, leaving market forces to effect the changeover.
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Peter.Bridge

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It's a shame, but it seems that Sunak's aggressively anti-environment position (already bad before yesterday's leaks, now terrible) is likely to gain him a significant number of votes at the next election.
..
So we've got the previous but one prime minister attacking the current prime minister (who is also my MP, god help me) for adopting the policies advocated on Monday by the previous prime minister - not sure this is helping the Tories.
 
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sjpt

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So we've got the previous but one prime minister attacking the current prime minister (who is also my MP, god help me) for adopting the policies advocated on Monday by the previous prime minister - not sure this is helping the Tories.
I certainly hope it doesn't. We may see, but probably any effect will be so masked by other stupidities we will never know for sure the effects of the change in policy and the effects of the in-fighting.

Our Conservative MP had already sensibly announced some time ago that he won't stand at the next election.
 
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guerney

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Sep 7, 2021
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" Responding to early reports of the new plan, the chief executives of Bikeability Trust, British Cycling, Cycling UK, Living Streets, Ramblers and Sustrans said the government was "entrenching congestion and reliance on driving for short local journeys.

"This is a plan that looks no further than one way of travelling and will make the roads worse for those occasions when people do need to drive." "

Sunak vows to end 'hare-brain' road schemes