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"71% of the public have an unfavourable rating with Brits"

We hate each other ?

Yes, that seems to be the core problem!

Starmer has found a solution though. He sold UK plc to the Yanks for £150bn yesterday. Not a great price but he is not good at numbers. Now we will have to do what we are told, whether it is burning gas to feed AI data centres, abolishing the Digital tax or whatever. I think that America is allowing Parliament to remain as a decorative part of our constitution, which is a plus for political betting at least.

Good morning

The government are spinning the £150bn investment creating 75,000 jobs across the airwaves this morning

When I heard 75,000 jobs for £150bn I assumed it was misspoken as I would want a whole lot more jobs for that investment, but it appears it is over 10 years on projects that have to pass design, planning and environmental issues and data centres that will consume vast quantities of electricity and water that is not readily available

Add in the cost on consumers bills this seems much like the 1.5 million new homes, all smoke and mirrors

I would suggest this investment would have happened anyway, but it is long term and in that long term is welcome but Starmer has less than 4 years and I doubt very little of it will be noticed by the public who are impatient for change

And on Ed Davey, I don't generally comment too much about him because I respect many of the Lib Dems who post on here, but if I am being honest I wasn't impressed with his stunts and on policy I know and understand his crusade for carers, not least because of his own family issues, and on Europe and WASPI women but I have no idea what his tax and spending policies are and look on him mainly as representing an English, largely south based party, which is reflected when it comes to Wales, and to a degree Scotland, where he struggles to be relevant

I'm surprised it's even 75,000 jobs if it's data centres.

And the problem with modern data centres is they consume stupid amounts of power that they need 24/7/365. So where are the gWs of power to keep them online coming from.

Don't they also need stupid amounts of water for cooling? Luckily there aren't any water shortages..

Just use the Trent, erm, I see what you mean ...

Are they going to build them on Rannoch Moor? No, not enough nice bistros for tech bros.

Most data centres now used closed loop water cooling. Think air conditioning on a vast scale.

That’s why they don’t have giant cooling towers belching clouds.

Good - doesn't surprise me given their Usonian origins.

Presumably air-cooling wouldn't be closed loop, so how would they capture that heat?

It’s just heat exchange. Hot water comes out of the data centre cooling system. You can either dump the heat into air, or into people’s homes to heat them, or whatever. Then the water (now coldish) goes back to the data centre.

As someone whose tech and engineering knowledge would make a Neanderthal blush with pity could I ask if the following has been considered and if so/not what are the things that would make it impossible.

If they built data centres in modular waterproof “boxes” which were then anchored underwater in the North Sea, for example, couldn’t they massively reduce their need for electricity for cooling by benefiting from the cooler ambient temperatures of the deeper water and using the surrounding cold water to aid some sort of cooling system.

I know it might all seem a bit 1960s underseasea kingdom with these worlds under the sea but they could be serviced from adapted closed rigs above for housing staff and kit.

I’m probably going to look an absolute moron for suggesting as brighter minds have inevitably looked for options but thought I would ask anyway.

Microsoft experimented with an underwater data centre. I am out on a walk, so cannot link to it, but Google is your friend.

The experiment failed

1) seawater ruins everything.
2) seawater vapour really ruins everything
3) maratime operations are expensive
4) sticking something in a can and putting it in the water isn’t efficient cooling. So you still need elaborate heat exchange technology.

In the end, it would be cheaper to build your conventional data centre next to the sea and use pumped seawater to cool a primary loop.

Morning all

Of course, he is.

Everyone likes Sir Ed - he really should be Prime Minister rather than some Old Alleynian.

Sljghtly more seriously, the problem with most politicians is the more people see them and get to know them the less they like them. It's almost as though politics, a trade where success is a result of popularity, is defined by unpopularity.

Governing a country means doing things not everybody likes and those who like it least shout about it the most as we see on here - who'd have thought?

You win elections by promising the moon on a stick. Especially in our current system, the temptation is always to promise a stickier moon than the others.

That's fine, until you enter office and have to admit a bit of a lack of moons. And sticks..

It would be good if someone could win power on a platform of "these are the specific painful things we will need to do", but I don't think you can. Cameron cane closer than many in 2010, but even he was vague on the consequences of percentage cuts.

@harryjsisson

🚨Rolling Stone is now confirming what we all knew happened with Jimmy Kimmel’s show. According to their reporting, executives at ABC and Disney didn’t think Kimmel said anything outrageous but they feared retaliation from Trump. This is a blatant attack on free speech.

https://x.com/harryjsisson/status/1968490483224633624

The problem is, it's NOT a blatant attack on free speech - it's an indirect, ambiguous and relatively subtle attack on free speech. Kimmel wasn't arrested and ABC didn't say "we're doing this because of direct government pressure". The key is deniability to those who just read headlines and don't have time to inquire closely.

This is how freedom dies in countries with long democratic traditions - it's not directly repealed, it's subtly and gradually undermined though whispers behind the scenes and quiet understandings.