Vance continues to demonstrate that he can't be trusted on facts.
On @MeetThePress, Vance claimed Trump helped more people get health insurance coverage, and specifically Obamacare marketplace coverage. This is false. The uninsured rate *rose* under Trump; it has fallen to its lowest level on record under Biden. https://x.com/crampell/status/1835376195870892448
In absolute numbers? It may be misleading but not necessarily wrong (I don’t know).
The tweeter is accusing him of lying based on irrelevant data
This graph has the absolute numbers going down during Trump's presidency:
Well, first of all, Kristen, let's back up a little bit to 2017, 2018 when Obamacare was actually collapsing under the weight of the regulatory burdens, and collapsing under the weight of lack of funding. And Donald Trump had two choices. He could've destroyed the program, or he could actually build upon it and make it better so that Americans didn't lose a lot of health care. He chose to build upon a plan even though it came from his Democratic predecessor.
(...snip...)
KRISTEN WELKER:
Senator, you mention Obamacare. Twenty million people are currently getting their health care through Obamacare. I guess the question is, and you're laying out some benchmarks here, but why should voters believe that a plan is forthcoming when you've heard Donald Trump say so many times in the past that he's going to be putting forward a plan, that still hasn't happened yet?
SEN. JD VANCE:
Well, because Donald Trump actually governed, Kristen, for four years, and he actually protected those 20 million Americans from losing their health coverage. He actually protected a lot more additional Americans from losing their health coverage. And he actually ensured that a lot of people were able to access coverage for the first time. I mean, members of my own family, for example, got health care for the first time under Donald Trump's administration. So we actually have a real record to run on. He of course does have a plan for how to fix American health care, but a lot of it goes down, Kristen, to deregulating the insurance market so that people can choose a plan that actually makes sense for them
So on Saturday we were once again talking about the single person discount on council tax.
Well I finally did some research and it seems that it never existed when we had rates. The poll tax introduced a massive reduction if you were a single person living in a property so when the council tax arrived to get it through a compromise discount of 25% was introduced so single people did not loss all the benefit they got from the council tax.
Hence why Labour are being so careful they don't want to promise something if council tax is changing to something else..
Apparently the decision to play golf was taken at the "last minute", yet someone is seemingly in wait , in the bushes, on the golf course, ready for him. Am I alone in thinking this is all a bit strange?
Apparently the decision to play golf was taken at the "last minute", yet someone is seemingly in wait , in the bushes, on the golf course, ready for him. Am I alone in thinking this is all a bit strange?
You have no idea how long this guy has been hanging around the golf course. Trump playing golf isn't some unbelievably unlikely freak event and his campaign schedule is publicly known in advance.
Apparently the decision to play golf was taken at the "last minute", yet someone is seemingly in wait , in the bushes, on the golf course, ready for him. Am I alone in thinking this is all a bit strange?
Depends how often Trump plays golf in his golf course on a Sunday when he has nothing else on his schedule
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
Apparently the decision to play golf was taken at the "last minute", yet someone is seemingly in wait , in the bushes, on the golf course, ready for him. Am I alone in thinking this is all a bit strange?
Consider a sport like fishing, you spend days sitting under a green umbrella on the off chance a carp will make a last minute decision to go out for a bite to eat.
So on Saturday we were once again talking about the single person discount on council tax.
Well I finally did some research and it seems that it never existed when we had rates. The poll tax introduced a massive reduction if you were a single person living in a property so when the council tax arrived to get it through a compromise discount of 25% was introduced so single people did not loss all the benefit they got from the council tax.
Hence why Labour are being so careful they don't want to promise something if council tax is changing to something else..
Quite so. That's why the Tories made such headway with their own (elderly, well-off) voters by whining about the injustice of a single person having to pay the same rates as a household of 6 adults and so on for the same house. And that was the whole justification for the poll tax, and even the residual element which remains as the SPD.
The problem is that the minority are very vocal and determined. And rapidly discover ways to slow things down in The Process.
The question is whether The Process was the real problem, or a convenient scapegoat.
One change that the 2024 Geneal Election made manifest was a generational shift in who is in charge. For a very very long time, the (broadly defined) baby boomers have been the electorate that mattered- as they went, so went the nation. July was roughly the first time that they haven't got their (collective) way. Hence some of the howling as a bit of the austerity that they have supported for others (roughly speaking, their parents and their children) has landed on them.
One other consequence of that is that political power has shifted from a generation who oppose further development and further change in society to a generation who support them. Even if the written rules and Process don't change, there's a decent opportunity for their operation to change. I think we've seen a bit of that already with renewable energy projects fairly quickly liberated from the bottom of Ed M's intray.
(In the wisdom of Yes, Minister, you don't find a judge who will sucumb to pressure, you find one who doesn't need any pressure applied at all.)
The Process is part of the System.
I need to finish my header on this. But the manipulations of Process, by all the differing parties produce an unspoken, effective compromise. An equilibrium.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
Betfair not quite unmoved, Vance in from 300 where I backed him to 200
Will Betfair let me lay him (for a liability less than my prospective winnings) without putting new money in?
If I'm understanding you correctly, yes they will.
I have 5 on Vance at 300. If I take a fiver off a backer at 200, I break even unless he wins in which case I get 1500 and pay out 1000, and I can do that without fronting up an additional 1000?
Nah, that would have been a shot taken, trump batting the bullet away with a nine iron* and then taking out the assailant with a wedge* before the secret service reacted. Americans love an action hero, after all
*I know nothing of golf, which might be obvious from my use of these terms
Taking out the assailant with a wedge would be a cuck move. Would need to be a 5 iron at least.
Apparently the decision to play golf was taken at the "last minute", yet someone is seemingly in wait , in the bushes, on the golf course, ready for him. Am I alone in thinking this is all a bit strange?
Nope.
Just all seems incredibly convenient given the polling and the dire week he had last week.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
The problem is that the minority are very vocal and determined. And rapidly discover ways to slow things down in The Process.
There's a couple of (Tories) in my apartment block who are agitating to get the Residents Association to come out against the Cambs-Oxon rail project "because it will increase the number of trains that come along the line".
YOU BOUGHT A FLAT PRACTICALLY NEXT TO THE RAILWAY STATION ADJACENT TO THE RAIL LINE YOU NUMPTY.
Betfair not quite unmoved, Vance in from 300 where I backed him to 200
Will Betfair let me lay him (for a liability less than my prospective winnings) without putting new money in?
If I'm understanding you correctly, yes they will.
I have 5 on Vance at 300. If I take a fiver off a backer at 200, I break even unless he wins in which case I get 1500 and pay out 1000, and I can do that without fronting up an additional 1000?
Yes I know those numbers are for 301 and 201.
Yes your JD profile goes from +1500 vs -5 to +500 vs flat.
No money needed because your exposure has actually gone down. It was £5, now it's nil.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
I'm old enough to recall EU proposals to build an alternative to GPS being ridiculed as pure vanity.
Europe has some serious tech capabilities, particularly in precision manufacturing. But it (and that includes the UK) has fallen well behind in semiconductor manufacturing and space launch capabilities, and simply doesn't have anything to compare with the US venture capital industry for creating new industries (which the Draghi report comprehensively acknowledges). https://commission.europa.eu/topics/strengthening-european-competitiveness/eu-competitiveness-looking-ahead_en
The problem is that the minority are very vocal and determined. And rapidly discover ways to slow things down in The Process.
The question is whether The Process was the real problem, or a convenient scapegoat.
One change that the 2024 Geneal Election made manifest was a generational shift in who is in charge. For a very very long time, the (broadly defined) baby boomers have been the electorate that mattered- as they went, so went the nation. July was roughly the first time that they haven't got their (collective) way. Hence some of the howling as a bit of the austerity that they have supported for others (roughly speaking, their parents and their children) has landed on them.
One other consequence of that is that political power has shifted from a generation who oppose further development and further change in society to a generation who support them. Even if the written rules and Process don't change, there's a decent opportunity for their operation to change. I think we've seen a bit of that already with renewable energy projects fairly quickly liberated from the bottom of Ed M's intray.
(In the wisdom of Yes, Minister, you don't find a judge who will sucumb to pressure, you find one who doesn't need any pressure applied at all.)
The Process is part of the System.
I need to finish my header on this. But the manipulations of Process, by all the differing parties produce an unspoken, effective compromise. An equilibrium.
By the most common definition the youngest boomers turn 60 this year. Sir Keir was simply off the pace. He took careful aim and fired at a bunch of late middle age property millionaires and hit them just as they transitioned in PR terms to little old ladies freezing in garrets. Unlucky.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
Several tens of billions would not be a silly price to pay for replicating reusable launch capabilities. We should be part of that effort; it would be far more useful than a couple of aircraft carriers, for example.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
In my opinion, there is no CEO visionary. There is an Alt-right gobshite whose blatherings are listened to by other alt-right gobshites who play with other people's money. That money has been used successfully by one company whose leadership are impressive (SpaceX/Starlink). Moderately effectively by another (Tesla) and totally ineffectively by three others (Twitter, Boring - the most spectacularly stupid one, even when you consider Twitter, Neuralink).
His original CityGuide business with his brother was a good idea, well executed at the time. Everything else he's done involved people effectively paying him to go away.
However, I fully accept that there other perspectives on this man.
I am glad to hear that @realDonaldTrump is safe and unharmed. My best wishes to him and his family. It’s good that the suspect in the assassination attempt was apprehended quickly. This is our principle: the rule of law is paramount and political violence has no place anywhere in the world. We sincerely hope that everyone remains safe.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
Several tens of billions would not be a silly price to pay for replicating reusable launch capabilities. We should be part of that effort; it would be far more useful than a couple of aircraft carriers, for example.
Given the outbreak of misunderstanding and mockery when we rescued OneWeb from bankruptcy, I don't hold out much hope.
National media has been broadcasting Trump and Vance's shit for days, and not bothered to do some simple journalism.
AFAIK, Vance has never visited Springfield.
These lower numbers are disputed.
One theory is 20,000 is right for all immigrants not just Haitians (though I don't see how this is not reflected in school stats)
The 15,000-20,000 number came from a letter sent from the city manager of Springfield to the two Ohio Senators, asking for federal assistance in housing.
"the total immigrant population is estimated to be approximately 12,000 - 15,000 in Clark County"...
...Clark County, Ohio has 136,000 people. The city estimates 9-11% of the county is foreign-born. For context, 14.3% of the U.S. population is foreign-born, and 52% are naturalized citizens.
The Clark County, Ohio foreign-born population is [probably] lower than the national average..
Note that Senator Vance has done fuck all about that request for Federal assistance.
I'm pretty unmoved by it too. We're as we were. He's alive and losing.
More to the point, it would be potentially disastrous for the Democrats, and indeed the US, if he were to be shot. He needs to be squarely defeated at the ballot box.
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
This is all true, but nobody wants to pay for strategic autonomy and it's a guaranteed election losing prospectus. If DJT wins then SKS will gargle his nuts to get a bilateral defence agreement if necessary.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
Several tens of billions would not be a silly price to pay for replicating reusable launch capabilities. We should be part of that effort; it would be far more useful than a couple of aircraft carriers, for example.
Given the outbreak of misunderstanding and mockery when we rescued OneWeb from bankruptcy, I don't hold out much hope.
Given how well (comparatively) that turned out, I do.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
I’m confident Trump won’t win. Musk is autistic and this is a classic obsession phase. He’ll move on.
Yes, I support his businesses. His businesses are - with the exception of Twitter - are good.
Betfair not quite unmoved, Vance in from 300 where I backed him to 200
Will Betfair let me lay him (for a liability less than my prospective winnings) without putting new money in?
If I'm understanding you correctly, yes they will.
I have 5 on Vance at 300. If I take a fiver off a backer at 200, I break even unless he wins in which case I get 1500 and pay out 1000, and I can do that without fronting up an additional 1000?
Yes I know those numbers are for 301 and 201.
Betfair should show you the numbers after you enter the stakes but before you ‘place bets’. Here is a racing example so I can grab a picture before heading to Sainsbury's. In the 7 o'clock race at Kempton, I've backed Beyond Words for £10 at 5.1 and will now think about laying £10 at 3. You can see that Betfair shows me what I would win and lose on all runners. The figure on the left is where I stand after backing Beyond Words (green win on BW; red loss on the others) and the figure on the right is what would be the case if I do lay BW (and if the lay is taken; viz break even on the rest and reduced win on BW with no loss) so I can look at this and decide what to do.
I might be missing something but why is Trump being shot at "good for Trump"? There seems to be that underlying assumption but is there much/any evidence for it?
The problem is that the minority are very vocal and determined. And rapidly discover ways to slow things down in The Process.
There's a couple of (Tories) in my apartment block who are agitating to get the Residents Association to come out against the Cambs-Oxon rail project "because it will increase the number of trains that come along the line".
YOU BOUGHT A FLAT PRACTICALLY NEXT TO THE RAILWAY STATION ADJACENT TO THE RAIL LINE YOU NUMPTY.
NIMBYism definitely crosses party boundaries.
See also houses bought near churches (bells) and cricket pitches (ball in the garden).
I am glad to hear that @realDonaldTrump is safe and unharmed. My best wishes to him and his family. It’s good that the suspect in the assassination attempt was apprehended quickly. This is our principle: the rule of law is paramount and political violence has no place anywhere in the world. We sincerely hope that everyone remains safe.
TRANSLATION: I can't believe we hired another fuckwit who missed.
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
This is all true, but nobody wants to pay for strategic autonomy and it's a guaranteed election losing prospectus. If DJT wins then SKS will gargle his nuts to get a bilateral defence agreement if necessary.
I think that's wrong, The investments needed for greater strategic autonomy are to a great extent the same ones needed to make Europe more competitive economically. It either does that, or resigns itself to become a tourist destination which survives on producing Veblen goods.
I might be missing something but why is Trump being shot at "good for Trump"? There seems to be that underlying assumption but is there much/any evidence for it?
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
I’m confident Trump won’t win. Musk is autistic and this is a classic obsession phase. He’ll move on.
Yes, I support his businesses. His businesses are - with the exception of Twitter - are good.
Don't fucking well use the 'autistic' excuse. There are millions of autistic people who manage their lives without being a shit. Autism is not an excuse - and I doubt he is autistic anyway.
He's a shit. Plain and simple.
And in the meantime, the damage he is doing is massive. There are people who swallow his shit and will continue believing it even *if* he moves on.
National media has been broadcasting Trump and Vance's shit for days, and not bothered to do some simple journalism.
AFAIK, Vance has never visited Springfield.
These lower numbers are disputed.
let's say each child has just one parent, thats already 15,000 Haitians........most will have two parents. I mean that pretty close to 20,000.
The numbers for children enrolled were for all children, not just Haitians. Do you really think all the children in school in Springfield are Haitians?
I might be missing something but why is Trump being shot at "good for Trump"? There seems to be that underlying assumption but is there much/any evidence for it?
Don't think so. It's pretty easy to create narratives either way, e.g.
(About the July shooting). I think a good rule of thumb is that most things don't matter that much, and that Trump gets diminishing returns the more often it happens.
@kjh Just seen your query about bike insurance (why I have it separate rather than on house insurance). It was a combination of cost and excess. I was able to buy separate insurance that was both cheaper than adding it to house insurance and had lower excess than we have on the house - the bike is reasonably fancy (by my standards!) and would have been a specified add-on to the house insurance rather than under their generic bike cover, which I think only went up to £500 or so. There may have been an admin fee for adding things to our house insurance too, I don't recall.
ETA: And for some other replies regarding third party, that wasn't really a concern (as it is indeed included in home insurance, I think). I bought the bike insurance to insure against loss of the bike in theft or accident, which wasn't covered adequately by my home insurance, without add-on that would have cost more. The 3rd party cover was chucked in with the bike insurance, I didn't specify it.
I might be missing something but why is Trump being shot at "good for Trump"? There seems to be that underlying assumption but is there much/any evidence for it?
Don't think so. It's pretty easy to create narratives either way, e.g.
(About the July shooting). I think a good rule of thumb is that most things don't matter that much, and that Trump gets diminishing returns the more often it happens.
You mean the US will get used to them, like it has school shootings ?
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
Several tens of billions would not be a silly price to pay for replicating reusable launch capabilities. We should be part of that effort; it would be far more useful than a couple of aircraft carriers, for example.
It’s been estimated that the entire Starship/Super Heavy launch system development is costing about $1 Billion dollars per year.
That’s the vehicles, launch site, towers, engine development, the lot.
So for less than 0.1% of the government budget of the U.K., we could do this.
There is no magic.
Well apart from the fact that BAe or similar would charge between 20 Billion and infinity per year to do it.
As Neville Shute Norway* (aka Neville Shute) said - “a good engineer is someone who can do for a shilling what any fool can do for a pound.”
*A great British aerospace engineer, in addition to his novels. Deputy designer on R101, then founded a very successful aviation company. Among his contributions, was convincing RJ Mitchell that retracting undercarriage on aircraft was a good idea. Next time you see a Spitfire, think about that.
I might be missing something but why is Trump being shot at "good for Trump"? There seems to be that underlying assumption but is there much/any evidence for it?
Don't think so. It's pretty easy to create narratives either way, e.g.
(About the July shooting). I think a good rule of thumb is that most things don't matter that much, and that Trump gets diminishing returns the more often it happens.
You mean the US will get used to them, like it has school shootings ?
I can't see a particularly close parallel. The commentary on this incident strikes me as pretty subdued compared to July, even after laying off for the absence of deaths and wounding this time round.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
I’m confident Trump won’t win. Musk is autistic and this is a classic obsession phase. He’ll move on.
Yes, I support his businesses. His businesses are - with the exception of Twitter - are good.
Don't fucking well use the 'autistic' excuse. There are millions of autistic people who manage their lives without being a shit. Autism is not an excuse - and I doubt he is autistic anyway.
He's a shit. Plain and simple.
And in the meantime, the damage he is doing is massive. There are people who swallow his shit and will continue believing it even *if* he moves on.
I’m not making an excuse. And don’t lecture me about autism. We have autism in our family. My wife is autistic. My eldest is autistic. Several nephews are autistic. BTW “I doubt he/she is autistic” is basically calling neurodivergent people liars, fakes, shills. You don’t like him. I don’t like him much either. But park your abuse about autism. He IS displaying a classic autistic obsession. He’s gone postal, but extreme focus on something is typical neurodivergent behaviour.
Sounds like a nice CGT windfall for Reeves. Winners all round!
Nah, he will buy the First Lady some fancy knickers and an exemption applying to his case will coincidentally crop up in the budget. You have a lot to learn about life in a banana republic.
Appearance of corruption was Robert Jenrick I think.
In personal communication with Richard Desmond re: a planning decision, then used his Housing Minister position to approve the Planning Permission on Westferry, which would have helped Desmond avoid £45m in tax - payable to Tower Hamlets if it had been approved one day later.
Then 2 weeks later accepted a donation from Desmond of £12k.
I'd be interested to know the outcome re whether the action was lawful given the communication.
If they elect him, they deserve everything they get.
For sure Jenrick is horrific. But "less corrupt than Robert Jenrick" doesn't sell a PM to me any more than "less paedophilic than Jimmy Savile" sells a babysitter.
That comparison seems to me only to have meaning if you can show in some way that the current PM is in some way corrupt, so that is the choice to be made. Otherwise it is rhetoric.
Can you demonstrate that?
I regard gifts to politicians, of clothes or wallpaper, as corruption. If this were a local businessman bunging a local councillor I would hope and expect the pair would go to prison.
There is a condescending arrogance from Labour that beggars belief. Yes, we know the Tories are openly corrupt. But that doesn’t give Labour license to do the same. Yet they say “we aren’t the Tories” as if that is good enough. It isn’t. Not if they’re also grifting.
See also Gordon Brown's response to questions about boom and bust: "No, what I said was no more TORY boom and bust". [I'm sure I remember this at the time - and also it being falsifiable in about 2 minutes - but it seems so improbable now I wonder whether it was apocryphal. Possibly the relevant discussion on pb could be unearthed. But actually the point is that Gordon Brown and his cronies were so tribal, so convinced in their own narrative that they were the good guys and the Tories were the bad guys, that they could justify anything they did to stay in power as being 'good'.)
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
Several tens of billions would not be a silly price to pay for replicating reusable launch capabilities. We should be part of that effort; it would be far more useful than a couple of aircraft carriers, for example.
It’s been estimated that the entire Starship/Super Heavy launch system development is costing about $1 Billion dollars per year.
(Snip)
To get those sort of figures, even as an 'independent'; you need to believe what Musk says. So the question becomes *why* you trust what Musk says.
As for us developing such a thing in the UK: there are many issues aside from politics; technically, geographically, industrially, and personnel-wise.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
I’m confident Trump won’t win. Musk is autistic and this is a classic obsession phase. He’ll move on.
Yes, I support his businesses. His businesses are - with the exception of Twitter - are good.
Don't fucking well use the 'autistic' excuse. There are millions of autistic people who manage their lives without being a shit. Autism is not an excuse - and I doubt he is autistic anyway.
He's a shit. Plain and simple.
And in the meantime, the damage he is doing is massive. There are people who swallow his shit and will continue believing it even *if* he moves on.
Well said. My son is autistic and can operate in life without being a ****!
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
Several tens of billions would not be a silly price to pay for replicating reusable launch capabilities. We should be part of that effort; it would be far more useful than a couple of aircraft carriers, for example.
It’s been estimated that the entire Starship/Super Heavy launch system development is costing about $1 Billion dollars per year.
That’s the vehicles, launch site, towers, engine development, the lot.
So for less than 0.1% of the government budget of the U.K., we could do this.
There is no magic.
Well apart from the fact that BAe or similar would charge between 20 Billion and infinity per year to do it.
As Neville Shute Norway* (aka Neville Shute) said - “a good engineer is someone who can do for a shilling what any fool can do for a pound.”
*A great British aerospace engineer, in addition to his novels. Deputy designer on R101, then founded a very successful aviation company. Among his contributions, was convincing RJ Mitchell that retracting undercarriage on aircraft was a good idea. Next time you see a Spitfire, think about that.
As with the US, the most difficult bit would be telling all of the existing vested interests in the industry to go and take a running jump, and instead hire a bunch of quickly iterative startup-minded engineers from places like SpaceX to run a new company.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
I’m confident Trump won’t win. Musk is autistic and this is a classic obsession phase. He’ll move on.
Yes, I support his businesses. His businesses are - with the exception of Twitter - are good.
Don't fucking well use the 'autistic' excuse. There are millions of autistic people who manage their lives without being a shit. Autism is not an excuse - and I doubt he is autistic anyway.
He's a shit. Plain and simple.
And in the meantime, the damage he is doing is massive. There are people who swallow his shit and will continue believing it even *if* he moves on.
Well said. My son is autistic and can operate in life without being a ****!
And yes it is the word that cannot be posted.
My eldest is also autistic. Like your son they aren’t a ban hammer. What Musk has become obsessed by is not because he is autistic. That he has obsessions IS because he’s autistic.
Sounds like a nice CGT windfall for Reeves. Winners all round!
Nah, he will buy the First Lady some fancy knickers and an exemption applying to his case will coincidentally crop up in the budget. You have a lot to learn about life in a banana republic.
Appearance of corruption was Robert Jenrick I think.
In personal communication with Richard Desmond re: a planning decision, then used his Housing Minister position to approve the Planning Permission on Westferry, which would have helped Desmond avoid £45m in tax - payable to Tower Hamlets if it had been approved one day later.
Then 2 weeks later accepted a donation from Desmond of £12k.
I'd be interested to know the outcome re whether the action was lawful given the communication.
If they elect him, they deserve everything they get.
For sure Jenrick is horrific. But "less corrupt than Robert Jenrick" doesn't sell a PM to me any more than "less paedophilic than Jimmy Savile" sells a babysitter.
That comparison seems to me only to have meaning if you can show in some way that the current PM is in some way corrupt, so that is the choice to be made. Otherwise it is rhetoric.
Can you demonstrate that?
I regard gifts to politicians, of clothes or wallpaper, as corruption. If this were a local businessman bunging a local councillor I would hope and expect the pair would go to prison.
There is a condescending arrogance from Labour that beggars belief. Yes, we know the Tories are openly corrupt. But that doesn’t give Labour license to do the same. Yet they say “we aren’t the Tories” as if that is good enough. It isn’t. Not if they’re also grifting.
It's nowhere near the scale, but from little acorns giant oaks grow. Pay the man back and apologise.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
I’m confident Trump won’t win. Musk is autistic and this is a classic obsession phase. He’ll move on.
Yes, I support his businesses. His businesses are - with the exception of Twitter - are good.
Don't fucking well use the 'autistic' excuse. There are millions of autistic people who manage their lives without being a shit. Autism is not an excuse - and I doubt he is autistic anyway.
He's a shit. Plain and simple.
And in the meantime, the damage he is doing is massive. There are people who swallow his shit and will continue believing it even *if* he moves on.
Well said. My son is autistic and can operate in life without being a ****!
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
I’m confident Trump won’t win. Musk is autistic and this is a classic obsession phase. He’ll move on.
Yes, I support his businesses. His businesses are - with the exception of Twitter - are good.
Don't fucking well use the 'autistic' excuse. There are millions of autistic people who manage their lives without being a shit. Autism is not an excuse - and I doubt he is autistic anyway.
He's a shit. Plain and simple.
And in the meantime, the damage he is doing is massive. There are people who swallow his shit and will continue believing it even *if* he moves on.
I’m not making an excuse. And don’t lecture me about autism. We have autism in our family. My wife is autistic. My eldest is autistic. Several nephews are autistic. BTW “I doubt he/she is autistic” is basically calling neurodivergent people liars, fakes, shills. You don’t like him. I don’t like him much either. But park your abuse about autism. He IS displaying a classic autistic obsession. He’s gone postal, but extreme focus on something is typical neurodivergent behaviour.
You are not the only person who knows autistic people, or has autistic people in their families.
I am not calling neurodivergent people liars, fakes, shills: I'm saying there's little evidence that he is neurodivergent aside from his own word. And he is a notorious liar.
His behaviour could equally be explained by him being drugged up most of the time.
*You* are the one abusing autistics by excusing his poor behaviour as a result of autism.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
I’m confident Trump won’t win. Musk is autistic and this is a classic obsession phase. He’ll move on.
Yes, I support his businesses. His businesses are - with the exception of Twitter - are good.
Don't fucking well use the 'autistic' excuse. There are millions of autistic people who manage their lives without being a shit. Autism is not an excuse - and I doubt he is autistic anyway.
He's a shit. Plain and simple.
And in the meantime, the damage he is doing is massive. There are people who swallow his shit and will continue believing it even *if* he moves on.
Well said. My son is autistic and can operate in life without being a ****!
And yes it is the word that cannot be posted.
My eldest is also autistic. Like your son they aren’t a ban hammer. What Musk has become obsessed by is not because he is autistic. That he has obsessions IS because he’s autistic.
So like my son is obsessed with anime and video games, Musk obsesses with being a ****?
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
Where are OneWeb in this arena these days?
Technically, UK Gov own 10%, as do the French Gov, and UK Gov has a Golden Share.
I'm assuming that the "use for satellite navigation" suggestion from several years ago was BJBS.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
Several tens of billions would not be a silly price to pay for replicating reusable launch capabilities. We should be part of that effort; it would be far more useful than a couple of aircraft carriers, for example.
It’s been estimated that the entire Starship/Super Heavy launch system development is costing about $1 Billion dollars per year.
That’s the vehicles, launch site, towers, engine development, the lot.
So for less than 0.1% of the government budget of the U.K., we could do this.
There is no magic.
Well apart from the fact that BAe or similar would charge between 20 Billion and infinity per year to do it.
As Neville Shute Norway* (aka Neville Shute) said - “a good engineer is someone who can do for a shilling what any fool can do for a pound.”
*A great British aerospace engineer, in addition to his novels. Deputy designer on R101, then founded a very successful aviation company. Among his contributions, was convincing RJ Mitchell that retracting undercarriage on aircraft was a good idea. Next time you see a Spitfire, think about that.
As with the US, the most difficult bit would be telling all of the existing vested interests in the industry to go and take a running jump, and instead hire a bunch of quickly iterative startup-minded engineers from places like SpaceX to run a new company.
Deciding to do that might not be easy. Actually doing so wouldn't be all that difficult.
The problem is that the minority are very vocal and determined. And rapidly discover ways to slow things down in The Process.
There's a couple of (Tories) in my apartment block who are agitating to get the Residents Association to come out against the Cambs-Oxon rail project "because it will increase the number of trains that come along the line".
YOU BOUGHT A FLAT PRACTICALLY NEXT TO THE RAILWAY STATION ADJACENT TO THE RAIL LINE YOU NUMPTY.
NIMBYism definitely crosses party boundaries.
See also houses bought near churches (bells) and cricket pitches (ball in the garden).
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
I’m confident Trump won’t win. Musk is autistic and this is a classic obsession phase. He’ll move on.
Yes, I support his businesses. His businesses are - with the exception of Twitter - are good.
Don't fucking well use the 'autistic' excuse. There are millions of autistic people who manage their lives without being a shit. Autism is not an excuse - and I doubt he is autistic anyway.
He's a shit. Plain and simple.
And in the meantime, the damage he is doing is massive. There are people who swallow his shit and will continue believing it even *if* he moves on.
Well said. My son is autistic and can operate in life without being a ****!
And yes it is the word that cannot be posted.
My eldest is also autistic. Like your son they aren’t a ban hammer. What Musk has become obsessed by is not because he is autistic. That he has obsessions IS because he’s autistic.
So like my son is obsessed with anime and video games, Musk obsesses with being a ****?
It's clumsy, but I can see your point.
Musk is an anus who has obsessively thrown himself down an alt-right rabbit hole and now sees conspiracies everywhere. It’s abhorrent, but *the obsession* is classic neurodivergence. What he’s become obsessed by is awful, but I can see autism where it’s bloody obvious. As frankly are his other obsessions which previously had been put to good use - electric cars, colonising Mars etc
Obsessions don’t always stick, which is why I am hopeful that he will have his head turned and stop being a massive tosser
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
But we can't avoid doing so. He is leveraging his wealth and control of information to affect the global political discourse and, consequently, who forms governments and what they do around the world - and doing so in a way that is deeply damaging. That is intrinsically linked to his wealth and control of his companies.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
Several tens of billions would not be a silly price to pay for replicating reusable launch capabilities. We should be part of that effort; it would be far more useful than a couple of aircraft carriers, for example.
It’s been estimated that the entire Starship/Super Heavy launch system development is costing about $1 Billion dollars per year.
That’s the vehicles, launch site, towers, engine development, the lot.
So for less than 0.1% of the government budget of the U.K., we could do this.
There is no magic.
Well apart from the fact that BAe or similar would charge between 20 Billion and infinity per year to do it.
As Neville Shute Norway* (aka Neville Shute) said - “a good engineer is someone who can do for a shilling what any fool can do for a pound.”
*A great British aerospace engineer, in addition to his novels. Deputy designer on R101, then founded a very successful aviation company. Among his contributions, was convincing RJ Mitchell that retracting undercarriage on aircraft was a good idea. Next time you see a Spitfire, think about that.
Though (as with 109) undercarriage retracting inwards would have saved a few pilots’s lives. Would have ruined the look though.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
I’m confident Trump won’t win. Musk is autistic and this is a classic obsession phase. He’ll move on.
Yes, I support his businesses. His businesses are - with the exception of Twitter - are good.
Don't fucking well use the 'autistic' excuse. There are millions of autistic people who manage their lives without being a shit. Autism is not an excuse - and I doubt he is autistic anyway.
He's a shit. Plain and simple.
And in the meantime, the damage he is doing is massive. There are people who swallow his shit and will continue believing it even *if* he moves on.
I’m not making an excuse. And don’t lecture me about autism. We have autism in our family. My wife is autistic. My eldest is autistic. Several nephews are autistic. BTW “I doubt he/she is autistic” is basically calling neurodivergent people liars, fakes, shills. You don’t like him. I don’t like him much either. But park your abuse about autism. He IS displaying a classic autistic obsession. He’s gone postal, but extreme focus on something is typical neurodivergent behaviour.
You are not the only person who knows autistic people, or has autistic people in their families.
I am not calling neurodivergent people liars, fakes, shills: I'm saying there's little evidence that he is neurodivergent aside from his own word. And he is a notorious liar.
His behaviour could equally be explained by him being drugged up most of the time.
*You* are the one abusing autistics by excusing his poor behaviour as a result of autism.
I'm in two minds, and that's how I read it at first, and I, like you was offended, but Rochdale has subsequently pointed out the notion that Musk's obsessional behaviour is symptomatic of ASD, which is relevant. Musk could be obsessed with steam trains, video games, electric cars or rocket propulsion which is harmless enough, but he is rather more obsessed with being an obnoxious bastard.
On the other hand being brought up in Apartheid South Africa in an entitled family could have as much relevance as ASD.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
I’m confident Trump won’t win. Musk is autistic and this is a classic obsession phase. He’ll move on.
Yes, I support his businesses. His businesses are - with the exception of Twitter - are good.
Don't fucking well use the 'autistic' excuse. There are millions of autistic people who manage their lives without being a shit. Autism is not an excuse - and I doubt he is autistic anyway.
He's a shit. Plain and simple.
And in the meantime, the damage he is doing is massive. There are people who swallow his shit and will continue believing it even *if* he moves on.
Well said. My son is autistic and can operate in life without being a ****!
And yes it is the word that cannot be posted.
Tory?
Herd, though the time of it causing much PB angst seems to have passed.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
Where are OneWeb in this arena these days?
Technically, UK Gov own 10%, as do the French Gov, and UK Gov has a Golden Share.
I'm assuming that the "use for satellite navigation" suggestion from several years ago was BJBS.
It's not quite the same thing, but from a few days ago:
"Satellite communications company OneWeb unveiled a new positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) service amid global concerns about GPS vulnerability to jamming and interference in critical sectors such as defense, aviation and emergency services."
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
This is all true, but nobody wants to pay for strategic autonomy and it's a guaranteed election losing prospectus. If DJT wins then SKS will gargle his nuts to get a bilateral defence agreement if necessary.
There is no bilateral anything with Trump. There is no agreement that can be trusted. There is no guarantee that he won't leverage the same things he's previously promised in order to extract further concessions.
Besides, I don't think opposing that kind of investment is an election-winning prospectus. Being seen as 'weak on defence' has frequently been an election-losing prospectus (in the UK at least).
I hope for his sake that his case is like my daughters. She was diagnosed late in November, when the only real symptoms were clumsiness and a somewhat husky voice, and died on Valentines Day. Valentines Day has never been the same since.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
Where are OneWeb in this arena these days?
Technically, UK Gov own 10%, as do the French Gov, and UK Gov has a Golden Share.
I'm assuming that the "use for satellite navigation" suggestion from several years ago was BJBS.
Much like that other exemplar of BJBS, brexit, it's theoretically possible but shit in practice.
OW uses Ku Band so you'd need a dish strapped to your head while you're trying to find Wagamama on Google Maps.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
I’m confident Trump won’t win. Musk is autistic and this is a classic obsession phase. He’ll move on.
Yes, I support his businesses. His businesses are - with the exception of Twitter - are good.
Don't fucking well use the 'autistic' excuse. There are millions of autistic people who manage their lives without being a shit. Autism is not an excuse - and I doubt he is autistic anyway.
He's a shit. Plain and simple.
And in the meantime, the damage he is doing is massive. There are people who swallow his shit and will continue believing it even *if* he moves on.
I’m not making an excuse. And don’t lecture me about autism. We have autism in our family. My wife is autistic. My eldest is autistic. Several nephews are autistic. BTW “I doubt he/she is autistic” is basically calling neurodivergent people liars, fakes, shills. You don’t like him. I don’t like him much either. But park your abuse about autism. He IS displaying a classic autistic obsession. He’s gone postal, but extreme focus on something is typical neurodivergent behaviour.
You are not the only person who knows autistic people, or has autistic people in their families.
I am not calling neurodivergent people liars, fakes, shills: I'm saying there's little evidence that he is neurodivergent aside from his own word. And he is a notorious liar.
His behaviour could equally be explained by him being drugged up most of the time.
*You* are the one abusing autistics by excusing his poor behaviour as a result of autism.
I'm in two minds, and that's how I read it at first, and I, like you was offended, but Rochdale has subsequently pointed out the notion that Musk's obsessional behaviour is symptomatic of ASD, which is relevant. Musk could be obsessed with steam trains, video games, electric cars or rocket propulsion which is harmless enough, but he is rather more obsessed with being an obnoxious bastard.
On the other hand being brought up in Apartheid South Africa in an entitled family could have as much relevance as ASD.
Musk *is* obsessed by electric cars and rocket propulsion. He’s convinced that unless we find a way to massively change the way we consume resources *and* colonise another planet that we’re in deep shit.
Thing is, he could pivot from “so let’s have electric cars and reuse rockets” to a Hugo Drax “we need to kill everyone and start again” perspective. Which was Josiah’s brilliant observation which started this little row.
I hope for his sake that his case is like my daughters. She was diagnosed late in November, when the only real symptoms were clumsiness and a somewhat husky voice, and died on Valentines Day. Valentines Day has never been the same since.
I want to like the comment but can't like that. So sorry to hear of your loss in that way. You are right though.
My MiL died in 2023 in her sleep. A last glass of whisky, a smoke on the step then off the bed to never wake up. All around me at the moment we have relatives and friends suffering far worse disease progression.
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
This is all true, but nobody wants to pay for strategic autonomy and it's a guaranteed election losing prospectus. If DJT wins then SKS will gargle his nuts to get a bilateral defence agreement if necessary.
There is no bilateral anything with Trump. There is no agreement that can be trusted. There is no guarantee that he won't leverage the same things he's previously promised in order to extract further concessions.
Besides, I don't think opposing that kind of investment is an election-winning prospectus. Being seen as 'weak on defence' has frequently been an election-losing prospectus (in the UK at least).
I'm still watching for some thoughtful commentary on Trump's potential impact on Five Eyes, given that we already know that he regards USA secret information as things that he is entitled to sell for personal gain when he is President, and the Supreme Court to which he manipulated appointments has declared that he will not practically be able to be prosecuted.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
I’m confident Trump won’t win. Musk is autistic and this is a classic obsession phase. He’ll move on.
Yes, I support his businesses. His businesses are - with the exception of Twitter - are good.
Don't fucking well use the 'autistic' excuse. There are millions of autistic people who manage their lives without being a shit. Autism is not an excuse - and I doubt he is autistic anyway.
He's a shit. Plain and simple.
And in the meantime, the damage he is doing is massive. There are people who swallow his shit and will continue believing it even *if* he moves on.
I’m not making an excuse. And don’t lecture me about autism. We have autism in our family. My wife is autistic. My eldest is autistic. Several nephews are autistic. BTW “I doubt he/she is autistic” is basically calling neurodivergent people liars, fakes, shills. You don’t like him. I don’t like him much either. But park your abuse about autism. He IS displaying a classic autistic obsession. He’s gone postal, but extreme focus on something is typical neurodivergent behaviour.
You are not the only person who knows autistic people, or has autistic people in their families.
I am not calling neurodivergent people liars, fakes, shills: I'm saying there's little evidence that he is neurodivergent aside from his own word. And he is a notorious liar.
His behaviour could equally be explained by him being drugged up most of the time.
*You* are the one abusing autistics by excusing his poor behaviour as a result of autism.
I'm in two minds, and that's how I read it at first, and I, like you was offended, but Rochdale has subsequently pointed out the notion that Musk's obsessional behaviour is symptomatic of ASD, which is relevant. Musk could be obsessed with steam trains, video games, electric cars or rocket propulsion which is harmless enough, but he is rather more obsessed with being an obnoxious bastard.
On the other hand being brought up in Apartheid South Africa in an entitled family could have as much relevance as ASD.
Musk *is* obsessed by electric cars and rocket propulsion. He’s convinced that unless we find a way to massively change the way we consume resources *and* colonise another planet that we’re in deep shit.
Thing is, he could pivot from “so let’s have electric cars and reuse rockets” to a Hugo Drax “we need to kill everyone and start again” perspective. Which was Josiah’s brilliant observation which started this little row.
Can we all agree on his status as an anus?
How very dare you. Jessop is one of our finest and most senior posters😂
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
I’m confident Trump won’t win. Musk is autistic and this is a classic obsession phase. He’ll move on.
Yes, I support his businesses. His businesses are - with the exception of Twitter - are good.
I hope for his sake that his case is like my daughters. She was diagnosed late in November, when the only real symptoms were clumsiness and a somewhat husky voice, and died on Valentines Day. Valentines Day has never been the same since.
I want to like the comment but can't like that. So sorry to hear of your loss in that way. You are right though.
My MiL died in 2023 in her sleep. A last glass of whisky, a smoke on the step then off the bed to never wake up. All around me at the moment we have relatives and friends suffering far worse disease progression.
Know what you mean. And thanks. Daughters daughter now, 10 years later, volunteers for the MND Society and sees people travelling a horrible road VERY SLOWLY.
I see I am going to have to extend the remit of my support beyond Donald J and encompass Elon Musk also. Apart from people on here having multiple and serial conniption fits about him, I just saw the clip of him on Twitter saying how, rather than donating to Trump, he wanted to ensure that there are free and fair elections and that people are enabled to vote.
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
This is all true, but nobody wants to pay for strategic autonomy and it's a guaranteed election losing prospectus. If DJT wins then SKS will gargle his nuts to get a bilateral defence agreement if necessary.
There is no bilateral anything with Trump. There is no agreement that can be trusted. There is no guarantee that he won't leverage the same things he's previously promised in order to extract further concessions.
Besides, I don't think opposing that kind of investment is an election-winning prospectus. Being seen as 'weak on defence' has frequently been an election-losing prospectus (in the UK at least).
I'm still watching for some thoughtful commentary on Trump's potential impact on Five Eyes, given that we already know that he regards USA secret information as things that he is entitled to sell for personal gain when he is President, and the Supreme Court to which he manipulated appointments has declared that he will not practically be able to be prosecuted.
Thank God for the 22nd amendment. My hope is people will mislead, disobey and ignore him as necessary while running the clock down to 2028.
I see I am going to have to extend the remit of my support beyond Donald J and encompass Elon Musk also. Apart from people on here having multiple and serial conniption fits about him, I just saw the clip of him on Twitter saying how, rather than donating to Trump, he wanted to ensure that there are free and fair elections and that people are enabled to vote.
The bastard.
Lots of people say that. By his actions (and his algorithms) should he be judged.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
Where are OneWeb in this arena these days?
Technically, UK Gov own 10%, as do the French Gov, and UK Gov has a Golden Share.
I'm assuming that the "use for satellite navigation" suggestion from several years ago was BJBS.
I'm not sure it was ever given as a motive by the government.
From memory, the Guardian interviewed a scientist, asking if it was possible to use them as such (because Gallileo was in the news due to Brexit) then wrote it up as a "Stupid Brexit Britain bought the wrong satellites" story, which of course Centrist Dad twitter loved.
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
This is all true, but nobody wants to pay for strategic autonomy and it's a guaranteed election losing prospectus. If DJT wins then SKS will gargle his nuts to get a bilateral defence agreement if necessary.
There is no bilateral anything with Trump. There is no agreement that can be trusted. There is no guarantee that he won't leverage the same things he's previously promised in order to extract further concessions.
Besides, I don't think opposing that kind of investment is an election-winning prospectus. Being seen as 'weak on defence' has frequently been an election-losing prospectus (in the UK at least).
I'm still watching for some thoughtful commentary on Trump's potential impact on Five Eyes, given that we already know that he regards USA secret information as things that he is entitled to sell for personal gain when he is President, and the Supreme Court to which he manipulated appointments has declared that he will not practically be able to be prosecuted.
Thank God for the 22nd amendment. My hope is people will mislead, disobey and ignore him as necessary while running the clock down to 2028.
The 22nd Amendment is not the safeguard a lot of people think it is, particularly with this Supreme Court. There are ways round it.
The problem is that the minority are very vocal and determined. And rapidly discover ways to slow things down in The Process.
There's a couple of (Tories) in my apartment block who are agitating to get the Residents Association to come out against the Cambs-Oxon rail project "because it will increase the number of trains that come along the line".
YOU BOUGHT A FLAT PRACTICALLY NEXT TO THE RAILWAY STATION ADJACENT TO THE RAIL LINE YOU NUMPTY.
NIMBYism definitely crosses party boundaries.
There are people around here who move into villages and then object to bell ringing and the movement of livestock along and across roads.
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
This is all true, but nobody wants to pay for strategic autonomy and it's a guaranteed election losing prospectus. If DJT wins then SKS will gargle his nuts to get a bilateral defence agreement if necessary.
There is no bilateral anything with Trump. There is no agreement that can be trusted. There is no guarantee that he won't leverage the same things he's previously promised in order to extract further concessions.
Besides, I don't think opposing that kind of investment is an election-winning prospectus. Being seen as 'weak on defence' has frequently been an election-losing prospectus (in the UK at least).
I'm still watching for some thoughtful commentary on Trump's potential impact on Five Eyes, given that we already know that he regards USA secret information as things that he is entitled to sell for personal gain when he is President, and the Supreme Court to which he manipulated appointments has declared that he will not practically be able to be prosecuted.
Thank God for the 22nd amendment. My hope is people will mislead, disobey and ignore him as necessary while running the clock down to 2028.
The 22nd Amendment is not the safeguard a lot of people think it is, particularly with this Supreme Court. There are ways round it.
Is there anything to prevent, say, Trump running as VP on a ticket after completing a second term and then serving as president when the president steps down?
Russia's term limits have not proved too much of a difficulty to Putin.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
Where are OneWeb in this arena these days?
Technically, UK Gov own 10%, as do the French Gov, and UK Gov has a Golden Share.
I'm assuming that the "use for satellite navigation" suggestion from several years ago was BJBS.
I'm not sure it was ever given as a motive by the government.
From memory, the Guardian interviewed a scientist, asking if it was possible to use them as such (because Gallileo was in the news due to Brexit) then wrote it up as a "Stupid Brexit Britain bought the wrong satellites" story, which of course Centrist Dad twitter loved.
Sounds like a nice CGT windfall for Reeves. Winners all round!
Nah, he will buy the First Lady some fancy knickers and an exemption applying to his case will coincidentally crop up in the budget. You have a lot to learn about life in a banana republic.
Appearance of corruption was Robert Jenrick I think.
In personal communication with Richard Desmond re: a planning decision, then used his Housing Minister position to approve the Planning Permission on Westferry, which would have helped Desmond avoid £45m in tax - payable to Tower Hamlets if it had been approved one day later.
Then 2 weeks later accepted a donation from Desmond of £12k.
I'd be interested to know the outcome re whether the action was lawful given the communication.
If they elect him, they deserve everything they get.
For sure Jenrick is horrific. But "less corrupt than Robert Jenrick" doesn't sell a PM to me any more than "less paedophilic than Jimmy Savile" sells a babysitter.
That comparison seems to me only to have meaning if you can show in some way that the current PM is in some way corrupt, so that is the choice to be made. Otherwise it is rhetoric.
Can you demonstrate that?
I regard gifts to politicians, of clothes or wallpaper, as corruption. If this were a local businessman bunging a local councillor I would hope and expect the pair would go to prison.
Can you comment further on that - I think that line may be in the wrong place enough to obscure the real problem, has no role for transparency aka Registration of Interests, and ignores that the key feature of corruption is a payback for the 'donor'.
So at one end Ed Davey not paying an entry fee to the water park where he did his Election Stunt, or an MP getting Guest Entry to a football match Lower-Twistleton-Under-Piddle FC where the ticket costs £2 is corruption, even if declared.
Further along the 'gift' scale we have Mrs Starmer's dress paid for by the donor, David Cameron's purchase of a £3500 suit for a discounted £1100 *, or Samantha Cameron's wearing of a £1500 dress which she did not buy with a benefit of either the gift or the use for one evening. She is on record as saying she did not have disposable income for designer clothes. **
Compare to Jenrick who attempted to give a payback to Desmond worth £45m, when receiving a donation.
Where's the quid pro quo payback for the donors in the other cases? What do you see the role of a Register of Interests to be?
About every week the US public hear about a mass-shooting in a school, a mall, a parking lot, a city festival. Why would they be impressed by a reported assassination attempt that seems to be a deranged right-winger with a gun apprehended over 400 yards away from Trump. It happened to Biden earlier this year and also last year. If you legalise assault weapons for the mentally ill then this is what happens
The problem is that the minority are very vocal and determined. And rapidly discover ways to slow things down in The Process.
There's a couple of (Tories) in my apartment block who are agitating to get the Residents Association to come out against the Cambs-Oxon rail project "because it will increase the number of trains that come along the line".
YOU BOUGHT A FLAT PRACTICALLY NEXT TO THE RAILWAY STATION ADJACENT TO THE RAIL LINE YOU NUMPTY.
NIMBYism definitely crosses party boundaries.
There are people around here who move into villages and then object to bell ringing and the movement of livestock along and across roads.
There was a popular 250 or thereabouts year old pub locally next to which, about fifteen years ago, someone built a house. He then complained of the noise from the pub, particularly on Saturday nights.
I see I am going to have to extend the remit of my support beyond Donald J and encompass Elon Musk also. Apart from people on here having multiple and serial conniption fits about him, I just saw the clip of him on Twitter saying how, rather than donating to Trump, he wanted to ensure that there are free and fair elections and that people are enabled to vote.
The bastard.
Are you 100% sure that Musk's record on supporting democratic elections and opposing the attempted insurrection on 6th January is as entire as it needs to be for anyone claiming to be just helping out the democratic process.
Are you 100% sure Musk will accept the result in November?
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
This is all true, but nobody wants to pay for strategic autonomy and it's a guaranteed election losing prospectus. If DJT wins then SKS will gargle his nuts to get a bilateral defence agreement if necessary.
There is no bilateral anything with Trump. There is no agreement that can be trusted. There is no guarantee that he won't leverage the same things he's previously promised in order to extract further concessions.
Besides, I don't think opposing that kind of investment is an election-winning prospectus. Being seen as 'weak on defence' has frequently been an election-losing prospectus (in the UK at least).
I'm still watching for some thoughtful commentary on Trump's potential impact on Five Eyes, given that we already know that he regards USA secret information as things that he is entitled to sell for personal gain when he is President, and the Supreme Court to which he manipulated appointments has declared that he will not practically be able to be prosecuted.
Thank God for the 22nd amendment. My hope is people will mislead, disobey and ignore him as necessary while running the clock down to 2028.
The 22nd Amendment is not the safeguard a lot of people think it is, particularly with this Supreme Court. There are ways round it.
If they are stupid enough to elect him this November they'll not get him out of Oval Office. He'll engineer a way around the two terms limit. He will be organizing to achieve that from day one.
Meanwhile LD leader Sir Ed Davey joins former Conservative PM Boris Johnson and Defence Secretaries Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps in urging Starmer, Biden and other NATO leaders to allow Ukraine to send Storm Shadow missiles into Russia
They can urge what they want but it's up to Biden and the gang at Foggy Bottom, not SKS.
European (including UK) reliance on US infrastructure for essential national security is something that should be concentrating minds across the continent - and indeed, should have been for the last decade, at least.
It should be clear that Europe cannot rely even on Democrat administrations to hold the line, never mind Republican ones. And with the US understandably increasingly concerned about Eastern Asia and the Pacific, that's not entirely unreasonable. Europe would need to up its self-reliance even without the outbreak of Trumpite insanity within the Republicans.
But the extent of European reliance on US satellite and intelligence data, and military hardware (the two often being interlinked) should be unacceptable. It's an obvious Trump power lever, for one thing; one he will be willing to pull for his own ends if he actually understands its effectiveness (which is merely a matter of his own and his team's curiosity).
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
To replicate Starshield/starlink looks like lots of tens of billions of quid. The control Musk and Trump are going to have over the world if things go wrong in November is frightening even if you consider both of them sane.
I have been a massive space fan for decades. I loved SpaceX before many of the 'fans' had ever heard of them.
Now, I don't care for them. Not because they've made what they do 'boring' - which is genuinely a brilliantly tremendous achievement, but because supporting SpaceX under Musk's leadership is like supporting Drax Industries under Hugo Drax.
Musk is a bigger threat to democracy and the US than even Trump.
Oh that’s brilliant. Musk as Hugo Drax. Sending out his constellation of satellites with his private space launching business to bring death / the internet to the globe.
Musk is an anus. Increasingly. But I love Tesla. Love Space X. Love Starlink. Making it all about him is absolutely what he would like. Let’s not do so.
Musk has got himself pretty much total control over both SpaceX and Tesla. In the latter's case, by putting loads of friends and family on the board.
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I’m not trying to divorce him from them. He is integral to their success. The bit I am divorcing is him the alt- right gobshite and him the CEO visionary. What do I gain if I bin Starlink because he has gone mad? Much slower internet?
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
You cannot divorce the 'alt- right gobshite' and the 'CEO visionary'. They are one and the same.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
I’m confident Trump won’t win. Musk is autistic and this is a classic obsession phase. He’ll move on.
Yes, I support his businesses. His businesses are - with the exception of Twitter - are good.
Don't fucking well use the 'autistic' excuse. There are millions of autistic people who manage their lives without being a shit. Autism is not an excuse - and I doubt he is autistic anyway.
He's a shit. Plain and simple.
And in the meantime, the damage he is doing is massive. There are people who swallow his shit and will continue believing it even *if* he moves on.
Obviously, the remedy to that will be extremely expensive and means replicating many of the US systems, including manufacturing. It also means the diplomatic difficulty of telling the US that Europe doesn't trust it. It also means military and political co-operation across Europe that will be difficult in current circumstances. None of those are reasons for not doing it, other than to craven politicians who prefer burying their heads in the sand to protecting their countries. I hope, behind the scenes, it's already happening.
This is all true, but nobody wants to pay for strategic autonomy and it's a guaranteed election losing prospectus. If DJT wins then SKS will gargle his nuts to get a bilateral defence agreement if necessary.
There is no bilateral anything with Trump. There is no agreement that can be trusted. There is no guarantee that he won't leverage the same things he's previously promised in order to extract further concessions.
Besides, I don't think opposing that kind of investment is an election-winning prospectus. Being seen as 'weak on defence' has frequently been an election-losing prospectus (in the UK at least).
I'm still watching for some thoughtful commentary on Trump's potential impact on Five Eyes, given that we already know that he regards USA secret information as things that he is entitled to sell for personal gain when he is President, and the Supreme Court to which he manipulated appointments has declared that he will not practically be able to be prosecuted.
Thank God for the 22nd amendment. My hope is people will mislead, disobey and ignore him as necessary while running the clock down to 2028.
The 22nd Amendment is not the safeguard a lot of people think it is, particularly with this Supreme Court. There are ways round it.
Is there anything to prevent, say, Trump running as VP on a ticket after completing a second term and then serving as president when the president steps down?
Russia's term limits have not proved too much of a difficulty to Putin.
Yes. I think there's a rule that says you cannot be Vice-President if you are not eligible to be President.
I'm pretty unmoved by it too. We're as we were. He's alive and losing.
More to the point, it would be potentially disastrous for the Democrats, and indeed the US, if he were to be shot. He needs to be squarely defeated at the ballot box.
Sounds like a nice CGT windfall for Reeves. Winners all round!
Nah, he will buy the First Lady some fancy knickers and an exemption applying to his case will coincidentally crop up in the budget. You have a lot to learn about life in a banana republic.
Appearance of corruption was Robert Jenrick I think.
In personal communication with Richard Desmond re: a planning decision, then used his Housing Minister position to approve the Planning Permission on Westferry, which would have helped Desmond avoid £45m in tax - payable to Tower Hamlets if it had been approved one day later.
Then 2 weeks later accepted a donation from Desmond of £12k.
I'd be interested to know the outcome re whether the action was lawful given the communication.
If they elect him, they deserve everything they get.
For sure Jenrick is horrific. But "less corrupt than Robert Jenrick" doesn't sell a PM to me any more than "less paedophilic than Jimmy Savile" sells a babysitter.
That comparison seems to me only to have meaning if you can show in some way that the current PM is in some way corrupt, so that is the choice to be made. Otherwise it is rhetoric.
Can you demonstrate that?
I regard gifts to politicians, of clothes or wallpaper, as corruption. If this were a local businessman bunging a local councillor I would hope and expect the pair would go to prison.
Can you comment further on that - I think that line may be in the wrong place enough to obscure the real problem, has no role for transparency aka Registration of Interests, and ignores that the key feature of corruption is a payback for the 'donor'.
So at one end Ed Davey not paying an entry fee to the water park where he did his Election Stunt, or an MP getting Guest Entry to a football match Lower-Twistleton-Under-Piddle FC where the ticket costs £2 is corruption, even if declared.
Further along the 'gift' scale we have Mrs Starmer's dress paid for by the donor, David Cameron's purchase of a £3500 suit for a discounted £1100 *, or Samantha Cameron's wearing of a £1500 dress which she did not buy with a benefit of either the gift or the use for one evening. She is on record as saying she did not have disposable income for designer clothes. **
Compare to Jenrick who attempted to give a payback to Desmond worth £45m, when receiving a donation.
Where's the quid pro quo payback for the donors in the other cases? What do you see the role of a Register of Interests to be?
I recall, when an NHS employee in a position to have some small influence, being taken out for a lunch by a rep, and to his obvious annoyance, refusing any alcohol. As far as I was concerned, it was quite a light lunch, too.
The problem is that the minority are very vocal and determined. And rapidly discover ways to slow things down in The Process.
There's a couple of (Tories) in my apartment block who are agitating to get the Residents Association to come out against the Cambs-Oxon rail project "because it will increase the number of trains that come along the line".
YOU BOUGHT A FLAT PRACTICALLY NEXT TO THE RAILWAY STATION ADJACENT TO THE RAIL LINE YOU NUMPTY.
NIMBYism definitely crosses party boundaries.
There are people around here who move into villages and then object to bell ringing and the movement of livestock along and across roads.
There was a popular 250 or thereabouts year old pub locally next to which, about fifteen years ago, someone built a house. He then complained of the noise from the pub, particularly on Saturday nights.
It’s a huge problem with noisy hobbies. Almost every small local airfield or motorsports venue has a constant nightmare with local residents campaigning to get them shut down.
Venues that have been doing their activities for many decades, and often residents of more recent appearance in the area.
Sorry Mr & Mrs Newbie, did your property searches manage to totally miss that airport half a mile away from your new house?
Sounds like a nice CGT windfall for Reeves. Winners all round!
Nah, he will buy the First Lady some fancy knickers and an exemption applying to his case will coincidentally crop up in the budget. You have a lot to learn about life in a banana republic.
Appearance of corruption was Robert Jenrick I think.
In personal communication with Richard Desmond re: a planning decision, then used his Housing Minister position to approve the Planning Permission on Westferry, which would have helped Desmond avoid £45m in tax - payable to Tower Hamlets if it had been approved one day later.
Then 2 weeks later accepted a donation from Desmond of £12k.
I'd be interested to know the outcome re whether the action was lawful given the communication.
If they elect him, they deserve everything they get.
For sure Jenrick is horrific. But "less corrupt than Robert Jenrick" doesn't sell a PM to me any more than "less paedophilic than Jimmy Savile" sells a babysitter.
That comparison seems to me only to have meaning if you can show in some way that the current PM is in some way corrupt, so that is the choice to be made. Otherwise it is rhetoric.
Can you demonstrate that?
I regard gifts to politicians, of clothes or wallpaper, as corruption. If this were a local businessman bunging a local councillor I would hope and expect the pair would go to prison.
Can you comment further on that - I think that line may be in the wrong place enough to obscure the real problem, has no role for transparency aka Registration of Interests, and ignores that the key feature of corruption is a payback for the 'donor'.
So at one end Ed Davey not paying an entry fee to the water park where he did his Election Stunt, or an MP getting Guest Entry to a football match Lower-Twistleton-Under-Piddle FC where the ticket costs £2 is corruption, even if declared.
Further along the 'gift' scale we have Mrs Starmer's dress paid for by the donor, David Cameron's purchase of a £3500 suit for a discounted £1100 *, or Samantha Cameron's wearing of a £1500 dress which she did not buy with a benefit of either the gift or the use for one evening. She is on record as saying she did not have disposable income for designer clothes. **
Compare to Jenrick who attempted to give a payback to Desmond worth £45m, when receiving a donation.
Where's the quid pro quo payback for the donors in the other cases? What do you see the role of a Register of Interests to be?
I think humanity ticks along on the basis of reciprocal obligations. If you buy someone a drink you expect to get one back, and so on. A politician has no business accepting gifts with an intention to reciprocate and doesn't look too good accepting them with no such intention. Have both a register of interests and a cash value upper limit of £200.
I accept that some instances are more egregious than others. I am happy to accuse Starmer of greed and bad judgement but not actually corruption if that helps.
The problem is that the minority are very vocal and determined. And rapidly discover ways to slow things down in The Process.
There's a couple of (Tories) in my apartment block who are agitating to get the Residents Association to come out against the Cambs-Oxon rail project "because it will increase the number of trains that come along the line".
YOU BOUGHT A FLAT PRACTICALLY NEXT TO THE RAILWAY STATION ADJACENT TO THE RAIL LINE YOU NUMPTY.
NIMBYism definitely crosses party boundaries.
There are people around here who move into villages and then object to bell ringing and the movement of livestock along and across roads.
There was a popular 250 or thereabouts year old pub locally next to which, about fifteen years ago, someone built a house. He then complained of the noise from the pub, particularly on Saturday nights.
It’s a huge problem with noisy hobbies. Almost every small local airfield or motorsports venue has a constant nightmare with local residents campaigning to get them shut down.
Venues that have been doing their activities for many decades, and often residents of more recent appearance in the area.
Sorry Mr & Mrs Newbie, did your property searches manage to totally miss that airport half a mile away from your new house?
I had a little house opposite the Royal Standard in Wandsworth. It was key to selling it that viewings were not permitted on rugby international Saturdays.
Comments
This graph has the absolute numbers going down during Trump's presidency:
https://www.kff.org/affordable-care-act/state-indicator/marketplace-enrollment/?activeTab=graph&currentTimeframe=0&startTimeframe=10&selectedRows={"wrapups":{"united-states":{}}}&sortModel={"colId":"Location","sort":"asc"}
Here's what Vance actually said:
Well, first of all, Kristen, let's back up a little bit to 2017, 2018 when Obamacare was actually collapsing under the weight of the regulatory burdens, and collapsing under the weight of lack of funding. And Donald Trump had two choices. He could've destroyed the program, or he could actually build upon it and make it better so that Americans didn't lose a lot of health care. He chose to build upon a plan even though it came from his Democratic predecessor.
(...snip...)
KRISTEN WELKER:
Senator, you mention Obamacare. Twenty million people are currently getting their health care through Obamacare. I guess the question is, and you're laying out some benchmarks here, but why should voters believe that a plan is forthcoming when you've heard Donald Trump say so many times in the past that he's going to be putting forward a plan, that still hasn't happened yet?
SEN. JD VANCE:
Well, because Donald Trump actually governed, Kristen, for four years, and he actually protected those 20 million Americans from losing their health coverage. He actually protected a lot more additional Americans from losing their health coverage. And he actually ensured that a lot of people were able to access coverage for the first time. I mean, members of my own family, for example, got health care for the first time under Donald Trump's administration. So we actually have a real record to run on. He of course does have a plan for how to fix American health care, but a lot of it goes down, Kristen, to deregulating the insurance market so that people can choose a plan that actually makes sense for them
It does sound like a lot of bullshit to me
Well I finally did some research and it seems that it never existed when we had rates. The poll tax introduced a massive reduction if you were a single person living in a property so when the council tax arrived to get it through a compromise discount of 25% was introduced so single people did not loss all the benefit they got from the council tax.
Hence why Labour are being so careful they don't want to promise something if council tax is changing to something else..
Will Betfair let me lay him (for a liability less than my prospective winnings) without putting new money in?
You cannot divorce SpaceX and Tesla from Musk, however much you may want to. They are his personal feifdoms.
I need to finish my header on this. But the manipulations of Process, by all the differing parties produce an unspoken, effective compromise. An equilibrium.
This election will be over in a few weeks. Trump will lose, Musk loses the business opportunity of him being president, he moves on to the next obsession.
Yes I know those numbers are for 301 and 201.
Just all seems incredibly convenient given the polling and the dire week he had last week.
I also fear you're being a trifle optimistic if you think Musk will move onto another obsession if/when Trump loses. And what if Trump wins, enabling Musk all the more?
If you support SpaceX and Tesla, you are supporting Musk - and all that that means, good and increasingly bad.
YOU BOUGHT A FLAT PRACTICALLY NEXT TO THE RAILWAY STATION ADJACENT TO THE RAIL LINE YOU NUMPTY.
NIMBYism definitely crosses party boundaries.
No money needed because your exposure has actually gone down. It was £5, now it's nil.
Wallet stays in pocket. Result.
Europe has some serious tech capabilities, particularly in precision manufacturing.
But it (and that includes the UK) has fallen well behind in semiconductor manufacturing and space launch capabilities, and simply doesn't have anything to compare with the US venture capital industry for creating new industries (which the Draghi report comprehensively acknowledges).
https://commission.europa.eu/topics/strengthening-european-competitiveness/eu-competitiveness-looking-ahead_en
His original CityGuide business with his brother was a good idea, well executed at the time. Everything else he's done involved people effectively paying him to go away.
However, I fully accept that there other perspectives on this man.
I am glad to hear that @realDonaldTrump is safe and unharmed. My best wishes to him and his family. It’s good that the suspect in the assassination attempt was apprehended quickly. This is our principle: the rule of law is paramount and political violence has no place anywhere in the world. We sincerely hope that everyone remains safe.
https://x.com/ellim992/status/1835467132819357744
The statement from City Officials in Springfield
- And which news outlets need to issue a correction:
"the total immigrant population is estimated to be approximately 12,000 - 15,000 in Clark County"...
...Clark County, Ohio has 136,000 people. The city estimates 9-11% of the county is foreign-born.
For context, 14.3% of the U.S. population is foreign-born, and 52% are naturalized citizens.
The Clark County, Ohio foreign-born population is [probably] lower than the national average..
Note that Senator Vance has done fuck all about that request for Federal assistance.
He needs to be squarely defeated at the ballot box.
Yes, I support his businesses. His businesses are - with the exception of Twitter - are good.
The investments needed for greater strategic autonomy are to a great extent the same ones needed to make Europe more competitive economically.
It either does that, or resigns itself to become a tourist destination which survives on producing Veblen goods.
Putin, perhaps.
He's a shit. Plain and simple.
And in the meantime, the damage he is doing is massive. There are people who swallow his shit and will continue believing it even *if* he moves on.
https://www.vox.com/politics/360521/trump-shooting-polls-political-impact-2024-election-election
(About the July shooting). I think a good rule of thumb is that most things don't matter that much, and that Trump gets diminishing returns the more often it happens.
ETA: And for some other replies regarding third party, that wasn't really a concern (as it is indeed included in home insurance, I think). I bought the bike insurance to insure against loss of the bike in theft or accident, which wasn't covered adequately by my home insurance, without add-on that would have cost more. The 3rd party cover was chucked in with the bike insurance, I didn't specify it.
That’s the vehicles, launch site, towers, engine development, the lot.
So for less than 0.1% of the government budget of the U.K., we could do this.
There is no magic.
Well apart from the fact that BAe or similar would charge between 20 Billion and infinity per year to do it.
As Neville Shute Norway* (aka Neville Shute) said - “a good engineer is someone who can do for a shilling what any fool can do for a pound.”
*A great British aerospace engineer, in addition to his novels. Deputy designer on R101, then founded a very successful aviation company. Among his contributions, was convincing RJ Mitchell that retracting undercarriage on aircraft was a good idea. Next time you see a Spitfire, think about that.
[I'm sure I remember this at the time - and also it being falsifiable in about 2 minutes - but it seems so improbable now I wonder whether it was apocryphal. Possibly the relevant discussion on pb could be unearthed. But actually the point is that Gordon Brown and his cronies were so tribal, so convinced in their own narrative that they were the good guys and the Tories were the bad guys, that they could justify anything they did to stay in power as being 'good'.)
As for us developing such a thing in the UK: there are many issues aside from politics; technically, geographically, industrially, and personnel-wise.
And yes it is the word that cannot be posted.
I am not calling neurodivergent people liars, fakes, shills: I'm saying there's little evidence that he is neurodivergent aside from his own word. And he is a notorious liar.
His behaviour could equally be explained by him being drugged up most of the time.
*You* are the one abusing autistics by excusing his poor behaviour as a result of autism.
It's clumsy, but I can see your point.
Technically, UK Gov own 10%, as do the French Gov, and UK Gov has a Golden Share.
I'm assuming that the "use for satellite navigation" suggestion from several years ago was BJBS.
Actually doing so wouldn't be all that difficult.
Obsessions don’t always stick, which is why I am hopeful that he will have his head turned and stop being a massive tosser
David ‘Syd’ Lawrence on living with MND: I am on the Titanic and the iceberg is coming
He once bowled for England at over 90mph and took Viv Richards’ final wicket but now ‘Syd’ is battling the most debilitating of diseases
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2024/09/16/david-syd-lawrence-living-with-mnd-titanic-iceberg-coming/
On the other hand being brought up in Apartheid South Africa in an entitled family could have as much relevance as ASD.
"Satellite communications company OneWeb unveiled a new positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) service amid global concerns about GPS vulnerability to jamming and interference in critical sectors such as defense, aviation and emergency services."
https://spacenews.com/oneweb-launches-alternative-navigation-service-amid-gps-vulnerability-concerns/
Besides, I don't think opposing that kind of investment is an election-winning prospectus. Being seen as 'weak on defence' has frequently been an election-losing prospectus (in the UK at least).
Valentines Day has never been the same since.
OW uses Ku Band so you'd need a dish strapped to your head while you're trying to find Wagamama on Google Maps.
Thing is, he could pivot from “so let’s have electric cars and reuse rockets” to a Hugo Drax “we need to kill everyone and start again” perspective. Which was Josiah’s brilliant observation which started this little row.
Can we all agree on his status as an anus?
My MiL died in 2023 in her sleep. A last glass of whisky, a smoke on the step then off the bed to never wake up. All around me at the moment we have relatives and friends suffering far worse disease progression.
The Secret Service probably had a quiet word.
https://x.com/mattyglesias/status/1835500381075309051
Daughters daughter now, 10 years later, volunteers for the MND Society and sees people travelling a horrible road VERY SLOWLY.
The bastard.
From memory, the Guardian interviewed a scientist, asking if it was possible to use them as such (because Gallileo was in the news due to Brexit) then wrote it up as a "Stupid Brexit Britain bought the wrong satellites" story, which of course Centrist Dad twitter loved.
Russia's term limits have not proved too much of a difficulty to Putin.
Gov press release:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-government-to-acquire-cutting-edge-satellite-network
Guardian spasm:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jun/26/satellite-experts-oneweb-investment-uk-galileo-brexit
His lawyer says he has mental health issues and is very sorry.
So at one end Ed Davey not paying an entry fee to the water park where he did his Election Stunt, or an MP getting Guest Entry to a football match Lower-Twistleton-Under-Piddle FC where the ticket costs £2 is corruption, even if declared.
Further along the 'gift' scale we have Mrs Starmer's dress paid for by the donor, David Cameron's purchase of a £3500 suit for a discounted £1100 *, or Samantha Cameron's wearing of a £1500 dress which she did not buy with a benefit of either the gift or the use for one evening. She is on record as saying she did not have disposable income for designer clothes. **
Compare to Jenrick who attempted to give a payback to Desmond worth £45m, when receiving a donation.
Where's the quid pro quo payback for the donors in the other cases?
What do you see the role of a Register of Interests to be?
* https://archive.ph/6dvOz
** https://archive.ph/PhJvj
The other side of "game change weapons". Game changing weapons that went phut.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWE1h0GA5fk
is as entire as it needs to be for anyone claiming to be just helping out the democratic process.
Are you 100% sure Musk will accept the result in November?
Venues that have been doing their activities for many decades, and often residents of more recent appearance in the area.
Sorry Mr & Mrs Newbie, did your property searches manage to totally miss that airport half a mile away from your new house?
I accept that some instances are more egregious than others. I am happy to accuse Starmer of greed and bad judgement but not actually corruption if that helps.