I had a fascinating discussion with a journo friend tiday whi says he has personally verified some "interesting" new articles and videos that have started to emerge about Elon Musk'background. When I coined the name "Musk Von Braun" to describe him, after the Nazi-salute-or-not incident a couple of days back, I thought it was just a flight of fancy.
Astonishingly, Von Braun seems to have written a book in 1952 called "The Mars Project", which envisions a colony on Mars run by a benevolent dictator, and a society that mainly values and cherishes engineers. The colony is underground, and based on tunnelling and boring technology.
The enlightened dictator in the book is called The Elon. According to my friend, Erroll Musk already mentioned several years ago that as a child growing up he was fascinated by this book, and named his son after the central character. If true, this explains a lot.
That's a very passive view you have of the rest of the world and it doesn't answer my question. Why would domestic US manufacturers not benefit?
How do they benefit when reciprocal tariffs make their goods harder to export, and Trump also cuts subsidies to their businesses? If you want to catch up with Chinese manufacturers that's not going to help at all. They will also be losing quite a lot of potential business due to federal action as well, as the US government is redefining regulations to exclude solar, and wind.
I had a fascinating discussion with a journo friend tiday whi says he has personally verified some "interesting" new articles and videos that have started to emerge about Elon Musk'background. When I coined the name "Musk Von Braun" to describe him, after the Nazi-salute-or-not incident a couple of days back, I thought it was just a flight of fancy.
Astonishingly, Von Braun seems to have written a book in 1952 called "The Mars Project", which envisions a colony on Mars run by a benevolent dictator, and a society that mainly values and cherishes engineers. The colony is underground, and based on tunnelling and boring technology.
The enlightened dictator in the book is called The Elon. According to my friend, Erroll Musk already mentioned several years ago that as a child growing up he was fascinated by this book, and named his son after the central character. If true, this explains a lot.
That's a very passive view you have of the rest of the world and it doesn't answer my question. Why would domestic US manufacturers not benefit?
How do they benefit when reciprocal tariffs make their goods harder to export, and Trump also cuts subsidies to their businesses? If you want to catch up with Chinese manufacturers that's not going to help at all. They will also be losing quite a lot of potential business due to federal action as well, as the US government is redefining regulations to exclude solar, and wind.
Do you not realise that their domestic market is rather rich and large? They stand a lot to gain regardless of their market share in Timbuktu.
This seems to be a growing threat to what is our essential infrastructure.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqjv7qgpw28o The Royal Navy has been monitoring a Russian spy ship after it was spotted around UK waters earlier this week, the defence secretary has told MPs. John Healey said the vessel, Yantar, was used for gathering intelligence and mapping the UK's critical underwater infrastructure. He said the incident was "another example of growing Russian aggression". Healey added: "I also wanted President [Vladimir] Putin to hear this message: we see you, we know what you're doing and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country." Russia describes Yantar as an oceanic research vessel and it is operated by the country's Ministry of Defence. Western nations have often tracked the ship operating in European waters and they suspect part of its mission has been to map undersea cables. They also believe Russia has been stepping up this activity since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine...
We need to stop pissing about on this before it gets out of hand. Erdogan got it right with the Russian jets in 2015; we know what to do:
Really? So do the Russians shoot down UK aircraft tootling close to its airspace collecting intelligence? Just not feasible without it actually commiting an actual act of sabotage. There is a reason why the use of a submarine is deeply useful in this situation. The UK being the UK, however, long got rid of the kind of diesel electric sub that would be great for this home waters monitoring and instead is using a vessel costing at least billion and a bit.
There are many sub-threshold methods to harass this kind of boat, electronic, underwater drones, through to good old fashioned hoses. How many of these does the UK have or is willing to use?
That's a very passive view you have of the rest of the world and it doesn't answer my question. Why would domestic US manufacturers not benefit?
How do they benefit when reciprocal tariffs make their goods harder to export, and Trump also cuts subsidies to their businesses? If you want to catch up with Chinese manufacturers that's not going to help at all. They will also be losing quite a lot of potential business due to federal action as well, as the US government is redefining regulations to exclude solar, and wind.
Do you not realise that their domestic market is rather rich and large? They stand a lot to gain regardless of their market share in Timbuktu.
So that's the scale of US ambition now? To dominate the US market and lose the global market to China? I thought Trump was making America great again, not making America a hermit kingdom.
That's a very passive view you have of the rest of the world and it doesn't answer my question. Why would domestic US manufacturers not benefit?
How do they benefit when reciprocal tariffs make their goods harder to export, and Trump also cuts subsidies to their businesses? If you want to catch up with Chinese manufacturers that's not going to help at all. They will also be losing quite a lot of potential business due to federal action as well, as the US government is redefining regulations to exclude solar, and wind.
Do you not realise that their domestic market is rather rich and large? They stand a lot to gain regardless of their market share in Timbuktu.
So that's the scale of US ambition now? To dominate the US market and lose the global market to China? I thought Trump was making America great again, not making America a hermit kingdom.
Wouldn't dominating the US market be a good place to start? You sound very emotional about it for some reason.
"Up to one in 12 in London is an illegal migrant Government ‘must do more on deportations’ as new estimate suggests more than 1m people are illegally living in UK"
- Know the date and time of your death in advance. Say everyone’s would be set at the age of 82. Not a moment earlier or later. Or - As currently, not know until it happens. So you could live to 110 or have a stroke tomorrow?
Sort of on topic
or 3, Choose the date. I vote for 3.
I've chosen mine already: 3 February 2137
My fourth wife is gutted at my passing: we'd been out clubbing the night before and although I was 141 years her senior she still thought me full of vim and vigour.
"Up to one in 12 in London is an illegal migrant Government ‘must do more on deportations’ as new estimate suggests more than 1m people are illegally living in UK"
"Up to one in 12 in London is an illegal migrant Government ‘must do more on deportations’ as new estimate suggests more than 1m people are illegally living in UK"
"Up to one in 12 in London is an illegal migrant Government ‘must do more on deportations’ as new estimate suggests more than 1m people are illegally living in UK"
OK so Cyclefree is against assisted dying and is part of the campaign to kick it into the long grass and kill it.
I have been to meet with my MP, who is on the Committee and is against the Bill, to change her mind.
I don't think the Bill goes far enough and is far too restrictive. Hopefully, once it is passed, its scope can be further expanded by further legislation in the years to come. A progressive ladder not a slippery slope.
In a generation of so, people will look back in amazement that it took so long to give people the right to manage their own death. Just as we now look back in amazement at the time it took to give women the right to vote or gays the righ to marry.
Fingers crossed this bill will pass.
Cyclefree is no part of any campaign, she is expressing her sincerely held views.
I am more than happy to consider pieces from yourself or anyone else who is in favour of this bill for publication on PB.
It is clear that Cyclefree is against assisted dying full stop for her own personal reasons. I suspect she would be against it, whatever the process. It's her own campaign.
A large majority of the population, of all ages and parties, are in favour of assisted dying.
"Three-quarters (75%) of UK adults supported making it lawful for someone to seek assisted dying, while only 14% actively opposed such a change." Opinium.
That might be your opinion but the header is very clearly about the process that is happening around the bill and is on the money,
David Steel's Abortion Act 1967 was brought in using a very similar process as a Private Member's Bill.
Because it is a matter of personal belief, it is very difficult for it to be a Government Bill.
In fact it would be inappropriate for it to be a Government Bill with whipping.
This was the only way to introduce it. The Committee will now examine it to improve it. I hope they take judges out of the process as they have no useful role.
Objections to the process mask objections to the principle.
Take doctors out too. What do they add after all. Make cyanide available in shops. Then anyone can end their life very quickly whenever they want with one bite on a capsule. Charge VAT and there'll be a bit of useful revenue too.
OK so Cyclefree is against assisted dying and is part of the campaign to kick it into the long grass and kill it.
I have been to meet with my MP, who is on the Committee and is against the Bill, to change her mind.
I don't think the Bill goes far enough and is far too restrictive. Hopefully, once it is passed, its scope can be further expanded by further legislation in the years to come. A progressive ladder not a slippery slope.
In a generation of so, people will look back in amazement that it took so long to give people the right to manage their own death. Just as we now look back in amazement at the time it took to give women the right to vote or gays the righ to marry.
Fingers crossed this bill will pass.
Cyclefree is no part of any campaign, she is expressing her sincerely held views.
I am more than happy to consider pieces from yourself or anyone else who is in favour of this bill for publication on PB.
It is clear that Cyclefree is against assisted dying full stop for her own personal reasons. I suspect she would be against it, whatever the process. It's her own campaign.
A large majority of the population, of all ages and parties, are in favour of assisted dying.
"Three-quarters (75%) of UK adults supported making it lawful for someone to seek assisted dying, while only 14% actively opposed such a change." Opinium.
That might be your opinion but the header is very clearly about the process that is happening around the bill and is on the money,
David Steel's Abortion Act 1967 was brought in using a very similar process as a Private Member's Bill.
Because it is a matter of personal belief, it is very difficult for it to be a Government Bill.
In fact it would be inappropriate for it to be a Government Bill with whipping.
This was the only way to introduce it. The Committee will now examine it to improve it. I hope they take judges out of the process as they have no useful role.
Objections to the process mask objections to the principle.
Take doctors out too. What do they add after all. Make cyanide available in shops. Then anyone can end their life very quickly whenever they want with one bite on a capsule. Charge VAT and there'll be a bit of useful revenue too.
It is a point of principle that these matters of conscience are dealt with on free votes like this and its been done for generations. There's nothing wrong with that, as much as you might prefer another process the process used today like that done 58 years prior is perfectly legitimate.
- Know the date and time of your death in advance. Say everyone’s would be set at the age of 82. Not a moment earlier or later. Or - As currently, not know until it happens. So you could live to 110 or have a stroke tomorrow?
Sort of on topic
or 3, Choose the date. I vote for 3.
I've chosen mine already: 3 February 2137
My fourth wife is gutted at my passing: we'd been out clubbing the night before and although I was 141 years her senior she still thought me full of vim and vigour.
Expand Heathrow by selling it RAF Northolt which is across the road. The government gets a big cheque, and there is no net increase in the number of runways.
"across the road" is somewhat of an understatement here...
Indeed. They are 8km apart.
Heathrow and RAF Northolt are both in the London Borough of Hillingdon. Across the road might have been an exaggeration but in airport terms, a slight one.
I’ve not heard that idea before but it has some intriguing logic to it. If you could link the 2 with a high speed underground link, with a sort of “B and C gates” set up in Northolt, then why not. Northolt is pretty underused. The RAF could still use it alongside the private jets.
I still think the right answer is Boris island though. His best idea. Or on land in Cliffe. Then LHR could be sold off for much needed property development.
Who owns LHR? I forget....
Heathrow Airport Holdings Limited is in turn owned by FGP Topco Limited, a consortium owned and led by Ardian (22.61%), Qatar Investment Authority (20.00%), Public Investment Fund (15.01%), GIC (11.20%), Australian Retirement Trust (11.18%), China Investment Corporation (10.00%), Ferrovial S.A. (5.25%), Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) (2.65%), and Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) (2.10%).
"Up to one in 12 in London is an illegal migrant Government ‘must do more on deportations’ as new estimate suggests more than 1m people are illegally living in UK"
OK so Cyclefree is against assisted dying and is part of the campaign to kick it into the long grass and kill it.
I have been to meet with my MP, who is on the Committee and is against the Bill, to change her mind.
I don't think the Bill goes far enough and is far too restrictive. Hopefully, once it is passed, its scope can be further expanded by further legislation in the years to come. A progressive ladder not a slippery slope.
In a generation of so, people will look back in amazement that it took so long to give people the right to manage their own death. Just as we now look back in amazement at the time it took to give women the right to vote or gays the righ to marry.
Fingers crossed this bill will pass.
Cyclefree is no part of any campaign, she is expressing her sincerely held views.
I am more than happy to consider pieces from yourself or anyone else who is in favour of this bill for publication on PB.
It is clear that Cyclefree is against assisted dying full stop for her own personal reasons. I suspect she would be against it, whatever the process. It's her own campaign.
A large majority of the population, of all ages and parties, are in favour of assisted dying.
"Three-quarters (75%) of UK adults supported making it lawful for someone to seek assisted dying, while only 14% actively opposed such a change." Opinium.
That might be your opinion but the header is very clearly about the process that is happening around the bill and is on the money,
David Steel's Abortion Act 1967 was brought in using a very similar process as a Private Member's Bill.
Because it is a matter of personal belief, it is very difficult for it to be a Government Bill.
In fact it would be inappropriate for it to be a Government Bill with whipping.
This was the only way to introduce it. The Committee will now examine it to improve it. I hope they take judges out of the process as they have no useful role.
Objections to the process mask objections to the principle.
Take doctors out too. What do they add after all. Make cyanide available in shops. Then anyone can end their life very quickly whenever they want with one bite on a capsule. Charge VAT and there'll be a bit of useful revenue too.
Like the United States, substituting bullets for cyanide capsules. Guns are used in more than half American suicides. (Oddly, the American suicide rate fell under their 45th President; maybe they should have re-elected him.) https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/data.html
"Up to one in 12 in London is an illegal migrant Government ‘must do more on deportations’ as new estimate suggests more than 1m people are illegally living in UK"
"Up to one in 12 in London is an illegal migrant Government ‘must do more on deportations’ as new estimate suggests more than 1m people are illegally living in UK"
There’s a long history between those two. Musk was an early investor in OpenAI when it was designed as an open-source non-profit, and left when they decided to turn it into a closed-source company.
"Up to one in 12 in London is an illegal migrant Government ‘must do more on deportations’ as new estimate suggests more than 1m people are illegally living in UK"
The Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, says Labour has lost control.
Labour "lost" control because all the illegal migrants turned up in the last 6 months?
Do we have any actual quantifiable evidence 1 person in 12 in London is an illegal migrant or is this just the Telegraph mud slinging? 585,000 would be the population of Redbridge and Waltham Forest combined so no small number.
This seems to be a growing threat to what is our essential infrastructure.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqjv7qgpw28o The Royal Navy has been monitoring a Russian spy ship after it was spotted around UK waters earlier this week, the defence secretary has told MPs. John Healey said the vessel, Yantar, was used for gathering intelligence and mapping the UK's critical underwater infrastructure. He said the incident was "another example of growing Russian aggression". Healey added: "I also wanted President [Vladimir] Putin to hear this message: we see you, we know what you're doing and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country." Russia describes Yantar as an oceanic research vessel and it is operated by the country's Ministry of Defence. Western nations have often tracked the ship operating in European waters and they suspect part of its mission has been to map undersea cables. They also believe Russia has been stepping up this activity since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine...
Healey’s speech to Parliament yesterday was very good.
First Time I’d noticed him, and he appears to be on top of his brief. Two Navy vessels and a surprise submarine surfacing to scare them away from British waters.
There is of course the wider issue of the defence of undersea infrastructure, which is becoming a worldwide problem. For obvious reasons cables and pipelines are well documented on marine charts, and our enemies can read them too!
The new European Union trade chief responsible for post-Brexit negotiations has told the BBC that a "pan-European [customs] area is something we could consider" as part of "reset" discussions between the UK and EU.
Maros Sefcovic was referring to the idea, backed by some UK business groups, of Britain joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM).
The PEM allows manufacturers to use parts or ingredients from dozens of countries, from Iceland to Turkey, in tariff-free trade.
This seems to be a growing threat to what is our essential infrastructure.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqjv7qgpw28o The Royal Navy has been monitoring a Russian spy ship after it was spotted around UK waters earlier this week, the defence secretary has told MPs. John Healey said the vessel, Yantar, was used for gathering intelligence and mapping the UK's critical underwater infrastructure. He said the incident was "another example of growing Russian aggression". Healey added: "I also wanted President [Vladimir] Putin to hear this message: we see you, we know what you're doing and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country." Russia describes Yantar as an oceanic research vessel and it is operated by the country's Ministry of Defence. Western nations have often tracked the ship operating in European waters and they suspect part of its mission has been to map undersea cables. They also believe Russia has been stepping up this activity since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine...
This year virtually our entire functioning Navy will be on an extended cruise to the Pacific.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s New Year speech today full of the usual platitudes about “growth” without much in the way of concrete policy as to how this is to be achieved.
Amongst all the usual nonsense was this gem:
I want a New Zealand where businesses - big and small - thrive. And make a profit. And pay high wages. And hire more people. And invest in growth.”
Replace New Zealand with Britain and Starmer, Badenoch and Davey would say the same as would Trump in America and frankly any other leader anywhere else. It’s meaningless platitudinous guff.
No policies to make it happen apart from some spending cuts.
There’s a long history between those two. Musk was an early investor in OpenAI when it was designed as an open-source non-profit, and left when they decided to turn it into a closed-source company.
The discovery in the court case shows them both to be lying shits: Musk now claims it was all about saving AI from for profit corporations, while Sam Altman now claims he always saw it as as a commercial organization.
"Up to one in 12 in London is an illegal migrant Government ‘must do more on deportations’ as new estimate suggests more than 1m people are illegally living in UK"
The Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, says Labour has lost control.
Labour "lost" control because all the illegal migrants turned up in the last 6 months?
Do we have any actual quantifiable evidence 1 person in 12 in London is an illegal migrant or is this just the Telegraph mud slinging? 585,000 would be the population of Redbridge and Waltham Forest combined so no small number.
The report suggests most illegal migrants arrived in the UK on work, study or visitor visas and then overstayed. ... ... [big snip] ... The report for Thames Water, by Edge Analytics, demography and data experts at Leeds University, aimed to quantify the “hidden” and “transient” users of their services to enable them to better meet demand.
It based its analysis on academic estimates of illegal migrants nationally including the respected Pew Research Center in the US, the London School of Economics, Office for National Statistics data and other research.
It then used National Insurance registrations for non-EU foreign nationals over a nine-year period to estimate the number of “irregular” migrants in each London borough.
For the whole of London, it produced a range of 390,355 illegal migrants at its lowest to 585,533 at its highest, with a median figure of 487,944. With an estimated population of 7,044,667, that would mean up to one in 12 of the capital’s population is an illegal migrant. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/22/one-in-12-in-london-is-an-illegal-migrant/ (£££)
About a week ago I asked which of Trump’s initial EOs would generate the most hysteria, and the odd thing is that none of them have.
This opposition to him is completely demoralised rather than energised in the way it was in 2016.
The Fraternal Order of Police are pissed off at the EO letting off the January 6th rioters, and they endorsed Trump before the election.
Yet he told them he was going to do this before he won election.
We are going to see sub-group after group across american society suddenly finding out that what he told people he would do he will now do.
Fools. All of them.
A good conman reels suckers in by lying about their intentions.
A great conman reels suckers in whilst telling the truth about their intentions.
We are witnessing a truly great conman- the sort who puts the art into con artist.
Does life imitate art? Are we heading for Game of Thrones.
I see my old company had pulled the plug (pun) on a large US investment tied to the renewables market. Previously mentioned another ex-company bought by a US company looks to be being sold off at a massive discount/loss.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s New Year speech today full of the usual platitudes about “growth” without much in the way of concrete policy as to how this is to be achieved.
Amongst all the usual nonsense was this gem:
I want a New Zealand where businesses - big and small - thrive. And make a profit. And pay high wages. And hire more people. And invest in growth.”
Replace New Zealand with Britain and Starmer, Badenoch and Davey would say the same as would Trump in America and frankly any other leader anywhere else. It’s meaningless platitudinous guff.
No policies to make it happen apart from some spending cuts.
To be fair to President Trump, he does have policies for growth. Whether they are sensible or successful policies is a separate question but it includes tariffs to protect American companies and (often missed) force on-shoring back to America, tax cuts to come, infrastructure spending and cheap energy.
This seems to be a growing threat to what is our essential infrastructure.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqjv7qgpw28o The Royal Navy has been monitoring a Russian spy ship after it was spotted around UK waters earlier this week, the defence secretary has told MPs. John Healey said the vessel, Yantar, was used for gathering intelligence and mapping the UK's critical underwater infrastructure. He said the incident was "another example of growing Russian aggression". Healey added: "I also wanted President [Vladimir] Putin to hear this message: we see you, we know what you're doing and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country." Russia describes Yantar as an oceanic research vessel and it is operated by the country's Ministry of Defence. Western nations have often tracked the ship operating in European waters and they suspect part of its mission has been to map undersea cables. They also believe Russia has been stepping up this activity since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine...
It has however been going on for years; the navy regularly has ships out monitoring dodgy Russian boats hanging about the cross-channel data cables, and I see them now and again out the window. Somewhere on C5 there’s a documentary about life on a warship, some years old now, that illustrates how much of their time is spent monitoring Russian ships in or near UK waters. I guess this latest incident is considered topical and hence is getting news coverage now.
"Up to one in 12 in London is an illegal migrant Government ‘must do more on deportations’ as new estimate suggests more than 1m people are illegally living in UK"
The Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, says Labour has lost control.
Labour "lost" control because all the illegal migrants turned up in the last 6 months?
Do we have any actual quantifiable evidence 1 person in 12 in London is an illegal migrant or is this just the Telegraph mud slinging? 585,000 would be the population of Redbridge and Waltham Forest combined so no small number.
The report suggests most illegal migrants arrived in the UK on work, study or visitor visas and then overstayed. ... ... [big snip] ... The report for Thames Water, by Edge Analytics, demography and data experts at Leeds University, aimed to quantify the “hidden” and “transient” users of their services to enable them to better meet demand.
It based its analysis on academic estimates of illegal migrants nationally including the respected Pew Research Center in the US, the London School of Economics, Office for National Statistics data and other research.
It then used National Insurance registrations for non-EU foreign nationals over a nine-year period to estimate the number of “irregular” migrants in each London borough.
For the whole of London, it produced a range of 390,355 illegal migrants at its lowest to 585,533 at its highest, with a median figure of 487,944. With an estimated population of 7,044,667, that would mean up to one in 12 of the capital’s population is an illegal migrant. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/22/one-in-12-in-london-is-an-illegal-migrant/ (£££)
That’s full of ifs, buts and maybes, The real number could be nearly 600,000, it could also be under 400,000.
According to ONS figures published in May last year, the population of London was just under 8.9 million in 2022, NOT just over seven million.
That brings the number down to 6% or 1 in 16 using the high number or just 4% or 1 in 25 using the lowest number.
This is manipulating statistics to put forward a political message - regrettably it is what passes for debate these days.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s New Year speech today full of the usual platitudes about “growth” without much in the way of concrete policy as to how this is to be achieved.
Amongst all the usual nonsense was this gem:
I want a New Zealand where businesses - big and small - thrive. And make a profit. And pay high wages. And hire more people. And invest in growth.”
Replace New Zealand with Britain and Starmer, Badenoch and Davey would say the same as would Trump in America and frankly any other leader anywhere else. It’s meaningless platitudinous guff.
No policies to make it happen apart from some spending cuts.
To be fair to President Trump, he does have policies for growth. Whether they are sensible or successful policies is a separate question but it includes tariffs to protect American companies and (often missed) force on-shoring back to America, tax cuts to come, infrastructure spending and cheap energy.
Yes they are policies of a sort but they seem predicated on borrowing and tariffs which will be inflationary in the medium to longer term though he can bask in his “boom” and take the plaudits of a grateful nation leaving Vance or the Democrats to deal with the hangover in 2029.
This seems to be a growing threat to what is our essential infrastructure.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqjv7qgpw28o The Royal Navy has been monitoring a Russian spy ship after it was spotted around UK waters earlier this week, the defence secretary has told MPs. John Healey said the vessel, Yantar, was used for gathering intelligence and mapping the UK's critical underwater infrastructure. He said the incident was "another example of growing Russian aggression". Healey added: "I also wanted President [Vladimir] Putin to hear this message: we see you, we know what you're doing and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country." Russia describes Yantar as an oceanic research vessel and it is operated by the country's Ministry of Defence. Western nations have often tracked the ship operating in European waters and they suspect part of its mission has been to map undersea cables. They also believe Russia has been stepping up this activity since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine...
This year virtually our entire functioning Navy will be on an extended cruise to the Pacific.
Is that right? Seems crazy. Can't we have a defence department that focuses on defending us rather than pretending to be a world power in the Pacific?
There’s a long history between those two. Musk was an early investor in OpenAI when it was designed as an open-source non-profit, and left when they decided to turn it into a closed-source company.
The discovery in the court case shows them both to be lying shits: Musk now claims it was all about saving AI from for profit corporations, while Sam Altman now claims he always saw it as as a commercial organization.
Yes the discovery showed a crazy company behind the scenes, totally disorganised and everyone seemingly doing their own thing for their own reasons, while burning through billions of investor dollars!
Sounds like Reeves is still serious about Heathrow expansion. She told Davos yesterday that the planning system needs serious reform and is holding back economic growth.
Her argument to her Cabinet colleagues should be that the current situation is of hundreds of planes a day flying around in circles close to Heathrow waiting for a slot to land. And that’s on a good day, add rain or fog and there’s flights being cancelled and diverted everywhere because there just isn’t the capacity. It’s as if the NHS was an airport.
The other side to this scandal is having people suffer intolerably for weeks or months when they want a merciful and painless way out of their suffering. And no, palliative care is not the full answer.
It is a scandal that is all around us, in hospitals and hospices.
There needs to be a balance. The current situation is unbalanced and inhumane.
The Bill only applies to those with a terminal illness not those with a painful illness. The two are not the same. It is one of the many ways in which the Bill's proponents have been less than accurate about what the Bill actually says.
Also those doctors specialising in palliative care disagree with you.
The two may not be the same, but there's one heck of an overlap. My point is relevant to the terminally ill and still stands. There is an untold amount of unwanted suffering going on every day, as we speak.
If people are suffering, and there is little hope of recovery, let them die if they so choose. Do not make them suffer unnecessarily.
Are you against assisted dying in any form, or just the way it has been introduced?
In a perfect world, having some version of "thou shalt not kill but shall not strive officiously to keep alive" should in theory be possible and acceptable. But in practice as far as I can see everywhere AD has been introduced it has been a disaster - with abuse, the reality of the slippery slope and people being coerced into death for financial reasons. To think that won't happen here given what Kit Malthouse has said in Parliament (see https://x.com/ddhitchens/status/1882087279512240493?s=61&t=wWWeJB3W_ksMJK4LA1OvkA) seems naive to me.
Given our laws I don't think it will be possible to limit it in the way its supporters claim. Nor will it be possible to prevent abuse. And that abuse will be of the vulnerable. It will be irreversible. So I think we need a much much better approach to this topic. I would like to see palliative care and social care addressed first.
This Bill is not well drafted, has safeguards which are poor, is being rushed through and has not followed proper wide consultation. I think it is a Trojan horse to permit what will become euthanasia. The way it is being handled seems to have a strong element of bad faith.
My personal view, FWIW, is that were someone I love dearly in a position where they begged me to help them die and if I did I would expect to have that investigated precisely in order to ensure that such a step was not taken lightly or for the wrong reasons. And that this is necessary because such a step does not just affect me - but others as well. We cannot treat the crossing of societal boundaries as only a matter for the individuals concerned and not also the rest of us. No man is an island etc.,. Mercy and judgment are IMO better than strict laws, even if the law could deal with this which I don't really think it can here. Or perhaps - this particular version of it I don't think does.
For those who do not have access to X, the Malthouse quote is this -
"We have to remember that the people we are talking about, the dying individuals who may want to make this choice at the end of their lives, are already receiving treatment in the National Health Service. They are already reliant on expensive care services, drugs, whatever it might be, as well as other social support mechanisms that will be costing the taxpayer.
“So while it is of course important that we see the overall impact assessment, we shouldn’t pretend that the status quo is cost-free. Because not only is it costly in monetary terms, it’s also costly in terms of humanity. We should not forget that what we’re attempting to do here is put a price on the quality of someone’s life, to put a price on the quality of mercy at the end of life, and I would urge members to reflect on that."
I'll take that as an exceptionally long-winded way of saying 'No'.
This seems to be a growing threat to what is our essential infrastructure.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqjv7qgpw28o The Royal Navy has been monitoring a Russian spy ship after it was spotted around UK waters earlier this week, the defence secretary has told MPs. John Healey said the vessel, Yantar, was used for gathering intelligence and mapping the UK's critical underwater infrastructure. He said the incident was "another example of growing Russian aggression". Healey added: "I also wanted President [Vladimir] Putin to hear this message: we see you, we know what you're doing and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country." Russia describes Yantar as an oceanic research vessel and it is operated by the country's Ministry of Defence. Western nations have often tracked the ship operating in European waters and they suspect part of its mission has been to map undersea cables. They also believe Russia has been stepping up this activity since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine...
This year virtually our entire functioning Navy will be on an extended cruise to the Pacific.
Is that right? Seems crazy. Can't we have a defence department that focuses on defending us rather than pretending to be a world power in the Pacific?
Yes, taking an unknown number of our working aircraft too:
Sounds like Reeves is still serious about Heathrow expansion. She told Davos yesterday that the planning system needs serious reform and is holding back economic growth.
Her argument to her Cabinet colleagues should be that the current situation is of hundreds of planes a day flying around in circles close to Heathrow waiting for a slot to land. And that’s on a good day, add rain or fog and there’s flights being cancelled and diverted everywhere because there just isn’t the capacity. It’s as if the NHS was an airport.
Reeves is wrong as usual. As she has no ideas of her own, she's clearly just met Heathrow and they've sold her their propaganda which she's parrotting. A third runway at Heathrow could easily cost £25 billion all in, which is why the airlines don't want it, and the flight path would be over the densely packed suburbs of West London, which is why it hasn't happened so far, despite lots of attempts with government backing.
While a second full-length runway at Gatwick could be made from the emergency runway for about £2.2 billion, and the flight path is mostly over empty country. Stansted is similar, though the runway would probably cost a bit more.
I've always thought R3 at Heathrow is like HS2 - a gold-plated white elephant whereas what we need is a cheaper, more practical solution.
Pretty high chance that China has a crack at Taiwan in the next few years. Whether or not we get involved may well depend on what the US does.
Problem is, if we get involved we could very quickly find ourselves minus a large number of ships and sailors that we cannot afford to replace, will take ages to replace and will never replace sailors.
This will then leave the remnants of the Navy to attempt to control an enemy closer to home who actually wishes us direct harm - Russia.
The pacific is no longer remotely our issue and it should be left to the US, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and any other countries - perhaps in Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia’s interests to provide forces and ships to patrol and contain.
Our current pacific adventure is puff for politicians and admirals who want to be globally relevant. Like going out and buying rounds of champagne when you haven’t any food in the cupboard at home.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s New Year speech today full of the usual platitudes about “growth” without much in the way of concrete policy as to how this is to be achieved.
Amongst all the usual nonsense was this gem:
I want a New Zealand where businesses - big and small - thrive. And make a profit. And pay high wages. And hire more people. And invest in growth.”
Replace New Zealand with Britain and Starmer, Badenoch and Davey would say the same as would Trump in America and frankly any other leader anywhere else. It’s meaningless platitudinous guff.
No policies to make it happen apart from some spending cuts.
"Up to one in 12 in London is an illegal migrant Government ‘must do more on deportations’ as new estimate suggests more than 1m people are illegally living in UK"
The Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, says Labour has lost control.
Yes, because those million have definitely all arrived since the election and haven’t been here for many years while the Tories neglected doing anything about them.
"Up to one in 12 in London is an illegal migrant Government ‘must do more on deportations’ as new estimate suggests more than 1m people are illegally living in UK"
The Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, says Labour has lost control.
Labour "lost" control because all the illegal migrants turned up in the last 6 months?
Do we have any actual quantifiable evidence 1 person in 12 in London is an illegal migrant or is this just the Telegraph mud slinging? 585,000 would be the population of Redbridge and Waltham Forest combined so no small number.
The report suggests most illegal migrants arrived in the UK on work, study or visitor visas and then overstayed. ... ... [big snip] ... The report for Thames Water, by Edge Analytics, demography and data experts at Leeds University, aimed to quantify the “hidden” and “transient” users of their services to enable them to better meet demand.
It based its analysis on academic estimates of illegal migrants nationally including the respected Pew Research Center in the US, the London School of Economics, Office for National Statistics data and other research.
It then used National Insurance registrations for non-EU foreign nationals over a nine-year period to estimate the number of “irregular” migrants in each London borough.
For the whole of London, it produced a range of 390,355 illegal migrants at its lowest to 585,533 at its highest, with a median figure of 487,944. With an estimated population of 7,044,667, that would mean up to one in 12 of the capital’s population is an illegal migrant. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/22/one-in-12-in-london-is-an-illegal-migrant/ (£££)
So, the papers took a range of estimates and jumped on the upper estimate rather than the central estimate? I am shocked to the core.
Pretty high chance that China has a crack at Taiwan in the next few years. Whether or not we get involved may well depend on what the US does.
What makes you say that ? Also what do you think this would be in terms of how they did it ?
A few reasons why I think China will have a go: 1) Trump dislikes China but this may not mean he'll want Americans to die, preferring an economic to military approach. 2) China's demographically screwed. It's on a plateau and will soon decline at an increasing rate, decreasing its strength relative to America over the next century. Striking now is from the peak of its power. 3) Xi Jinping won't be around forever. If he wants to have a go he needs to do it sooner rather than later. 4) European rearmament hasn't exactly kicked in the afterburners but that *might* happen (in countries beyond Poland, which does seem to be increasing Defence capabilities significantly) in the medium term. I suspect it won't, but why delay and take that risk? 5) Ukraine versus Russia is ongoing, which is a useful distraction for China.
I had a fascinating discussion with a journo friend tiday whi says he has personally verified some "interesting" new articles and videos that have started to emerge about Elon Musk'background. When I coined the name "Musk Von Braun" to describe him, after the Nazi-salute-or-not incident a couple of days back, I thought it was just a flight of fancy.
Astonishingly, Von Braun seems to have written a book in 1952 called "The Mars Project", which envisions a colony on Mars run by a benevolent dictator, and a society that mainly values and cherishes engineers. The colony is underground, and based on tunnelling and boring technology.
The enlightened dictator in the book is called The Elon. According to my friend, Erroll Musk already mentioned several years ago that as a child growing up he was fascinated by this book, and named his son after the central character. If true, this explains a lot.
If Elon wants to piss off to Mars in order to lord it over fifteen bo saturated and half-starved male astronauts trapped in a tin hut clinging to the side of a large rock in the Tharsis plateau then, given he wants Trump to be King of America and end democracy, he can be my fucking guest.
Musk having to spend a year growing potatoes in his own poop might be beneficial for him.
"Up to one in 12 in London is an illegal migrant Government ‘must do more on deportations’ as new estimate suggests more than 1m people are illegally living in UK"
I don't understand why POTUS has the right to remove someone else's security protection (in this case Bolton).
It's a gangster state. Don't annoy the boss.
That's the message.
That's why he did it, but not the answer to the question, why does he have the power to do it?
I believe the Secret Service was modelled on the King’s bodyguard - they report directly to the president (designed to ensure that he wasn’t dependent on the states for protection)
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s New Year speech today full of the usual platitudes about “growth” without much in the way of concrete policy as to how this is to be achieved.
Amongst all the usual nonsense was this gem:
I want a New Zealand where businesses - big and small - thrive. And make a profit. And pay high wages. And hire more people. And invest in growth.”
Replace New Zealand with Britain and Starmer, Badenoch and Davey would say the same as would Trump in America and frankly any other leader anywhere else. It’s meaningless platitudinous guff.
No policies to make it happen apart from some spending cuts.
Are you holidaying there or permanent there ?
The bad news is I will be returning to the UK next month.
Sounds like Reeves is still serious about Heathrow expansion. She told Davos yesterday that the planning system needs serious reform and is holding back economic growth.
Her argument to her Cabinet colleagues should be that the current situation is of hundreds of planes a day flying around in circles close to Heathrow waiting for a slot to land. And that’s on a good day, add rain or fog and there’s flights being cancelled and diverted everywhere because there just isn’t the capacity. It’s as if the NHS was an airport.
If she argued that she'd be lying because it isn't true.
Bishop Mariann Budde (of Washington DC, preaching at the 'national interfaith prayer service', which is a thing that happens every new Presidency):
In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country. We’re scared now. The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes, and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwara, and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.
Trump, later:
The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart. She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people. Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions. It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA. Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one. She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!
Aw bless. The Grauniad and the Times pretending they're worried about it, instead of being staffed by, and sold to, products of it. Aren't they sweet...
Comments
There are many sub-threshold methods to harass this kind of boat, electronic, underwater drones, through to good old fashioned hoses. How many of these does the UK have or is willing to use?
You can guess the answer.
"Up to one in 12 in London is an illegal migrant
Government ‘must do more on deportations’ as new estimate suggests more than 1m people are illegally living in UK"
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/22/one-in-12-in-london-is-an-illegal-migrant/
(Population of the London metropolitan area is 12 to 14 million... so that's more than a million in London alone. If true, of course.)
Feel sure that you and @BartholomewRoberts will agree.
Phew! Glad that's sorted.
It is a point of principle that these matters of conscience are dealt with on free votes like this and its been done for generations. There's nothing wrong with that, as much as you might prefer another process the process used today like that done 58 years prior is perfectly legitimate.
https://news.sky.com/story/ireland-delays-selection-of-prime-minister-as-parliament-erupts-in-row-13294434
https://www.latimes.com/california/live/la-southern-california-fire-weather-rain-wind
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1882230464976421153
https://x.com/sama/status/1882234406662000833
Heathrow Airport Holdings Limited is in turn owned by FGP Topco Limited, a consortium owned and led by
- Ardian (22.61%) – French private equity
- Qatar Investment Authority (20.00%)
- Public Investment Fund (15.01%) – Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund
- GIC (11.20%) – Singapore's sovereign wealth fund
- Australian Retirement Trust (11.18%)
- China Investment Corporation (10.00%) – China's sovereign wealth fund
- Ferrovial S.A. (5.25%) – Spanish
- Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) (2.65%)
- Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) (2.10%) – British academics' pensions
So Heathrow is 97.9 per cent foreign-owned and 2.1 per cent to pay @turbotubbs' pension.https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/data.html
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jan/23/unpaid-internships-young-working-class-people-careers
Internships are ever more middle-class — it’s about who you know
A study shows the class gap in work experience is widening and that many posts are never advertised
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/internships-are-ever-more-middle-class-its-about-who-you-know-bzsld9q9n (£££)
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uks-labour-government-removes-illegal-migrants-fastest-pace-since-2018-2025-01-09/
https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/musk-vs-altman-openai/
https://x.com/johnhealey_mp/status/1882113448831820249
First Time I’d noticed him, and he appears to be on top of his brief. Two Navy vessels and a surprise submarine surfacing to scare them away from British waters.
There is of course the wider issue of the defence of undersea infrastructure, which is becoming a worldwide problem. For obvious reasons cables and pipelines are well documented on marine charts, and our enemies can read them too!
Maros Sefcovic was referring to the idea, backed by some UK business groups, of Britain joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM).
The PEM allows manufacturers to use parts or ingredients from dozens of countries, from Iceland to Turkey, in tariff-free trade.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s New Year speech today full of the usual platitudes about “growth” without much in the way of concrete policy as to how this is to be achieved.
Amongst all the usual nonsense was this gem:
I want a New Zealand where businesses - big and small - thrive. And make a profit. And pay high wages. And hire more people. And invest in growth.”
Replace New Zealand with Britain and Starmer, Badenoch and Davey would say the same as would Trump in America and frankly any other leader anywhere else. It’s meaningless platitudinous guff.
No policies to make it happen apart from some spending cuts.
https://x.com/wartranslated/status/1882180801573392671
Oh well, all-in on arming Ukraine to the teeth it is then.
...
... [big snip]
...
The report for Thames Water, by Edge Analytics, demography and data experts at Leeds University, aimed to quantify the “hidden” and “transient” users of their services to enable them to better meet demand.
It based its analysis on academic estimates of illegal migrants nationally including the respected Pew Research Center in the US, the London School of Economics, Office for National Statistics data and other research.
It then used National Insurance registrations for non-EU foreign nationals over a nine-year period to estimate the number of “irregular” migrants in each London borough.
For the whole of London, it produced a range of 390,355 illegal migrants at its lowest to 585,533 at its highest, with a median figure of 487,944. With an estimated population of 7,044,667, that would mean up to one in 12 of the capital’s population is an illegal migrant.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/22/one-in-12-in-london-is-an-illegal-migrant/ (£££)
I see my old company had pulled the plug (pun) on a large US investment tied to the renewables market. Previously mentioned another ex-company bought by a US company looks to be being sold off at a massive discount/loss.
It's started.
According to ONS figures published in May last year, the population of London was just under 8.9 million in 2022, NOT just over seven million.
That brings the number down to 6% or 1 in 16 using the high number or just 4% or 1 in 25 using the lowest number.
This is manipulating statistics to put forward a political message - regrettably it is what passes for debate these days.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/01/22/economic-growth-trump-net-zero-signals-reeves-split-miliban/
Her argument to her Cabinet colleagues should be that the current situation is of hundreds of planes a day flying around in circles close to Heathrow waiting for a slot to land. And that’s on a good day, add rain or fog and there’s flights being cancelled and diverted everywhere because there just isn’t the capacity. It’s as if the NHS was an airport.
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/carrier-heading-to-japan-to-aid-stability-in-the-pacific/
The French carrier strike group is there already.
Pretty high chance that China has a crack at Taiwan in the next few years. Whether or not we get involved may well depend on what the US does.
While a second full-length runway at Gatwick could be made from the emergency runway for about £2.2 billion, and the flight path is mostly over empty country. Stansted is similar, though the runway would probably cost a bit more.
I've always thought R3 at Heathrow is like HS2 - a gold-plated white elephant whereas what we need is a cheaper, more practical solution.
This will then leave the remnants of the Navy to attempt to control an enemy closer to home who actually wishes us direct harm - Russia.
The pacific is no longer remotely our issue and it should be left to the US, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and any other countries - perhaps in Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia’s interests to provide forces and ships to patrol and contain.
Our current pacific adventure is puff for politicians and admirals who want to be globally relevant. Like going out and buying rounds of champagne when you haven’t any food in the cupboard at home.
NEW THREAD
1) Trump dislikes China but this may not mean he'll want Americans to die, preferring an economic to military approach.
2) China's demographically screwed. It's on a plateau and will soon decline at an increasing rate, decreasing its strength relative to America over the next century. Striking now is from the peak of its power.
3) Xi Jinping won't be around forever. If he wants to have a go he needs to do it sooner rather than later.
4) European rearmament hasn't exactly kicked in the afterburners but that *might* happen (in countries beyond Poland, which does seem to be increasing Defence capabilities significantly) in the medium term. I suspect it won't, but why delay and take that risk?
5) Ukraine versus Russia is ongoing, which is a useful distraction for China.
Bishop Mariann Budde (of Washington DC, preaching at the 'national interfaith prayer service', which is a thing that happens every new Presidency):
In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country. We’re scared now. The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes, and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwara, and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.
Trump, later:
The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart. She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people. Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions. It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA. Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one. She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113870397327465225