For what it's worth, I think the outcome in Batley & Spen is completely unpredictable. There are so many potential cross-currents in the voting patterns that I can't see how anybody can realistically gauge what people will do in the privacy of the voting booth. On that basis, the Labour odds seem good value.
Additionally, I'm not sure that the announcement of a jobs boost in Sunderland will have any impact on voters in West Yorkshire.
I’m inclined to agree that Labour are the value at the moment, there’s many moving parts in this one and it’s been quite the horrible campaign thanks to Mr Galloway.
Hopefully it’s a two horse race, and the scumbag loses his deposit.
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
No sleaze in the SNP thankfully. Salmond and Sturgeon say Hi..
Sleaze comes when a party is so long in power that they think that they can get away with anything and still get elected.
People like @Big_G_NorthWales will vote for a donkey with a blue rosette, and in Scotland will vote SNP until independence. Only after that will Scottish politics return to competitive parties.
The SNP will wither away post-independence. I, and many other members, will leave and help build new, normal parties. Our goal is for Scotland to be a normal country.
Or the SNP will become like the ANC in South Africa. The victors of independence not working for their people, but getting voted in continuously anyway ...
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
I have backed Labour at about 5/1, it seems crazy they are such a big price. They should be favourites really. It is a case of the market being so different to what I think it should be that I must be missing something massively important, but have to have a small bet at the price.
With all the talk of Galloway, what everyone seems to have forgotten is the pro-Brexit Wool Spinners (or whatever they were called) who stood in 2019 and got a decent chunk of the vote. Even without Gorgeous George, the Hartlepool precedent would strongly indicate that them not standing this time makes the Tories favourites. However, the one poll we have seen did show Labour taking slightly more votes from the Tories than the other way around, so in Galloway's absence this probably would have been very close and may well be a lot closer than Hartlepool was. 5/1 is a very decent price.
I really hope I am wrong, but these independent groups don't always lump onto the Tories. Plenty of evidence of that across the country where instead of abandoning Labour for the Tories people and groups go for independents instead.
I've spotted what absolutely look like stereotypical Heavy Woollen angry white man type voters at Galloway events. Without him there I would expect the Tories to pick the seat up. With him there? He could take votes off both sides.
I hope not. He is magnificently awful and deserves to lose his deposit. Fat chance of that though - win or lose he will claim victory.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
This is brilliant news both for sustainability and for the NE of England. Hopefully it brings some long-term future to the Nissan plant and doesn't just become an expensive white elephant when they later announce car production is to end anyway.
Nissan and EVs at the moment are the brand whose batteries and motors get harvested for classic cars to be converted. They aren't a brand even on the radar for most new converts to electric as their technology is over a decade old.
Hopefully the new factory allows them to develop a battery which they can fit alongside new motors into something like a Qashqai as they'd sell loads. They can't keep peddling the Leaf which may as well have flintstone-style square wheels its so out of date.
The BBC were indicating a similar investment may be a announced by Vauxhall on Merseyside
If the Government has managed to keep Ellesmere Port open then they've achieved a miracle
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
No sleaze in the SNP thankfully. Salmond and Sturgeon say Hi..
Sleaze comes when a party is so long in power that they think that they can get away with anything and still get elected.
People like @Big_G_NorthWales will vote for a donkey with a blue rosette, and in Scotland will vote SNP until independence. Only after that will Scottish politics return to competitive parties.
And explain why I voted for Blair at two GE
And how many labour supporters voted labour with Corbyn
And I would not vote for any of the donkeys leading the lib dems
Yeah, you always mither about the Tories but turn out for them. No crime is big enough to stop you, in the last two decades.
My parents are the same, no way would my mother have voted for a serial adulterer who abandons his his children in the past. The personality cult of Johnson blinds to all faults.
Or maybe those of us who vote conservative actually believe they are the best choice for the country, not least on Brexit, covid, and the economy and support them because we do not believe the opposition would be an improvement
This is a good point. Frankly most people don’t care about the leader as a person, otherwise Thatcher would never have beaten Jin Callaghan, a thoroughly nice man. They vote, generally on what they believe to be their economic self interest.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Oh no, not another massive investment in the North of England, to follow the $450m vaccine factory yesterday.
It’s almost like we have a business department and a trade department, out selling the UK as a great place to do business.
I'd never seen this before. Brilliant! Where is this, or is it a fake picture?
Almost certainly fake. Some of those turbines seem very close together.
(AIUI, there is a minimum distance turbines can be placed near each other before turbulence reduces the power generated in the downstream turbines. The larger the turbine, the greater the distance. Some older windfarms suffered badly from this, as the individual turbines were placed too close.)
Ha, gotta love PB when someone comes up with the technical reason for not doing something.
It looks like an artist’s rendering rather than a photo, I’m sure if it were real we’d have seen loads of pics of it!
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
At one time the Tories had a cohort of MP's who were from the squirearchy; didn't need a job but needed an occupation. People who 'did the right thing'. That 'right thing' might not have been so for the factory workers and other city dwellers, but there was a sort of code behind it. Those people have, it seems to me, vanished.
How many people can afford to live on inherited wealth today?
That might be one reason why they’ve vanished.
But also some have looked at this version of the Conservatives and walked or been pushed.
Rory the (ex) Tory being the archetype.
Five years of Corbyn did something similar to Labour, for balance. It's hard to come back from.
Back on topic, aren't the elephants in the room the minor players?
If the Woolies go blue en masse, the blue team wins. If Galloway picks up red wall tories as well as ethnic Labour, Labour are in with a chance.
I commented yesterday that Starmer had a good PMQs and Boris's mumbling was embarrassing
However, I doubt the voters of B & S tune into PMQs, but I do think the divisive, nasty and down right ugly campaign fought by Galloway may see voters rallying to Kim Leadbeater and I expect Labour to hold the seat, probably with a reduced majority
However, returning to Boris and his inability to sack wayward colleagues and to make unpopular decisions I believe this is being noticed by conservative mps
Last Friday, at the height of Boris and Hancock's prevarications I text my local conservative mp (who is also a personal friend) and he was unequivocal in wanting Hancock gone and confirmed he had made his views known to the whips office in no uncertain terms
When news broke of Hancock's resignation I text the news to him and his one word response says it all 'fantastic'
There were 80 or more conservative mps who also demanded to the whips that Hancock resigned and Hancock found no support in the cabinet
Boris seems to have lost his mojo, (whether he has long covid is another matter) and is making unnecessary missteps and I would not be surprised if this was not being noticed across the party and with several replacements waiting in the wings, I would hope the party addresses the issue sooner rather than later
Remember, the conservatives know how to win and have a system for changing their leaders
Did your MP friend express a view about wanting Mancock gone last time he broke the ministerial code? Or Patel gone for breaking the ministerial code? Or Johnson gone for repeatedly breaking the ministerial code, having his ministers lie to parliament etc etc?
Tories can't pull faces at Matt Hancock without applying the same rules to Patel and Johnson and the others. Without being massive hypocrites.
No idea who Mancock is but the conservatives will act to replace their leader when they consider the time has come
Don't be coy, you know exactly what I am talking about. You and your MP friend support Cabinet Ministers including Hancock breaking the ministerial code when it suits you. And then turn on the guy when it doesn't.
He has done nothing that other ministers including himself previously and his boss and the Home Secretary have done. None of them resigned. None of them had calls from you or your MP friend to resign.
Its called hypocrisy. Double standards.
No - it is politics and this conservative government retains my support because it is best for brexit, covid and economy
When this by election was first called I thought it would be a Labour hold because its a long time since I took Galloway seriously. Then he seemed to get a head of steam up and that made me think that the Tories may well take it. Right now it looks very close. I suspect Galloway will do quite poorly but the risk is that this is enough to swing it the Tories' way. But 7/1 for Labour looks remarkable value, their true odds must be much better than that. Closer to 2/1 I would say.
I do think that a Labour loss would be seriously damaging to SKS. He really needs to show he can win.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
I think you'll find that all of them were crossing their hands behind their backs within the limitations of the agreement; it's a day with D in it.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
No sleaze in the SNP thankfully. Salmond and Sturgeon say Hi..
Sleaze comes when a party is so long in power that they think that they can get away with anything and still get elected.
People like @Big_G_NorthWales will vote for a donkey with a blue rosette, and in Scotland will vote SNP until independence. Only after that will Scottish politics return to competitive parties.
And explain why I voted for Blair at two GE
And how many labour supporters voted labour with Corbyn
And I would not vote for any of the donkeys leading the lib dems
Yeah, you always mither about the Tories but turn out for them. No crime is big enough to stop you, in the last two decades.
My parents are the same, no way would my mother have voted for a serial adulterer who abandons his his children in the past. The personality cult of Johnson blinds to all faults.
Or maybe those of us who vote conservative actually believe they are the best choice for the country, not least on Brexit, covid, and the economy and support them because we do not believe the opposition would be an improvement
I've watched, and been interested in, politics in this country for many years; I do not recall a PM who behaved as our present PM does, nor one whose peccadillos(!) were forgiven so easily. Others were criticised for their policies or their ineptitude, apparent or real, but I don't recall any of them, apart perhaps from Churchill, who inspired what appears to be blind loyalty.
And the Churchillian loyalty was a product of WW2.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
So government investment is business projects is bad, except when the EU does it?
I am not sure how you can read what I wrote and think that's what I am saying. But if you want to believe that's what I think, so be it!
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
In 2019, 2.3m cars were sold in the UK, a number that has been on a slow decline in recent years (pre-pandemic).
Nissan makes around half a million cars at Sunderland, and JLR a make around half a million more (although mainly for export). The vast majority of cars are imported, so there’s a huge opportunity for more domestic production.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Oh no, not another massive investment in the North of England, to follow the $450m vaccine factory yesterday.
It’s almost like we have a business department and a trade department, out selling the UK as a great place to do business.
I'd never seen this before. Brilliant! Where is this, or is it a fake picture?
Almost certainly fake. Some of those turbines seem very close together.
(AIUI, there is a minimum distance turbines can be placed near each other before turbulence reduces the power generated in the downstream turbines. The larger the turbine, the greater the distance. Some older windfarms suffered badly from this, as the individual turbines were placed too close.)
Ha, gotta love PB when someone comes up with the technical reason for not doing something.
It looks like an artist’s rendering rather than a photo, I’m sure if it were real we’d have seen loads of pics of it!
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yep - I guess that's a possibility: backing Nissan to essentially be the UK's future supplier of cars. But that creates its own problems. In order to justify the investment, Nissan will need as a big a market as possible into which to export. And it will not be making batteries in Sunderland to send to Asia.
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
At one time the Tories had a cohort of MP's who were from the squirearchy; didn't need a job but needed an occupation. People who 'did the right thing'. That 'right thing' might not have been so for the factory workers and other city dwellers, but there was a sort of code behind it. Those people have, it seems to me, vanished.
How many people can afford to live on inherited wealth today?
That might be one reason why they’ve vanished.
But also some have looked at this version of the Conservatives and walked or been pushed.
Rory the (ex) Tory being the archetype.
Five years of Corbyn did something similar to Labour, for balance. It's hard to come back from.
Back on topic, aren't the elephants in the room the minor players?
If the Woolies go blue en masse, the blue team wins. If Galloway picks up red wall tories as well as ethnic Labour, Labour are in with a chance.
A few people around calling on LibDems to vote Labour.
No idea if they are Lib Dems Emma Kennedy is one. Seems obsessed with the EU and Tories.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
Yet Germany have managed to turn the Tesla factory into the new Berlin Airport. It’s almost physically finished, but is going to take potentially years to get all the permissions in place to start operating. Oh, and a bunch of environmentalists (yes, really) are trying to get an injunction against the plant, because electric cars bad, or something.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes I think that we will see a lot of this onshoring over the next few years. Importing everything in boxes from China is suddenly looking not such a clever idea after all (it never was, actually). These are important investments for UK plc because they make us a viable platform base for other, related manufacturing as well.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
Yet Germany have managed to turn the Tesla factory into the new Berlin Airport. It’s almost physically finished, but is going to take potentially years to get all the permissions in place to start operating. Oh, and a bunch of environmentalists (yes, really) are trying to get an injunction against the plant, because electric cars bad, or something.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
This is brilliant news both for sustainability and for the NE of England. Hopefully it brings some long-term future to the Nissan plant and doesn't just become an expensive white elephant when they later announce car production is to end anyway.
Nissan and EVs at the moment are the brand whose batteries and motors get harvested for classic cars to be converted. They aren't a brand even on the radar for most new converts to electric as their technology is over a decade old.
Hopefully the new factory allows them to develop a battery which they can fit alongside new motors into something like a Qashqai as they'd sell loads. They can't keep peddling the Leaf which may as well have flintstone-style square wheels its so out of date.
It's worth a note that this is initially 100k car batteres per year, rising to potentially 200k.
That is about 18-20% of normal UK car production.
So we need another 4 or 5 similar to meet domestic, then perhaps extra capacity for export.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
I have no objection whatsoever to investing in the green economy, but why be so secretive about it? It's not this Government to keep quiet about what might well be good news. How much is Britain providing? £0.5 bn?
Usually these are structured through tax allowances and rebates vs cash handouts (you sometimes get very small training grants). The example I know best was in the US but the amount there worked out (over ten years) as about $20m to preserve 280 jobs.
They are keeping quiet because there are another 4 or 5 in progress. There are people around who would be quite happy to throw that advantage away to skewer the Government or Brexit, and never mind the workers, but I hope this does not leak.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
Yet Germany have managed to turn the Tesla factory into the new Berlin Airport. It’s almost physically finished, but is going to take potentially years to get all the permissions in place to start operating. Oh, and a bunch of environmentalists (yes, really) are trying to get an injunction against the plant, because electric cars bad, or something.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yep - I guess that's a possibility: backing Nissan to essentially be the UK's future supplier of cars. But that creates its own problems. In order to justify the investment, Nissan will need as a big a market as possible into which to export. And it will not be making batteries in Sunderland to send to Asia.
You say that but the reality is that more than a fifth of the UK's exports do go to Asia already and that's before we join the CPTPP.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yep - I guess that's a possibility: backing Nissan to essentially be the UK's future supplier of cars. But that creates its own problems. In order to justify the investment, Nissan will need as a big a market as possible into which to export. And it will not be making batteries in Sunderland to send to Asia.
You say that but the reality is that more than a fifth of the UK's exports do go to Asia already and that's before we join the CPTPP.
I wonder if Australia might become one too given the trade deal as they no longer (someone said here) have any car manufacturing
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Oh no, not another massive investment in the North of England, to follow the $450m vaccine factory yesterday.
It’s almost like we have a business department and a trade department, out selling the UK as a great place to do business.
I'd never seen this before. Brilliant! Where is this, or is it a fake picture?
Almost certainly fake. Some of those turbines seem very close together.
(AIUI, there is a minimum distance turbines can be placed near each other before turbulence reduces the power generated in the downstream turbines. The larger the turbine, the greater the distance. Some older windfarms suffered badly from this, as the individual turbines were placed too close.)
Yes - you can do that with trees (copper and normal beech, for example), but I think in a windfarm efficiency predominates.
I have backed Labour at about 5/1, it seems crazy they are such a big price. They should be favourites really. It is a case of the market being so different to what I think it should be that I must be missing something massively important, but have to have a small bet at the price.
With all the talk of Galloway, what everyone seems to have forgotten is the pro-Brexit Wool Spinners (or whatever they were called) who stood in 2019 and got a decent chunk of the vote. Even without Gorgeous George, the Hartlepool precedent would strongly indicate that them not standing this time makes the Tories favourites. However, the one poll we have seen did show Labour taking slightly more votes from the Tories than the other way around, so in Galloway's absence this probably would have been very close and may well be a lot closer than Hartlepool was. 5/1 is a very decent price.
Brexit party got 3% too so without them as well yeah I guess the Tories should be fav, not 1/6 though. GG factor too helps them yes. Who knows, I agree 5/1 is ok and it’s not 6/1!
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
A few years ago, Nissan would be building their factory in Sunderland with EU development money, and the building would be covered in blue blags with gold stars.
If the U.K. government have put up, let’s just say £350m as a round number, to both create many jobs and secure the site for the coming decades, then it’s money well spent.
(Yes, this can go too far, as we see in the US with companies not creating jobs and getting disproportionate tax breaks).
These investments seem to me like a sweetened deal for the key holder tenant in a shopping centre. Having a Markies or, historically, a Debenhams, was key to bringing in the other tenants and keeping the footfall at a level that made the centre viable.
In this case we want to remain in the car making business and that means we have to have the infrastructure in place to allow car manufacturers to make cars here. That is going to need access to high quality steel, batteries and a proper investment in engineering at our Universities and colleges. I agree it can go too far but this looks like an entirely sensible investment by UK plc to me.
It's a question of degree. We should not be picking winners but we should be facilitating industries by giving them what they need to operate here. The different businesses can then compete for custom and the available resources.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
Yet Germany have managed to turn the Tesla factory into the new Berlin Airport. It’s almost physically finished, but is going to take potentially years to get all the permissions in place to start operating. Oh, and a bunch of environmentalists (yes, really) are trying to get an injunction against the plant, because electric cars bad, or something.
Or because Tesla (and Musk) didn't care about doing things properly, getting permits and the like, and just went ahead anyway.
If the story is as I've read, I've much more sympathy with the environmentalists than Tesla. That might be a big conditional, though ...
Yes, there’s an element of that, the plans changed and the permits were slow.
No sympathy with the enviromentalists, who are like the worst type of NIMBY. They spent years shouting about the wonders of electric cars, then object vociferously to every plan to actually make them. They just don’t like the concept of personal transport.
Batley and Spen will not see a UNS after Hancock's defenestration by Boris.
Besides which, the potential for Labour benefitting from the Hancock debacle will also be more than offset by Boris' 2 nil win over Germany on Tuesday.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Oh no, not another massive investment in the North of England, to follow the $450m vaccine factory yesterday.
It’s almost like we have a business department and a trade department, out selling the UK as a great place to do business.
I'd never seen this before. Brilliant! Where is this, or is it a fake picture?
Almost certainly fake. Some of those turbines seem very close together.
(AIUI, there is a minimum distance turbines can be placed near each other before turbulence reduces the power generated in the downstream turbines. The larger the turbine, the greater the distance. Some older windfarms suffered badly from this, as the individual turbines were placed too close.)
Yes - you can do that with trees (copper and normal beech, for example), but I think in a windfarm efficiency predominates.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yep - I guess that's a possibility: backing Nissan to essentially be the UK's future supplier of cars. But that creates its own problems. In order to justify the investment, Nissan will need as a big a market as possible into which to export. And it will not be making batteries in Sunderland to send to Asia.
You say that but the reality is that more than a fifth of the UK's exports do go to Asia already and that's before we join the CPTPP.
I wonder if Australia might become one too given the trade deal as they no longer (someone said here) have any car manufacturing
The Holden factory was the last car plant in Australia, and it closed in 2017.
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
No sleaze in the SNP thankfully. Salmond and Sturgeon say Hi..
Sleaze comes when a party is so long in power that they think that they can get away with anything and still get elected.
People like @Big_G_NorthWales will vote for a donkey with a blue rosette, and in Scotland will vote SNP until independence. Only after that will Scottish politics return to competitive parties.
The SNP will wither away post-independence. I, and many other members, will leave and help build new, normal parties. Our goal is for Scotland to be a normal country.
Or the SNP will become like the ANC in South Africa. The victors of independence not working for their people, but getting voted in continuously anyway ...
What happens to the SNP if it doesn’t achieve independence? Seems an alternative and interesting question
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yep - I guess that's a possibility: backing Nissan to essentially be the UK's future supplier of cars. But that creates its own problems. In order to justify the investment, Nissan will need as a big a market as possible into which to export. And it will not be making batteries in Sunderland to send to Asia.
You say that but the reality is that more than a fifth of the UK's exports do go to Asia already and that's before we join the CPTPP.
Sure, but Nissan is an Asian company. In these days of shortening supply chains, it is optimistic to believe it will centre its global battery production capacity on Sunderland.
A riveting article about what Labour needs to do to stand for something and win, by an in house Labour expert. Intriguingly the longish article manages to say nothing about what this might be in policy terms, and amazingly manages to say nothing of substance about how Labour might approach the fact that we have left the EU and have a long positioning process to undergo.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
I have no objection whatsoever to investing in the green economy, but why be so secretive about it? It's not this Government to keep quiet about what might well be good news. How much is Britain providing? £0.5 bn?
Usually these are structured through tax allowances and rebates vs cash handouts (you sometimes get very small training grants). The example I know best was in the US but the amount there worked out (over ten years) as about $20m to preserve 280 jobs.
They are keeping quiet because there are another 4 or 5 in progress. There are people around who would be quite happy to throw that advantage away to skewer the Government or Brexit, and never mind the workers, but I hope this does not leak.
Is this in a Freeport Area?
Sunderland isn't - I suspect it would be possible to build Vauxhall's battery factory in Liverpool but I do wonder if there is any actual benefit for building such a factory in a Freeport - I can't see any country placing major barriers on battery imports as everywhere will need them.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
I have no objection whatsoever to investing in the green economy, but why be so secretive about it? It's not this Government to keep quiet about what might well be good news. How much is Britain providing? £0.5 bn?
Usually these are structured through tax allowances and rebates vs cash handouts (you sometimes get very small training grants). The example I know best was in the US but the amount there worked out (over ten years) as about $20m to preserve 280 jobs.
They are keeping quiet because there are another 4 or 5 in progress. There are people around who would be quite happy to throw that advantage away to skewer the Government or Brexit, and never mind the workers, but I hope this does not leak.
Is this in a Freeport Area?
Indeed - as Kwasi said it would be “irresponsible” to comment
Nissan and EVs at the moment are the brand whose batteries and motors get harvested for classic cars to be converted. They aren't a brand even on the radar for most new converts to electric as their technology is over a decade old.
The Leaf is junk but the EV conversion scene seems to be moving toward butchering Tesla 3s and using the FreedomEV firmware on it.
VAG seem to have the best strategy (if not the best products) for the EV revolution and the Japanese OEMs look slightly lost by tinkering with multiple technologies and not committing to one.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
Yet Germany have managed to turn the Tesla factory into the new Berlin Airport. It’s almost physically finished, but is going to take potentially years to get all the permissions in place to start operating. Oh, and a bunch of environmentalists (yes, really) are trying to get an injunction against the plant, because electric cars bad, or something.
That’s because electric cars are kind of bad for the environment, at least in terms of CO2 emissions, especially if you build them in Germany!
The reason is because electric cars require a lot more energy to construct than equivalent ICE vehicles - mostly the batteries. So if you make your batteries & build your car in a country with a very high fossil fuel % in it’s electrical grid, like Germany (thanks to their mad anti-nuclear stance) you pump out a huge amount of CO2 before the car even rolls out of the plant.
After it’s built, an electric car has low carbon emissions to the extent that local electrical generation is low carbon, which eventually makes up for those early carbon emissions in most places. But the breakeven point is something like 100,000 miles in many countries right now. Or at least it was last time I saw this calculation - as we de-carbonise the grid, this figure will improve of course. It’s probably lower in the UK than in Germany right now I would imagine.
Plus, there’s all the carbon emissions required to build + maintain a very expensive road network. Oh, and mining the battery raw materials. Electric cars are not the obvious environmental no brainer some would have you think.
There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
I have backed Labour at about 5/1, it seems crazy they are such a big price. They should be favourites really. It is a case of the market being so different to what I think it should be that I must be missing something massively important, but have to have a small bet at the price.
With all the talk of Galloway, what everyone seems to have forgotten is the pro-Brexit Wool Spinners (or whatever they were called) who stood in 2019 and got a decent chunk of the vote. Even without Gorgeous George, the Hartlepool precedent would strongly indicate that them not standing this time makes the Tories favourites. However, the one poll we have seen did show Labour taking slightly more votes from the Tories than the other way around, so in Galloway's absence this probably would have been very close and may well be a lot closer than Hartlepool was. 5/1 is a very decent price.
Brexit party got 3% too so without them as well yeah I guess the Tories should be fav, not 1/6 though. GG factor too helps them yes. Who knows, I agree 5/1 is ok and it’s not 6/1!
I think Labour would have won had Hancock tried to stick around. His resignation wipes away the crime to enough of an extent for the majority of people.
I have backed Labour at about 5/1, it seems crazy they are such a big price. They should be favourites really. It is a case of the market being so different to what I think it should be that I must be missing something massively important, but have to have a small bet at the price.
With all the talk of Galloway, what everyone seems to have forgotten is the pro-Brexit Wool Spinners (or whatever they were called) who stood in 2019 and got a decent chunk of the vote. Even without Gorgeous George, the Hartlepool precedent would strongly indicate that them not standing this time makes the Tories favourites. However, the one poll we have seen did show Labour taking slightly more votes from the Tories than the other way around, so in Galloway's absence this probably would have been very close and may well be a lot closer than Hartlepool was. 5/1 is a very decent price.
Brexit party got 3% too so without them as well yeah I guess the Tories should be fav, not 1/6 though. GG factor too helps them yes. Who knows, I agree 5/1 is ok and it’s not 6/1!
Yes, I agree with SO's analysis. I'm expecting a modest Tory win with a few percentage points in it, but with a chance of Labour holding on. It's difficult to bet on those outcomes, unfortunately - betting on Tory vote share is a totally illquid market on Betfair, and the outright Tory win odds of 1.22 don't look tempting. The current 5.5 on Labour also doesn't look overwhelmingly good value. Ladbrokes seem to have pulled the market altogether, perhaps bored with handing over free money on the Lab vs Galloway bet.
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
No sleaze in the SNP thankfully. Salmond and Sturgeon say Hi..
Sleaze comes when a party is so long in power that they think that they can get away with anything and still get elected.
People like @Big_G_NorthWales will vote for a donkey with a blue rosette, and in Scotland will vote SNP until independence. Only after that will Scottish politics return to competitive parties.
The SNP will wither away post-independence. I, and many other members, will leave and help build new, normal parties. Our goal is for Scotland to be a normal country.
Or the SNP will become like the ANC in South Africa. The victors of independence not working for their people, but getting voted in continuously anyway ...
What happens to the SNP if it doesn’t achieve independence? Seems an alternative and interesting question
Does anyone know if there is any evidence that doubled vaccinated people are less likely to spread COVID? It appears to me as though the vaccines may help a little bit but not completely.
The reason I ask is that for The Open golf championship, you either have to show you've been doubled jabbed or have proof of a negative lateral flow test within 48 hours of attending the event. That seems unfair to me as I think I have as much right to be protected from the doubled jabbed as from anyone who isn't double jabbed.
Obviously I think there should be no restrictions whatsoever, but I just thought I'd point out the unfairness of some of the thinking at the moment.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
I have no objection whatsoever to investing in the green economy, but why be so secretive about it? It's not this Government to keep quiet about what might well be good news. How much is Britain providing? £0.5 bn?
Usually these are structured through tax allowances and rebates vs cash handouts (you sometimes get very small training grants). The example I know best was in the US but the amount there worked out (over ten years) as about $20m to preserve 280 jobs.
They are keeping quiet because there are another 4 or 5 in progress. There are people around who would be quite happy to throw that advantage away to skewer the Government or Brexit, and never mind the workers, but I hope this does not leak.
Is this in a Freeport Area?
The most recent one I can think of in the US government practically mandating that a high end chip fab *will* be built in the US.
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
No sleaze in the SNP thankfully. Salmond and Sturgeon say Hi..
Sleaze comes when a party is so long in power that they think that they can get away with anything and still get elected.
People like @Big_G_NorthWales will vote for a donkey with a blue rosette, and in Scotland will vote SNP until independence. Only after that will Scottish politics return to competitive parties.
The SNP will wither away post-independence. I, and many other members, will leave and help build new, normal parties. Our goal is for Scotland to be a normal country.
Or the SNP will become like the ANC in South Africa. The victors of independence not working for their people, but getting voted in continuously anyway ...
What happens to the SNP if it doesn’t achieve independence? Seems an alternative and interesting question
So far the answer is that remains domestically dominant controlling the Scottish Parliament and most local authorities. It is very hard to see this changing in the medium term.
Labour is almost dead in Scotland and bereft of talent. The generation of Labour placemen in our public sector appointments are now retiring or retired and they are not being replaced. It is hard to see where new growth comes from.
The Tories are probably pretty close to their peak. I can just about imagine them gaining control, briefly, of the likes of Edinburgh or Aberdeen but there are clear caps on their support and they are bumping against them. Ruth seemed to offer the opportunity to expand the potential base but with her out the picture this seems unlikely.
The Lib Dems are in an even worse state. I think that it is more likely that they will be replaced as to 4th party by the Greens at every level, just as they already are in Holyrood.
So the SNP dominate by default. They might split of course but the complete failure of Alba is a warning to those politicians who are in this for a career and the SNP has plenty of them.
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
No sleaze in the SNP thankfully. Salmond and Sturgeon say Hi..
Sleaze comes when a party is so long in power that they think that they can get away with anything and still get elected.
People like @Big_G_NorthWales will vote for a donkey with a blue rosette, and in Scotland will vote SNP until independence. Only after that will Scottish politics return to competitive parties.
And explain why I voted for Blair at two GE
And how many labour supporters voted labour with Corbyn
And I would not vote for any of the donkeys leading the lib dems
Yeah, you always mither about the Tories but turn out for them. No crime is big enough to stop you, in the last two decades.
My parents are the same, no way would my mother have voted for a serial adulterer who abandons his his children in the past. The personality cult of Johnson blinds to all faults.
Or maybe those of us who vote conservative actually believe they are the best choice for the country, not least on Brexit, covid, and the economy and support them because we do not believe the opposition would be an improvement
I've watched, and been interested in, politics in this country for many years; I do not recall a PM who behaved as our present PM does, nor one whose peccadillos(!) were forgiven so easily. Others were criticised for their policies or their ineptitude, apparent or real, but I don't recall any of them, apart perhaps from Churchill, who inspired what appears to be blind loyalty.
And the Churchillian loyalty was a product of WW2.
Some truth in this. Partly it is that Boris, more than most people, inspires in many men a sense of being one of the lads in a classless world; and in many women (no longer young) a sense that he is a son or brother with whom, as in family life, theoretical moral values are overladen with personal loyalties and exceptionalism.
Secondly, all politics is relative. When Blair was the only genius around there was no contest, whatever his shortcomings. The only other relevant politician with current claims to political genius is N Sturgeon, who happens to be fighting a different blood sport at different weights.
The loyalty (which will only last for a time) is because there is no alternative at this moment.
Ed Davey was pretty explicit - said something like "We won't be putting any effort into this. LibDem voters are realists and they can see who the alternative to the Tories is in that constituency." I only spoke to 3 and one Green (there were only 4.7% LD in the seat last time), but they were all voting Labour.
p.s. we haven't really played a good side yet. It's true that we may not have to until the final but then Belgium or Italy might await.
Mornin' all!
Denmark seem to have 'fire on the belly'; don't think they should be written off. One wonders too, how much longer Murray can keep going.
Weatherwise it appears to be a better morning; July has brought some summer sun.
It’s all right for some. Our weather forecast is rain for the next week including thunderstorms over the weekend.
We were bloody luck at Wimbledon yesterday, all things considered. Saw 10 hours play from 11 am to 9 pm. Was distinctly cold until the sun came out for a couple of hours.
A few decent days and then a rapid descent second half of the weekend back to Atlantic weather. It may then settle down end of next week.
It's all very well going big on Staycations but UK summer weather can be horrible.
Yep. I am off to the Lake District for a week on Monday
I’ve been in the Lakes for the last week. It’s absolutely manic. Ridiculously busy.
Sunderland isn't - I suspect it would be possible to build Vauxhall's battery factory in Liverpool but I do wonder if there is any actual benefit for building such a factory in a Freeport - I can't see any country placing major barriers on battery imports as everywhere will need them.
Stellantis' third battery factory (they already have one in France and one in Germany) is going to be in Italy as Fiat is their first brand that's going 100% BEV in 2024.
I can't see the Vauxhall brand surviving as there is literally no point to it. Stellantis has 14(!) brands and something has to give.
Bertrand has had a very good few weeks. If he can consolidate the right, there's no guarantee that the run=off will be Macron-Le Pen.
(He polls better than Macron v Le Pen)
Yeah - Macron's nightmare is that is that his opponent in the last round won't be Le Pen.
Ooh - I got Bertrand at 40-1 a few weeks back! (I claim no special expertise on French politics, it was simply a case of casting round for a likely looking not-Macron, not-LePen, not-a-socialist-or-the-far-left.) Just had a look and he's come in a fair bit since. Come on Xav! (It was only £20, but still, not to be sniffed at.)
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
Yet Germany have managed to turn the Tesla factory into the new Berlin Airport. It’s almost physically finished, but is going to take potentially years to get all the permissions in place to start operating. Oh, and a bunch of environmentalists (yes, really) are trying to get an injunction against the plant, because electric cars bad, or something.
That’s because electric cars are kind of bad for the environment, at least in terms of CO2 emissions, especially if you build them in Germany!
The reason is because electric cars require a lot more energy to construct than equivalent ICE vehicles - mostly the batteries. So if you make your batteries & build your car in a country with a very high fossil fuel % in it’s electrical grid, like Germany (thanks to their mad anti-nuclear stance) you pump out a huge amount of CO2 before the car even rolls out of the plant.
After it’s built, an electric car has low carbon emissions to the extent that local electrical generation is low carbon, which eventually makes up for those early carbon emissions in most places. But the breakeven point is something like 100,000 miles in many countries right now. Or at least it was last time I saw this calculation - as we de-carbonise the grid, this figure will improve of course. It’s probably lower in the UK than in Germany right now I would imagine.
Plus, there’s all the carbon emissions required to build + maintain a very expensive road network. Oh, and mining the battery raw materials. Electric cars are not the obvious environmental no brainer some would have you think.
There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
A further challenge is that many of the rare earths needed for the batteries come from China. There is some evidence that there are significant deposits in Greenland and I think that the pressure to develop these will be immense. Can't see many environmentalists loving very large scale mining going on there.
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
No sleaze in the SNP thankfully. Salmond and Sturgeon say Hi..
Sleaze comes when a party is so long in power that they think that they can get away with anything and still get elected.
People like @Big_G_NorthWales will vote for a donkey with a blue rosette, and in Scotland will vote SNP until independence. Only after that will Scottish politics return to competitive parties.
The SNP will wither away post-independence. I, and many other members, will leave and help build new, normal parties.
You'd no more get the chance than the large number of non-Thatcherites did in the Labour Party who supported the Blair project in 1994-97 thinking they were only backing it for electoral purposes and they would act on their principles later. See other examples too of those who have joined extreme nationalist parties and "national fronts" for "tactical" purposes. There is a "norm" and it doesn't involve a post-victory "withering away". There are "nights of the long knives".
Many think they're being "tactical" and only spouting crap because it's what the electorate want to hear, whereas in fact they've bought into the crap themselves, hook, line, and sinker.
Since they killed the R35 I think it's fair to say that Nissan no longer make a single car that has any merit or cachet whatsoever. It's a long way down for the company that gave us the Z, the GTR and the S chassis.
Sunderland isn't - I suspect it would be possible to build Vauxhall's battery factory in Liverpool but I do wonder if there is any actual benefit for building such a factory in a Freeport - I can't see any country placing major barriers on battery imports as everywhere will need them.
Stellantis' third battery factory (they already have one in France and one in Germany) is going to be in Italy as Fiat is their first brand that's going 100% BEV in 2024.
I can't see the Vauxhall brand surviving as there is literally no point to it. Stellantis has 14(!) brands and something has to give.
As I said earlier - I'm seriously surprised Ellesmere Port isn't for the chop, as a factory it really doesn't make much sense for them.
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
No sleaze in the SNP thankfully. Salmond and Sturgeon say Hi..
Sleaze comes when a party is so long in power that they think that they can get away with anything and still get elected.
People like @Big_G_NorthWales will vote for a donkey with a blue rosette, and in Scotland will vote SNP until independence. Only after that will Scottish politics return to competitive parties.
And explain why I voted for Blair at two GE
And how many labour supporters voted labour with Corbyn
And I would not vote for any of the donkeys leading the lib dems
Yeah, you always mither about the Tories but turn out for them. No crime is big enough to stop you, in the last two decades.
My parents are the same, no way would my mother have voted for a serial adulterer who abandons his his children in the past. The personality cult of Johnson blinds to all faults.
Or maybe those of us who vote conservative actually believe they are the best choice for the country, not least on Brexit, covid, and the economy and support them because we do not believe the opposition would be an improvement
I've watched, and been interested in, politics in this country for many years; I do not recall a PM who behaved as our present PM does, nor one whose peccadillos(!) were forgiven so easily. Others were criticised for their policies or their ineptitude, apparent or real, but I don't recall any of them, apart perhaps from Churchill, who inspired what appears to be blind loyalty.
And the Churchillian loyalty was a product of WW2.
Some truth in this. Partly it is that Boris, more than most people, inspires in many men a sense of being one of the lads in a classless world; and in many women (no longer young) a sense that he is a son or brother with whom, as in family life, theoretical moral values are overladen with personal loyalties and exceptionalism.
Secondly, all politics is relative. When Blair was the only genius around there was no contest, whatever his shortcomings. The only other relevant politician with current claims to political genius is N Sturgeon, who happens to be fighting a different blood sport at different weights.
The loyalty (which will only last for a time) is because there is no alternative at this moment.
I think much of that is right; not sure about older women's opinion of him though. And if a Tory loses the support of the Tory women, then he is dead. (Gender intended).
I must say that, from listening to his podcasts and watching the way he conducts himself, that I wouldn't be too surprised to see an Ed Miliband comeback. He is, after all, younger than Johnson.
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
No sleaze in the SNP thankfully. Salmond and Sturgeon say Hi..
Sleaze comes when a party is so long in power that they think that they can get away with anything and still get elected.
People like @Big_G_NorthWales will vote for a donkey with a blue rosette, and in Scotland will vote SNP until independence. Only after that will Scottish politics return to competitive parties.
The SNP will wither away post-independence. I, and many other members, will leave and help build new, normal parties. Our goal is for Scotland to be a normal country.
Or the SNP will become like the ANC in South Africa. The victors of independence not working for their people, but getting voted in continuously anyway ...
What happens to the SNP if it doesn’t achieve independence? Seems an alternative and interesting question
They are like the Earl of Bruce’s spider
I’d say the parties that have at best managed to be a poor second in Scotland for the last 10 years embody that particular fable.
(Snippety snip) There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
An anecdote about pollution: Back in early 2019, Mrs J suddenly became quite ill with lung issues. One night, she started coughing up a great deal of blood. It was, as can be imagined, a very worrying time. Tests were inconclusive, except for asthma (which she has never had before). Inhalers and drugs seemed to keep the symptoms in balance. 2020 was a sh*t year for everyone, but for us, 2019 was worse.
Then lockdown came, and she went from having to commute in a car for 2-2.5 hours, four days a week, to working at home. The symptoms ceased - at least until she did a run past heavy traffic a few months back.
We might well be wrong, but we're convinced that her illness was caused by pollution on the rush-hour trip in.
Sunderland isn't - I suspect it would be possible to build Vauxhall's battery factory in Liverpool but I do wonder if there is any actual benefit for building such a factory in a Freeport - I can't see any country placing major barriers on battery imports as everywhere will need them.
Stellantis' third battery factory (they already have one in France and one in Germany) is going to be in Italy as Fiat is their first brand that's going 100% BEV in 2024.
I can't see the Vauxhall brand surviving as there is literally no point to it. Stellantis has 14(!) brands and something has to give.
Vauxhall is merely rebranded Opel cars so it will stay while Opel stays.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
Yet Germany have managed to turn the Tesla factory into the new Berlin Airport. It’s almost physically finished, but is going to take potentially years to get all the permissions in place to start operating. Oh, and a bunch of environmentalists (yes, really) are trying to get an injunction against the plant, because electric cars bad, or something.
That’s because electric cars are kind of bad for the environment, at least in terms of CO2 emissions, especially if you build them in Germany!
The reason is because electric cars require a lot more energy to construct than equivalent ICE vehicles - mostly the batteries. So if you make your batteries & build your car in a country with a very high fossil fuel % in it’s electrical grid, like Germany (thanks to their mad anti-nuclear stance) you pump out a huge amount of CO2 before the car even rolls out of the plant.
After it’s built, an electric car has low carbon emissions to the extent that local electrical generation is low carbon, which eventually makes up for those early carbon emissions in most places. But the breakeven point is something like 100,000 miles in many countries right now. Or at least it was last time I saw this calculation - as we de-carbonise the grid, this figure will improve of course. It’s probably lower in the UK than in Germany right now I would imagine.
Plus, there’s all the carbon emissions required to build + maintain a very expensive road network. Oh, and mining the battery raw materials. Electric cars are not the obvious environmental no brainer some would have you think.
There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
A further challenge is that many of the rare earths needed for the batteries come from China. There is some evidence that there are significant deposits in Greenland and I think that the pressure to develop these will be immense. Can't see many environmentalists loving very large scale mining going on there.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
Yet Germany have managed to turn the Tesla factory into the new Berlin Airport. It’s almost physically finished, but is going to take potentially years to get all the permissions in place to start operating. Oh, and a bunch of environmentalists (yes, really) are trying to get an injunction against the plant, because electric cars bad, or something.
That’s because electric cars are kind of bad for the environment, at least in terms of CO2 emissions, especially if you build them in Germany!
The reason is because electric cars require a lot more energy to construct than equivalent ICE vehicles - mostly the batteries. So if you make your batteries & build your car in a country with a very high fossil fuel % in it’s electrical grid, like Germany (thanks to their mad anti-nuclear stance) you pump out a huge amount of CO2 before the car even rolls out of the plant.
After it’s built, an electric car has low carbon emissions to the extent that local electrical generation is low carbon, which eventually makes up for those early carbon emissions in most places. But the breakeven point is something like 100,000 miles in many countries right now. Or at least it was last time I saw this calculation - as we de-carbonise the grid, this figure will improve of course. It’s probably lower in the UK than in Germany right now I would imagine.
Plus, there’s all the carbon emissions required to build + maintain a very expensive road network. Oh, and mining the battery raw materials. Electric cars are not the obvious environmental no brainer some would have you think.
There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
A further challenge is that many of the rare earths needed for the batteries come from China. There is some evidence that there are significant deposits in Greenland and I think that the pressure to develop these will be immense. Can't see many environmentalists loving very large scale mining going on there.
I believe they are also in Mojave and in DRC
Good. Fully committing ourselves to a technology which China can control by regulating the supply of key ingredients looks to me a strategic error of the first water. We cannot allow ourselves to be beholden to Xi's China.
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
No sleaze in the SNP thankfully. Salmond and Sturgeon say Hi..
Sleaze comes when a party is so long in power that they think that they can get away with anything and still get elected.
People like @Big_G_NorthWales will vote for a donkey with a blue rosette, and in Scotland will vote SNP until independence. Only after that will Scottish politics return to competitive parties.
The SNP will wither away post-independence. I, and many other members, will leave and help build new, normal parties. Our goal is for Scotland to be a normal country.
Or the SNP will become like the ANC in South Africa. The victors of independence not working for their people, but getting voted in continuously anyway ...
What happens to the SNP if it doesn’t achieve independence? Seems an alternative and interesting question
They are like the Earl of Bruce’s spider
I’d say the parties that have at best managed to be a poor second in Scotland for the last 10 years embody that particular fable.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
Yet Germany have managed to turn the Tesla factory into the new Berlin Airport. It’s almost physically finished, but is going to take potentially years to get all the permissions in place to start operating. Oh, and a bunch of environmentalists (yes, really) are trying to get an injunction against the plant, because electric cars bad, or something.
That’s because electric cars are kind of bad for the environment, at least in terms of CO2 emissions, especially if you build them in Germany!
The reason is because electric cars require a lot more energy to construct than equivalent ICE vehicles - mostly the batteries. So if you make your batteries & build your car in a country with a very high fossil fuel % in it’s electrical grid, like Germany (thanks to their mad anti-nuclear stance) you pump out a huge amount of CO2 before the car even rolls out of the plant.
After it’s built, an electric car has low carbon emissions to the extent that local electrical generation is low carbon, which eventually makes up for those early carbon emissions in most places. But the breakeven point is something like 100,000 miles in many countries right now. Or at least it was last time I saw this calculation - as we de-carbonise the grid, this figure will improve of course. It’s probably lower in the UK than in Germany right now I would imagine.
Plus, there’s all the carbon emissions required to build + maintain a very expensive road network. Oh, and mining the battery raw materials. Electric cars are not the obvious environmental no brainer some would have you think.
There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
A further challenge is that many of the rare earths needed for the batteries come from China. There is some evidence that there are significant deposits in Greenland and I think that the pressure to develop these will be immense. Can't see many environmentalists loving very large scale mining going on there.
I believe they are also in Mojave and in DRC
Good. Fully committing ourselves to a technology which China can control by regulating the supply of key ingredients looks to me a strategic error of the first water. We cannot allow ourselves to be beholden to Xi's China.
I guess we could bully DRC if we need to, but it’s also why China is spending so much effort there
Edit: it’s either Domaine de Romanee-Conte or Democratic Republic of Congo…
p.s. we haven't really played a good side yet. It's true that we may not have to until the final but then Belgium or Italy might await.
Mornin' all!
Denmark seem to have 'fire on the belly'; don't think they should be written off. One wonders too, how much longer Murray can keep going.
Weatherwise it appears to be a better morning; July has brought some summer sun.
It’s all right for some. Our weather forecast is rain for the next week including thunderstorms over the weekend.
We were bloody luck at Wimbledon yesterday, all things considered. Saw 10 hours play from 11 am to 9 pm. Was distinctly cold until the sun came out for a couple of hours.
A few decent days and then a rapid descent second half of the weekend back to Atlantic weather. It may then settle down end of next week.
It's all very well going big on Staycations but UK summer weather can be horrible.
Yep. I am off to the Lake District for a week on Monday
I’ve been in the Lakes for the last week. It’s absolutely manic. Ridiculously busy.
Lovely weather mind.
If we had a good summer here it might revitalise, in the longer term, our domestic tourism. Not bloody likely though!
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
Yet Germany have managed to turn the Tesla factory into the new Berlin Airport. It’s almost physically finished, but is going to take potentially years to get all the permissions in place to start operating. Oh, and a bunch of environmentalists (yes, really) are trying to get an injunction against the plant, because electric cars bad, or something.
That’s because electric cars are kind of bad for the environment, at least in terms of CO2 emissions, especially if you build them in Germany!
The reason is because electric cars require a lot more energy to construct than equivalent ICE vehicles - mostly the batteries. So if you make your batteries & build your car in a country with a very high fossil fuel % in it’s electrical grid, like Germany (thanks to their mad anti-nuclear stance) you pump out a huge amount of CO2 before the car even rolls out of the plant.
After it’s built, an electric car has low carbon emissions to the extent that local electrical generation is low carbon, which eventually makes up for those early carbon emissions in most places. But the breakeven point is something like 100,000 miles in many countries right now. Or at least it was last time I saw this calculation - as we de-carbonise the grid, this figure will improve of course. It’s probably lower in the UK than in Germany right now I would imagine.
Plus, there’s all the carbon emissions required to build + maintain a very expensive road network. Oh, and mining the battery raw materials. Electric cars are not the obvious environmental no brainer some would have you think.
There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
A further challenge is that many of the rare earths needed for the batteries come from China. There is some evidence that there are significant deposits in Greenland and I think that the pressure to develop these will be immense. Can't see many environmentalists loving very large scale mining going on there.
I think that that is a quite reduced problem over the last decade.
One of the things about being on the Government's Marketplace is that you get to see within the list opportunities various other details that they believe are relevant. It's great as it means you pick up details you may never quite grasp as its often in a different context.
In today's list there are a number of HMRC projects that lists their internal structure. I never knew they had one as blatantly named as Customer Strategy and Tax Design (for Customer read Tax Payer)
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
Yet Germany have managed to turn the Tesla factory into the new Berlin Airport. It’s almost physically finished, but is going to take potentially years to get all the permissions in place to start operating. Oh, and a bunch of environmentalists (yes, really) are trying to get an injunction against the plant, because electric cars bad, or something.
That’s because electric cars are kind of bad for the environment, at least in terms of CO2 emissions, especially if you build them in Germany!
The reason is because electric cars require a lot more energy to construct than equivalent ICE vehicles - mostly the batteries. So if you make your batteries & build your car in a country with a very high fossil fuel % in it’s electrical grid, like Germany (thanks to their mad anti-nuclear stance) you pump out a huge amount of CO2 before the car even rolls out of the plant.
After it’s built, an electric car has low carbon emissions to the extent that local electrical generation is low carbon, which eventually makes up for those early carbon emissions in most places. But the breakeven point is something like 100,000 miles in many countries right now. Or at least it was last time I saw this calculation - as we de-carbonise the grid, this figure will improve of course. It’s probably lower in the UK than in Germany right now I would imagine.
Plus, there’s all the carbon emissions required to build + maintain a very expensive road network. Oh, and mining the battery raw materials. Electric cars are not the obvious environmental no brainer some would have you think.
There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
A further challenge is that many of the rare earths needed for the batteries come from China. There is some evidence that there are significant deposits in Greenland and I think that the pressure to develop these will be immense. Can't see many environmentalists loving very large scale mining going on there.
I believe they are also in Mojave and in DRC
Good. Fully committing ourselves to a technology which China can control by regulating the supply of key ingredients looks to me a strategic error of the first water. We cannot allow ourselves to be beholden to Xi's China.
David good morning - just out of interest and apropos of nothing, did you/were you advised to report your experience the other day as a yellow card event?
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
Yet Germany have managed to turn the Tesla factory into the new Berlin Airport. It’s almost physically finished, but is going to take potentially years to get all the permissions in place to start operating. Oh, and a bunch of environmentalists (yes, really) are trying to get an injunction against the plant, because electric cars bad, or something.
That’s because electric cars are kind of bad for the environment, at least in terms of CO2 emissions, especially if you build them in Germany!
The reason is because electric cars require a lot more energy to construct than equivalent ICE vehicles - mostly the batteries. So if you make your batteries & build your car in a country with a very high fossil fuel % in it’s electrical grid, like Germany (thanks to their mad anti-nuclear stance) you pump out a huge amount of CO2 before the car even rolls out of the plant.
After it’s built, an electric car has low carbon emissions to the extent that local electrical generation is low carbon, which eventually makes up for those early carbon emissions in most places. But the breakeven point is something like 100,000 miles in many countries right now. Or at least it was last time I saw this calculation - as we de-carbonise the grid, this figure will improve of course. It’s probably lower in the UK than in Germany right now I would imagine.
Plus, there’s all the carbon emissions required to build + maintain a very expensive road network. Oh, and mining the battery raw materials. Electric cars are not the obvious environmental no brainer some would have you think.
There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
A further challenge is that many of the rare earths needed for the batteries come from China. There is some evidence that there are significant deposits in Greenland and I think that the pressure to develop these will be immense. Can't see many environmentalists loving very large scale mining going on there.
I believe they are also in Mojave and in DRC
Good. Fully committing ourselves to a technology which China can control by regulating the supply of key ingredients looks to me a strategic error of the first water. We cannot allow ourselves to be beholden to Xi's China.
David good morning - just out of interest and apropos of nothing, did you/were you advised to report your experience the other day as a yellow card event?
No. I don't think that there is any possible connection. Firstly, I have had it before. Secondly, there was the best part of 2 weeks between my second vaccination and the onset. Thirdly, it didn't happen after my first one. It was not suggested by anyone.
Since they killed the R35 I think it's fair to say that Nissan no longer make a single car that has any merit or cachet whatsoever. It's a long way down for the company that gave us the Z, the GTR and the S chassis.
Personally, I don't give a flying f*** about 'cachet' in a car. I just want something that will perform the job I want it to do with minimal fuss and cost. Heck, I even drive an automatic ...
I don't particularly like driving; it is a thing that lets me do what I want to do. When I buy a new car, trifling little matters like safety matter more than 0-60.
It's surprising how many of my friends feel the same way (Caterham-7 builders notwithstanding). The car isn't particularly a status symbol; it's a tool.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Sounds about right - though they'll probably export a few to Europe.
As far as subsidies are concerned, it looks pretty similar to what's been going on in the EU - except the number of committed projects is an order of magnitude larger. Germany alone will have a good 10x the production of the Nissan plant by 2025, and there are plants being built in Hungary, Poland, France, Sweden etc.
We're off to a slow start, but at least it's a start.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
Yet Germany have managed to turn the Tesla factory into the new Berlin Airport. It’s almost physically finished, but is going to take potentially years to get all the permissions in place to start operating. Oh, and a bunch of environmentalists (yes, really) are trying to get an injunction against the plant, because electric cars bad, or something.
That’s because electric cars are kind of bad for the environment, at least in terms of CO2 emissions, especially if you build them in Germany!
The reason is because electric cars require a lot more energy to construct than equivalent ICE vehicles - mostly the batteries. So if you make your batteries & build your car in a country with a very high fossil fuel % in it’s electrical grid, like Germany (thanks to their mad anti-nuclear stance) you pump out a huge amount of CO2 before the car even rolls out of the plant.
After it’s built, an electric car has low carbon emissions to the extent that local electrical generation is low carbon, which eventually makes up for those early carbon emissions in most places. But the breakeven point is something like 100,000 miles in many countries right now. Or at least it was last time I saw this calculation - as we de-carbonise the grid, this figure will improve of course. It’s probably lower in the UK than in Germany right now I would imagine.
Plus, there’s all the carbon emissions required to build + maintain a very expensive road network. Oh, and mining the battery raw materials. Electric cars are not the obvious environmental no brainer some would have you think.
There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
A further challenge is that many of the rare earths needed for the batteries come from China. There is some evidence that there are significant deposits in Greenland and I think that the pressure to develop these will be immense. Can't see many environmentalists loving very large scale mining going on there.
I believe they are also in Mojave and in DRC
Good. Fully committing ourselves to a technology which China can control by regulating the supply of key ingredients looks to me a strategic error of the first water. We cannot allow ourselves to be beholden to Xi's China.
I guess we could bully DRC if we need to, but it’s also why China is spending so much effort there
Edit: it’s either Domaine de Romanee-Conte or Democratic Republic of Congo…
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
No sleaze in the SNP thankfully. Salmond and Sturgeon say Hi..
Sleaze comes when a party is so long in power that they think that they can get away with anything and still get elected.
People like @Big_G_NorthWales will vote for a donkey with a blue rosette, and in Scotland will vote SNP until independence. Only after that will Scottish politics return to competitive parties.
And explain why I voted for Blair at two GE
And how many labour supporters voted labour with Corbyn
And I would not vote for any of the donkeys leading the lib dems
Yeah, you always mither about the Tories but turn out for them. No crime is big enough to stop you, in the last two decades.
My parents are the same, no way would my mother have voted for a serial adulterer who abandons his his children in the past. The personality cult of Johnson blinds to all faults.
Or maybe those of us who vote conservative actually believe they are the best choice for the country, not least on Brexit, covid, and the economy and support them because we do not believe the opposition would be an improvement
I've watched, and been interested in, politics in this country for many years; I do not recall a PM who behaved as our present PM does, nor one whose peccadillos(!) were forgiven so easily. Others were criticised for their policies or their ineptitude, apparent or real, but I don't recall any of them, apart perhaps from Churchill, who inspired what appears to be blind loyalty.
And the Churchillian loyalty was a product of WW2.
Some truth in this. Partly it is that Boris, more than most people, inspires in many men a sense of being one of the lads in a classless world; and in many women (no longer young) a sense that he is a son or brother with whom, as in family life, theoretical moral values are overladen with personal loyalties and exceptionalism.
Secondly, all politics is relative. When Blair was the only genius around there was no contest, whatever his shortcomings. The only other relevant politician with current claims to political genius is N Sturgeon, who happens to be fighting a different blood sport at different weights.
The loyalty (which will only last for a time) is because there is no alternative at this moment.
I think much of that is right; not sure about older women's opinion of him though. And if a Tory loses the support of the Tory women, then he is dead. (Gender intended).
I must say that, from listening to his podcasts and watching the way he conducts himself, that I wouldn't be too surprised to see an Ed Miliband comeback. He is, after all, younger than Johnson.
I don't see Miliband ever being leader again, but I could be wrong. But high profile front bench/cabinet (if Labour ever win!) for sure.
His problem (also one of Hague's) was getting the job too early before having the confidence to be himself. There was an interview/podcast around the time of the 2016 election that I remember, although it didn't get much publicity. A bit with a couple of DJs (maybe ex Virgin Radio) where he was just chatting about music and himself and seemed totally relaxed. He had a clear passion for Bastille (real, not the Brown loves Arctic Monkeys nonsense) and came across as unapologetically geeky, but comfortable in that and 'normal'.
Johnson's strength is that he either is confident in himself enough to present the real Johnson or he's good enough at faking it that people believe it is the real Johnson. Miliband and Hague tried to fake what they thought/were told was the persona the public wanted, but they couldn't do it.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
Yet Germany have managed to turn the Tesla factory into the new Berlin Airport. It’s almost physically finished, but is going to take potentially years to get all the permissions in place to start operating. Oh, and a bunch of environmentalists (yes, really) are trying to get an injunction against the plant, because electric cars bad, or something.
That’s because electric cars are kind of bad for the environment, at least in terms of CO2 emissions, especially if you build them in Germany!
The reason is because electric cars require a lot more energy to construct than equivalent ICE vehicles - mostly the batteries. So if you make your batteries & build your car in a country with a very high fossil fuel % in it’s electrical grid, like Germany (thanks to their mad anti-nuclear stance) you pump out a huge amount of CO2 before the car even rolls out of the plant.
After it’s built, an electric car has low carbon emissions to the extent that local electrical generation is low carbon, which eventually makes up for those early carbon emissions in most places. But the breakeven point is something like 100,000 miles in many countries right now. Or at least it was last time I saw this calculation - as we de-carbonise the grid, this figure will improve of course. It’s probably lower in the UK than in Germany right now I would imagine.
Plus, there’s all the carbon emissions required to build + maintain a very expensive road network. Oh, and mining the battery raw materials. Electric cars are not the obvious environmental no brainer some would have you think.
There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
A further challenge is that many of the rare earths needed for the batteries come from China. There is some evidence that there are significant deposits in Greenland and I think that the pressure to develop these will be immense. Can't see many environmentalists loving very large scale mining going on there.
I believe they are also in Mojave and in DRC
Good. Fully committing ourselves to a technology which China can control by regulating the supply of key ingredients looks to me a strategic error of the first water. We cannot allow ourselves to be beholden to Xi's China.
David good morning - just out of interest and apropos of nothing, did you/were you advised to report your experience the other day as a yellow card event?
No. I don't think that there is any possible connection. Firstly, I have had it before. Secondly, there was the best part of 2 weeks between my second vaccination and the onset. Thirdly, it didn't happen after my first one. It was not suggested by anyone.
Since they killed the R35 I think it's fair to say that Nissan no longer make a single car that has any merit or cachet whatsoever. It's a long way down for the company that gave us the Z, the GTR and the S chassis.
Personally, I don't give a flying f*** about 'cachet' in a car. I just want something that will perform the job I want it to do with minimal fuss and cost. Heck, I even drive an automatic ...
I don't particularly like driving; it is a thing that lets me do what I want to do. When I buy a new car, trifling little matters like safety matter more than 0-60.
It's surprising how many of my friends feel the same way (Caterham-7 builders notwithstanding). The car isn't particularly a status symbol; it's a tool.
I’m driving a 2003 bmw that still works just fine…
Since they killed the R35 I think it's fair to say that Nissan no longer make a single car that has any merit or cachet whatsoever. It's a long way down for the company that gave us the Z, the GTR and the S chassis.
Personally, I don't give a flying f*** about 'cachet' in a car. I just want something that will perform the job I want it to do with minimal fuss and cost. Heck, I even drive an automatic ...
I don't particularly like driving; it is a thing that lets me do what I want to do. When I buy a new car, trifling little matters like safety matter more than 0-60.
It's surprising how many of my friends feel the same way (Caterham-7 builders notwithstanding). The car isn't particularly a status symbol; it's a tool.
Going purist for a mo, can you move somewhere different and just not have a car?
Very possible ... plenty of people are unable to drive for medical reasons.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
Yet Germany have managed to turn the Tesla factory into the new Berlin Airport. It’s almost physically finished, but is going to take potentially years to get all the permissions in place to start operating. Oh, and a bunch of environmentalists (yes, really) are trying to get an injunction against the plant, because electric cars bad, or something.
That’s because electric cars are kind of bad for the environment, at least in terms of CO2 emissions, especially if you build them in Germany!
The reason is because electric cars require a lot more energy to construct than equivalent ICE vehicles - mostly the batteries. So if you make your batteries & build your car in a country with a very high fossil fuel % in it’s electrical grid, like Germany (thanks to their mad anti-nuclear stance) you pump out a huge amount of CO2 before the car even rolls out of the plant.
After it’s built, an electric car has low carbon emissions to the extent that local electrical generation is low carbon, which eventually makes up for those early carbon emissions in most places. But the breakeven point is something like 100,000 miles in many countries right now. Or at least it was last time I saw this calculation - as we de-carbonise the grid, this figure will improve of course. It’s probably lower in the UK than in Germany right now I would imagine.
Plus, there’s all the carbon emissions required to build + maintain a very expensive road network. Oh, and mining the battery raw materials. Electric cars are not the obvious environmental no brainer some would have you think.
There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
A further challenge is that many of the rare earths needed for the batteries come from China. There is some evidence that there are significant deposits in Greenland and I think that the pressure to develop these will be immense. Can't see many environmentalists loving very large scale mining going on there.
I believe they are also in Mojave and in DRC
Good. Fully committing ourselves to a technology which China can control by regulating the supply of key ingredients looks to me a strategic error of the first water. We cannot allow ourselves to be beholden to Xi's China.
I guess we could bully DRC if we need to, but it’s also why China is spending so much effort there
Edit: it’s either Domaine de Romanee-Conte or Democratic Republic of Congo…
Since they killed the R35 I think it's fair to say that Nissan no longer make a single car that has any merit or cachet whatsoever. It's a long way down for the company that gave us the Z, the GTR and the S chassis.
The new 400Z looks good - but European markets won’t be getting it.
And an article complaining that - unlike the UK - Luxembourg was not a week ago checking properly at the airport that people coming in had proper COVID tests. And 36% Delta in 14-20 Jun.
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
At one time the Tories had a cohort of MP's who were from the squirearchy; didn't need a job but needed an occupation. People who 'did the right thing'. That 'right thing' might not have been so for the factory workers and other city dwellers, but there was a sort of code behind it. Those people have, it seems to me, vanished.
And who has replaced them? Wide boys.
Social media has had a bad effect on politics and political parties, but it has been particularly deleterious for Conservatives, especially Scottish ones. Discuss.
I don't particularly like driving; it is a thing that lets me do what I want to do. When I buy a new car, trifling little matters like safety matter more than 0-60.
It's surprising how many of my friends feel the same way (Caterham-7 builders notwithstanding). The car isn't particularly a status symbol; it's a tool.
At one time I had an Austin 'Mini' Metro. Absolutely no frills, but as a 3 door you could get a load of stuff in it. Reliable. Cheap.
I traded it in for a factory Mini Cooper because it was much cooler...
What a terrible, terrible car that was. Great fun, while it ran. Couldn't get my tools in the boot. I was very happy to move on.
(Snippety snip) There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
An anecdote about pollution: Back in early 2019, Mrs J suddenly became quite ill with lung issues. One night, she started coughing up a great deal of blood. It was, as can be imagined, a very worrying time. Tests were inconclusive, except for asthma (which she has never had before). Inhalers and drugs seemed to keep the symptoms in balance. 2020 was a sh*t year for everyone, but for us, 2019 was worse.
Then lockdown came, and she went from having to commute in a car for 2-2.5 hours, four days a week, to working at home. The symptoms ceased - at least until she did a run past heavy traffic a few months back.
We might well be wrong, but we're convinced that her illness was caused by pollution on the rush-hour trip in.
Pollution: an invisible killer.
If you map severe asthma cases in cities like Leicester, they map closely to major traffic routes. Petrochemical and diesel particulate smog are major drivers of asthma, and also less fatal mucous membrane inflammations like "hay fever".
Since they killed the R35 I think it's fair to say that Nissan no longer make a single car that has any merit or cachet whatsoever. It's a long way down for the company that gave us the Z, the GTR and the S chassis.
Personally, I don't give a flying f*** about 'cachet' in a car. I just want something that will perform the job I want it to do with minimal fuss and cost. Heck, I even drive an automatic ...
I don't particularly like driving; it is a thing that lets me do what I want to do. When I buy a new car, trifling little matters like safety matter more than 0-60.
It's surprising how many of my friends feel the same way (Caterham-7 builders notwithstanding). The car isn't particularly a status symbol; it's a tool.
Going purist for a mo, can you move somewhere different and just not have a car?
Very possible ... plenty of people are unable to drive for medical reasons.
That's actually what we used to do: Mrs J didn't drive, and we'd just move to near she was working. Hence we moved frequently around the country. She learnt to drive, as she felt it was unfair for me to be taxiing her everywhere. But then we bought a house within walking distance of her workplace and had a kid. That company was taken over by a larger one, and she had to commute into Cambridge. Then she moved to another company down in Harlow.
If we'd had to move, we'd have had to move three times - and we like where we live, and the little 'un is settled in school. Besides, we'd have to live in (shudders) Harlow ...
A Cambourne to Harlow trip by public transport is *interesting*.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
I am sorry but investing in the future green economy is essential and is actively promoted by all governments
All governments recently signed a “level playing field” treaty, but one of the signatories was crossing their fingers behind their back. Guess which one.
The EU are over and the UK will decide on investments and jobs
Investment decisions will surely be based on access to markets into which to sell, so the EU is not over. It's just that the relationship and dependency is different.
The EU dictating UK investment decisions to the UK government is over
That never happened, of course. What the EU can do is close its markets to goods and services made by companies subsidised by the UK taxpayer. Hopefully, though, the UK government will not be throwing public money at businesses that then cannot export their goods because of decisions the UK government has made elsewhere.
Nissan plans are largely based on the UK market IMO. The internal combustion engine is nearly dead. It was broadly a choice between winding down the operation or building a battery factory. In a world of protectionism, it is good to have a foothold in the UK market. Tens of millions of cars here are going to be replaced with EV.
Yes - to replace the ICE production capacity for the UK market will require multiple battery plants on this scale.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
Yet Germany have managed to turn the Tesla factory into the new Berlin Airport. It’s almost physically finished, but is going to take potentially years to get all the permissions in place to start operating. Oh, and a bunch of environmentalists (yes, really) are trying to get an injunction against the plant, because electric cars bad, or something.
That’s because electric cars are kind of bad for the environment, at least in terms of CO2 emissions, especially if you build them in Germany!
The reason is because electric cars require a lot more energy to construct than equivalent ICE vehicles - mostly the batteries. So if you make your batteries & build your car in a country with a very high fossil fuel % in it’s electrical grid, like Germany (thanks to their mad anti-nuclear stance) you pump out a huge amount of CO2 before the car even rolls out of the plant.
After it’s built, an electric car has low carbon emissions to the extent that local electrical generation is low carbon, which eventually makes up for those early carbon emissions in most places. But the breakeven point is something like 100,000 miles in many countries right now. Or at least it was last time I saw this calculation - as we de-carbonise the grid, this figure will improve of course. It’s probably lower in the UK than in Germany right now I would imagine.
Plus, there’s all the carbon emissions required to build + maintain a very expensive road network. Oh, and mining the battery raw materials. Electric cars are not the obvious environmental no brainer some would have you think.
There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
Useful post thank you. I am thinking of getting a fully electric car, but have to confess it is because it is 1% BIK if I put it through my company. I am also fortunate because I can park it on my own property and charge it there, rather than on a street. . I also quite like the fact that if I drive into our nearby city (15 miles away) I am not helping to gas the children there, though the local buses are having a good go at that on their own!
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
No sleaze in the SNP thankfully. Salmond and Sturgeon say Hi..
Sleaze comes when a party is so long in power that they think that they can get away with anything and still get elected.
People like @Big_G_NorthWales will vote for a donkey with a blue rosette, and in Scotland will vote SNP until independence. Only after that will Scottish politics return to competitive parties.
The SNP will wither away post-independence. I, and many other members, will leave and help build new, normal parties. Our goal is for Scotland to be a normal country.
Or the SNP will become like the ANC in South Africa. The victors of independence not working for their people, but getting voted in continuously anyway ...
What happens to the SNP if it doesn’t achieve independence? Seems an alternative and interesting question
They are like the Earl of Bruce’s spider
I’d say the parties that have at best managed to be a poor second in Scotland for the last 10 years embody that particular fable.
Tories the true heirs to Robert the Bruce? I suppose it makes sense - he was a big landowner on both sides of the border
But also a winner on one side of that border, so the ‘bloodline’ has obviously been dangerously watered down. The Tories’ record in Scotland during my lifetime will remain consistent during both our remaining occupancies of this mortal coil.
The figures for the Novavax vaccine look very good. Would be a decent option for the autumn booster, probably - but it might be a good idea to wait for the US trial results to get more safety data.
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
At one time the Tories had a cohort of MP's who were from the squirearchy; didn't need a job but needed an occupation. People who 'did the right thing'. That 'right thing' might not have been so for the factory workers and other city dwellers, but there was a sort of code behind it. Those people have, it seems to me, vanished.
And who has replaced them? Wide boys.
Social media has had a bad effect on politics and political parties, but it has been particularly deleterious for Conservatives, especially Scottish ones. Discuss.
Isn't that the founder of the Northumberland nationalist party, too? Edity: and a former Labour spad too?
Big Brade is a model of consistency. Since the SLDs seem to be withering into irrelevance I fear that their chance of benefitting from Braden’s talents are fast receding.
It's a risky one though, unlike C&A which felt like one of those golden tips that seemed right: thank you again, Mike: your tip paid for my day at Wimbledon yesterday among many other things!
Peak Boris was May 25th. There is a discernible and definite shift now.
The one thing which might lift the Conservatives back is if England win Euro 2020 in front of a full house at Wembley. Otherwise the tide has turned.
You may be right but the polling evidence really is not there for such a claim. The government has had a rough week or so and the press is hostile but these kind of things often flare up only to fizzle out again. All we need is a Grauniead - ' the day the polls turned' and we head back to square one.
What never fizzles out is Tory sleaze. The events of the last week fit into a recognisable pattern going back many decades.
What the Tories need is a generation of nice people. Good, honest, competent, straightforward, pleasant folk with no “side”. When one looks at the coming generation of young Tories one sees the exact opposite. Tory sleaze is going to be around for at least a half century to come.
At one time the Tories had a cohort of MP's who were from the squirearchy; didn't need a job but needed an occupation. People who 'did the right thing'. That 'right thing' might not have been so for the factory workers and other city dwellers, but there was a sort of code behind it. Those people have, it seems to me, vanished.
And who has replaced them? Wide boys.
Social media has had a bad effect on politics and political parties, but it has been particularly deleterious for Conservatives, especially Scottish ones. Discuss.
Isn't that the founder of the Northumberland nationalist party, too? Edity: and a former Labour spad too?
I am looking forward to the folks in the Borders (and possibly Shetland?) asking for a referendum to re-join the Union after Scottish independence. Personally I think it should be a condition on any further referendum that such areas have the right to remain in the Union should they wish.
I commented yesterday that Starmer had a good PMQs and Boris's mumbling was embarrassing
However, I doubt the voters of B & S tune into PMQs, but I do think the divisive, nasty and down right ugly campaign fought by Galloway may see voters rallying to Kim Leadbeater and I expect Labour to hold the seat, probably with a reduced majority
However, returning to Boris and his inability to sack wayward colleagues and to make unpopular decisions I believe this is being noticed by conservative mps
Last Friday, at the height of Boris and Hancock's prevarications I text my local conservative mp (who is also a personal friend) and he was unequivocal in wanting Hancock gone and confirmed he had made his views known to the whips office in no uncertain terms
When news broke of Hancock's resignation I text the news to him and his one word response says it all 'fantastic'
There were 80 or more conservative mps who also demanded to the whips that Hancock resigned and Hancock found no support in the cabinet
Boris seems to have lost his mojo, (whether he has long covid is another matter) and is making unnecessary missteps and I would not be surprised if this was not being noticed across the party and with several replacements waiting in the wings, I would hope the party addresses the issue sooner rather than later
Remember, the conservatives know how to win and have a system for changing their leaders
Did your MP friend express a view about wanting Mancock gone last time he broke the ministerial code? Or Patel gone for breaking the ministerial code? Or Johnson gone for repeatedly breaking the ministerial code, having his ministers lie to parliament etc etc?
Tories can't pull faces at Matt Hancock without applying the same rules to Patel and Johnson and the others. Without being massive hypocrites.
No idea who Mancock is but the conservatives will act to replace their leader when they consider the time has come
Don't be coy, you know exactly what I am talking about. You and your MP friend support Cabinet Ministers including Hancock breaking the ministerial code when it suits you. And then turn on the guy when it doesn't.
He has done nothing that other ministers including himself previously and his boss and the Home Secretary have done. None of them resigned. None of them had calls from you or your MP friend to resign.
Its called hypocrisy. Double standards.
No - it is politics and this conservative government retains my support because it is best for brexit, covid and economy
You don't have to be a hypocrite to think there should be a Conservative government. You could actually try being a Conservative - as many on this forum have repeatedly pointed out you are not - and support Conservative values and policies.
This lot are Blue Labour. Led by a liar and and a charlatan who has surrounded himself with other liars and a traitor and weak sycophants. You condemn Hancock for breaking the rules but previously supported Hancock for breaking the rules. You support Patel for breaking the rules. You support Johnson for breaking the rules.
If you believe Hancock should have gone then to be credible you have to believe that Patel and Williamson and Johnson and Jenrick should have gone. You don't, that makes you and your MP friend hypocrites.
(Snippety snip) There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
An anecdote about pollution: Back in early 2019, Mrs J suddenly became quite ill with lung issues. One night, she started coughing up a great deal of blood. It was, as can be imagined, a very worrying time. Tests were inconclusive, except for asthma (which she has never had before). Inhalers and drugs seemed to keep the symptoms in balance. 2020 was a sh*t year for everyone, but for us, 2019 was worse.
Then lockdown came, and she went from having to commute in a car for 2-2.5 hours, four days a week, to working at home. The symptoms ceased - at least until she did a run past heavy traffic a few months back.
We might well be wrong, but we're convinced that her illness was caused by pollution on the rush-hour trip in.
Pollution: an invisible killer.
If you map severe asthma cases in cities like Leicester, they map closely to major traffic routes. Petrochemical and diesel particulate smog are major drivers of asthma, and also less fatal mucous membrane inflammations like "hay fever".
It's an old joke in the oil industry that if you invented petrol today, there is no way you would be allowed to sell it.
(Snippety snip) There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
An anecdote about pollution: Back in early 2019, Mrs J suddenly became quite ill with lung issues. One night, she started coughing up a great deal of blood. It was, as can be imagined, a very worrying time. Tests were inconclusive, except for asthma (which she has never had before). Inhalers and drugs seemed to keep the symptoms in balance. 2020 was a sh*t year for everyone, but for us, 2019 was worse.
Then lockdown came, and she went from having to commute in a car for 2-2.5 hours, four days a week, to working at home. The symptoms ceased - at least until she did a run past heavy traffic a few months back.
We might well be wrong, but we're convinced that her illness was caused by pollution on the rush-hour trip in.
Pollution: an invisible killer.
If you map severe asthma cases in cities like Leicester, they map closely to major traffic routes. Petrochemical and diesel particulate smog are major drivers of asthma, and also less fatal mucous membrane inflammations like "hay fever".
From memory, the paramedics estimated she coughed up well over half a litre of blood that night. And that was from the second episode (she coughed up more an hour earlier). When tested, her lungs exhibited ground glass opacities.
Frightening times. We have, for obvious reasons, been keen to avoid Covid.
Comments
Hopefully it’s a two horse race, and the scumbag loses his deposit.
I've spotted what absolutely look like stereotypical Heavy Woollen angry white man type voters at Galloway events. Without him there I would expect the Tories to pick the seat up. With him there? He could take votes off both sides.
I hope not. He is magnificently awful and deserves to lose his deposit. Fat chance of that though - win or lose he will claim victory.
https://twitter.com/clatchardcraig/status/1410485080087306240?s=21
It looks like an artist’s rendering rather than a photo, I’m sure if it were real we’d have seen loads of pics of it!
Rory the (ex) Tory being the archetype.
Five years of Corbyn did something similar to Labour, for balance. It's hard to come back from.
Back on topic, aren't the elephants in the room the minor players?
If the Woolies go blue en masse, the blue team wins.
If Galloway picks up red wall tories as well as ethnic Labour, Labour are in with a chance.
I do think that a Labour loss would be seriously damaging to SKS. He really needs to show he can win.
On the subject of state aid - it hasn't gone away in the EU. Just been moderated. The Tesla factory near Berlin came with various helpful contributions from various levels of government, for instance.
And the Churchillian loyalty was a product of WW2.
The man is scum.
Nissan makes around half a million cars at Sunderland, and JLR a make around half a million more (although mainly for export). The vast majority of cars are imported, so there’s a huge opportunity for more domestic production.
https://physics.aps.org/articles/v11/s140
But the grid array seems very common:
https://twistedsifter.com/2014/11/wind-farm-from-above/
https://www.eurotrib.com/story/2010/9/23/101324/764
No idea if they are Lib Dems
LDs and Greens, get behind her. She’s our best chance to stop the Conservatives taking the seat.
https://twitter.com/EmmaKennedy/status/1410280911527157763
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2021/05/18/the-rules-even-tesla-berlin-gigafactory-elon-musk-cant-break/
Another huge opportunity for the UK.
https://twitter.com/europeelects/status/1410275025169616897?s=21
That is about 18-20% of normal UK car production.
So we need another 4 or 5 similar to meet domestic, then perhaps extra capacity for export.
(He polls better than Macron v Le Pen)
Is this in a Freeport Area?
If the story is as I've read, I've much more sympathy with the environmentalists than Tesla. That might be a big conditional, though ...
Is there a silver jubilee one somewhere?
In this case we want to remain in the car making business and that means we have to have the infrastructure in place to allow car manufacturers to make cars here. That is going to need access to high quality steel, batteries and a proper investment in engineering at our Universities and colleges. I agree it can go too far but this looks like an entirely sensible investment by UK plc to me.
It's a question of degree. We should not be picking winners but we should be facilitating industries by giving them what they need to operate here. The different businesses can then compete for custom and the available resources.
No sympathy with the enviromentalists, who are like the worst type of NIMBY. They spent years shouting about the wonders of electric cars, then object vociferously to every plan to actually make them. They just don’t like the concept of personal transport.
Besides which, the potential for Labour benefitting from the Hancock debacle will also be more than offset by Boris' 2 nil win over Germany on Tuesday.
https://www.theparkstrust.com/our-work/the-tree-cathedral/
Or this one at Whipsnade:
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/whipsnade-tree-cathedral
A riveting article about what Labour needs to do to stand for something and win, by an in house Labour expert. Intriguingly the longish article manages to say nothing about what this might be in policy terms, and amazingly manages to say nothing of substance about how Labour might approach the fact that we have left the EU and have a long positioning process to undergo.
Well that's what I am hoping the voters of Batley will think.
Agreed about the run-off.
Watch Nicholas Dupont-Aignan.
VAG seem to have the best strategy (if not the best products) for the EV revolution and the Japanese OEMs look slightly lost by tinkering with multiple technologies and not committing to one.
The reason is because electric cars require a lot more energy to construct than equivalent ICE vehicles - mostly the batteries. So if you make your batteries & build your car in a country with a very high fossil fuel % in it’s electrical grid, like Germany (thanks to their mad anti-nuclear stance) you pump out a huge amount of CO2 before the car even rolls out of the plant.
After it’s built, an electric car has low carbon emissions to the extent that local electrical generation is low carbon, which eventually makes up for those early carbon emissions in most places. But the breakeven point is something like 100,000 miles in many countries right now. Or at least it was last time I saw this calculation - as we de-carbonise the grid, this figure will improve of course. It’s probably lower in the UK than in Germany right now I would imagine.
Plus, there’s all the carbon emissions required to build + maintain a very expensive road network. Oh, and mining the battery raw materials. Electric cars are not the obvious environmental no brainer some would have you think.
There are two very definite improvements electric vehicles bring though: 1) lower road noise (no engine!) & 2) zero emissions in cities, which will make a huge difference to quality of life once we’ve electrified everything.
The reason I ask is that for The Open golf championship, you either have to show you've been doubled jabbed or have proof of a negative lateral flow test within 48 hours of attending the event. That seems unfair to me as I think I have as much right to be protected from the doubled jabbed as from anyone who isn't double jabbed.
Obviously I think there should be no restrictions whatsoever, but I just thought I'd point out the unfairness of some of the thinking at the moment.
Labour is almost dead in Scotland and bereft of talent. The generation of Labour placemen in our public sector appointments are now retiring or retired and they are not being replaced. It is hard to see where new growth comes from.
The Tories are probably pretty close to their peak. I can just about imagine them gaining control, briefly, of the likes of Edinburgh or Aberdeen but there are clear caps on their support and they are bumping against them. Ruth seemed to offer the opportunity to expand the potential base but with her out the picture this seems unlikely.
The Lib Dems are in an even worse state. I think that it is more likely that they will be replaced as to 4th party by the Greens at every level, just as they already are in Holyrood.
So the SNP dominate by default. They might split of course but the complete failure of Alba is a warning to those politicians who are in this for a career and the SNP has plenty of them.
Secondly, all politics is relative. When Blair was the only genius around there was no contest, whatever his shortcomings. The only other relevant politician with current claims to political genius is N Sturgeon, who happens to be fighting a different blood sport at different weights.
The loyalty (which will only last for a time) is because there is no alternative at this moment.
Lovely weather mind.
I can't see the Vauxhall brand surviving as there is literally no point to it. Stellantis has 14(!) brands and something has to give.
Many think they're being "tactical" and only spouting crap because it's what the electorate want to hear, whereas in fact they've bought into the crap themselves, hook, line, and sinker.
I must say that, from listening to his podcasts and watching the way he conducts himself, that I wouldn't be too surprised to see an Ed Miliband comeback.
He is, after all, younger than Johnson.
#Ruth4FM
#Kezia4FM
#Richard4FM
#Carlaw4FM
#Anas4FM
#Ross4FM
etc
Back in early 2019, Mrs J suddenly became quite ill with lung issues. One night, she started coughing up a great deal of blood. It was, as can be imagined, a very worrying time. Tests were inconclusive, except for asthma (which she has never had before). Inhalers and drugs seemed to keep the symptoms in balance. 2020 was a sh*t year for everyone, but for us, 2019 was worse.
Then lockdown came, and she went from having to commute in a car for 2-2.5 hours, four days a week, to working at home. The symptoms ceased - at least until she did a run past heavy traffic a few months back.
We might well be wrong, but we're convinced that her illness was caused by pollution on the rush-hour trip in.
Pollution: an invisible killer.
Edit: it’s either Domaine de Romanee-Conte or Democratic Republic of Congo…
Not bloody likely though!
In today's list there are a number of HMRC projects that lists their internal structure. I never knew they had one as blatantly named as Customer Strategy and Tax Design (for Customer read Tax Payer)
I don't particularly like driving; it is a thing that lets me do what I want to do. When I buy a new car, trifling little matters like safety matter more than 0-60.
It's surprising how many of my friends feel the same way (Caterham-7 builders notwithstanding). The car isn't particularly a status symbol; it's a tool.
As far as subsidies are concerned, it looks pretty similar to what's been going on in the EU - except the number of committed projects is an order of magnitude larger.
Germany alone will have a good 10x the production of the Nissan plant by 2025, and there are plants being built in Hungary, Poland, France, Sweden etc.
We're off to a slow start, but at least it's a start.
His problem (also one of Hague's) was getting the job too early before having the confidence to be himself. There was an interview/podcast around the time of the 2016 election that I remember, although it didn't get much publicity. A bit with a couple of DJs (maybe ex Virgin Radio) where he was just chatting about music and himself and seemed totally relaxed. He had a clear passion for Bastille (real, not the Brown loves Arctic Monkeys nonsense) and came across as unapologetically geeky, but comfortable in that and 'normal'.
Johnson's strength is that he either is confident in himself enough to present the real Johnson or he's good enough at faking it that people believe it is the real Johnson. Miliband and Hague tried to fake what they thought/were told was the persona the public wanted, but they couldn't do it.
Very possible ... plenty of people are unable to drive for medical reasons.
And an article complaining that - unlike the UK - Luxembourg was not a week ago checking properly at the airport that people coming in had proper COVID tests. And 36% Delta in 14-20 Jun.
https://www.luxtimes.lu/en/luxembourg/covid-uk-travellers-widely-flout-luxembourg-corona-rules-60d9ce3bde135b9236867119
I traded it in for a factory Mini Cooper because it was much cooler...
What a terrible, terrible car that was. Great fun, while it ran. Couldn't get my tools in the boot. I was very happy to move on.
But then we bought a house within walking distance of her workplace and had a kid. That company was taken over by a larger one, and she had to commute into Cambridge. Then she moved to another company down in Harlow.
If we'd had to move, we'd have had to move three times - and we like where we live, and the little 'un is settled in school. Besides, we'd have to live in (shudders) Harlow ...
A Cambourne to Harlow trip by public transport is *interesting*.
Would be a decent option for the autumn booster, probably - but it might be a good idea to wait for the US trial results to get more safety data.
Safety and Efficacy of NVX-CoV2373 Covid-19 Vaccine
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2107659
Since the SLDs seem to be withering into irrelevance I fear that their chance of benefitting from Braden’s talents are fast receding.
This lot are Blue Labour. Led by a liar and and a charlatan who has surrounded himself with other liars and a traitor and weak sycophants. You condemn Hancock for breaking the rules but previously supported Hancock for breaking the rules. You support Patel for breaking the rules. You support Johnson for breaking the rules.
If you believe Hancock should have gone then to be credible you have to believe that Patel and Williamson and Johnson and Jenrick should have gone. You don't, that makes you and your MP friend hypocrites.
Frightening times. We have, for obvious reasons, been keen to avoid Covid.