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As Britain awaits a new prime minister, its cost-of-living crisis mounts

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Re: As Britain awaits a new prime minister, its cost-of-living crisis mounts

#81

Post by lostlogin »

MrRiddle wrote: post #74
mellavora wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counter-argument. Why are the G7 not increasing the aid to Ukraine, to more quickly end the war and force Russia to settle?

They are trying to quickly end the war, it’s Russia who’s prolonging it on purpose. Russia attacked with 1 against 4 in manpower, and is completely fine with the war lasting for a long time. We now see how western powers are forcing Ukraine to do devastating counter offensives that will lead to quicker defeat. And even then I think Russia will take its time. We’re approaching a 10 year long business cycle where cheap…

You make it sound like this is going how Putin wanted it to, and that this is calculated and cunning.

Re: As Britain awaits a new prime minister, its cost-of-living crisis mounts

#82

Post by bArray »

I was thinking about this just the other day:

0. Secure food chains _now_. Nobody is talking about this yet. Droughts + fertilizer shortage + energy crisis + inflation = disaster. Name a single Country that got a good harvest this year. Personally I have begun to slowly store long-storage food items to get way ahead of panic buying.

1. Invest in nuclear power heavily. It's okay saying "people should change their lives to be more sustainable" - without ever giving details about exactly how that is supposed to be done. The people saying such things have _zero_ idea about how their Country actually works.

2. Reduce or remove green levies and stop subsidizing green energy initiatives. It is simply false to state that green energy is cheaper when it is heavily subsidized - if it was so affordable and cheap it should be able to fund itself, but it can't. If it needs growth and is such an amazing investment, allow for private investment. If the UK tax payer _must_ subsidize it, we want part ownership of it so we can set prices.

3. Stop pushing for electric cars when we don't have the energy infrastructure or raw materials. Fuel cars are likely to stay until 2050 or so. Hybrids also make more sense as the 'cheap' energy is likely to fluctuate.

4. If a war were to break out, it will likely happen very soon. Countries are on their back-foot, governments need a distraction and tensions easily rise over limited resources in contended locations. We need immediate preparations for defense and offense.

Re: As Britain awaits a new prime minister, its cost-of-living crisis mounts

#83

Post by lostlogin »

Ekaros wrote: post #8
simonh wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6 out of 10 Britons support sanctions against Russia.

I then genuinely hope that the same 6 out of 10 are happy to pay their increased energy bill.

It didn’t have to be that way though. It probably does now, but reducing dependence on Russia would have been wise in hindsight. It doesn’t take a genius to see that depending on Russia is a bad idea.

Re: As Britain awaits a new prime minister, its cost-of-living crisis mounts

#84

Post by Gravityloss »

bArray wrote: post #73
Gravityloss wrote: post #62

Britain has for a long time neglected energy efficiency improvements and investment in renewable energy. The houses are the worst insulated in Europe [1]. UK has extremely good wind resources, very mild winters, bearable summers, a lot of capital available, a generally organized society. As a starting point, from energy point of view, it is extremely advantageous compared to say Finland or Germany. Now vote someone w…

> Britain has for a long time neglected energy efficiency improvements and investment in renewable energy. Like the EU nations, the UK was designed and built to use energy in what seemed like a sustainable way. Obviously every Country in Europe is now reconsidering what to make reductions. If anything this is quite promising for the UK's winter, as there are so many quick-win improvements to be made (assuming we can…

Did you look at the link? Spain is better insulated than Britain. That it gets to -40 in Lapland is a red herring.

And if the climate is so mild that insulation is not needed, what's the problem then...

Having said that, all countries would benefit from better building.

Re: As Britain awaits a new prime minister, its cost-of-living crisis mounts

#85

Post by lostlogin »

MrRiddle wrote: post #78
ShivShankaran wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Impressive how much propaganda can achieve. The average citizen also wanted to stand up to Saddam, Gaddafi, xi , Al Assad before they take over the world

Interesting how people care about Ukraine where Russian actions are arguably very localized to military targets but no one is concerned for over 500k dead in Iraq and their current civil war, all caused by certain NATO countries. Half of the ME is on fire, but no one care. Just a bunch of hypocrites.

> Russian actions are arguably very localized to military targets

I don’t think anyone believes this.

Your comment is whataboutism at a grand level. It is possible to oppose slaughtering people wherever they live.

Re: As Britain awaits a new prime minister, its cost-of-living crisis mounts

#86

Post by DFHippie »

bArray wrote: post #82

I was thinking about this just the other day: 0. Secure food chains _now_. Nobody is talking about this yet. Droughts + fertilizer shortage + energy crisis + inflation = disaster. Name a single Country that got a good harvest this year. Personally I have begun to slowly store long-storage food items to get way ahead of panic buying. 1. Invest in nuclear power heavily. It's okay saying "people should change their live…

It's cold. Burn the house down now!

Re: As Britain awaits a new prime minister, its cost-of-living crisis mounts

#87

Post by buran77 »

lostlogin wrote: post #69
buran77 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am extremely comfortable with people having to suffer the obvious consequences of their choicse [sic] Of course, because you probably don't have to live with any serious consequences of your choices, and you're most likely unaffected by these ones either. Almost half if not more than half of the population in a democracy usually doesn't get to make a realistic choice, they voted for the losers without enough powe…

> Then realistically you probably didn't get to "suffer" the real consequences from most of your democratic process related choices. An example of this that I have heard many times is that of Blair and Iraq. However now the situation is more interesting as Brexit was done to themselves, not others (though that does not make any suffering ok).

> Brexit was done to themselves

Part of my point is that unanimity (amongst the people) in democracy is pretty much unheard of. So Brexit was not done by everyone. Realistically it wasn't even done by a majority of the population. All the others are in for the ride despite being against it.

Democracy may be the best system we've got now but it sure sucks sometimes. It's why it's called the dictatorship of the majority, and many countries are democratic and yet have very little protections for the different minorities, particularly the ones who have no chance of becoming a majority anytime soon.

The other part of the point is that most times people don't suffer from some of their decisions despite taking credit for any when it suits them. Similar to sport fans where when their team wins "we won", and when it loses "they lost".

Re: As Britain awaits a new prime minister, its cost-of-living crisis mounts

#88

Post by orwin »

bstr_ wrote: post #64
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>alternatives that don't require us to prop up quasi-dictatorships in order to keep the lights on But how? The entire economy of the city of London is based on being the word's money laundering capital, vacation playground and best buddy for Russian Oligarchs, Saudi Royals, CCP big shots and other wealthy dictators and warlords. It's Thacher's legacy.

Why Thatcher and not Blair? His reforms have a more direct influence on the situation we find ourselves in. After all, it was Mandelson who said "We are intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich."

Because it's all politicians since Thatcher ? But i will admit that the Third way, like it's French equivalent 10 years ago, can do more harm faster than regular liberals.

Re: As Britain awaits a new prime minister, its cost-of-living crisis mounts

#89

Post by MrRiddle »

lostlogin wrote: post #85
MrRiddle wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting how people care about Ukraine where Russian actions are arguably very localized to military targets but no one is concerned for over 500k dead in Iraq and their current civil war, all caused by certain NATO countries. Half of the ME is on fire, but no one care. Just a bunch of hypocrites.

> Russian actions are arguably very localized to military targets I don’t think anyone believes this. Your comment is whataboutism at a grand level. It is possible to oppose slaughtering people wherever they live.

Yet people didn’t oppose when their own governments were slaughtering people. Countries ruined for decades if not centuries. Whataboutism would be if I justified Russian actions, but I’m not doing that. I’m looking at the western butchers pointing fingers at Russian butchers. Hypocrite.

Re: As Britain awaits a new prime minister, its cost-of-living crisis mounts

#90

Post by ReptileMan »

ThePadawan wrote: post #75
ReptileMan wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am full blown xenophobe, not quasi, but not in this case since I was from her home country and were visiting her for a week - but we spend probably half an hour in Zurich trying to find someone that knows the place and speak German or French at acceptable level to give us directions. It was during the late evening and out of 15 people we stopped like one was swiss.

I'm sorry to hear you had such an outlier of an experience - I've never been met with anything except understanding when asking for directions in any of the national languages. > we spend probably half an hour in Zurich trying to find someone that knows the place and speak German or French at acceptable level to give us directions. It was during the late evening and out of 15 people we stopped like one was swiss. Sto…

No one passed us by. Everyone was very polite while we tried to communicate. We didn't speak English, and the ones that we met that spoke German or French were also foreigners. Just all of the people that we met that night were foreigners (I can remember Spaniard, Italian and Brazilian). It was 30 years ago. Zurich for me was even then insanely cosmopolite city.

It was mostly amusing. Not bad in any way.

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