Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Brexit

Westminstenders: A fully functioning government?

960 replies

RedToothBrush · 10/05/2019 23:50

It's been a month since parliament voting on anything.

The staggering reality of May's premiership is that government has ceased to function. We are stuck not just on Brexit but every other issue, such is the weakness of May's authority.

It begs the question of how long this is tolerable by all sides of the Conservative Civil War?

May being unable to bring anything forward means no deal is probably as inevitable as if a hardliner was PM.

There was talk of May / Corbyn reaching a fudge to get a deal via the backdoor WAB (Withdrawal Agreement Implimentation Bill) as it was politically impossible for them to be seen doing a deal any other way. However news today is that despite pressure from the 1922 Committee to bring it forward, May has slapped just a one line whip on it, meaning it will go precisely no where.

The polling for the European elections is perhaps more favourable to Labour than they might have feared after last weeks local election disaster so the mutual interest for Corbyn to move forward in anyway has already gone. Seeing the Tories be humiliated at the ballot box is too much of a temptation.

The phrase about Shit Creek only gets more apt.

All that is happening is every member of the Tory Party is lining up to take part in a leadership contest. It's harder to think of a Tory who isn't considering standing. It's not just the likes of Johnson, Gove, Rudd and Hunt. It's also the likes of Johnny Mercer and Graham Brady queuing not so patiently.

And its getting harder to argue that May is better as PM than the possibility of a right right candidate, because of the paralysis. Though as Rudd rightly points out, such a PM who wanted to actively have no deal as a policy, would struggle to win a majority in the HoC for that all important Queens Speech vote - every bit as much as May. Unless they were to somehow decide they could abuse the power of the executive and ignore parliament - a feat May has repeatedly attempted but ultimately failed at.

All everything feels, is a massive sense of merely delaying the inevitable.

Remain? Hard to see how under any Tory. A Deal? Hard to see what it might be and how there will be a Parliamentary majority. A PV? Well that still has to get through parliament and needs to be arranged smartish. And might not resolve the Irish border issue if the vote goes 'the wrong way' A General Election? That still seems to be a distinct possibility. But with the seeming resurrection of the LDs that's one the Tories will be desperate to avoid. Not that Corbyn is likely to succeed either. And of course there is now the Spectre of the Turquoise Arrows lurking. The crushing of the purple pound notes feels a hollow and distinct success.

It feels like we are waiting for the political sky to fall in in some sort of never ending Brexit Purgotory.

The cataclysmic event will occur at some point. It has to. But for now, it feels that there is nothing but waiting and waiting to be done.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
39
1tisILeClerc · 14/05/2019 14:41

{Start with taking petrol/diesel off the roads and work from there.}
This won't work in 'society' as it stands. I presume you would like there to be food in the shops and everything else, even if you are fortunate enough to be able to walk from your home to the shop which presumably has everything you might ever need.
A 'hair shirt' approach to saving the planet won't work, people want to move.

DGRossetti · 14/05/2019 14:41

A Sinclair C5 with a decent modern Lithium Ion battery can probably manage a reasonable range but is otherwise crap.

My Citroen does 500+ miles on a single tank and keeps the rain out.

You really aren't selling this to me (nor the great Unwashed).

Now when autonomous cars combine with electric cars, we might be talking. I've already cast the runes, and the future is one where private car ownership will be as rare as it was 100 years ago. After all, who needs to own a car, when you can have one at your door in less then the time it takes to put you coat on ?

The problem is to deliver that vision of the future requires more than a few cereal box coupons. It can only come about by a paradigm shift in how society thinks and works. Which means we'll have to wait for a lot of old folk to pop their clogs and make way for our (well my) grandchildren. The Arthur C. Clarke reply.

LonelyTiredandLow · 14/05/2019 14:42

In a way it's like Big Tobacco it wasn't until recently they've admitted they knowingly kill half of their users (OK so maybe they haven't said that directly but they refused to admit Doll's research for decades).So now they are instrumental in the vaping market (IIRC they now own 75% of all companies?) as they see it as a future market and one that will keep their consumers alive to buy more. Whether or not you agree with nicotine addiction (kids, ethics) is one thing, but they are now actively helping to reduce smoking related deaths and funding the research to make their products better! OK, I don't think NHS should pay them for replacement therapy (giving people a vape on NHS) but if we could get more situations like this it would be a positive move forwards in humankind.

BigChocFrenzy · 14/05/2019 14:42

The AfD and others are already winning votes with opposition to current environmental rules for cars etc

The tech is nowhere near to producing equivalent performance for comparable price, even if they became mass market

We need to be realistic - we are decades away from being able to do without oil

AuldAlliance · 14/05/2019 14:43

I know this isn't the case for everyone, but there are wheelchair users who can cycle:
www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/jan/02/cambridge-disabled-people-cycling-rolling-walking-stick
bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2018/07/03/inclusive-cycling-on-tricycles/

TBH, I'm not sure how you can have a programme to promote cycling if you start from the principle that people can't cycle. Or perhaps I've misunderstood. Cycling facilities should be more inclusive, certainly, like so much else.

LonelyTiredandLow · 14/05/2019 14:45

1tisILeClerc - obviously a scrappage scheme and implementation in phases, not just demand everyone hands over their cars and given nothing in return!

DGRossetti · 14/05/2019 14:46

It seems a common problem when future gazing, to look at what you're talking about changing - in this case personal motor transport - and immediately assume that nothing else will change around it. (I suspect mainly because there is a very real danger if you do that, you can discover a different way of achieving your goal.).

If the government is serious about promoting electric car usage, then it could have a go at creating an environment where electric cars are a logical and sensible choice.

Over to you, government ...

1tisILeClerc · 14/05/2019 14:47

{I didn't realise 5 minutes was a realistic target in the foreseeable future}

It isn't, or at least not practically as you have to transfer a LOT of energy in a short period of time (= heat).
If a car takes 50 Amps for 30 minutes to charge, to put the same 'power' in over 5 minutes would be 300 Amps which is a serious bit of cable (and of course in turn this has to come from the power station so requiring a significant upgrade).

dreichuplands · 14/05/2019 14:47

Having lived somewhere that used to have a batch of Sinclair C5's you could hire out I cannot recommend them for family transportation regardless of battery life.

DGRossetti · 14/05/2019 14:48

I know this isn't the case for everyone, but there are wheelchair users who can cycle

I'll show that to DW. She could do with a laugh.

DGRossetti · 14/05/2019 14:51

TBH, I'm not sure how you can have a programme to promote cycling if you start from the principle that people can't cycle. Or perhaps I've misunderstood. Cycling facilities should be more inclusive, certainly, like so much else.

That wasn't quite what I said. All I know is the moment cycling is promoted in the UK, it means cars become excluded. All cars. Including the cars a disabled person needs to get about. Especially (again in the UK) when buses aren't required to take a wheelchair user. Or three, come to that.

AuldAlliance · 14/05/2019 14:53

OK

1tisILeClerc · 14/05/2019 15:02

OK, a 'fast' charger that can charge vehicles to 80% of capacity in around 30 minutes supplies around 50KW which is about 210 Amps (at 240 Volts). In perspective, this is around 3 or 4 houses while they have the cookers on making the evening meal in wintertime (dark and cold).

Of course many things are possible BUT the 'just use electric vehicles' requires a lot of serious thinking and alteration to lifestyle.

Random18 · 14/05/2019 15:14

And when I am driving over 300 miles to visit family, I don’t want to be stopped for an age to charge a battery.

If they can get something that will charge the battery when I am sitting in the M6 car park then I may consider it.

RedToothBrush · 14/05/2019 15:17

Theo Usherwood @theousherwood
Number 10 says it’s “imperative” that a Brexit deal is passed by MPs’ summer recess.

Sounds like a new deadline for the PM’s departure.

The only slight issue is that we don’t yet know when Parliament breaks up for the summer holidays.

You'd be forgiven for thinking we were already in the summer holidays...

OP posts:
DGRossetti · 14/05/2019 15:20

imperative

from the Latin "imperator" meaning "Emperor" ?

BigChocFrenzy · 14/05/2019 15:21

President Trump Reportedly Wants Allies to Pay Full Cost of Hosting U.S. Troops Abroad 'Plus 50%'

That'll set off those in Europe & Japan who increasingly don't care if troops stay

Even the talks on longterm military extension with S Korea - who should be desperate - was scuppered recently on this 50% money-making scam.

http://time.com/5548013/trump-allies-pay-cost-plus-50-troops/

“Even raising this question feeds a misinformed narrative that these facilities are there for the benefits of those countries,”
said Douglas Lute, a former U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“The truth is they’re there and we maintain them because they’re in our interest.”

In Germany, for instance, the U.S. relies on several crucial installations: the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and the Ramstein Air Base.
Landstuhl is a world-class medical facility that has provided emergency care to U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq and other trouble spots.

Germany is also home to the headquarters of the U.S. Africa Command.
Estimating how much Germany ought to pay for those bases, which serve so many other interests, would be complicated.

BigChocFrenzy · 14/05/2019 15:22

More lame ducks ?

Ford preparing to cut hundreds of jobs at its Dunton technical centre,
Jaguar LandRover struggling

InterchangeableEmma · 14/05/2019 15:23

I'm in the Netherlands and there are a few sorts of bikes for less able bodied people and wheelchair users about, it's not at all uncommon to see handbikes of various sorts. Adult trikes (with attachments to carry crutches or a lightweight folded wheelchair) are very common indeed. Obviously a hand bike isn't a solution for every single wheelchair user but they are popular nevertheless.

These wheelchair loading bikes aren't massively uncommon either:
www.care4more.nl/rolstoelfietsen/veloplus?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI49rFjJab4gIVCM93Ch3inwYUEAAYASAAEgKuyvD_BwE
Or
www.nenko.nl/buitenmateriaal-en-fietsen/fietsen/4907-rolstoelfiets-o-pair/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIiqmsz5eb4gIV2uF3Ch3j2An1EAQYAyABEgIgP_D_BwE

(Links are in Dutch but there are photos) They don't offer much in the way of independence of course.

There prevalence of cycling paths and how flat it is here are an enormous help.

DGRossetti · 14/05/2019 15:24

President Trump Reportedly Wants Allies to Pay Full Cost of Hosting U.S. Troops Abroad 'Plus 50%'

Making the US army the US most profitable export. Ahead of Apple ?

InterchangeableEmma · 14/05/2019 15:27

Oh and electricity supported bikes too - they are enormously popular with the elderly

pollyannaperspective · 14/05/2019 15:27

To add to the conversation on electric cars...
I have the pleasure of discussing with primary school children the 'green' merits or otherwise of driving an electric car.
The reality

  • I have absolutely no idea what is producing the electricity that my car uses; I could have solar panels and a 'wind generator' but coal/gas/nuclear/renewable will likely be the source;
  • my car has a range of 175 miles, our other 'exactly the same but more batttery access and 2 years further development, car has a range of 270 miles;
  • the smaller car (still a 5 seat SUV) we have on order, will have a range of 400+ miles;
the national re-charging infrastructure is chaotic, unreliable and slow unless you use a bespoke, thought about and fast, car manufacturer that started car manufacture at the same time as infrastructure.

We have a charging point installed at home (actually we have two) and an economy 7 overnight tariff;

  • so day to day use and commuting (190 mile return journey) are covered;
  • as early adopters, we have free re-charging when using the bespoke national charging network;
  • long distant journeys take just a bit of thought - tie in the wee/tea stop at a service area with super charging and should get a 30-75 % charge in the time that takes;
  • actually, the time to fully petrol/diesel refuel a car is much longer than you think; also the bespoke manufacturer did a comparison of replacing the battery tray in their vehicle with the refuelling time in a fossil fuel vehicle and the battery replacement was faster - but I think impractical.

Both our cars are 'autonomous' to the extent UK law allows, and could be more 'autonomous'.
But that technology exists so the next generation of cars should be capable of driving from A to B without driver input.
But all this requires a different approach to the problem and, currently, is not the cheap (to buy) option. He may be a marmite person, but Elon Musk and Tesla do challenge the 'but that is how we have always done it' approach.

DGRossetti · 14/05/2019 15:28

I'm in the Netherlands and there are a few sorts of bikes for less able bodied people and wheelchair users about, it's not at all uncommon to see handbikes of various sorts.

DWs MS means she can get fatigued in minutes. Plus the fact that because her legs are fucked, propelling a wheelchair puts more strain through the shoulders and arms which makes them more prone to spasms and pain. I guess she needs to pray harder.

InterchangeableEmma · 14/05/2019 15:33

DGRossetti I'm sorry, it was not my intention to upset or offend in any way. I apologise.

greenelephantscarf · 14/05/2019 15:34

wrt 5 min - would absolutely be feasible if batteries were standardised and could just be exchanged at stations...