1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

Hey, that's not good for global warming, is it?

Maybe not, but you can do a slice of toast at 10 yards 🤣

If you want to preserve range, “lukewarm”is the best cabin temperature you can hope for! 😆 

On 2/26/2024 at 10:11 PM, Scottman said:

Western governments around the world are trying to bankrupt their citizens and hobble their business enterprises and drive their agricultural products production into oblivion.

Why would they want to do that?

On 2/27/2024 at 8:10 AM, StephenFord said:

the behaviour plummeted into a disgraceful farce over semantics

I thought the problem was with those people who had made anti-semantic comments???

31 minutes ago, alanfp said:

I thought the problem was with those people who had made anti-semantic comments???

I can't get into a political discussion here, but the reaction of MPs was abhorrent...

4 hours ago, alanfp said:

Why would they want to do that?

Because when thing’s collapse they are then vulnerable to a takeover. When it is quite crystal clear that events of uncanny similarity are happening in many different places that something is afoot. NGO’s have been worming their way into many areas of oversight and control that never would have been allowed in the past. That’s not a conspiracy theory. One only has to open their eyes and ears.

4 minutes ago, Scottman said:

 That’s not a conspiracy theory....

I'm afraid that is the very definition of a conspiracy theory! I'm off now, I have a hat to build out of tin foil 😂

58 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

I'm afraid that is the very definition of a conspiracy theory! I'm off now, I have a hat to build out of tin foil 😂

I have several of them to share. Just PM me!

On 11/18/2020 at 1:24 PM, StephenFord said:

If you feel the government is a bit zealous in announcing that they are banning the sale of petrol & diesel cars in the UK in just 10 years, 2030, there is an existing petition you can sign.

That is good to share, thank you so much.

6 hours ago, Scottman said:

Because when thing’s collapse they are then vulnerable to a takeover.

The government? Why would they want to be taken over?

11 hours ago, alanfp said:

The government? Why would they want to be taken over?

Because they don’t want to get stuck actually having to deal with the debt problems and a large percentage of them are totally corrupt. They didn’t want to actually resolve the problems, that would have required that they make difficult decisions! 
western style democracies have been skimming the till for a long time. Things are beginning to unravel and they have been working feverishly to pass as much authority to the NGO’s as they can without the citizens or subjects learning about it or taking action to reverse the decline. When our congress “person’s or your ministers of parliament tell us that they simply don’t have the power or the political influence to stop traffic surveillance cameras ( which, by the way, also track your movements when they are integrated into a network) but the vast majority of people you have contact with have said that they despise the surveillance cameras. THAT is an example of the elected leadership remaining quiet while other groups are actively involved in shrinking your freedoms.

the very existence of this thread is a political “thing”. We are discussing the issues with mandating the adoption of a technology that is not ready for mass acceptance. It simply isn’t. I’m not exactly a fan of politics but it’s a huge factor in the debate. In America, our government has decided that they will demand that we pay for green technologies that are not robust, economically feasible or even sourced from our domestic market. And I might add, there is only scant infrastructure in place to even charge the vehicles! The government says that they will increase the numbers of chargers, yet they have done NOTHING to increase the capacity of the system that will have to feed those new chargers! Nothing. Our governor in Michigan, last year pointed out that the new wind turbines and solar farms will help build up the infrastructure to charge the EV. She was actually stupid enough to make that inference to defend her plan. The bottom line of this is that when an MP or a congress person tells us that the investment will pay off in the end. Ask them what decade they are expected to see the ledger balance out? PRESS THEM on that point. If they admit “never” they are at least honest.

5 hours ago, Scottman said:

Because they don’t want to get stuck actually having to deal with the debt problems

Every other country in the world (and I had previously assumed yours too, but I'm obviously mistaken) has politicians who are desperate to cling onto power. Have you not seen/heard them at election time?

I've never come across a politician in any country in the world who didn't want to stay in power.

I’ve got American family. Basically Scottish people living in US. They don’t go for these conspiracy theories apart from one of them who lives in a state that freed the weed years ago. Bit of a phenomenon but weed and conspiracy theories go hand in hand. I’ve nothing against cannabis but he’s the only one that voted trump. I think that says it all. Having said that Trump makes me laugh with or without weed. 😳 😂 

6 hours ago, alanfp said:

Every other country in the world (and I had previously assumed yours too, but I'm obviously mistaken) has politicians who are desperate to cling onto power. Have you not seen/heard them at election time?

I've never come across a politician in any country in the world who didn't want to stay in power.

Oh, they definitely want to stay in office! Even the “do nothings” and the would be felons want to stay in. They just want to shift the responsibility of cleaning up the mess to the NGO’s. I genuinely believe that this is the plan.
 

8 hours ago, Scottman said:

...I genuinely believe that this is the plan...

Here's why that is bunkum... 

In the main primary USA government there are more than 500 senators. In local government, there are over 90,000. If you put just 2 of theses in a room, they'd barely agree on anything. For your theory to work, 1000s would have to collaborate in unison on an unthinkable policy. You just don't get that kind of consensus in any Western government.

I think you'll find my original theory of them simply being 'thick', is correct...

Hmm, interesting voter conundrum here. Are we voting for participants in a massive conspiracy, or just a bunch of plain thickos? Not the most inspiring choice either way!😀

2 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Hmm, interesting voter conundrum here. Are we voting for participants in a massive conspiracy, or just a bunch of plain thickos? Not the most inspiring choice either way!😀

The thing that changed it all is 'social media'. Politicians have always done stuff they'd rather the ordinary guy in the street never knew. With SM, every untoward f*rt gets unprecedented coverage. Nowhere to hide, and with many of us have an insatiable  appetite for 24 hour news, the hunt for stuff to report is enormous.

Though I must admit that in my opinion, politicians of a generation ago did have a better education, more built in intelligence, and a higher sense of duty than today's mob...

Vaguely back on topic. Just been reading an article on the progress of the bus building initiative launched by Boris a few years back which aimed to "buy British".

Apparently 953 buses have been ordered so far under the "Zebra" scheme (Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas - catchy, eh?). 470 orders went to Wrightbus or Alexander Dennis, the remainder were spread among overseas operations, many Chinese. Even Alexander Dennis have a joint venture with BYD.

Jo Bamford , owner of Wrightbus, is taking legal action against Blackpool Transport, over a "flawed procurement process" which apparently first gave an order to a Chinese firm, and was then switched to Alexander Dennis, who claim the Blackpool buses will be built "outside" the Chinese joint venture.

All sounds a typical mess.

1 hour ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

...470 orders went to Wrightbus or Alexander Dennis, the remainder were spread among overseas operations, many Chinese. Even Alexander Dennis have a joint venture with BYD....

Big fan of WrightBus, they're only down the road from me. I often see new buses been driven to Larne to get the ferry over to the mainland!

If Wrightbus collaborated with BYD he signed over any intellectual property rights for processes or designs that he created.

that’s how “partnerships” with Chinese companies works.

3 minutes ago, Scottman said:

If Wrightbus collaborated with BYD 

That's Alexander Dennis (in Scotland) who have a JV with BYD, not Wrightbus (down the road from Stephen in Northern Ireland.)

Oh! Okay 

Oh! Okay 

One more issue on EVs that has been highlighted recently, is their 'dashboard', or more accurately, the huge touch screens to operate them. I can sit in my old jalopy, and without taking my eyes off the road, can reach every single switch and know where they are and what they do.

It's illegal to use a smartphone when driving because you really can't operate one without taking your eyes off the road. Yet manufactures quite happily put widescreen technology in the cabin to control pretty much every aspect of the cars functionality.

Hopefully, this disaster of design, will now be taken into consideration to avoid a spate of crashes involving drivers trying desperately to turn their window demister on, or operate their indicators!

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-13153771/Car-makers-ditch-distracting-touchscreens.html

 

On 3/3/2024 at 5:59 PM, Eric Bloodaxe said:

That's Alexander Dennis (in Scotland) who have a JV with BYD, not Wrightbus (down the road from Stephen in Northern Ireland.)

Alexander Dennis is I think in Grangemouth. The oil refinery there is closing afaik and A Dennis is either closed or was close to it. Heavily populated area believe it or not. Losing a lot of jobs.