Question Time

crublue1 said:
In answer to your first paragraph, not if we refine it ourself and sell it to ourselves. That's a government decision not to do that. Given the current situation, I'd say we should have been doing this year's ago. Why can't we do this?
It's also a government policy to import grain, when we are perfectly capable of growing our own. Why?
And beef.
And steel. We can't make anything without it. Why does it come from abroad when we can refine it ourselves?
We can be independent, we still have the skills, the will, and the enthusiasm, we just don't have the suitable leadership to achieve it.
Sad times
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We are not capable of self sufficiency in food.
Churchill tried with everyone helping in WWII and failed.
Population is much larger now.
 
denislawsbackheel said:
We are not capable of self sufficiency in food.
Churchill tried with everyone helping in WWII and failed.
Population is much larger now.
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That may be the case den, but it seems to me the government are strangling our farmers when they should be bending over backwards to help them.
For instance they are paying them to plant woodland (which I realise is an important part of our eco system) instead of growing wheat, barley or rape.
Maybe I've been watching too many Harry's farm on you tube, who isn't a whinger, but does present the facts in a none judgemental way.
I just think we should start utilising our arable land a bit better, if that meant paying a few pence more for a loaf then I could live with the reasoning. At least we should try.
I'm probably talking rubbish though, as always, I'm happy to be educated.
 
crublue1 said:
That may be the case den, but it seems to me the government are strangling our farmers when they should be bending over backwards to help them.
For instance they are paying them to plant woodland (which I realise is an important part of our eco system) instead of growing wheat, barley or rape.
Maybe I've been watching too many Harry's farm on you tube, who isn't a whinger, but does present the facts in a none judgemental way.
I just think we should start utilising our arable land a bit better, if that meant paying a few pence more for a loaf then I could live with the reasoning. At least we should try.
I'm probably talking rubbish though, as always, I'm happy to be educated.
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They wouldn't be starving them so much that one of their big donors might have to buy them all out a cheap rate and take control of the farming industry. Or is that a bit tin foil hat?

Nothing would surprise me anymore.
 
mat said:
They wouldn't be starving them so much that one of their big donors might have to buy them all out a cheap rate and take control of the farming industry. Or is that a bit tin foil hat?

Nothing would surprise me anymore.
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Not tin foil hat at all.
Basically these days, if you couldn't make it up, it's probably going to happen, or is being planned, or being discussed.
You're right to question everything, as like you, nothing would surprise me either.
 
mat said:
They wouldn't be starving them so much that one of their big donors might have to buy them all out a cheap rate and take control of the farming industry. Or is that a bit tin foil hat?

Nothing would surprise me anymore.
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‘Excuse me, Sir, now that you aren’t viable, may I buy back my land?’.
 
BrianW said:
There is a shortage of labour, both skilled and unskilled, with enormous political reluctance to accept we need immigrants. This is why crops are rotting in the field as we speak, and why, for example, it is increasingly difficult to find a GP.

Capital for the refineries, steel mills, etc. Where is it coming from? The private sector in this country is extraordinarily reluctant to invest, except where there is a short-term profit. This has been a problem for decades. Wishful thinking will not change that. Do you want the state to make the investment? That's left-wing and scary. This government will certainly not go down that road. I very much doubt Labour will. They would get too much grief from the media if they tried.

You must also consider the Law of Comparative Advantage. This is a complex piece of economic doctrine, but in simple terms it is always advantageous to trade with other countries. Some countries are simply better placed to do certain things more efficiently than we are. So we are better putting our resources into areas where we are clearly ahead of the field and exchanging the value for imports.

(At a personal level, most of us don't do all our own plumbing, electrical work, and dentistry, because it is simpler and better to employ specialists to do these things and pay with them with the money we earn by our skills in other areas. It's no different. If I spend 10 days doing a plumbing job that a plumber can do in 30 minutes that's a gross waste of resources. The Law of Comparative Advantage is this on a national scale.)

You appear to confuse 'independence' with 'autarky'. Autarky is a bad and failed economic system. There are no fully-autarkic nations in the modern world, as even the most isolated have some level of participation in international trade and receive outside support or aid. North Korea and Nazi Germany are two examples of nations that have pursued a policy of autarky.

Far from developing 'independence', which is a chimaera at best, we should be developing interdependence and, this is key, focusing on developing those areas of the economy that are most profitable and in which we are demonstrably very good. What really holds us back is the aforesaid lack of investment. This in part is caused by the national obsession with pumping almost all private resources into housing, not industry.
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Great post can I ask what you think for example the buying up of properties by basically conglomerates, there is a surge of this in America where basically they outbid individuals and are creating a nation of renters, it seems many Chinese companies are responsible for buying up apartments in Manchester as investements, making house prices soar.
 
Blue Maverick said:
Great post can I ask what you think for example the buying up of properties by basically conglomerates, there is a surge of this in America where basically they outbid individuals and are creating a nation of renters, it seems many Chinese companies are responsible for buying up apartments in Manchester as investements, making house prices soar.
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It's what happens when you make the brilliant political decision to devalue your currency significantly. Suddenly, your real estate - and anything else in the way of tangible assets - becomes much more attractive to foreign investors, because in their view it's much cheaper in real terms.

Now you could stop, or limit, this by banning foreign investors from buying residential property. I believe some countries do this. However we have a government that believes in - worships! - the free market, so they will never do this. To be honest, I can't see Labour being any different as they accept the free market too.

The real answer is to increase the value of the currency and, while you're at it, increase real wages. The only snag this is very hard to do, not least because of the self-imposed trading barriers we have erected. I have no easy answers. Ideally, Britain would come up with some unique good or service that the world would buy at any price. Or, for the first time in decades, British capitalists would go for long-term investment that would significantly increase productivity. It would need to be a revolutionary increase by the way, and getting this achieved has eluded every government since Heath - and probably since Victorian times.

I might as well suggest that the Heaton Park tramway is extended to Albert Square, with a branch to the Etihad; except that's more likely!
 
Brendan Clark - Smith new Govt Minister on tonight

" The country needs fracking "

Wes Streeting - " do you support fracking in your constituency "

BC-S " No ....but....."
 
bluethrunthru said:
Brendan Clark - Smith new Govt Minister on tonight

" The country needs fracking "

Wes Streeting - " do you support fracking in your constituency "

BC-S " No ....but....."
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Really interesting point this morning was how one of the bosses of Quadrilla was available for a pan interview on BBC radio this morning, prior to the announcement.

Part of that is where this decision has come from as fracking is nowhere near a priority at the moment. So, it’s either a distraction, the first rule of war, or somebody has lobbied the government to get this going again?

Oh, and the head-shed said there would be 100s of millions paid out to locals to get this through. Said it all for me.
 
Claire Fox getting a lot of heat on twitter - some people saying how come someone with her views (basicallay a female Farage, is the vibe) got to be in the Lords anyway, gets so much airtime. A bit harsh really - fracking we need in the current situation.
 
bluethrunthru said:
Brendan Clark - Smith new Govt Minister on tonight

" The country needs fracking "

Wes Streeting - " do you support fracking in your constituency "

BC-S " No ....but....."
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He looks very uncomfortable trying to make any of it sound good.
I was hugely enlightened bu the baroness - whose name escapes me - that a fracking company is not anti- fracking!
 
El_george said:
Claire Fox getting a lot of heat on twitter - some people saying how come someone with her views (basicallay a female Farage, is the vibe) got to be in the Lords anyway, gets so much airtime. A bit harsh really - fracking we need in the current situation.
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Why is that, given it would be 10 years before if created enough gas to make any kind of difference and even then it wouldn’t make our bills cheaper?

In the meantime, public would have to be compensated and water made safe for consumption, making it a huge net negative on our economy.

Could you explain, given the above, why we need fracking in the current situation?
 
El_george said:
Claire Fox getting a lot of heat on twitter - some people saying how come someone with her views (basicallay a female Farage, is the vibe) got to be in the Lords anyway, gets so much airtime. A bit harsh really - fracking we need in the current situation.
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I’m totally lost with her.
 
Alan Harper's Tash said:
Why is that, given it would be 10 years before if created enough gas to make any kind of difference and even then it wouldn’t make our bills cheaper?

In the meantime, public would have to be compensated and water made safe for consumption, making it a huge net negative on our economy.

Could you explain, given the above, why we need fracking in the current situation?
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Is the answer that the company who does it gets huge profits while public funds gets to clean their shit up?
 
Alan Harper's Tash said:
Why is that, given it would be 10 years before if created enough gas to make any kind of difference and even then it wouldn’t make our bills cheaper?

In the meantime, public would have to be compensated and water made safe for consumption, making it a huge net negative on our economy.

Could you explain, given the above, why we need fracking in the current situation?
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And can you give a reliable source for the "given it would be 10 years before if created enough gas to make any kind of difference" quote you have posited?
 
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