Because The United Kingdom?

[R011]

On 9/12/2023 at 3:05 PM, Stuart Galbraith said:

 

I imagine Danny misunderstood something in one of Nick's manuals.

[DB]

On 9/11/2023 at 4:20 PM, sunday said:

Reason of existence of engineering: doing the same with less resources spent.

To be fair, though, there is significant survivor bias involved for surviving ancient structures. Think of how many cathedrals didn't make it, and those that did often did so on a wing, a prayer and a massive number of buttresses, flying and otherwise.. 

[DB]

On 9/12/2023 at 5:08 AM, rmgill said:

A Tory (/ˈtɔːri/) is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The Tory ethos has been summed up with the phrase "God, King (or Queen), and Country".[1] Tories are monarchists, were historically of a high church Anglican religious heritage, and were opposed to the liberalismof the Whig party.[2][3]

So, some meaning of the word Tory I was previously aware of? 

Boo hoo. How long were you a Labour supporter? Now you're getting cold feet over things the Tory's propose? 
 

I don't see any point in your attempting to play games with British political labels when you and your ilk can't even differentiate between "liberal" socialist" and "communist" with any degree of nuance.

[Rick]

44 minutes ago, DB said:

I don't see any point in your attempting to play games with British political labels when you and your ilk can't even differentiate between "liberal" socialist" and "communist" with any degree of nuance.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but in the U.S. there isn't a difference between any degree of socialist and any degree of communist. I realize this is not the same in Europe, and maybe even between different European countries?

[Colin]

On 9/12/2023 at 10:20 AM, R011 said:

I always thought John Major was a decent chap.

You won't survive in politics today by being a decent chap, it's all "Smite thy enemy" and all that.

[EchoFiveMike]

1 hour ago, Colin said:

You won't survive in politics today by being a decent chap, it's all "Smite thy enemy" and all that.

What changed?  S/F....Ken M

[sunday]

3 hours ago, DB said:

To be fair, though, there is significant survivor bias involved for surviving ancient structures. Think of how many cathedrals didn't make it, and those that did often did so on a wing, a prayer and a massive number of buttresses, flying and otherwise.. 

Yes, they were learning with full-size models. but those builders were not stupid, and their intuition, with some experience, helped them to recognize, for instance, that cracks could be mitigated by some means.

Still, some Roman works that have survived are examples of the kind of problems that brute force and ignorance could solve. The Pantheon is a good example, despite being a very aesthetically pleasing building, thinking about the huge quantities of concrete it contains could give an engineer pause.

[Stuart Galbraith]

11 hours ago, R011 said:

I imagine Danny misunderstood something in one of Nick's manuals.

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

8 hours ago, Colin said:

You won't survive in politics today by being a decent chap, it's all "Smite thy enemy" and all that.

Some of the things that occurred in Majors tenure were hair raising, but rather set the scene for Cameron giving in to the Brexiteers. Certainly they must have stuck in his memory.

For example, there was a small group of back benchers who were a colossial pain, because Major had a thin majority, something like 5 seats IIRC. Anyway, this group was something like 7 strong, so if at any point they didnt like something Major was doing, they would have a meeting, throw a top hat around and say 'who wants to be prime minister today?' and that decided, would decide whether or not to vote with or against the Government on a particular issue. Caused complete chaos in the Conservatives. Because he was ultimately a fairly nice guy, who was not really disastrous as PM (unless perhaps you were a miner, but that ship had already sailed), but arguably wasnt the utter bastard he needed to be to hold the Conservative party together. Thatcher only managed it because at heart she was ruthless when she wanted to be. Major wasnt.

I look at the past 13 years, and all the Conservative Prime ministers have one thing in common. They were all weak. And I suspect that has a lot to do with the selection process. They dont really want strong leaders, because strong leaders cannot be bullied, is the conclusion Ive come to.

[DB]

The UK has no manufacturing industry left, says everyone who has an empty cup.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/09/13/french-envy-british-manufacturing-quiet-resilience/

[TrustMe]

4 hours ago, DB said:

The UK has no manufacturing industry left, says everyone who has an empty cup.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/09/13/french-envy-british-manufacturing-quiet-resilience/

Outside motor vehicle manufacturing there is not much left. Of note is that not a single manufacturer is British owned so all the profit goes outside the country.

[rmgill]

18 hours ago, DB said:

To be fair, though, there is significant survivor bias involved for surviving ancient structures. Think of how many cathedrals didn't make it, and those that did often did so on a wing, a prayer and a massive number of buttresses, flying and otherwise.. 

Well, the whole aspect of the beauty is that they use tall arches and less material than cyclopean architecture does. 

Experience and understanding of the forces is how you build things bigger and better. Greater understanding, better engineering and still some gifted understanding allows you to build even better. 

We could not fly without both. 

Case in point. Burt Rutan's aircraft engineering. 

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

9 minutes ago, TrustMe said:

Outside motor vehicle manufacturing there is not much left. Of note is that not a single manufacturer is British owned so all the profit goes outside the country.

Well not all. I dont really care who owns these companies, as long as it creates well paid jobs in the country. And yes, there has been a small upturn in the motor vehicle industry lately, its quite true. But judging by the precipitate decline in Dagenham and Southampton branches of Ford, we need more motor vehicle companies to move here, not start congratulating ourselves that already here companies are investing in a future. They should be damn well doing that anyway.

Now lets do something about the steel industry, the Defence Industry, the Aircraft industry and the shipbuilding industry. Or for that matter, the long dormant UK electronics industry. For one swallow makes not a summer.

 

[Strannik]

Looks like UK might (at least doctrinally) become a part of US Armed Forces?

Lt. General Sir Roland Walker (currently Dep.Chief of the Defence Staff, in line to take over as head of the British Army):

is ‘a special forces man who believes the army should be converted into small bands of determined men’. There is a radical school of thought that this is the way ahead for our armed forces: we are likely to fight as part of a coalition in the future, so why not be the sharpened tip of the US spear? It plays to our strengths. But it is not a decision we should make by default. The Army cannot get smaller, so do we keep struggling to be a full-spectrum fighting force, or do we specialise, like many small nations do? 

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/britains-shrinking-army-faces-an-uncertain-future/

[Tim Sielbeck]

[TrustMe]

3 hours ago, Strannik said:

Looks like UK might (at least doctrinally) become a part of US Armed Forces?

Lt. General Sir Roland Walker (currently Dep.Chief of the Defence Staff, in line to take over as head of the British Army):

is ‘a special forces man who believes the army should be converted into small bands of determined men’. There is a radical school of thought that this is the way ahead for our armed forces: we are likely to fight as part of a coalition in the future, so why not be the sharpened tip of the US spear? It plays to our strengths. But it is not a decision we should make by default. The Army cannot get smaller, so do we keep struggling to be a full-spectrum fighting force, or do we specialise, like many small nations do? 

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/britains-shrinking-army-faces-an-uncertain-future/

Given the massive support cost for elite SF units it's certainly not cheap, flexible maybe, but not cheap.

[Stuart Galbraith]

I'd argue that was the policy, but they are trying to move away from it. The new head of the army I think commanded an armoured brigade, as well as head of the SF.

[Colin]

On 9/13/2023 at 4:51 PM, EchoFiveMike said:

What changed?  S/F....Ken M

Quite a bit. My dad was in politics during the 60's and everyone cordial with each other and were willing to sit down and talk, both professionally and just to relax. That rarely if ever happens now. 

[Stuart Galbraith]

Yes Captain Smith, let's turn around and crash into the iceberg again.

 

 

[JWB]

NHS appointments cancelled during strike action ‘to surpass one million’ (msn.com)

[Stuart Galbraith]

I've got to wait 2 weeks just to talk to the doctor on the phone.

[DB]

On 9/14/2023 at 4:19 PM, TrustMe said:

Outside motor vehicle manufacturing there is not much left. Of note is that not a single manufacturer is British owned so all the profit goes outside the country.

This isn't true either, but don't let facts get in the way of a Labour lie.

[TrustMe]

18 hours ago, DB said:

This isn't true either, but don't let facts get in the way of a Labour lie.

Name a vehicle manufactor that is not foreign owned? The last one was TVR until it was bought by a Russian businessman, who gave it to his son, who drove it into the ground.

[sunday]

52 minutes ago, TrustMe said:

Name a vehicle manufactor that is not foreign owned? The last one was TVR until it was bought by a Russian businessman, who gave it to his son, who drove it into the ground.

I think DB meant other, non automotive, manufacturing businesses. Like Rolls-Royce aero engines, the wing manufacturing arm of Airbus, some parts of British Aerospace...

[TrustMe]

11 minutes ago, sunday said:

I think DB meant other, non automotive, manufacturing businesses. Like Rolls-Royce aero engines, the wing manufacturing arm of Airbus, some parts of British Aerospace...

Thanks Sunday.

Ah. Apologies DB, I got the wrong end of the stick.