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Brings a whole new perspective on “ Be careful what you wish for”!
Merkel’s legacy being rapidly re-appraised
The newspaper reports that was not quite four months ago that Angela Merkel packed up the giant wooden chess queen that stood in a corner of her office and removed the silver-framed portrait of the Russian empress Catherine the Great from her desk as she left the German chancellery for the last time.
Her reputation seemed guaranteed — with over 16 years of almost relentless crisis-fighting, she had more or less kept the European show on the road single-handedly and preserved her own country’s prosperity and stability. Asked to assess her time in office as a whole, 80% of Germans at the time said it had been good.
Merkel’s “grave miscalculations”
Just weeks later, President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has laid bare the cost of that prosperity and the hollowness of that stability. The German press now runs daily articles dissecting what one prominent commentator has called “Merkel’s toxic legacy”. She now stands accused of leaving Ukraine, Europe and Germany itself at the mercy of the Kremlin through a series of grave miscalculations, from diplomatic indulgence towards Moscow and chronic underspending on the military to an energy strategy built on cheap Russian hydrocarbons.
“Mrs Chancellor,” as Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, said on Monday, “it was precisely Germany’s policies over the past ten, 15 years that meant Russia today has a strength founded on its monopoly over raw materials.”
A day earlier President Zelensky of Ukraine had invited Merkel to visit the scenes of Russian atrocities in Bucha and witness for herself what “the policy of concessions to Russia has led to in the past 14 years”.
Merkel, 67, who is now working on her memoirs, has largely kept to herself since the start of the war, surfacing only with two terse written statements in which she condemned the onslaught on Ukraine but said she stood by her decision to obstruct the country’s path to Nato membership in 2008.
The Times observes that the fixation on her individual decisions often seems like a form of displacement activity that distracts from the central point: the mess in which her country finds itself today is down to three decades of collective mistakes on the part of virtually the entire German establishment.
As Wolfgang Schäuble, Merkel’s long-serving finance minister recently put it: “I too thought we had to co-operate with Russia. Today I know – I was wrong. We were all wrong.” The Guadian notes that since then, all eyes have been on Gerhard Schröder, the unrepentant ex-chancellor who in his final weeks in power shook hands with Vladimir Putin to ratify the Nord Stream pipeline underneath the Baltic Sea. Just weeks later, Schröder slipped effortlessly through the revolving door to become chairman of Nord Stream.
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When you’ve finished bashing Boris on 14:22 - Apr 17 with 930 views
When you’ve finished bashing Boris on 14:00 - Apr 17 by Leaky
Sorry haven't got a solution just pointing out the problems. If I had a solution I would probably now be Sir Leaky & with substantially better pension pot. You tell me how you put a car charging point in thousands Victorian & Edwardian terraced houses that only have on road parking. How do you put ASHP's in houses with 9inch solid walls & suspended wooden floors possibly with a cellar beneath, these are all problems that need to be overcome before we claim to be fuel free. Plus wind turbines still require a fair amount of oil for lubrication that has to change periodically.
Do you think the current trajectory we are on based on the scientific evidence available is the correct one?
[Post edited 17 Apr 2022 14:44]
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When you’ve finished bashing Boris on 14:58 - Apr 17 with 913 views
The secret is getting fast chargers into the existing fuel stations, this is happening way too slowly, I would reject any planning applications that don’t provide this, you only have to take a look the recently completed shell station on the A14 at sproughton as that has no EV charging facilities, totally crazy, I would also ban membership accounts for charging (you don’t fill up with fuel after first applying for an account) it’s madness, all EV charging points need to be chargeable via card with no pre installed app or membership, same as fuel. The only reason you charge at home is it’s cost effective, you have the space. You have to remember currently all petrol and diesel vehicles go to a location to fuel, no one fuels at home, a reasonably high percentage of EVs will be able fuel at home, a percentage won’t and will need the current fuel stations to offer the facility of charging on site, if anything it will be easier.
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When you’ve finished bashing Boris on 15:17 - Apr 18 with 795 views
When you’ve finished bashing Boris on 23:34 - Apr 16 by Clapham_Junction
How do domestic appliances work at the moment when there's no electricity?
I'd argue the opposite — the electric future will make households more resilient — people will have solar power filling up in-home batteries, or charging the car, and be able to run their home off both when there's a power cut.
"How do domestic appliances work at the moment when there's no electricity?"
Well mine don't, but if yours do & you live within yelling distance, I'll be straight round at yours for a cuppa come the next power cut!
As Leaky points out later in thread, the vast majority living in cities simply don't have the necessary conditions for A or GSHPs. Solar perhaps, if they can have the £capital up front.
What's so depressing is that as an island we're literally surrounded by free energy in the shape of waves & tides. I'd bet my bottom dollar that if Germany were in that situation they'd have subsidised the R&D for those technologies starting 30 years ago, and thus wouldn't be dependent on fossil fuels from anywhere by now.
Sadly, successive tory govts. have subsidised fossil fuel global corps to an extraordinary level, over & above green techs. Why? Cos cabinet members have shares in them. Our corrupt, not fit for purpose, political system & lack of a constitution.
When you’ve finished bashing Boris on 14:00 - Apr 17 by Leaky
Sorry haven't got a solution just pointing out the problems. If I had a solution I would probably now be Sir Leaky & with substantially better pension pot. You tell me how you put a car charging point in thousands Victorian & Edwardian terraced houses that only have on road parking. How do you put ASHP's in houses with 9inch solid walls & suspended wooden floors possibly with a cellar beneath, these are all problems that need to be overcome before we claim to be fuel free. Plus wind turbines still require a fair amount of oil for lubrication that has to change periodically.
Charging points you can put by the side of the road (councils are quick enough to put parking meters up, so if there's a will it can be done). Electrified roads, faster charging times and other innovations will continue to open up more options.
Other options to ASHPs exist - increased small scale solar or wind powering batteries for electric heaters, for example.
Most lubricants for turbines are synthetic and that proportion is growing all the time and likely to be 100% synthetic ultimately.
It's going to take time to upgrade the infrastructure of course, but none of these things need be a block.
"Sadly, successive tory govts. have subsidised fossil fuel global corps to an extraordinary level, over & above green techs. Why? Cos cabinet members have shares in them. Our corrupt, not fit for purpose, political system & lack of a constitution."
The same cabinet members who won't declare if they use off shore accounts to avoid tax. Who are spunking away £100 billion (and more) on what is already an out od fate while elephant - parts of which will not be up and running until 2040, at least. Do they think technology will not have changed by then ?
The bloated one was oreviously ridiculing wind power, and talking about fracking. A clueless incompetent, hoping to pander to public ignorance - rather than pushing the UK to the fore. A man who supported Putin up until the invasion.
Now the UK is heading towards isolation and endless restrictions on trade do not expect it to get much better soon. it will be guided by what gets the most votes and there is enough ignorance out there to talk og global warming as "project fear ...baa baa "
Similarly peddling the vacuous myth about a constitution, PR and other assorted mumbo jumbo. The US has a constitution, and a fat lot of good that has done to educate folks, or eradicate ignorance.
Sadly peddling this myth allows a convenient distraction to addressing the core problem. The UK has an incredible amount of ignorant, and ill informed people.
The cause of that is a much wider topic, but tip toeing around it (Starmer/Brexit) is being complicit, and helps no one. Least of all those very thickos.
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When you’ve finished bashing Boris on 19:24 - Apr 18 with 709 views
When you’ve finished bashing Boris on 18:35 - Apr 18 by HARRY10
"Sadly, successive tory govts. have subsidised fossil fuel global corps to an extraordinary level, over & above green techs. Why? Cos cabinet members have shares in them. Our corrupt, not fit for purpose, political system & lack of a constitution."
The same cabinet members who won't declare if they use off shore accounts to avoid tax. Who are spunking away £100 billion (and more) on what is already an out od fate while elephant - parts of which will not be up and running until 2040, at least. Do they think technology will not have changed by then ?
The bloated one was oreviously ridiculing wind power, and talking about fracking. A clueless incompetent, hoping to pander to public ignorance - rather than pushing the UK to the fore. A man who supported Putin up until the invasion.
Now the UK is heading towards isolation and endless restrictions on trade do not expect it to get much better soon. it will be guided by what gets the most votes and there is enough ignorance out there to talk og global warming as "project fear ...baa baa "
Similarly peddling the vacuous myth about a constitution, PR and other assorted mumbo jumbo. The US has a constitution, and a fat lot of good that has done to educate folks, or eradicate ignorance.
Sadly peddling this myth allows a convenient distraction to addressing the core problem. The UK has an incredible amount of ignorant, and ill informed people.
The cause of that is a much wider topic, but tip toeing around it (Starmer/Brexit) is being complicit, and helps no one. Least of all those very thickos.
Err - did I make a mistake in thinking we were on the same pro-renewables, anti fossil-fuels, vigorously anti-tory, anti-Johnson side? Because it looks here like you're actually arguing against what I said.
When you’ve finished bashing Boris on 19:24 - Apr 18 by Ryorry
Err - did I make a mistake in thinking we were on the same pro-renewables, anti fossil-fuels, vigorously anti-tory, anti-Johnson side? Because it looks here like you're actually arguing against what I said.
Do tell
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When you’ve finished bashing Boris on 20:18 - Apr 18 with 692 views
When you’ve finished bashing Boris on 18:35 - Apr 18 by HARRY10
"Sadly, successive tory govts. have subsidised fossil fuel global corps to an extraordinary level, over & above green techs. Why? Cos cabinet members have shares in them. Our corrupt, not fit for purpose, political system & lack of a constitution."
The same cabinet members who won't declare if they use off shore accounts to avoid tax. Who are spunking away £100 billion (and more) on what is already an out od fate while elephant - parts of which will not be up and running until 2040, at least. Do they think technology will not have changed by then ?
The bloated one was oreviously ridiculing wind power, and talking about fracking. A clueless incompetent, hoping to pander to public ignorance - rather than pushing the UK to the fore. A man who supported Putin up until the invasion.
Now the UK is heading towards isolation and endless restrictions on trade do not expect it to get much better soon. it will be guided by what gets the most votes and there is enough ignorance out there to talk og global warming as "project fear ...baa baa "
Similarly peddling the vacuous myth about a constitution, PR and other assorted mumbo jumbo. The US has a constitution, and a fat lot of good that has done to educate folks, or eradicate ignorance.
Sadly peddling this myth allows a convenient distraction to addressing the core problem. The UK has an incredible amount of ignorant, and ill informed people.
The cause of that is a much wider topic, but tip toeing around it (Starmer/Brexit) is being complicit, and helps no one. Least of all those very thickos.
"A man who supported Putin up until the invasion."
why do you keep repeating this? i know it's probably unfair to point to just one thing, but repeating this makes you look ridiculous and unbalanced.
And so as the loose-bowelled pigeon of time swoops low over the unsuspecting tourist of destiny, and the flatulent skunk of fate wanders into the air-conditioning system of eternity, I notice it's the end of the show
When you’ve finished bashing Boris on 20:18 - Apr 18 by lowhouseblue
"A man who supported Putin up until the invasion."
why do you keep repeating this? i know it's probably unfair to point to just one thing, but repeating this makes you look ridiculous and unbalanced.
Yes, silly old me
Believing stories about him accepting Russian money, peddling pro Putin lies re invasion of Ukraine, son of a KGB officer as a Lord against security services advice, slipping of to a Russkie party when Foreign minister
and here's some more, making up stuff - in Parliament as well
perhaps I should confine my news sources to GB news, as the others seem to have this strange idea that Johnson has been supporting Putin - and another 'unbalanced' journalist
[Post edited 18 Apr 2022 20:39]
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When you’ve finished bashing Boris on 11:28 - Apr 19 with 606 views
When you’ve finished bashing Boris on 23:34 - Apr 16 by Clapham_Junction
How do domestic appliances work at the moment when there's no electricity?
I'd argue the opposite — the electric future will make households more resilient — people will have solar power filling up in-home batteries, or charging the car, and be able to run their home off both when there's a power cut.
Plenty of people can't afford to both eat and heat their homes at the moment, so where are they supposed to get 20 grand plus for an electric car, solar panels and battery from?
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When you’ve finished bashing Boris on 12:46 - Apr 19 with 569 views
When you’ve finished bashing Boris on 11:28 - Apr 19 by ArnoldMoorhen
Plenty of people can't afford to both eat and heat their homes at the moment, so where are they supposed to get 20 grand plus for an electric car, solar panels and battery from?
I was answering a post that assumed everything had been electrified.
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