18-OCT 2023 : LAB 44% / CON 28% / LDM 9% / REF 7%

[pjw1961]

neilj - I have no idea who Simon Clarke is, and I follow politics more closely than 95% of the population. It does feel that it is time the population of the UK were given some say over who the Prime Minister is via a General Election.

[c-a-r-f-r-e-w]

(The AI revolution continues apace, starting to revolutionise material science… which in turn will have big impacts on batteries, medicine, supercomputers, fusion, lipstick, lampshades, artificial Christmas trees…)

Google DeepMind AI discovers millions of new materials
Structure of inorganic crystal substances predicted


“An artificial intelligence system has discovered thousands of new materials, potentially paving the way for better superconductors, more efficient batteries and faster computers.

The system, called GNoME, was developed by Google DeepMind, the London-based AI company. It has predicted the structure of 2.2 million new inorganic crystal substances — materials that form the bedrock of the digital economy.

In theory, it should be possible to produce them all. But the researchers have identified 380,000 having an especially high chance of being stable in real life and more than 700 have been made in a laboratory. “Among these candidates are materials that have the potential to develop future transformative technologies ranging from superconductors, powering supercomputers, and next-generation batteries to boost the efficiency of electric vehicles,” DeepMind said.

The researchers said that finding 380,000 new materials would take centuries at the pace of discovery seen in the past decade.

The breakthrough could dramatically increase the materials that designers of new technologies can use, with only about 48,000 thought to have been identified previously. “While materials play a very critical role in almost any technology, we as humanity know only a few tens of thousands of stable materials,” said Ekin Dogus Cubuk, a Google DeepMind researcher.

Among the new substances are 52,000 “layered compounds” similar to graphene that have the potential to transform electronics with the development of superconductors. Previously, only about 1,000 such materials had been identified.”

Times

[mercian]

Dec 9, 2023 15:49:03 GMT pjw1961 said:

Dec 9, 2023 13:10:37 GMT mercian said:

Because that would make the UK an even more attractive destination thus increasing the numbers even further and putting more and more strain on the housing shortage, NHS and infrastructure such as sewage etc.

The housing shortage and collapsing NHS and infrastructure are in reality a direct result of government policy since 2010. So logically we should deport all Tory MPs to Rwanda instead (they would actually be able to take that number). Clearly the MPs wouldn't mind since they are all agreed it is a safe country. 

That may be so, but if there is a shortage of something there are two solutions both of which should be used.
1) Increase supply
2) Decrease demand, in this case by restricting immigration to those people the country actually needs

[graham]

A No Confidence vote would have to succeed before Simon Clarke - or anyone else - can stand as a Leadership candidate - unless Sunak simply decides to quit.

[Deleted]

bardin1

Thanks for your reply and apologies if my post seemed aimed at you personally - one of the problems of writing something quickly.

It was actually intended, more generally, to the small group of North of the Border posters who seem to regularly admonish the rest of us for a voting system that we have no say in and detest. The voting systems in both the UK and the USA seem utterly mad to me.

Paul

[bardin1]

Dec 9, 2023 17:17:32 GMT @fecklessmiser said:

bardin1

Thanks for your reply and apologies if my post seemed aimed at you personally - one of the problems of writing something quickly.

It was actually intended, more generally, to the small group of North of the Border posters who seem to regularly admonish the rest of us for a voting system that we have no say in and detest. The voting systems in both the UK and the USA seem utterly mad to me.

Paul

No problem Paul


I am old enough and thick skinned enough not to take offence at anything said on internet forums in any case.

I agree  re the voting systems. They have become controlled institutions which perpetuate the status quo for elite groups - a narrowing pool of rich families, top end schools and universities, clubs and restaurants, sports hospitality etc. A clique which carefully protects and enhances itself.

I remember my feeling of outrage when I read about the freemasons as a young student. I feel the same way again but now it is about the institutions which govern us and that is terribly sad.

[jib]

Dec 9, 2023 16:21:41 GMT pjw1961 said:

neilj - I have no idea who Simon Clarke is, and I follow politics more closely than 95% of the population. It does feel that it is time the population of the UK were given some say over who the Prime Minister is via a General Election.

The Tory b*stards are running out of time at rapid speed.

Desperate change of leadership will do little to save them now. I'm not even sure what Sunak's "democratic mandate" is?

[c-a-r-f-r-e-w]

Dec 7, 2023 21:59:58 GMT mercian said:

Dec 7, 2023 16:05:23 GMT richardstamper said:

An education system that is set up to ensure that children of the wealthy are especially narcissistic, psychopathic and Machiavellian sounds like bad news to me, and something worth changing. 

Or perhaps many of the wealthy are already narcissistic etc and it's hereditary? 

Well it depends what you mean by wealthy. It may be more expensive now, but back in Johnson’s day the middle class made up a significant proportion of the numbers at private school. Many were the offspring of doctors, lawyers, accountants, educators, majors in the army etc.

[c-a-r-f-r-e-w]

Dec 8, 2023 8:18:10 GMT birdseye said:

Dec 7, 2023 21:18:56 GMT mercian said:

The problem is that UK branches of multinationals generally make little profit. This is because profits are redirected to their head offices via loan repayments, payments for use of the brand and so on.  I can see two possible solutions (there may well be others of course):
1) Every country in the world signs up to a minimum level of tax on profits. Fat chance. If even one country however small refused to sign up it would immediately become the head office location of every multinational.
2) Tax turnover in the UK. This could be done, but it would be very complicated because every industry has a different level of profit margin. Supermarkets are usually quite low (in the region of 5% I believe) whereas international consultant firms for instance would have a much higher margin. Therefore a different level of turnover tax would be needed for each industry unless it was made very low and even then it would penalise supermarkets more than consultants in my example. And of course the tax would be passed on to the consumer.

  

There is a third solution. Unlike most other nations we do not take national interest into consideration when a foreign company takes over a British one. All the City wants is as much commission as possible. So stop the "everything is for sale " approach and keep far more companies under British ownership and paying taxes on their full profits in the UK.

Unfortunately if you let capital get too powerful they may get their claws increasingly into government and frustrate such attempts. (Same problem with regulation, the problem of “regulatory capture” et cetera. It’s not a great idea to let the state get too powerful but it’s not a great idea to let capital get too powerful either)

   

[alec]

mercian/c-a-r-f-r-e-w - there are already negotiations and proposals to initiate an international agreement of cross border companies tax matters. I'm not up to date with the details of how far these have got, but in essence it's not difficult. Using % of total turnover in each country as the basis to divide profits and then each country taxes their share of profits is one easy way, but campaigners argue that this favours high value, rich economies, so multinationals that employ lots of low wage workers in poorer countries end up giving their tax disproportionately to the rich countries who buy their goods.

Other proposals include weightings based on 'footprint', which would include head count + sales in each territory, so there are some equity arguments over how to do this, but as I say, it's dead easy in principle. Individual governments could do this if they wanted to, but would be better to have full international agreement.

One of my abiding irritations with so many problems we have, like building enough homes for people to live in, taxing the rich and mega corporations, or stopping covid transmission, is when people say 'it's really difficult'. 99% of the time it really isn't. In fact, most of the time the solutions are so f@cking easy it hurts. The difficult bit is getting governments to understand how easy such things can be.

[alec]

For those interested, just put a very short post on the covid thread about official government recognition in Canada and Germany of the growing burden of long covid. It's now becoming increasingly accepted within many governments that this is a problem, and one that will get worse with increased rounds of infection, as this is what the data increasingly shows. "It's not a cold" as the German Health Minister said this week.

[pjw1961]

Dec 9, 2023 18:41:38 GMT jib said:

Dec 9, 2023 16:21:41 GMT pjw1961 said:

neilj - I have no idea who Simon Clarke is, and I follow politics more closely than 95% of the population. It does feel that it is time the population of the UK were given some say over who the Prime Minister is via a General Election.

The Tory b*stards are running out of time at rapid speed.

Desperate change of leadership will do little to save them now. I'm not even sure what Sunak's "democratic mandate" is?

Not fast enough for me!

As to mandates, I suppose it could be argued that a PM who was trying to implement the 2019 Tory manifesto could claim a mandate from the election result, but they largely seem to have given up on that in favour of things like Rwanda, which ween't in the manifesto. If Conservative MPs had been on performance related pay since 2019, they would be owing the taxpayer money. 

[shevii]

A controversial view from a Labour left winger which not all of us on this forum will agree with:

@mish_rahman
·
30m
If John Mcginn has a million fans, then i am one of them.
If John Mcginn has ten fans, then i am one of them.
If John Mcginn has only one fan then that is me.
If the world is against John Mcginn, then i am against the world.
I love John McGinn
I love Aston Villa

[Danny]

Dec 9, 2023 13:32:22 GMT colin said:

Mathew Paris in today's Times offers this opinion :-

"In the century ahead, the First World will be ditching post-Second World War treaty obligations towards refugees, and amending the European Convention on Human Rights as required. “Too many” is the argument that dare not speak its name; but it will."

I agree with him.

I agree. I guess the real issue behind this is the world has become smaller and easier to cross. Thats technology and mass international travel as routine. The law says anyone can rock up anywhere and claim assylum, and theres plenty of places where conditions are bad enough to justify it. Simply stuff like gay rights or women's rights or lack of, in your home country may be enough. Or as I suggested recently, would Russians qualify to seek refuge here because they are draft dodging the war with Ukraine? Not least because they are measured in comparison with british standards, which are quite high at the moment.

The problem at the moment is not a problem, the issue is what it might become. While inside the EU we were protected from this by internal agreements. Its true they are also under strain, but the immediate cause of this current row was leaving the EU. And then made worse because the government cannot acknowledge Brexit was the cause not at all the solution.

What I am curious about is exactly why Sunak refuses to ditch the charter. Perhaps because it would, rightly, be seen as attacking the rights of Britains themselves? This is really a situation in which the world needs to unite, or at least similar nations need to do so. We need something like a united europe where all the european nations can get together and take joint action. I wonder what that might be? Its also becoming obvious we cannot rely on NATO if at its core it is controlled and armed by the US. We need a European version. Something of course which the Brexiteers also railed against. Why anyone would think they worked for Russia!

[Danny]

Dec 9, 2023 15:49:03 GMT pjw1961 said:

The housing shortage and collapsing NHS and infrastructure are in reality a direct result of government policy since 2010.

The housing shortage is directly traceable to the Thatcher era decision to end council house building.

Not because council houses were perfect, but because they put a floor which included space standards under the entire housing market, which the private sector also had to match. Plus of course removing shortages. Just imagine how much easier life would be today if homes were a fraction of their current costs.

[Danny]

Dec 9, 2023 16:39:56 GMT c-a-r-f-r-e-w said:

(The AI revolution continues apace, starting to revolutionise material science… which in turn will have big impacts on batteries, medicine, supercomputers, fusion, lipstick, lampshades, artificial Christmas trees…)

R4 had a demonstration of an AI immitating james Stewart the other day. Long time since I remember hearing him, but it definitely was not him. Sounded like someone trying to immitate him.

Which might also be true of all the other claims.

[Danny]

Dec 9, 2023 16:42:01 GMT mercian said:

if there is a shortage of something there are two solutions both of which should be used.
1) Increase supply
2) Decrease demand, in this case by restricting immigration to those people the country actually needs

All very well, but almost all our immigrants are here at our invitation. The boat people is a rather small side show compared to all the ones we decided we do need here. yes, we could stop the doctors and nurses and carers coming (apparently thats more than half of them), but we first require a political solution to what we plan to do instead.

What we have done for years is neither 1 or 2.

[c-a-r-f-r-e-w]

Dec 9, 2023 20:43:31 GMT Danny said:

Dec 9, 2023 16:39:56 GMT c-a-r-f-r-e-w said:

(The AI revolution continues apace, starting to revolutionise material science… which in turn will have big impacts on batteries, medicine, supercomputers, fusion, lipstick, lampshades, artificial Christmas trees…)

R4 had a demonstration of an AI immitating james Stewart the other day. Long time since I remember hearing him, but it definitely was not him. Sounded like someone trying to immitate him.

Which might also be true of all the other claims.

well it’s early days. AI is increasingly improving at various techie things which are testable. Like writing code, for example, at which it is getting quite handy. They will be able to test the new materials likewise, to see how good the AI really is, and develop it. They are looking to use robotics to test all the materials the AI comes up with much more quickly too:


“Additionally, a robot chemist that tried to make 58 of the materials in a lab was able to produce 41 of them in 17 days. By contrast, it can take a human researcher months of guesswork and experimentation to create one new material and their efforts often fail.

“From microchips to batteries and photovoltaics, discovery of inorganic crystals has been bottlenecked by expensive trial-and-error approaches,” the researchers write in a study published in Nature, “our work represents an order-of-magnitude expansion in stable materials known to humanity.”


Professor Kristin Persson of the University of California, Berkeley, whose lab runs the robot chemist, said that the research had provided a glimpse of a future where it would be possible “to design materials autonomously using computers, but also then to make them autonomously using these robotic labs”.”

[Deleted]

Actually quite please for Batty, Villa and Dick Emery’s Spanish son:

As 1/ It’s nice to see a new team making a comeback towards the top and get into to the Champions League group.

And 2/ I have gone off of Arteta for the way he has treated Aaron Ramsdale.

[Deleted]

Dec 9, 2023 20:54:12 GMT @fecklessmiser said:

Actually quite pleased for Batty, Villa and Dick Emery’s Spanish son:

As 1/ It’s nice to see a new team making a comeback towards the top and get into to the Champions League group.

And 2/ I have gone off of Arteta for the way he has treated Aaron Ramsdale.

[Danny]

Dec 9, 2023 19:47:01 GMT alec said:

For those interested, just put a very short post on the covid thread about official government recognition in Canada and Germany of the growing burden of long covid. It's now becoming increasingly accepted within many governments that this is a problem, and one that will get worse with increased rounds of infection, as this is what the data increasingly shows. "It's not a cold" as the German Health Minister said this week.

Thats interesting Alec. Lets suppose for the moment its all true. Just what do you propose to do about it? Everyone who wants to be has been vaccinated multiple times, and covid just keeps on going. No one believes we could use isolation and lockdown to suppress it further. Its just not worthwhile given the tiny level of illness its causing. Its not like we arent dying of all sorts of other stuff too, and you want to close down economies, send us all back into isolation, thereby destroy the NHS, and leave us to starve as no one is allowed out to deliver goods.

There are some other possible ways we might suppress covid and similar diseases. Stop living in cities, for example. Never go to large gatherings, like factories. Or theatres. Close hospitals because they are terrible sources of infection and always have been. That might mean we are forced to drastically shrink our population, because once we abolish community living, we wouldnt be able to support the same population. So lets kill 90% of our population and all move to being survivalists working in isolation. Then at least we wont have to worry about covid!


Unless you have some fantastic idea what better to do, whats the point of you keep banging on about possible problems we can do nothing about?

Human life expectancy has gone up because we have tackled the problems we can tackle, not because we threw away all those resources on what we cannot tackle.

What happend over covid was already a terrible mistake, because the evidence is had we done nothing the death toll would have been much the same in the end.  Sure, develop a vaccine, but it was already too late by the time it arrived. The real problem  though is the harm done in lockdowns is killing people right now and will carry on doing so because of the economic damage of halting industry for a year. It was the wrong battle to fight. If you wanted to save lives the money could have been better spent elewhere.

[leftieliberal]

Dec 9, 2023 20:19:48 GMT shevii said:

A controversial view from a Labour left winger which not all of us on this forum will agree with:

@mish_rahman
·
30m
If John Mcginn has a million fans, then i am one of them.
If John Mcginn has ten fans, then i am one of them.
If John Mcginn has only one fan then that is me.
If the world is against John Mcginn, then i am against the world.
I love John McGinn
I love Aston Villa

Not controversial at all. When both the heir to the throne and a Labour left-winger support the Villa, it clearly shows widespread support in the country, which is entirely appropriate IMO. Corbyn's mistake as Labour leader was to support the Gunners. Had he listened to his advisers they would have told him that alienating half of North London is not a good political move.

[c-a-r-f-r-e-w]

Currently the lead article in the Times:


“Wes Streeting: NHS uses every winter crisis as an excuse for cash
Britain’s medical chiefs must accept that money is tight, says the shadow health secretary, and they can learn lessons from Singapore’s high-tech hospitals

Key points

Speaking on a visit to Singapore, Wes Streeting accused the health service of “waste and inefficiency”

He said he would bring back a family doctor system if he became health secretary

Patients would get more power to swap GPs via the NHS app, he pledged

He would push managers to perform better, regulating them like nurses and doctors”

[pjw1961]

Dec 9, 2023 21:19:22 GMT leftieliberal said:

Dec 9, 2023 20:19:48 GMT shevii said:

A controversial view from a Labour left winger which not all of us on this forum will agree with:

@mish_rahman
·
30m
If John Mcginn has a million fans, then i am one of them.
If John Mcginn has ten fans, then i am one of them.
If John Mcginn has only one fan then that is me.
If the world is against John Mcginn, then i am against the world.
I love John McGinn
I love Aston Villa

Not controversial at all. When both the heir to the throne and a Labour left-winger support the Villa, it clearly shows widespread support in the country, which is entirely appropriate IMO. Corbyn's mistake as Labour leader was to support the Gunners. Had he listened to his advisers they would have told him that alienating half of North London is not a good political move.

Don't forget that our new Foreign Secretary is a big fan of Aston Ham. Much prefers them to West Villa United. 

[pjw1961]

Dec 9, 2023 21:42:54 GMT c-a-r-f-r-e-w said:

Lead article in the Times:

“Wes Streeting: NHS uses every winter crisis as an excuse for cash
Britain’s medical chiefs must accept that money is tight, says the shadow health secretary, and they can learn lessons from Singapore’s high-tech hospitals

Key points

Speaking on a visit to Singapore, Wes Streeting accused the health service of “waste and inefficiency”

He said he would bring back a family doctor system if he became health secretary

Patients would get more power to swap GPs via the NHS app, he pledged

He would push managers to perform better, regulating them like nurses and doctors”

A complete moron. Needs to actually start talking to some staff about reality. To quote a GP on a call I was on this week: "GP services are on their knees, same as acute hospitals". 

[c-a-r-f-r-e-w]

“The obstetrics and gynaecology clinic inside the vast Singapore General Hospital is unlike any ward in the UK. There are no counters or rows of staff waiting to take patients’ details. Instead, their appointments have already been registered via a mobile phone app and they sign themselves in using touchscreen kiosks.

…

Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting is a fan. “This is a system that is designed around patients,” he says. “The NHS is perfectly capable of arranging appointments in a way that maximises the convenience of patients — it just often chooses not to, or the system isn’t wired to think about that.””

…

“What a contrast to back home, where I think patients in hospital don’t really know what’s going on,” he said. “I definitely think there is an institutional and structural problem in the way the NHS works. It claims to be patient-centred, but it really isn’t,” he said.

…

“People need to hear the truth about the NHS,” he said, adding: “It is not the envy of the world, it is not delivering the quality of care that any of us want and unless it changes, it’s not going to survive.”

…

Referring to the government’s targets for GPs, he says: “If you’re measuring 55 things, you’re really not measuring anything at all. You’ve got to have some sharp priorities and I’m happy to be guided by GPs about what measures they would drop to redirect the money.

“I think that’s the same approach we should take to the NHS actually; let’s get rid of the stupid stuff that is holding the system back.”

…

He wants to get maximum use from the NHS app so patients can see which GPs are performing best on certain conditions and switch to the top local performer. They would be able to book appointments, self-refer to some specialists without seeing a GP first, and order prescriptions.

The app should also give patients an outline of the care they should receive for conditions such as asthma and diabetes — including what scans, tests and follow-up appointments they should be having so they can hold the NHS to account if it doesn’t happen. He also believes all patients should be able to access their medical records and that parents should be able to see their child’s records and help co-ordinate the care of elderly relatives.”

[c-a-r-f-r-e-w]

Dec 9, 2023 21:48:59 GMT pjw1961 said:

Dec 9, 2023 21:42:54 GMT c-a-r-f-r-e-w said:

Lead article in the Times:

“Wes Streeting: NHS uses every winter crisis as an excuse for cash
Britain’s medical chiefs must accept that money is tight, says the shadow health secretary, and they can learn lessons from Singapore’s high-tech hospitals

Key points

Speaking on a visit to Singapore, Wes Streeting accused the health service of “waste and inefficiency”

He said he would bring back a family doctor system if he became health secretary

Patients would get more power to swap GPs via the NHS app, he pledged

He would push managers to perform better, regulating them like nurses and doctors”

A complete moron. Needs to actually start talking to some staff about reality. To quote a GP on a call I was on this week: "GP services are on their knees, same as acute hospitals". 

Well in the bit I have subsequently quoted, he does talk about being guided by GPs and NHS generally (I have now put it in bold), if that helps any? He also wants to send NHS managers to college:

“This will include regulating NHS managers so they can be struck off for misconduct like nurses and doctors but also a College of Clinical Leadership to improve the quality of NHS management.”

 

[alec]

Wes Streeting is rapidly morphing into a complete twat.

The Singapore government spends c 4% of GDP equivalent on health care, whereas in the UK it's around 9%, but in Singapore, there is an enforced Medisave plan which requires workers to contribute between 7 - 9.5% of earnings into a medical savings plan which they can then use to part fund their own treatment. That gives far more money to spend on healthcare than we do through the NHS.

So if our Wes wants to save the NHS, he better stop wittering on about how apps might help and start thinking about who is going to pay for the necessary investment.

As a quick fix, he might also want to think about the fact that good quality masks are mandatory in patient facing healthcare facilities in Singapore, one reason why their rates of hospital acquired infections are much lower than ours.

[alec]

"Patients would get more power to swap GPs via the NHS app, he {Wes Streeting} pledged"

Complete twat.

From the NHS website - www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/gps/how-to-register-with-a-gp-surgery/

"How it works

Most people need to register with a surgery close to where they live.
You can use the Find a GP service to look for a surgery.

In the search results you can see:

if a GP surgery is currently accepting patients
reception opening times
reviews of the surgery

Once you've chosen a surgery, you'll need to fill in a registration form. These are usually available on:

the NHS App
the GP surgery's website
the GP surgery's profile page on the NHS website (Find a GP)

You can also get a paper form from the surgery.
It's also possible to register with a GP surgery outside your local area."

If Labour really think that having another app to allow you to change your GP is going to stop the NHS falling apart, them the entire front bench need a full frontal lobotomy.

Streeting is getting increasingly painful to listen to. He's no longer a serious politician.

[Deleted]

So, just Bring Back Boris and it'll all be fine. What could possibly go wrong?

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12845793/Boris-johnson-return-Prime-Minister-astonishing-plan.html