WW3 -All Russia / Ukraine stuff here please-

GreiginFife said:
A good advisory for when dealing with imagery and information via Social Media platforms - never more than since the mass adoption of Social Media has the phrase "seeing is believing" been so redundant.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/60528276

The same advice regarding Nation State cyber activity was also played back to me and my colleagues in Cybersecurity for one of the world's biggest banks by our cyber analysts.

Try to verify what you are seeing before blindly re-posting it.
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Very true. My default mode is that I believe NOTHING I see on social media. Some memes are obviously rubbish, but others are better done and could easily fool someone.

If they appear on BBC or Sky, and definitely multiple of these platforms, I'll pay more attention. Only because I feel they will do due diligence in fact checking, and if they didn't then they'd lose all credibility as soon as they are called put for sharing fake news.
 
Old Skier said:
So we just let Russia and in the future China do as they wish.
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No, not really. We need to build up immunity to them and should have started long before now. I've thought it a very bad policy for some time to rely heavily on a country like China for technology and manufactured goods. We should be more self reliant and return to a manufacturing economy, things may be more expensive but that would be offset somewhat by creating better paid jobs in manufacturing while reducing our balance of trade deficit.

I'm all for making Russia suffer and the UK playing a part in the international effort to do so, but it's not a short term policy and Putin needs to Understand that his barbaric actions will hurt his country unless he reverses his actions and falls into line with what's acceptable.
 
SocketRocket said:
No, not really. We need to build up immunity to them and should have started long before now. I've thought it a very bad policy for some time to rely heavily on a country like China for technology and manufactured goods. We should be more self reliant and return to a manufacturing economy, things may be more expensive but that would be offset somewhat by creating better paid jobs in manufacturing while reducing our balance of trade deficit.

I'm all for making Russia suffer and the UK playing a part in the international effort to do so, but it's not a short term policy and Putin needs to Understand that his barbaric actions will hurt his country unless he reverses his actions and falls into line with what's acceptable.
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I've said it for years our government (not just current or the previous but all) is set up for short term thinking.

Whenever a change at the top a new direction is taken, ripping up old policy

For example the energy crisis. Poorly maintained and not replaced storage for gas supplies .. could really have helped to have some storage. Doesn't take a genius to work that one

Another one is solar panels, you can look at the failings to get nuclear on sure footing and replaced in a timely maner however how many roofs are there In the UK? Should have doubled down and really invested in them to reduce the need to import as much electric

Elon musk was saying if you had 100 square mile of panels in the Texas desert with just 1 square mile of battery storage it would provide enough electric for the entire USA

How much would you need here? Plenty of roofs

Instead as soon as we see off covid (even tho it's still here) we rip up green policy to save money when really it's our best bet on being more finically stable

(Ps mods have tried to keep this factual not political)
 
SocketRocket said:
No, not really. We need to build up immunity to them and should have started long before now. I've thought it a very bad policy for some time to rely heavily on a country like China for technology and manufactured goods. We should be more self reliant and return to a manufacturing economy, things may be more expensive but that would be offset somewhat by creating better paid jobs in manufacturing while reducing our balance of trade deficit.

I'm all for making Russia suffer and the UK playing a part in the international effort to do so, but it's not a short term policy and Putin needs to Understand that his barbaric actions will hurt his country unless he reverses his actions and falls into line with what's acceptable.
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pauljames87 said:
I've said it for years our government (not just current or the previous but all) is set up for short term thinking.

Whenever a change at the top a new direction is taken, ripping up old policy

For example the energy crisis. Poorly maintained and not replaced storage for gas supplies .. could really have helped to have some storage. Doesn't take a genius to work that one

Another one is solar panels, you can look at the failings to get nuclear on sure footing and replaced in a timely maner however how many roofs are there In the UK? Should have doubled down and really invested in them to reduce the need to import as much electric

Elon musk was saying if you had 100 square mile of panels in the Texas desert with just 1 square mile of battery storage it would provide enough electric for the entire USA

How much would you need here? Plenty of roofs

Instead as soon as we see off covid (even tho it's still here) we rip up green policy to save money when really it's our best bet on being more finically stable

(Ps mods have tried to keep this factual not political)
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Hear hear - from both of you. I think you're both absolutely spot on.

Our dependence on non-democratic countries with whom we have fractious relations puts us at risk and makes it really hard to take meaningful action at a time like this.

And, one of the difficulties with a democratic system that can see the government changed every four years is that it's really hard for them to make long-term decisions. They have no choice but to try to make short-term, popular decisions.
Personally, I'd like to see issues like health, education, and energy taken out of the hands of the sitting government and made cross-party issues so that long-term benefits can be prioritised.

(Mods - I'm new here. This is about the democratic system, not any particular party. I hope that's okay?)
 
pauljames87 said:
I've said it for years our government (not just current or the previous but all) is set up for short term thinking.

Whenever a change at the top a new direction is taken, ripping up old policy

For example the energy crisis. Poorly maintained and not replaced storage for gas supplies .. could really have helped to have some storage. Doesn't take a genius to work that one

Another one is solar panels, you can look at the failings to get nuclear on sure footing and replaced in a timely maner however how many roofs are there In the UK? Should have doubled down and really invested in them to reduce the need to import as much electric

Elon musk was saying if you had 100 square mile of panels in the Texas desert with just 1 square mile of battery storage it would provide enough electric for the entire USA

How much would you need here? Plenty of roofs

Instead as soon as we see off covid (even tho it's still here) we rip up green policy to save money when really it's our best bet on being more finically stable

(Ps mods have tried to keep this factual not political)
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Our problem is WE want cheap and don't care where it comes from. Time to get realistic and pay the going rate for things that are and can be produced here.
 
Old Skier said:
Our problem is WE want cheap and don't care where it comes from. Time to get realistic and pay the going rate for things that are and can be produced here.
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Greed from companies goes a long way

Xiaomi for example do all kinds of tech. Their margin is 5% profit ... Go for pure sales rather than rake in profit from less sales

Sometimes cheaper is better. Like sky if they lowered their prices to somewhere less rip off for what it is would have more people pay it and less go down streaming routes
 
pauljames87 said:
Greed from companies goes a long way

Xiaomi for example do all kinds of tech. Their margin is 5% profit ... Go for pure sales rather than rake in profit from less sales

Sometimes cheaper is better. Like sky if they lowered their prices to somewhere less rip off for what it is would have more people pay it and less go down streaming routes
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It's not just companies greed, we have to accept some responsibility.
 
Old Skier said:
It's not just companies greed, we have to accept some responsibility.
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I do I agree. However we are left with few alternatives for UK / US / EU made goods.

China has the world by the kahunas currently and europe Just does not have the industry’s anymore.

Largely because it was cheaper back then just to shut them down and import cheap crap.

This issues we have now are 80 years in the making.
 
SocketRocket said:
No, not really. We need to build up immunity to them and should have started long before now. I've thought it a very bad policy for some time to rely heavily on a country like China for technology and manufactured goods. We should be more self reliant and return to a manufacturing economy, things may be more expensive but that would be offset somewhat by creating better paid jobs in manufacturing while reducing our balance of trade deficit.
...
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UK is at a disadvantage in manufactured goods purely because of the limited size of the country - which makes it more expensive to produce the goods. Its lowest level of pay is still relatively high, so 'sweat shop' environments are relatively rare.
Far better for it to be 'high technology'/specialist high margin oriented than high volume, low margin oriented imo. Distribution costs, while low within UK, are greater for exports than many countries, simply because of geography!
SocketRocket said:
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I'm all for making Russia suffer and the UK playing a part in the international effort to do so, but it's not a short term policy and Putin needs to Understand that his barbaric actions will hurt his country unless he reverses his actions and falls into line with what's acceptable.
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I agree. But there is likely to be considerable short term pain for UK in doing so. The 'dependence' of Europe, including UK, on Russia's Oil and Gas reserves is a considerable 'weapon' for Russia! The North Sea production and reserves are nowhere their amount.
 
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Foxholer said:
UK is at a disadvantage in manufactured goods purely because of the limited size of the country - which makes it more expensive to produce the goods. Its lowest level of pay is still relatively high, so 'sweat shop' environments are relatively rare.
Far better for it to be 'high technology'/specialist high margin oriented than high volume, low margin oriented imo. Distribution costs, while low within UK, are greater for exports than many countries, simply because of geography!

I agree. But there is likely to be considerable short term pain for UK in doing so. The 'dependence' of Europe, including UK, on Russia's Oil and Gas reserves is a considerable 'weapon' for Russia! The North Sea production and reserves are nowhere their amount.
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The UK was and is quite capable of producing many of the things they import from China, including textiles, engineered components, tooling, electrical/electronic goods etc. They may cost more to make but as I have previously explained much of that would be offset by the employment/tax revenue/savings in state benefits by the employment created. It has been done before and is still done by small countries. As I also explained, we should have started this year's ago. The other benefit is the creation of meaningful jobs for people which helps to improve morale and well being. Just look to Germany for an example.
 
DanFST said:
Blocking swift isn't a huge deal long term.

It will force upgrade SPFS, and the will be allowed to use CIPS.
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The technology isn't the problem. The bigger problem, for Russia, would/will be getting countries to allow their banks to participate. I hardly think USA would do so. And not just for the 'allowing Russian Banks international financial transactions' reason.
 
SocketRocket said:
The UK was and is quite capable of producing many of the things they import from China, including textiles, engineered components, tooling, electrical/electronic goods etc. They may cost more to make but as I have previously explained much of that would be offset by the employment/tax revenue/savings in state benefits by the employment created. It has been done before and is still done by small countries.
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I don't disagree. It's just better, imo, to optimise the 'high technology' benefits that UK also has. Singapore and Japan have been very successful with that approach.
Germany has a couple of advantages...A reboot of its infrastructure after WW2 and only about 80% of UK's population density
 
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