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They are of course two different things: unemployment is the state of not having a (paying) job poverty is being unable to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter I strongly suspect there is a material correlation between unemployment and poverty. Defining poverty in relative...

It was not the media driven anti-Tory rhetoric that lost them the election. After 14 years of (TBH) a very mixed performance the Tories were incapable of coherent policy or action. Infighting split their vote between Reform and traditional Tory, Between them they won more votes than Labour...

The method to replace the fuel duty revenues lost through EV need to be simple - easy to implement and operate. Taxation has another role - even were there is no logic to differentiate ICE from EV for road taxes, it may serve to encourage EV uptake to have different rates. As no proposals are...

Some endeavours are rightly shared across a society, rather than the product of pure capitalist endeavour where those who fund a service charge all who use it. Roads could be a wholly capitalist endeavour. Owners and operators could charge for their use as already happens in a small way in...

Ac few thoughts: a single heavy object is not very portable - although it may lend itself to a fold out from the wall approach a modular design is inhrently more portable. If used only at home can be stored away from where it is used. Easier to transport to site if required. modular allows...

Current daytime demand is ~35GW falling to ~20GW overnight. The figures will be slightly different during winter - although a clear day/night differential will likely exist. As the number of EVs increase, the day/night demand differential will fall and prices start to equalise. Assuming I...

I do not have the knowledge, or possibly the intellect, to understand the science that goes into vaccine research, the statistical analysis associated with identification of target groups, or the probabilities and costs associated with treatment of the unvaccinated. It is therefore a matter of...

A positive response - face up to what is happening. With, say, the mines: agree closure timetable, full cooperation in exchange for training in new skills, negotiate regional grants to attract new employers, negotiate support for new industrial and commercial facilities, active training in...

Tractors first became commonplace on farms during and shortly after WW2. Other agricultural machinery followed. A seasonal agricultural workers scheme also started in 1945 reflecting a shortage of UK labour - or that we Brits considered manual labouring on farms beneath us. I agree some of...

The nature of employment and work has changed rapidly, particularly over the last 70 years. Jobs that have largely or almost entirely disappeared due to automation and demand changes - miners, steel workers, manufacturing, typists, telephone exchange operators, agricultural workers, dock...

At the risk of alienating any HGV drivers on the forum, the principal impediment to progress is when three lanes become two as one HGV with an imperceptible speed advantage over another hogs the middle lane in an overtaking manoeuvre at ~60mph.

I don't think your comments stand up to scrutiny. Replacement of failed batteries will likely be uneconomic due to the rate of development - no OEMs are going to want to produce obsolete batteries for vehicles 8+ years old. I would expect battery reconditioning services to evolve as volumes...

In Jacobs world no one would be able to accumulate wealth on which to place a cap.

Transition from existing fuels - mainly oil and gas (domestic heating) will likely happen over 20-25 years, not an immediate large spike. Gas boilers are typically be replaced when they fail. Boilers last 15-20 years. The transition to electric (heat pumps etc) has barely started. Cars last...

Cyber security failures are common to all types of power generation and distribution. Similarly physical attacks on infrastructure. Fossil fuels add to insecurity through reliance on global markets for both price and delivery. Or have I missed something??

Have a look at this and then decide whether driverless is on its way. Tesla. I accept that some of the roads are wider and less congested than many in the UK, and that the video would have been pulled had it contained anything of danger. But it is still "not if but when" (my guess 3-5 years)...

Approximately 84% of the UK population live in urban areas. Rural Devon may be amongst the last to adopt the technology. Plymouth and Exeter will likely be first - quickly followed by Torquay, Paignton, Exmouth etc.

Driverless vehicles don't get angry, drunk, tired, emotional, argue with the boss, worry about money, hormonal, etc etc etc. They have other potential flaws - inadequately tested software, faulty sensors, poor quality control. Autonomous vehicles do not need to be perfect - merely better than...

Science over the last few hundred years has provided an explanation for much that would have seemed miraculous or the work of some divine authority or supreme being. Some believe the currently inexplicable will in the future be resolved through rational analysis. The scientific community in...

The Automated Vehicles Bill was laid before Parliament and the Scottish Parliament, and on May 2024 the Automated Vehicles (AV) Act received royal assent. There are trials around the world already providing services - often on road systems less demanding than UK. In the UK there are current...