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Worth noting that the average car currently spends 22-23 hours a day parked. A fleet of driverless cars would need sufficient capacity to meet peak demand. It may reduce the number of vehicles required to 15-30% - say 5-10m vs the 30m+ vehicles currently registered. Driverless vehicles...

Most car travel does not involve children. Most journeys are urban and average ~8 miles. With driverless vehicles summoned via an app I would expect a range of vehicles would be available at different costs. Most journeys - commuting, school run, shopping, local social would be in cheap...

In Norway over 80% of cars are EV - there is no absolute limit. Over the last year the UK has produced 60% of electricity from green sources - wind, solar, nuclear, hydro. There is potential with investment to comfortably deliver total electricity demand even after demand increases from EVs...

Religion reinforces the belief that there is some higher purpose in our existence which frequently extends to some sort of afterlife - heaven, hell, reincarnation etc. Do other of gods creations also have a higher purpose or reflect upon life, death etc - chimps share ~98% of human DNA. Or...

That it has become a "necessity" over the last 80 years (3 not 1 generation) is a testament to its desirability over alternatives. Walking and cycling is an option for short journeys only. Bus and train are old tech - inefficient, inflexible and costly - effectively obsolete compared with what...

Starmer/Labour has a massive majority to do precisely as he wishes for the next 5 years. Political opposition is inconsequential - they will not stop a single piece of legislation. Even challenges to some of the detail can be ignored given the Labour majority. He has stuffed is cabinet and...

Truth, as politicians will be very aware, is a flexible concept. Some truths are close to absolute - supported by statistically adequate objective data or based upon evidence corroborated by large numbers. Examples - the result of a football match, temperature, height of a mountain, etc. Some...

"Most of the so called core values of socialism are just common sense with a common sense of purpose. Socialists for instance always claim that the NHS was their idea but a similar idea was actually mooted by Tories at least a decade earlier but no one hears about that." Usually credited as...

I suspect the principle determinant of the effectiveness of carving tools is the way in which they are sharpened and an edge maintained - not whether it is old or new.

Lets just accept the figures above are correct. Rather than a one off distribution let's assume that we want to enhance the income of folk for the indefinite future. To do otherwise would risk a growth bubble to meet immediate desires, followed by no lasting benefit. Assume a reasonable rate...

I think we need to be clear about the distinction between socialism, socialist and society. Society - a community, nation, or broad grouping of people having common traditions, institutions, and collective activities and interests Socialism - an economic and political philosophy encompassing...

Since 2000 the UK population has increased by 9m, of which net immigration accounts for 6m. Net new housing starts are 4m. House building, and I suspect most infrastructure - health, education, etc, has been needed to simply absorb population increases. The benefit (quality, quantity...

Immigration may be a short term expedient to deliver vital services, but long term unsustainable. The demands of a population need to be balanced with resources available - over the last two decades, housebuilding has barely kept pace with population increases. Hence little improvement to...

Council house building also gave us the joys of pre-cast reinforced concrete, high rise, streets in the sky, estates built to low quality standards on the edge of towns with poor links etc. Many now demolished as failing structurally or fundamentally flawed design and execution. Pre-fabs were...

Merton Council are to be congratulated in taking decisive action over a clearly delinquent landlord. If the rentier class is taken out of the process, the need for property management in the broadest sense remains - investment, allocation of scarce resources, managing tenants, dealing with...

We pay for the BBC through the licence fee (a tax) - discounted to £49 for black and white. Commercial TV would not exist unless someone was prepared to pay for it. They generate income from advertising. Their goal is attracting the maximum number of viewers to ensure they can charge...

Given the choice between X, Facebook, Instagram, other bits of social media and the BBC, I would go for the BBC every time. They are not perfect, but are regulated and tend to work with objectivity to high standards. By contrast the other media are full of uncontrolled agendas, bias...

Scammed by a parking app - in a new town, late for meeting, dark, wet. Search for the app on the car park sign. Says it wants a £1 to set up the account - no problem. Next day bank alert me to two dubious additional transactions - both below £100. Fortunately these were both blocked and...

I agree with all you say - the "trades" have become entirely deskilled as far as housebuilding is concerned. Implied criticism of property developers may be unjustified - we, the consumers, chase functionality and low prices. Would we be prepared to pay 10 or 20% more for a house which has...

Companies only spend money on marketing and in a way where they think it will have some impact on sales and profit. They know that half the money spent on marketing is wasted - but don't know which half. They target activity on those areas which are likely to generate a positive response...