alpine_saint

You mean Thorium ? I noticed a few weeks ago India released a statement that they are planning to build a full size Thorium reactor. There was an interesting article on the Beeb about 2months ago. Apparently the direction the world has gone in relating to nuclear generation is great for producing weapons-grade plutonium and uranium, and the concept is to just scale up the PWRs first put into US subs by Hyman Rickover. Apparently it is NOT the most effective and safe way to implement electrical generation by nuclear power. There are many, many alternatives that are safer and more efficient, Thorium reactos just bein one example.

Right, so my initial post stands.

So how is this miraculous recovery in the UK manufacturing sector gonna happen, however much money the City chucks at the situation, if it can only be "high-tech" to succeed, when a large proportion of UK kids leave school unable to read and write, let alone use a slide-rule ? I am not surprised the City has cut its losses with manufacturing.

Not sure about that one, either, a lot of big companies are listed now. However, there is a greater variety of corporate models over here. Family ownership does play a greater role in the German economy (e.g. BMW), but there is also a foundation/collaborative model called locally "stiftung", probably the most well-known example of this is Bosch.

Yes, at car level, BMW are getting on well. But imo they are proceeding on the assumption of ready availability; focusing on the engine operation and local car storage. the logistics of a switch to hyrdogen are a nightmare. I personally think electric is a more likely roadmap.

Has that been released to the market yet ? I think they have parallel assembly lines for their prestige models over in the Graz area at Magna Steyr.

Rubbish. Investors and banks discovered that they could a much better return from non-manufacturing investments because they were driven away from manufacturing industry in the first place. Germany and Japan got collosal levels of aid from the US after the war (much, much more than Britain, its supposed ally, got) Maybe UK manufacturing industry could be transformed, if people working in it would accept f**k-all pay and sh*t working conditions and health and safety for a few decades, just like your shining examples of China and India. But then the return is higher for investors.

Imo, hydrogen is a complete non-starter. Conservation of energy is a basic fundamental of physics - in order to get the huge energy release you get from burning hydrogen in oxygen (producing the waste product so desirable to the green community - water) you first have to put a MASSIVE amount of energy into water in order to split it into its two consitutents.

Well, its still 4th. Also the global manufacturing of cars is much more complex nowadays, with companies siting factories abroad or sub-contracting production abroad. Without even taking into account the multi-tiered sourcing of components. For example, did you know Aston Martins are now made here in Austria ?

Manufacturing industry in the UK was already dead or at least terminal before 1987

I think you've looked at my reaction from the wrong direction. I dont think anyone who does not support the nuke option is stupid. Jeez, the consequences are ghastly if an accident happens. I think anyone who thinks wind and sun can replace nuke and coal COMBINED is plain stupid. The 71% figure represents the percentage of people who think this.

British Aerospace ? National Coal Board ? British Steel ? Whatever the power generation authority was called ? GPO ? Ok, I know some of this is not exactly direct manufacturing. And in the rest of your post you compare to German manufacturing. You simply cannot underestimate how much of Germany's overall economic strength comes from the car industry; I know because I work in it. Compare and contrast to British Leyland...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15864806

The manufacturing decline in Britain, tha nation that gave the world the Industrial Revolution, was caused by successive Labour governments in cahoots with greedy power hungry Trade Unionist the like of which seems to be reappearing in the guises of Serwotka and Crow. All Thatcher did was try to put the crippled dog out of its misery with a 12-bore. Look at the aircraft industry. In the early 60s, we led the world and the Americans were playing catch-up. Then Wilson, Healey and Jenkins murdered it by cancelling and in an unprecdented move, utterly destroying the R & D work behind the TSR2. Probably to make sure the Americans supported an IMF bailout, since they bankrupted the country in a similar way to which Blair and Brown have. All those famous names - Blackburn, Supermarine, English Electric, Hawker, Avro, Vickers...gone, forever.

P*ss off George. Have a look at my avatar, and think about the cost of your defecit cutting...

About 200quid each. Two big items and 3 or 4 small items each. I came from two big families and had 9 aunts/uncles, so was used to lots of presents. My kids only have 1 or 2 aunts that bother. So I try to compensate a little.

The last team the Queen could be bothered to present the FA Cup to.

Shouldnt it be "repository" or was the thread title getting the ball rolling ?

You could go on and on, and I would be fascinated. Thankyou for sharing that stuff with us.

I also want to "do" the Middle East before I shuffle off my mortal coil. Israel and Egypt are top of the list, followed by Jordan and Turkey. I swore blind to my wife I am going to attend midnight mass at Bethlehem on Christmas Eve before I die.

Our biggest threats are injury and complacency.

Stale spunk ?

Not on bronze. He is first and foremost a renowned wood carver and modeller, so its a bit strange why he got the gig in the first place. It really is uncanny how he worked on Ted Bates and came up exactly with Mandaric. It must have been deliberate.

Would love to take a positive omen from this, but we played Cardiff a few weeks ago (and lost) so, in the end it means jack sh*t. We have to keep doing our thing for the remaining 29 games. End of.