BaaLocks

For China, I go back to the earlier post that it's not their emissions as such that are the issue, it's the West using China as their cheap manufacturing base and then somehow asking them to reduce the emissions they create making the 'stuff' we have asked for.
But wrt your second paragraph it's absolutely true that we have no idea what the future would look like. To the points raised in another thread, if you had been told 30-40 years ago that you could carry all the information in the world in a small device in your pocket you would have been thought fanciful, if you had told our great grandparents that we would all have machines in our house to do the washing for us and keep our food both cold and frozen you would have got the same response. We are not living in the most rapidly advancing generation in history, every generation has done that in their own way.
So when you read articles like this, suggesting harvesting of energy via solar power and then transmitting back to Earth via laser beams you do have to suspend cyncicism and say why not. All the elements needed to achieve this today are in place, it just needs funding (with the obvious concerns about it being used for warfare purposes being dispelled as well). For those who don't want to click, basically the true power and energy of the sun is strongly dissipated as it goes through our atmosphere (though it might not have felt that way in the last week). So if we can harvest the energy the other side of our atmosphere and then pass it back through our atmosphere via a means that does not dissipate (laser) then we do have access to infinite levels of 100% carbon free energy. And, to repeat, all the technology is there today.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2021/03/29/space-lasers-the-truth/

Me too, since 1979....

Me too, since 1979....

Sorry Alf, while I agree with everything else you write this is the lie that is being told to us about profits. Profits (call them EBITDA or whatever) are not the bit you re-invest into a company, they are the bits that you share out among shareholders. Profits, despite Thick Lizzy trying to tell us otherwise, are the cream that is left after all the other stuff is done.
So profits are not a dirty word if you are a private company, where your responsibility is to generate wealth for your shareholders (and if you follow the same model as countries like France that includes your employees). But for service industries profit is absolutely a dirty word because the very suggestion of it means that you have diverted funds that should be delivering that very service out of the company.

I think it's just a trickle down affect. The more passing football, tika taka, gegenpress etc etc is at the top, the more it flows down through the pyramid. We've seen it in the Championship, from the days where Swansea were just about the only proper passing team to now the overwhelming majority being passing teams. Same is happening further down, just with a few more exceptions each league down. I go to watch Belper Town a lot, and whilst they're still playing like Bolton and Stoke 15 years ago, there's a hell of a lot of teams playing it out from the back at that level too. 
So yeah, I think we will certainly come up against some s******** teams, but the idea the league is full of them is a bit archaic and repeated by fans who haven't really watched the league.

Erm, you obviously missed Rishi saying his daughters are the experts on recycling in his house! What a policy!

Having to phone a number to know what time it was (or wait to listen to the beeps on the radio)
Not being able to phone home to tell them you would be late home, or even where you were (or not having 2p to do it from the phone box)
Not actually knowing where you were, if you didn't have a map or A-Z
Having to go to the library to find out the answer to a question
Giving home three rings to tell them you were on your way home
Answering a call by reading out your phone number
Answering a call without knowing who it was
Having to ask for the key to the lock on the home phone before you could use it
Not being able to remember someone's phone number
Portable music being nine songs on a C90 and hoping your Walkman batteries didn't rum out

Sorry, but the condition of that pitch is three bits of nothing to do with playing rugby on it. That is 100% to do with not looking after it.

We went to the 7s and couldn't help but laugh when a couple of blokes behind us said "wow, first time I've seen this place full"

You've obviously not been watching the Tory leadership debates then??????? As one person described, this is the 'Olympics of Evil' in play and the perfect illustrator of why it is hard to challenge the extreme actions of the likes of Extinction Rebellion. The 'system' both doesn't want to listen to long term needs but also just doesn't know how to react. And, shamefully, the "I'm alright Jack" mantra spread in both UK and USA by the parties in power (and I'd still argue the Republicans are the real power in the US. Wade Roe anyone?), coupled with the isolationist philopsohies of China and Brazil, really leaves you struggling to see any positive signs of how we are going to prevent this. Sadly, since COP-26 I think this has almost spread an increased resistance to listen, something along the lines of "but we're clearly doomed anyway so why should we even bother".
But, again sadly, my personal view is that it won't be CO2 emissions that will get us in the end, but it will be biodiversity. Pesticides, plastics and deforestation will have a much more (and totally irreversible) dramatic tipping point than climate (though the two are obviously connected). 
TLDR: once the bees go, we are toast

Having to phone a number to know what time it was (or wait to listen to the beeps on the radio)
Not being able to phone home to tell them you would be late home, or even where you were (or not having 2p to do it from the phone box)
Not actually knowing where you were, if you didn't have a map or A-Z
Having to go to the library to find out the answer to a question
Giving home three rings to tell them you were on your way home
Answering a call by reading out your phone number
Answering a call without knowing who it was
Having to ask for the key to the lock on the home phone before you could use it
Not being able to remember someone's phone number
Portable music being nine songs on a C90 and hoping your Walkman batteries didn't rum out

I couldn't agree more that technological solutions will be answer.  Thankfully, lots of progress is being made in that area.  However I fear that it is the absence of political will globally that may prove the bigger stumbling block to progress.

Interesting to consider though, isn't it? A few years back the suggestion was that we would move to eating insects - low in cholesterol, high in protein, cheap to produce, almost zero CO2.
What I would say is that there have been very few examples in history where we have willingly deprived humanity for the benefit of humanity (slavery is probably the only example I can think of). In all others we have to invent our way out of it and that will have to be the case here (one could even argue that the invention of engines made large elements of slavery redundant).
Engines that are more efficient, less reliant on fossil fuels etc are going to have to be the answer. Only new technology will save us, just banning things won't.

So are some words

You've obviously not been watching the Tory leadership debates then??????? As one person described, this is the 'Olympics of Evil' in play and the perfect illustrator of why it is hard to challenge the extreme actions of the likes of Extinction Rebellion. The 'system' both doesn't want to listen to long term needs but also just doesn't know how to react. And, shamefully, the "I'm alright Jack" mantra spread in both UK and USA by the parties in power (and I'd still argue the Republicans are the real power in the US. Wade Roe anyone?), coupled with the isolationist philopsohies of China and Brazil, really leaves you struggling to see any positive signs of how we are going to prevent this. Sadly, since COP-26 I think this has almost spread an increased resistance to listen, something along the lines of "but we're clearly doomed anyway so why should we even bother".
But, again sadly, my personal view is that it won't be CO2 emissions that will get us in the end, but it will be biodiversity. Pesticides, plastics and deforestation will have a much more (and totally irreversible) dramatic tipping point than climate (though the two are obviously connected). 
TLDR: once the bees go, we are toast

Filthy beast

Just need one of these to go with it

Great post. Cars are just mental...even if you have the money, surely way better things you can spend it on.
Buy a good old car for about 3 or 4k. Probably last 5 years without too much needed to be done to it. If it does have a major problem, get rid and get another one.
Or pay 300 a month for brand new lease car and don't do any maths. Or buy a new/newer car and pray it doesn't screw up after warranty is over.

Cars (the transport, not the Gary Numan song). Just been somewhere with a mate of mine and he has an £80k vehicle, it was nice - no debate - but my car is worth about £10k and his was probably twice as nice, OK let's be generous and say three. Still missing £50k in that assessment for something that sits unused for more than twenty hours a day.

Just back from Rebellion 2022 - rocking affair. They had an extra stage this year on the front and loaded it with, well let's just say more accessible bands. Hardcore punk is a riot but four days of it gets a bit much. Some great acts on the new stage - Squeeze, Billy Bragg, Hollie Cook, Skids, Gary Numan, The Stranglers - to just give a bit more to go for than good old fashioned "1-2-3-4".
I also did some housekeeping while there

Cars (the transport, not the Gary Numan song). Just been somewhere with a mate of mine and he has an £80k vehicle, it was nice - no debate - but my car is worth about £10k and his was probably twice as nice, OK let's be generous and say three. Still missing £50k in that assessment for something that sits unused for more than twenty hours a day.

Talking of over rated - exhibit A m'lud

Cars (the transport, not the Gary Numan song). Just been somewhere with a mate of mine and he has an £80k vehicle, it was nice - no debate - but my car is worth about £10k and his was probably twice as nice, OK let's be generous and say three. Still missing £50k in that assessment for something that sits unused for more than twenty hours a day.