Nigel Farage – T May – worst Prime Minister

"Tesla said it is investigating a video on Chinese social media that appears to show one of its vehicles bursting into flames in Shanghai."
Apr 22, 2019 at 7:35 AM | Mark Hodgson

I thought it was only the EU that was sending rubbish to China/Far East, in the belief that it would be recycled into something useful.

The BBC should do a special programme on the UK's recycling scams, with Attenborough narrating, detailing the wasted time, effort and money that goes into the lining the pockets of the con artistes, and dumping rubbish abroad in waterways, holes-in-the-ground and incinerators. Or simply in parked cars.

Thought-provoking:

"EU’s two-faced ‘values’
Does it really make sense to talk about ‘European values’?"

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-two-faced-values-rule-of-law/

When people talk about “European values,” they usually conflate two things — first, a set of values that Europeans are claimed collectively to believe in, and second, a set of values that are embodied by the institutional structures and policies of the EU — the values of the EU. It is far from obvious that the two go together.

Europeans may collectively believe in democracy, for example. But aside from the obvious point that they are not the only ones, it is difficult to claim that democracy is a specifically “European” value given that one of the main criticisms of the EU is that it is undemocratic.

...The value that can most plausibly be claimed to be “European” is the rule of law. After all, the EU is nothing but a set of rules — and creating rules is what the EU does. And yet this, too, is problematic.

Beyond its usual rhetoric, the EU is doing very little to try to uphold the international rule of law outside its borders. In one of the main threats to the international rule of law — China’s acquisition and consolidation of islands in the East and South China Seas — the EU talks about “principled neutrality” but is largely absent in practice. France has long urged the EU to carry out freedom of navigation operations — to walk the walk, in other words — but has received almost no support. Meanwhile the United Kingdom, which is in the process of leaving the EU, and the United States are actually taking action to uphold the rule of law in Asia.

Brussels has invoked the idea of “European values” to justify taking tough action against Poland and Hungary for violations of the domestic rule of law. The problem is that the EU previously used the same rhetoric to enforce the eurozone’s fiscal rules and mandatory quotas for refugees and thus discredited it.

It turns out that the EU’s insistence on rules is not a European idea, but really a German one. And that is actually a big part of the EU’s internal problems.

Many of the conflicts within the EU are about resistance to rules seen as being imposed by Berlin and as undermining a member country’s sovereignty. This became obvious during the euro crisis, which can plausibly be seen as a battle between a German approach based on rules and a French and broadly Southern European approach based on discretion.

In practice, even the rule of law turns out to divide Europeans as much as it unites them. It may be a value in which a lot of “pro-Europeans” believe, but that doesn’t quite make it a distinctive “European value” — and like other “European values,” it doesn’t necessarily mean all Europeans support it.

"Tesla says investigating car explosion in Shanghai"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48009163

Tesla said it is investigating a video on Chinese social media that appears to show one of its vehicles bursting into flames in Shanghai.

In a statement, the carmaker said it had sent a team to investigate the matter, and that there were no reported casualties.

The video, which has not been verified by the BBC, showed a stationary car erupting into flames in a parking lot.

Tesla did not confirm the car model but social media identified it as Model S.

"After learning about the incident in Shanghai, we immediately sent the team to the scene last night," according to a translation of a Tesla statement posted on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

"We are actively contacting relevant departments and supporting the verification. According to current information, there are no casualties."

The video showed smoke rising from a parked, white vehicle and seconds later it bursts into flames.

The time stamp on the video shows the incident happened on Sunday night, local time (Sunday morning GMT).

Previous incidents involving Tesla vehicles catching on fire seem to have happened while the cars were moving.

In 2018, a Tesla car driven by British TV director Michael Morris burst into flames, following another such incident involving a Model S model in France in 2016.

A series of fires involving Tesla Model S cars took place in 2013.

Time to go

Apr 21, 2019 at 8:33 PM | Mark Hodgson
A coordinated onslaught by the BBC, Attenborough and XR means coordinated funding. It also confirms there if no new supportitive science.

Apr 21, 2019 at 8:18 PM | Mark Hodgson

I think it is wonderful news that private money has been volunteered by a few of France's mega rich, to help restore Notre Dame. This will save French Taxpayers excessive expense.

It makes economic sense to accept donations of money that will be spent in France, employing French workers, that might otherwise have been gambled on Chinese solar panels, Tesla, South American coffee and pharmaceuticals etc.

Macron is an opportunist in dire need of popularity, so offering a blank cheque to restore a great symbol of France made sense to him politically, but has upset Les Gilets Jaune, as they have been told there was no cash.

Today has seen malicious attacks on Christians and Churches. Many made assumptions that the Notre Dame fire resulted from malice. I did not, as most fires are not arson. It would be very worrying if the Easter fires were inspired by Notre Dame.

Are Wales and Scotland fundamentally different when it comes to tourism, or does the BBC just uncritically publish any old rubbish?

"Brexit: Welsh resorts to 'benefit" from EU exit uncertainty
13 April 201"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-47897427

"olidaymakers look set to embrace staycations in Wales this year as Brexit sparks nervousness about European holidays, tourism chiefs say.

The Easter holidays were due to be the first break after Britain left the European Union, before the government delayed the initial 29 March deadline.

Tourism bosses say the weak pound and uncertainty could add to the 10 million annual overnight trips to Wales.

The Wales Tourism Alliance is positive there will be a "Brexit bounce"."

"Brexit and the economy: the cost of kicking cans
Douglas Fraser
Business/economy editor, Scotland
20 April 201"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-47997127

"Whatever else happened with Brexit, a weakened pound and the widespread message that Scotland remains open to Europe - whatever England's up to - should have kept tourism from the continent at a healthy high level.

But it's not looking that way.

Economic uncertainty - not just in Britain but around it - has seen a falling away in numbers, at least at the start of the year. It's obviously not the most important time of year for the industry, but it is increasingly a year-round line of work.

That finding was according to one of the surveys out in the past week, which was giving us an dashboard of updates on the strange economic goings-on in pre-Brexit Britain."