Comments by "Mark Welch" (@markwelch3564) on "Senior Conservatives fear the end of conservativism" video.

Let's face it, the sort of conservatism embodied by John Major and Rory Stewart is already dead in the Tory party The current Tories are the end game of the Thatcher project, and that's a wildly different thing from traditional conservatism
28
I will certainly celebrate if this is the end of Thatcherism, but I suspect Thatcher's greatest creation is ready to step in and preserve that toxic project 🙁
9
Some might say 40 years in the making
7
@Geffo555 That is something I fear. Labour's economic plans appear to be based on doing very little, and hoping private businesses make everything better But why would private businesses invest here when we have Ireland on one side, and the Netherlands on the other? People with more economics knowledge than me say we need a much more active approach to kickstart the UK, and Labour show every sign of being passive rather than proactive 🙁
3
@Geffo555 I'm not an ideological purist, it's pragmatism. Private companies aren't investing, so we can't assume they'll suddenly throw money at the UK We need the state to invest - not out of ideological purity, but because noone else will on the scale we need
3
@Geffo555 I am not a fan of the PFI model, where the public takes the risk while the private sector takes the profit If it's a genuine partnership with fair sharing of risks and rewards, then that's sound 🙂
3
@piccalillipit9211 I am not an economist, but I am closely following people who are. One thing that is a safe bet is power - whatever future we have, it's going to use electricity The timid hesitancy to invest in renewables and reduce our vulnerability to market spikes in oil and gas is absolutely bonkers I also reckon the AI revolution is overrated. I'm not directly working on it, but I'm adjacent enough to understand it. All the easy exciting developments are already done, so if there hasn't been a radical economic change already, there won't be one Maybe someone will discover something truly unexpected, which could upend things, that's always a possibility! But incremental advances to the current systems won't do much more than they've already done. Like I said, the easy wins are already exhausted
2
@piccalillipit9211 one reassuring angle to look at is the economics of AI systems. Currently, they are pretty expensive to run, and more advanced systems are going to be even more resource intensive The human brain is incredibly efficient for the complexity it brings. If I was going to stick my neck out and make a big speculative prediction, I think the transhumanist model of tech complementing and augmenting humanity is more likely than the Skynet takeover prediction I am more concerned about the age-old problem of vested interests gatekeeping the best stuff for their humans, than AI replacing all humans
2
@Geffo555 PFI is very short-termist. It makes todays budget look good at the expense of long-term liabilities for the future
1