Pitz comments

Taiwan was a Chinese colony for about 200 years (formally the Kingdom of the Ryukus) before reverting to Japan until the end of WW2. Other countries have given their former colonies independence when their citizens have demanded it. Why can't China do the same - or perhaps the US and India should be reclaimed by the UK.

Actually Germany is even more of a basket case. The IMF expects them to have the wekaest economy in the G7 next year and they face a severe recession this winter.

I don't understand whyt they are anti-oil - do they think acrylics are superior to oil paints?

Truss has an politics, philosophy and economics degree from Oxford and her husband is also an economist. While I would have preferred Sunak, she is highly intelligent and well educated. Sunak's downfall was that he was seen coming from a privalaged background with a public school education and billionaire wife. despite the fact that his parents were self-made immigrants, The reality is that like the rest of Europe the UK is facing a recession caused by Putin's invation of Ukraine. The health service is certianly facing extreme pressure due to the crisis in social service provsion that is resulting in beds being blocked in hospitals (the problem with the ambulance service is ambulances queueing at hospitals for hours at peak times to offload patients, and the pressure on public services due to populatio growth (UK has the highest rate of population of any major European country - 65% more than Germany 2.5x France. Unemployment is well belwo European levels, but inflation is slightly higher (Spain is far higher). As an econo,ist working for a Chinese bank in London we are far more concerned at what is happening to the German economy ove the next 12 months than the UK.

To put some perspective on the differnece between the US and UK in terms of diversity, persons of black descent account for 13.6% of the US population vs 3.0% in the UK. Conversely the Asian descent population of the US is 6% vs 6.9% in the UK. White population of UK is 87% vs 75.8% in the US, so it is not suprising that the US was the first to have a black president/MP. Sunak came close to being the first Asian PM, with 43% of conservative party members voting for him, so its only a matter of time before the UK has its firstnon-white leader.

Sources: https://populationdata.org.uk/uk-population/

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045221

If JT publihsed aricles written in languages other than English the same articel could be published in any European country. Italy is seeing the highest rises in prices of any country, and Germany is even less able to provide subsididies. One of my contacts writes "I live and work part of my time in Austria, my last bill for Gas and electricity in a modern well insulated 2 bed apartment rose by €4,000 last month. Moreover, Europe is now switching off the lights, preparing not just for cost rises, but for no gas and or electricity at all."

"Self-driving buses being tested across Japan let you pay with your face"

I thought we already paid through the nose.

@Zichi The Guardian is a notorious left wing source of headline grabbing disinformation. This is the NHS response as reported in the Nursing Times, which I hope you would agree is a more reliable source.

https://www.nursingtimes.net/news/coronavirus/nhs-refutes-claims-nurse-shortages-behind-nightingale-hospital-underuse-22-04-2020/

To put Japan's experience in context with W Europe. Belgium 622 deaths per 1m pop, Spain 503, Italy 446, France 350, UK 311, Japan 3. Even allowing for significant differences in recording morbidity, image the pressure Japan's hospitals would be under if the country were anywhere near these numbers

The UK Nightingale hospitals... Sadly, they are hardly used, due to policy and staff shortages, even though they have non-working airline staff and other volunteers in there as care support workers.

They were hardly used because due to early lockdown UK hospitals never reached capacity (except for one hospital in NW London) and ICU bed capacity is now over 50%. There was never an issue with staffing.

It is true that like everywhere else, UK hositals came close to running out of PPE, but never did and were alwayys able to meet WHO guidelines for hosital staff at all times. Its a very different case in private nurseing homes which have had to buy their own equipment due to shortages. There is evidenc eof some hospitals contributing to shortages by hording equipment and the NHS Logistics Management has been critizised by the Army. No one in the UK, including opposition parties, Unions and Healthcare workers have claimed the Government doesn't care - just that it has been too slow.

Japan is different - many small proviate hositals that are not greated up for pandemic type situations, few ICU beds and quite basic facilities in some. But the level of infection and number of deaths remains very low comared to other developed countries.

Does it take all day to watch it ?