The question arose, “Would Elizabeth fly on a hydrogen-fuelled aircraft?” She had pondered over it before and her answer was a resolute ‘no.’ Why would she? Especially considering that the person advocating for it was presenting half-baked facts, perhaps even out of context. Elizabeth was torn between believing he was either intentionally deceiving or was merely uninformed. With local councils rejecting hydrogen buses, she questioned if aviation authorities would ever approve hydrogen planes. This proposition brought on fears akin to the dreadful unforeseen scenario of the recent submarine imploding. The man seemed insistent on promoting his project at the cost of pensioners and low-income families, who he believed should face penalties to fund the significant green tariff required for his project’s realization.
Elizabeth also discussed the economic shift in China, a country aiming to transition from manufacturing to a service economy. It reminded her of Tony Blair’s identical sentiments years ago, a move that saw the manufacturing sector suffer and women being rushed back into the workforce soon after childbirth. Consequently, today’s society faces a troubling issue: thousands of children starting school unable to dress or feed themselves, many of them incontinent, and many shuffled through a jumbled blend of childcare arrangements while their mothers work long hours to cover nursery bills and little else. She wished China luck on this front.
Another issue brought to her attention was the rising cost of immigration to fund civil service pay rises. Her quick, cheeky solution? Hitch a ride on one of the small boats from France. Elizabeth supports skilled immigrant workers as they make society richer. But she questions ever being able to fill the gaps due to the lack of vital skills like examining coding at GCSE, a consequence of a lack of qualified teachers and markers due to the state not paying the going rate for these roles. It’s a conundrum for the new AI Tsar to address, to prevent the nation’s intellectual property from falling into foreign hands.
Elizabeth and Rahul Tandon also shared a light-hearted, flirty conversation in relation to her book “Flirting for Dummies” something she hadn’t experienced since her interaction with the equally engaging Editor of Business Cloud, Christopher Maguire, a man with a knack for networking. She was relieved that this exchange took place over the radio as she was certainly not TV ready at 5am in the morning!
