Best Of

Weirdly solar has now crashed to zero: https://grid.iamkate.com/

How strange is that?

Serious point though - how does the solar power that's fed in to the grid overnight having been stored at generation site batteries get counted?

There's a section for stored energy generation. We don't have a lot of battery storage though. Solar is still, despite what Robert might say, not viable in the UK. We just need to dump £20bn into the RR modular nuclear reactors and get them started up with a manufacturing pilot line and the first few reactors built and running by 2030. If we approve it and get RR started today we might make it but the government moves like molasses and our tech leadership is slipping away without that big order and backing for RR from the UK.

As a side note I was speaking to an energy investor here in Florence today and he confirmed what I already suspected that RR and other UK companies struggle to get overseas money because they don't have the UK government vote of confidence. It's difficult to get foreign governments to buy something that its own one seems uninterested in and he was saying that's the resistance RR are running into when they make their sales pitch "if it's as good as you say then why is your own government not already placing an order for 10 of these and looking at an American solution instead?" is the question they can't answer.

Are we actually looking at an American solution? Wtf?

We should absolutely look at an American solution as part of a thorough assessment

The issue is that the treasury scoring method puts zero weight on the strategic value of domestic capabilities

Which is frankly insane.

How do they weight the potential economic value of kickstarting a domestic manufacturer ?
Or is that also ignored ?

The treasury model simply doesn't work for a something from nothing industry. If it was up to the treasury they would have blocked investment tax rebates for AI in the 00s and 10s because the ROI was hugely negative for the government but somehow Osborne resisted them and told the bean counters to STFU.

The treasury is, IMO, one of the most malign departments and absolutely opposed to economic growth. If we sacked all of them tomorrow, scrapped the models and started from scratch we'd see a huge change within a year.

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Viewcode's threads are always interesting and offer some fresh perspectives.

They do not use references like a scholarly article, and why should they - they're only PB headers. Instead the ideas are introduced as self-evident truth. This is fine, it's a style.

Until we hit something I'm actually relatively familiar with, such as Margaret Thatcher's philosophy on nationhood in any way being the basis for the wet Eurofederalism of Howe and later Blair. Then it comes to a crunching halt.

The wets' ideas (if they can be called that) were very well established long before Thatcher came to power - before even Heath came to power. There is also no sense in which Thatcher's philosophy on nationhood legitimised their push for European statehood with the British public - the wet policy on European statehood has always been furious denial that such a thing exists, whilst working toward Britain's participation in it behind the scenes. It still is.

No, it’s not.

The Liberal Unionist strain within the Tory party valued international cooperation, free trade, fiscal discipline, social liberalism, freedom and a “one nation” mindset.

That does not have anything to do with the EU.

What you are mistaking is the mindset of Macmillian and his generation who were scarred by the first world war and saw the EU as a way to avoid that (and the second) reoccurring

The 'advantage' that 'we' currently possess is that we are One Nation on an island. Our borders, since Scotland joined the Union are set by nature, unlike other 'Westphalian' states, whether in Europe or elsewhere. It heavily influences our upper class's thinking.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025/02/07/support-for-irish-unification-grows-but-unity-vote-would-be-soundly-defeated-in-north-poll-shows/

This question is interesting:

Imagine there was a referendum in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland, and a majority in both places voted for Northern Ireland to unify with the Republic of Ireland. Please indicate what your reaction would be…

The percentage among NI protestants saying
"Almost impossible to accept" has fallen from 32% in 2022 to 20% in 2024, and is now outnumbered by the percentage of protestants saying
"Happily accept" (21% in 2022, 29% in 2024)

The island status does mae a difference, I think, illustrated by the fact that (I think) most people feel pretty indifferent about Northern Ireland but would be alienated by a proposal to merge Wales with Ireland.

But at some level the importance of the nation state has declined, perhaps reflecting the interconnectedness of countries economically.

I disagree. In the examples you give it is not that the importance of the Nation State has decliend but rather that for many of us, the rights of self determination are more important than any particular arrangment of the Nation State.

So if Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales or Cornwall want to be independent or if they want to become part of another Nation State then we should support them in that aspiration. That doesn't unermine the Nation State. If anything it strengthens it.

Far from it, the recent wars in Europe in the
Balkans and now between Russia and
Ukraine are the direct result of smaller
states breaking away from previous unions
of states. See also the conflicts between
Ethiopia and Eritrea, the tensions between
China and Taiwan etc.

You can argue a case for self determination but there is certainly no guarantee it leads
to peace and prosperity, indeed often the
opposite

In all the cases you mention it is caused by the larger entity refusing to accept that the smaller has the right to determine their own future.

You are arguing that once conquered always conquered - that’s Putin’s view.

Most of us have evolved beyond that

Most big and medium sized nations haven't, even today, certainly if the nation in question is a neighbour of the bigger nation

Please tell me this isn't a sign you have stopped threatening to invade Scotland only to start talking about invading Ireland instead.

The Irish Sea divides GB from Ireland but the north remains part of the UK anyway

As a Welshman I had noticed the existence of the Irish Sea, but I'm not sure what your point is in relation to my question?

I find it shocking that you still call it the "Irish Sea", surely you will be supporting Keir Starmer's plan to rename it the Anglo-Welsh Sea?

How about the West of England Transitional Sea?

Eastern Gulf of America...

I’m still pushing “The Gulf with America”.

Jennifer Bendery
@jbendery
Texas measles outbreak hits 400 cases.

Of the 400 cases, 398 were people who were unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status.

https://x.com/jbendery/status/1906402108892401716

Including neighbouring states, we're up to at least 476 cases, with 2 deaths (both unvaccinated). The US had declared measles eliminated in the country a quarter of a century ago.

RFK Jr has recommended vitamin A supplementation as a treatment, which doesn't work. Multiple children have now suffered liver damage from vitamin A overdoses.

It starts with owning the libs and "alternative facts" and it ends here: people dying.

In the UK, Reform UK have flirted with anti-vax sentiments. Do we want the same to happen here?