Best Of

I know this is Peston, but the government is quite timid enough for this to be true...

John Fingleton’s review for the government of how to reduce unnecessary barriers and costs for nuclear power development is a tour de force, a compelling road map for how to accelerate important infrastructure investment in the UK - which is the sine qua non of improving growth and living standards (read John’s nutshell below).

For the last eight weeks he was assured that the prime minister and chancellor would accept and implement the recommendations in full. He even tweaked an important clause at the government’s request, to give them a bit more flexibility over the means to implementation.

I understand he has now been told that at the budget tomorrow the welcome will be conditional, subject to further work and review - because the Chancellor has been nobbled by a legal and planning adviser, who claims the Fingleton recommendations somehow breach the UK’s environmental, trade and human rights obligations.

He and his colleagues believe this is nonsense. They examined the legal considerations in their assessment. But they fear that yet again the dead hand of official caution has squashed - potentially for months and years - important growth-enhancing investment.
https://x.com/Peston/status/1993295277877334275

Reduce safety regulations for the nuclear industry?
Watch the documentaries on what the negligent t****rs did at Sellafield under the current "overly strict" regulations.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07v80s4
We'd be paying for it for generations.
It's not just the UK either, the nuclear industry's habit of throwing the difficult stuff into a pond for someone else to deal with was the problem at Fukushima.

The stuff they are talking about binning is nothing to do with nuclear safety.

That's to fall into "All the regulations are about safety" bullshit.

See the comedy of hundreds of millions being spent at Sizewell to save fewer salmon than are in the window of my local fishmonger.

In fact the bullshit regulation are great to hide real problems behind. Grenfell had metric tons of documents to prove that it was structurally sound, ecologically sound, socially cohesive etc etc. Even that it was fireproof. There was one tiny flaw - it was covered in fire lighters.

Another classic was the Royal Navy shells scandal in WWI. It turned out that the main armament shell of the battleships were shit. An extremely long and complex testing regime had been used. Until a mathematician pointed out that the effect was that if a shell in a batch failed, test the next one. If that failed...... Yes, find one that works and it's all good. So a huge pile of paperwork proved it was all good. They fixed the testing and created the Green Boy shells - that would reach the German magazines, reliably. Bit late for Jutland, though.....

"Reform UK's support has surged in London while backing for Labour languishes at a record low in the capital, according to a new poll. The latest Savanta survey released today found Nigel Farage's party were supported by 23 per cent of voters in London, up from 15 per cent in June. This put Reform ahead of the Tories, who were down one percentage point to 20 per cent, with the Liberal Democrats on 11 per cent (-2) and Greens on 10 per cent (-3). Support for Labour was at 32 per cent, which is the joint lowest recorded by Savanta - who have polled London voters since 2020 - following the same result in June."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15324345/Poll-Reform-oust-Sadiq-Khan-London.html

Pre Nathan Gill imprisonment and the highlighting across the Commons and media

@Mexicanpete may get his wish that Gill damages Farage and Reform by association

Gill is far too obscure a figure for his conviction to have an impact.

I've seen an outline of an attack ad on this subject, blimey, if it sees the light of day it might be the most controversial political video in the history of the UK.

So the video will show clips of Nathan Gill spouting his pro Russian bollocks and a voiceover saying he accepted bribes and is doing 10 years in prison for that then it moves onto to other Nigel Farage related politicians saying the same bollocks and then the narrator says 'They didn't need to be paid, they believe in this pro Russia bollocks from the heart.'

Sky reporting Ukraine agrees the peace proposal

Which one though !!!

The Washington Post say it is a 19 point plan that European leaders have proposed and that Russia is likely to reject the deal.

Starmer and the EU have played a blinder if the reports are true.

Indeed. Trouble is that somehow we need to alight on a deal that both Russia and Ukraine can swallow.

I think the focus atm isn't a deal, it's the two sides trying to steer Trump's reaction to no deal. Russia's goal is for him to blame Ukraine and withdraw US support. For Ukraine/Europe the goal is he blames Russia and maintains (or even increases) support.