Best Of

Apols if this groundbreaking policy has already been covered, but I'm blown away :

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3wyezwly69o\

"Ministers want 60% of children walking or cycling to school by 2035"

It's this kind of mind blowing "might happen in 10 years or so" policies that are really keeping on cheerleading for Keir. I mean - can you imagine only 40% of children being driven to school in a roughly ten-year timeframe?! Is this not the very definition of the "Change" manifesto?

It won't happen, because parents control it and for weather/safety/security and time management reasons the car is a choice that manages them all.

It also strikes me as a North London policy wonk idea who struggle to realise what life is like for most people outside cities, and hate cars - this government is full of people like that.

I couldn't give a shit about the World Cup.

Sorry.

You will if we go deep. No true patriot can remain unmoved in that event. Bet you any money I'm right. You might not be able to get into the football itself but you'll be rooting hard for us to do it. Just simply because of the joy it will bring to so many English people.

Probably, but that will be for different reasons to the love of football.

Which I just don't have.

I don't love football but I do like it. I think that objectively it is the best sport. There's a reason it is the most widely played game in the world.

Really? I don't feel that strongly either way, but objectively I feel there are sports far more worth of our attention. Football is surely exciting only because it is popular and therefore fits well with a global competition because there are at least 48 teams who have enough of a stake to travel to proto-fascist USA and brave the border guards. If the whole world went mad about, say, speed bouldering, do you not think the next few weeks would be slightly more interesting?

...

"Miliband comes for underfloor heating in net zero drive
Energy Secretary to introduce curbs on towel rails and gas fires in push for energy-efficient technology"

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/net-zero/miliband-underfloor-heating-in-net-zero-drive/

If it wasn't paywalled I would read It. Are we sure the story like the other 30 or 40 recent Telegraph stories about Milliband banning stuff is based on reality or simply an unhinged headline.

If the plan is to phase out gas central heating anyway why wouldn’t they phase out gas fires ?

As for underfloor heating. I had it in a flat I used to live in on the Pershore Road. Expensive and inefficient.

I’d be interested to know if it is still fitted to new builds,

If it’s hot water via gas it’s usually more efficient than radiators. If electric, yeah, avoid like the plague.

Mine was electric.

Here is the non-paywalled gift link to the Telegraph article:-

Miliband comes for underfloor heating in net zero drive
Energy Secretary to introduce curbs on towel rails and gas fires in push for energy-efficient technology
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/e8b58efc12fbe181

Al Carns retweeted approvingly by erstwhile Reform MP James McMurdock.

https://x.com/JMcMurdockMP/status/2065374720053187015

Caring for the planet is not mad but Britain’s Net Zero policies are.

Britain has some of the most expensive energy in the world. If energy is expensive everything is expensive.

Labour is fighting the wrong battle and some of the best among them now openly admit they know it.

Al Carns is far too right-wing (within a Labour party context) to ever be chosen as leader. Surely he must know that himself.

If Reform care about cheap energy why do they oppose renewables and want to put cables underground at great expense which will only makes things even more expensive?

They don’t oppose renewables, they oppose vast government subsidies for renewables.

Why?

And why do they want to put cables underground?

And in any case you’re wrong, Farage has said publicly they’d oppose renewable developments in their council areas. Why?

I’d make an argument that visual pollution is real. It wouldn’t be my first choice for limited funds but it’s not ludicrous decision

I couldn't give a shit about the World Cup.

Sorry.

You will if we go deep. No true patriot can remain unmoved in that event. Bet you any money I'm right. You might not be able to get into the football itself but you'll be rooting hard for us to do it. Just simply because of the joy it will bring to so many English people.

Probably, but that will be for different reasons to the love of football.

Which I just don't have.

I don't love football but I do like it. I think that objectively it is the best sport. There's a reason it is the most widely played game in the world.

Really? I don't feel that strongly either way, but objectively I feel there are sports far more worth of our attention. Football is surely exciting only because it is popular and therefore fits well with a global competition because there are at least 48 teams who have enough of a stake to travel to proto-fascist USA and brave the border guards. If the whole world went mad about, say, speed bouldering, do you not think the next few weeks would be slightly more interesting?

No, I don't. Football is a very exciting game, a great mix of team effort and individual brilliance, fast moving and athletic but also tactical and celebral. It doesn't favour a particular body type. It can be played at any kind of skill level so you can enjoy a kickabout in the local park with your mates and then watch Real Madrid and it is the same game. In fact, the way that you can trace the game from the grassroots to the highest level is one of the fascinating things about it, eg that Ian Wright used to play for a club, when he was a kid, that my son's team plays against in the local Sunday league. It is endlessly absorbing to watch. This is before you account for its global reach or the fierce hyper local loyalties it engenders. And I say this as someone who is not especially interested in sport in general.