If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
No, it was the EU who demanded the border in the Irish Sea for a trade deal to spite the UK government and Unionists.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
If it's the bad EU that have treated Unionists with contempt, why as alluded to up thread is BJ most despised in NI among the constituent UK nations?
Tbh I'm a bit confused by the Poots jiggerypokery. There was very evidently some sort of communication or even coordination between the DUP and SCons beforehand, but I'm not sure what the obvious gains are aside from more lovely, distracting chaos.
His tweet last night certainly earns the Order of the Brown Nose:
I’ve listened carefully to the Prime Minister today, the @BorisJohnson we love and who has delivered. He’s made promises on how he wants to change how he does things, how he wants to deliver for my constituents and the UK and I support him in doing that. Let’s get on with the job
Are interest rates definitely going up again? I can hardly afford to pay my mortgage already ffs
Are you fixed for a bit or on purely variable ?
Variable, but I was trying to scrape through these years until my affordability improved. House was purchased with an ex and the upheaval of selling it and renting/buying elsewhere just for a few years was not worth the hassle.
I am currently in the process of trying to fix it for a few years with a mortgage guaranteed by my Dad but the solicitor’s have been worse than useless and are now ignoring me and the offer expires today! Can you believe it!
Conveyancing solicitors can be worse than useless and appallingly slow. A remortgage is almost literally a box ticking exercise for them too. I assume you couldn't go in house with the bank due to the fact your Dad doesn't live with you.
I'm trying to buy a house for a vulnerable relative at the moment and even though the price is agreed and the equity release mortgage is there, I'm totally stymied by the fact that the solicitor is "unavailable for the forseeable future" (illness, I suppose). The practice (which has pocketed £3000 in advance for the charges) has passed the case to another solicitor who is "busy with my own cases but will get to yours in due course". The seller is understandably fed up and thinking of putting the house back on the market, and says he definitely will if I start again with another solicitor. I have no idea what to do - can one complain to the Law Society about delays, even when they may have a perfectly understandable cause like sickness?
Finding a good lawyers seems as hard as finding an accountant who can add.
I recall spending an afternoon proof reading the conveyancing on a home purchase. Given it was all boiler plate, copy and pasta, the number of errors made was impressive. After finding the 3rd mistake, I binned the lawyer.
If it's any consolation, one of mine - from the panel of an Estate Agency chain - went bust.
I think we are back with the concept of a family solicitor, who are used regularly.
I go for local but several-branched ones, who will have specialists but not be regional ones who aspire to London rates.
Just looked back, sol's fees were £500 for my purchase and £500 for my sale in 2018. £3,000 sounds crackers for just a purchase.
The only question is now will he lose with the dignity of Donald Trump?
I had dinner last night with a senior Tory.
View was that Boris is toast. The 54 will happen, possibly after the Met report, and his support will collapse at that point. Very few friends in the parliamentary party. But he will fight not resign
But the Met has said that its investigation will take “no more than a year”. Which doesn’t sound exactly imminent.
He was expecting the report in a couple of weeks. Which surprised me, but I haven’t followed all the details
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
You know fuck all about NI, so why don't you just for once metaphorically shut your stupid politically brain dead gob and move onto another subject that you might know something about. Oh, hang on that is going to be pretty challenging, as I can't remember anything that you have spoken about with authority in spite of thousands of boring Conservative Central Office slogans that are designed for terminally gullible such as yourself.
I used to think that you were probably a decent person underneath all the stupidity of your blind loyalty. The fact that you could speak so insensitively about a place that clearly you know nothing about where people have been murdered and tortured, and where there are still thousands of people with the mental scars of conflict shows what an inhumane and unpleasant little automaton you are.
I know plenty about Northern Ireland, I studied Irish history in part at University for starters.
I also know peace in Northern Ireland depends on the consent of Protestants, Unionists and Loyalists not just Roman Catholics and Nationalists
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
You know fuck all about NI, so why don't you just for once metaphorically shut your stupid politically brain dead gob and move onto another subject that you might know something about. Oh, hang on that is going to be pretty challenging, as I can't remember anything that you have spoken about with authority in spite of thousands of boring Conservative Central Office slogans that are designed for terminally gullible such as yourself.
I used to think that you were probably a decent person underneath all the stupidity of your blind loyalty. The fact that you could speak so insensitively about a place that clearly you know nothing about where people have been murdered and tortured, and where there are still thousands of people with the mental scars of conflict shows what an inhumane and unpleasant little automaton you are.
I have very little, politically, in common with @HYUFD but your post, @Nigel_Foremain is just nasty and abusive.
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
No, it was the EU who demanded the border in the Irish Sea for a trade deal to spite the UK government and Unionists.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
The UK Gmt dam' well wanted a border in Ireland - it partitioned the place!!
As regards the Eu/UK border in the Irish Sea, that's what the UK Government also wanted as a quick and dirty solution to "Get Brexit Done".
It was obvious to me back in 1995 that the matter was insoluble, and insoluble it remains. But could I ever get any single Brexiter to see that? No, I couldn't.
Anyway, you seem to be stuck in Groundhog Day with sashes, so I'm off to do some work.
His tweet last night certainly earns the Order of the Brown Nose:
I’ve listened carefully to the Prime Minister today, the @BorisJohnson we love and who has delivered. He’s made promises on how he wants to change how he does things, how he wants to deliver for my constituents and the UK and I support him in doing that. Let’s get on with the job
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
No, it was the EU who demanded the border in the Irish Sea for a trade deal to spite the UK government and Unionists.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
If it's the bad EU that have treated Unionists with contempt, why as alluded to up thread is BJ most despised in NI among the constituent UK nations?
Tbh I'm a bit confused by the Poots jiggerypokery. There was very evidently some sort of communication between the DUP and SCons beforehand, but I'm not sure what the obvious gains are aside from more lovely, distracting chaos.
As an outsider it looks to me like, while the DUP anger about the border checks etc is shared by the other unionists, the tactics they are employing and the government is endorsing is because they are stuck in a 90s and 00s mindset. Collapsing the executive over petty shit just isn't funny anymore, and while this is not entirely petty, the throw the toys out of the pram approach is just plain infantile. Making Sinn Fein look like grown ups is a low blow to take.
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
And/or nuclear. A decade or more's indecision on nuclear, and the failure to invest in tidal power, when the cost of long term debt to government was close to zero, is one of the great unremarked and unpunished errors of government.
I've never been convinced that nuclear was the right way forwards, I don't think Hinckley Point C will ever really produce significant electricity either. What we should have been doing is onshoring wind energy manufacturing, incentives for making the turbines in the UK and just putting huge, huge numbers out in the North Sea off the coast of North England and Scotland. Literally 10x as much as we have today.
Tidal lagoons are also an area where significant subsidy was required and could have been structured in a way that would allow for the research, development and manufacturing of them to be conducted mostly in the UK and then turning that into a export industry to other nations with lots of coastline.
As ever, the government seems to lack any concept of value creation so instead we've got a nuclear power station that might never turn on, tiny investments in 4th gen nuclear and keeping our fingers crossed that the winters are mild and windy for the next few years.
Reality however is that
sun only shines X hours and day and isn't much use in the UK where we need heat when dark rather than air-con when hot and sunny.
Wind is great when it's windy but not much use when it isn't - and we don't currently have any sane way to store enough power to get us through 2 to 3 days of zero wind when that happens (and will we ever have enough storage).
Tidal should work but for reasons has never been investigated.
So we end up needing a base line supply that keeps running come what may, and that is probably nuclear given that all the other options are fossil fuels with the resultant CO2 issues.
I suspect like most other things the issue comes down to the Treasury understanding the price of money and the value of absolutely nothing.
Tidal has been investigated. Repeatedly.
It runs into various things - Big Project (planning, 20 years, blah), environmental concerns, and some strange ideas.
One report claimed that a modest tidal lagoon would need more concrete than the Channel Tunnel (CO2 from concrete is a big issue) which is simply bizarre. The reports authors had assumed that you build the whole thing out of concrete - which no-one has ever proposed. In reality it would be ring(s) of gravel/rocks/sand/mud, with concrete around the turbines.
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
You know fuck all about NI, so why don't you just for once metaphorically shut your stupid politically brain dead gob and move onto another subject that you might know something about. Oh, hang on that is going to be pretty challenging, as I can't remember anything that you have spoken about with authority in spite of thousands of boring Conservative Central Office slogans that are designed for terminally gullible such as yourself.
I used to think that you were probably a decent person underneath all the stupidity of your blind loyalty. The fact that you could speak so insensitively about a place that clearly you know nothing about where people have been murdered and tortured, and where there are still thousands of people with the mental scars of conflict shows what an inhumane and unpleasant little automaton you are.
I know plenty about Northern Ireland, I studied Irish history in part at University for starters.
I also know peace in Northern Ireland depends on the consent of Protestants, Unionists and Loyalists not just Roman Catholics and Nationalists
Shame you seem to have forgotten everything you learnt and can't apply anything you might have learnt to the reality of the current NI situation.
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
No, it was the EU who demanded the border in the Irish Sea for a trade deal to spite the UK government and Unionists.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
If it's the bad EU that have treated Unionists with contempt, why as alluded to up thread is BJ most despised in NI among the constituent UK nations?
Tbh I'm a bit confused by the Poots jiggerypokery. There was very evidently some sort of communication between the DUP and SCons beforehand, but I'm not sure what the obvious gains are aside from more lovely, distracting chaos.
Well, the more extreme Unionists in Scotland do sometimes like to go on and on about the prospect of Ulsterization in Scotland with glee, and Carsonesque arms imports, but that can't be it can it??
HYUFD said: The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
Borders are funny things aren't they. Sometimes its about taking back control and have the Royal Navy keeping a few boats out and the next its about having no borders at all and a free for all.
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
You know fuck all about NI, so why don't you just for once metaphorically shut your stupid politically brain dead gob and move onto another subject that you might know something about. Oh, hang on that is going to be pretty challenging, as I can't remember anything that you have spoken about with authority in spite of thousands of boring Conservative Central Office slogans that are designed for terminally gullible such as yourself.
I used to think that you were probably a decent person underneath all the stupidity of your blind loyalty. The fact that you could speak so insensitively about a place that clearly you know nothing about where people have been murdered and tortured, and where there are still thousands of people with the mental scars of conflict shows what an inhumane and unpleasant little automaton you are.
I know plenty about Northern Ireland, I studied Irish history in part at University for starters.
I also know peace in Northern Ireland depends on the consent of Protestants, Unionists and Loyalists not just Roman Catholics and Nationalists
"I know plenty about Northern Ireland, I studied Irish history in part at University for starters."
“For those who have asked, my view remains that sooner or later, but not too much later, the 54 letter threshold will be reached. If it is, the PM is going to need an excellent operation to win a vote of no confidence.”
Edit - I see already posted sorry!
Boris would win a VONC at least 55% to 45% now.
In your dreams
He is toxic and his mps know it
Rishi auditions for the top job today in the HOC and a press conference at 5.00pm and the comparison is going to be stark
Time you moved on and accepted Boris shames his office and country
The NI news gives a further boost to Truss not Sunak, as well as Boris.
It is Truss who has worked with the DUP to stand up to the EU on the Irish Sea border
You do not like Truss, but then you have no credibility as everything you post has a twist to try and keep your debased hero in place
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
And/or nuclear. A decade or more's indecision on nuclear, and the failure to invest in tidal power, when the cost of long term debt to government was close to zero, is one of the great unremarked and unpunished errors of government.
I've never been convinced that nuclear was the right way forwards, I don't think Hinckley Point C will ever really produce significant electricity either. What we should have been doing is onshoring wind energy manufacturing, incentives for making the turbines in the UK and just putting huge, huge numbers out in the North Sea off the coast of North England and Scotland. Literally 10x as much as we have today.
Tidal lagoons are also an area where significant subsidy was required and could have been structured in a way that would allow for the research, development and manufacturing of them to be conducted mostly in the UK and then turning that into a export industry to other nations with lots of coastline.
As ever, the government seems to lack any concept of value creation so instead we've got a nuclear power station that might never turn on, tiny investments in 4th gen nuclear and keeping our fingers crossed that the winters are mild and windy for the next few years.
Reality however is that
sun only shines X hours and day and isn't much use in the UK where we need heat when dark rather than air-con when hot and sunny.
Wind is great when it's windy but not much use when it isn't - and we don't currently have any sane way to store enough power to get us through 2 to 3 days of zero wind when that happens (and will we ever have enough storage).
Tidal should work but for reasons has never been investigated.
So we end up needing a base line supply that keeps running come what may, and that is probably nuclear given that all the other options are fossil fuels with the resultant CO2 issues.
I suspect like most other things the issue comes down to the Treasury understanding the price of money and the value of absolutely nothing.
Tidal has been investigated. Repeatedly.
It runs into various things - Big Project (planning, 20 years, blah), environmental concerns, and some strange ideas.
One report claimed that a modest tidal lagoon would need more concrete than the Channel Tunnel (CO2 from concrete is a big issue) which is simply bizarre. The reports authors had assumed that you build the whole thing out of concrete - which no-one has ever proposed. In reality it would be ring(s) of gravel/rocks/sand/mud, with concrete around the turbines.
Of course, you-re right - we're not talking dams here - with em pty space on one side and huge hydraulic heads on the other. Even 617 Sqn couldn't breach a tidal lagoon (except perhaps in the Severn Estuary at low tide). But tridal currents e.g. in the Pentland Firth don't even have this issue.
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
You know fuck all about NI, so why don't you just for once metaphorically shut your stupid politically brain dead gob and move onto another subject that you might know something about. Oh, hang on that is going to be pretty challenging, as I can't remember anything that you have spoken about with authority in spite of thousands of boring Conservative Central Office slogans that are designed for terminally gullible such as yourself.
I used to think that you were probably a decent person underneath all the stupidity of your blind loyalty. The fact that you could speak so insensitively about a place that clearly you know nothing about where people have been murdered and tortured, and where there are still thousands of people with the mental scars of conflict shows what an inhumane and unpleasant little automaton you are.
I have very little, politically, in common with @HYUFD but your post, @Nigel_Foremain is just nasty and abusive.
Don’t be a dick.
If your saw his ignorant and offensive post from my position you wouldn't judge, you would applaud. So with the greatest of respect, go and fuck yourself I don't need your judgement.
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
No, it was the EU who demanded the border in the Irish Sea for a trade deal to spite the UK government and Unionists.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
If it's the bad EU that have treated Unionists with contempt, why as alluded to up thread is BJ most despised in NI among the constituent UK nations?
Tbh I'm a bit confused by the Poots jiggerypokery. There was very evidently some sort of communication or even coordination between the DUP and SCons beforehand, but I'm not sure what the obvious gains are aside from more lovely, distracting chaos.
The Poots jiggerypokery is based on an attempt to remain relevant given the fact hardline Unionists have deserted the DUP for an even harder line alternative.
The reality is that the Unionist / Loyalist community feels hard done by - but in reality that's their own fault and goes back to the 70s where the Republican leader focussed on education and improvements while the Loyalists seem to have grown increasing insular while attempting to blame others for problems that were often 100% their mistake/fault.
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
And/or nuclear. A decade or more's indecision on nuclear, and the failure to invest in tidal power, when the cost of long term debt to government was close to zero, is one of the great unremarked and unpunished errors of government.
I've never been convinced that nuclear was the right way forwards, I don't think Hinckley Point C will ever really produce significant electricity either. What we should have been doing is onshoring wind energy manufacturing, incentives for making the turbines in the UK and just putting huge, huge numbers out in the North Sea off the coast of North England and Scotland. Literally 10x as much as we have today.
Tidal lagoons are also an area where significant subsidy was required and could have been structured in a way that would allow for the research, development and manufacturing of them to be conducted mostly in the UK and then turning that into a export industry to other nations with lots of coastline.
As ever, the government seems to lack any concept of value creation so instead we've got a nuclear power station that might never turn on, tiny investments in 4th gen nuclear and keeping our fingers crossed that the winters are mild and windy for the next few years.
Reality however is that
sun only shines X hours and day and isn't much use in the UK where we need heat when dark rather than air-con when hot and sunny.
Wind is great when it's windy but not much use when it isn't - and we don't currently have any sane way to store enough power to get us through 2 to 3 days of zero wind when that happens (and will we ever have enough storage).
Tidal should work but for reasons has never been investigated.
So we end up needing a base line supply that keeps running come what may, and that is probably nuclear given that all the other options are fossil fuels with the resultant CO2 issues.
I suspect like most other things the issue comes down to the Treasury understanding the price of money and the value of absolutely nothing.
Tidal has been investigated. Repeatedly.
It runs into various things - Big Project (planning, 20 years, blah), environmental concerns, and some strange ideas.
One report claimed that a modest tidal lagoon would need more concrete than the Channel Tunnel (CO2 from concrete is a big issue) which is simply bizarre. The reports authors had assumed that you build the whole thing out of concrete - which no-one has ever proposed. In reality it would be ring(s) of gravel/rocks/sand/mud, with concrete around the turbines.
We have coastal tidal scheme being put together for off the south coast of the island, currently, possibly targeted to go live 2025
Why would he want to announce that he had put a letter in? This seems suspicious to me.
From the May times Brady apparently said some MPs pretend to have sent letters in. He also revealed that some MPs lie and pretend to send their no confidence letters in when they have not - although he did not say if this applied to the rebels trying to oust Mrs May.
His tweet last night certainly earns the Order of the Brown Nose:
I’ve listened carefully to the Prime Minister today, the @BorisJohnson we love and who has delivered. He’s made promises on how he wants to change how he does things, how he wants to deliver for my constituents and the UK and I support him in doing that. Let’s get on with the job
This is all deeply fishy. That tweet is Monday, so not clear why Fabricant giving it another outing today, and Sambrook never announced he put a letter in. And if Sambrook tweets why feed the news of the retraction through Fabricant?
To quote A Meeks
"So far, the PM’s operation has been poor, making verifiably impossible claims about possible tactics, hubristically claiming momentum at natural pause points and alienating doubtful MPs."
How extraordinary that allies of the PM should be detected in a palpable falsehood. What are the odds?
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
And/or nuclear. A decade or more's indecision on nuclear, and the failure to invest in tidal power, when the cost of long term debt to government was close to zero, is one of the great unremarked and unpunished errors of government.
I've never been convinced that nuclear was the right way forwards, I don't think Hinckley Point C will ever really produce significant electricity either. What we should have been doing is onshoring wind energy manufacturing, incentives for making the turbines in the UK and just putting huge, huge numbers out in the North Sea off the coast of North England and Scotland. Literally 10x as much as we have today.
Tidal lagoons are also an area where significant subsidy was required and could have been structured in a way that would allow for the research, development and manufacturing of them to be conducted mostly in the UK and then turning that into a export industry to other nations with lots of coastline.
As ever, the government seems to lack any concept of value creation so instead we've got a nuclear power station that might never turn on, tiny investments in 4th gen nuclear and keeping our fingers crossed that the winters are mild and windy for the next few years.
Reality however is that
sun only shines X hours and day and isn't much use in the UK where we need heat when dark rather than air-con when hot and sunny.
Wind is great when it's windy but not much use when it isn't - and we don't currently have any sane way to store enough power to get us through 2 to 3 days of zero wind when that happens (and will we ever have enough storage).
Tidal should work but for reasons has never been investigated.
So we end up needing a base line supply that keeps running come what may, and that is probably nuclear given that all the other options are fossil fuels with the resultant CO2 issues.
I suspect like most other things the issue comes down to the Treasury understanding the price of money and the value of absolutely nothing.
Tidal has been investigated. Repeatedly.
It runs into various things - Big Project (planning, 20 years, blah), environmental concerns, and some strange ideas.
One report claimed that a modest tidal lagoon would need more concrete than the Channel Tunnel (CO2 from concrete is a big issue) which is simply bizarre. The reports authors had assumed that you build the whole thing out of concrete - which no-one has ever proposed. In reality it would be ring(s) of gravel/rocks/sand/mud, with concrete around the turbines.
We have coastal tidal scheme being put together for off the south coast of the island, currently, possibly targeted to go live 2025
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
No, it was the EU who demanded the border in the Irish Sea for a trade deal to spite the UK government and Unionists.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
If it's the bad EU that have treated Unionists with contempt, why as alluded to up thread is BJ most despised in NI among the constituent UK nations?
Tbh I'm a bit confused by the Poots jiggerypokery. There was very evidently some sort of communication between the DUP and SCons beforehand, but I'm not sure what the obvious gains are aside from more lovely, distracting chaos.
Well, the more extreme Unionists in Scotland do sometimes like to go on and on about the prospect of Ulsterization in Scotland with glee, and Carsonesque arms imports, but that can't be it can it??
When Unionists (Scots division) start going on about Ulsterization, I do tend to detect a note of excited hankering after that condition. Imagine, a Unionist politician in government able to unilaterally pull down the edifice of devolution when it's not going their way!
BREAKING: New Zealand says international border will gradually reopen from February 27, with a full reopening by October
Only have to wait until October to visit.....what's the betting they open a bit, get a spike and they reverse /delay this decision.
Does that mean people in NZ can leave this month but can’t go back until October?
I take all of @Gardenwalker ’s points about Jacinda OPT but this is getting beyond ridiculous now. I haven’t seen my mate for three years. He is imprisoned on the North Island!
In fact, most UK residents will be able to get to NZ in July - for a nice winter visit.
I won't be booking a trip for then, I can well see a spike in cases and then down come the shutters again.
Indeed. Although it’s not at its best in July anyway - middle of winter there.
What has happened to the NZ economy this last 2 years? From what I recall, about 10% was based on international tourism?
Rather good according to this report. NZ has been very successful on health outcomes and near the top in terms of economic outcomes. The UK came last overall amongst the 20 countries surveyed, although you could slice and dice it differently:
“For those who have asked, my view remains that sooner or later, but not too much later, the 54 letter threshold will be reached. If it is, the PM is going to need an excellent operation to win a vote of no confidence.”
Edit - I see already posted sorry!
Boris would win a VONC at least 55% to 45% now.
In your dreams
He is toxic and his mps know it
Rishi auditions for the top job today in the HOC and a press conference at 5.00pm and the comparison is going to be stark
Time you moved on and accepted Boris shames his office and country
The NI news gives a further boost to Truss not Sunak, as well as Boris.
It is Truss who has worked with the DUP to stand up to the EU on the Irish Sea border
You do not like Truss, but then you have no credibility as everything you post has a twist to try and keep your debased hero in place
I increasingly like Truss actually, since she said she is now a constitutional monarchist she has got better and better
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
And/or nuclear. A decade or more's indecision on nuclear, and the failure to invest in tidal power, when the cost of long term debt to government was close to zero, is one of the great unremarked and unpunished errors of government.
I've never been convinced that nuclear was the right way forwards, I don't think Hinckley Point C will ever really produce significant electricity either. What we should have been doing is onshoring wind energy manufacturing, incentives for making the turbines in the UK and just putting huge, huge numbers out in the North Sea off the coast of North England and Scotland. Literally 10x as much as we have today.
Tidal lagoons are also an area where significant subsidy was required and could have been structured in a way that would allow for the research, development and manufacturing of them to be conducted mostly in the UK and then turning that into a export industry to other nations with lots of coastline.
As ever, the government seems to lack any concept of value creation so instead we've got a nuclear power station that might never turn on, tiny investments in 4th gen nuclear and keeping our fingers crossed that the winters are mild and windy for the next few years.
Yes. 10x wind and we'd be producing 300% of grid demand now from wind alone, and able to store lots for when the wind isn't blowing.
I don't detect much urgency from the government in doing much to speed up this transition. The market is speeding up by itself a bit, but I sense HMG are relying on US & ME gas for this decade.
The leaks on Sunak's actions later are all about short-term consumption subsidies. Nothing about medium-term action to create energy independence. Maybe I'll be surprised.
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
No, it was the EU who demanded the border in the Irish Sea for a trade deal to spite the UK government and Unionists.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
What technical solution. Where is this technical solution? Who is working on it? What company? What technical department?
You’re a troll.
Its possible to believe that a technical solution is possible - after all I can find out the name of the pig that my sausages were made from fairly easily. Its also possible to believe that no-one is actually trying to achieve such an outcome - the UK government and the EU, both seem not to be trying to do anything to make the checks easier. I know the commission have brought some ideas through, and we are I assume considering them.
At the root of the matter the situation is completely fecked by history. The special status of NI, both in the EU single market and part of the UK is always going to make things very tricky indeed. I completely understand a trader in the EU wanting to make sure that UK traders don't cheat by going via NI, but I also abhor the idea of trade being restricted within our own country.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
Borders are funny things aren't they. Sometimes its about taking back control and have the Royal Navy keeping a few boats out and the next its about having no borders at all and a free for all.
Exactly, it is the EU demanding a border in the Irish Sea.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland or the Irish Sea
But the UK is asking for something that cannot exist given WTO rules and the way Bozo decided to implement Brexit.
The fact Bozo has promised the DUP something that is impossible is again why the DUP has it's current issues - they signed up for something that doesn't and cannot exist so the TUV are taking full advantage.
And the DUP quitting doesn't solve anything, in fact it means that the border checks will be running again tomorrow because direct rule means they will be restarted.
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
And/or nuclear. A decade or more's indecision on nuclear, and the failure to invest in tidal power, when the cost of long term debt to government was close to zero, is one of the great unremarked and unpunished errors of government.
I've never been convinced that nuclear was the right way forwards, I don't think Hinckley Point C will ever really produce significant electricity either. What we should have been doing is onshoring wind energy manufacturing, incentives for making the turbines in the UK and just putting huge, huge numbers out in the North Sea off the coast of North England and Scotland. Literally 10x as much as we have today.
Tidal lagoons are also an area where significant subsidy was required and could have been structured in a way that would allow for the research, development and manufacturing of them to be conducted mostly in the UK and then turning that into a export industry to other nations with lots of coastline.
As ever, the government seems to lack any concept of value creation so instead we've got a nuclear power station that might never turn on, tiny investments in 4th gen nuclear and keeping our fingers crossed that the winters are mild and windy for the next few years.
I'm not a particular advocate of nuclear, either, and am keen on tidal - but in a sense that's a secondary argument. The larger point is that we've wasted over a decade.
Successive governments seem to have had very little understanding of the importance of long term investment. And the last couple of decades have been an exceptionally benign environment for long term borrowing. It still makes sense now, but it's going to cost quite a bit more.
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
I believe he has a worse rating in NI than Scotland?
He did, certainly, in one poll recently. Minus 80 or something like that IIRC, compared to about -70 for Scotland? Obvious issue however is whether the bowler hat chaps think he is crap in the same way and for the same reasons as the Alliance middle of the roaders and those of Republican views. The Government is doing such an awful job of Brexit that it's quite plausible that they are picking from different parts of the turd buffet table.
Strangely, while the DUP are unhappy about the redirection of the NI economy to North South rather than East West trade, it has benefited the overall NI economy significantly, now showing the best recovery of any region in the UK. The West Midlands being the worst recovery, still 10% below 2019.
The flip side of that is this - Apple are using their profits and position in a related market to destroy a market space they don't make money off. Reducing the profits of several companies that are competitors to Apple.
I approve of the concept. But celebrating Apple for what is doing is... somewhat naive.
Why would he want to announce that he had put a letter in? This seems suspicious to me.
From the May times Brady apparently said some MPs pretend to have sent letters in. He also revealed that some MPs lie and pretend to send their no confidence letters in when they have not - although he did not say if this applied to the rebels trying to oust Mrs May.
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
No, it was the EU who demanded the border in the Irish Sea for a trade deal to spite the UK government and Unionists.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
If it's the bad EU that have treated Unionists with contempt, why as alluded to up thread is BJ most despised in NI among the constituent UK nations?
Tbh I'm a bit confused by the Poots jiggerypokery. There was very evidently some sort of communication between the DUP and SCons beforehand, but I'm not sure what the obvious gains are aside from more lovely, distracting chaos.
Well, the more extreme Unionists in Scotland do sometimes like to go on and on about the prospect of Ulsterization in Scotland with glee, and Carsonesque arms imports, but that can't be it can it??
When Unionists (Scots division) start going on about Ulsterization, I do tend to detect a note of excited hankering after that condition. Imagine, a Unionist politician in government able to unilaterally pull down the edifice of devolution when it's not going their way!
But why would the DUP and Scons liaise? I am sure they have plenty of chances at the Rangers matches, etc., it's only across the watter after all. But what is the logic of stirring up the shite? It's not as if the floating Scottish voter is going to be very impressed.
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
And/or nuclear. A decade or more's indecision on nuclear, and the failure to invest in tidal power, when the cost of long term debt to government was close to zero, is one of the great unremarked and unpunished errors of government.
I've never been convinced that nuclear was the right way forwards, I don't think Hinckley Point C will ever really produce significant electricity either. What we should have been doing is onshoring wind energy manufacturing, incentives for making the turbines in the UK and just putting huge, huge numbers out in the North Sea off the coast of North England and Scotland. Literally 10x as much as we have today.
Tidal lagoons are also an area where significant subsidy was required and could have been structured in a way that would allow for the research, development and manufacturing of them to be conducted mostly in the UK and then turning that into a export industry to other nations with lots of coastline.
As ever, the government seems to lack any concept of value creation so instead we've got a nuclear power station that might never turn on, tiny investments in 4th gen nuclear and keeping our fingers crossed that the winters are mild and windy for the next few years.
Reality however is that
sun only shines X hours and day and isn't much use in the UK where we need heat when dark rather than air-con when hot and sunny.
Wind is great when it's windy but not much use when it isn't - and we don't currently have any sane way to store enough power to get us through 2 to 3 days of zero wind when that happens (and will we ever have enough storage).
Tidal should work but for reasons has never been investigated.
So we end up needing a base line supply that keeps running come what may, and that is probably nuclear given that all the other options are fossil fuels with the resultant CO2 issues.
I suspect like most other things the issue comes down to the Treasury understanding the price of money and the value of absolutely nothing.
Tidal has been investigated. Repeatedly.
It runs into various things - Big Project (planning, 20 years, blah), environmental concerns, and some strange ideas.
One report claimed that a modest tidal lagoon would need more concrete than the Channel Tunnel (CO2 from concrete is a big issue) which is simply bizarre. The reports authors had assumed that you build the whole thing out of concrete - which no-one has ever proposed. In reality it would be ring(s) of gravel/rocks/sand/mud, with concrete around the turbines.
Almost as if the report authors were trying to make the case for not doing it...
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
No, it was the EU who demanded the border in the Irish Sea for a trade deal to spite the UK government and Unionists.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
If it's the bad EU that have treated Unionists with contempt, why as alluded to up thread is BJ most despised in NI among the constituent UK nations?
Tbh I'm a bit confused by the Poots jiggerypokery. There was very evidently some sort of communication or even coordination between the DUP and SCons beforehand, but I'm not sure what the obvious gains are aside from more lovely, distracting chaos.
This news and Boris' government's decision to remove the Irish Sea border will greatly improve his standing with Unionists
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
No, it was the EU who demanded the border in the Irish Sea for a trade deal to spite the UK government and Unionists.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
The UK Gmt dam' well wanted a border in Ireland - it partitioned the place!!
As regards the Eu/UK border in the Irish Sea, that's what the UK Government also wanted as a quick and dirty solution to "Get Brexit Done".
It was obvious to me back in 1995 that the matter was insoluble, and insoluble it remains. But could I ever get any single Brexiter to see that? No, I couldn't.
Anyway, you seem to be stuck in Groundhog Day with sashes, so I'm off to do some work.
Oh, it's soluble in theory. It just needs Ireland to leave the EU too...
“For those who have asked, my view remains that sooner or later, but not too much later, the 54 letter threshold will be reached. If it is, the PM is going to need an excellent operation to win a vote of no confidence.”
Edit - I see already posted sorry!
Boris would win a VONC at least 55% to 45% now.
Boris winning 55:45 would be about the worst possible result for everyone.
If a party leader and Prime Minister has that many of their MPs voting against them, their credibility is shot. In practice, they can't carry on (see Maggie, 1990- the first round was 57:43 in her favour... so close to the 15% margin). But does anyone imagine Boris seeing it that way, or Carrie talking some sense into him, or the Cabinet telling him that the game was up?
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
I believe he has a worse rating in NI than Scotland?
He did, certainly, in one poll recently. Minus 80 or something like that IIRC, compared to about -70 for Scotland? Obvious issue however is whether the bowler hat chaps think he is crap in the same way and for the same reasons as the Alliance middle of the roaders and those of Republican views. The Government is doing such an awful job of Brexit that it's quite plausible that they are picking from different parts of the turd buffet table.
Strangely, while the DUP are unhappy about the redirection of the NI economy to North South rather than East West trade, it has benefited the overall NI economy significantly, now showing the best recovery of any region in the UK. The West Midlands being the worst recovery, still 10% below 2019.
On a point of PB order: FP Church of Ulster - the ones over here in Scotland are a different lot. But yes, that ecnomic matter is another reason it's all so bizarre.
Shall we try to calm things down and talk about womens' rights instead? 😁
I think we need to discuss the implications of Brexit on Sindy Ref which in turn has implications for NI which in turn has implications for women's rights which in turn effects employment, which will in turn effect the price of pineapple topping pizza....
I tried to get Radiohead in there, but I haven't the skill. Sorry.
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
No, it was the EU who demanded the border in the Irish Sea for a trade deal to spite the UK government and Unionists.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
What technical solution. Where is this technical solution? Who is working on it? What company? What technical department?
You’re a troll.
Its possible to believe that a technical solution is possible - after all I can find out the name of the pig that my sausages were made from fairly easily. Its also possible to believe that no-one is actually trying to achieve such an outcome - the UK government and the EU, both seem not to be trying to do anything to make the checks easier. I know the commission have brought some ideas through, and we are I assume considering them.
At the root of the matter the situation is completely fecked by history. The special status of NI, both in the EU single market and part of the UK is always going to make things very tricky indeed. I completely understand a trader in the EU wanting to make sure that UK traders don't cheat by going via NI, but I also abhor the idea of trade being restricted within our own country.
Not easy.
You see I don't abhor the idea that trade is restricted within our own country, what I abhor is the fact Bozo implement something that resulted in trade being restricted within our own country.
If Bozo hadn't been stupid enough to implement it then the issue wouldn't exist. Bozo decided that was the solution he wanted but as with a lot of things he didn't think through what mess his quick fix would inevitably create.
Shall we try to calm things down and talk about womens' rights instead? 😁
I think we need to discuss the implications of Brexit on Sindy Ref which in turn has implications for NI which in turn has implications for women's rights which in turn effects employment, which will in turn effect the price of pineapple topping pizza....
I tried to get Radiohead in there, but I haven't the skill. Sorry.
Or we could get there in one intermediate stage by way of gay dinosaur birthday cakes!
I am really struggling to see how changing CT is going to help with increased gas prices. Those most at risk of fuel poverty are those on benefits who already don't pay CT. Is he going to boost UC at the same time? The removal of the Covid uplift in UC looks ever more problematic....
While that's true, the number of household spending over 10% of their income on fuel costs is predicted to rise from 2m to 6m. The aim is more to shore up their vote than to help the hardest hit, I think.
If they wanted to make a direct difference to bills, they could also look at suspending the green levy. But the chancellor would likely veto that.
Indeed. The Atlantic article is quite timely on all this too. The massive reduction in capital investment in oil and gas (driven by "green" investement policies which are very in right now) means that the increase in prices is not stimulating additional production to the extent that it should. The pension fund I am one of the trustees of are getting a lot of information about this just now and some of the trustees are very keen to show their green credentials but not investing in Oil and gas. I am personally far from sure that this policy has been properly thought through.
It hasn't. We've got a massive energy gap coming over the next 5 years. The only countries that will escape the oncoming inflationary storm will be France and Japan, both of whom have significant domestic nuclear energy. The UK has had 20 years to invest in renewable technology and install 10x the amount of generation we currently have from renewables yet we've done nothing. A dereliction of duty by every government. Labour disincentivised fossil fuels followed by the Tories who did nothing to fix private investment rules on domestic energy generation. We ended up with energy companies turning into brokerages and resellers while the actual generation was starved of investment as they funnelled cash to investors with mega dividends.
We're all going to pay the price in the UK.
And/or nuclear. A decade or more's indecision on nuclear, and the failure to invest in tidal power, when the cost of long term debt to government was close to zero, is one of the great unremarked and unpunished errors of government.
I've never been convinced that nuclear was the right way forwards, I don't think Hinckley Point C will ever really produce significant electricity either. What we should have been doing is onshoring wind energy manufacturing, incentives for making the turbines in the UK and just putting huge, huge numbers out in the North Sea off the coast of North England and Scotland. Literally 10x as much as we have today.
Tidal lagoons are also an area where significant subsidy was required and could have been structured in a way that would allow for the research, development and manufacturing of them to be conducted mostly in the UK and then turning that into a export industry to other nations with lots of coastline.
As ever, the government seems to lack any concept of value creation so instead we've got a nuclear power station that might never turn on, tiny investments in 4th gen nuclear and keeping our fingers crossed that the winters are mild and windy for the next few years.
Reality however is that
sun only shines X hours and day and isn't much use in the UK where we need heat when dark rather than air-con when hot and sunny.
Wind is great when it's windy but not much use when it isn't - and we don't currently have any sane way to store enough power to get us through 2 to 3 days of zero wind when that happens (and will we ever have enough storage).
Tidal should work but for reasons has never been investigated.
So we end up needing a base line supply that keeps running come what may, and that is probably nuclear given that all the other options are fossil fuels with the resultant CO2 issues.
I suspect like most other things the issue comes down to the Treasury understanding the price of money and the value of absolutely nothing.
Tidal has been investigated. Repeatedly.
It runs into various things - Big Project (planning, 20 years, blah), environmental concerns, and some strange ideas.
One report claimed that a modest tidal lagoon would need more concrete than the Channel Tunnel (CO2 from concrete is a big issue) which is simply bizarre. The reports authors had assumed that you build the whole thing out of concrete - which no-one has ever proposed. In reality it would be ring(s) of gravel/rocks/sand/mud, with concrete around the turbines.
Almost as if the report authors were trying to make the case for not doing it...
You might think that, but I couldn't possibly comment.
Note: The original series is not available on iPlayer. BBC fail.
Innumerate Nick Robinson this morning asked James Cleverly;
"Do you with agree with your boss that Keir Starmer is to blame for Jimmy Savile's crimes?"
I think that Johnson bringing up Savile was wrong, but he never said anything even remotely close to that.
That is the point. He doesn't have to. The beauty of the smear is that it can be inferred. And if a top Oxford PPE man can make the wrong inference, think of the voter on the Clapham omnibus.
Which is why what the PM did was so repellent.
But the Speaker ruled it in order...
I don't care what he said.
It was a repellent smear. One reason I wrote my header yesterday was to point out that it is the Tories' inactions and failures over the last 11 and a half which have denied justice to many victims of sexual violence, whether women or children.
I hold no brief for Labour and they have had their own faults in this regard too. But I will not see someone like Starmer, who tried to do a decent job as a public servant as DPP, smeared by someone who views public service as an excuse to help himself to the fruits of power without undertaking any of its obligations.
To imply what the PM did about Starmer under cover of Parliamentary privilege, given Boris's own public statements about wasting money on child abuse cases - also referenced in my header - was a new low, even for him.
I completely agree.
My point about the Speaker is that the political system cannot deal with an utterly mendacious PM who is kept in place by his party. And he will be the person left in charge 'reforming' the Downing St. operation, which as a result of his behaviour is seen not to be fit for purpose.
“For those who have asked, my view remains that sooner or later, but not too much later, the 54 letter threshold will be reached. If it is, the PM is going to need an excellent operation to win a vote of no confidence.”
Edit - I see already posted sorry!
Boris would win a VONC at least 55% to 45% now.
Boris winning 55:45 would be about the worst possible result for everyone.
If a party leader and Prime Minister has that many of their MPs voting against them, their credibility is shot. In practice, they can't carry on (see Maggie, 1990- the first round was 57:43 in her favour... so close to the 15% margin). But does anyone imagine Boris seeing it that way, or Carrie talking some sense into him, or the Cabinet telling him that the game was up?
It's not going to be 55:45 it's going to be 52:48 (you just know it will be)
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
Borders are funny things aren't they. Sometimes its about taking back control and have the Royal Navy keeping a few boats out and the next its about having no borders at all and a free for all.
Exactly, it is the EU demanding a border in the Irish Sea.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland or the Irish Sea
But the UK is asking for something that cannot exist given WTO rules and the way Bozo decided to implement Brexit.
The fact Bozo has promised the DUP something that is impossible is again why the DUP has it's current issues - they signed up for something that doesn't and cannot exist so the TUV are taking full advantage.
And the DUP quitting doesn't solve anything, in fact it means that the border checks will be running again tomorrow because direct rule means they will be restarted.
The UK government I believe will not impose direct rule to restart border checks. Truss and Lewis are making that clear.
However regardless the DUP have done the right thing by their loyalist core vote by removing the border checks at their end and collapsing Stormont until it is confirmed the Irish Sea border is removed permanently
The flip side of that is this - Apple are using their profits and position in a related market to destroy a market space they don't make money off. Reducing the profits of several companies that are competitors to Apple.
I approve of the concept. But celebrating Apple for what is doing is... somewhat naive.
The flip side of that is this - Apple are using their profits and position in a related market to destroy a market space they don't make money off. Reducing the profits of several companies that are competitors to Apple.
I approve of the concept. But celebrating Apple for what is doing is... somewhat naive.
Apple are hideous towards smaller companies. They're predatory and nasty.
I can understand why TSE likes their products (especially if you are happy with walled gardens), but I don't understand why he likes the company as a whole, and their practices.
You can divorce the company from their products: e.g. "I think Apple makes great products, but they're not a good company." Ignoring bad practices and nasty behaviour because you like the company is a bit like supporting the current incarnation of the Conservatives Party.
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
No, it was the EU who demanded the border in the Irish Sea for a trade deal to spite the UK government and Unionists.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
The UK Gmt dam' well wanted a border in Ireland - it partitioned the place!!
As regards the Eu/UK border in the Irish Sea, that's what the UK Government also wanted as a quick and dirty solution to "Get Brexit Done".
It was obvious to me back in 1995 that the matter was insoluble, and insoluble it remains. But could I ever get any single Brexiter to see that? No, I couldn't.
Anyway, you seem to be stuck in Groundhog Day with sashes, so I'm off to do some work.
Oh, it's soluble in theory. It just needs Ireland to leave the EU too...
Oh yes, I remember now, November 1997 wasn't it? Those Tory MPs who hadn't quite cottoned onto the fact that ireland couldn't be ordered around any more, and others suggesting that all that was necessary was for the Free State (as they dimly recalled it) to become a full part of the UK once more ...
It’s pointless posting on here with HYUFD just disrupting proceedings with his trolling
Objection your honour! HYUFD is a polling encyclopedia. His poll for every occasion would be missed. (Why don't you just read the parts you don't find offensive?)
Innumerate Nick Robinson this morning asked James Cleverly;
"Do you with agree with your boss that Keir Starmer is to blame for Jimmy Savile's crimes?"
I think that Johnson bringing up Savile was wrong, but he never said anything even remotely close to that.
That is the point. He doesn't have to. The beauty of the smear is that it can be inferred. And if a top Oxford PPE man can make the wrong inference, think of the voter on the Clapham omnibus.
Which is why what the PM did was so repellent.
But the Speaker ruled it in order...
I don't care what he said.
It was a repellent smear. One reason I wrote my header yesterday was to point out that it is the Tories' inactions and failures over the last 11 and a half which have denied justice to many victims of sexual violence, whether women or children.
I hold no brief for Labour and they have had their own faults in this regard too. But I will not see someone like Starmer, who tried to do a decent job as a public servant as DPP, smeared by someone who views public service as an excuse to help himself to the fruits of power without undertaking any of its obligations.
To imply what the PM did about Starmer under cover of Parliamentary privilege, given Boris's own public statements about wasting money on child abuse cases - also referenced in my header - was a new low, even for him.
I completely agree.
My point about the Speaker is that the political system cannot deal with an utterly mendacious PM who is kept in place by his party. And he will be the person left in charge 'reforming' the Downing St. operation, which as a result of his behaviour is seen not to be fit for purpose.
And if Tory MPs had any understanding of how dangerous this is to our political system they would have booted him out already.
If Bojo clings on in a VOC, I wonder how many more rebels would either cross the floor or forfeit the whip. The lady in Guildford has to be a candidate. No doubt there are others.
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
No, it was the EU who demanded the border in the Irish Sea for a trade deal to spite the UK government and Unionists.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
What technical solution. Where is this technical solution? Who is working on it? What company? What technical department?
You’re a troll.
Its possible to believe that a technical solution is possible - after all I can find out the name of the pig that my sausages were made from fairly easily. Its also possible to believe that no-one is actually trying to achieve such an outcome - the UK government and the EU, both seem not to be trying to do anything to make the checks easier. I know the commission have brought some ideas through, and we are I assume considering them.
At the root of the matter the situation is completely fecked by history. The special status of NI, both in the EU single market and part of the UK is always going to make things very tricky indeed. I completely understand a trader in the EU wanting to make sure that UK traders don't cheat by going via NI, but I also abhor the idea of trade being restricted within our own country.
Not easy.
You see I don't abhor the idea that trade is restricted within our own country, what I abhor is the fact Bozo implement something that resulted in trade being restricted within our own country.
If Bozo hadn't been stupid enough to implement it then the issue wouldn't exist. Bozo decided that was the solution he wanted but as with a lot of things he didn't think through what mess his quick fix would inevitably create.
No argument from me on that, just that the overall situation is a gordian knot. Once you decide to leave the single market, somewhere is going to have to have checks. The GFA says it can't be between NI and ROI, so therefore it has to be from rUK to NI, which is unpalatable. So that means you can't both leave the single market AND have no border.
For all that you can argue we shouldn't have left the single market, we did, and need a solution to the mess. What that is, I have no idea, but I do honestly believe that if I can track a parcel from depot to my door, and find the name of the pig I am eating through labelling, its not beyond the whit of man to arrange for a virual border. Just don't ask me how to do it...
I understand there was Daera/Defra call with logistics firms this morning where businesses where advised that whatever they were doing yesterday they should continue doing today. A Defra official said Daera ARE continuing to operate checks.
Wind is great when it's windy but not much use when it isn't - and we don't currently have any sane way to store enough power to get us through 2 to 3 days of zero wind when that happens (and will we ever have enough storage).
Until we have a large surplus of wind that needs to be regularly stored we're never going to find out which potential storage technology scales economically to store the energy, because the energy doesn't need to be stored now.
So we need to get on and build the wind turbines and create the surplus so that the market can work out what storage technology works. We can't wait until we've designed all the bits in advance.
Finding a good lawyers seems as hard as finding an accountant who can add.
I recall spending an afternoon proof reading the conveyancing on a home purchase. Given it was all boiler plate, copy and pasta, the number of errors made was impressive. After finding the 3rd mistake, I binned the lawyer.
In all honesty, accountants CAN'T add up. I use my calculator. A good accountant is one who can present the accounts in the way the client wants, without going overboard.
If you want good results, then Debits belong in the balance sheet, Credits in the P&L [1]
[1] Did an audit once where the client had basically done this. Accounts were materially wrong. Client presented profit of £150k, had actually lost £350k.
It’s pointless posting on here with HYUFD just disrupting proceedings with his trolling
Objection your honour! HYUFD is a polling encyclopedia. His poll for every occasion would be missed. (Why don't you just read the parts you don't find offensive?)
Er, the practical side of my brain instantly asks: how do we know which is which until we read them? (A general issue, it must be said in fairness, rather than this one poster.)
The flip side of that is this - Apple are using their profits and position in a related market to destroy a market space they don't make money off. Reducing the profits of several companies that are competitors to Apple.
I approve of the concept. But celebrating Apple for what is doing is... somewhat naive.
Apple are hideous towards smaller companies. They're predatory and nasty.
I can understand why TSE likes their products (especially if you are happy with walled gardens), but I don't understand why he likes the company as a whole, and their practices.
You can divorce the company from their products: e.g. "I think Apple makes great products, but they're not a good company." Ignoring bad practices and nasty behaviour because you like the company is a bit like supporting the current incarnation of the Conservatives Party.
I would say that their corporate level commitment to privacy is a good thing. But that they do bad stuff as well.
I would also say that they do less bad stuff than Facebook and Google, for example.
That doesn't make them a bunch of saints, though....
Innumerate Nick Robinson this morning asked James Cleverly;
"Do you with agree with your boss that Keir Starmer is to blame for Jimmy Savile's crimes?"
I think that Johnson bringing up Savile was wrong, but he never said anything even remotely close to that.
That is the point. He doesn't have to. The beauty of the smear is that it can be inferred. And if a top Oxford PPE man can make the wrong inference, think of the voter on the Clapham omnibus.
Which is why what the PM did was so repellent.
But the Speaker ruled it in order...
I don't care what he said.
It was a repellent smear. One reason I wrote my header yesterday was to point out that it is the Tories' inactions and failures over the last 11 and a half which have denied justice to many victims of sexual violence, whether women or children.
I hold no brief for Labour and they have had their own faults in this regard too. But I will not see someone like Starmer, who tried to do a decent job as a public servant as DPP, smeared by someone who views public service as an excuse to help himself to the fruits of power without undertaking any of its obligations.
To imply what the PM did about Starmer under cover of Parliamentary privilege, given Boris's own public statements about wasting money on child abuse cases - also referenced in my header - was a new low, even for him.
I completely agree.
My point about the Speaker is that the political system cannot deal with an utterly mendacious PM who is kept in place by his party. And he will be the person left in charge 'reforming' the Downing St. operation, which as a result of his behaviour is seen not to be fit for purpose.
And if Tory MPs had any understanding of how dangerous this is to our political system they would have booted him out already.
This is an appropriate point for that Upton Sinclair quotation, right?
Perhaps just the rights of Incels to have robo-sex...
Nearly thirty years ago, I went to a VR conference at the Novotel in Hammersmith. It was brilliant - with really expensive SGI machines running all sorts of VR stuff that can probably be done on most home computers. At least one company could not take their best kit, as they couldn't get insurance to transport it.
Anyway, a buzz phrase (although not appearing in the literature) around the hall was 'teledildonics'.
Incidentally, one of the big names in VR at the time was Virtuality, based in Leicester. I know someone who went there just before the company imploded...
Finding a good lawyers seems as hard as finding an accountant who can add.
I recall spending an afternoon proof reading the conveyancing on a home purchase. Given it was all boiler plate, copy and pasta, the number of errors made was impressive. After finding the 3rd mistake, I binned the lawyer.
In all honesty, accountants CAN'T add up. I use my calculator. A good accountant is one who can present the accounts in the way the client wants, without going overboard.
If you want good results, then Debits belong in the balance sheet, Credits in the P&L [1]
[1] Did an audit once where the client had basically done this. Accounts were materially wrong. Client presented profit of £150k, had actually lost £350k.
Eek
I'd be sacked if I made that sort of error (I'm an internal accountant) - did he have enough reserves to ride it out ?
It’s pointless posting on here with HYUFD just disrupting proceedings with his trolling
Objection your honour! HYUFD is a polling encyclopedia. His poll for every occasion would be missed. (Why don't you just read the parts you don't find offensive?)
Er, the practical side of my brain instantly asks: how do we know which is which until we read them? (A general issue, it must be said in fairness, rather than this one poster.)
If it doesn't appear as a list with percentages attached?
Wind is great when it's windy but not much use when it isn't - and we don't currently have any sane way to store enough power to get us through 2 to 3 days of zero wind when that happens (and will we ever have enough storage).
Until we have a large surplus of wind that needs to be regularly stored we're never going to find out which potential storage technology scales economically to store the energy, because the energy doesn't need to be stored now.
So we need to get on and build the wind turbines and create the surplus so that the market can work out what storage technology works. We can't wait until we've designed all the bits in advance.
The other market, of course, is the inter-country interconnects. Which already exists, and will get much larger.
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Isn't it the Johnson government's treating Unionists with contempt that led to the current situation?
I believe he has a worse rating in NI than Scotland?
He did, certainly, in one poll recently. Minus 80 or something like that IIRC, compared to about -70 for Scotland? Obvious issue however is whether the bowler hat chaps think he is crap in the same way and for the same reasons as the Alliance middle of the roaders and those of Republican views. The Government is doing such an awful job of Brexit that it's quite plausible that they are picking from different parts of the turd buffet table.
Strangely, while the DUP are unhappy about the redirection of the NI economy to North South rather than East West trade, it has benefited the overall NI economy significantly, now showing the best recovery of any region in the UK. The West Midlands being the worst recovery, still 10% below 2019.
On a point of PB order: FP Church of Ulster - the ones over here in Scotland are a different lot. But yes, that ecnomic matter is another reason it's all so bizarre.
As a descendent of Free Presbyterians from both Scotland and Ireland, I agree they are distinct organisations. Neither is easy to please though!
Wind is great when it's windy but not much use when it isn't - and we don't currently have any sane way to store enough power to get us through 2 to 3 days of zero wind when that happens (and will we ever have enough storage).
Until we have a large surplus of wind that needs to be regularly stored we're never going to find out which potential storage technology scales economically to store the energy, because the energy doesn't need to be stored now.
So we need to get on and build the wind turbines and create the surplus so that the market can work out what storage technology works. We can't wait until we've designed all the bits in advance.
Bitcoin mining.
One possible use for stranded energy is to mine with it, converting the wasted energy that either can't be stored or isn't cost efficient to store, into a commodity that can either be used to subsidise the cost of building more green infrastructure, or used to purchase energy from elsewhere during peak times, thus reducing the cost.
With the ability to convert stranded energy into a commodity that can be traded, you eliminate the stranded energy problem.
Are interest rates definitely going up again? I can hardly afford to pay my mortgage already ffs
Historically they are very low - anyone who mortgaged to the hilt over the last few years was taking a huge risk re affordability. Savers - who essentially fund all mortgages - have had very low rates for years. At some point that had to change.
Its only going to benefit the old property owning class (as usual) and hurt the millennials and younger who struggled to even get a foot on the ladder in the first place. “Had to change” my ass.
What it really does is muck around all the incentives to do "rational" things with money, in a way that worsens the housing situation.
My young lady and I (neither of us exactly old money, both more working class) presently have a similarly sized modest house each, both about 50% paid off. She's moving up to mine after we get married, which means her house is surplus to requirements.
The problem is that as hers is worth about twice what mine is (she's Bath/Bristol commuter belt, I'm in the frozen northern wastelands), so if we sell hers, we can pay my mortgage off (great), then we will end up with a pile of cash in the bank. What problem - I hear you ask? Well, my house is ideal for a couple, or possibly a couple with one small child. It wouldn't be great for a family with say a couple of teenagers, which could well be us in 15 years time.
But if we leave our pile of cash left over from her house as savings, and want to up-size in 5-10 years time, it won't be worth anything like it is now, thanks to inflation working its wicked way, and saving rates being zero.
So the logical options we have are to either sit on her house and rent it out - the rent should about cover the mortgage, and of course the house should keep up with price inflation, or sell mine as well, and upsize now. We'll probably do better in the long-term if we rent it out, but it mostly depends on how soon we think we might want to cash in and upsize.
Both options aren't great for everyone not on the housing ladder - we either have someone else paying rent rather than owning, or we end occuying a house bigger than we need, thus jacking up the price of housing....
Stick the funds in a low cost global tracker, something like Vanguard Life Strategy 60 or 80 which essentially will invest in an extremely wide range of shares and bonds at low cost and effort. Ideally get as much of it as you can (20k each, each year) into ISA wrappers to avoid tax. Will comfortably beat inflation over the medium term, but may or may not beat house price inflation.
Wind is great when it's windy but not much use when it isn't - and we don't currently have any sane way to store enough power to get us through 2 to 3 days of zero wind when that happens (and will we ever have enough storage).
Until we have a large surplus of wind that needs to be regularly stored we're never going to find out which potential storage technology scales economically to store the energy, because the energy doesn't need to be stored now.
So we need to get on and build the wind turbines and create the surplus so that the market can work out what storage technology works. We can't wait until we've designed all the bits in advance.
Bitcoin mining.
One possible use for stranded energy is to mine with it, converting the wasted energy that either can't be stored or isn't cost efficient to store, into a commodity that can either be used to subsidise the cost of building more green infrastructure, or used to purchase energy from elsewhere during peak times, thus reducing the cost.
With the ability to convert stranded energy into a commodity that can be traded, you eliminate the stranded energy problem.
Not sure why we are discussing the intra-UK border. Despite Poots and Lewis announcing that they were suspending all checks from midnight, checks are still taking place.
Its a desperate "quick throw red meat to the rebels!!!" play. The problem is that suspending the checks as they said they have done isn't something they can just do. There are big problems - so they have said they have but actually haven't.
Another blatant lie told by moral degenerates to placate the stupid. No wonder HY approves.
Mr. eek, if the EU implemented the trusted trader scheme they signed up to it would diminish the difficulties significantly.
When a trusted trader scheme was discussed it seems neither side actually bothered to explain to the other side what was meant by the phrase "trusted trader". We wouldn't be in this mess if people actually bothered to check the assumptions others were making.
Regardless of that - it's a fact that Bozo implemented a border between Great Britain and the Island of Ireland which included a part of the island that is currently part of the United Kingdom.
And he did that without understanding what the consequences would look like while hoping it was the quick fix he was after (for Bozo is one for a quick easy solution today, because he never looks at the appendix that says - on day 2 it blows up in your face).
Wind is great when it's windy but not much use when it isn't - and we don't currently have any sane way to store enough power to get us through 2 to 3 days of zero wind when that happens (and will we ever have enough storage).
Until we have a large surplus of wind that needs to be regularly stored we're never going to find out which potential storage technology scales economically to store the energy, because the energy doesn't need to be stored now.
So we need to get on and build the wind turbines and create the surplus so that the market can work out what storage technology works. We can't wait until we've designed all the bits in advance.
The other market, of course, is the inter-country interconnects. Which already exists, and will get much larger.
Blocking highs usually cover most of western Europe.
Perhaps just the rights of Incels to have robo-sex...
Nearly thirty years ago, I went to a VR conference at the Novotel in Hammersmith. It was brilliant - with really expensive SGI machines running all sorts of VR stuff that can probably be done on most home computers. At least one company could not take their best kit, as they couldn't get insurance to transport it.
Anyway, a buzz phrase (although not appearing in the literature) around the hall was 'teledildonics'.
Incidentally, one of the big names in VR at the time was Virtuality, based in Leicester. I know someone who went there just before the company imploded...
Is there no limit to the range and depth of knowledge that one can acquire from PB?
The flip side of that is this - Apple are using their profits and position in a related market to destroy a market space they don't make money off. Reducing the profits of several companies that are competitors to Apple.
I approve of the concept. But celebrating Apple for what is doing is... somewhat naive.
Apple are hideous towards smaller companies. They're predatory and nasty.
I can understand why TSE likes their products (especially if you are happy with walled gardens), but I don't understand why he likes the company as a whole, and their practices.
You can divorce the company from their products: e.g. "I think Apple makes great products, but they're not a good company." Ignoring bad practices and nasty behaviour because you like the company is a bit like supporting the current incarnation of the Conservatives Party.
I would say that their corporate level commitment to privacy is a good thing. But that they do bad stuff as well.
I would also say that they do less bad stuff than Facebook and Google, for example.
That doesn't make them a bunch of saints, though....
There's many sides to Apple. There's the consumer hardware side, the software side, and the Internet site, amongst others. They don't particularly compete with FB on the Internet, both concentrating in different areas. They do compete with Google on hardware and software, and a fair bit on the Internet.
I can only speak for the hardware and software side (i.e. the consumer electronics bits), and in those they do evil. It then comes to a question as to whether their evil is better or worse than Google's or FB's evil.
Wind is great when it's windy but not much use when it isn't - and we don't currently have any sane way to store enough power to get us through 2 to 3 days of zero wind when that happens (and will we ever have enough storage).
Until we have a large surplus of wind that needs to be regularly stored we're never going to find out which potential storage technology scales economically to store the energy, because the energy doesn't need to be stored now.
So we need to get on and build the wind turbines and create the surplus so that the market can work out what storage technology works. We can't wait until we've designed all the bits in advance.
Magnificent leap of faith! What if the best solution that the market comes up with falls short or is too expensive?
If Stormont has to be collapsed to complete the process of removing the Irish Sea border, so be it
Sometimes you can see no further than your nose. Can you not see the dangerous ramifications of this?
Why do you think Mrs May and Johnson tiptoed around the Irish Brexit position for so long?
But it can all go to hell in a handcart so long as Big Dog is saved, eh?
If Unionists continue to be treated with contempt by the EU, then the Good Friday Agreement is dead anyway.
It only worked with Unionist as well as Nationalist consent
Don't be an idiot.
This was the key problem of "pure" Brexit. The circle of GFA and borders be they in the North Channel or at Dundalk can't be squared, and it never could.
Comments
Tbh I'm a bit confused by the Poots jiggerypokery. There was very evidently some sort of communication or even coordination between the DUP and SCons beforehand, but I'm not sure what the obvious gains are aside from more lovely, distracting chaos.
I’ve listened carefully to the Prime Minister today, the @BorisJohnson we love and who has delivered. He’s made promises on how he wants to change how he does things, how he wants to deliver for my constituents and the UK and I support him in doing that. Let’s get on with the job
https://twitter.com/GarySambrook89/status/1488243552874283011?t=AwxlIRr2obPW-ZVAGulB8A&s=19
I also know peace in Northern Ireland depends on the consent of Protestants, Unionists and Loyalists not just Roman Catholics and Nationalists
Don’t be a dick.
As regards the Eu/UK border in the Irish Sea, that's what the UK Government also wanted as a quick and dirty solution to "Get Brexit Done".
It was obvious to me back in 1995 that the matter was insoluble, and insoluble it remains. But could I ever get any single Brexiter to see that? No, I couldn't.
Anyway, you seem to be stuck in Groundhog Day with sashes, so I'm off to do some work.
It runs into various things - Big Project (planning, 20 years, blah), environmental concerns, and some strange ideas.
One report claimed that a modest tidal lagoon would need more concrete than the Channel Tunnel (CO2 from concrete is a big issue) which is simply bizarre. The reports authors had assumed that you build the whole thing out of concrete - which no-one has ever proposed. In reality it would be ring(s) of gravel/rocks/sand/mud, with concrete around the turbines.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland. A technical solution could have been found
Borders are funny things aren't they. Sometimes its about taking back control and have the Royal Navy keeping a few boats out and the next its about having no borders at all and a free for all.
You stupid ignorant little pillock.
The reality is that the Unionist / Loyalist community feels hard done by - but in reality that's their own fault and goes back to the 70s where the Republican leader focussed on education and improvements while the Loyalists seem to have grown increasing insular while attempting to blame others for problems that were often 100% their mistake/fault.
Apple’s Privacy Measures to Cost Facebook $10 Billion in 2022
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/02/03/facebook-10-billion-in-2022-apple-measures/
Exactly, it is the EU demanding a border in the Irish Sea.
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland or the Irish Sea
He also revealed that some MPs lie and pretend to send their no confidence letters in when they have not - although he did not say if this applied to the rebels trying to oust Mrs May.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6402805/Sir-Graham-Brady-NOT-received-48-letters-no-confidence-needed-oust-Theresa-May.html
* Remarketing means marketing to people who have shown an interest in a company / product by say visiting the site or searching for it elsewhere.
To quote A Meeks
"So far, the PM’s operation has been poor, making verifiably impossible claims about possible tactics, hubristically claiming momentum at natural pause points and alienating doubtful MPs."
How extraordinary that allies of the PM should be detected in a palpable falsehood. What are the odds?
The UK government never wanted a border in Ireland or the Irish Sea
No-you misunterstand - I was quoting your bollocks back at you
They treat "number of cases" as a wholly negative thing, not taking any account of acquired immunity - which is significant.
And they use a thing called "Cumulated GDP evolution", which is a metric I don't even know what it means that puts out the following numbers:
Belgium: -5.5%
Canada: -6.4%
Germany: -12.5%
France : -10.8%
Italy : -19.6%
Netherlands: -4.8%
NZ: +13.4%
Poland: +3.04%
Spain: -28.2%
UK: -19.8%
Can anyone elucidate?
To me it looks perhaps like some sum of year on year differences, but perhaps not done annually.
I don't detect much urgency from the government in doing much to speed up this transition. The market is speeding up by itself a bit, but I sense HMG are relying on US & ME gas for this decade.
The leaks on Sunak's actions later are all about short-term consumption subsidies. Nothing about medium-term action to create energy independence. Maybe I'll be surprised.
At the root of the matter the situation is completely fecked by history. The special status of NI, both in the EU single market and part of the UK is always going to make things very tricky indeed. I completely understand a trader in the EU wanting to make sure that UK traders don't cheat by going via NI, but I also abhor the idea of trade being restricted within our own country.
Not easy.
The fact Bozo has promised the DUP something that is impossible is again why the DUP has it's current issues - they signed up for something that doesn't and cannot exist so the TUV are taking full advantage.
And the DUP quitting doesn't solve anything, in fact it means that the border checks will be running again tomorrow because direct rule means they will be restarted.
The larger point is that we've wasted over a decade.
Successive governments seem to have had very little understanding of the importance of long term investment. And the last couple of decades have been an exceptionally benign environment for long term borrowing. It still makes sense now, but it's going to cost quite a bit more.
Shall we try to calm things down and talk about womens' rights instead? 😁
Its tough pleasing a Free Presbyterian though.
https://www.ft.com/content/3b5059c4-4ef1-44d1-ae1f-43a875efb7ca
I approve of the concept. But celebrating Apple for what is doing is... somewhat naive.
Sambrook wins today's Jonathan Gullis award
If a party leader and Prime Minister has that many of their MPs voting against them, their credibility is shot. In practice, they can't carry on (see Maggie, 1990- the first round was 57:43 in her favour... so close to the 15% margin). But does anyone imagine Boris seeing it that way, or Carrie talking some sense into him, or the Cabinet telling him that the game was up?
I tried to get Radiohead in there, but I haven't the skill. Sorry.
If Bozo hadn't been stupid enough to implement it then the issue wouldn't exist. Bozo decided that was the solution he wanted but as with a lot of things he didn't think through what mess his quick fix would inevitably create.
Women - OTOH - this could take hours.......
Note: The original series is not available on iPlayer. BBC fail.
My point about the Speaker is that the political system cannot deal with an utterly mendacious PM who is kept in place by his party. And he will be the person left in charge 'reforming' the Downing St. operation, which as a result of his behaviour is seen not to be fit for purpose.
However regardless the DUP have done the right thing by their loyalist core vote by removing the border checks at their end and collapsing Stormont until it is confirmed the Irish Sea border is removed permanently
Apple = Big Dog
I can understand why TSE likes their products (especially if you are happy with walled gardens), but I don't understand why he likes the company as a whole, and their practices.
You can divorce the company from their products: e.g. "I think Apple makes great products, but they're not a good company." Ignoring bad practices and nasty behaviour because you like the company is a bit like supporting the current incarnation of the Conservatives Party.
For all that you can argue we shouldn't have left the single market, we did, and need a solution to the mess. What that is, I have no idea, but I do honestly believe that if I can track a parcel from depot to my door, and find the name of the pig I am eating through labelling, its not beyond the whit of man to arrange for a virual border.
Just don't ask me how to do it...
https://twitter.com/JP_Biz/status/1489169896084807686?s=20&t=eGUeRvVYIzcHj2P1uJ1aQA
So we need to get on and build the wind turbines and create the surplus so that the market can work out what storage technology works. We can't wait until we've designed all the bits in advance.
A good accountant is one who can present the accounts in the way the client wants, without going overboard.
If you want good results, then Debits belong in the balance sheet, Credits in the P&L [1]
[1] Did an audit once where the client had basically done this. Accounts were materially wrong. Client presented profit of £150k, had actually lost £350k.
I would also say that they do less bad stuff than Facebook and Google, for example.
That doesn't make them a bunch of saints, though....
We could discuss this article instead - https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-armys-shameful-secret-domestic-abusers-are-still-in-uniform-rz2djpc5f.
Or this one - https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jul/25/two-thirds-of-women-in-uk-military-report-bullying-and-sexual-abuse
Those men don't appear to have any difficulty understanding what women are and mistreating them.
Anyway, a buzz phrase (although not appearing in the literature) around the hall was 'teledildonics'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teledildonics
Incidentally, one of the big names in VR at the time was Virtuality, based in Leicester. I know someone who went there just before the company imploded...
I'd be sacked if I made that sort of error (I'm an internal accountant) - did he have enough reserves to ride it out ?
Which already exists, and will get much larger.
Feel free to pass any on.
Enjoy yourselves!
Are you betting on the 2022 championship yet ? One thing to bear in mind is the penalty points Verstappen is carrying:
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/red-bull-trio-face-penalty-points-hangover-in-f1-2022/7821812/
One possible use for stranded energy is to mine with it, converting the wasted energy that either can't be stored or isn't cost efficient to store, into a commodity that can either be used to subsidise the cost of building more green infrastructure, or used to purchase energy from elsewhere during peak times, thus reducing the cost.
With the ability to convert stranded energy into a commodity that can be traded, you eliminate the stranded energy problem.
Its a desperate "quick throw red meat to the rebels!!!" play. The problem is that suspending the checks as they said they have done isn't something they can just do. There are big problems - so they have said they have but actually haven't.
Another blatant lie told by moral degenerates to placate the stupid. No wonder HY approves.
Regardless of that - it's a fact that Bozo implemented a border between Great Britain and the Island of Ireland which included a part of the island that is currently part of the United Kingdom.
And he did that without understanding what the consequences would look like while hoping it was the quick fix he was after (for Bozo is one for a quick easy solution today, because he never looks at the appendix that says - on day 2 it blows up in your face).
I can only speak for the hardware and software side (i.e. the consumer electronics bits), and in those they do evil. It then comes to a question as to whether their evil is better or worse than Google's or FB's evil.
This was the key problem of "pure" Brexit. The circle of GFA and borders be they in the North Channel or at Dundalk can't be squared, and it never could.