Apparently the Enough is Enough website is being flagged as "adult content" and blocked by some ISP porn filters. Who could have foreseen such a use of giving people the power to censor the internet?
Every IT guy, civil libertarian, and observer of countries which already had a similar system in place?
Is it possible that the longer the leadership campaign goes on the more Conservative members will realise that Liz Truss will be a disaster for them? Is Sunak, as the most sensible of the two, likely to come through and actually win?
If most of those who will vote have already voted, and they've got rid of the "are you sure you don't want to change your mind?" fix, it doesn't matter. Though a simultaneous realisation that a) Liz will be a disaster and b) there's no realistic way to stop her winning running through the Conservative party would be bantertastic.
Having the bulk of the campaign events after voting has opened looks like a really dumb idea.
The Truss phenomenon is curious. Back in the day Rishi would have run away with it. The fact that he hasn't suggests that the membership has developed an ultra-contrarian mindset - 'Liz will piss off the Left and the establishment so let's make her PM for shits and giggles.' I think this all started with the Brexit/Boris/Cummings thing. The Tories suddenly became punks in old age and it's buzz whose craving they haven't yet been able to shake off.
Isn't your average Tory member of the correct age to have been punk in their youth?
How odd, someone off topiced that comment. Fat finger, I hope. Though I remember student friends coming back from the Sex Pistols and telling me enthusiastically about the spitting.
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Have you forgotten the 40 degree heatwave? Pretty sure things were put off then too. I wrote a report on our cricket match last saturday, suggesting that the day was too nice to play cricket -24 deg, cloudless sky, glorious. Best enjoyed with a cool drink in the garden, not playing cricket.
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Have you forgotten the 40 degree heatwave? Pretty sure things were put off then too. I wrote a report on our cricket match last saturday, suggesting that the day was too nice to play cricket -24 deg, cloudless sky, glorious. Best enjoyed with a cool drink in the garden, not playing cricket.
Clearly you're not playing village cricket correctly if there's a lack of crossover between those two activities.
By the way Dr John Campbell, not normally one to get swept up by hyperbole, has said he has stopped consuming fresh fruit and milk. Reason being that he’s not confident we will get warning of nuclear fallout from Zaporizhzhia until after the fact.
John Campbell?
Someone who has lost an incredible amount of respect from me and others.
Early in the pandemic, he was sensible and measured, but he found out that it is far more profitable to chase the antivaxxers and conspiracies.
Since the ivermectin debacle, where he fell for it hook, line, and sinker, and found out his subscriber base rocketed, he started to lean into the nuttier commentators and even became a speaker at an antivaxxer conference.
As covid concern dies down, he's flailing about for something else to hold his subscriber base. I really wouldn't worry about it - I'm glugging milk and eating fruit with no concern, and I've had training in atomic and nuclear physics.
I read the "not normally one to get swept up by hyperbole" as sarcasm, given Campbell's recent track record. But maybe I was mistaken/applying my own opinion.
I didn't realise Campbell had gone bonkers. What I shame -he was an excellent voice of sanity during the pandemic.
I watched a couple of videos after seeing a number of mentions on here. One was about ivermectin and another about alleged over-counting. I wasn't impressed by either (I could see that he was either ignorant on some points or disingenuous - my work is in epidemiology, so I have some idea).
I didn't see any of his earlier stuff which, as I understand it, was better. He's a good communicator, but he's either gone beyond his expertise or decided there's more money to be made by going sensationalist.
I have seen the suggestion that ivermectin is miraculous in populations with heavy parasite burdens in the first place, because covid makes you parasite-vulnerable. Plausible.
Getting confused. Ivermectin gets rid of (some) worms, right, but not covid? So it treats what is in context a real symptom of covid, ie more worms, but not the covid itself? Like some flu patients need antibiotics, not for the virus, but the secondary bacterial infection?
Yes. You get covid, so the tapeworms get going on you, and adios muchachas. So in a tapewormy and covidy population the ivermectin recipients differentially survive. No tapeworms, no effect.
Apparently the Enough is Enough website is being flagged as "adult content" and blocked by some ISP porn filters. Who could have foreseen such a use of giving people the power to censor the internet?
Every IT guy, civil libertarian, and observer of countries which already had a similar system in place?
18 November 2015 – UK becomes first major country to announce coal phase-out
UK Energy Secretary Amber Rudd announced that the UK would close all its coal-fired power plants by 2025, with proposals to replace coal power generation with gas and nuclear plants. The announcement came less than two weeks before the start of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which negotiated the Paris Agreement.
LOL
Who though now disputes anthropogenic climate change? And that it is going to be an increasing problem?
Whether we mitigate with infrastructure or attempt to limit emissions it is going to be costly.
The impact on the anthropocene from keeping the UK's coal stations running a while longer whilst we transitioned to sustainable green energy would have been absolubtely MINUTE...
China's going to sh*t on humanity's head regardless of what we do.
We could reach Net Zero in 2045 and it still make jack-all difference to the climate because they are reckless, destructive, dystopian morons.
Carbon tax on imports.
Fuck me, this is like Iranian clerics raping girls and then prosecuting them for prostitution. China produces our carbon because it does our manufacturing, it hugely outperforms everyone else on all renewables metrics and undershoots the USA by about 50% on emissions per capita. What is the message here? The west got rich, you missed the boat, and we have pulled the ladder up, so tough? What are they meant to do? If the price of me remaining rich is them remaining poor that's a pay off I am happy not to rock the boat about, but it isn't easy to see the underlying moral justification.
Carbon tax on everything, everywhere. So exporting carbon generation no longer makes sense. Level playing field.
“Bit worrying for me then - wife expecting early Feb, the big 50 for me in October. I am slightly worried, but also hugely excited. This is our first (and almost certainly only).”
Good luck. You’re (just) under 50 (which was my cut-off point). I really believe it gets much more difficult, quite swiftly, after 50. It’s fairly insane after 55
And it really matters that it’s your first 🥂🥂
I have already had lots of thoughts about picking up from school ('is that your grandad'), touring Unis (is that your grandad) etc. Hugely excited but also terrified.
I had mine at around 44, not so much younger. It was absolutely fine
if I'd been 54, yikes
I actually have a number of friends who became dads relatively old (must be a generational thing or the fact all my friends are selfish hedonists like me; let's face it, probably the latter)
I think all of them would say they wish they'd done it ten years earlier, or even 20. One of them is having a mare.
There is one other friend who has just had his second kid in his mid 50s (first with new woman). He seems pretty cool with it, but he is literally a billionaire so he's in the Mick Jagger situation. And he would also have preferred to do it 5 years back
Have Kids Younger is generally good advice, especially if you are 57
Often think fifty somethings are ideal to adopt or foster teenagers (I doubt many do though) - mature enough to chill out with older kids , not needing to do much physical work like you need to with younger kids and old enough for the foster or adopted kids to naturally respect you. Still connected through work to the big bad world so the youngster can relate and learn through osmosis
Yes, hard agree
My kids are in their teens and I'm absolutely fine with it, for all the reasons you say. Probably better than I would have been in my 40s or 30s. I am still working but less stressed and manic so able to focus on them, when it is needed. Also I was a smack addict in my early 30s, which is unideal. Tho I do have a smack addict friend (now clean for 15 years) who told me that heroin is the perfect drug if you're minding a baby, you don't care about the boredom (heroin cures that) or the squalor (you're already a smack addict) or the hard work (heroin is a beautiful painkiller)
yes there is certainly a distinction between being 40 something and 50 something . At 40 something you are still in a way competing with youth (and hanging onto it ) - trying to get promoted , trying to impress , trying to run a quicker parkrun , trying to beat the 18 year old in front of you in a 10K race- At 50 something you stop competing and chill out more - you might still run a parkrun but you do so because you might meet somebody to chat to and have no pretensions to beating a 18 year old running it it , you might still be working but cannot be arsed anymore with climbing a corporate ladder and thus feel free at work. All good qualties to look after a teenager in that you are no longer trying to compete in the same space
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Sean Thomas Knox has also had to delay a picnic.
sean thomas knox @thomasknox · 3m Just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
On the plus side, looks like the twitter guy is plagiarising Leon's comments on here by the timing difference. So I guess that makes Leon the real deal, and the Knox fella a cheap imposter.
I spy rain in London from Monday to Wednesday. I really hope it's real. I miss the rain.
Something of a downpour on Tuesday. Big storms coming?
The lawns of The Regent's Park are not just parched and brown, they are now cracking. Like wounds. It looks sad. Slake the earth: it thirsts
Storms aren't a great answer unfortunately. Need steady, persistent rain. Over a fair period. No great signs of that.
Stand by for simultaneous floods and droughts then. (Thing is that does make good sense- the ground is too solid to absorb a lot of water at once, but it will send the "couldn't make it up, stands to reason" merchants dolally.)
I spy rain in London from Monday to Wednesday. I really hope it's real. I miss the rain.
Something of a downpour on Tuesday. Big storms coming?
The lawns of The Regent's Park are not just parched and brown, they are now cracking. Like wounds. It looks sad. Slake the earth: it thirsts
I hope so, we really need a solid couple of weeks of rain to replenish reservoirs. We've got someone coming round tomorrow to install a rainwater collector for watering plants. We had a look into the proper harvesting system but it seemed like a lot of work for nothing. This gives us a 4,000 litre capacity and the way it works it should be full with just a couple of days worth of rain off the roof.
By the way Dr John Campbell, not normally one to get swept up by hyperbole, has said he has stopped consuming fresh fruit and milk. Reason being that he’s not confident we will get warning of nuclear fallout from Zaporizhzhia until after the fact.
John Campbell?
Someone who has lost an incredible amount of respect from me and others.
Early in the pandemic, he was sensible and measured, but he found out that it is far more profitable to chase the antivaxxers and conspiracies.
Since the ivermectin debacle, where he fell for it hook, line, and sinker, and found out his subscriber base rocketed, he started to lean into the nuttier commentators and even became a speaker at an antivaxxer conference.
As covid concern dies down, he's flailing about for something else to hold his subscriber base. I really wouldn't worry about it - I'm glugging milk and eating fruit with no concern, and I've had training in atomic and nuclear physics.
I read the "not normally one to get swept up by hyperbole" as sarcasm, given Campbell's recent track record. But maybe I was mistaken/applying my own opinion.
I didn't realise Campbell had gone bonkers. What I shame -he was an excellent voice of sanity during the pandemic.
I watched a couple of videos after seeing a number of mentions on here. One was about ivermectin and another about alleged over-counting. I wasn't impressed by either (I could see that he was either ignorant on some points or disingenuous - my work is in epidemiology, so I have some idea).
I didn't see any of his earlier stuff which, as I understand it, was better. He's a good communicator, but he's either gone beyond his expertise or decided there's more money to be made by going sensationalist.
I have seen the suggestion that ivermectin is miraculous in populations with heavy parasite burdens in the first place, because covid makes you parasite-vulnerable. Plausible.
Getting confused. Ivermectin gets rid of (some) worms, right, but not covid? So it treats what is in context a real symptom of covid, ie more worms, but not the covid itself? Like some flu patients need antibiotics, not for the virus, but the secondary bacterial infection?
Yes. You get covid, so the tapeworms get going on you, and adios muchachas. So in a tapewormy and covidy population the ivermectin recipients differentially survive. No tapeworms, no effect.
Thanks. That makes entire sense. Actually I was under the impression ivermectin was crap for flatworms including tapeworms and flukes - but roundworms are really nasty anyway on a debilitated person as are other parasites, so there is sure plenty of scope for that to work.
I spy rain in London from Monday to Wednesday. I really hope it's real. I miss the rain.
Something of a downpour on Tuesday. Big storms coming?
The lawns of The Regent's Park are not just parched and brown, they are now cracking. Like wounds. It looks sad. Slake the earth: it thirsts
Storms aren't a great answer unfortunately. Need steady, persistent rain. Over a fair period. No great signs of that.
Stand by for simultaneous floods and droughts then. (Thing is that does make good sense- the ground is too solid to absorb a lot of water at once, but it will send the "couldn't make it up, stands to reason" merchants dolally.)
The desert bits of Australia have entered the chat - that’s exactly what happens there.
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Have you forgotten the 40 degree heatwave? Pretty sure things were put off then too. I wrote a report on our cricket match last saturday, suggesting that the day was too nice to play cricket -24 deg, cloudless sky, glorious. Best enjoyed with a cool drink in the garden, not playing cricket.
Clearly you're not playing village cricket correctly if there's a lack of crossover between those two activities.
We were very happy to wrap up the win at least an hour early and head to the bar...
(No idea why this is upside down, the pic is fine on the PC)
I spy rain in London from Monday to Wednesday. I really hope it's real. I miss the rain.
Something of a downpour on Tuesday. Big storms coming?
The lawns of The Regent's Park are not just parched and brown, they are now cracking. Like wounds. It looks sad. Slake the earth: it thirsts
Storms aren't a great answer unfortunately. Need steady, persistent rain. Over a fair period. No great signs of that.
Stand by for simultaneous floods and droughts then. (Thing is that does make good sense- the ground is too solid to absorb a lot of water at once, but it will send the "couldn't make it up, stands to reason" merchants dolally.)
Yep. It runs off downhill before it has time to soak in.
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
I spy rain in London from Monday to Wednesday. I really hope it's real. I miss the rain.
Something of a downpour on Tuesday. Big storms coming?
The lawns of The Regent's Park are not just parched and brown, they are now cracking. Like wounds. It looks sad. Slake the earth: it thirsts
Storms aren't a great answer unfortunately. Need steady, persistent rain. Over a fair period. No great signs of that.
Stand by for simultaneous floods and droughts then. (Thing is that does make good sense- the ground is too solid to absorb a lot of water at once, but it will send the "couldn't make it up, stands to reason" merchants dolally.)
Yep. It runs off downhill before it has time to soak in.
Like using a J-cloth. It needs to be a bit damp to soak anything up.
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Yes, this would be a way of building on one of the successes of the pandemic - the ventilator challenge. Have the same sort of thing, but for renewable energy supply.
By the way Dr John Campbell, not normally one to get swept up by hyperbole, has said he has stopped consuming fresh fruit and milk. Reason being that he’s not confident we will get warning of nuclear fallout from Zaporizhzhia until after the fact.
John Campbell?
Someone who has lost an incredible amount of respect from me and others.
Early in the pandemic, he was sensible and measured, but he found out that it is far more profitable to chase the antivaxxers and conspiracies.
Since the ivermectin debacle, where he fell for it hook, line, and sinker, and found out his subscriber base rocketed, he started to lean into the nuttier commentators and even became a speaker at an antivaxxer conference.
As covid concern dies down, he's flailing about for something else to hold his subscriber base. I really wouldn't worry about it - I'm glugging milk and eating fruit with no concern, and I've had training in atomic and nuclear physics.
I read the "not normally one to get swept up by hyperbole" as sarcasm, given Campbell's recent track record. But maybe I was mistaken/applying my own opinion.
I didn't realise Campbell had gone bonkers. What I shame -he was an excellent voice of sanity during the pandemic.
I watched a couple of videos after seeing a number of mentions on here. One was about ivermectin and another about alleged over-counting. I wasn't impressed by either (I could see that he was either ignorant on some points or disingenuous - my work is in epidemiology, so I have some idea).
I didn't see any of his earlier stuff which, as I understand it, was better. He's a good communicator, but he's either gone beyond his expertise or decided there's more money to be made by going sensationalist.
I have seen the suggestion that ivermectin is miraculous in populations with heavy parasite burdens in the first place, because covid makes you parasite-vulnerable. Plausible.
Getting confused. Ivermectin gets rid of (some) worms, right, but not covid? So it treats what is in context a real symptom of covid, ie more worms, but not the covid itself? Like some flu patients need antibiotics, not for the virus, but the secondary bacterial infection?
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Sean Thomas Knox has also had to delay a picnic.
sean thomas knox @thomasknox · 3m Just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
I find it a remarkable coincidence how often that sean thomas knox and Leon are doing the same things at the same time.
Sean seemed to follow Leon across the world for 3 months continually yet they claim to have never been seen in the same room together....
Maybe Knox is the friend that Leon was having his picnic with. Both singing from the same hymnsheet is the mark of a healthy and well organised friendship.
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Starmer's got no vision though, I mean Joe Biden looks like the lovechild of Elon Musk and Carl Sagan next to Sir Beer.
Boris Johnson is taking legal advice over a privileges committee investigation as those close to him accept it is a “foregone conclusion” that he will be found in contempt of parliament.
The prime minister is fighting to save his seat by arguing for a lenient punishment that would avoid a recall petition. A petition could result in his leaving the Commons only weeks after being pushed out of Downing Street.
Some of Johnson’s senior team have all but given up hope of escaping censure after the committee of MPs who will decide his fate concluded that he did not have to have knowingly misled the Commons to be found in contempt.
Allies of the prime minister have attempted to argue that this means the process is “rigged”, with loyalists such as Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, condemning the investigation as a “witch-hunt”.
The committee hit back yesterday, criticising attempts to “undermine” and “subvert” the process and “intimidate” members. Harriet Harman, the Labour MP who is chairing the committee during the inquiry, and the Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin wrote in The Times Red Box: “There have been unfounded allegations about ‘goalposts being moved’ and ‘rules changed’. But this is inaccurate.
This is one of the reasons that I think that Boris will be out of Parliament within days of his successor taking office. There is nothing for him there now but humiliation.
I wonder what sort of lawyers he's using. Presumably not those "lefty lawyers" who are always challenging what Parliament says by going to court.
Is it possible that the longer the leadership campaign goes on the more Conservative members will realise that Liz Truss will be a disaster for them? Is Sunak, as the most sensible of the two, likely to come through and actually win?
Yes, it's quite likely that by the end of the campaign the party would prefer Sunak but have voted for Truss and really would like Boris to stay.
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Yes, this would be a way of building on one of the successes of the pandemic - the ventilator challenge. Have the same sort of thing, but for renewable energy supply.
The beauty of this kind of stuff is that even if we don't get to 5x, we'll probably get to 3x which brings us to full days where solar and wind can provide 100% of energy requirements and to the cusp of nuclear power being turned on for renewal of base load power generation.
There just seems to be a huge lack of ambition in everything both the Tories and Labour are proposing. Neither party has even diagnosed the issue being on the supply side, they're still banging on about one off subsidies this year and hoping gas prices drop next year. Nothing about drastically increasing energy supply before the end of next year and then again the year after. Just hoping that the market will provide relief and they won't have to spend £20bn on more subsidies next winter.
I spy rain in London from Monday to Wednesday. I really hope it's real. I miss the rain.
Something of a downpour on Tuesday. Big storms coming?
The lawns of The Regent's Park are not just parched and brown, they are now cracking. Like wounds. It looks sad. Slake the earth: it thirsts
Storms aren't a great answer unfortunately. Need steady, persistent rain. Over a fair period. No great signs of that.
This is true, but it will help. It will fill reservoirs, even if it does run off the parched ground easily to start with.
Not sure how often this really happens, because as you say it ought to end up somewhere, and in practice it doesn't. It rains a lot, the rain disappears because it goes straight into and down through the soil, as when you water a very dry plant pot, and the land still looks dry. Exceptions being if you have really shitty sandy soil with no pores in it, or thunderstorms which are so heavy they are bound to produce runoff irrespective of the soil state.
Boris Johnson is taking legal advice over a privileges committee investigation as those close to him accept it is a “foregone conclusion” that he will be found in contempt of parliament.
The prime minister is fighting to save his seat by arguing for a lenient punishment that would avoid a recall petition. A petition could result in his leaving the Commons only weeks after being pushed out of Downing Street.
Some of Johnson’s senior team have all but given up hope of escaping censure after the committee of MPs who will decide his fate concluded that he did not have to have knowingly misled the Commons to be found in contempt.
Allies of the prime minister have attempted to argue that this means the process is “rigged”, with loyalists such as Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, condemning the investigation as a “witch-hunt”.
The committee hit back yesterday, criticising attempts to “undermine” and “subvert” the process and “intimidate” members. Harriet Harman, the Labour MP who is chairing the committee during the inquiry, and the Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin wrote in The Times Red Box: “There have been unfounded allegations about ‘goalposts being moved’ and ‘rules changed’. But this is inaccurate.
This is one of the reasons that I think that Boris will be out of Parliament within days of his successor taking office. There is nothing for him there now but humiliation.
I wonder what sort of lawyers he's using. Presumably not those "lefty lawyers" who are always challenging what Parliament says by going to court.
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Sean Thomas Knox has also had to delay a picnic.
sean thomas knox @thomasknox · 3m Just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
I find it a remarkable coincidence how often that sean thomas knox and Leon are doing the same things at the same time.
Sean seemed to follow Leon across the world for 3 months continually yet they claim to have never been seen in the same room together....
Maybe Knox is the friend that Leon was having his picnic with. Both singing from the same hymnsheet is the mark of a healthy and well organised friendship.
I think it is more than a friendship. They appear to have been staying in the same hotel room on more than one occasion.
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Sean Thomas Knox has also had to delay a picnic.
sean thomas knox @thomasknox · 3m Just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
I find it a remarkable coincidence how often that sean thomas knox and Leon are doing the same things at the same time.
Sean seemed to follow Leon across the world for 3 months continually yet they claim to have never been seen in the same room together....
Maybe Knox is the friend that Leon was having his picnic with. Both singing from the same hymnsheet is the mark of a healthy and well organised friendship.
I actually think I saw him in the dreamy mountains of Gnishik, Armenia, about a month ago. I was quite shaken. Of all the places, there?
He claimed he was there on a spiritual journey to find himself
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Yes, this would be a way of building on one of the successes of the pandemic - the ventilator challenge. Have the same sort of thing, but for renewable energy supply.
A good end, but the problem isn't really technology is it? There's a lot we can do pretty cheaply now with solar and wind, keeping gas for backup when neither works. The problem is more about persuading people (including would-be Prime Ministers, ahem) to stop coming up with dumb objections.
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Yes, this would be a way of building on one of the successes of the pandemic - the ventilator challenge. Have the same sort of thing, but for renewable energy supply.
A good end, but the problem isn't really technology is it? There's a lot we can do pretty cheaply now with solar and wind, keeping gas for backup when neither works. The problem is more about persuading people (including would-be Prime Ministers, ahem) to stop coming up with dumb objections.
Which is why you need a big "challenge 2027" type of initiative with primary legislation to override local planning wankers and to force companies to spend money on investing for new generation rather than dividends and for scientists to get grants and investment in fusion research so we resolve energy generation once and for all.
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Sean Thomas Knox has also had to delay a picnic.
sean thomas knox @thomasknox · 3m Just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
I find it a remarkable coincidence how often that sean thomas knox and Leon are doing the same things at the same time.
Sean seemed to follow Leon across the world for 3 months continually yet they claim to have never been seen in the same room together....
Maybe Knox is the friend that Leon was having his picnic with. Both singing from the same hymnsheet is the mark of a healthy and well organised friendship.
I think it is more than a friendship. They appear to have been staying in the same hotel room on more than one occasion.
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Sean Thomas Knox has also had to delay a picnic.
sean thomas knox @thomasknox · 3m Just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
I find it a remarkable coincidence how often that sean thomas knox and Leon are doing the same things at the same time.
Sean seemed to follow Leon across the world for 3 months continually yet they claim to have never been seen in the same room together....
Maybe Knox is the friend that Leon was having his picnic with. Both singing from the same hymnsheet is the mark of a healthy and well organised friendship.
I think it is more than a friendship. They appear to have been staying in the same hotel room on more than one occasion.
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Sean Thomas Knox has also had to delay a picnic.
sean thomas knox @thomasknox · 3m Just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
I find it a remarkable coincidence how often that sean thomas knox and Leon are doing the same things at the same time.
Sean seemed to follow Leon across the world for 3 months continually yet they claim to have never been seen in the same room together....
Maybe Knox is the friend that Leon was having his picnic with. Both singing from the same hymnsheet is the mark of a healthy and well organised friendship.
I actually think I saw him in the dreamy mountains of Gnishik, Armenia, about a month ago. I was quite shaken. Of all the places, there?
He claimed he was there on a spiritual journey to find himself
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Have you forgotten the 40 degree heatwave? Pretty sure things were put off then too. I wrote a report on our cricket match last saturday, suggesting that the day was too nice to play cricket -24 deg, cloudless sky, glorious. Best enjoyed with a cool drink in the garden, not playing cricket.
Clearly you're not playing village cricket correctly if there's a lack of crossover between those two activities.
We were very happy to wrap up the win at least an hour early and head to the bar...
(No idea why this is upside down, the pic is fine on the PC)
How strange, the NI railways are publicly owned. They must be a disaster - oh wait, they are not.
Perhaps it was deliberate under-investment and flogging off assets on the cheap that did it for the railways we invented.
You see other countries invest, we cut and sell things to their governments for cheap. They must think we're morons
"Perhaps it was deliberate under-investment "
Time for the PB railways lessons again:
Railway infrastructure investment occur in five-year spans called Control Periods (CP). Currently we are in CP6, between 2019 and 2024.
There are three main types of infrastructure investment on the railways: *) Maintenance: maintaining the existing infrastructure - the bread-and-butter work. *) Renewals: renewing life-expired infrastructure such as tracks, signalling and bridges *) Enhancements: work to improve the network's capacity and performance.
Recent governments have invested massively in our railway infrastructure, and to call it 'deliberate under-investment' is more than wrong. In the 13 years under Blair and Brown's governments, just mine miles of railway were electrified, compared to many hundreds under Thatcher/Major and post-2010.
If we're talking electrification, probably worth highlighting the absurdity of the ban on 3rd rail electrification. Merseyrail opening a new station, which needs a 1km extension of the 3rd rail network.
NO comes the edict, so instead they are fitting part of their new train fleet with batteries to run them off the power rail. At quintuple the cost.
Glad to see you making the case for state ownership and investment though - most of the 7 year franchises far too short to make any investment worthwhile. Its only since NR was put in and many of the short franchises finally binned that investment can take place.
Also worth noting the stupidity of the chop and change approach to the investment. Repeated changes in Transport Secretaries have made yes no yes no changes to schemes. A nine-figure sum supposedly wasted on planning and consultation for now binned elements of he Transpennine Route Upgrade as its gone from full renewal to bits and discontinuous electrification and back again...
"Glad to see you making the case for state ownership and investment though"
I am not pro-privatisation; I am not pro-nationalisation. Privatisation and natioanlisation are both tools in the toolbox; what works for one industry or sector might not work for another. Likewise, what 'works' best may change over time.
Real harm is done when people think their favoured tool is a bludgeon to be applied to all sectors and industries. The "Privatise everything!" and "Nationalise everything!" fools should be ignored. And the cost of change should also be factored in.
I do think you're being a bit unfair wrt the trans-Pennine electrification/upgrade (and why does everyone forget the MML's similar turmoil?) National Rail really, really *ucked up the GWML electrification. It was clear that their plans for future upgrades were also somewhat fiscally optimistic. The other option was to give NR a blank cheque for all the upgrades...
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Yes, this would be a way of building on one of the successes of the pandemic - the ventilator challenge. Have the same sort of thing, but for renewable energy supply.
The beauty of this kind of stuff is that even if we don't get to 5x, we'll probably get to 3x which brings us to full days where solar and wind can provide 100% of energy requirements and to the cusp of nuclear power being turned on for renewal of base load power generation.
There just seems to be a huge lack of ambition in everything both the Tories and Labour are proposing. Neither party has even diagnosed the issue being on the supply side, they're still banging on about one off subsidies this year and hoping gas prices drop next year. Nothing about drastically increasing energy supply before the end of next year and then again the year after. Just hoping that the market will provide relief and they won't have to spend £20bn on more subsidies next winter.
Energy is a bigger problem than either Covid, Brexit or the GFC though because the solutions of
i. Printing more money (GFC) and ii. Just accepting it as a fact of life (Covid) iii. Political fudging
DO NOT WORK when the tangible output of power is required.
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Sean Thomas Knox has also had to delay a picnic.
sean thomas knox @thomasknox · 3m Just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
I find it a remarkable coincidence how often that sean thomas knox and Leon are doing the same things at the same time.
Sean seemed to follow Leon across the world for 3 months continually yet they claim to have never been seen in the same room together....
Maybe Knox is the friend that Leon was having his picnic with. Both singing from the same hymnsheet is the mark of a healthy and well organised friendship.
I actually think I saw him in the dreamy mountains of Gnishik, Armenia, about a month ago. I was quite shaken. Of all the places, there?
He claimed he was there on a spiritual journey to find himself
...and instead he found you! What a sweet story. I love a happy ending.
For clarity, I'm not a "nationalisation=good, privatisation=bad" person by default. Nor vice versa (although, to be fair, I tend to lean more towards the privatisation aspect due to the possibility of capital influx, competition raising standards, and making it more arms-length from the Government on a day-to-day basis).
But water, after an encouraging start, has stalled and looks like failing. Nationalise. Rail - I remain to be convinced. Some of the private companies are crap. BR was crap. Looks to me like we need to pinpoint where the source of crapness is first. Energy - to be honest, the fact I'm with Octopus makes me think it could work. Maybe more engagement needed, but the fact that Octopus do seem to lean over backwards to make sure I'm on the best tariff (and I looked at there "Join Octopus" page recently, where their entire landing page consists of:
YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS:
Energy prices are at record highs, and most homes will be better off staying with their current energy supplier right now.
If your fixed term is coming to an end, don't choose a new tariff or switch supplier.
Instead, let your supplier automatically move you to their default tariff, so your prices are protected by the Government's Energy Price Cap.
Would you like an email when prices fall?"
And then, at the bottom, in smaller text
"I've read and understood the above, and I would still like a quote to switch to Octopus"
To me, that's really good behaviour, and they've been brilliant at smart-meter rollout with real incentives for the consumer (I have an EV tariff where I get really cheap electricity for 5 hours overnight and set the car up to charge only then). That sort of thing is exactly what privatisation is for - it's just a shame most companies aren't like that.
just think cooperatives (worker or consumer) are the best option for a lot of these services - do people complain about bad service much at building societies or the Co-op or John Lewis? No , do they with a lot of public sector services like the passport office or the NHS or the local bloody council? yes
Remind us what happened at the Co-Op bank. And Credit Unions sometimes go bust.
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Yes, this would be a way of building on one of the successes of the pandemic - the ventilator challenge. Have the same sort of thing, but for renewable energy supply.
The beauty of this kind of stuff is that even if we don't get to 5x, we'll probably get to 3x which brings us to full days where solar and wind can provide 100% of energy requirements and to the cusp of nuclear power being turned on for renewal of base load power generation.
There just seems to be a huge lack of ambition in everything both the Tories and Labour are proposing. Neither party has even diagnosed the issue being on the supply side, they're still banging on about one off subsidies this year and hoping gas prices drop next year. Nothing about drastically increasing energy supply before the end of next year and then again the year after. Just hoping that the market will provide relief and they won't have to spend £20bn on more subsidies next winter.
Energy is a bigger problem than either Covid, Brexit or the GFC though because the solutions of
i. Printing more money (GFC) and ii. Just accepting it as a fact of life (Covid) iii. Political fudging
DO NOT WORK when the tangible output of power is required.
Indeed, this requires actual action. You can't magic up 3-4TWh of energy like you can £800bn in money supply.
It's almost as if no one in government wants to do the hard work of running a country any more. They just want an easy life of not needing to do anything.
For clarity, I'm not a "nationalisation=good, privatisation=bad" person by default. Nor vice versa (although, to be fair, I tend to lean more towards the privatisation aspect due to the possibility of capital influx, competition raising standards, and making it more arms-length from the Government on a day-to-day basis).
But water, after an encouraging start, has stalled and looks like failing. Nationalise. Rail - I remain to be convinced. Some of the private companies are crap. BR was crap. Looks to me like we need to pinpoint where the source of crapness is first. Energy - to be honest, the fact I'm with Octopus makes me think it could work. Maybe more engagement needed, but the fact that Octopus do seem to lean over backwards to make sure I'm on the best tariff (and I looked at there "Join Octopus" page recently, where their entire landing page consists of:
YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS:
Energy prices are at record highs, and most homes will be better off staying with their current energy supplier right now.
If your fixed term is coming to an end, don't choose a new tariff or switch supplier.
Instead, let your supplier automatically move you to their default tariff, so your prices are protected by the Government's Energy Price Cap.
Would you like an email when prices fall?"
And then, at the bottom, in smaller text
"I've read and understood the above, and I would still like a quote to switch to Octopus"
To me, that's really good behaviour, and they've been brilliant at smart-meter rollout with real incentives for the consumer (I have an EV tariff where I get really cheap electricity for 5 hours overnight and set the car up to charge only then). That sort of thing is exactly what privatisation is for - it's just a shame most companies aren't like that.
just think cooperatives (worker or consumer) are the best option for a lot of these services - do people complain about bad service much at building societies or the Co-op or John Lewis? No , do they with a lot of public sector services like the passport office or the NHS or the local bloody council? yes
Remind us what happened at the Co-Op bank. And Credit Unions sometimes go bust.
Boris Johnson is taking legal advice over a privileges committee investigation as those close to him accept it is a “foregone conclusion” that he will be found in contempt of parliament.
The prime minister is fighting to save his seat by arguing for a lenient punishment that would avoid a recall petition. A petition could result in his leaving the Commons only weeks after being pushed out of Downing Street.
Some of Johnson’s senior team have all but given up hope of escaping censure after the committee of MPs who will decide his fate concluded that he did not have to have knowingly misled the Commons to be found in contempt.
Allies of the prime minister have attempted to argue that this means the process is “rigged”, with loyalists such as Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, condemning the investigation as a “witch-hunt”.
The committee hit back yesterday, criticising attempts to “undermine” and “subvert” the process and “intimidate” members. Harriet Harman, the Labour MP who is chairing the committee during the inquiry, and the Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin wrote in The Times Red Box: “There have been unfounded allegations about ‘goalposts being moved’ and ‘rules changed’. But this is inaccurate.
This is one of the reasons that I think that Boris will be out of Parliament within days of his successor taking office. There is nothing for him there now but humiliation.
I wonder what sort of lawyers he's using. Presumably not those "lefty lawyers" who are always challenging what Parliament says by going to court.
I think he might have benefited from spending a bit of time in the slammer like his old mate Darius Guppy. Probably too late to change now.
Whilst doing the hoovering earlier this morning, I ended up singing Adam Ant's "Prince Charming", but replacing all the lyrics with "Rishi Sunak" or "Rishi, Rishi Sunak".
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Yes, this would be a way of building on one of the successes of the pandemic - the ventilator challenge. Have the same sort of thing, but for renewable energy supply.
A good end, but the problem isn't really technology is it? There's a lot we can do pretty cheaply now with solar and wind, keeping gas for backup when neither works. The problem is more about persuading people (including would-be Prime Ministers, ahem) to stop coming up with dumb objections.
We knew how to make medical ventilators before the ventilator challenge, but we didn't know how to make them quickly.
I expect there's lots that can be done to speed up the installation of new turbines, grid infrastructure, storage, etc, on both a technical and administrative level.
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Have you forgotten the 40 degree heatwave? Pretty sure things were put off then too. I wrote a report on our cricket match last saturday, suggesting that the day was too nice to play cricket -24 deg, cloudless sky, glorious. Best enjoyed with a cool drink in the garden, not playing cricket.
Clearly you're not playing village cricket correctly if there's a lack of crossover between those two activities.
We were very happy to wrap up the win at least an hour early and head to the bar...
(No idea why this is upside down, the pic is fine on the PC)
Mr. Sandpit, a problem with the one room heating approach is that if temperatures fall below zero it's essential to avoid burst pipes.
How mild the winter is will be critical this year.
I think my patient was most depressed about the bleakness of her future, which is fairly short, but now going to be devoid of even simple pleasures like getting a newspaper delivered.
Your patient sounds asset-rich, but income-poor. The best advice to her would be to take out money via an equty release scheme. It means her heirs will inherit less, but why make onself miserable to boost other peoples' inheritance.
Definitely. The mistakes made when equity release first appeared have obscured what a brilliant scheme it is for people in that situation. Similarly, I'm trying to buy a house for a relative who can't afford it on the basis of my money being topped up by equity release (not everyone knows that it's available to help you buy the property). It does mean that the heirs get less or (if you live to be ancient) nothing, but that's not the priority for decent heirs.
There are also independent living Housing Association flats for the over 55's (sometimes 50), which are purpose built. With communal wardens, social facilities, laundry, gardens and the like. Which takes away many of the day-to-day problems of maintenance and provide company and support. We need more of them (and private ones too obviously). The stigma is of being moved into a "care home". But these places aren't. You just rent or own a manageable sized property in a building with peers. If we could somehow get folk to want to live in these (and it wouldn't suit everyone), it would free up a lot of housing capacity.
I'll have a teenager when I'm 55 lol
I have one at 55 right now! The 55 is the lower entry limit obviously. Most residents are considerably older. As I say, not for everyone, but there are advantages to moving before issues of health and bereavement occur.
Good morning
My youngest son and his wife are expecting their third child (our 5th grandchild) on the 1st September and our son will be 60 when the little one becomes a teenager
Indeed my son in law was 61 when their son became 13
I spoke to an old friend yesterday, for the first time in a couple of years. He’s in his later 50s and has just had a baby with his much younger wife
I was deeply curious as to how it is going. Because I very nearly made the same life choice for similar reasons
He hates being a new dad (again), and bitterly regrets the decision. Told me: “I’m just too old. I physically can’t do it. And I’ll probably be dead by the time my new daughter is 20”
It gave me some consolation that I made the right, tough choice. But I feel terribly sorry for him of course. And the family
You’re not meant to be a new dad after 50. Your crocked knees are nature’s way of telling you this
How is your friend going to spend his millions from his memoirs?
Er, what?
Have a think about it?
I have, and I still don't get it
Is this somehow implying that an alleged indiscretion is ruining my friend's chances of publishing memoirs??
He's French and lives in France, has no interest in British politics (who can blame him) I don't think that's an issue
Or is it something else? A hint that I'm talking about me? I'm not. I mean, I am, but not obliquely
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Have you forgotten the 40 degree heatwave? Pretty sure things were put off then too. I wrote a report on our cricket match last saturday, suggesting that the day was too nice to play cricket -24 deg, cloudless sky, glorious. Best enjoyed with a cool drink in the garden, not playing cricket.
Clearly you're not playing village cricket correctly if there's a lack of crossover between those two activities.
We were very happy to wrap up the win at least an hour early and head to the bar...
(No idea why this is upside down, the pic is fine on the PC)
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Have you forgotten the 40 degree heatwave? Pretty sure things were put off then too. I wrote a report on our cricket match last saturday, suggesting that the day was too nice to play cricket -24 deg, cloudless sky, glorious. Best enjoyed with a cool drink in the garden, not playing cricket.
Clearly you're not playing village cricket correctly if there's a lack of crossover between those two activities.
We were very happy to wrap up the win at least an hour early and head to the bar...
(No idea why this is upside down, the pic is fine on the PC)
Boris Johnson is taking legal advice over a privileges committee investigation as those close to him accept it is a “foregone conclusion” that he will be found in contempt of parliament.
The prime minister is fighting to save his seat by arguing for a lenient punishment that would avoid a recall petition. A petition could result in his leaving the Commons only weeks after being pushed out of Downing Street.
Some of Johnson’s senior team have all but given up hope of escaping censure after the committee of MPs who will decide his fate concluded that he did not have to have knowingly misled the Commons to be found in contempt.
Allies of the prime minister have attempted to argue that this means the process is “rigged”, with loyalists such as Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, condemning the investigation as a “witch-hunt”.
The committee hit back yesterday, criticising attempts to “undermine” and “subvert” the process and “intimidate” members. Harriet Harman, the Labour MP who is chairing the committee during the inquiry, and the Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin wrote in The Times Red Box: “There have been unfounded allegations about ‘goalposts being moved’ and ‘rules changed’. But this is inaccurate.
This is one of the reasons that I think that Boris will be out of Parliament within days of his successor taking office. There is nothing for him there now but humiliation.
I wonder what sort of lawyers he's using. Presumably not those "lefty lawyers" who are always challenging what Parliament says by going to court.
I think he might have benefited from spending a bit of time in the slammer like his old mate Darius Guppy. Probably too late to change now.
I still wouldn't discount an honourable member spending time at His Majesty's pleasure when the Russian meeting stuff sees the light of day.
Anyway isn't Liz going to can the Committee enquiry so BigDog is saved again?
Whilst doing the hoovering earlier this morning, I ended up singing Adam Ant's "Prince Charming", but replacing all the lyrics with "Rishi Sunak" or "Rishi, Rishi Sunak".
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Yes, this would be a way of building on one of the successes of the pandemic - the ventilator challenge. Have the same sort of thing, but for renewable energy supply.
A good end, but the problem isn't really technology is it? There's a lot we can do pretty cheaply now with solar and wind, keeping gas for backup when neither works. The problem is more about persuading people (including would-be Prime Ministers, ahem) to stop coming up with dumb objections.
We knew how to make medical ventilators before the ventilator challenge, but we didn't know how to make them quickly.
I expect there's lots that can be done to speed up the installation of new turbines, grid infrastructure, storage, etc, on both a technical and administrative level.
Yes, it's almost like a wartime effort. That's the situation I think we're in but no one's realised it yet. If we don't act today to start rapidly increasing renewable energy generation then the next 10 years we will be faced with economic ruin as industry simply shuts down every winter so homes can be heated.
Boris Johnson is taking legal advice over a privileges committee investigation as those close to him accept it is a “foregone conclusion” that he will be found in contempt of parliament.
The prime minister is fighting to save his seat by arguing for a lenient punishment that would avoid a recall petition. A petition could result in his leaving the Commons only weeks after being pushed out of Downing Street.
Some of Johnson’s senior team have all but given up hope of escaping censure after the committee of MPs who will decide his fate concluded that he did not have to have knowingly misled the Commons to be found in contempt.
Allies of the prime minister have attempted to argue that this means the process is “rigged”, with loyalists such as Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, condemning the investigation as a “witch-hunt”.
The committee hit back yesterday, criticising attempts to “undermine” and “subvert” the process and “intimidate” members. Harriet Harman, the Labour MP who is chairing the committee during the inquiry, and the Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin wrote in The Times Red Box: “There have been unfounded allegations about ‘goalposts being moved’ and ‘rules changed’. But this is inaccurate.
This is one of the reasons that I think that Boris will be out of Parliament within days of his successor taking office. There is nothing for him there now but humiliation.
I wonder what sort of lawyers he's using. Presumably not those "lefty lawyers" who are always challenging what Parliament says by going to court.
I think he might have benefited from spending a bit of time in the slammer like his old mate Darius Guppy. Probably too late to change now.
Unfortunately there is evidence on this very site of the non-redemptive effect of a bit of chokey.
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Yes.
It’s, ironically, the sort of thing you could’ve seen Boris getting behind. “Boris turbines” sprouting all over the country!
There is no logical reason why British Railways Plc should or could not exist, beyond pointless ideology.
Clearly all of the EU countries and Japan have got it wrong. We know better, so we pay the French...
Isn't loads of the memories of "Bad old BR" because boomers remember train travel in the 70s, and everything was a bit shit, beige and dull (Bar the music) in the 70s ?
One of the quickest boomer identifiers "bad old days of BR"
I'm not a boomer and I remember the 'bad old days of BR'.
It is staff salaries and fare costs that get prioritised in a nationalised system, which give the unions a single point of leverage, and so service quality, infrastructure and rolling stock maintenance and renewal gets deprioritised.
That's why the train service at my local station was shit up until the mid-1990s, with only one train every hour - and those dating back to the 1960s, and not infrequently they broke down - whilst the station itself was regularly unheated, flaking and falling to pieces. Surly staff too.
Transport (outside major capital projects) tends to be near bottom of the list for central gov funding after health, education, pensions and the like, so I'd need some convincing that a nationalised system would be "better".
TfL is fairly good because it gets a shed-ton of funding and passenger revenue, because it's in London.
I presume in those circumstances Trump would be arrested and imprisoned. I also presume we would see widespread political violence from incensed Trump voters who would conclude that the Regime has stolen the country. In my view, this is the most likely path to a complete democratic breakdown.
There are also independent living Housing Association flats for the over 55's (sometimes 50), which are purpose built. With communal wardens, social facilities, laundry, gardens and the like. Which takes away many of the day-to-day problems of maintenance and provide company and support. We need more of them (and private ones too obviously). The stigma is of being moved into a "care home". But these places aren't. You just rent or own a manageable sized property in a building with peers. If we could somehow get folk to want to live in these (and it wouldn't suit everyone), it would free up a lot of housing capacity.
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Yes, this would be a way of building on one of the successes of the pandemic - the ventilator challenge. Have the same sort of thing, but for renewable energy supply.
A good end, but the problem isn't really technology is it? There's a lot we can do pretty cheaply now with solar and wind, keeping gas for backup when neither works. The problem is more about persuading people (including would-be Prime Ministers, ahem) to stop coming up with dumb objections.
We knew how to make medical ventilators before the ventilator challenge, but we didn't know how to make them quickly.
I expect there's lots that can be done to speed up the installation of new turbines, grid infrastructure, storage, etc, on both a technical and administrative level.
Yes, it's almost like a wartime effort. That's the situation I think we're in but no one's realised it yet. If we don't act today to start rapidly increasing renewable energy generation then the next 10 years we will be faced with economic ruin as industry simply shuts down every winter so homes can be heated.
Lots of people seem to be assuming (gambling) that this is just a blip because of the war in Ukraine, and that in a year or two we will be back to more normal prices. But what if we are not? I think you are right to suggest this grand challenge.
I just don't expect our political leaders to do it.
18 November 2015 – UK becomes first major country to announce coal phase-out
UK Energy Secretary Amber Rudd announced that the UK would close all its coal-fired power plants by 2025, with proposals to replace coal power generation with gas and nuclear plants. The announcement came less than two weeks before the start of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which negotiated the Paris Agreement.
LOL
Who though now disputes anthropogenic climate change? And that it is going to be an increasing problem?
Whether we mitigate with infrastructure or attempt to limit emissions it is going to be costly.
The impact on the anthropocene from keeping the UK's coal stations running a while longer whilst we transitioned to sustainable green energy would have been absolubtely MINUTE...
China's going to sh*t on humanity's head regardless of what we do.
We could reach Net Zero in 2045 and it still make jack-all difference to the climate because they are reckless, destructive, dystopian morons.
Carbon tax on imports.
Criticise China by all means for still using coal, but bear in mind how much renewables they are building. We should accelerate our move to renewables because it will cost us less in the long run (maybe already now), because it removes our dependence on other regimes and because it is in our enlightened self interest.
"China built as much renewable energy as the rest of the world combined in 2021 with 53 GW of solar, 48 GW of wind, and its very high 2030 targets are likely to be met by 2026. The US built 25 GW of wind and solar combined in 2021. China has over 50 GW of power capacity of pumped hydro under construction right now, just turned on a 3.6 GW facility this year, and has much more firmly planned. The US has no pumped hydro under construction, and none approved or funded for construction. China turned on the world’s largest hydroelectric facility in 2021, the Three Gorges Dam. The United States is a global leader in tearing its dams down, with 57 removed in 2021 alone. China built as much offshore wind in 2021, 17 GW, as the rest of the world combined in 2021 alone. The US built no offshore wind in 2021, and has two tiny offshore wind farms totaling 42 MW operating, roughly 0.25% of China’s 2021 deployment. China is building more nuclear power plants than the rest of the world combined. The United States is seeing a net loss of nuclear power plants, with most of the fleet nearing end of normal life barring significant and expensive refurbishment by 2035."
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Yes, this would be a way of building on one of the successes of the pandemic - the ventilator challenge. Have the same sort of thing, but for renewable energy supply.
A good end, but the problem isn't really technology is it? There's a lot we can do pretty cheaply now with solar and wind, keeping gas for backup when neither works. The problem is more about persuading people (including would-be Prime Ministers, ahem) to stop coming up with dumb objections.
We knew how to make medical ventilators before the ventilator challenge, but we didn't know how to make them quickly.
I expect there's lots that can be done to speed up the installation of new turbines, grid infrastructure, storage, etc, on both a technical and administrative level.
Yes, it's almost like a wartime effort. That's the situation I think we're in but no one's realised it yet. If we don't act today to start rapidly increasing renewable energy generation then the next 10 years we will be faced with economic ruin as industry simply shuts down every winter so homes can be heated.
Lots of people seem to be assuming (gambling) that this is just a blip because of the war in Ukraine, and that in a year or two we will be back to more normal prices. But what if we are not? I think you are right to suggest this grand challenge.
I just don't expect our political leaders to do it.
It’s a win-win. In the long term, we need to move to zero-carbon energy sources, so if this is just a Ukraine-related blip, we’ve still made valuable progress moving towards that goal. And if it’s more than a blip, thank heavens we’ve increased supply this way.
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Yes, this would be a way of building on one of the successes of the pandemic - the ventilator challenge. Have the same sort of thing, but for renewable energy supply.
A good end, but the problem isn't really technology is it? There's a lot we can do pretty cheaply now with solar and wind, keeping gas for backup when neither works. The problem is more about persuading people (including would-be Prime Ministers, ahem) to stop coming up with dumb objections.
We knew how to make medical ventilators before the ventilator challenge, but we didn't know how to make them quickly.
I expect there's lots that can be done to speed up the installation of new turbines, grid infrastructure, storage, etc, on both a technical and administrative level.
Yes, it's almost like a wartime effort. That's the situation I think we're in but no one's realised it yet. If we don't act today to start rapidly increasing renewable energy generation then the next 10 years we will be faced with economic ruin as industry simply shuts down every winter so homes can be heated.
Lots of people seem to be assuming (gambling) that this is just a blip because of the war in Ukraine, and that in a year or two we will be back to more normal prices. But what if we are not? I think you are right to suggest this grand challenge.
I just don't expect our political leaders to do it.
Yes. One issue is that people seem under the impression prices in general will go back to the status quo ante. They may do for energy. But for most things it simply doesn't work like that.
Whilst doing the hoovering earlier this morning, I ended up singing Adam Ant's "Prince Charming", but replacing all the lyrics with "Rishi Sunak" or "Rishi, Rishi Sunak".
I thought it reasonably on-topic to mention this
You need help.
Back at the time of the 1992 GE, me and a friend walked to the polling station in Woodford singing:
"Who do you think you are kidding Mr Major, If you think the election's won, We are the lads who will stop your little game We are the lads who will make you think again 'Cause who do you think you are kidding Mr Major If you think the election's won?"
I thin it was also the election where Mr Bean did an election song?
Boris Johnson is taking legal advice over a privileges committee investigation as those close to him accept it is a “foregone conclusion” that he will be found in contempt of parliament.
The prime minister is fighting to save his seat by arguing for a lenient punishment that would avoid a recall petition. A petition could result in his leaving the Commons only weeks after being pushed out of Downing Street.
Some of Johnson’s senior team have all but given up hope of escaping censure after the committee of MPs who will decide his fate concluded that he did not have to have knowingly misled the Commons to be found in contempt.
Allies of the prime minister have attempted to argue that this means the process is “rigged”, with loyalists such as Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, condemning the investigation as a “witch-hunt”.
The committee hit back yesterday, criticising attempts to “undermine” and “subvert” the process and “intimidate” members. Harriet Harman, the Labour MP who is chairing the committee during the inquiry, and the Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin wrote in The Times Red Box: “There have been unfounded allegations about ‘goalposts being moved’ and ‘rules changed’. But this is inaccurate.
This is one of the reasons that I think that Boris will be out of Parliament within days of his successor taking office. There is nothing for him there now but humiliation.
I wonder what sort of lawyers he's using. Presumably not those "lefty lawyers" who are always challenging what Parliament says by going to court.
I think he might have benefited from spending a bit of time in the slammer like his old mate Darius Guppy. Probably too late to change now.
Unfortunately there is evidence on this very site of the non-redemptive effect of a bit of chokey.
I presume you are referring to me, in which case your accusation has no merit. Because you have no idea how bad (or good?) I might be if I had NOT done time
What you see now might actually be the redeemed me, after the sobering effect of HMPs Wormwood Scrubs and Brixton. Imagine
There are also independent living Housing Association flats for the over 55's (sometimes 50), which are purpose built. With communal wardens, social facilities, laundry, gardens and the like. Which takes away many of the day-to-day problems of maintenance and provide company and support. We need more of them (and private ones too obviously). The stigma is of being moved into a "care home". But these places aren't. You just rent or own a manageable sized property in a building with peers. If we could somehow get folk to want to live in these (and it wouldn't suit everyone), it would free up a lot of housing capacity.
I'll have a teenager when I'm 55 lol
58
I find that kids with older parents are not short of attention but there is a definite lack of energy. Its hard enough doing it in your 40s.
There is no logical reason why British Railways Plc should or could not exist, beyond pointless ideology.
Clearly all of the EU countries and Japan have got it wrong. We know better, so we pay the French...
Isn't loads of the memories of "Bad old BR" because boomers remember train travel in the 70s, and everything was a bit shit, beige and dull (Bar the music) in the 70s ?
One of the quickest boomer identifiers "bad old days of BR"
I'm not a boomer and I remember the 'bad old days of BR'.
It is staff salaries and fare costs that get prioritised in a nationalised system, which give the unions a single point of leverage, and so service quality, infrastructure and rolling stock maintenance and renewal gets deprioritised.
That's why the train service at my local station was shit up until the mid-1990s, with only one train every hour - and those dating back to the 1960s, and not infrequently they broke down - whilst the station itself was regularly unheated, flaking and falling to pieces. Surly staff too.
Transport (outside major capital projects) tends to be near bottom of the list for central gov funding after health, education, pensions and the like, so I'd need some convincing that a nationalised system would be "better".
TfL is fairly good because it gets a shed-ton of funding and passenger revenue, because it's in London.
BR was really and genuinely shit. I can remember standing as a student on the forlorn platforms of Newport Station on a winter's day, waiting to change for the train to Hereford
Newport in winter is never great, but being in a BR station in Newport in the 1980s was dystopian
It doesn't matter if it's a direct quotation. Truss has used this line in hustings wherever she's been, whether in London, etc.. She means - 'are made here (in the UK), in Derbyshire.' To my recollection she hasn't even visited Derbyshire during the campaign. It may be an inelegant way to say it, but it's not a mistake, and it's typically pathetic of Twitter to try to make something of it.
Boris Johnson is taking legal advice over a privileges committee investigation as those close to him accept it is a “foregone conclusion” that he will be found in contempt of parliament.
The prime minister is fighting to save his seat by arguing for a lenient punishment that would avoid a recall petition. A petition could result in his leaving the Commons only weeks after being pushed out of Downing Street.
Some of Johnson’s senior team have all but given up hope of escaping censure after the committee of MPs who will decide his fate concluded that he did not have to have knowingly misled the Commons to be found in contempt.
Allies of the prime minister have attempted to argue that this means the process is “rigged”, with loyalists such as Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, condemning the investigation as a “witch-hunt”.
The committee hit back yesterday, criticising attempts to “undermine” and “subvert” the process and “intimidate” members. Harriet Harman, the Labour MP who is chairing the committee during the inquiry, and the Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin wrote in The Times Red Box: “There have been unfounded allegations about ‘goalposts being moved’ and ‘rules changed’. But this is inaccurate.
This is one of the reasons that I think that Boris will be out of Parliament within days of his successor taking office. There is nothing for him there now but humiliation.
I wonder what sort of lawyers he's using. Presumably not those "lefty lawyers" who are always challenging what Parliament says by going to court.
I think he might have benefited from spending a bit of time in the slammer like his old mate Darius Guppy. Probably too late to change now.
Unfortunately there is evidence on this very site of the non-redemptive effect of a bit of chokey.
I presume you are referring to me, in which case your accusation has no merit. Because you have no idea how bad (or good?) I might be if I had NOT done time
What you see now might actually be the redeemed me, after the sobering effect of HMPs Wormwood Scrubs and Brixton. Imagine
Christ. You might have gone into politics without the Scrubs on your copybook!
There is no logical reason why British Railways Plc should or could not exist, beyond pointless ideology.
Clearly all of the EU countries and Japan have got it wrong. We know better, so we pay the French...
Isn't loads of the memories of "Bad old BR" because boomers remember train travel in the 70s, and everything was a bit shit, beige and dull (Bar the music) in the 70s ?
One of the quickest boomer identifiers "bad old days of BR"
I'm not a boomer and I remember the 'bad old days of BR'.
It is staff salaries and fare costs that get prioritised in a nationalised system, which give the unions a single point of leverage, and so service quality, infrastructure and rolling stock maintenance and renewal gets deprioritised.
That's why the train service at my local station was shit up until the mid-1990s, with only one train every hour - and those dating back to the 1960s, and not infrequently they broke down - whilst the station itself was regularly unheated, flaking and falling to pieces. Surly staff too.
Transport (outside major capital projects) tends to be near bottom of the list for central gov funding after health, education, pensions and the like, so I'd need some convincing that a nationalised system would be "better".
TfL is fairly good because it gets a shed-ton of funding and passenger revenue, because it's in London.
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Yes, this would be a way of building on one of the successes of the pandemic - the ventilator challenge. Have the same sort of thing, but for renewable energy supply.
A good end, but the problem isn't really technology is it? There's a lot we can do pretty cheaply now with solar and wind, keeping gas for backup when neither works. The problem is more about persuading people (including would-be Prime Ministers, ahem) to stop coming up with dumb objections.
We knew how to make medical ventilators before the ventilator challenge, but we didn't know how to make them quickly.
I expect there's lots that can be done to speed up the installation of new turbines, grid infrastructure, storage, etc, on both a technical and administrative level.
Yes, it's almost like a wartime effort. That's the situation I think we're in but no one's realised it yet. If we don't act today to start rapidly increasing renewable energy generation then the next 10 years we will be faced with economic ruin as industry simply shuts down every winter so homes can be heated.
It doesn't matter if it's a direct quotation. Truss has used this line in hustings wherever she's been, whether in London, etc.. She means - 'are made here (in the UK), in Derbyshire.' To my recollection she hasn't even visited Derbyshire during the campaign. It may be an inelegant way to say it, but it's not a mistake, and it's typically pathetic of Twitter to try to make something of it.
Especially with the genuine riches of civil service antisemitism, sheep vs solar etc on offer.
I presume in those circumstances Trump would be arrested and imprisoned. I also presume we would see widespread political violence from incensed Trump voters who would conclude that the Regime has stolen the country. In my view, this is the most likely path to a complete democratic breakdown.
Boris Johnson is taking legal advice over a privileges committee investigation as those close to him accept it is a “foregone conclusion” that he will be found in contempt of parliament.
The prime minister is fighting to save his seat by arguing for a lenient punishment that would avoid a recall petition. A petition could result in his leaving the Commons only weeks after being pushed out of Downing Street.
Some of Johnson’s senior team have all but given up hope of escaping censure after the committee of MPs who will decide his fate concluded that he did not have to have knowingly misled the Commons to be found in contempt.
Allies of the prime minister have attempted to argue that this means the process is “rigged”, with loyalists such as Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, condemning the investigation as a “witch-hunt”.
The committee hit back yesterday, criticising attempts to “undermine” and “subvert” the process and “intimidate” members. Harriet Harman, the Labour MP who is chairing the committee during the inquiry, and the Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin wrote in The Times Red Box: “There have been unfounded allegations about ‘goalposts being moved’ and ‘rules changed’. But this is inaccurate.
This is one of the reasons that I think that Boris will be out of Parliament within days of his successor taking office. There is nothing for him there now but humiliation.
I wonder what sort of lawyers he's using. Presumably not those "lefty lawyers" who are always challenging what Parliament says by going to court.
I think he might have benefited from spending a bit of time in the slammer like his old mate Darius Guppy. Probably too late to change now.
Unfortunately there is evidence on this very site of the non-redemptive effect of a bit of chokey.
I presume you are referring to me, in which case your accusation has no merit. Because you have no idea how bad (or good?) I might be if I had NOT done time
What you see now might actually be the redeemed me, after the sobering effect of HMPs Wormwood Scrubs and Brixton. Imagine
Christ. You might have gone into politics without the Scrubs on your copybook!
I did actually consider politics at one point. No joke. But then I looked at my "CV" and thought "Nah"
Whilst doing the hoovering earlier this morning, I ended up singing Adam Ant's "Prince Charming", but replacing all the lyrics with "Rishi Sunak" or "Rishi, Rishi Sunak".
I thought it reasonably on-topic to mention this
You need help.
OK, how about this?
Next week, not only planning to do the Edgbaston extension to the West Midlands tram, but also incorporating that journey with an early evening attempt to do Chesterfield to Sheffield via Woodhouse.
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Yes, this would be a way of building on one of the successes of the pandemic - the ventilator challenge. Have the same sort of thing, but for renewable energy supply.
A good end, but the problem isn't really technology is it? There's a lot we can do pretty cheaply now with solar and wind, keeping gas for backup when neither works. The problem is more about persuading people (including would-be Prime Ministers, ahem) to stop coming up with dumb objections.
We knew how to make medical ventilators before the ventilator challenge, but we didn't know how to make them quickly.
I expect there's lots that can be done to speed up the installation of new turbines, grid infrastructure, storage, etc, on both a technical and administrative level.
Yes, it's almost like a wartime effort. That's the situation I think we're in but no one's realised it yet. If we don't act today to start rapidly increasing renewable energy generation then the next 10 years we will be faced with economic ruin as industry simply shuts down every winter so homes can be heated.
Lots of people seem to be assuming (gambling) that this is just a blip because of the war in Ukraine, and that in a year or two we will be back to more normal prices. But what if we are not? I think you are right to suggest this grand challenge.
I just don't expect our political leaders to do it.
It’s a win-win. In the long term, we need to move to zero-carbon energy sources, so if this is just a Ukraine-related blip, we’ve still made valuable progress moving towards that goal. And if it’s more than a blip, thank heavens we’ve increased supply this way.
Someone (Anrew Cuomo?) punctuated his Covid briefings with "we know what to do, we just need to do it". The same thing is happinging with energy transitions. Most of the science/engineering problems are sufficiently solved; the systems are cheap enough, efficient enough, simple enough to install. Gains from here are incremental, not factors of ten.
The limiting steps are the political ones. Truss doesn't like solar farms, because reasons. Onshore wind farms stopped under Cameron, because the public was "fed up" with them. Our homes are largely still badly insulated because... well, I'm not sure why. (I'm just as bad. When we moved here a decade ago, all the windows were single-glazed; we are getting the last ones replaced next month but should have done it long before.)
It would be lovely to treat energy transition as a science problem, because they are relatively easy. Political mindset problems... oh dear.
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Sean Thomas Knox has also had to delay a picnic.
sean thomas knox @thomasknox · 3m Just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
I find it a remarkable coincidence how often that sean thomas knox and Leon are doing the same things at the same time.
Sean seemed to follow Leon across the world for 3 months continually yet they claim to have never been seen in the same room together....
Maybe Knox is the friend that Leon was having his picnic with. Both singing from the same hymnsheet is the mark of a healthy and well organised friendship.
I actually think I saw him in the dreamy mountains of Gnishik, Armenia, about a month ago. I was quite shaken. Of all the places, there?
He claimed he was there on a spiritual journey to find himself
Shouldn't have been difficult - he seems to turn up everywhere.
There are also independent living Housing Association flats for the over 55's (sometimes 50), which are purpose built. With communal wardens, social facilities, laundry, gardens and the like. Which takes away many of the day-to-day problems of maintenance and provide company and support. We need more of them (and private ones too obviously). The stigma is of being moved into a "care home". But these places aren't. You just rent or own a manageable sized property in a building with peers. If we could somehow get folk to want to live in these (and it wouldn't suit everyone), it would free up a lot of housing capacity.
I'll have a teenager when I'm 55 lol
58
I'm 60, soon to be 61, and my son has not long had his 19th birthday. Contrary to all the wailing and moaning on here I think having a young child in the house kept us young too. I really miss it and want my daughters to start producing grandkids for me to play with and watch cartoons with. Young kids are delightful. Teenagers are harder work but its just a phase and they turn human again in time.
There are also independent living Housing Association flats for the over 55's (sometimes 50), which are purpose built. With communal wardens, social facilities, laundry, gardens and the like. Which takes away many of the day-to-day problems of maintenance and provide company and support. We need more of them (and private ones too obviously). The stigma is of being moved into a "care home". But these places aren't. You just rent or own a manageable sized property in a building with peers. If we could somehow get folk to want to live in these (and it wouldn't suit everyone), it would free up a lot of housing capacity.
I'll have a teenager when I'm 55 lol
58
I find that kids with older parents are not short of attention but there is a definite lack of energy. Its hard enough doing it in your 40s.
I am the opposite. I was a father at 22, a grandfather at 45. I have a step-son who is older than my son. My step-son's daughter is expecting a baby in February when I will become a great-grandfather at 61.
I have just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must literally be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Sean Thomas Knox has also had to delay a picnic.
sean thomas knox @thomasknox · 3m Just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
I find it a remarkable coincidence how often that sean thomas knox and Leon are doing the same things at the same time.
Sean seemed to follow Leon across the world for 3 months continually yet they claim to have never been seen in the same room together....
Maybe Knox is the friend that Leon was having his picnic with. Both singing from the same hymnsheet is the mark of a healthy and well organised friendship.
I actually think I saw him in the dreamy mountains of Gnishik, Armenia, about a month ago. I was quite shaken. Of all the places, there?
He claimed he was there on a spiritual journey to find himself
Shouldn't have been difficult - he seems to turn up everywhere.
If only there were a simple, convenient system to locate yourself exactly (say to the nearest 3 metres), anywhere on the planet.
There is no logical reason why British Railways Plc should or could not exist, beyond pointless ideology.
Clearly all of the EU countries and Japan have got it wrong. We know better, so we pay the French...
Isn't loads of the memories of "Bad old BR" because boomers remember train travel in the 70s, and everything was a bit shit, beige and dull (Bar the music) in the 70s ?
One of the quickest boomer identifiers "bad old days of BR"
I'm not a boomer and I remember the 'bad old days of BR'.
It is staff salaries and fare costs that get prioritised in a nationalised system, which give the unions a single point of leverage, and so service quality, infrastructure and rolling stock maintenance and renewal gets deprioritised.
That's why the train service at my local station was shit up until the mid-1990s, with only one train every hour - and those dating back to the 1960s, and not infrequently they broke down - whilst the station itself was regularly unheated, flaking and falling to pieces. Surly staff too.
Transport (outside major capital projects) tends to be near bottom of the list for central gov funding after health, education, pensions and the like, so I'd need some convincing that a nationalised system would be "better".
TfL is fairly good because it gets a shed-ton of funding and passenger revenue, because it's in London.
BR was really and genuinely shit. I can remember standing as a student on the forlorn platforms of Newport Station on a winter's day, waiting to change for the train to Hereford
Newport in winter is never great, but being in a BR station in Newport in the 1980s was dystopian
Newport Station is still desperate.
But when you arrived at Hereford Station it would have been like the set of Gardeners World. The Station Master was a gardening enthusiast and the station won awards as I recall.
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Yes, this would be a way of building on one of the successes of the pandemic - the ventilator challenge. Have the same sort of thing, but for renewable energy supply.
A good end, but the problem isn't really technology is it? There's a lot we can do pretty cheaply now with solar and wind, keeping gas for backup when neither works. The problem is more about persuading people (including would-be Prime Ministers, ahem) to stop coming up with dumb objections.
We knew how to make medical ventilators before the ventilator challenge, but we didn't know how to make them quickly.
I expect there's lots that can be done to speed up the installation of new turbines, grid infrastructure, storage, etc, on both a technical and administrative level.
Yes, it's almost like a wartime effort. That's the situation I think we're in but no one's realised it yet. If we don't act today to start rapidly increasing renewable energy generation then the next 10 years we will be faced with economic ruin as industry simply shuts down every winter so homes can be heated.
Lots of people seem to be assuming (gambling) that this is just a blip because of the war in Ukraine, and that in a year or two we will be back to more normal prices. But what if we are not? I think you are right to suggest this grand challenge.
I just don't expect our political leaders to do it.
It's not - and that's the problem....
I think everyone thought removing gas and oil from our energy usage was a long term (say by 2040/2050) and it turns out that it wasn't....
We really need to maximise the amount of solar, wind and start insulating homes asap....
On the energy stuff, what I'd really like to see from Labour is some kind of "Challenge 2027" or something along those lines to 5x our current renewable energy generation by the end of 2027. 5 years for 5x. This problem needs the full weight of government, industry and science. Not just hoping that private companies with no interest in increasing energy supply will magically invest money to increase energy supply and reduce their arbitration profits.
Yes, this would be a way of building on one of the successes of the pandemic - the ventilator challenge. Have the same sort of thing, but for renewable energy supply.
A good end, but the problem isn't really technology is it? There's a lot we can do pretty cheaply now with solar and wind, keeping gas for backup when neither works. The problem is more about persuading people (including would-be Prime Ministers, ahem) to stop coming up with dumb objections.
We knew how to make medical ventilators before the ventilator challenge, but we didn't know how to make them quickly.
I expect there's lots that can be done to speed up the installation of new turbines, grid infrastructure, storage, etc, on both a technical and administrative level.
Yes, it's almost like a wartime effort. That's the situation I think we're in but no one's realised it yet. If we don't act today to start rapidly increasing renewable energy generation then the next 10 years we will be faced with economic ruin as industry simply shuts down every winter so homes can be heated.
Lots of people seem to be assuming (gambling) that this is just a blip because of the war in Ukraine, and that in a year or two we will be back to more normal prices. But what if we are not? I think you are right to suggest this grand challenge.
I just don't expect our political leaders to do it.
It’s a win-win. In the long term, we need to move to zero-carbon energy sources, so if this is just a Ukraine-related blip, we’ve still made valuable progress moving towards that goal. And if it’s more than a blip, thank heavens we’ve increased supply this way.
Someone (Anrew Cuomo?) punctuated his Covid briefings with "we know what to do, we just need to do it". The same thing is happinging with energy transitions. Most of the science/engineering problems are sufficiently solved; the systems are cheap enough, efficient enough, simple enough to install. Gains from here are incremental, not factors of ten.
The limiting steps are the political ones. Truss doesn't like solar farms, because reasons. Onshore wind farms stopped under Cameron, because the public was "fed up" with them. Our homes are largely still badly insulated because... well, I'm not sure why. (I'm just as bad. When we moved here a decade ago, all the windows were single-glazed; we are getting the last ones replaced next month but should have done it long before.)
It would be lovely to treat energy transition as a science problem, because they are relatively easy. Political mindset problems... oh dear.
It’s like how the government still funds lots of research on smoking cessation, but we don’t need (much) more research,* we need policy action.
* Obviously, more research is always good and keeps my mates employed. There are issues that are newer, e.g. around vaping, that require research. But we know how to get people to quit smoking.
It doesn't matter if it's a direct quotation. Truss has used this line in hustings wherever she's been, whether in London, etc.. She means - 'are made here (in the UK), in Derbyshire.' To my recollection she hasn't even visited Derbyshire during the campaign. It may be an inelegant way to say it, but it's not a mistake, and it's typically pathetic of Twitter to try to make something of it.
Comments
I wrote a report on our cricket match last saturday, suggesting that the day was too nice to play cricket -24 deg, cloudless sky, glorious. Best enjoyed with a cool drink in the garden, not playing cricket.
The lawns of The Regent's Park are not just parched and brown, they are now cracking. Like wounds. It looks sad. Slake the earth: it thirsts
sean thomas knox
@thomasknox
·
3m
Just had to delay a picnic with friends, by several hours, because it is TOO HOT AND SUNNY
This must be a first in the entire history of the United Kingdom
Over a fair period. No great signs of that.
(Thing is that does make good sense- the ground is too solid to absorb a lot of water at once, but it will send the "couldn't make it up, stands to reason" merchants dolally.)
Sean seemed to follow Leon across the world for 3 months continually yet they claim to have never been seen in the same room together....
(No idea why this is upside down, the pic is fine on the PC)
https://astralcodexten.substack.com/i/43667275/the-synthesis
So if you've got worms, take ivermectin to deal with them, and dealing with the worms in turn makes your covid less dangerous.
There just seems to be a huge lack of ambition in everything both the Tories and Labour are proposing. Neither party has even diagnosed the issue being on the supply side, they're still banging on about one off subsidies this year and hoping gas prices drop next year. Nothing about drastically increasing energy supply before the end of next year and then again the year after. Just hoping that the market will provide relief and they won't have to spend £20bn on more subsidies next winter.
He claimed he was there on a spiritual journey to find himself
(See Leon's post from just last night).
I am not pro-privatisation; I am not pro-nationalisation. Privatisation and natioanlisation are both tools in the toolbox; what works for one industry or sector might not work for another. Likewise, what 'works' best may change over time.
Real harm is done when people think their favoured tool is a bludgeon to be applied to all sectors and industries. The "Privatise everything!" and "Nationalise everything!" fools should be ignored. And the cost of change should also be factored in.
I do think you're being a bit unfair wrt the trans-Pennine electrification/upgrade (and why does everyone forget the MML's similar turmoil?) National Rail really, really *ucked up the GWML electrification. It was clear that their plans for future upgrades were also somewhat fiscally optimistic. The other option was to give NR a blank cheque for all the upgrades...
i. Printing more money (GFC) and
ii. Just accepting it as a fact of life (Covid)
iii. Political fudging
DO NOT WORK when the tangible output of power is required.
And Credit Unions sometimes go bust.
It's almost as if no one in government wants to do the hard work of running a country any more. They just want an easy life of not needing to do anything.
The neurotic potboiler, in the conservatory of a Michelin starred restaurant, with a marble dildo.
I thought it reasonably on-topic to mention this
I expect there's lots that can be done to speed up the installation of new turbines, grid infrastructure, storage, etc, on both a technical and administrative level.
Anyway isn't Liz going to can the Committee enquiry so BigDog is saved again?
It’s, ironically, the sort of thing you could’ve seen Boris getting behind. “Boris turbines” sprouting all over the country!
It is staff salaries and fare costs that get prioritised in a nationalised system, which give the unions a single point of leverage, and so service quality, infrastructure and rolling stock maintenance and renewal gets deprioritised.
That's why the train service at my local station was shit up until the mid-1990s, with only one train every hour - and those dating back to the 1960s, and not infrequently they broke down - whilst the station itself was regularly unheated, flaking and falling to pieces. Surly staff too.
Transport (outside major capital projects) tends to be near bottom of the list for central gov funding after health, education, pensions and the like, so I'd need some convincing that a nationalised system would be "better".
TfL is fairly good because it gets a shed-ton of funding and passenger revenue, because it's in London.
Did the F.B.I. Just Re-Elect Donald Trump?
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/opinion/fbi-trump-mar-a-lago-raid.html
https://twitter.com/FDAGenSec/status/1558046635233628161?t=0Y9OemilQYMn1BJy6nFT3g&s=19
I just don't expect our political leaders to do it.
We should accelerate our move to renewables because it will cost us less in the long run (maybe already now), because it removes our dependence on other regimes and because it is in our enlightened self interest.
"China built as much renewable energy as the rest of the world combined in 2021 with 53 GW of solar, 48 GW of wind, and its very high 2030 targets are likely to be met by 2026. The US built 25 GW of wind and solar combined in 2021.
China has over 50 GW of power capacity of pumped hydro under construction right now, just turned on a 3.6 GW facility this year, and has much more firmly planned. The US has no pumped hydro under construction, and none approved or funded for construction.
China turned on the world’s largest hydroelectric facility in 2021, the Three Gorges Dam. The United States is a global leader in tearing its dams down, with 57 removed in 2021 alone.
China built as much offshore wind in 2021, 17 GW, as the rest of the world combined in 2021 alone. The US built no offshore wind in 2021, and has two tiny offshore wind farms totaling 42 MW operating, roughly 0.25% of China’s 2021 deployment.
China is building more nuclear power plants than the rest of the world combined. The United States is seeing a net loss of nuclear power plants, with most of the fleet nearing end of normal life barring significant and expensive refurbishment by 2035."
https://cleantechnica.com/2022/08/11/comparing-the-us-china-on-climate-economy-other-outcomes-should-be-deeply-humbling-for-america/
One issue is that people seem under the impression prices in general will go back to the status quo ante. They may do for energy.
But for most things it simply doesn't work like that.
"Who do you think you are kidding Mr Major,
If you think the election's won,
We are the lads who will stop your little game
We are the lads who will make you think again
'Cause who do you think you are kidding Mr Major
If you think the election's won?"
I thin it was also the election where Mr Bean did an election song?
Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLrwV_gIq3U
What you see now might actually be the redeemed me, after the sobering effect of HMPs Wormwood Scrubs and Brixton. Imagine
A bunch of woke antisemites apparently. Why has it taken her 12 years to spot this?
Newport in winter is never great, but being in a BR station in Newport in the 1980s was dystopian
You might have gone into politics without the Scrubs on your copybook!
I suspect when the nuclear plans stuff hits home he might not be seen as the victim of which he is currently portraying himself.
Good decision
Next week, not only planning to do the Edgbaston extension to the West Midlands tram, but also incorporating that journey with an early evening attempt to do Chesterfield to Sheffield via Woodhouse.
The limiting steps are the political ones. Truss doesn't like solar farms, because reasons. Onshore wind farms stopped under Cameron, because the public was "fed up" with them. Our homes are largely still badly insulated because... well, I'm not sure why. (I'm just as bad. When we moved here a decade ago, all the windows were single-glazed; we are getting the last ones replaced next month but should have done it long before.)
It would be lovely to treat energy transition as a science problem, because they are relatively easy. Political mindset problems... oh dear.
I have a step-son who is older than my son. My step-son's daughter is expecting a baby in February when I will become a great-grandfather at 61.
But when you arrived at Hereford Station it would have been like the set of Gardeners World. The Station Master was a gardening enthusiast and the station won awards as I recall.
I think everyone thought removing gas and oil from our energy usage was a long term (say by 2040/2050) and it turns out that it wasn't....
We really need to maximise the amount of solar, wind and start insulating homes asap....
* Obviously, more research is always good and keeps my mates employed. There are issues that are newer, e.g. around vaping, that require research. But we know how to get people to quit smoking.
To the extent they do think about them it's about how to "educate" them in the politics they already believe.