The Government has given permission for a new coal mine to be opened in Cumbria. From what you have seen or heard, do you think this is the right or wrong decision?Right decision: 33%Wrong decision: 34%Don't know: 33%https://t.co/3TuNPTBWh6 pic.twitter.com/BYLGIvxq5f
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Proper 11 a side cricket involving 2 batsmen, a full field, overs, pads and an umpire. They’re changing ends at the end of each over and even doing that clappy shouting of half hearted encouragement between balls. Just missing a scorer.
Another good example of why it’s great Corbyn is no longer Labour leader.
Sleeping well at night means being in a better mood and happier during the day and vice versa, study finds
https://www.psypost.org/2022/12/sleeping-well-at-night-means-being-in-a-better-mood-and-happier-during-the-day-and-vice-versa-study-finds-64484
Although when you try to explain that lots of English people get Ratty.
(Now that really does require an anorak-style devotion to the minutiae of steam railways, but is highly appropriate in this context.)
So it’s about racism.
@shadsy market on Haz/both/neither attending coronation would be in order.
This coal mine is going to be the target of A LOT of direct action (hopefully violent) that may make its construction or operation unfeasible.
David C Bannerman
@DCBMEP
Today we have launched CDO - the Conservative Democratic Organisation. We are not a new party but want a true party - a truly democratic Conservative Party that reflects its members’s views and treats them with more respect. Please see more on:
https://www.conservativedems.co.uk/
They seem to be antsy about membership not getting to vote for Sunak.
They proceeded to vote for somebody so unfit for office she lasted all of five weeks instead.
As a result, next time they were told to stay out.
Admittedly, it does look a bit like one of those EU referendums where they keep asking the question until they get the right answer. I suppose the only difference here was how imposingly Truss imploded.
Bluntly, the whole saga suggested it was time for a rethink of the CPRB.
The post above making vague comments about racism illustrates the point perfectly. This is about the government looking for a political argument.
(Happy memories of a spring week based at Harlech and wandering the coast railway line - took a trip up the Tal-y-Llyn and walked up the old incline to the remnants of the slate quarries and working sheds, coming back via [edit!] Abergynolwyn to the railway terminus.)
Protest will happen, but the real problems will be economic, the same reason our other deep mines closed.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/11/new-cumbria-coalmine-backlash-grows-as-steel-industry-plays-down-demand
I presume @Dura_Ace will be violently attacking anyone with steel in their cars, let alone great lumps of it in lathes and machine tools?
Why so impatient ?
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/12/11/rnc-trump-mcdaniel-election-losses-00073343
… “If you look at state party organizations, it’s the MAGA strain of Republicanism that’s become dominant,” Steele explained. “And they’re willing to change the rules, they’re willing to ignore an insurrection, refer to it as just ‘political discourse.’ All of that stuff coming out of the national party is a reflection of what’s happening inside the party across the states.”
The post-midterm recriminations are a signal that dissent is growing, Steele said, but there’s little sign that it’s enough to loosen the former president’s hold on the party. He puts the odds that Trump is the party’s 2024 nominee at 80 percent. Which means that the Republican Party’s fortunes are still firmly tied to Trump, for better or for worse.
“A party is not going to survive when it is fixated on the ramblings and musings of one person who, in the main, is not a Republican, is not a conservative, but has very effectively used both of those values to secure his political power,” Steele said. “And there have been a lot of people inside the party willing to compromise those values in order for him to do that.”…
The new Labour leader of what will become Cumberland County Council says that he will stop it. Trouble is the council is based in Carlisle and like its predecessor doesn't give a toss about this part of Cumberland. Its waste policies are so appalling that at one point it was responsible for creating a statutory nuisance in a Site of Special Scientific Interest in Haverigg. So I take its "green credentials" with a hefty dose of salt. Most of its staff responsible for services in the area have never even visited the areas they are responsible for.
I don't know enough about the mine to express a view to be honest. I do know that those who say "no" to everything in areas like this need to come up with some realistic practical proposals for the area which are something more than "come here and buy some ice creams in the summer".
Far cube itch
I genuinely think the hysterical reaction to the decision, as if all green efforts are being undone, or those around the globe otherwise uninclined to do so will immediately cease any green efforts as a result, may have been counter productive. I'd hope people can see a lot of progress has been made, and while many want even more progress, overreaction to a single coal mine decision as sending a wrong 'signal' overreached.
Which started me wondering what is a million miles from where she lives. At first, I thought only a few meteroids from time to time, but then I remembered this: https://www.space.com/news/live/james-webb-space-telescope-updates
Today's party members seem to want much more obvious privileges to come with their membership fees - it's not enough if they select candidates, most of the time, and have an outsized influence, they want MPs who do exactly what they as members want, and want to be consulted about everything, even the resolution of a leadership crisis which needed a quick reaction.
It's partcularly interesting given there was a good case study of what happens when your prioritise pleasing members rather than the public, and ignoring MPs, just 3 years ago.
'However, industry experts insisted that demand for the coal from UK and European steel makers was a myth that had been repeated for years. “The UK steel industry has been clear that the coal from the West Cumbria mine has limited potential due to its high sulphur levels,” said Chris McDonald, chief executive of the Materials Processing Institute, which serves as the UK’s national centre for steel research.
“This, combined with the industry’s drive to decarbonise, means that by the time the mine opens, only one of the UK’s current four blast furnaces is likely to be able to use this coal, meaning that more than 90% of production will be exported. The situation is the same in Europe with even tighter sulphur controls and a faster drive to green steel, meaning that some companies will have moved away from coal completely by the mid 2030s.” '
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/11/new-cumbria-coalmine-backlash-grows-as-steel-industry-plays-down-demand
The MPI is the real deal, not a crypto-woke Marxist cell, and speaks for the British steel industry.
All of these events and more have led a crescendo of Catholics to wonder why Pope Francis has allowed heresy to flourish so much under his pontificate. This in turn has made not a few Catholics suspect that Francis is himself a heretic. But if Francis is a heretic, some uncomfortable questions follow.
The Nagging Question
Is Francis really the pope? Can a heretic even be a pope? Those are the questions many Catholics are asking today, understandably. How could Our Lord allow the pope — His vicar! — to permit and possibly even embrace heresy and thus inflict so much damage on the Church?
Those who have come to the conclusion that Francis is not the pope generally fall into three camps:
Pope Benedict XVI did not validly resign, so he is still pope.
The election of Pope Francis was invalid for various reasons, so he was never elected pope, and there hasn’t been a pope since 2013.
Francis was validly elected, but due to his embrace of heresy, he at some point lost the papal office, so there is currently no pope.
https://onepeterfive.com/is-francis-the-pope/
Remember net zero refers to emissions not total ppm. CO2 levels will continue rising for years after the world gets to net zero. (And the world will keep warming for decades too: it’s like applying the brakes on a motorway. There’s a stopping distance to take account of).
Obviously I cannot judge such a man objectively, but it seems like people should get tired of constantly having the personal shit of a candidate get in the way of any other political issues.
They have four aims - one is to have a Party Chairman elected by the membership. Another is for the membership to take back control of the Party Conference (ask the other parties how well that works) but of most interest is Candidate Selection. I thought Conservative Constituency Associations were able to choose from any candidate on the Approved List and that was through interview and then a vote.
I know in by elections candidates have been "imposed" by CCHQ but normally I thought Associations had a lot of latitude over candidate selection.
George Will thinks this lame duck session could do three good things in one bill:
"President Barack Obama’s morally admirable but constitutionally dubious 2012 fiat (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) gave dreamers temporary but renewable legal status and work authorization. President Donald Trump rescinded DACA in 2017, calling it executive overreach, something he understood from indulging in it. Now, however, two senators, Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), propose legislation providing, inter alia, tens of billions of dollars for enhanced border security, and for prompt processing of asylum requests (most of which are denied). And, for dreamers, a 10-year — hardly hurried — path to citizenship."
source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/11/pass-tillis-sinema-immigration-bill-dreamers/
This obvious — and much-needed — compromise has been blocked by extremists on the left and right, and by two incompetent narcissists, Obama and Trump.
Perhaps with them out of the way, Congress can finally do some right things.
Do be careful what you wish for!
I love how oblivious the writer is to the idea that what orthodoxy is was defined by what the church did in its first millenia rather than the other way round. Did they ever consider that the other churches mentioned think it's the Catholics that strayed?
Everything else is ultimately of neutral, or possibly counterproductive, effect.
Nigel Farage had worked it out with his pop-up 'Brexit' party; the members were reduced to props for photoshoots.
I've cleaned it all up, and it hasn't come back in the higher temperature. I know I could have got a dehumidifier, but I may as well have some warmth. Since I turned it up I've used more gas than the total I'd used since moving in at the beginning of May
My total energy bill (including electric) has suddenly doubled because of it. I've refused to set up a direct debit because I don't have a smart meter to pay the exact amount each month (and they don't seem to be able to park near enough to me to install one) and I don't like their estimates, so I just make sure there's enough in my account to pay the bill
Because of the government help my account is over £150 in credit, and I haven't made a payment since September - and that was only fifty quid
My Mum has just given me an early Christmas present - six pairs of M&S Heatgen Maximum Thermal Heavyweight Long Socks
I've put a pair on and they completely cover the calf. I'm so cosy below the knee now
Sheffield city centre every Saturday we went shopping to Cole Brothers, in 1984 and 1985 every day there were protests saying the Tories wanted to close all the mines.
That imprinted on me like water is wet.
Changing expectations of result of next election in @ConHome
Tory members surveys, via @PaulGoodmanCH
https://conservativehome.com/2022/12/11/the
Here was the location.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barker's_Pool
Other forms of air pollution are more regional though and get rained out before they spread globally. Sulphur Dioxide being the most important as it cools regional climate by
blocking sunlight - hence the so-called Asian brown cloud. Hence also the rapid warming in Europe and N America after we cleaned up our air. It’s also what leads to the formation of sulphuric acid in clouds which falls as acid
rain.
So a good levelling up strategy with the high wage jobs it will create in Cumbria
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2022/12/08/b3d1a/1
Now Labour has a bigger lead over the Conservatives in London than the North
The real questions here are -
1) Is the coal actually going to be used for coking?
2) The amount of carbon released vs using coal from another source.
3) The amount of coal that will be produced before the steel industry stops using cooking coal. Most probably hydrogen based reduction is the replacement - but we will see.
CO2 spreads extremely rapidly though the atmosphere. The atmosphere is very active and mixing on a global scale is rapid - seem to recall weeks for pole to pole.
So CO2 from China comes here very rapidly.
*Also known as science that produces repeatable results.
I haven't been to see many great ones live. Probably top of my list is having been at Wembley for the Euro 96 QF against Spain that we won on penalties
The one I enjoyed most on TV was Ben Stokes on day four at Headingly in 2019. I think a ticket to that might have been the best value sporting entertainment for me of my life so far. I envy those lucky enough to have been there
I asked my Dad about his favourite sporting event he'd attended and it was Desert Orchid winning the Gold Cup. He didn't even bet on him. It must be tough being a Spurs season ticket holder
Increasing fossil-C C02 in the air is not advancing the national interest, especially if it encouraged other states to do the same.
Despite all the Republican politicians, in the US, funnelling money into “research”?
@wmpolice
We are currently at the scene of a serious incident at Babbs Mill Park, Fordbridge Road, #Kingshurst, #Solihull.
A number of people have been pulled from a lake and are being transported to hospital. They are believed to be in a critical condition.
Funnily enough, Drax wanted to build a clean coal plant - White Rose. A certain George Osborne withdrew the £1 billion funding and killed the project overnight. Now they want to add carbon capture to their forest burners.
The world needs their copper (unless there's cheap superconductor technology I'm not aware of) if we're going "green"
I use the "s because extracting the copper we need from those countries will either involve huge local pollution from the by-products of the processes that leach copper from the ground, or global pollution from the other method that requires huge amounts of hydrocarbon burning
In real life, this Viv Richards ODI innings:
https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/west-indies-tour-of-england-1984-61869/england-vs-west-indies-1st-odi-64976/full-scorecard
From a betting / pinsticker pov, RWC 2003 final, where I put down 20-17 as the score prediction for the office sweep.
(if you broke down that it would be a hard game with few tries, likely in the corners and possibly unconverted, and with a fairly typical number of kicks over the H for the time, it was a really good prediction but I don't think an outrageous one).
Seriously jealous of that too, if so!
In fact I´m planning to connect to the UK via Helsinki on Wednesday, but several friends in transit to Tallinn are going to be very late in tonight, so I am somewhat apprehensive that the combo of the permacrisis of the UK these days, and the bad weather at both ends will allow me to get to my destination on time. Perhaps I should stay the night in London before I go onward on Thursday, but the Rail strikes are making this option pretty tricky too.
The headline news is the delivery to Estonia of new K9 self propelled howitzers and US units with HIMARS. Putin is now making bellicose threats to Kazakhstan, so as the Kremlin has a massive nervous breakdown, we can not afford to take too many chances. The news from Bakhmut is of utter carnage, which Russian mobinik units being literally decimated in a pointless, futile and cruel attempt to break the Ukrainian lines by shear force of numbers. It is literally criminal what the Russian high command and the Wagner scum are doing to their own side, it is a sickening and horrible massacre on a scale not seen since the Somme. The horrifying thing is that there is still a small chance that it could work. I note that blubbery blow hard, Peter Hitchens has come out attacking Ukraine- what a complete #%#hole that man truly is. If, at the height of the brutal and unprovoked attack on Ukraine by the Putinists you still equivocate as to who the baddies are, then clearly you are without any moral compass or common sense. It bothers me that so many opinion-formers in the UK- Mary Dejevsky is another- seem unable to see the plain truth of absolute evil in the Kremlin.
Anyway I trust that those in both Scotland and England that are facing the cold blast are not overly inconvenienced, At least here in Estonia the snow insulates us a bit from the frost. Mulled wine and hot coffee are keeping us warm and though so much snow is a bit of a pain, it is being cleared up and after the blizzard tomorrow we will be back to our usual winter normal. Hopefully so will you all too.
In transfer pricing we now add a risk premium to any benchmarking of fossil-fuel heavy asset returns, let alone the single least loved asset of them all.
Global capital has decided time is up for coal - thermal coal first and met coal in short order. I’m not sure that’s really sunk in with the general public yet.
Fracked gas on the other hand: still plenty of demand and finance available.