Could this be a gamechanger? – politicalbetting.com

System · May 16

Could this be a gamechanger? – politicalbetting.com

NEW: CNN Anchors @JakeTapper and @DanaBashCNN will moderate CNN’s Presidential Debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on June 27 from Atlanta, Georgia. The debate will air live at 9pET on @CNN channels, https://t.co/dOLGQHu7eC and on CNN Max. https://t.co/7r5K6OjnSi

Read the full story here

Nigelb · May 16

No.

bondegezou · May 16

How on earth will they moderate these?

mwadams · May 16

Morning! US presidential betting markets are quite the thing.

Nigelb · May 16

bondegezou said:
How on earth will they moderate these?

Boron control rods ?

edmundintokyo · May 16

bondegezou said:
How on earth will they moderate these?

I think they do everything by a format. Ask a question, give each candidate time to answer in turn, and when it's not their time they get their mic cut off.

Barnesian · May 16

The mics will be muted while the other one speaks. It's in the agreement as well as no audience. Should help Biden.

Nigelb · May 16

"Under CNN network rules, a candidate must be on enough state ballots to win an Electoral College majority and score 15 percent in at least four major national polls."

Will RFK Jnr qualify ?

Nigelb · May 16

Barnesian said:
The mics will be muted while the other one speaks. It's in the agreement as well as no audience. Should help Biden.

Given Trump doesn't even recognise electoral rules, cutting his mike is about the only way to get him to follow debate rules.

I predict he'll spend half the debate whining about that.

Note that Biden rejected the Presidential Debates Commission debates partly because they don't properly enforce their own debate rules.

geoffw · May 16

FPT on humorous/witty politicians Ronald Reagan deserves top billing; he wasn't mentioned afaics

rottenborough · May 16

The end of June?

WTF.

Americans aren't focused on POTUS election in June.

rottenborough · May 16

What's Sunak going to do about the takeover of Royal Mail?

Nigelb · May 16

rottenborough said:
The end of June?

WTF.

Americans aren't focused on POTUS election in June.

The rationale is that if you hold the debates too close to the election, they'll be irrelevant in terms of changing voters' minds.

They're probably irrelevant anyway.

Dura_Ace · May 16

I am quite surprised that DJT agreed to this as he has more to lose. The format favours Biden unless his brain turns into a piece of shit mid-speech. Maybe a 20% chance of that happening.

noneoftheabove · May 16

Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.

noneoftheabove · May 16

Dura_Ace said:
I am quite surprised that DJT agreed to this as he has more to lose. The format favours Biden unless his brain turns into a piece of shit mid-speech. Maybe a 20% chance of that happening.

The evidence at the moment suggests that a brain that is a piece of shit gives you a slender lead.

TheValiant · May 16

Nigelb said:
"Under CNN network rules, a candidate must be on enough state ballots to win an Electoral College majority and score 15 percent in at least four major national polls."

Will RFK Jnr qualify ?

I quite like this CNN rule and when the equivalent UK General Election debates come up I think something similar should be introduced.
Whilst some may disagree, I didn't want to see Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Woods on a main UK GE debate when it was not possible their party could win a majority (I know, I know, they could've formed a coalition). I'd have applied something like:

[AND: Must - Stand in at least 326 seats;]
[AND: Have 1 MP at dissolution
OR: Have polled 10% at the previous General Election]

At the moment, that would mean Labour, Conservatives meet all three, LD, Greens and Reform meet 1 and 2 (And therefore appear).

LostPassword · May 16

New opinion poll in Ireland deprives Sinn Fein of its lead for the first time since June 2021.

Sinn Fein 23%
Fine Gael 23%
Fianna Fáil 20%
Greens 4%
Assorted small left-wing parties (5, 3, 2)%
Aontú 1%
Independents/Others 17%

Such a result would likely see the continuation of the FG/FF coalition, probably with the support of Independents rather than the Greens.

I'm really surprised. I'd thought that Mary-Lou McDonald had it signed, sealed and delivered. In a poll from the same firm (Ipsos) last September SF were ahead 34-18-20.

This all seems to be due to the immigration crisis. Even though the government is making a right hames of it, it has the appearance of a new crisis, and it's pushed all the old crises - like housing, or the health service - right out of the spotlight.

Fairliered · May 16

rottenborough said:
What's Sunak going to do about the takeover of Royal Mail?

Sunak is expected to receive a large Czech in order to support the takeover.

bigjohnowls · May 16

TheValiant said:

Nigelb said:
"Under CNN network rules, a candidate must be on enough state ballots to win an Electoral College majority and score 15 percent in at least four major national polls."

Will RFK Jnr qualify ?
I quite like this CNN rule and when the equivalent UK General Election debates come up I think something similar should be introduced.
Whilst some may disagree, I didn't want to see Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Woods on a main UK GE debate when it was not possible their party could win a majority (I know, I know, they could've formed a coalition). I'd have applied something like:

[AND: Must - Stand in at least 326 seats;]
[AND: Have 1 MP at dissolution
OR: Have polled 10% at the previous General Election]

At the moment, that would mean Labour, Conservatives meet all three, LD, Greens and Reform meet 1 and 2 (And therefore appear).

Workers Party reckon they will stand in well over that number of seats so will be on George will make mincemeat of the other leaders could be very bad for Labour. They will definitely want to exclude him so will probably need to exclude Reform and Green unless they tweek the rules.

Nigelb · May 16

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.

Nothing on housing.
Which was the only interesting policy they had.

DecrepiterJohnL · May 16

geoffw said:
FPT on humorous/witty politicians Ronald Reagan deserves top billing; he wasn't mentioned afaics

The Ukrainian ambassador just Whatsapped this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_UWafVKjLw&t=107s

Carnyx · May 16

O/T but interesting piece on how it's possible to build cycle paths cheaply if one knows how to use the planning system and has lots of free labour (especially for @MattW ):

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/cycle-network-strawberry-line-somerset-volunteers

Obvious issues about it really only working out in the sticks rather than the urban jungle, but Shepton M is not that small a place.

And the emphasis of the article is on cycling (despite the notice in onw photo!).

bigjohnowls · May 16

bigjohnowls said:

TheValiant said:

Nigelb said:
"Under CNN network rules, a candidate must be on enough state ballots to win an Electoral College majority and score 15 percent in at least four major national polls."

Will RFK Jnr qualify ?
I quite like this CNN rule and when the equivalent UK General Election debates come up I think something similar should be introduced.
Whilst some may disagree, I didn't want to see Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Woods on a main UK GE debate when it was not possible their party could win a majority (I know, I know, they could've formed a coalition). I'd have applied something like:

[AND: Must - Stand in at least 326 seats;]
[AND: Have 1 MP at dissolution
OR: Have polled 10% at the previous General Election]

At the moment, that would mean Labour, Conservatives meet all three, LD, Greens and Reform meet 1 and 2 (And therefore appear).
Workers Party reckon they will stand in well over that number of seats so will be on George will make mincemeat of the other leaders could be very bad for Labour. They will definitely want to exclude him so will probably need to exclude Reform and Green unless they tweek the rules.

Actually thinking about it they will just exclude him on some spurious grounds so no need to publish the rule. Maybe first name and surname of participants cannot begin with same letter.

eek · May 16

Fairliered said:

rottenborough said:
What's Sunak going to do about the takeover of Royal Mail?

Sunak is expected to receive a large Czech in order to support the takeover.

Ideally he will use it as an excuse to bring the Postcode Address file into public ownership and transfer ownership to either the Ordnance survey or Valuation Service..

Yes it's a niche complaint but the amount of times I've thought - that would be a neat toy, but I'm not paying £3000 to experiment...

Carnyx · May 16

Nigelb said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
Nothing on housing.
Which was the only interesting policy they had.

That'd mean admitting the SNP got it right, and actually adopting SNP policies, which is a huge no-no in Labour circles up here in Scotland.

But tbf they have to save some goodies for later, anyway.

numbertwelve · May 16

I think the debates could be unusually important this time round.

Firstly - having them earlier means they have more time to set a narrative.

Secondly - neither man is gaffe-proof, but neither man is incapable of delivering a very resonant attack on the other.

Trump is generally OK at debates - because he rambles and airs his various grievances which doesn’t tell you anything new about him but doesn’t really trip him up. But Biden has the most to gain IF he can be sharp and coherent for the duration, it gives him a chance to reach out and directly appeal to independents.

JosiasJessop · May 16

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.

I can't see how the UK can set up a border security comment to stop gangs arranging small boat crossings, when that organisation will be happening in France?

Also, why do we have to put 'Great' in 'Great British Energy'? In ye olden days, we did not have 'Great British Railways', 'Great British Telecom' or 'Great British Gas'.

It's naff.

Nigelb · May 16

Net zero U-turns will hit UK infrastructure, say government advisers

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/net-zero-u-turns-will-hit-uk-infrastructure-say-government-advisers
..The NIC found:

The government will fail to meet its targets on heat pump rollout.
The promised lifting of a ban on new onshore windfarms has not gone far enough.
Massive investment is needed in the electricity grid.
There is no proper plan for rail in the north and Midlands now that the northern leg of HS2 has been cancelled, severely inhibiting economic growth in those regions.
Water bills will need to go up to fix the sewage crisis, and more reservoirs are needed to avoid drought, while water companies have done too little to staunch leaks.
The UK lacks a coherent strategy on flooding, with more than 900,000 properties at risk of river or sea flooding and 910,000 at risk of surface water flooding.
Good progress has been made on the rollout of gigabit broadband around the country.

Armitt called for this government, and the next, to act swiftly. “It’s not too late to catch up in many of the areas we’ve highlighted, if the goals are matched with policies of sufficient scale. But the window is closing,” he said.

“Ducking big decisions over the next 12 months will put the major goals of net zero, regional economic growth, and environmental protection in jeopardy,” he warned.

Greater investment was needed in public transport, the NIC found. Uniquely in Europe, the UK’s second and third cities showed lower economic productivity than the national average, largely because of poor transport links, the review found.

The axing of the next phases of the HS2 high-speed rail project left a “critical gap” in rail connectivity between the Midlands and the north, with northern cities likely to “remain poorly served” without further investment.

Given long-term growth in demand “a do-nothing scenario north of the proposed connection of HS2 and the west coast mainline at Handsacre is not sustainable”, the report found.

The target of rolling out 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 to reach 7m homes by 2035 was way off track, the report found, while putting off a decision on hydrogen for home heating until 2026 had created uncertainty.

The next government should end new connections to Britain’s gas network from 2025, and ban the sale of new gas boilers for homes and fossil fuel heating in large commercial buildings by 2035, according to the report. It also called on the government to rule out subsidies for hydrogen heating...

The two highlighted items in particular are just economic stupidity from the government. I don't think there's any reasonable grounds to argue about that.

TimS · May 16

Carnyx said:

Nigelb said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
Nothing on housing.
Which was the only interesting policy they had.
That'd mean admitting the SNP got it right, and actually adopting SNP policies, which is a huge no-no in Labour circles up here in Scotland.

But tbf they have to save some goodies for later, anyway.

I suspect it’s more about not giving something for Tories to wave in NIMBY faces on the doorstep.

Fairliered · May 16

bigjohnowls said:

TheValiant said:

Nigelb said:
"Under CNN network rules, a candidate must be on enough state ballots to win an Electoral College majority and score 15 percent in at least four major national polls."

Will RFK Jnr qualify ?
I quite like this CNN rule and when the equivalent UK General Election debates come up I think something similar should be introduced.
Whilst some may disagree, I didn't want to see Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Woods on a main UK GE debate when it was not possible their party could win a majority (I know, I know, they could've formed a coalition). I'd have applied something like:

[AND: Must - Stand in at least 326 seats;]
[AND: Have 1 MP at dissolution
OR: Have polled 10% at the previous General Election]

At the moment, that would mean Labour, Conservatives meet all three, LD, Greens and Reform meet 1 and 2 (And therefore appear).
Workers Party reckon they will stand in well over that number of seats so will be on George will make mincemeat of the other leaders could be very bad for Labour. They will definitely want to exclude him so will probably need to exclude Reform and Green unless they tweek the rules.

They will want to find a rule that allows them to exclude the Workers Party but include the Reform Party.

Fairliered · May 16

JosiasJessop said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
I can't see how the UK can set up a border security comment to stop gangs arranging small boat crossings, when that organisation will be happening in France?

Also, why do we have to put 'Great' in 'Great British Energy'? In ye olden days, we did not have 'Great British Railways', 'Great British Telecom' or 'Great British Gas'.

It's naff.

We had the Great Western Railway which was greater than any of the above.

TimS · May 16

Disappointed to see that yet again Labour didn’t include a pledge to find and sterilise all urban foxes.

TimS · May 16

Fairliered said:

JosiasJessop said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
I can't see how the UK can set up a border security comment to stop gangs arranging small boat crossings, when that organisation will be happening in France?

Also, why do we have to put 'Great' in 'Great British Energy'? In ye olden days, we did not have 'Great British Railways', 'Great British Telecom' or 'Great British Gas'.

It's naff.
We had the Great Western Railway which was greater than any of the above.

And exceeding them all in prestige, Great British News

Fairliered · May 16

TimS said:

Fairliered said:

JosiasJessop said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
I can't see how the UK can set up a border security comment to stop gangs arranging small boat crossings, when that organisation will be happening in France?

Also, why do we have to put 'Great' in 'Great British Energy'? In ye olden days, we did not have 'Great British Railways', 'Great British Telecom' or 'Great British Gas'.

It's naff.
We had the Great Western Railway which was greater than any of the above.
And exceeding them all in prestige, Great British News

😂 😂😂

Fairliered · May 16

TimS said:
Disappointed to see that yet again Labour didn’t include a pledge to find and sterilise all urban foxes.

Would that include Laurence Fox?

JosiasJessop · May 16

Fairliered said:

JosiasJessop said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
I can't see how the UK can set up a border security comment to stop gangs arranging small boat crossings, when that organisation will be happening in France?

Also, why do we have to put 'Great' in 'Great British Energy'? In ye olden days, we did not have 'Great British Railways', 'Great British Telecom' or 'Great British Gas'.

It's naff.
We had the Great Western Railway which was greater than any of the above.

Nah, third out of all the big four. LMS, Southern, Great Western, then LNER.

Nigelb · May 16

Hinckley Point C consists of 2 1600MW reactors, and could end up costing over £40bn. The original contract was inked over a decade ago, and it's still half a decade away from operation.
https://www.nucnet.org/news/uk-nuclear-station-could-be-delayed-to-2031-and-cost-up-top-gbp46-billion-says-edf-1-3-2024

This is a contract for 4 x 1000MW reactors:

Doosan goes all out for Korea to win Czech nuclear plant project
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2024/05/419_374685.html
The Czech Republic plans to build up to four nuclear power plants in Dukovany and Temelin by 2036.

In collaboration with Doosan Enerbility and Daewoo E&C, KHNP is competing with EDF, a French government-owned electric utility company, to win the 30 trillion won ($22 billion) project...

Can anyone explain ?

algarkirk · May 16

Nigelb said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
Nothing on housing.
Which was the only interesting policy they had.

Tbf they have an election to win, and lots of ways of losing it. Pat McFadden, who is a very safe pair of hands, was struggling this morning even to flesh out the meaning and delivery of these bland proposals in a way that wouldn't lead to the next set of challenges.
All interesting policies cost money. The next government starts with minus £2.1 trillion in the sock under the bed.

On another topic, for the BBC news website the top story in all the world this morning is some plumber putting misleading material on social media. This is deranged.

Theuniondivvie · May 16

JosiasJessop said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
I can't see how the UK can set up a border security comment to stop gangs arranging small boat crossings, when that organisation will be happening in France?

Also, why do we have to put 'Great' in 'Great British Energy'? In ye olden days, we did not have 'Great British Railways', 'Great British Telecom' or 'Great British Gas'.

It's naff.

Surely it’s just acknowledging how much better things are now? Great British Water next..

Carnyx · May 16

JosiasJessop said:

Fairliered said:

JosiasJessop said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
I can't see how the UK can set up a border security comment to stop gangs arranging small boat crossings, when that organisation will be happening in France?

Also, why do we have to put 'Great' in 'Great British Energy'? In ye olden days, we did not have 'Great British Railways', 'Great British Telecom' or 'Great British Gas'.

It's naff.
We had the Great Western Railway which was greater than any of the above.
Nah, third out of all the big four. LMS, Southern, Great Western, then LNER.

But the E in LNER came from the Great Eastern Railway, no?

Carnyx · May 16

Theuniondivvie said:

JosiasJessop said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
I can't see how the UK can set up a border security comment to stop gangs arranging small boat crossings, when that organisation will be happening in France?

Also, why do we have to put 'Great' in 'Great British Energy'? In ye olden days, we did not have 'Great British Railways', 'Great British Telecom' or 'Great British Gas'.

It's naff.
Surely it’s just acknowledging how much better things are now? Great British Water next..

Did you notice the careful exclusion of NI? Sure, BR has nothing in NI, but that doesn't apply for everything.

viewcode · May 16

Nigelb said:
Net zero U-turns will hit UK infrastructure, say government advisers

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/net-zero-u-turns-will-hit-uk-infrastructure-say-government-advisers
..The NIC found:

The government will fail to meet its targets on heat pump rollout.
The promised lifting of a ban on new onshore windfarms has not gone far enough.
Massive investment is needed in the electricity grid.
There is no proper plan for rail in the north and Midlands now that the northern leg of HS2 has been cancelled, severely inhibiting economic growth in those regions.
Water bills will need to go up to fix the sewage crisis, and more reservoirs are needed to avoid drought, while water companies have done too little to staunch leaks.
The UK lacks a coherent strategy on flooding, with more than 900,000 properties at risk of river or sea flooding and 910,000 at risk of surface water flooding.
Good progress has been made on the rollout of gigabit broadband around the country.

Armitt called for this government, and the next, to act swiftly. “It’s not too late to catch up in many of the areas we’ve highlighted, if the goals are matched with policies of sufficient scale. But the window is closing,” he said.

“Ducking big decisions over the next 12 months will put the major goals of net zero, regional economic growth, and environmental protection in jeopardy,” he warned.

Greater investment was needed in public transport, the NIC found. Uniquely in Europe, the UK’s second and third cities showed lower economic productivity than the national average, largely because of poor transport links, the review found.

The axing of the next phases of the HS2 high-speed rail project left a “critical gap” in rail connectivity between the Midlands and the north, with northern cities likely to “remain poorly served” without further investment.

Given long-term growth in demand “a do-nothing scenario north of the proposed connection of HS2 and the west coast mainline at Handsacre is not sustainable”, the report found.

The target of rolling out 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 to reach 7m homes by 2035 was way off track, the report found, while putting off a decision on hydrogen for home heating until 2026 had created uncertainty.

The next government should end new connections to Britain’s gas network from 2025, and ban the sale of new gas boilers for homes and fossil fuel heating in large commercial buildings by 2035, according to the report. It also called on the government to rule out subsidies for hydrogen heating...

The two highlighted items in particular are just economic stupidity from the government. I don't think there's any reasonable grounds to argue about that.

Holy Moly, are they really thinking of piping hydrogen to homes? That is the stupidest fucking decision in history. Any minister stupid enough to authorise that should be shot. We need to stop being governed by morons.

JosiasJessop · May 16

viewcode said:

Nigelb said:
Net zero U-turns will hit UK infrastructure, say government advisers

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/net-zero-u-turns-will-hit-uk-infrastructure-say-government-advisers
..The NIC found:

The government will fail to meet its targets on heat pump rollout.
The promised lifting of a ban on new onshore windfarms has not gone far enough.
Massive investment is needed in the electricity grid.
There is no proper plan for rail in the north and Midlands now that the northern leg of HS2 has been cancelled, severely inhibiting economic growth in those regions.
Water bills will need to go up to fix the sewage crisis, and more reservoirs are needed to avoid drought, while water companies have done too little to staunch leaks.
The UK lacks a coherent strategy on flooding, with more than 900,000 properties at risk of river or sea flooding and 910,000 at risk of surface water flooding.
Good progress has been made on the rollout of gigabit broadband around the country.

Armitt called for this government, and the next, to act swiftly. “It’s not too late to catch up in many of the areas we’ve highlighted, if the goals are matched with policies of sufficient scale. But the window is closing,” he said.

“Ducking big decisions over the next 12 months will put the major goals of net zero, regional economic growth, and environmental protection in jeopardy,” he warned.

Greater investment was needed in public transport, the NIC found. Uniquely in Europe, the UK’s second and third cities showed lower economic productivity than the national average, largely because of poor transport links, the review found.

The axing of the next phases of the HS2 high-speed rail project left a “critical gap” in rail connectivity between the Midlands and the north, with northern cities likely to “remain poorly served” without further investment.

Given long-term growth in demand “a do-nothing scenario north of the proposed connection of HS2 and the west coast mainline at Handsacre is not sustainable”, the report found.

The target of rolling out 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 to reach 7m homes by 2035 was way off track, the report found, while putting off a decision on hydrogen for home heating until 2026 had created uncertainty.

The next government should end new connections to Britain’s gas network from 2025, and ban the sale of new gas boilers for homes and fossil fuel heating in large commercial buildings by 2035, according to the report. It also called on the government to rule out subsidies for hydrogen heating...

The two highlighted items in particular are just economic stupidity from the government. I don't think there's any reasonable grounds to argue about that.
Holy Moly, are they really thinking of piping hydrogen to homes? That is the stupidest fucking decision in history. Any minister stupid enough to authorise that should be shot. We need to stop being governed by morons.

It's a mix of hydrogen and 'normal' gas. Apparently a certain percentage of H2 in the system will be fine...

numbertwelve · May 16

algarkirk said:

Nigelb said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
Nothing on housing.
Which was the only interesting policy they had.
Tbf they have an election to win, and lots of ways of losing it. Pat McFadden, who is a very safe pair of hands, was struggling this morning even to flesh out the meaning and delivery of these bland proposals in a way that wouldn't lead to the next set of challenges.
All interesting policies cost money. The next government starts with minus £2.1 trillion in the sock under the bed.

On another topic, for the BBC news website the top story in all the world this morning is some plumber putting misleading material on social media. This is deranged.

I probably sound like a broken record on here but this is exactly the issue with BBC News now. Farcical priorities, editorialising, celebrity-obsessed, cross-promoting.

It saddens me how it has gone downhill so rapidly.

Selebian · May 16

TimS said:
Disappointed to see that yet again Labour didn’t include a pledge to find and sterilise all urban foxes.

Yeah, daft not to get that one out already. Gives the Tories a chance to shoot Labour's foxes.

LostPassword · May 16

Carnyx said:

Theuniondivvie said:

JosiasJessop said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
I can't see how the UK can set up a border security comment to stop gangs arranging small boat crossings, when that organisation will be happening in France?

Also, why do we have to put 'Great' in 'Great British Energy'? In ye olden days, we did not have 'Great British Railways', 'Great British Telecom' or 'Great British Gas'.

It's naff.
Surely it’s just acknowledging how much better things are now? Great British Water next..
Did you notice the careful exclusion of NI? Sure, BR has nothing in NI, but that doesn't apply for everything.

I know and you know that it's not technically correct, but I know and you know that Britain and Great Britain is often used as a synonym for UK, because "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland broadband (or whatever)" is a bit of a mouthful.

One of the things I've liked most about Britain over the years is that mostly people don't work about these curious inconsistencies. They're fun quirks. Don't be ruining that for me now.

bondegezou · May 16

TheValiant said:

Nigelb said:
"Under CNN network rules, a candidate must be on enough state ballots to win an Electoral College majority and score 15 percent in at least four major national polls."

Will RFK Jnr qualify ?
I quite like this CNN rule and when the equivalent UK General Election debates come up I think something similar should be introduced.
Whilst some may disagree, I didn't want to see Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Woods on a main UK GE debate when it was not possible their party could win a majority (I know, I know, they could've formed a coalition). I'd have applied something like:

[AND: Must - Stand in at least 326 seats;]
[AND: Have 1 MP at dissolution
OR: Have polled 10% at the previous General Election]

At the moment, that would mean Labour, Conservatives meet all three, LD, Greens and Reform meet 1 and 2 (And therefore appear).

Having an MP is maybe too generous a rule. One nutter defects to your party and bingo. Reclaim had an MP until recently.

Malmesbury · May 16

viewcode said:

Nigelb said:
Net zero U-turns will hit UK infrastructure, say government advisers

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/net-zero-u-turns-will-hit-uk-infrastructure-say-government-advisers
..The NIC found:

The government will fail to meet its targets on heat pump rollout.
The promised lifting of a ban on new onshore windfarms has not gone far enough.
Massive investment is needed in the electricity grid.
There is no proper plan for rail in the north and Midlands now that the northern leg of HS2 has been cancelled, severely inhibiting economic growth in those regions.
Water bills will need to go up to fix the sewage crisis, and more reservoirs are needed to avoid drought, while water companies have done too little to staunch leaks.
The UK lacks a coherent strategy on flooding, with more than 900,000 properties at risk of river or sea flooding and 910,000 at risk of surface water flooding.
Good progress has been made on the rollout of gigabit broadband around the country.

Armitt called for this government, and the next, to act swiftly. “It’s not too late to catch up in many of the areas we’ve highlighted, if the goals are matched with policies of sufficient scale. But the window is closing,” he said.

“Ducking big decisions over the next 12 months will put the major goals of net zero, regional economic growth, and environmental protection in jeopardy,” he warned.

Greater investment was needed in public transport, the NIC found. Uniquely in Europe, the UK’s second and third cities showed lower economic productivity than the national average, largely because of poor transport links, the review found.

The axing of the next phases of the HS2 high-speed rail project left a “critical gap” in rail connectivity between the Midlands and the north, with northern cities likely to “remain poorly served” without further investment.

Given long-term growth in demand “a do-nothing scenario north of the proposed connection of HS2 and the west coast mainline at Handsacre is not sustainable”, the report found.

The target of rolling out 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 to reach 7m homes by 2035 was way off track, the report found, while putting off a decision on hydrogen for home heating until 2026 had created uncertainty.

The next government should end new connections to Britain’s gas network from 2025, and ban the sale of new gas boilers for homes and fossil fuel heating in large commercial buildings by 2035, according to the report. It also called on the government to rule out subsidies for hydrogen heating...

The two highlighted items in particular are just economic stupidity from the government. I don't think there's any reasonable grounds to argue about that.
Holy Moly, are they really thinking of piping hydrogen to homes? That is the stupidest fucking decision in history. Any minister stupid enough to authorise that should be shot. We need to stop being governed by morons.

The Hydrogen Religion continues it's march.

The hydrogen cycle - generate hydrogen, compress/liquify, store, transport and then use - is quite inefficient. Which is why batteries are winning for storage.

Hydrogen is perfectly safe. Just like petrol - which has more energy in it per kilo than TNT. As long as you remember how utterly fucking dangerous both are, you are safe.

In the case of hydrogen in the home, how are you going to achieve a sign off that compatible pipework has been fitted, leakproof to the required standard, without ripping out everything that is there already?

EDIT: If you want to do something in this country, fix the £1 billion per mile railway problem. Which means we can't have railways. Trams seem to hit the same problem. So lots of electric buses on segregated roads - when we figure out how to do trams for under a zillion, we can then convert to trams....

Nigelb · May 16

JosiasJessop said:

viewcode said:

Nigelb said:
Net zero U-turns will hit UK infrastructure, say government advisers

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/net-zero-u-turns-will-hit-uk-infrastructure-say-government-advisers
..The NIC found:

The government will fail to meet its targets on heat pump rollout.
The promised lifting of a ban on new onshore windfarms has not gone far enough.
Massive investment is needed in the electricity grid.
There is no proper plan for rail in the north and Midlands now that the northern leg of HS2 has been cancelled, severely inhibiting economic growth in those regions.
Water bills will need to go up to fix the sewage crisis, and more reservoirs are needed to avoid drought, while water companies have done too little to staunch leaks.
The UK lacks a coherent strategy on flooding, with more than 900,000 properties at risk of river or sea flooding and 910,000 at risk of surface water flooding.
Good progress has been made on the rollout of gigabit broadband around the country.

Armitt called for this government, and the next, to act swiftly. “It’s not too late to catch up in many of the areas we’ve highlighted, if the goals are matched with policies of sufficient scale. But the window is closing,” he said.

“Ducking big decisions over the next 12 months will put the major goals of net zero, regional economic growth, and environmental protection in jeopardy,” he warned.

Greater investment was needed in public transport, the NIC found. Uniquely in Europe, the UK’s second and third cities showed lower economic productivity than the national average, largely because of poor transport links, the review found.

The axing of the next phases of the HS2 high-speed rail project left a “critical gap” in rail connectivity between the Midlands and the north, with northern cities likely to “remain poorly served” without further investment.

Given long-term growth in demand “a do-nothing scenario north of the proposed connection of HS2 and the west coast mainline at Handsacre is not sustainable”, the report found.

The target of rolling out 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 to reach 7m homes by 2035 was way off track, the report found, while putting off a decision on hydrogen for home heating until 2026 had created uncertainty.

The next government should end new connections to Britain’s gas network from 2025, and ban the sale of new gas boilers for homes and fossil fuel heating in large commercial buildings by 2035, according to the report. It also called on the government to rule out subsidies for hydrogen heating...

The two highlighted items in particular are just economic stupidity from the government. I don't think there's any reasonable grounds to argue about that.
Holy Moly, are they really thinking of piping hydrogen to homes? That is the stupidest fucking decision in history. Any minister stupid enough to authorise that should be shot. We need to stop being governed by morons.
It's a mix of hydrogen and 'normal' gas. Apparently a certain percentage of H2 in the system will be fine...

Hydrogen for domestic heating is economically pointless, and practically very dubious indeed. Just bonkers.

A supposedly free market government has succumbed to industry lobbying, against all reason.

Selebian · May 16

numbertwelve said:

algarkirk said:

Nigelb said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
Nothing on housing.
Which was the only interesting policy they had.
Tbf they have an election to win, and lots of ways of losing it. Pat McFadden, who is a very safe pair of hands, was struggling this morning even to flesh out the meaning and delivery of these bland proposals in a way that wouldn't lead to the next set of challenges.
All interesting policies cost money. The next government starts with minus £2.1 trillion in the sock under the bed.

On another topic, for the BBC news website the top story in all the world this morning is some plumber putting misleading material on social media. This is deranged.
I probably sound like a broken record on here but this is exactly the issue with BBC News now. Farcical priorities, editorialising, celebrity-obsessed, cross-promoting.

It saddens me how it has gone downhill so rapidly.

It's a 'BBC investigation', you see, so must get top billing.

Slightly embarrassing, also, given the previous fawning BBC reports on the guy.

Eabhal · May 16

Carnyx said:
O/T but interesting piece on how it's possible to build cycle paths cheaply if one knows how to use the planning system and has lots of free labour (especially for @MattW ):

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/cycle-network-strawberry-line-somerset-volunteers

Obvious issues about it really only working out in the sticks rather than the urban jungle, but Shepton M is not that small a place.

And the emphasis of the article is on cycling (despite the notice in onw photo!).

Interesting. There is an awful lot of difficulty with landowners, including Network Rail who sit on land that would be perfect for cycle lanes (and indeed trams), even when there is plenty of funding available.

There is also a tension with the provision of off-road cycle networks in lieu of ones alongside roads. Women, in particular, do not like cycling along them in the dark, and the one factor that has a discernible effect on cycling rates is hours of daylight (often wrongly ascribed to the weather). Thus, adding good lighting is essential but massively increases costs and maintenance.

wooliedyed · May 16

Fairliered said:

bigjohnowls said:

TheValiant said:

Nigelb said:
"Under CNN network rules, a candidate must be on enough state ballots to win an Electoral College majority and score 15 percent in at least four major national polls."

Will RFK Jnr qualify ?
I quite like this CNN rule and when the equivalent UK General Election debates come up I think something similar should be introduced.
Whilst some may disagree, I didn't want to see Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Woods on a main UK GE debate when it was not possible their party could win a majority (I know, I know, they could've formed a coalition). I'd have applied something like:

[AND: Must - Stand in at least 326 seats;]
[AND: Have 1 MP at dissolution
OR: Have polled 10% at the previous General Election]

At the moment, that would mean Labour, Conservatives meet all three, LD, Greens and Reform meet 1 and 2 (And therefore appear).
Workers Party reckon they will stand in well over that number of seats so will be on George will make mincemeat of the other leaders could be very bad for Labour. They will definitely want to exclude him so will probably need to exclude Reform and Green unless they tweek the rules.
They will want to find a rule that allows them to exclude the Workers Party but include the Reform Party.

Unlikely they will be able to achieve that tbh, Workers have an elected MP, Reform have a defector, they'll both stand in a majority of seats and neither existed at the last GE (or BXP got 2% if we include that).
So any stitch up to get Tice on screen and deny Galloway would probably backfire and add votes to the Workers tally. It will be probably a head to head and a mass participation including LDs, Green, SNP or PC (one in each country), Reform and Workers (and in Scotland Alba if they stand in most seats)

LostPassword · May 16

Malmesbury said:

viewcode said:

Nigelb said:
Net zero U-turns will hit UK infrastructure, say government advisers

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/net-zero-u-turns-will-hit-uk-infrastructure-say-government-advisers
..The NIC found:

The government will fail to meet its targets on heat pump rollout.
The promised lifting of a ban on new onshore windfarms has not gone far enough.
Massive investment is needed in the electricity grid.
There is no proper plan for rail in the north and Midlands now that the northern leg of HS2 has been cancelled, severely inhibiting economic growth in those regions.
Water bills will need to go up to fix the sewage crisis, and more reservoirs are needed to avoid drought, while water companies have done too little to staunch leaks.
The UK lacks a coherent strategy on flooding, with more than 900,000 properties at risk of river or sea flooding and 910,000 at risk of surface water flooding.
Good progress has been made on the rollout of gigabit broadband around the country.

Armitt called for this government, and the next, to act swiftly. “It’s not too late to catch up in many of the areas we’ve highlighted, if the goals are matched with policies of sufficient scale. But the window is closing,” he said.

“Ducking big decisions over the next 12 months will put the major goals of net zero, regional economic growth, and environmental protection in jeopardy,” he warned.

Greater investment was needed in public transport, the NIC found. Uniquely in Europe, the UK’s second and third cities showed lower economic productivity than the national average, largely because of poor transport links, the review found.

The axing of the next phases of the HS2 high-speed rail project left a “critical gap” in rail connectivity between the Midlands and the north, with northern cities likely to “remain poorly served” without further investment.

Given long-term growth in demand “a do-nothing scenario north of the proposed connection of HS2 and the west coast mainline at Handsacre is not sustainable”, the report found.

The target of rolling out 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 to reach 7m homes by 2035 was way off track, the report found, while putting off a decision on hydrogen for home heating until 2026 had created uncertainty.

The next government should end new connections to Britain’s gas network from 2025, and ban the sale of new gas boilers for homes and fossil fuel heating in large commercial buildings by 2035, according to the report. It also called on the government to rule out subsidies for hydrogen heating...

The two highlighted items in particular are just economic stupidity from the government. I don't think there's any reasonable grounds to argue about that.
Holy Moly, are they really thinking of piping hydrogen to homes? That is the stupidest fucking decision in history. Any minister stupid enough to authorise that should be shot. We need to stop being governed by morons.
The Hydrogen Religion continues it's march.

The hydrogen cycle - generate hydrogen, compress/liquify, store, transport and then use - is quite inefficient. Which is why batteries are winning for storage.

Hydrogen is perfectly safe. Just like petrol - which has more energy in it per kilo than TNT. As long as you remember how utterly fucking dangerous both are, you are safe.

In the case of hydrogen in the home, how are you going to achieve a sign off that compatible pipework has been fitted, leakproof to the required standard, without ripping out everything that is there already?

Only by the same fudges that gave us Grenfell. Let's not have anyone say we didn't see this problem in advance this time.

I'm quite a fan of using gas as an energy storage medium, because I think it works better for long-term storage of excess renewable energy than batteries, but I'd take the additional step of converting hydrogen to methane precisely because hydrogen is such a bugger to work with.

TheValiant · May 16

bondegezou said:

TheValiant said:

Nigelb said:
"Under CNN network rules, a candidate must be on enough state ballots to win an Electoral College majority and score 15 percent in at least four major national polls."

Will RFK Jnr qualify ?
I quite like this CNN rule and when the equivalent UK General Election debates come up I think something similar should be introduced.
Whilst some may disagree, I didn't want to see Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Woods on a main UK GE debate when it was not possible their party could win a majority (I know, I know, they could've formed a coalition). I'd have applied something like:

[AND: Must - Stand in at least 326 seats;]
[AND: Have 1 MP at dissolution
OR: Have polled 10% at the previous General Election]

At the moment, that would mean Labour, Conservatives meet all three, LD, Greens and Reform meet 1 and 2 (And therefore appear).
Having an MP is maybe too generous a rule. One nutter defects to your party and bingo. Reclaim had an MP until recently.

They've still got to stand in 326 seats. That can be quite difficult to do.
I hadn't realised it might get Galloway in the debates IF my rules were adopted (they're just 'my' rules) but if he makes the grade he makes the grade. Excluding someone on the grounds you don't like what they have to say.... isn't very democratic.

Nigelb · May 16

Love the flinch.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1790688574880489498

Definite ESB carbonite vibes, too.

Selebian · May 16

Eabhal said:

Carnyx said:
O/T but interesting piece on how it's possible to build cycle paths cheaply if one knows how to use the planning system and has lots of free labour (especially for @MattW ):

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/cycle-network-strawberry-line-somerset-volunteers

Obvious issues about it really only working out in the sticks rather than the urban jungle, but Shepton M is not that small a place.

And the emphasis of the article is on cycling (despite the notice in onw photo!).
Interesting. There is an awful lot of difficulty with landowners, including Network Rail who sit on land that would be perfect for cycle lanes (and indeed trams), even when there is plenty of funding available.

There is also a tension with the provision of off-road cycle networks in lieu of ones alongside roads. Women, in particular, do not like cycling along them in the dark, and the one factor that has a discernible effect on cycling rates is hours of daylight (often wrongly ascribed to the weather). Thus, adding good lighting is essential but massively increases costs and maintenance.

Yeah, I commute (partly) along an old railway-line turned cycle path. Very quiet in winter even at ~5pm and it does necessitate the kind of decent lights costing towards £100 that would also put some people off cycling.

I have wondered whether solar lighting would be enough, at least to cover commuting hours, but even that would probably cost a fortune over the distance.

In summer there are loads of commuters, families out for a walk/cycle etc. It's really nice to see. It's not just the lighting of course, but also the sense of there being a lack of people that puts people off - a self perpetuating problem.

Fairliered · May 16

TheValiant said:

bondegezou said:

TheValiant said:

Nigelb said:
"Under CNN network rules, a candidate must be on enough state ballots to win an Electoral College majority and score 15 percent in at least four major national polls."

Will RFK Jnr qualify ?
I quite like this CNN rule and when the equivalent UK General Election debates come up I think something similar should be introduced.
Whilst some may disagree, I didn't want to see Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Woods on a main UK GE debate when it was not possible their party could win a majority (I know, I know, they could've formed a coalition). I'd have applied something like:

[AND: Must - Stand in at least 326 seats;]
[AND: Have 1 MP at dissolution
OR: Have polled 10% at the previous General Election]

At the moment, that would mean Labour, Conservatives meet all three, LD, Greens and Reform meet 1 and 2 (And therefore appear).
Having an MP is maybe too generous a rule. One nutter defects to your party and bingo. Reclaim had an MP until recently.
They've still got to stand in 326 seats. That can be quite difficult to do.
I hadn't realised it might get Galloway in the debates IF my rules were adopted (they're just 'my' rules) but if he makes the grade he makes the grade. Excluding someone on the grounds you don't like what they have to say.... isn't very democratic.

Exactly. It would exclude the Tories, for example.

Northern_Al · May 16

I'm deeply disappointed that Labour's six pledges don't include a Civil Service lanyard policy.

HYUFD · May 16

Possible but unlikely the debate makes much difference. Mind you if Trump is convicted in his criminal trial and jailed or put under house arrest by the autumn it could end up the only debate between the two men

Selebian · May 16

Nigelb said:
Love the flinch.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1790688574880489498

Definite ESB carbonite vibes, too.

I personally find it shocking, in an election year*, for an official portrait to be so clearly partisan.

*well, election 12 months, anyway

Eabhal · May 16

Selebian said:

Eabhal said:

Carnyx said:
O/T but interesting piece on how it's possible to build cycle paths cheaply if one knows how to use the planning system and has lots of free labour (especially for @MattW ):

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/cycle-network-strawberry-line-somerset-volunteers

Obvious issues about it really only working out in the sticks rather than the urban jungle, but Shepton M is not that small a place.

And the emphasis of the article is on cycling (despite the notice in onw photo!).
Interesting. There is an awful lot of difficulty with landowners, including Network Rail who sit on land that would be perfect for cycle lanes (and indeed trams), even when there is plenty of funding available.

There is also a tension with the provision of off-road cycle networks in lieu of ones alongside roads. Women, in particular, do not like cycling along them in the dark, and the one factor that has a discernible effect on cycling rates is hours of daylight (often wrongly ascribed to the weather). Thus, adding good lighting is essential but massively increases costs and maintenance.
Yeah, I commute (partly) along an old railway-line turned cycle path. Very quiet in winter even at ~5pm and it does necessitate the kind of decent lights costing towards £100 that would also put some people off cycling.

I have wondered whether solar lighting would be enough, at least to cover commuting hours, but even that would probably cost a fortune over the distance.

In summer there are loads of commuters, families out for a walk/cycle etc. It's really nice to see. It's not just the lighting of course, but also the sense of there being a lack of people that puts people off - a self perpetuating problem.

I always forget about the cost. You're right - high-vis jacket, 2x lights included a 400+ lumen front light does not come cheap.

Selebian · May 16

Northern_Al said:
I'm deeply disappointed that Labour's six pledges don't include a Civil Service lanyard policy.

Maybe that comes under 'crack down on antisocial behaviour'!

Malmesbury · May 16

JosiasJessop said:

viewcode said:

Nigelb said:
Net zero U-turns will hit UK infrastructure, say government advisers

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/net-zero-u-turns-will-hit-uk-infrastructure-say-government-advisers
..The NIC found:

The government will fail to meet its targets on heat pump rollout.
The promised lifting of a ban on new onshore windfarms has not gone far enough.
Massive investment is needed in the electricity grid.
There is no proper plan for rail in the north and Midlands now that the northern leg of HS2 has been cancelled, severely inhibiting economic growth in those regions.
Water bills will need to go up to fix the sewage crisis, and more reservoirs are needed to avoid drought, while water companies have done too little to staunch leaks.
The UK lacks a coherent strategy on flooding, with more than 900,000 properties at risk of river or sea flooding and 910,000 at risk of surface water flooding.
Good progress has been made on the rollout of gigabit broadband around the country.

Armitt called for this government, and the next, to act swiftly. “It’s not too late to catch up in many of the areas we’ve highlighted, if the goals are matched with policies of sufficient scale. But the window is closing,” he said.

“Ducking big decisions over the next 12 months will put the major goals of net zero, regional economic growth, and environmental protection in jeopardy,” he warned.

Greater investment was needed in public transport, the NIC found. Uniquely in Europe, the UK’s second and third cities showed lower economic productivity than the national average, largely because of poor transport links, the review found.

The axing of the next phases of the HS2 high-speed rail project left a “critical gap” in rail connectivity between the Midlands and the north, with northern cities likely to “remain poorly served” without further investment.

Given long-term growth in demand “a do-nothing scenario north of the proposed connection of HS2 and the west coast mainline at Handsacre is not sustainable”, the report found.

The target of rolling out 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 to reach 7m homes by 2035 was way off track, the report found, while putting off a decision on hydrogen for home heating until 2026 had created uncertainty.

The next government should end new connections to Britain’s gas network from 2025, and ban the sale of new gas boilers for homes and fossil fuel heating in large commercial buildings by 2035, according to the report. It also called on the government to rule out subsidies for hydrogen heating...

The two highlighted items in particular are just economic stupidity from the government. I don't think there's any reasonable grounds to argue about that.
Holy Moly, are they really thinking of piping hydrogen to homes? That is the stupidest fucking decision in history. Any minister stupid enough to authorise that should be shot. We need to stop being governed by morons.
It's a mix of hydrogen and 'normal' gas. Apparently a certain percentage of H2 in the system will be fine...

There’s an interesting lack of experimental evidence on that one. Apart from the fact that town gas had a large component of hydrogen and not *too* many violent explosions occurred.

JosiasJessop · May 16

Eabhal said:

Carnyx said:
O/T but interesting piece on how it's possible to build cycle paths cheaply if one knows how to use the planning system and has lots of free labour (especially for @MattW ):

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/cycle-network-strawberry-line-somerset-volunteers

Obvious issues about it really only working out in the sticks rather than the urban jungle, but Shepton M is not that small a place.

And the emphasis of the article is on cycling (despite the notice in onw photo!).
Interesting. There is an awful lot of difficulty with landowners, including Network Rail who sit on land that would be perfect for cycle lanes (and indeed trams), even when there is plenty of funding available.

There is also a tension with the provision of off-road cycle networks in lieu of ones alongside roads. Women, in particular, do not like cycling along them in the dark, and the one factor that has a discernible effect on cycling rates is hours of daylight (often wrongly ascribed to the weather). Thus, adding good lighting is essential but massively increases costs and maintenance.

"including Network Rail who sit on land that would be perfect for cycle lanes"

Do you have examples? I can understand BRB (Residuals) / HA Historical Railways Estate having such land, but what are the NR examples?

Tracks alongside exiting railway lines are frequently used for access by workers, and probably would not be either safe or accessible to the public.

HYUFD · May 16

TimS said:

Carnyx said:

Nigelb said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
Nothing on housing.
Which was the only interesting policy they had.
That'd mean admitting the SNP got it right, and actually adopting SNP policies, which is a huge no-no in Labour circles up here in Scotland.

But tbf they have to save some goodies for later, anyway.
I suspect it’s more about not giving something for Tories to wave in NIMBY faces on the doorstep.

If anyone waves in Nimby faces it is the LDs

turbotubbs · May 16

JosiasJessop said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
I can't see how the UK can set up a border security comment to stop gangs arranging small boat crossings, when that organisation will be happening in France?

Also, why do we have to put 'Great' in 'Great British Energy'? In ye olden days, we did not have 'Great British Railways', 'Great British Telecom' or 'Great British Gas'.

It's naff.

Great Western Railway aka God's Wonderful Railway.

Mexicanpete · May 16

rottenborough said:
What's Sunak going to do about the takeover of Royal Mail?

If he has the free cash, load himself up with IDS* shares.

*Not shares in Iain Duncan -Smith

JosiasJessop · May 16

Nigelb said:

JosiasJessop said:

viewcode said:

Nigelb said:
Net zero U-turns will hit UK infrastructure, say government advisers

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/net-zero-u-turns-will-hit-uk-infrastructure-say-government-advisers
..The NIC found:

The government will fail to meet its targets on heat pump rollout.
The promised lifting of a ban on new onshore windfarms has not gone far enough.
Massive investment is needed in the electricity grid.
There is no proper plan for rail in the north and Midlands now that the northern leg of HS2 has been cancelled, severely inhibiting economic growth in those regions.
Water bills will need to go up to fix the sewage crisis, and more reservoirs are needed to avoid drought, while water companies have done too little to staunch leaks.
The UK lacks a coherent strategy on flooding, with more than 900,000 properties at risk of river or sea flooding and 910,000 at risk of surface water flooding.
Good progress has been made on the rollout of gigabit broadband around the country.

Armitt called for this government, and the next, to act swiftly. “It’s not too late to catch up in many of the areas we’ve highlighted, if the goals are matched with policies of sufficient scale. But the window is closing,” he said.

“Ducking big decisions over the next 12 months will put the major goals of net zero, regional economic growth, and environmental protection in jeopardy,” he warned.

Greater investment was needed in public transport, the NIC found. Uniquely in Europe, the UK’s second and third cities showed lower economic productivity than the national average, largely because of poor transport links, the review found.

The axing of the next phases of the HS2 high-speed rail project left a “critical gap” in rail connectivity between the Midlands and the north, with northern cities likely to “remain poorly served” without further investment.

Given long-term growth in demand “a do-nothing scenario north of the proposed connection of HS2 and the west coast mainline at Handsacre is not sustainable”, the report found.

The target of rolling out 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 to reach 7m homes by 2035 was way off track, the report found, while putting off a decision on hydrogen for home heating until 2026 had created uncertainty.

The next government should end new connections to Britain’s gas network from 2025, and ban the sale of new gas boilers for homes and fossil fuel heating in large commercial buildings by 2035, according to the report. It also called on the government to rule out subsidies for hydrogen heating...

The two highlighted items in particular are just economic stupidity from the government. I don't think there's any reasonable grounds to argue about that.
Holy Moly, are they really thinking of piping hydrogen to homes? That is the stupidest fucking decision in history. Any minister stupid enough to authorise that should be shot. We need to stop being governed by morons.
It's a mix of hydrogen and 'normal' gas. Apparently a certain percentage of H2 in the system will be fine...
Hydrogen for domestic heating is economically pointless, and practically very dubious indeed. Just bonkers.

A supposedly free market government has succumbed to industry lobbying, against all reason.

For clarity, I agree with you. I was just answering the question, and I hoped the ellipsis expressed doubt.

Cookie · May 16

Nigelb said:
Love the flinch.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1790688574880489498

Definite ESB carbonite vibes, too.

Is that really what the picture looks like? A massive disembodied head floating in a sea of red? Can artists not just paint a normal picture anymore?

Malmesbury · May 16

LostPassword said:

Malmesbury said:

viewcode said:

Nigelb said:
Net zero U-turns will hit UK infrastructure, say government advisers

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/net-zero-u-turns-will-hit-uk-infrastructure-say-government-advisers
..The NIC found:

The government will fail to meet its targets on heat pump rollout.
The promised lifting of a ban on new onshore windfarms has not gone far enough.
Massive investment is needed in the electricity grid.
There is no proper plan for rail in the north and Midlands now that the northern leg of HS2 has been cancelled, severely inhibiting economic growth in those regions.
Water bills will need to go up to fix the sewage crisis, and more reservoirs are needed to avoid drought, while water companies have done too little to staunch leaks.
The UK lacks a coherent strategy on flooding, with more than 900,000 properties at risk of river or sea flooding and 910,000 at risk of surface water flooding.
Good progress has been made on the rollout of gigabit broadband around the country.

Armitt called for this government, and the next, to act swiftly. “It’s not too late to catch up in many of the areas we’ve highlighted, if the goals are matched with policies of sufficient scale. But the window is closing,” he said.

“Ducking big decisions over the next 12 months will put the major goals of net zero, regional economic growth, and environmental protection in jeopardy,” he warned.

Greater investment was needed in public transport, the NIC found. Uniquely in Europe, the UK’s second and third cities showed lower economic productivity than the national average, largely because of poor transport links, the review found.

The axing of the next phases of the HS2 high-speed rail project left a “critical gap” in rail connectivity between the Midlands and the north, with northern cities likely to “remain poorly served” without further investment.

Given long-term growth in demand “a do-nothing scenario north of the proposed connection of HS2 and the west coast mainline at Handsacre is not sustainable”, the report found.

The target of rolling out 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 to reach 7m homes by 2035 was way off track, the report found, while putting off a decision on hydrogen for home heating until 2026 had created uncertainty.

The next government should end new connections to Britain’s gas network from 2025, and ban the sale of new gas boilers for homes and fossil fuel heating in large commercial buildings by 2035, according to the report. It also called on the government to rule out subsidies for hydrogen heating...

The two highlighted items in particular are just economic stupidity from the government. I don't think there's any reasonable grounds to argue about that.
Holy Moly, are they really thinking of piping hydrogen to homes? That is the stupidest fucking decision in history. Any minister stupid enough to authorise that should be shot. We need to stop being governed by morons.
The Hydrogen Religion continues it's march.

The hydrogen cycle - generate hydrogen, compress/liquify, store, transport and then use - is quite inefficient. Which is why batteries are winning for storage.

Hydrogen is perfectly safe. Just like petrol - which has more energy in it per kilo than TNT. As long as you remember how utterly fucking dangerous both are, you are safe.

In the case of hydrogen in the home, how are you going to achieve a sign off that compatible pipework has been fitted, leakproof to the required standard, without ripping out everything that is there already?
Only by the same fudges that gave us Grenfell. Let's not have anyone say we didn't see this problem in advance this time.

I'm quite a fan of using gas as an energy storage medium, because I think it works better for long-term storage of excess renewable energy than batteries, but I'd take the additional step of converting hydrogen to methane precisely because hydrogen is such a bugger to work with.

Ah yes. The Hydrogen Fix. Just add a carbon atom.

It is quite noticeable that the rocket industry is moving away from hydrogen to methane because of the storage issues. Hydrogen doesn’t pack well, so you have to have enormous tanks. Which loses most of the advantages of hydrogen for most rockets.

algarkirk · May 16

Selebian said:

numbertwelve said:

algarkirk said:

Nigelb said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
Nothing on housing.
Which was the only interesting policy they had.
Tbf they have an election to win, and lots of ways of losing it. Pat McFadden, who is a very safe pair of hands, was struggling this morning even to flesh out the meaning and delivery of these bland proposals in a way that wouldn't lead to the next set of challenges.
All interesting policies cost money. The next government starts with minus £2.1 trillion in the sock under the bed.

On another topic, for the BBC news website the top story in all the world this morning is some plumber putting misleading material on social media. This is deranged.
I probably sound like a broken record on here but this is exactly the issue with BBC News now. Farcical priorities, editorialising, celebrity-obsessed, cross-promoting.

It saddens me how it has gone downhill so rapidly.
It's a 'BBC investigation', you see, so must get top billing.

Slightly embarrassing, also, given the previous fawning BBC reports on the guy.

By what delusion is the BBC unable to see that this set of priorities is ludicrous and demeaning; and this on a day when someone tries to assassinate an EU prime minister in the middle of a major European war which has no sort of certain outcome?

HYUFD · May 16

LostPassword said:
New opinion poll in Ireland deprives Sinn Fein of its lead for the first time since June 2021.

Sinn Fein 23%
Fine Gael 23%
Fianna Fáil 20%
Greens 4%
Assorted small left-wing parties (5, 3, 2)%
Aontú 1%
Independents/Others 17%

Such a result would likely see the continuation of the FG/FF coalition, probably with the support of Independents rather than the Greens.

I'm really surprised. I'd thought that Mary-Lou McDonald had it signed, sealed and delivered. In a poll from the same firm (Ipsos) last September SF were ahead 34-18-20.

This all seems to be due to the immigration crisis. Even though the government is making a right hames of it, it has the appearance of a new crisis, and it's pushed all the old crises - like housing, or the health service - right out of the spotlight.

Oh dear, looks like the Republic again may reject Sinn Fein in favour of a centre right FF and FG coalition. Clearly voters in the South don't want a United Ireland if it means spreading Sinn Fein government rather than keeping it confined to Northern Ireland!

Nigelb · May 16

Selebian said:

Nigelb said:
Love the flinch.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1790688574880489498

Definite ESB carbonite vibes, too.
I personally find it shocking, in an election year*, for an official portrait to be so clearly partisan.

*well, election 12 months, anyway

Or it's just Duchy Originals strawberry jam branding ?

Selebian · May 16

Nigelb said:

Selebian said:

Nigelb said:
Love the flinch.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1790688574880489498

Definite ESB carbonite vibes, too.
I personally find it shocking, in an election year*, for an official portrait to be so clearly partisan.

*well, election 12 months, anyway
Or it's just Duchy Originals strawberry jam branding ?

Hmm, or sponsored on the sly by American Riviera Orchard?

Theuniondivvie · May 16

Selebian said:

Nigelb said:
Love the flinch.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1790688574880489498

Definite ESB carbonite vibes, too.
I personally find it shocking, in an election year*, for an official portrait to be so clearly partisan.

*well, election 12 months, anyway

Surely a subversive allusion to Chuck's..er..fantasies. Even a butterfly's wings to show he's a defender of all the products.

Nigelb · May 16

Northern_Al said:
I'm deeply disappointed that Labour's six pledges don't include a Civil Service lanyard policy.

The pledge card will come with attached lanyard.

Sandpit · May 16

Nigelb said:
Hinckley Point C consists of 2 1600MW reactors, and could end up costing over £40bn. The original contract was inked over a decade ago, and it's still half a decade away from operation.
https://www.nucnet.org/news/uk-nuclear-station-could-be-delayed-to-2031-and-cost-up-top-gbp46-billion-says-edf-1-3-2024

This is a contract for 4 x 1000MW reactors:

Doosan goes all out for Korea to win Czech nuclear plant project
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2024/05/419_374685.html
The Czech Republic plans to build up to four nuclear power plants in Dukovany and Temelin by 2036.

In collaboration with Doosan Enerbility and Daewoo E&C, KHNP is competing with EDF, a French government-owned electric utility company, to win the 30 trillion won ($22 billion) project...

Can anyone explain ?

The Koreans just finished building one out here in the sandpit. 4x1345MW, $24.4bn, 13 years from breaking ground to reactor #4 being commissioned.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barakah_nuclear_power_plant

They’re good at this stuff, and the UK should have bought their tech rather than - again - trying to re-invent the wheel.

Eabhal · May 16

JosiasJessop said:

Eabhal said:

Carnyx said:
O/T but interesting piece on how it's possible to build cycle paths cheaply if one knows how to use the planning system and has lots of free labour (especially for @MattW ):

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/cycle-network-strawberry-line-somerset-volunteers

Obvious issues about it really only working out in the sticks rather than the urban jungle, but Shepton M is not that small a place.

And the emphasis of the article is on cycling (despite the notice in onw photo!).
Interesting. There is an awful lot of difficulty with landowners, including Network Rail who sit on land that would be perfect for cycle lanes (and indeed trams), even when there is plenty of funding available.

There is also a tension with the provision of off-road cycle networks in lieu of ones alongside roads. Women, in particular, do not like cycling along them in the dark, and the one factor that has a discernible effect on cycling rates is hours of daylight (often wrongly ascribed to the weather). Thus, adding good lighting is essential but massively increases costs and maintenance.
"including Network Rail who sit on land that would be perfect for cycle lanes"

Do you have examples? I can understand BRB (Residuals) / HA Historical Railways Estate having such land, but what are the NR examples?

Tracks alongside exiting railway lines are frequently used for access by workers, and probably would not be either safe or accessible to the public.

My personal example is a closed freight line in Edinburgh. It's been in the council's plan for cycling for at least 6 years but apparently Network Rail are yet to provide a price for the purchase (and they have form for these kind of delays elsewhere, I'm told).

If it takes that long to provide a quote for a disused stretch of land for a cycle lane in the middle of the capital, you start to understand why nuclear energy takes such a long time!

HYUFD · May 16

TheValiant said:

Nigelb said:
"Under CNN network rules, a candidate must be on enough state ballots to win an Electoral College majority and score 15 percent in at least four major national polls."

Will RFK Jnr qualify ?
I quite like this CNN rule and when the equivalent UK General Election debates come up I think something similar should be introduced.
Whilst some may disagree, I didn't want to see Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Woods on a main UK GE debate when it was not possible their party could win a majority (I know, I know, they could've formed a coalition). I'd have applied something like:

[AND: Must - Stand in at least 326 seats;]
[AND: Have 1 MP at dissolution
OR: Have polled 10% at the previous General Election]

At the moment, that would mean Labour, Conservatives meet all three, LD, Greens and Reform meet 1 and 2 (And therefore appear).

We have a parliamentary general election and we won't be having a Presidential election like the US. So prior seats won not current polls rating is key.

You therefore couldn't exclude Swinney as leader of the third largest party at Westminster from any debate beyond a straight Sunak v Starmer head to head even if I am no SNP fan

turbotubbs · May 16

Cookie said:

Nigelb said:
Love the flinch.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1790688574880489498

Definite ESB carbonite vibes, too.
Is that really what the picture looks like? A massive disembodied head floating in a sea of red? Can artists not just paint a normal picture anymore?

See Sky's Portrait and Landscape Artist of the Year programmes. Yes, you can paint a perfectly well executed piece of art, but no, you will not beat someone who produces something 'challenging', such as painting the King in red on a red background, so that it looks ridiculous. Usually helps that the judges are the kind of idiots who thought Tracy Emin's unmade bed was great art. They usually contort themselves to find ways that rubbish art has a hidden message (but not hidden from the learned judges, who are enlightended).

My favourite was an artist who left large sections of the canvass blank (they only have 4 hours) and this was turned into a great idea of leaving things for the viewer to interpret (or some other guff). Reality - the artist hadn't painted fast enough...

Selebian · May 16

Theuniondivvie said:

Selebian said:

Nigelb said:
Love the flinch.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1790688574880489498

Definite ESB carbonite vibes, too.
I personally find it shocking, in an election year*, for an official portrait to be so clearly partisan.

*well, election 12 months, anyway
Surely a subversive allusion to Chuck's..er..fantasies. Even a butterfly's wings to show he's a defender of all the products.

It took me a moment to get that. However, once got it can't be un-got

Thanks very much

Carnyx · May 16

turbotubbs said:

Cookie said:

Nigelb said:
Love the flinch.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1790688574880489498

Definite ESB carbonite vibes, too.
Is that really what the picture looks like? A massive disembodied head floating in a sea of red? Can artists not just paint a normal picture anymore?
See Sky's Portrait and Landscape Artist of the Year programmes. Yes, you can paint a perfectly well executed piece of art, but no, you will not beat someone who produces something 'challenging', such as painting the King in red on a red background, so that it looks ridiculous. Usually helps that the judges are the kind of idiots who thought Tracy Emin's unmade bed was great art. They usually contort themselves to find ways that rubbish art has a hidden message (but not hidden from the learned judges, who are enlightended).

My favourite was an artist who left large sections of the canvass blank (they only have 4 hours) and this was turned into a great idea of leaving things for the viewer to interpret (or some other guff). Reality - the artist hadn't painted fast enough...

TBF if it is good enough for the Louvre, it's good enough for Sky.

https://www.wikiart.org/en/jacques-louis-david/unfinished-portrait-of-general-bonaparte-1798

Carnyx · May 16

Eabhal said:

JosiasJessop said:

Eabhal said:

Carnyx said:
O/T but interesting piece on how it's possible to build cycle paths cheaply if one knows how to use the planning system and has lots of free labour (especially for @MattW ):

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/cycle-network-strawberry-line-somerset-volunteers

Obvious issues about it really only working out in the sticks rather than the urban jungle, but Shepton M is not that small a place.

And the emphasis of the article is on cycling (despite the notice in onw photo!).
Interesting. There is an awful lot of difficulty with landowners, including Network Rail who sit on land that would be perfect for cycle lanes (and indeed trams), even when there is plenty of funding available.

There is also a tension with the provision of off-road cycle networks in lieu of ones alongside roads. Women, in particular, do not like cycling along them in the dark, and the one factor that has a discernible effect on cycling rates is hours of daylight (often wrongly ascribed to the weather). Thus, adding good lighting is essential but massively increases costs and maintenance.
"including Network Rail who sit on land that would be perfect for cycle lanes"

Do you have examples? I can understand BRB (Residuals) / HA Historical Railways Estate having such land, but what are the NR examples?

Tracks alongside exiting railway lines are frequently used for access by workers, and probably would not be either safe or accessible to the public.
My personal example is a closed freight line in Edinburgh. It's been in the council's plan for cycling for at least 6 years but apparently Network Rail are yet to provide a price for the purchase (and they have form for these kind of delays elsewhere, I'm told).

If it takes that long to provide a quote for a disused stretch of land for a cycle lane in the middle of the capital, you start to understand why nuclear energy takes such a long time!

Which line? It might be wanted for reinstatement as a rail link?

Anabobazina · May 16

bigjohnowls said:

bigjohnowls said:

TheValiant said:

Nigelb said:
"Under CNN network rules, a candidate must be on enough state ballots to win an Electoral College majority and score 15 percent in at least four major national polls."

Will RFK Jnr qualify ?
I quite like this CNN rule and when the equivalent UK General Election debates come up I think something similar should be introduced.
Whilst some may disagree, I didn't want to see Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Woods on a main UK GE debate when it was not possible their party could win a majority (I know, I know, they could've formed a coalition). I'd have applied something like:

[AND: Must - Stand in at least 326 seats;]
[AND: Have 1 MP at dissolution
OR: Have polled 10% at the previous General Election]

At the moment, that would mean Labour, Conservatives meet all three, LD, Greens and Reform meet 1 and 2 (And therefore appear).
Workers Party reckon they will stand in well over that number of seats so will be on George will make mincemeat of the other leaders could be very bad for Labour. They will definitely want to exclude him so will probably need to exclude Reform and Green unless they tweek the rules.
Actually thinking about it they will just exclude him on some spurious grounds so no need to publish the rule. Maybe first name and surname of participants cannot begin with same letter.

A No Homophobic Pricks rule would cover it.

Carnyx · May 16

Malmesbury said:

JosiasJessop said:

viewcode said:

Nigelb said:
Net zero U-turns will hit UK infrastructure, say government advisers

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/net-zero-u-turns-will-hit-uk-infrastructure-say-government-advisers
..The NIC found:

The government will fail to meet its targets on heat pump rollout.
The promised lifting of a ban on new onshore windfarms has not gone far enough.
Massive investment is needed in the electricity grid.
There is no proper plan for rail in the north and Midlands now that the northern leg of HS2 has been cancelled, severely inhibiting economic growth in those regions.
Water bills will need to go up to fix the sewage crisis, and more reservoirs are needed to avoid drought, while water companies have done too little to staunch leaks.
The UK lacks a coherent strategy on flooding, with more than 900,000 properties at risk of river or sea flooding and 910,000 at risk of surface water flooding.
Good progress has been made on the rollout of gigabit broadband around the country.

Armitt called for this government, and the next, to act swiftly. “It’s not too late to catch up in many of the areas we’ve highlighted, if the goals are matched with policies of sufficient scale. But the window is closing,” he said.

“Ducking big decisions over the next 12 months will put the major goals of net zero, regional economic growth, and environmental protection in jeopardy,” he warned.

Greater investment was needed in public transport, the NIC found. Uniquely in Europe, the UK’s second and third cities showed lower economic productivity than the national average, largely because of poor transport links, the review found.

The axing of the next phases of the HS2 high-speed rail project left a “critical gap” in rail connectivity between the Midlands and the north, with northern cities likely to “remain poorly served” without further investment.

Given long-term growth in demand “a do-nothing scenario north of the proposed connection of HS2 and the west coast mainline at Handsacre is not sustainable”, the report found.

The target of rolling out 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 to reach 7m homes by 2035 was way off track, the report found, while putting off a decision on hydrogen for home heating until 2026 had created uncertainty.

The next government should end new connections to Britain’s gas network from 2025, and ban the sale of new gas boilers for homes and fossil fuel heating in large commercial buildings by 2035, according to the report. It also called on the government to rule out subsidies for hydrogen heating...

The two highlighted items in particular are just economic stupidity from the government. I don't think there's any reasonable grounds to argue about that.
Holy Moly, are they really thinking of piping hydrogen to homes? That is the stupidest fucking decision in history. Any minister stupid enough to authorise that should be shot. We need to stop being governed by morons.
It's a mix of hydrogen and 'normal' gas. Apparently a certain percentage of H2 in the system will be fine...
There’s an interesting lack of experimental evidence on that one. Apart from the fact that town gas had a large component of hydrogen and not *too* many violent explosions occurred.

Carbon monoxide, too, so it's not a great safety precedent ...

Edit: But houses were draughtier then (had to be with fireplaces and chimneys).

Theuniondivvie · May 16

Selebian said:

Theuniondivvie said:

Selebian said:

Nigelb said:
Love the flinch.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1790688574880489498

Definite ESB carbonite vibes, too.
I personally find it shocking, in an election year*, for an official portrait to be so clearly partisan.

*well, election 12 months, anyway
Surely a subversive allusion to Chuck's..er..fantasies. Even a butterfly's wings to show he's a defender of all the products.
It took me a moment to get that. However, once got it can't be un-got Thanks very much

Sorry! No excuse but nicked from twitter.

OnlyLivingBoy · May 16

Cookie said:

Nigelb said:
Love the flinch.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1790688574880489498

Definite ESB carbonite vibes, too.
Is that really what the picture looks like? A massive disembodied head floating in a sea of red? Can artists not just paint a normal picture anymore?

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/article/2024/may/15/jonathan-yeo-portrait-of-charles-iii-review-a-cringeworthy-bit-of-facile-flattery

Jonathan Jones in the Guardian has a brilliantly negative 1* review.

Malmesbury · May 16

Carnyx said:

Malmesbury said:

JosiasJessop said:

viewcode said:

Nigelb said:
Net zero U-turns will hit UK infrastructure, say government advisers

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/net-zero-u-turns-will-hit-uk-infrastructure-say-government-advisers
..The NIC found:

The government will fail to meet its targets on heat pump rollout.
The promised lifting of a ban on new onshore windfarms has not gone far enough.
Massive investment is needed in the electricity grid.
There is no proper plan for rail in the north and Midlands now that the northern leg of HS2 has been cancelled, severely inhibiting economic growth in those regions.
Water bills will need to go up to fix the sewage crisis, and more reservoirs are needed to avoid drought, while water companies have done too little to staunch leaks.
The UK lacks a coherent strategy on flooding, with more than 900,000 properties at risk of river or sea flooding and 910,000 at risk of surface water flooding.
Good progress has been made on the rollout of gigabit broadband around the country.

Armitt called for this government, and the next, to act swiftly. “It’s not too late to catch up in many of the areas we’ve highlighted, if the goals are matched with policies of sufficient scale. But the window is closing,” he said.

“Ducking big decisions over the next 12 months will put the major goals of net zero, regional economic growth, and environmental protection in jeopardy,” he warned.

Greater investment was needed in public transport, the NIC found. Uniquely in Europe, the UK’s second and third cities showed lower economic productivity than the national average, largely because of poor transport links, the review found.

The axing of the next phases of the HS2 high-speed rail project left a “critical gap” in rail connectivity between the Midlands and the north, with northern cities likely to “remain poorly served” without further investment.

Given long-term growth in demand “a do-nothing scenario north of the proposed connection of HS2 and the west coast mainline at Handsacre is not sustainable”, the report found.

The target of rolling out 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 to reach 7m homes by 2035 was way off track, the report found, while putting off a decision on hydrogen for home heating until 2026 had created uncertainty.

The next government should end new connections to Britain’s gas network from 2025, and ban the sale of new gas boilers for homes and fossil fuel heating in large commercial buildings by 2035, according to the report. It also called on the government to rule out subsidies for hydrogen heating...

The two highlighted items in particular are just economic stupidity from the government. I don't think there's any reasonable grounds to argue about that.
Holy Moly, are they really thinking of piping hydrogen to homes? That is the stupidest fucking decision in history. Any minister stupid enough to authorise that should be shot. We need to stop being governed by morons.
It's a mix of hydrogen and 'normal' gas. Apparently a certain percentage of H2 in the system will be fine...
There’s an interesting lack of experimental evidence on that one. Apart from the fact that town gas had a large component of hydrogen and not *too* many violent explosions occurred.
Carbon monoxide, too, so it's not a great safety precedent ...

Edit: But houses were draughtier then (had to be with fireplaces and chimneys).

And multiple open flames, pretty much all the time, would have prevented build ups.

Malmesbury · May 16

Sandpit said:

Nigelb said:
Hinckley Point C consists of 2 1600MW reactors, and could end up costing over £40bn. The original contract was inked over a decade ago, and it's still half a decade away from operation.
https://www.nucnet.org/news/uk-nuclear-station-could-be-delayed-to-2031-and-cost-up-top-gbp46-billion-says-edf-1-3-2024

This is a contract for 4 x 1000MW reactors:

Doosan goes all out for Korea to win Czech nuclear plant project
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2024/05/419_374685.html
The Czech Republic plans to build up to four nuclear power plants in Dukovany and Temelin by 2036.

In collaboration with Doosan Enerbility and Daewoo E&C, KHNP is competing with EDF, a French government-owned electric utility company, to win the 30 trillion won ($22 billion) project...

Can anyone explain ?
The Koreans just finished building one out here in the sandpit. 4x1345MW, $24.4bn, 13 years from breaking ground to reactor #4 being commissioned.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barakah_nuclear_power_plant

They’re good at this stuff, and the UK should have bought their tech rather than - again - trying to re-invent the wheel.

But then, the reactors wouldn't have met the Unique British Requirements. Such as coming fitted for (but not with) octagonal wheels.

Ghedebrav · May 16

Tbh I think SKS’s pledges are solid, if vague (and they are election pitches, so that kind of goes with the territory).

Cautious, don’t-startle-the-horses stuff, which is what Labour need to be pitching to floating voters. The Con response is laughable, basically ‘we’ll fix the problems we have caused, honest’.

Phil · May 16

Malmesbury said:

Sandpit said:

Nigelb said:
Hinckley Point C consists of 2 1600MW reactors, and could end up costing over £40bn. The original contract was inked over a decade ago, and it's still half a decade away from operation.
https://www.nucnet.org/news/uk-nuclear-station-could-be-delayed-to-2031-and-cost-up-top-gbp46-billion-says-edf-1-3-2024

This is a contract for 4 x 1000MW reactors:

Doosan goes all out for Korea to win Czech nuclear plant project
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2024/05/419_374685.html
The Czech Republic plans to build up to four nuclear power plants in Dukovany and Temelin by 2036.

In collaboration with Doosan Enerbility and Daewoo E&C, KHNP is competing with EDF, a French government-owned electric utility company, to win the 30 trillion won ($22 billion) project...

Can anyone explain ?
The Koreans just finished building one out here in the sandpit. 4x1345MW, $24.4bn, 13 years from breaking ground to reactor #4 being commissioned.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barakah_nuclear_power_plant

They’re good at this stuff, and the UK should have bought their tech rather than - again - trying to re-invent the wheel.
But then, the reactors wouldn't have met the Unique British Requirements. Such as coming fitted for (but not with) octagonal wheels.

Is Sizewell C not a copy of the French plants also built by EDF?

Eabhal · May 16

Carnyx said:

Eabhal said:

JosiasJessop said:

Eabhal said:

Carnyx said:
O/T but interesting piece on how it's possible to build cycle paths cheaply if one knows how to use the planning system and has lots of free labour (especially for @MattW ):

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/cycle-network-strawberry-line-somerset-volunteers

Obvious issues about it really only working out in the sticks rather than the urban jungle, but Shepton M is not that small a place.

And the emphasis of the article is on cycling (despite the notice in onw photo!).
Interesting. There is an awful lot of difficulty with landowners, including Network Rail who sit on land that would be perfect for cycle lanes (and indeed trams), even when there is plenty of funding available.

There is also a tension with the provision of off-road cycle networks in lieu of ones alongside roads. Women, in particular, do not like cycling along them in the dark, and the one factor that has a discernible effect on cycling rates is hours of daylight (often wrongly ascribed to the weather). Thus, adding good lighting is essential but massively increases costs and maintenance.
"including Network Rail who sit on land that would be perfect for cycle lanes"

Do you have examples? I can understand BRB (Residuals) / HA Historical Railways Estate having such land, but what are the NR examples?

Tracks alongside exiting railway lines are frequently used for access by workers, and probably would not be either safe or accessible to the public.
My personal example is a closed freight line in Edinburgh. It's been in the council's plan for cycling for at least 6 years but apparently Network Rail are yet to provide a price for the purchase (and they have form for these kind of delays elsewhere, I'm told).

If it takes that long to provide a quote for a disused stretch of land for a cycle lane in the middle of the capital, you start to understand why nuclear energy takes such a long time!
Which line? It might be wanted for reinstatement as a rail link?

Powderhall.

CarlottaVance · May 16

JosiasJessop said:

viewcode said:

Nigelb said:
Net zero U-turns will hit UK infrastructure, say government advisers

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/16/net-zero-u-turns-will-hit-uk-infrastructure-say-government-advisers
..The NIC found:

The government will fail to meet its targets on heat pump rollout.
The promised lifting of a ban on new onshore windfarms has not gone far enough.
Massive investment is needed in the electricity grid.
There is no proper plan for rail in the north and Midlands now that the northern leg of HS2 has been cancelled, severely inhibiting economic growth in those regions.
Water bills will need to go up to fix the sewage crisis, and more reservoirs are needed to avoid drought, while water companies have done too little to staunch leaks.
The UK lacks a coherent strategy on flooding, with more than 900,000 properties at risk of river or sea flooding and 910,000 at risk of surface water flooding.
Good progress has been made on the rollout of gigabit broadband around the country.

Armitt called for this government, and the next, to act swiftly. “It’s not too late to catch up in many of the areas we’ve highlighted, if the goals are matched with policies of sufficient scale. But the window is closing,” he said.

“Ducking big decisions over the next 12 months will put the major goals of net zero, regional economic growth, and environmental protection in jeopardy,” he warned.

Greater investment was needed in public transport, the NIC found. Uniquely in Europe, the UK’s second and third cities showed lower economic productivity than the national average, largely because of poor transport links, the review found.

The axing of the next phases of the HS2 high-speed rail project left a “critical gap” in rail connectivity between the Midlands and the north, with northern cities likely to “remain poorly served” without further investment.

Given long-term growth in demand “a do-nothing scenario north of the proposed connection of HS2 and the west coast mainline at Handsacre is not sustainable”, the report found.

The target of rolling out 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 to reach 7m homes by 2035 was way off track, the report found, while putting off a decision on hydrogen for home heating until 2026 had created uncertainty.

The next government should end new connections to Britain’s gas network from 2025, and ban the sale of new gas boilers for homes and fossil fuel heating in large commercial buildings by 2035, according to the report. It also called on the government to rule out subsidies for hydrogen heating...

The two highlighted items in particular are just economic stupidity from the government. I don't think there's any reasonable grounds to argue about that.
Holy Moly, are they really thinking of piping hydrogen to homes? That is the stupidest fucking decision in history. Any minister stupid enough to authorise that should be shot. We need to stop being governed by morons.
It's a mix of hydrogen and 'normal' gas. Apparently a certain percentage of H2 in the system will be fine...

I'm not sure how mixing H2 with CH4 is going to increase the size of the H2 molecule which is what makes it jolly difficult to contain....

DecrepiterJohnL · May 16

Cookie said:

Nigelb said:
Love the flinch.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1790688574880489498

Definite ESB carbonite vibes, too.
Is that really what the picture looks like? A massive disembodied head floating in a sea of red? Can artists not just paint a normal picture anymore?

I guess the problem is that a lot of artists can't draw, and at the other end, hyperrealism is just a labour-intensive way of reproducing a photograph. Anyway, this is what Yeo does, paint heads on backgrounds. The alternative would be to draw in the King's suit (as in his famous Blair portrait with the red poppy) so it's swings and roundabouts. What I'm not a fan of is the fake-looking anatomical style of Lucien Freud.

Theuniondivvie · May 16

turbotubbs said:

Cookie said:

Nigelb said:
Love the flinch.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1790688574880489498

Definite ESB carbonite vibes, too.
Is that really what the picture looks like? A massive disembodied head floating in a sea of red? Can artists not just paint a normal picture anymore?
See Sky's Portrait and Landscape Artist of the Year programmes. Yes, you can paint a perfectly well executed piece of art, but no, you will not beat someone who produces something 'challenging', such as painting the King in red on a red background, so that it looks ridiculous. Usually helps that the judges are the kind of idiots who thought Tracy Emin's unmade bed was great art. They usually contort themselves to find ways that rubbish art has a hidden message (but not hidden from the learned judges, who are enlightended).

My favourite was an artist who left large sections of the canvass blank (they only have 4 hours) and this was turned into a great idea of leaving things for the viewer to interpret (or some other guff). Reality - the artist hadn't painted fast enough...

Not much of a fan of the new portrait (it's about as challenging as AI 'art'), but it's a fckload better than the last outing which would embarass a 5th former.

https://iln.co.uk/the-first-commissioned-portrait-of-king-charles-iii-revealed/

DecrepiterJohnL · May 16

AI and deepfakes blur reality in India elections
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-68918330

Sandpit · May 16

Malmesbury said:

Sandpit said:

Nigelb said:
Hinckley Point C consists of 2 1600MW reactors, and could end up costing over £40bn. The original contract was inked over a decade ago, and it's still half a decade away from operation.
https://www.nucnet.org/news/uk-nuclear-station-could-be-delayed-to-2031-and-cost-up-top-gbp46-billion-says-edf-1-3-2024

This is a contract for 4 x 1000MW reactors:

Doosan goes all out for Korea to win Czech nuclear plant project
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2024/05/419_374685.html
The Czech Republic plans to build up to four nuclear power plants in Dukovany and Temelin by 2036.

In collaboration with Doosan Enerbility and Daewoo E&C, KHNP is competing with EDF, a French government-owned electric utility company, to win the 30 trillion won ($22 billion) project...

Can anyone explain ?
The Koreans just finished building one out here in the sandpit. 4x1345MW, $24.4bn, 13 years from breaking ground to reactor #4 being commissioned.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barakah_nuclear_power_plant

They’re good at this stuff, and the UK should have bought their tech rather than - again - trying to re-invent the wheel.
But then, the reactors wouldn't have met the Unique British Requirements. Such as coming fitted for (but not with) octagonal wheels.

Oh indeed. Military procurement especially is full of this crap, just find something that works and buy it off the shelf. Think about customisation later.

That said, UK Gov should have placed the first order for half a dozen Rolls Royce SMRs, to get their production line up and running. Now it looks like the Chinese are going to win that race too. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-launches-first-commercial-onshore-small-reactor-project-2021-07-13/

megasaur · May 16

Selebian said:

numbertwelve said:

algarkirk said:

Nigelb said:

noneoftheabove said:
Starmers six pledges are horribly bland and minor. Probably the right call though for election purposes, just have to have fingers crossed they understand the job much better than this:

Sticking to tough spending rules in order to deliver economic stability

Cutting NHS waiting lists by providing 40,000 more appointments each week - funded by tackling tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes

Launching a border security command to stop the gangs arranging small boat crossings

Setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power energy company

Providing more neighbourhood police officers to reduce antisocial behaviour and introduced new penalties for offenders

Recruiting 6,500 teachers, paid for through ending tax breaks for private schools.
Nothing on housing.
Which was the only interesting policy they had.
Tbf they have an election to win, and lots of ways of losing it. Pat McFadden, who is a very safe pair of hands, was struggling this morning even to flesh out the meaning and delivery of these bland proposals in a way that wouldn't lead to the next set of challenges.
All interesting policies cost money. The next government starts with minus £2.1 trillion in the sock under the bed.

On another topic, for the BBC news website the top story in all the world this morning is some plumber putting misleading material on social media. This is deranged.
I probably sound like a broken record on here but this is exactly the issue with BBC News now. Farcical priorities, editorialising, celebrity-obsessed, cross-promoting.

It saddens me how it has gone downhill so rapidly.
It's a 'BBC investigation', you see, so must get top billing.

Slightly embarrassing, also, given the previous fawning BBC reports on the guy.

It's actually a brilliant story. It encapsulates everything you need to know about the state of the nation.

Ghedebrav · May 16

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Cookie said:

Nigelb said:
Love the flinch.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1790688574880489498

Definite ESB carbonite vibes, too.
Is that really what the picture looks like? A massive disembodied head floating in a sea of red? Can artists not just paint a normal picture anymore?
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/article/2024/may/15/jonathan-yeo-portrait-of-charles-iii-review-a-cringeworthy-bit-of-facile-flattery

Jonathan Jones in the Guardian has a brilliantly negative 1* review.

I cannot stand Jonathan Jones. A real-life Toast Of London caricature, only worse.

Whereas someone like Meades I often disagree with, but am entertained by, Jones is a windbag who never grew out being the biggest smartarse in the lower sixth.

Tres · May 16

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Cookie said:

Nigelb said:
Love the flinch.
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1790688574880489498

Definite ESB carbonite vibes, too.
Is that really what the picture looks like? A massive disembodied head floating in a sea of red? Can artists not just paint a normal picture anymore?
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/article/2024/may/15/jonathan-yeo-portrait-of-charles-iii-review-a-cringeworthy-bit-of-facile-flattery

Jonathan Jones in the Guardian has a brilliantly negative 1* review.

and this is the king in hell......

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