Listening to Trump presser for 40 mins. Rambling, repetitive stream of consciousness. Narcissistic in extreme. Every thought linked back to whether person or entity voted for or likes Trump. If Biden had delivered this there would have been serious concern about his health.
It's hardly new information that he is utterly obsessed with himself (and sadly being the most powerful man in the world has made so many of us unwittingly obsessed with him, giving him exactly what he wants), but it's still amazing to see how deep it is in action, and how people have to pretend to think there's nothing peculiar about it.
That's probably what caused a delay for the full throated support to come in properly, even the sycophants were unusual if it was serious. Once they realised it was, they ignore the above and just start in with the existential rhetoric.
Chagos was an open goal for Trump, and he's right. His narrative on Greenland is that 'Europe' (in Greenland's case Denmark) will fail to defend territories in its control, ceding more and more power until an independent Greenland is gobbled up by Chinese money.
That's exactly what has happened in Chagos. We can bung Mauritius all the money we want, but we cannot stop them gradually undermining the security of Diego Garcia (from an American perspective) by aligning progressively with China's ambitions in the region. We have been weak, and US security has suffered. It doesn't matter that we've stuffed the Mauritian's mouths with gold to do what we want - without it being British sovereign territory we have no ability to enforce it.
It also completely undermines Starmer's argument that the Greenlanders have a right to self determination. What self-determination has he given to the Chagossians? The man is a moral vacuum, totally unable to spot his own glaring hypocrisy.
Trump's argument isn't perfect. The biggest counterargument is that the US could have as many more soldiers in Greenland as it likes under the current arrangement.
However, the fact that Starmer's antipatriotic Chagos policy has given Trump a case study in European weakness to highlight is nobody's fault but Starmer's.
Don’t embarrass yourself further. Chagos a sign of European weakness? 🙄
America was in the room alongside the Indian government negotiating this deal for us to sign, to a deal they were both happy with and still very much are.
They know they were in the room - cheeky chappy Trump know of US in the deal when he truthsocialled to cause mischief. And you know US and India were in the room - we all bloody know the truth now - so don’t demean yourself pretending facts are otherwise.
Neither US or India are on side of us keeping any bit of Empire, and the Chagos ownership difficulties only escalated with India’s “no cooperation with UK till our friend Mauritius gets Chagos back from them” very hard soft power throughout that region, utterly undermining us.
Saying China so heavily involved with Mauritius so it’s a huge win for them, has been a huge red herring gasping to be called out and fried right from the start.
At no point has UK had any control over Chagos since we owned it on behalf of America, ethnic cleansed it on behalf of America, for mates rates on nuclear weaponry - a deal we are still stuck up to our eyebrows in today.
The British Prime minister has decided not to make an emergency trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos for a possible meeting with Donald Trump, I am told.
That has to be the first time he's ever passed up on the opportunity of an emergency trip abroad. It would have even got him out of PMQs!
Skinner stated "I love Trump I think he is brilliant, that's my opinion. I think it's good he is back in charge, it will be good for the UK economy".
He's a vile man, cheating on his wife days after they got married.
Was also convicted for handling stolen goods and drug possession.
That may also explain why he loves Trump...
Trump would pardon him for that sort of thing.
Cheating on wives is not illegal. During a recent leadership election, Conservatives were tripping over each other to tell of their drugs experiences. Believing Trump will be good for the British economy, on the other hand...
I did wonder then if Trump wanted to boast about doing it himself.
That Peace Prize isn't just gonna be given to him. He's gotta work the ticket.
He'll never get the Nobel. He may well get an indictment from a Norwegian court. I think we will see a blizzard of legal action inside the US too. That is, on the assumption that the courts escape being nobbled be the Mango Mussolini and his thuggish friends.
Castor oil tables all round.
The President is trying to sue to prevent all DoJs from *EVER* releasing the second volume of the Jack Smith report.
Given that Smiths testimony on volume one is public later this week, it suggests his Greenland antics could be part of his cover-up effort.
As a reminder, Smith says, on sworn record, that his report has undeniable proof that the President *knowingly* conspired to forge documents and steal the election, even if he lost. https://x.com/adamscochran/status/2013759064073732394
Families to save in biggest home upgrade plan in British history
Government launches Warm Homes Plan to upgrade the nation's homes, help families cut their energy bills, and tackle fuel poverty.
Government launches £15 billion Warm Homes Plan to help millions of families benefit from solar panels, batteries, heat pumps and insulation that can cut energy bills.
Greenland is not about defence. Greenland is about mineral rights and carving up the Arctic. So is Canada.
It's about Trump expanding the borders of the US. If there were lots of easily accessible minerals that would make the Greenlanders rich, they would have gotten foreign companies to extract them and lived high on the hog.
I did wonder then if Trump wanted to boast about doing it himself.
That Peace Prize isn't just gonna be given to him. He's gotta work the ticket.
He'll never get the Nobel. He may well get an indictment from a Norwegian court. I think we will see a blizzard of legal action inside the US too. That is, on the assumption that the courts escape being nobbled be the Mango Mussolini and his thuggish friends.
Castor oil tables all round.
The President is trying to sue to prevent all DoJs from *EVER* releasing the second volume of the Jack Smith report.
Given that Smiths testimony on volume one is public later this week, it suggests his Greenland antics could be part of his cover-up effort.
As a reminder, Smith says, on sworn record, that his report has undeniable proof that the President *knowingly* conspired to forge documents and steal the election, even if he lost. https://x.com/adamscochran/status/2013759064073732394
Incidentally, the post on X the post above links to, which has the original story, now seems to be shadow banned, as does its author Kyle Cheney.
The Tories may be stronger for losing some of these people but they need to watch their critical mass in terms of MPs.
It's hard to see where they get attention from, other than defections - they're getting close to LD obscurity.
The current very positive media attention and the increase in Kemi Badenoch's personal polling and uptick in the Conservative poll ratings would suggest otherwise, and it also now suggests they are far from facing LD obscurity. Not only has Kemi Badenoch been performing very well at weekly PMQs, you just have to look at the attention paid to her two day visit to Scotland and her media appearances back in London on Saturday while Farage and Jenrick took the weekend off...
The Tories may be stronger for losing some of these people but they need to watch their critical mass in terms of MPs.
It's hard to see where they get attention from, other than defections - they're getting close to LD obscurity.
The current very positive media attention and the increase in Kemi Badenoch's personal polling and uptick in the Conservative poll ratings would suggest otherwise, and it also now suggests they are far from facing LD obscurity. Not only has Kemi Badenoch been performing very well at weekly PMQs, you just have to look at the attention paid to her two day visit to Scotland and her media appearances back in London on Saturday while Farage and Jenrick took the weekend off...
To put this in context, I genuinely didn't know she did a two-day visit to Scotland. I assume some papers covered it but it really didn't impinge on me. Did anybody else notice this?
I did wonder then if Trump wanted to boast about doing it himself.
That Peace Prize isn't just gonna be given to him. He's gotta work the ticket.
He'll never get the Nobel. He may well get an indictment from a Norwegian court. I think we will see a blizzard of legal action inside the US too. That is, on the assumption that the courts escape being nobbled be the Mango Mussolini and his thuggish friends.
Castor oil tables all round.
The President is trying to sue to prevent all DoJs from *EVER* releasing the second volume of the Jack Smith report.
Given that Smiths testimony on volume one is public later this week, it suggests his Greenland antics could be part of his cover-up effort.
As a reminder, Smith says, on sworn record, that his report has undeniable proof that the President *knowingly* conspired to forge documents and steal the election, even if he lost. https://x.com/adamscochran/status/2013759064073732394
Incidentally, the post on X the post above links to, which has the original story, now seems to be shadow banned, as does its author Kyle Cheney.
Weird.
Why would it be weird for X under Musk to shadow ban things?
This effectively says that ICE - whose legal authority extends oniy to immigration enforcement, can target anyone.
ICE Associate Director Marcos Charles says that any individual that ICE agents encounter in, around, or in-route to a "target" is fair game for an interrogation, leaving the interviewer stunned. https://x.com/OfTheBraveUSA/status/2013354630051250456
That is, again, wildly unconstitutional/ illegal. But if the DoJ refuses to enforce the law, there's no practical legal remedy.
The Trump administration would not get an enabling act for his federally funded private army having power to target US citizens through Congress. But it doesn't have to if it simply ignores the law, and those who enforce federal law have been completely corrupted.
Greenland is not about defence. Greenland is about mineral rights and carving up the Arctic. So is Canada.
It's about Trump expanding the borders of the US. If there were lots of easily accessible minerals that would make the Greenlanders rich, they would have gotten foreign companies to extract them and lived high on the hog.
It is about carving up the Arctic seabed with Russia and China, which is why Trump wants both Greenland and Canada.
The Tories may be stronger for losing some of these people but they need to watch their critical mass in terms of MPs.
It's hard to see where they get attention from, other than defections - they're getting close to LD obscurity.
The current very positive media attention and the increase in Kemi Badenoch's personal polling and uptick in the Conservative poll ratings would suggest otherwise, and it also now suggests they are far from facing LD obscurity. Not only has Kemi Badenoch been performing very well at weekly PMQs, you just have to look at the attention paid to her two day visit to Scotland and her media appearances back in London on Saturday while Farage and Jenrick took the weekend off...
To put this in context, I genuinely didn't know she did a two-day visit to Scotland. I assume some papers covered it but it really didn't impinge on me. Did anybody else notice this?
Farage rushed back to London for that late afternoon press conference with Jenrick having 'appointed' Malcolm Offord as the new Scottish Reform leader without any debate or any sign of a democratic leadership election on Thursday morning and I must have missed even a fleeting glimpse of him with Reform's lone MSP Graham Simpson who didn't even get a look in that contest..
Meanwhile Kemi Badenoch stayed on and met the whole Scottish Conservative MSP team at Holyrood and continued to carry out engagements in the central belt with Russell Findlay and my MP Andrew Bowie into the evening. She then visited Aberdeen with them on Friday with a focus on the North Sea Oil and Gas industry. It was all over the media, and especially as the whole political Lobby at Westminster was really interested in her reaction to the Robert Jenrick defection, where did you think she was when she was being interviewed by them during that 48 hour period?....
Greenland is not about defence. Greenland is about mineral rights and carving up the Arctic. So is Canada.
It's about Trump expanding the borders of the US. If there were lots of easily accessible minerals that would make the Greenlanders rich, they would have gotten foreign companies to extract them and lived high on the hog.
It is about carving up the Arctic seabed with Russia and China, which is why Trump wants both Greenland and Canada.
I'm sorry, but that's simply not true. All the big mining companies have done core samples in Greenland. There have been lots of licenses for development and exploration issued over the years including Kvanefjeld, Citronen Fjord and Isua.
And they've found a bit of oil and gas, some iron/zinc and some smll reserves of various bits and pieces. But nothing that it is economically viable considering you have to build a massive amount of insfrastructure to extract it.
The Tories may be stronger for losing some of these people but they need to watch their critical mass in terms of MPs.
It's hard to see where they get attention from, other than defections - they're getting close to LD obscurity.
The current very positive media attention and the increase in Kemi Badenoch's personal polling and uptick in the Conservative poll ratings would suggest otherwise, and it also now suggests they are far from facing LD obscurity. Not only has Kemi Badenoch been performing very well at weekly PMQs, you just have to look at the attention paid to her two day visit to Scotland and her media appearances back in London on Saturday while Farage and Jenrick took the weekend off...
To put this in context, I genuinely didn't know she did a two-day visit to Scotland. I assume some papers covered it but it really didn't impinge on me. Did anybody else notice this?
Farage rushed back to London for that late afternoon press conference with Jenrick having 'appointed' Malcolm Offord as the new Scottish Reform leader without any debate or any sign of a democratic leadership election on Thursday morning and I must have missed even a fleeting glimpse of him with Reform's lone MSP Graham Simpson who didn't even get a look in that contest..
Meanwhile Kemi Badenoch stayed on and met the whole Scottish Conservative MSP team at Holyrood and continued to carry out engagements in the central belt with Russell Findlay and my MP Andrew Bowie into the evening. She then visited Aberdeen with them on Friday with a focus on the North Sea Oil and Gas industry. It was all over the media, and especially as the whole political Lobby at Westminster was really interested in her reaction to the Robert Jenrick defection, where did you think she was when she was being interviewed by them during that 48 hour period?....
I honestly don't know. I'm happy to accept that the visit took place and that it was reported by some newspapers/TV but the latest Trumpfart has been so loud as to drown out everything,
Families to save in biggest home upgrade plan in British history
Government launches Warm Homes Plan to upgrade the nation's homes, help families cut their energy bills, and tackle fuel poverty.
Government launches £15 billion Warm Homes Plan to help millions of families benefit from solar panels, batteries, heat pumps and insulation that can cut energy bills.
The Tories may be stronger for losing some of these people but they need to watch their critical mass in terms of MPs.
It's hard to see where they get attention from, other than defections - they're getting close to LD obscurity.
The current very positive media attention and the increase in Kemi Badenoch's personal polling and uptick in the Conservative poll ratings would suggest otherwise, and it also now suggests they are far from facing LD obscurity. Not only has Kemi Badenoch been performing very well at weekly PMQs, you just have to look at the attention paid to her two day visit to Scotland and her media appearances back in London on Saturday while Farage and Jenrick took the weekend off...
To put this in context, I genuinely didn't know she did a two-day visit to Scotland. I assume some papers covered it but it really didn't impinge on me. Did anybody else notice this?
Farage rushed back to London for that late afternoon press conference with Jenrick having 'appointed' Malcolm Offord as the new Scottish Reform leader without any debate or any sign of a democratic leadership election on Thursday morning and I must have missed even a fleeting glimpse of him with Reform's lone MSP Graham Simpson who didn't even get a look in that contest..
Meanwhile Kemi Badenoch stayed on and met the whole Scottish Conservative MSP team at Holyrood and continued to carry out engagements in the central belt with Russell Findlay and my MP Andrew Bowie into the evening. She then visited Aberdeen with them on Friday with a focus on the North Sea Oil and Gas industry. It was all over the media, and especially as the whole political Lobby at Westminster was really interested in her reaction to the Robert Jenrick defection, where did you think she was when she was being interviewed by them during that 48 hour period?....
I honestly don't know. I'm happy to accept that the visit took place and that it was reported by some newspapers/TV but the latest Trumpfart has been so loud as to drown out everything,
Agreed, I thought Trump's letter to the Norwegian PM yesterday was originally a parody until it was confirmed, and as for his press conference today, I thought I had entered the twilight zone!.... And then just to add to the bat s*** crazy news cycle over the last 48 hours Brooklyn Beckham tried to blow up brand Beckham! And so in amongst the very serious global and UK political drama we now have this celebrity psychodrama unfolding and sucking the oxygen out of the really serious news right now on the TV news channels and in the tabloid media print press.
Greenland is not about defence. Greenland is about mineral rights and carving up the Arctic. So is Canada.
It's about Trump expanding the borders of the US. If there were lots of easily accessible minerals that would make the Greenlanders rich, they would have gotten foreign companies to extract them and lived high on the hog.
It is about carving up the Arctic seabed with Russia and China, which is why Trump wants both Greenland and Canada.
I'm sorry, but that's simply not true. All the big mining companies have done core samples in Greenland. There have been lots of licenses for development and exploration issued over the years including Kvanefjeld, Citronen Fjord and Isua.
And they've found a bit of oil and gas, some iron/zinc and some smll reserves of various bits and pieces. But nothing that it is economically viable considering you have to build a massive amount of insfrastructure to extract it.
Yes but prices have rocketed in the last couple of years. Look at the price graph for any traded mineral. In any case, we are slightly conflating (or I am) two issues: commodities from the mainland (which comes from Lauder) and the carve-up of the Arctic seabed between Russia, China, and America/Canada/Greenland.
Families to save in biggest home upgrade plan in British history
Government launches Warm Homes Plan to upgrade the nation's homes, help families cut their energy bills, and tackle fuel poverty.
Government launches £15 billion Warm Homes Plan to help millions of families benefit from solar panels, batteries, heat pumps and insulation that can cut energy bills.
Does it help people who live in leasehold flats? Asking for a friend called "me".
Yes but over a longish period for landlords to make improvements. From the linked release:-
NEW PROTECTIONS FOR RENTERS:
Today, 1.6 million children live in private accommodation suffering from cold, damp, or mould.
The government believes in a simple principle that if you rent a home, private or social, a landlord has a responsibility to ensure that it is safe, warm, and affordable.
Greenland is not about defence. Greenland is about mineral rights and carving up the Arctic. So is Canada.
It's about Trump expanding the borders of the US. If there were lots of easily accessible minerals that would make the Greenlanders rich, they would have gotten foreign companies to extract them and lived high on the hog.
It is about carving up the Arctic seabed with Russia and China, which is why Trump wants both Greenland and Canada.
I'm sorry, but that's simply not true. All the big mining companies have done core samples in Greenland. There have been lots of licenses for development and exploration issued over the years including Kvanefjeld, Citronen Fjord and Isua.
And they've found a bit of oil and gas, some iron/zinc and some smll reserves of various bits and pieces. But nothing that it is economically viable considering you have to build a massive amount of insfrastructure to extract it.
Yes but prices have rocketed in the last couple of years. Look at the price graph for any traded mineral. In any case, we are slightly conflating (or I am) two issues: commodities from the mainland (which comes from Lauder) and the carve-up of the Arctic seabed between Russia, China, and America/Canada/Greenland.
Here's the thing: Rare Earths aren't rare, and it's really expensive to develop resources a long way away from anywhere.
Think about it for a second. There's somewhere in the middle of the Australian outback, or the Gobi Desert, Western Sahara, or Montana. Think how difficult it is to get people there, hardware there, to build a mine, and to build facilities to get ore out.
Now think about those costs in Greenland.
Your capital costs are going to be 100x what they are in other places. This isn't a case of "the Danes or Greenlanders forgot about it", it's the fact that your costs are out of the world high,
There are no Rare Earths that we don't know where there are massive reserves. It's just that the costs are high. And the costs in Greenland... they're two orders of magnitude higher than anywhere else.
Greenland is not about defence. Greenland is about mineral rights and carving up the Arctic. So is Canada.
It's about Trump expanding the borders of the US. If there were lots of easily accessible minerals that would make the Greenlanders rich, they would have gotten foreign companies to extract them and lived high on the hog.
It is about carving up the Arctic seabed with Russia and China, which is why Trump wants both Greenland and Canada.
I'm sorry, but that's simply not true. All the big mining companies have done core samples in Greenland. There have been lots of licenses for development and exploration issued over the years including Kvanefjeld, Citronen Fjord and Isua.
And they've found a bit of oil and gas, some iron/zinc and some smll reserves of various bits and pieces. But nothing that it is economically viable considering you have to build a massive amount of insfrastructure to extract it.
Yes but prices have rocketed in the last couple of years. Look at the price graph for any traded mineral. In any case, we are slightly conflating (or I am) two issues: commodities from the mainland (which comes from Lauder) and the carve-up of the Arctic seabed between Russia, China, and America/Canada/Greenland.
... between Russia, America (Alaska), and Trump's America (Canada and Greenland). (China only comes in via my other conspiracy theory that they want their bit of Siberia back, but that has not happened yet.)
The British Prime minister has decided not to make an emergency trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos for a possible meeting with Donald Trump, I am told.
Good. Trump needs to ignored by all his Western former allies. He got really needy when Mark Carney kept being unavailable for a call after he took over.
Yes.
Trump and his Maga Loofs want "America Alone", which is what they are creating for a few years in the future.
Let them have a taste now.
"Sorry, Ambassador, your President has proven that his method is to welch on his promises. So, frankly, there is not point."
Greenland is not about defence. Greenland is about mineral rights and carving up the Arctic. So is Canada.
It's about Trump expanding the borders of the US. If there were lots of easily accessible minerals that would make the Greenlanders rich, they would have gotten foreign companies to extract them and lived high on the hog.
It is about carving up the Arctic seabed with Russia and China, which is why Trump wants both Greenland and Canada.
I'm sorry, but that's simply not true. All the big mining companies have done core samples in Greenland. There have been lots of licenses for development and exploration issued over the years including Kvanefjeld, Citronen Fjord and Isua.
And they've found a bit of oil and gas, some iron/zinc and some smll reserves of various bits and pieces. But nothing that it is economically viable considering you have to build a massive amount of insfrastructure to extract it.
Yes but prices have rocketed in the last couple of years. Look at the price graph for any traded mineral. In any case, we are slightly conflating (or I am) two issues: commodities from the mainland (which comes from Lauder) and the carve-up of the Arctic seabed between Russia, China, and America/Canada/Greenland.
Here's the thing: Rare Earths aren't rare, and it's really expensive to develop resources a long way away from anywhere.
Think about it for a second. There's somewhere in the middle of the Australian outback, or the Gobi Desert, Western Sahara, or Montana. Think how difficult it is to get people there, hardware there, to build a mine, and to build facilities to get ore out.
Now think about those costs in Greenland.
Your capital costs are going to be 100x what they are in other places. This isn't a case of "the Danes or Greenlanders forgot about it", it's the fact that your costs are out of the world high,
There are no Rare Earths that we don't know where there are massive reserves. It's just that the costs are high. And the costs in Greenland... they're two orders of magnitude higher than anywhere else.
I doubt Trump thinks about it other than what Lauder has told him. We can draw a parallel with his ideas about Venezuelan oil. But in any case, even in the last year, prices of some metals have more than doubled.
Families to save in biggest home upgrade plan in British history
Government launches Warm Homes Plan to upgrade the nation's homes, help families cut their energy bills, and tackle fuel poverty.
Government launches £15 billion Warm Homes Plan to help millions of families benefit from solar panels, batteries, heat pumps and insulation that can cut energy bills.
Does it help people who live in leasehold flats? Asking for a friend called "me".
Yes but over a longish period for landlords to make improvements. From the linked release:-
NEW PROTECTIONS FOR RENTERS:
Today, 1.6 million children live in private accommodation suffering from cold, damp, or mould.
The government believes in a simple principle that if you rent a home, private or social, a landlord has a responsibility to ensure that it is safe, warm, and affordable.
Gregory Gregoriadis, scientist whose 1970s work on liposomes paved the way for Covid-19 vaccines He started his work in 1971 and went on to demonstrate that liposomes could also act as ‘immunological adjuvants’ to enhance vaccines. ... In 1997 he founded Lipoxen (now Xenetic Biosciences), a spin-off from the [London University] School of Pharmacy, now based in Boston, Massachusetts, to exploit liposome technologies, serving as its director of research until 2015. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/6a4a1ebafcf37fc7
Gift link so not paywalled.
Note that yet another British university spin-off company is, almost inevitably, now American! We really do need to sort out support for British innovation.
I did wonder then if Trump wanted to boast about doing it himself.
That Peace Prize isn't just gonna be given to him. He's gotta work the ticket.
He'll never get the Nobel. He may well get an indictment from a Norwegian court. I think we will see a blizzard of legal action inside the US too. That is, on the assumption that the courts escape being nobbled be the Mango Mussolini and his thuggish friends.
Castor oil tables all round.
The President is trying to sue to prevent all DoJs from *EVER* releasing the second volume of the Jack Smith report.
Given that Smiths testimony on volume one is public later this week, it suggests his Greenland antics could be part of his cover-up effort.
As a reminder, Smith says, on sworn record, that his report has undeniable proof that the President *knowingly* conspired to forge documents and steal the election, even if he lost. https://x.com/adamscochran/status/2013759064073732394
Incidentally, the post on X the post above links to, which has the original story, now seems to be shadow banned, as does its author Kyle Cheney.
Weird.
Why would it be weird for X under Musk to shadow ban things?
It's not: I've just never seen it before.
I could see the post (it was a real post by user I know), but I couldn't like it, and X told me its author didn't exist.
The British Prime minister has decided not to make an emergency trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos for a possible meeting with Donald Trump, I am told.
Good. Trump needs to ignored by all his Western former allies. He got really needy when Mark Carney kept being unavailable for a call after he took over.
Yes.
Trump and his Maga Loofs want "America Alone", which is what they are creating for a few years in the future.
Let them have a taste now.
"Sorry, Ambassador, your President has proven that his method is to welch on his promises. So, frankly, there is not point."
That was pretty much what Ursula Von Der Leyen said yesterday:
Families to save in biggest home upgrade plan in British history
Government launches Warm Homes Plan to upgrade the nation's homes, help families cut their energy bills, and tackle fuel poverty.
Government launches £15 billion Warm Homes Plan to help millions of families benefit from solar panels, batteries, heat pumps and insulation that can cut energy bills.
Does it help people who live in leasehold flats? Asking for a friend called "me".
Yes but over a longish period for landlords to make improvements. From the linked release:-
NEW PROTECTIONS FOR RENTERS:
Today, 1.6 million children live in private accommodation suffering from cold, damp, or mould.
The government believes in a simple principle that if you rent a home, private or social, a landlord has a responsibility to ensure that it is safe, warm, and affordable.
The most important questions here are competence, professionalism, certification of installer and adequate resources for regulation. I hope the scheme is run properly, which may be possible with a Labour rather than Tory Government, who history has shown cannot deal with schemes with more complex requirements (eg ECO4, Green Deal).
The ECO schemes were excellent for a decade, doing basic measures for 2.5 million homes (which is around 9% of the entire stock).
Then (aiui) ECO4 (2022-2026) it took in more complex measures like external and internal wall insulation and whole house renovation (and was aimed at relatively wealthier people than before), which significantly seal the house envelope and so traditional moisture dispersion / humidity control no longer work as traditional build relies on ventilation through gaps, airbricks etc.
So such a scheme requires consideration of ventilation alongside insulation. And it is therefore more complex.
But it seems it did no happen, so we have a lot of cases of black mould, damp houses, health impacts, and the need to scrape it all out again, with installers maintaining "it was done to laid down standards" as their out.
Families to save in biggest home upgrade plan in British history
Government launches Warm Homes Plan to upgrade the nation's homes, help families cut their energy bills, and tackle fuel poverty.
Government launches £15 billion Warm Homes Plan to help millions of families benefit from solar panels, batteries, heat pumps and insulation that can cut energy bills.
Does it help people who live in leasehold flats? Asking for a friend called "me".
Yes but over a longish period for landlords to make improvements. From the linked release:-
NEW PROTECTIONS FOR RENTERS:
Today, 1.6 million children live in private accommodation suffering from cold, damp, or mould.
The government believes in a simple principle that if you rent a home, private or social, a landlord has a responsibility to ensure that it is safe, warm, and affordable.
If you meant your friend is the leaseholder, that probably counts as owner.
Two important points:
1 - It includes support (not sure on the detail) for air to air heat pumps. 2 - It runs up until 2029, so there is time to plan a proper renovation programme.
And a word of personal advice.
3 - If your Double Glazing (2G) is more than say 10-12 years old, it may be worth looking at a replacement under the scheme if eligible, because 2G has come forward a long way since say 2010-2015 and performance of decent glass is not now far off what 3G used to do. The scheme seems to include low interest loans.
As well as energy bills, considerations can also be sound insulation and a pleasant environment.
My double glazing man (since the 1990s) was telling me at the weekend that alu has a much larger share of the market, which is up from ~10% to ~30% over 20 years.
It gets a barnacle off the underside of the boat and the actual people themselves don't want the transfer iirc.
The views of the Chagossians are mixed. Some support the transfer.
Is there some value in sticking to international law at this time? Can we see any examples where ignoring international law has led a country to poor decisions?
I am happy to return the Chagos to Mauritius and aid resettlement of the Chaggossians who wish to return there.
I don't see why we should pay to rent the US base their. Let the Yanks pay Mauritius.
When were the Chagos owned by Mauritius?
Until we illegally detached them in 1968 according to the UN and International Court of Justice:
The fact that we deported the Chaggossians to Mauritius and Seychelles indicates that we recognised that they were Mauritians. We denied them UK passports until 2002.
We did this purely in order to furnish the USA with a military base.
A fascinating little video (15-20 minutes) outlining the legal quicksand that Melania Trump has landed herself in by trying to intimate Michael Wolff into removing his reporting about her earlier life.
She sent him a Cease, Desist and Delete letter threatening a defamation suit thinking that intimidation would be energy, so he has jiu-jit-sued her back under NY Anti-Slapp law for a declaration that his reporting is not defamatory, and he can put her under examination during discovery.
Her response is a kind of Run Lola Run to avoid having court paperwork served on her. The lawyer won't accept it, neither will the doorman at Trump Tower, and now she is into "But I live in Florida". So she may now be put under examination to find out where she really lives.
Families to save in biggest home upgrade plan in British history
Government launches Warm Homes Plan to upgrade the nation's homes, help families cut their energy bills, and tackle fuel poverty.
Government launches £15 billion Warm Homes Plan to help millions of families benefit from solar panels, batteries, heat pumps and insulation that can cut energy bills.
Every time there is a campaign like this, it ends up with a crowd of cowboys setting up to take advantage of 'free money' - unless there are very strict rules on payback and audit trails.
A fascinating little video (15-20 minutes) outlining the legal quicksand that Melania Trump has landed herself in by trying to intimate Michael Wolff into removing his reporting about her earlier life.
She sent him a Cease, Desist and Delete letter threatening a defamation suit thinking that intimidation would be energy, so he has jiu-jit-sued her back under NY Anti-Slapp law for a declaration that his reporting is not defamatory, and he can put her under examination during discovery.
Her response is a kind of Run Lola Run to avoid having court paperwork served on her. The lawyer won't accept it, neither will the doorman at Trump Tower, and now she is into "But I live in Florida". So she may now be put under examination to find out where she really lives.
For those who haven't seen it Run Lola Run is one of the best films of the nineties, driven by a pulsating techno sound-track. It is currently on BFI Player:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he accepts the invitation of US President Donald Trump and will become a member of the Board of Peace, which is to be comprised of world leaders.
Families to save in biggest home upgrade plan in British history
Government launches Warm Homes Plan to upgrade the nation's homes, help families cut their energy bills, and tackle fuel poverty.
Government launches £15 billion Warm Homes Plan to help millions of families benefit from solar panels, batteries, heat pumps and insulation that can cut energy bills.
Revealed: Microsoft will this week unveil a sponsorship deal with the Mercedes Formula One team understood to be worth tens of millions of pounds annually, underlining the sport's resurgent appeal to the world's most valuable technology companies.
Revealed: Microsoft will this week unveil a sponsorship deal with the Mercedes Formula One team understood to be worth tens of millions of pounds annually, underlining the sport's resurgent appeal to the world's most valuable technology companies.
I feel sorry for Mercedes. Yes they get the sponsorship revenue, but they also get to fail as a team when all their screens go off mid race forcing yet another shitbox Windows security update.
Been meaning to ask: what the hell is this Board of Peace nonsense? And the fact Macron's not welcome but Putin is suggests its naming convention is akin to 1984's Ministry of Love.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he accepts the invitation of US President Donald Trump and will become a member of the Board of Peace, which is to be comprised of world leaders.
Been meaning to ask: what the hell is this Board of Peace nonsense? And the fact Macron's not welcome but Putin is suggests its naming convention is akin to 1984's Ministry of Love.
It's (another) Trump vanity project to replace the UN
Leaders pay $1bn dollars to join, Trump is the chairman. The chairman can never be replaced, only the chairman can appoint a successor.
Been meaning to ask: what the hell is this Board of Peace nonsense? And the fact Macron's not welcome but Putin is suggests its naming convention is akin to 1984's Ministry of Love.
It's (another) Trump vanity project to replace the UN
Leaders pay $1bn dollars to join, Trump is the chairman. The chairman can never be replaced, only the chairman can appoint a successor.
So... it's utterly pointless unless you want to shovel money into Trump's hands and undermine international law. Fantastic.
A fascinating little video (15-20 minutes) outlining the legal quicksand that Melania Trump has landed herself in by trying to intimate Michael Wolff into removing his reporting about her earlier life.
She sent him a Cease, Desist and Delete letter threatening a defamation suit thinking that intimidation would be energy, so he has jiu-jit-sued her back under NY Anti-Slapp law for a declaration that his reporting is not defamatory, and he can put her under examination during discovery.
Her response is a kind of Run Lola Run to avoid having court paperwork served on her. The lawyer won't accept it, neither will the doorman at Trump Tower, and now she is into "But I live in Florida". So she may now be put under examination to find out where she really lives.
For those who haven't seen it Run Lola Run is one of the best films of the nineties, driven by a pulsating techno sound-track. It is currently on BFI Player:
Chagos was an open goal for Trump, and he's right. His narrative on Greenland is that 'Europe' (in Greenland's case Denmark) will fail to defend territories in its control, ceding more and more power until an independent Greenland is gobbled up by Chinese money.
That's exactly what has happened in Chagos. We can bung Mauritius all the money we want, but we cannot stop them gradually undermining the security of Diego Garcia (from an American perspective) by aligning progressively with China's ambitions in the region. We have been weak, and US security has suffered. It doesn't matter that we've stuffed the Mauritian's mouths with gold to do what we want - without it being British sovereign territory we have no ability to enforce it.
It also completely undermines Starmer's argument that the Greenlanders have a right to self determination. What self-determination has he given to the Chagossians? The man is a moral vacuum, totally unable to spot his own glaring hypocrisy.
Trump's argument isn't perfect. The biggest counterargument is that the US could have as many more soldiers in Greenland as it likes under the current arrangement.
However, the fact that Starmer's antipatriotic Chagos policy has given Trump a case study in European weakness to highlight is nobody's fault but Starmer's.
Don’t embarrass yourself further. Chagos a sign of European weakness? 🙄
America was in the room alongside the Indian government negotiating this deal for us to sign, to a deal they were both happy with and still very much are.
They know they were in the room - cheeky chappy Trump know of US in the deal when he truthsocialled to cause mischief. And you know US and India were in the room - we all bloody know the truth now - so don’t demean yourself pretending facts are otherwise.
Neither US or India are on side of us keeping any bit of Empire, and the Chagos ownership difficulties only escalated with India’s “no cooperation with UK till our friend Mauritius gets Chagos back from them” very hard soft power throughout that region, utterly undermining us.
Saying China so heavily involved with Mauritius so it’s a huge win for them, has been a huge red herring gasping to be called out and fried right from the start.
At no point has UK had any control over Chagos since we owned it on behalf of America, ethnic cleansed it on behalf of America, for mates rates on nuclear weaponry - a deal we are still stuck up to our eyebrows in today.
Nice bizarre rant - next time you might try one that's in some way relevant to what I posted.
I've argued that the Chagos giveaway undermines US security - that was always the only conclusion possible following a reasoned assessement of the facts, it is no more or less true now Trump agrees, though I'm glad he does. The acquiescence or otherwise of the State department has nothing to do with it.
I'm glad that you feel you've 'fried the herring' of Chinese involvement, but you must have done so just in your brain, because you've not actually made an argument.
It remains a disaster and an international humiliation for Britain, and now after attending the opening of an envelope as long as it involved Scholz and Macron, Starmer refuses to go to the one international summit he might actually usefully attend.
A very tentative toe in the water for a future leadership bid? I wouldn't be surprised. Starmer's popularity problems are very real and filling in a lot of dots leads to very few possibilities. One of them being Rayner.
Been meaning to ask: what the hell is this Board of Peace nonsense? And the fact Macron's not welcome but Putin is suggests its naming convention is akin to 1984's Ministry of Love.
It's (another) Trump vanity project to replace the UN
Leaders pay $1bn dollars to join, Trump is the chairman. The chairman can never be replaced, only the chairman can appoint a successor.
So... it's utterly pointless unless you want to shovel money into Trump's hands and undermine international law. Fantastic.
It is quite funny that it's called the Board (Bored) of Peace though.
On Channel Five now: "Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law
At Clapham there's a major operation to clamp down on fare evasion. Nathan and Dan tackle an epidemic of ticketless travel between unstaffed stations and challenge a young fare dodger"
The sort of thing that ordinary voters care about.
You make a good point. I tried to think of a single occasion in my lifetime when anyone had shown a concern with fare dodging and I couldn't come up with one. I blame algorithms.
The reason there is any construction in the market at all is that in most of the developed world, mining and refining was stopped.
Not because reserves ran out, but because the refining process requires very careful management. The chemicals involved aare extremely nasty.
So it was much easier to buy from China etc. and shut down here.
Primary mines are being reopened, and just as importantly, refining rare earths from mine tailings (waste) from mines for other things is being restarted.
In addition, there are new processes to reduce the amount and toxicity of the chemical required for processing.
All the existing mines and tailings are vastly cheaper to work than hypothetical reserves in Greenland.
So an attempt to dig a mine in Greenland would run into it being cheaper to invest your money in an array of project, with quicker results.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he accepts the invitation of US President Donald Trump and will become a member of the Board of Peace, which is to be comprised of world leaders.
All the best* people.
*worst
Sir Keir and his team will be even more reluctant to refuse an invitation.
A very tentative toe in the water for a future leadership bid? I wouldn't be surprised. Starmer's popularity problems are very real and filling in a lot of dots leads to very few possibilities. One of them being Rayner.
Of course she’s on manoeuvres.
Why is it a good article ? It’s overly dramatic. Hard pressed leaseholders versus the wealthy. If it was not for people providing homes people would have nowhere to leave.
People buy these homes with open eyes and suddenly theyre victims ?
Sure, leasehold needs reform, but it strikes me as a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
They should also look at the rip off of holiday parks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he accepts the invitation of US President Donald Trump and will become a member of the Board of Peace, which is to be comprised of world leaders.
All the best* people.
*worst
Sir Keir and his team will be even more reluctant to refuse an invitation.
I has been suggested that the Netherlands offer to host the meetings. In the Hague
Something obscure I ran in to this morning in passing. From the Church Times in 1925:
Nativities to applaud, or not
December 24th, 1925.
WE WARMLY applaud the increasing fashion of performing Nativity plays as a regular part of the celebration of Christmas. But when such performances pass from the direction of the Church and merely become one more excuse for amusing charity, the productions are apt to become offensive. Indeed, they are only tolerable when the actors and the audiences are both inspired with the spirit of devotion. Religious people will have been shocked by a photograph, published this week, of an “angel” in a Nativity play helping to “make-up” the Madonna with a cigarette in her hand. We are shocked and amazed by the vulgarity of well-to-do, educated persons in permitting such a photograph to be taken and reproduced.
The reason there is any construction in the market at all is that in most of the developed world, mining and refining was stopped.
Not because reserves ran out, but because the refining process requires very careful management. The chemicals involved aare extremely nasty.
So it was much easier to buy from China etc. and shut down here.
Primary mines are being reopened, and just as importantly, refining rare earths from mine tailings (waste) from mines for other things is being restarted.
In addition, there are new processes to reduce the amount and toxicity of the chemical required for processing.
All the existing mines and tailings are vastly cheaper to work than hypothetical reserves in Greenland.
So an attempt to dig a mine in Greenland would run into it being cheaper to invest your money in an array of project, with quicker results.
Back in the old days, controlling land that had resources under it was the path to riches. The corollary of that was that leaving resources under the ground was insanity- there was gold in those hills, and it must be exploited.
When some people stopped thinking, that imperative extended to situations where the current cost of getting the stuff far exceeded its actual value. See Scargill and UK coal, Trump and Venezuelan oil, Trump and Greenland whatever's under all that snow and ice.
Question for UK media. We don't pay attention to every utterance, speech or presser for Putin, Modi or Xi. Why do we have wall-to-wall coverage of Trump?
Question for UK media. We don't pay attention to every utterance, speech or presser for Putin, Modi or Xi. Why do we have wall-to-wall coverage of Trump?
In the least surprising news of the day Radicanu is out.
So another coach bites the dust ...
There’ll come a time when Raducan’tu will realise it’s not necessarily the coach that is the issue.
Unfortunately there won't come a time when the public commentariat recognise that being the 29th best player in the world out of 40 million active female players globally, despite having significant injuries in each of the last four seasons is an amazing and laudable achievement that probably suggests she knows what she is doing better than we do.
Question for UK media. We don't pay attention to every utterance, speech or presser for Putin, Modi or Xi. Why do we have wall-to-wall coverage of Trump?
Because Putin and Xi don't have the capability to independently collapse our world order (short of nuclear war).
In the least surprising news of the day Radicanu is out.
So another coach bites the dust ...
There’ll come a time when Raducan’tu will realise it’s not necessarily the coach that is the issue.
Unfortunately there won't come a time when the public commentariat recognise that being the 29th best player in the world out of 40 million active female players globally, despite having significant injuries in each of the last four seasons is an amazing and laudable achievement that probably suggests she knows what she is doing better than we do.
I'm a runner not a tennis player, but if I was getting a significant injury every year, it would be because I was doing something wrong
In the least surprising news of the day Radicanu is out.
So another coach bites the dust ...
There’ll come a time when Raducan’tu will realise it’s not necessarily the coach that is the issue.
Raducanu's body is made of glass. A lot of promising footballers leave the game through injuries; even some established internationals. It is a crying shame because she has the talent, or had it.
Question for UK media. We don't pay attention to every utterance, speech or presser for Putin, Modi or Xi. Why do we have wall-to-wall coverage of Trump?
Because we haven't relied, ever since WWII, on deep strategic alliances with Russia, India or China, and are watching their foundations crumble to dust ?
In the least surprising news of the day Radicanu is out.
So another coach bites the dust ...
There’ll come a time when Raducan’tu will realise it’s not necessarily the coach that is the issue.
Unfortunately there won't come a time when the public commentariat recognise that being the 29th best player in the world out of 40 million active female players globally, despite having significant injuries in each of the last four seasons is an amazing and laudable achievement that probably suggests she knows what she is doing better than we do.
I'm a runner not a tennis player, but if I was getting a significant injury every year, it would be because I was doing something wrong
Do you have to chase ranking points each week to avoid getting drawn against the top seeds in your runs?
The reason there is any construction in the market at all is that in most of the developed world, mining and refining was stopped.
Not because reserves ran out, but because the refining process requires very careful management. The chemicals involved aare extremely nasty.
So it was much easier to buy from China etc. and shut down here.
Primary mines are being reopened, and just as importantly, refining rare earths from mine tailings (waste) from mines for other things is being restarted.
In addition, there are new processes to reduce the amount and toxicity of the chemical required for processing.
All the existing mines and tailings are vastly cheaper to work than hypothetical reserves in Greenland.
So an attempt to dig a mine in Greenland would run into it being cheaper to invest your money in an array of project, with quicker results.
Back in the old days, controlling land that had resources under it was the path to riches. The corollary of that was that leaving resources under the ground was insanity- there was gold in those hills, and it must be exploited.
When some people stopped thinking, that imperative extended to situations where the current cost of getting the stuff far exceeded its actual value. See Scargill and UK coal, Trump and Venezuelan oil, Trump and Greenland whatever's under all that snow and ice.
Scargill knew that costs were high and rising. The strike was about demanding an effective subsidy to preserve coal mining jobs no matter the cost.
Carney's speech yesterday. Watch from 11 minutes in. Extraordinarily powerful stuff, a must watch.
It is a real call to arms! Great stuff!
Indeed. When you consider just a few years ago he was up for rent. If it wasn't that our opposition was so tepid and we had viable alternatives that speech should have been terminal for Starmer
Question for UK media. We don't pay attention to every utterance, speech or presser for Putin, Modi or Xi. Why do we have wall-to-wall coverage of Trump?
Because Putin and Xi don't have the capability to independently collapse our world order (short of nuclear war).
Both having a go, Putin by invading a neighbour causing a cost of living crisis (which did for Biden and gave us Trump 2 - "this time he's pissed...") and Xi by no longer buying US debt.
Question for UK media. We don't pay attention to every utterance, speech or presser for Putin, Modi or Xi. Why do we have wall-to-wall coverage of Trump?
A better question for the media is why are they deliberately ignoring the fact that he gave every appearance of dementia last night ?
Question for UK media. We don't pay attention to every utterance, speech or presser for Putin, Modi or Xi. Why do we have wall-to-wall coverage of Trump?
A better question for the media is why are they deliberately ignoring the fact that he gave every appearance of dementia last night ?
Because they don't want to be sued for $20bn? Even spuriously so.
Question for UK media. We don't pay attention to every utterance, speech or presser for Putin, Modi or Xi. Why do we have wall-to-wall coverage of Trump?
A better question for the media is why are they deliberately ignoring the fact that he gave every appearance of dementia last night ?
Because if he's demented now, the follow up question is 'when was he last not demented?'
And answering that one opens all sorts of cans of worms.
In the least surprising news of the day Radicanu is out.
So another coach bites the dust ...
There’ll come a time when Raducan’tu will realise it’s not necessarily the coach that is the issue.
Unfortunately there won't come a time when the public commentariat recognise that being the 29th best player in the world out of 40 million active female players globally, despite having significant injuries in each of the last four seasons is an amazing and laudable achievement that probably suggests she knows what she is doing better than we do.
There was a famous still life photographer called Lester Bookbinder. A New Yorker who worked in London. One of his many sayings was there was no such thing as an almost perfect strawberry
Comments
America was in the room alongside the Indian government negotiating this deal for us to sign, to a deal they were both happy with and still very much are.
They know they were in the room - cheeky chappy Trump know of US in the deal when he truthsocialled to cause mischief. And you know US and India were in the room - we all bloody know the truth now - so don’t demean yourself pretending facts are otherwise.
Neither US or India are on side of us keeping any bit of Empire, and the Chagos ownership difficulties only escalated with India’s “no cooperation with UK till our friend Mauritius gets Chagos back from them” very hard soft power throughout that region, utterly undermining us.
Saying China so heavily involved with Mauritius so it’s a huge win for them, has been a huge red herring gasping to be called out and fried right from the start.
At no point has UK had any control over Chagos since we owned it on behalf of America, ethnic cleansed it on behalf of America, for mates rates on nuclear weaponry - a deal we are still stuck up to our eyebrows in today.
For now, I can’t see why the UK itself might want to cancel such a trip, but I can see where to go ahead would be considered an insult to Canada.
Given that Smiths testimony on volume one is public later this week, it suggests his Greenland antics could be part of his cover-up effort.
As a reminder, Smith says, on sworn record, that his report has undeniable proof that the President *knowingly* conspired to forge documents and steal the election, even if he lost.
https://x.com/adamscochran/status/2013759064073732394
Government launches Warm Homes Plan to upgrade the nation's homes, help families cut their energy bills, and tackle fuel poverty.
Government launches £15 billion Warm Homes Plan to help millions of families benefit from solar panels, batteries, heat pumps and insulation that can cut energy bills.
A plan for all types of households, with targeted interventions for those on low incomes; upgrades for social housing; new protections for renters; and a universal offer for all households to upgrade homes if and when they want to.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/families-to-save-in-biggest-home-upgrade-plan-in-british-history
Ed Miliband's press release (warning: long!)
Weird.
The President doesn't have any obvious signs of dementia. How likely is that?
ICE Associate Director Marcos Charles says that any individual that ICE agents encounter in, around, or in-route to a "target" is fair game for an interrogation, leaving the interviewer stunned.
https://x.com/OfTheBraveUSA/status/2013354630051250456
That is, again, wildly unconstitutional/ illegal.
But if the DoJ refuses to enforce the law, there's no practical legal remedy.
The Trump administration would not get an enabling act for his federally funded private army having power to target US citizens through Congress.
But it doesn't have to if it simply ignores the law, and those who enforce federal law have been completely corrupted.
As for minerals on the mainland, I doubt Denmark gave it much thought. It is only in the last few years that demand for rare earths and other metals has gone through the roof. Trump is said by John Bolton to have got the idea from his friend Ronald Lauder of Estée Lauder fame.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/15/ronald-lauder-billionaire-donor-donald-trump-ukraine-greenland
Meanwhile Kemi Badenoch stayed on and met the whole Scottish Conservative MSP team at Holyrood and continued to carry out engagements in the central belt with Russell Findlay and my MP Andrew Bowie into the evening. She then visited Aberdeen with them on Friday with a focus on the North Sea Oil and Gas industry. It was all over the media, and especially as the whole political Lobby at Westminster was really interested in her reaction to the Robert Jenrick defection, where did you think she was when she was being interviewed by them during that 48 hour period?....
And they've found a bit of oil and gas, some iron/zinc and some smll reserves of various bits and pieces. But nothing that it is economically viable considering you have to build a massive amount of insfrastructure to extract it.
NEW PROTECTIONS FOR RENTERS:
Today, 1.6 million children live in private accommodation suffering from cold, damp, or mould.
The government believes in a simple principle that if you rent a home, private or social, a landlord has a responsibility to ensure that it is safe, warm, and affordable.
By updating protections for renters, and supporting landlords to make these upgrades in a fair way over several years, an estimated half a million families will be lifted out of fuel poverty by the end of the decade.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/families-to-save-in-biggest-home-upgrade-plan-in-british-history
Think about it for a second. There's somewhere in the middle of the Australian outback, or the Gobi Desert, Western Sahara, or Montana. Think how difficult it is to get people there, hardware there, to build a mine, and to build facilities to get ore out.
Now think about those costs in Greenland.
Your capital costs are going to be 100x what they are in other places. This isn't a case of "the Danes or Greenlanders forgot about it", it's the fact that your costs are out of the world high,
There are no Rare Earths that we don't know where there are massive reserves. It's just that the costs are high. And the costs in Greenland... they're two orders of magnitude higher than anywhere else.
Trump and his Maga Loofs want "America Alone", which is what they are creating for a few years in the future.
Let them have a taste now.
"Sorry, Ambassador, your President has proven that his method is to welch on his promises. So, frankly, there is not point."
He started his work in 1971 and went on to demonstrate that liposomes could also act as ‘immunological adjuvants’ to enhance vaccines.
...
In 1997 he founded Lipoxen (now Xenetic Biosciences), a spin-off from the [London University] School of Pharmacy, now based in Boston, Massachusetts, to exploit liposome technologies, serving as its director of research until 2015.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/6a4a1ebafcf37fc7
Gift link so not paywalled.
Note that yet another British university spin-off company is, almost inevitably, now American! We really do need to sort out support for British innovation.
I could see the post (it was a real post by user I know), but I couldn't like it, and X told me its author didn't exist.
That seemed ... weird.
https://bsky.app/profile/vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu/post/3mcu355pyx22b
The ECO schemes were excellent for a decade, doing basic measures for 2.5 million homes (which is around 9% of the entire stock).
Then (aiui) ECO4 (2022-2026) it took in more complex measures like external and internal wall insulation and whole house renovation (and was aimed at relatively wealthier people than before), which significantly seal the house envelope and so traditional moisture dispersion / humidity control no longer work as traditional build relies on ventilation through gaps, airbricks etc.
So such a scheme requires consideration of ventilation alongside insulation. And it is therefore more complex.
But it seems it did no happen, so we have a lot of cases of black mould, damp houses, health impacts, and the need to scrape it all out again, with installers maintaining "it was done to laid down standards" as their out.
My fingers are crossed for something better.
Everybody got their hopes up for a minute, but the Mad King is now on another plane heading for Zurich
1 - It includes support (not sure on the detail) for air to air heat pumps.
2 - It runs up until 2029, so there is time to plan a proper renovation programme.
And a word of personal advice.
3 - If your Double Glazing (2G) is more than say 10-12 years old, it may be worth looking at a replacement under the scheme if eligible, because 2G has come forward a long way since say 2010-2015 and performance of decent glass is not now far off what 3G used to do. The scheme seems to include low interest loans.
As well as energy bills, considerations can also be sound insulation and a pleasant environment.
My double glazing man (since the 1990s) was telling me at the weekend that alu has a much larger share of the market, which is up from ~10% to ~30% over 20 years.
I recommend it to everyone.
His point about international law is an excellent answer to those who say it doesn't exist.
https://www.icj-cij.org/case/169
The fact that we deported the Chaggossians to Mauritius and Seychelles indicates that we recognised that they were Mauritians. We denied them UK passports until 2002.
We did this purely in order to furnish the USA with a military base.
If only we had someone so clear sighted and eloquent in charge here.
She sent him a Cease, Desist and Delete letter threatening a defamation suit thinking that intimidation would be energy, so he has jiu-jit-sued her back under NY Anti-Slapp law for a declaration that his reporting is not defamatory, and he can put her under examination during discovery.
Her response is a kind of Run Lola Run to avoid having court paperwork served on her. The lawyer won't accept it, neither will the doorman at Trump Tower, and now she is into "But I live in Florida". So she may now be put under examination to find out where she really lives.
Great fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaxT5i27EPI
https://youtu.be/ZCYnsUdO6H0?si=KWOfhLJIuwLEHSJN
I don't think Melania can run like that.
They might both miss, in which case, no issue.
One of them might kill the other, in which case, shit happens.
But there's just a chance they might kill each other which would be a good outcome.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Class_Twit_of_the_Year
Tell DJT that there is a prize and he'll probably be up for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1Ym5iUPIfk
https://x.com/ianbremmer/status/2013751945450680640?s=61
Companies set up, scam people, then fold and people end up screwed.
Well done Rachel, another winner.
Been meaning to ask: what the hell is this Board of Peace nonsense? And the fact Macron's not welcome but Putin is suggests its naming convention is akin to 1984's Ministry of Love.
Leaders pay $1bn dollars to join, Trump is the chairman. The chairman can never be replaced, only the chairman can appoint a successor.
I've argued that the Chagos giveaway undermines US security - that was always the only conclusion possible following a reasoned assessement of the facts, it is no more or less true now Trump agrees, though I'm glad he does. The acquiescence or otherwise of the State department has nothing to do with it.
I'm glad that you feel you've 'fried the herring' of Chinese involvement, but you must have done so just in your brain, because you've not actually made an argument.
It remains a disaster and an international humiliation for Britain, and now after attending the opening of an envelope as long as it involved Scholz and Macron, Starmer refuses to go to the one international summit he might actually usefully attend.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2026/jan/20/angela-rayner-urges-starmer-keep-promise-leasehold-reform
A very tentative toe in the water for a future leadership bid? I wouldn't be surprised. Starmer's popularity problems are very real and filling in a lot of dots leads to very few possibilities. One of them being Rayner.
So another coach bites the dust ...
So far the "Board of Peace" is Trump, Orban, Lukaschenko and Netanyahu.
Which if you wrote in a satire would be considered too outlandish and sent back.
And Modi on the bench.
Carney's speech yesterday. Watch from 11 minutes in. Extraordinarily powerful stuff, a must watch.
The reason there is any construction in the market at all is that in most of the developed world, mining and refining was stopped.
Not because reserves ran out, but because the refining process requires very careful management. The chemicals involved aare extremely nasty.
So it was much easier to buy from China etc. and shut down here.
Primary mines are being reopened, and just as importantly, refining rare earths from mine tailings (waste) from mines for other things is being restarted.
In addition, there are new processes to reduce the amount and toxicity of the chemical required for processing.
All the existing mines and tailings are vastly cheaper to work than hypothetical reserves in Greenland.
So an attempt to dig a mine in Greenland would run into it being cheaper to invest your money in an array of project, with quicker results.
*worst
Sir Keir and his team will be even more reluctant to refuse an invitation.
Why is it a good article ? It’s overly dramatic. Hard pressed leaseholders versus the wealthy. If it was not for people providing homes people would have nowhere to leave.
People buy these homes with open eyes and suddenly theyre victims ?
Sure, leasehold needs reform, but it strikes me as a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
They should also look at the rip off of holiday parks.
Something obscure I ran in to this morning in passing. From the Church Times in 1925:
Nativities to applaud, or not
December 24th, 1925.
WE WARMLY applaud the increasing fashion of performing Nativity plays as a regular part of the celebration of Christmas. But when such performances pass from the direction of the Church and merely become one more excuse for amusing charity, the productions are apt to become offensive. Indeed, they are only tolerable when the actors and the audiences are both inspired with the spirit of devotion. Religious people will have been shocked by a photograph, published this week, of an “angel” in a Nativity play helping to “make-up” the Madonna with a cigarette in her hand. We are shocked and amazed by the vulgarity of well-to-do, educated persons in permitting such a photograph to be taken and reproduced.
https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2025/19-december/regulars/100-years-ago/100-years-ago-what-church-of-england-statistics-show
When some people stopped thinking, that imperative extended to situations where the current cost of getting the stuff far exceeded its actual value. See Scargill and UK coal, Trump and Venezuelan oil, Trump and Greenland whatever's under all that snow and ice.
In related news I believe Starmer isn't going to Davos
It's the most clear sighted account of the changing world we are facing and how countries like the UK should be responding.
Would recommend watching it all.
Trump is much more stupid.
No Mr President, the UK is actually paying billions to hand the islands to Mauritius.
It's a surprisingly deep expression of a coherent political philosophy.
And answering that one opens all sorts of cans of worms.