“A historic moment in the European Parliament: The so-called “firewall” against right-wing parties has fallen. Right-wing populists and conservatives joined forces and pushed through a major motion on the new Return Regulation.
Some Key points: ✅ Outsourcing asylum procedures via external return hubs ✅ DNA testing to verify the age of illegal migrants ✅ Lifetime entry bans for illegals
Now the work begins. As European patriots, we must spread this message to national and regional level. We must coordinate political parties, media, and activists.
The USA has the National Rifle Association. Europe needs a Continental Remigration Association. If we build it, we can save this continent. Massive white pill today.”
US President Donald Trump has again taken aim at the UK's military support in the Middle East, denigrating its aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, as "toys".
Speaking at the start of a White House Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Trump criticised the speed at which the UK sent help in the days following the joint Israeli-US attacks on Iran almost one month ago.
"We had the UK say that ‘we’ll send’ – this is three weeks ago – ‘we’ll send our aircraft carriers’, which aren’t the best aircraft carriers by the way," he said. "They're toys compared to what we have."
“But ‘we’ll send our aircraft carrier when the war is over’. I said ‘Oh that’s wonderful, thank you very much. Don’t bother. We don’t need it,'” he added.
US President Donald Trump has again taken aim at the UK's military support in the Middle East, denigrating its aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, as "toys".
Speaking at the start of a White House Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Trump criticised the speed at which the UK sent help in the days following the joint Israeli-US attacks on Iran almost one month ago.
"We had the UK say that ‘we’ll send’ – this is three weeks ago – ‘we’ll send our aircraft carriers’, which aren’t the best aircraft carriers by the way," he said. "They're toys compared to what we have."
“But ‘we’ll send our aircraft carrier when the war is over’. I said ‘Oh that’s wonderful, thank you very much. Don’t bother. We don’t need it,'” he added.
If the President has said several times that he doesn't need anyone's help, and ours in particular, I'm not even sure why there's any debate in government about doing absolutely nothing - even if he has made other comments about wanting or demanding assistance, his other comments show he will still belittle and bully us for doing so, so there's really no point at all.
“A historic moment in the European Parliament: The so-called “firewall” against right-wing parties has fallen. Right-wing populists and conservatives joined forces and pushed through a major motion on the new Return Regulation.
Some Key points: ✅ Outsourcing asylum procedures via external return hubs ✅ DNA testing to verify the age of illegal migrants ✅ Lifetime entry bans for illegals
Now the work begins. As European patriots, we must spread this message to national and regional level. We must coordinate political parties, media, and activists.
The USA has the National Rifle Association. Europe needs a Continental Remigration Association. If we build it, we can save this continent. Massive white pill today.”
“A historic moment in the European Parliament: The so-called “firewall” against right-wing parties has fallen. Right-wing populists and conservatives joined forces and pushed through a major motion on the new Return Regulation.
Some Key points: ✅ Outsourcing asylum procedures via external return hubs ✅ DNA testing to verify the age of illegal migrants ✅ Lifetime entry bans for illegals
Now the work begins. As European patriots, we must spread this message to national and regional level. We must coordinate political parties, media, and activists.
The USA has the National Rifle Association. Europe needs a Continental Remigration Association. If we build it, we can save this continent. Massive white pill today.”
I voted to Remain without much enthusiasm tbh but this makes me feel much better about the return. 😂
Indeed. If the EU turns Hard Right then I would be seriously tempted to Rejoin. Very seriously tempted
And it is quite possible if not probable
Demographics is Destiny
I remember a while back when the Far Right thought the unification of Europe was a good idea, and ironically the Daily Mail were all for a unified Europe. Good old Blighty stood then as the standard bearer for good and righteous self determined independent nation states.
I see Badenoch has once again visited the Magic Money Tree. "Help with Energy Bills" - well, yes, but what kind of help and from where? Is she going to compel energy companies to reduce prices? Is there going to be Government money to help with bills, if so, how much and from where is the shortfall to be met?
As for drilling in the North Sea, I yield willingly to the knowledge of @Richard_Tyndall and others on the subject. I presume even if we started tomorrow, any new North Sea oil wouldn't be piped ashore for some weeks or months or years? I presume we'd need refinery capacity for example.
To be fair, "Fuel Britannia" is quite catchy albeit meaningless.
It's utter crap.
It would take many months.
It may get more tax receipts but would be sold at global prices at a loss.
Fuel Britannia lorry with a conservative logo when the pump price is £2 is a real vote winner?
Cue "Clueless Kemi robbin us" stickers
She's clueless
Vast majority of under 30s and majority of under 50s very pro renewables
Like with her rush to war, her rush to oil is the polar opposite of visionary or progressive.
Of “the” markets, it’s actually the European Market the UK gas bills shaped by, not world market. Being up to eyebrows in mud and goo, I missed Richard T saying drilling for more Gas in the proposed new UK North Sea fields, DEFINITELY lowers UK Gas bills. No one can promise that.
Has anyone on PB explained how such a small UK contribution to the European network, from new Gas wells proposed for Jackdaw and Cambo for example, will shape Gas Price UK pays for it? Richard T knows this industry well, he knows it’s not possible.
UK has long been price takers, not price makers. At the proposed level of input being argued over, with these new licenses on hold, most the oil sold into the Euro market, UK bills are hardly going anywhere.
All Oil and gas resource from the UK North Sea is owned by private companies, not UK. Once a company is granted a licence to drill, the oil and gas belong to that company. And they sell it on international markets at prices good for them. What stops them? What is actually stopping about 80% of it going abroad and not to UK, which is about normal?
We’ve sold the cake. You can’t sell cake, and still own and control and eat same cake you sold off. I can’t hear anyone talking about quasi-nationalisation. Though Kemi was so in bed with policies of the unions at PMQs yesterday, she might be talking about Nationalisation by after Easter. Farage also loves a bit of Nationalisation too - it obviously fits the Britain First ideology.
As has been explained multiple times, the companies that extract oil and gas pay the U.K. government tax. Lots of it.
When the oil and gas prices zoom up, the U.K. government gets more tax.
This offsets the effect of rising oil prices - they can use the extra revenue to subsidise consumers or reduce taxes elsewhere.
Since we will be using oil and gas for a number of years, even under the most aggressive net zero plans, why not get some financial benefit here?
Okay let’s talk money. 🙂
Unlike Green Lobby, I am open minded how much more drilling licenses UK needs to issue, but let’s at least agree how much income it brings in to us, so we have some sort of scale exactly what the UK government can buy with it. I am happy to go first, so you can all laugh and shake your heads at my pathetic excuse of research.
This is how UK has been taxing. All these taxes are on profits from extraction, pre refining. Ring Fence Corporation Tax (30%): A fixed permanent tax on profits from oil and gas extraction in the UK. Supplementary Charge (10%): An additional fixed charge on these same profits. Energy Profits Levy (38%): is that "windfall tax" introduced in 2022 and increased to 38% on 1 November 2024, sounds good so far for helping UK coffers Malmsy? 🤑 But there’s a question how much this tax regime now deterring exploratory drilling and license applications. Don’t just take it from me posting it here research for yourselves, how this amount of tax along with depleting basin trickier to explore and extract from is deterring investment new license interest, especially regarding gas - major operators are on record explicitly stating these reasons for their scaling back and exiting going on.
Part two we come to the “sweeteners” cost of which we agree gets extracted from gross UK gets in tax, for a Net we get we can actually spend. It’s pointless talking gross. The UK government provides several significant "sweeteners"—primarily through tax relief—to encourage companies to invest in the North Sea. Companies can claim an 80% allowance on expenditure specifically used to decarbonise their production. For every £100 a company spends on "green" tech for their rigs, they reduce their tax bill by approximately £109. Companies combine different tax reliefs to drastically lower upfront cost of new projects. By stacking standard capital allowances specific reliefs, companies sometimes reclaim up to 91p for every £1 they invest. The post-tax cost of a big project like ongoing Rosebank can be as low as 9p on the pound for the private company. This important if you argue for quick fix from new drilling. What happens with new drilling, according to OBR, if the bigger projects like Rosebank and Jackdaw are approved and move into full construction, net tax revenue for UK government in the following few years could actually decrease or stay broadly flat - because of "first-year capital allowances" companies can deduct nearly 100% of their construction costs from their tax bills immediately. For the new Rosebank license alone that tax breaks can mean UK "foots the bill" for up to 84-91% of these new development costs. The cost of these "sweeteners" to UK is measured in billions of pounds—mostly tax the state chooses not to collect to encourage companies to keep drilling. What was double for the 91% relief rate is £19.6 billion less for UK between 2023 and 2026, according to the OBR.
Also while we are in detail on money, shall we add in who pays decommissioning costs from older fields? The Green Lobby likes to bring that up, but I’m sure renewables have decommissioning costs too for UK taxpayer to fund up to half the cost.
You know I have left a fair few Facebook groups over the last year because all they do is post AI slop. It is sad to see you are persisting in doing the same on PB.
There’s other nuances around to drill more or not drill than just government says yes. Here is an excellent legal example.
Rosebank. Maybe up to 500M barrels of more Oil waiting there to be harvested with new drilling. Drilling license for that not stopped by the Labour government license policy, but was blocked by a UK court as illegal license proposal.
It was a Scottish court, using precedent from UK Supreme Court, that in another ruling used UK Conservative Government laws, post the Brexit vote, when preparing UK for Brexit the Conservatives responsibly aligned EU standards into UK law.
Do you want that law changed to by pass such court blocking of the Rosebank license proposal? Equinor has recently resubmitted that request. If you have been reading my posts, Equinor is a construct majority owned by Norway government. Equinor holds an 80% stake in the Rosebank field, the vast majority of the project's net profits belong to the company. As the 67% owner, the Norwegian government receives a proportionate share of the dividends Equinor pays out from its global earnings.
As UK government sold off its black gold and smelless gas - it is watching Norway build an amazing Sovereign Wealth fund from the North Sea, using dividends from both their own basin - and “UK Basin.”
Quiz question. Why doesn’t UK set up an Oil Company 100% owned by UK government - Fuel Britannia or Kemi-cal Ltd - and give licenses to that one? Would it make money? Would UK get sued for theft under International Law?
I see Badenoch has once again visited the Magic Money Tree. "Help with Energy Bills" - well, yes, but what kind of help and from where? Is she going to compel energy companies to reduce prices? Is there going to be Government money to help with bills, if so, how much and from where is the shortfall to be met?
As for drilling in the North Sea, I yield willingly to the knowledge of @Richard_Tyndall and others on the subject. I presume even if we started tomorrow, any new North Sea oil wouldn't be piped ashore for some weeks or months or years? I presume we'd need refinery capacity for example.
To be fair, "Fuel Britannia" is quite catchy albeit meaningless.
It's utter crap.
It would take many months.
It may get more tax receipts but would be sold at global prices at a loss.
Fuel Britannia lorry with a conservative logo when the pump price is £2 is a real vote winner?
Cue "Clueless Kemi robbin us" stickers
She's clueless
Vast majority of under 30s and majority of under 50s very pro renewables
Like with her rush to war, her rush to oil is the polar opposite of visionary or progressive.
Of “the” markets, it’s actually the European Market the UK gas bills shaped by, not world market. Being up to eyebrows in mud and goo, I missed Richard T saying drilling for more Gas in the proposed new UK North Sea fields, DEFINITELY lowers UK Gas bills. No one can promise that.
Has anyone on PB explained how such a small UK contribution to the European network, from new Gas wells proposed for Jackdaw and Cambo for example, will shape Gas Price UK pays for it? Richard T knows this industry well, he knows it’s not possible.
UK has long been price takers, not price makers. At the proposed level of input being argued over, with these new licenses on hold, most the oil sold into the Euro market, UK bills are hardly going anywhere.
All Oil and gas resource from the UK North Sea is owned by private companies, not UK. Once a company is granted a licence to drill, the oil and gas belong to that company. And they sell it on international markets at prices good for them. What stops them? What is actually stopping about 80% of it going abroad and not to UK, which is about normal?
We’ve sold the cake. You can’t sell cake, and still own and control and eat same cake you sold off. I can’t hear anyone talking about quasi-nationalisation. Though Kemi was so in bed with policies of the unions at PMQs yesterday, she might be talking about Nationalisation by after Easter. Farage also loves a bit of Nationalisation too - it obviously fits the Britain First ideology.
As has been explained multiple times, the companies that extract oil and gas pay the U.K. government tax. Lots of it.
When the oil and gas prices zoom up, the U.K. government gets more tax.
This offsets the effect of rising oil prices - they can use the extra revenue to subsidise consumers or reduce taxes elsewhere.
Since we will be using oil and gas for a number of years, even under the most aggressive net zero plans, why not get some financial benefit here?
Okay let’s talk money. 🙂
Unlike Green Lobby, I am open minded how much more drilling licenses UK needs to issue, but let’s at least agree how much income it brings in to us, so we have some sort of scale exactly what the UK government can buy with it. I am happy to go first, so you can all laugh and shake your heads at my pathetic excuse of research.
This is how UK has been taxing. All these taxes are on profits from extraction, pre refining. Ring Fence Corporation Tax (30%): A fixed permanent tax on profits from oil and gas extraction in the UK. Supplementary Charge (10%): An additional fixed charge on these same profits. Energy Profits Levy (38%): is that "windfall tax" introduced in 2022 and increased to 38% on 1 November 2024, sounds good so far for helping UK coffers Malmsy? 🤑 But there’s a question how much this tax regime now deterring exploratory drilling and license applications. Don’t just take it from me posting it here research for yourselves, how this amount of tax along with depleting basin trickier to explore and extract from is deterring investment new license interest, especially regarding gas - major operators are on record explicitly stating these reasons for their scaling back and exiting going on.
Part two we come to the “sweeteners” cost of which we agree gets extracted from gross UK gets in tax, for a Net we get we can actually spend. It’s pointless talking gross. The UK government provides several significant "sweeteners"—primarily through tax relief—to encourage companies to invest in the North Sea. Companies can claim an 80% allowance on expenditure specifically used to decarbonise their production. For every £100 a company spends on "green" tech for their rigs, they reduce their tax bill by approximately £109. Companies combine different tax reliefs to drastically lower upfront cost of new projects. By stacking standard capital allowances specific reliefs, companies sometimes reclaim up to 91p for every £1 they invest. The post-tax cost of a big project like ongoing Rosebank can be as low as 9p on the pound for the private company. This important if you argue for quick fix from new drilling. What happens with new drilling, according to OBR, if the bigger projects like Rosebank and Jackdaw are approved and move into full construction, net tax revenue for UK government in the following few years could actually decrease or stay broadly flat - because of "first-year capital allowances" companies can deduct nearly 100% of their construction costs from their tax bills immediately. For the new Rosebank license alone that tax breaks can mean UK "foots the bill" for up to 84-91% of these new development costs. The cost of these "sweeteners" to UK is measured in billions of pounds—mostly tax the state chooses not to collect to encourage companies to keep drilling. What was double for the 91% relief rate is £19.6 billion less for UK between 2023 and 2026, according to the OBR.
Also while we are in detail on money, shall we add in who pays decommissioning costs from older fields? The Green Lobby likes to bring that up, but I’m sure renewables have decommissioning costs too for UK taxpayer to fund up to half the cost.
You know I have left a fair few Facebook groups over the last year because all they do is post AI slop. It is sad to see you are persisting in doing the same on PB.
Fortunately Vanilla designates posters who use AI (slop) a lot as spammers/bots.
The only books I read or listen to these days are biographies, or history books, or politics.
I haven't read any fiction since before the pandemic.
Any particular reason? I know people who have never really read fiction - which baffles me anyway - but shifting from doing so to not is different.
I just don't have the time, I was a prodigious reader of fiction, I love my sci-fi.
Plus it's a downside of WFH, I usually WFH 2 days a week, and I used to read during my train journeys.
For the last 3 decades I have aimed to read at least 100 books year. For the first 20 years I averaged between 80 and 90 but the last 8 years I have been averaging between 100 and 120 a year.
I didn't read much for some years, but for the last 6 years have done about 150 a year - cheating with some pretty short easy stuff in fairness.
On track for about 50 in 2026 as a whole though - trying to work through my unplayed Steam library instead!
I use my reading rate as an excuse to keep buying books. I have about 6000 books in my collection and have read about 4500 of them. I am 60 years old and at 100 books a year, if I live to be 80 then I can justify buying at least 500 more books.
I am sure once I reach that number I will find another excuse to keep buying.
Hmph, I've got 2000 at 40, so I am clearly running very far behind.
My 'unread' pile always never seems to get lower than 20 though...
I do have a distinct advantage in that I basically grew up in my Mum's bookshop from the age of 4.
Tom Skinner on QT now giving the voice of Essex Man with journalist Steve Richards' son, now a Labour MP and Tom Tugendhat and Layla Moran
Nothing at all wrong with cheeky chappie extreme right wing barrow boys. If it's not Farage himself on QT it's some Estuary English no mark surrogate twerp.
The only books I read or listen to these days are biographies, or history books, or politics.
I haven't read any fiction since before the pandemic.
Any particular reason? I know people who have never really read fiction - which baffles me anyway - but shifting from doing so to not is different.
I just don't have the time, I was a prodigious reader of fiction, I love my sci-fi.
Plus it's a downside of WFH, I usually WFH 2 days a week, and I used to read during my train journeys.
For the last 3 decades I have aimed to read at least 100 books year. For the first 20 years I averaged between 80 and 90 but the last 8 years I have been averaging between 100 and 120 a year.
I didn't read much for some years, but for the last 6 years have done about 150 a year - cheating with some pretty short easy stuff in fairness.
On track for about 50 in 2026 as a whole though - trying to work through my unplayed Steam library instead!
I use my reading rate as an excuse to keep buying books. I have about 6000 books in my collection and have read about 4500 of them. I am 60 years old and at 100 books a year, if I live to be 80 then I can justify buying at least 500 more books.
I am sure once I reach that number I will find another excuse to keep buying.
Hmph, I've got 2000 at 40, so I am clearly running very far behind.
My 'unread' pile always never seems to get lower than 20 though...
I do have a distinct advantage in that I basically grew up in my Mum's bookshop from the age of 4.
It’s one of the great and welcome wonders of the 21st century that people still love books. There was a fear at one point that things like Kindle etc would finish off physical books.
The only books I read or listen to these days are biographies, or history books, or politics.
I haven't read any fiction since before the pandemic.
Any particular reason? I know people who have never really read fiction - which baffles me anyway - but shifting from doing so to not is different.
I just don't have the time, I was a prodigious reader of fiction, I love my sci-fi.
Plus it's a downside of WFH, I usually WFH 2 days a week, and I used to read during my train journeys.
For the last 3 decades I have aimed to read at least 100 books year. For the first 20 years I averaged between 80 and 90 but the last 8 years I have been averaging between 100 and 120 a year.
I didn't read much for some years, but for the last 6 years have done about 150 a year - cheating with some pretty short easy stuff in fairness.
On track for about 50 in 2026 as a whole though - trying to work through my unplayed Steam library instead!
I use my reading rate as an excuse to keep buying books. I have about 6000 books in my collection and have read about 4500 of them. I am 60 years old and at 100 books a year, if I live to be 80 then I can justify buying at least 500 more books.
I am sure once I reach that number I will find another excuse to keep buying.
Hmph, I've got 2000 at 40, so I am clearly running very far behind.
My 'unread' pile always never seems to get lower than 20 though...
I do have a distinct advantage in that I basically grew up in my Mum's bookshop from the age of 4.
It’s one of the great and welcome wonders of the 21st century that people still love books. There was a fear at one point that things like Kindle etc would finish off physical books.
It’s one of the great and welcome wonders of the 21st century that people still love books. There was a fear at one point that things like Kindle etc would finish off physical books.
Book reading in general isn't doing well, but it is remarkable paper books were not swept away by e-books. Personally all my fiction reading is done on a Kindle, but I still buy paper non-fiction because they tend to work better in physical form.
Interestingly, talking with my neighbour's teenager and his friends they seem to be big enthusiasts for physical media of all types. One even commented he'd cancelled his Spotify subscription and put the money toward buying vinyl records because streaming 'devalues' the music experience.
I was fairly shocked to hear that. You couldn't pay me to go back to records and tapes, but then I grew up when those were the only option. I remember the inconvenience of them. Scratched or dirty records, chewed up tapes and an endless struggle to get decent sound quality.
The only books I read or listen to these days are biographies, or history books, or politics.
I haven't read any fiction since before the pandemic.
Any particular reason? I know people who have never really read fiction - which baffles me anyway - but shifting from doing so to not is different.
I just don't have the time, I was a prodigious reader of fiction, I love my sci-fi.
Plus it's a downside of WFH, I usually WFH 2 days a week, and I used to read during my train journeys.
For the last 3 decades I have aimed to read at least 100 books year. For the first 20 years I averaged between 80 and 90 but the last 8 years I have been averaging between 100 and 120 a year.
I didn't read much for some years, but for the last 6 years have done about 150 a year - cheating with some pretty short easy stuff in fairness.
On track for about 50 in 2026 as a whole though - trying to work through my unplayed Steam library instead!
I use my reading rate as an excuse to keep buying books. I have about 6000 books in my collection and have read about 4500 of them. I am 60 years old and at 100 books a year, if I live to be 80 then I can justify buying at least 500 more books.
I am sure once I reach that number I will find another excuse to keep buying.
Hmph, I've got 2000 at 40, so I am clearly running very far behind.
My 'unread' pile always never seems to get lower than 20 though...
I do have a distinct advantage in that I basically grew up in my Mum's bookshop from the age of 4.
It’s one of the great and welcome wonders of the 21st century that people still love books. There was a fear at one point that things like Kindle etc would finish off physical books.
I have something like 2000 books but I've never been particularly enraptured by the medium itself. They're a means of transmitting knowledge and entertainment and I've never been particularly bothered about whether I get the text I want through a printed page, an e-reader or a pair of headphones. Some books are beautiful in the same way that an antique vase is beautiful but I don't see why it's better to absorb the text it contains from said beautiful book than through an epub file. If some benign entity digitised every book ever published then I probably wouldn't buy another one unless I wanted it for decorative purposes.
The only books I read or listen to these days are biographies, or history books, or politics.
I haven't read any fiction since before the pandemic.
Any particular reason? I know people who have never really read fiction - which baffles me anyway - but shifting from doing so to not is different.
I just don't have the time, I was a prodigious reader of fiction, I love my sci-fi.
Plus it's a downside of WFH, I usually WFH 2 days a week, and I used to read during my train journeys.
For the last 3 decades I have aimed to read at least 100 books year. For the first 20 years I averaged between 80 and 90 but the last 8 years I have been averaging between 100 and 120 a year.
I didn't read much for some years, but for the last 6 years have done about 150 a year - cheating with some pretty short easy stuff in fairness.
On track for about 50 in 2026 as a whole though - trying to work through my unplayed Steam library instead!
I use my reading rate as an excuse to keep buying books. I have about 6000 books in my collection and have read about 4500 of them. I am 60 years old and at 100 books a year, if I live to be 80 then I can justify buying at least 500 more books.
I am sure once I reach that number I will find another excuse to keep buying.
Hmph, I've got 2000 at 40, so I am clearly running very far behind.
My 'unread' pile always never seems to get lower than 20 though...
I do have a distinct advantage in that I basically grew up in my Mum's bookshop from the age of 4.
It’s one of the great and welcome wonders of the 21st century that people still love books. There was a fear at one point that things like Kindle etc would finish off physical books.
I have something like 2000 books but I've never been particularly enraptured by the medium itself. They're a means of transmitting knowledge and entertainment and I've never been particularly bothered about whether I get the text I want through a printed page, an e-reader or a pair of headphones. Some books are beautiful in the same way that an antique vase is beautiful but I don't see why it's better to absorb the text it contains from said beautiful book than through an epub file. If some benign entity digitised every book ever published then I probably wouldn't buy another one unless I wanted it for decorative purposes.
I like to own and display things generally, so that includes books, but I have hundreds of digital ones either written or audio, rather than thinking physical pages are inherently better.
It’s one of the great and welcome wonders of the 21st century that people still love books. There was a fear at one point that things like Kindle etc would finish off physical books.
Book reading in general isn't doing well, but it is remarkable paper books were not swept away by e-books. Personally all my fiction reading is done on a Kindle, but I still buy paper non-fiction because they tend to work better in physical form.
Interestingly, talking with my neighbour's teenager and his friends they seem to be big enthusiasts for physical media of all types. One even commented he'd cancelled his Spotify subscription and put the money toward buying vinyl records because streaming 'devalues' the music experience.
I was fairly shocked to hear that. You couldn't pay me to go back to records and tapes, but then I grew up when those were the only option. I remember the inconvenience of them. Scratched or dirty records, chewed up tapes and an endless struggle to get decent sound quality.
I like people who want physical copies of things like vinyl, but if they do I prefer it be that hey just like collecting things rather than try to convince me it sounds better somehow (if it does for some people I sure cannot tell).
The only books I read or listen to these days are biographies, or history books, or politics.
I haven't read any fiction since before the pandemic.
Any particular reason? I know people who have never really read fiction - which baffles me anyway - but shifting from doing so to not is different.
I just don't have the time, I was a prodigious reader of fiction, I love my sci-fi.
Plus it's a downside of WFH, I usually WFH 2 days a week, and I used to read during my train journeys.
For the last 3 decades I have aimed to read at least 100 books year. For the first 20 years I averaged between 80 and 90 but the last 8 years I have been averaging between 100 and 120 a year.
I didn't read much for some years, but for the last 6 years have done about 150 a year - cheating with some pretty short easy stuff in fairness.
On track for about 50 in 2026 as a whole though - trying to work through my unplayed Steam library instead!
I use my reading rate as an excuse to keep buying books. I have about 6000 books in my collection and have read about 4500 of them. I am 60 years old and at 100 books a year, if I live to be 80 then I can justify buying at least 500 more books.
I am sure once I reach that number I will find another excuse to keep buying.
Hmph, I've got 2000 at 40, so I am clearly running very far behind.
My 'unread' pile always never seems to get lower than 20 though...
I do have a distinct advantage in that I basically grew up in my Mum's bookshop from the age of 4.
It’s one of the great and welcome wonders of the 21st century that people still love books. There was a fear at one point that things like Kindle etc would finish off physical books.
I have something like 2000 books but I've never been particularly enraptured by the medium itself. They're a means of transmitting knowledge and entertainment and I've never been particularly bothered about whether I get the text I want through a printed page, an e-reader or a pair of headphones. Some books are beautiful in the same way that an antique vase is beautiful but I don't see why it's better to absorb the text it contains from said beautiful book than through an epub file. If some benign entity digitised every book ever published then I probably wouldn't buy another one unless I wanted it for decorative purposes.
I like to own and display things generally, so that includes books, but I have hundreds of digital ones either written or audio, rather than thinking physical pages are inherently better.
Totally understand about the desire to display them. I just don't entirely understand why some people think they're being more authentic or something by reading a novel in paperback rather than on an e-reader. I do agree about owning things though which is why I will make sure that I have a non DRM version of any digital book I purchase.
I used to read a lot of books including fiction and really struggling at the moment. Decided to read my favourite novel by Kazuo Ishiguro and although I'm concentrating a lot better than others it's still taking me a lot longer than it used to.
Ellen Dew (Reform UK) – 769 Thomas William Smith (Labour Party) – 410 Sam Peter Hewson (Green Party) – 133 Joanne Louise Saunby (Local Conservatives) – 110 Alan Kelly (Liberal Democrats) – 47 Turnout was 17.36 per cent.
Axholme Central:
Caroline Ann Finch (Local Conservatives) – 925 Gerrad Farmer (Reform UK) – 668 Alex Ellis (Green Party) – 157 Matthew Thomas Rawcliffe (Labour Party) – 103 Michael David Shaw (Liberal Democrats) – 28 Turnout was 31.23 per cent.
The only books I read or listen to these days are biographies, or history books, or politics.
I haven't read any fiction since before the pandemic.
Any particular reason? I know people who have never really read fiction - which baffles me anyway - but shifting from doing so to not is different.
I just don't have the time, I was a prodigious reader of fiction, I love my sci-fi.
Plus it's a downside of WFH, I usually WFH 2 days a week, and I used to read during my train journeys.
For the last 3 decades I have aimed to read at least 100 books year. For the first 20 years I averaged between 80 and 90 but the last 8 years I have been averaging between 100 and 120 a year.
I didn't read much for some years, but for the last 6 years have done about 150 a year - cheating with some pretty short easy stuff in fairness.
On track for about 50 in 2026 as a whole though - trying to work through my unplayed Steam library instead!
I use my reading rate as an excuse to keep buying books. I have about 6000 books in my collection and have read about 4500 of them. I am 60 years old and at 100 books a year, if I live to be 80 then I can justify buying at least 500 more books.
I am sure once I reach that number I will find another excuse to keep buying.
Hmph, I've got 2000 at 40, so I am clearly running very far behind.
My 'unread' pile always never seems to get lower than 20 though...
I do have a distinct advantage in that I basically grew up in my Mum's bookshop from the age of 4.
It’s one of the great and welcome wonders of the 21st century that people still love books. There was a fear at one point that things like Kindle etc would finish off physical books.
I have something like 2000 books but I've never been particularly enraptured by the medium itself. They're a means of transmitting knowledge and entertainment and I've never been particularly bothered about whether I get the text I want through a printed page, an e-reader or a pair of headphones. Some books are beautiful in the same way that an antique vase is beautiful but I don't see why it's better to absorb the text it contains from said beautiful book than through an epub file. If some benign entity digitised every book ever published then I probably wouldn't buy another one unless I wanted it for decorative purposes.
I like to own and display things generally, so that includes books, but I have hundreds of digital ones either written or audio, rather than thinking physical pages are inherently better.
Totally understand about the desire to display them. I just don't entirely understand why some people think they're being more authentic or something by reading a novel in paperback rather than on an e-reader. I do agree about owning things though which is why I will make sure that I have a non DRM version of any digital book I purchase.
Plenty of people think the opposite of course, believing it's somehow better to read books on e-readers.
Whilst Reform will have wanted both Lincs seats, worth remembering North Lincs was the only part of Lincolnshire to vote Tory first in the mayoral election last year so it's not too surprising they held up well here.
Whilst Reform will have wanted both Lincs seats, worth remembering North Lincs was the only part of Lincolnshire to vote Tory first in the mayoral election last year so it's not too surprising they held up well here.
Isle of Axholme is very agri-rural. Epworth is a small market town on a hill above the Flatlands and the original home of the Wesleys.
Whilst Reform will have wanted both Lincs seats, worth remembering North Lincs was the only part of Lincolnshire to vote Tory first in the mayoral election last year so it's not too surprising they held up well here.
Isle of Axholme is very agri-rural. Epworth is the original home of the Wesleys and a small market town on a hill above the Flatlands.
Not Reform territory really.
No, fair comment although both Donny East/Isle of Axholme and Gainsborough which it's sandwiched between returned 20% plus Reform votes in 2024 so its right amongst prime Reform territory
Whilst Reform will have wanted both Lincs seats, worth remembering North Lincs was the only part of Lincolnshire to vote Tory first in the mayoral election last year so it's not too surprising they held up well here.
Isle of Axholme is very agri-rural. Epworth is the original home of the Wesleys and a small market town on a hill above the Flatlands.
Not Reform territory really.
No, fair comment although both Donny East/Isle of Axholme and Gainsborough which it's sandwiched between returned 20% plus Reform votes in 2024 so its right amongst prime Reform territory
Yes. I could see Axholme North going more Reform-ish as Crowle is a bit more down at heel than Epworth, but it is still essentially Big Farmer country.
Whilst Reform will have wanted both Lincs seats, worth remembering North Lincs was the only part of Lincolnshire to vote Tory first in the mayoral election last year so it's not too surprising they held up well here.
Isle of Axholme is very agri-rural. Epworth is the original home of the Wesleys and a small market town on a hill above the Flatlands.
Not Reform territory really.
No, fair comment although both Donny East/Isle of Axholme and Gainsborough which it's sandwiched between returned 20% plus Reform votes in 2024 so its right amongst prime Reform territory
Yes. I could see Axholme North going more Reform-ish as Crowle is a bit more down at heel than Epworth, but it is still essentially Big Farmer country.
Comments
Great goal and a great off the underside of the bar nearly goal from Dan James. Unfortunately a great headed equaliser from Bosnia.
Didn't want to go to Trump's crappy World Cup anyway.
And it is quite possible if not probable
Demographics is Destiny
Ex-Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki tells @StevenEdginton “the foundation of our continent should be based on our European Christian values”.
‘I’m worried about Britain becoming minority white-British’
He warns against Islamic “invasions” of European cultural life.
Rosebank. Maybe up to 500M barrels of more Oil waiting there to be harvested with new drilling. Drilling license for that not stopped by the Labour government license policy, but was blocked by a UK court as illegal license proposal.
It was a Scottish court, using precedent from UK Supreme Court, that in another ruling used UK Conservative Government laws, post the Brexit vote, when preparing UK for Brexit the Conservatives responsibly aligned EU standards into UK law.
Do you want that law changed to by pass such court blocking of the Rosebank license proposal? Equinor has recently resubmitted that request. If you have been reading my posts, Equinor is a construct majority owned by Norway government. Equinor holds an 80% stake in the Rosebank field, the vast majority of the project's net profits belong to the company. As the 67% owner, the Norwegian government receives a proportionate share of the dividends Equinor pays out from its global earnings.
As UK government sold off its black gold and smelless gas - it is watching Norway build an amazing Sovereign Wealth fund from the North Sea, using dividends from both their own basin - and “UK Basin.”
Quiz question. Why doesn’t UK set up an Oil Company 100% owned by UK government - Fuel Britannia or Kemi-cal Ltd - and give licenses to that one?
Would it make money?
Would UK get sued for theft under International Law?
He was Prime Minister for the Right Wing populists "Law and Justice"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_and_Justice
Mandy Rice-Davies applies AGAIN!
It’s really good, but has a quite peculiarly lingering lime aftertaste, but without the sweetness
It’s a decent beer, but it’s like an (unsweetened) alcopop at the same time
I want another one, but I don’t know if I love it..
Reading is in precipitous decline
Suggests the Tories aren't dead where folk are doing well for themselves.
Interestingly, talking with my neighbour's teenager and his friends they seem to be big enthusiasts for physical media of all types. One even commented he'd cancelled his Spotify subscription and put the money toward buying vinyl records because streaming 'devalues' the music experience.
I was fairly shocked to hear that. You couldn't pay me to go back to records and tapes, but then I grew up when those were the only option. I remember the inconvenience of them. Scratched or dirty records, chewed up tapes and an endless struggle to get decent sound quality.
Con 666 - 45.6% (+2.2)
LD 395 - 27.2% (-17.0)
RefUK 261 - 18.0% (new)
Green 115 - 7.9% (-4.5)
Lab 14 - 1.0% (new)
But so does a journey of a single step.
Farage would have to put his pint and fag down.
But he's already wearing driving gloves.
2 holds 1 gain for Con
1 gain for Reform
First cheerful Locals night for Con in a very long while
North Lincolnshire, Brumby:
Ellen Dew (Reform UK) – 769
Thomas William Smith (Labour Party) – 410
Sam Peter Hewson (Green Party) – 133
Joanne Louise Saunby (Local Conservatives) – 110
Alan Kelly (Liberal Democrats) – 47
Turnout was 17.36 per cent.
Axholme Central:
Caroline Ann Finch (Local Conservatives) – 925
Gerrad Farmer (Reform UK) – 668
Alex Ellis (Green Party) – 157
Matthew Thomas Rawcliffe (Labour Party) – 103
Michael David Shaw (Liberal Democrats) – 28
Turnout was 31.23 per cent.
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks, Halstead & al
Con: 561 44.2%
Ref: 378 29.8%
LD: 266 20.9%
Grn 65 5.1%
Not Reform territory really.
Scunthorpe, on the other hand... Eeech.