Kerslake: level of toxicity is extraordinary...very serious indeed...wouldn’t have happened under Theresa May or any previous government. This is bigger than previous scandals...it’s about the whole way government works, does it act with honesty and integrity?
It really isn't bigger and it has happened under previous governments.
Tim Montgomerie: What matters is how much proof Cummings has of the allegations.
It’s been the rumour in Westminster and Whitehall for a long time that there is a big difference between the PM’s outgoings, his expenditure, and the prime ministerial salary, and people wonder how these two things are bridged. The refurbishment of Downing Street is the first time we have had a concrete example of how that gap, between the income he gets from all of us as taxpayers, and potentially the outgoings he has, has reached into a form that we can speculate about...the continued inquiry into that gap, and how it is made up, could be the thing that really starts to dog the premiership.
I calculated that the differential between the price per KW of electricity and natural gas supplied to my house (2.3p vs 12.8p) is so great I could theoretically save money by generating my electricity with a gas powered genset, despite its inefficiencies.
For apartment complexes with shared heating and hot water, you can use combined heat and power units and then your effective efficiencies are pretty high.
Bear in mind, though, that you can't have the entire country generating electricity at home from natural gas, because the local gas distribution grid has perhaps a fifth of the capacity that is needed.
I wasn't suggesting this is to be encouraged, more pointing out that green electricity can't possibly be claimed to be cheap compared to natural gas if its even remotely economic to generate your own electricity from gas. When idly considering this concept, I think I reckoned that the electricity cost was probably comparable with the grid, and I then got the free heating from the cooling water as a byproduct.
The UK's gas grid probably wouldn't be that overstretched if this did catch on (you can actually get combi boilers that also generate electricity when running) - my annual electricity usage is less than 20% of my gas usage, and that's probably pretty typical. Even at 25% efficiency, that's only going to double my gas consumption.
I was actually looking into this as a "hey save money by generating your own electricity" business, and got into the numbers in some detail. Which is why I know it works for (many) apartment complexes.
The problem with doing in on a more widespread basis is that most (a) most people use more joules of electricity than of gas, and (b) electricity demand varies quite a lot with the time of day. So - unless you want Tesla PowerWalls in every home - you're limited by peak demand.
As an aside, banning gas for home heating is utterly retarded. Natural gas is a super efficient way to heat homes.
We can't fit a carbon capture plant onto the flue from everybody's boiler. Therefore we need to decarbonise centrally by converting natural gas to hydrogen and using hydrogen as the fuel of choice for central heating. With carbon capture at the 'blue' hydrogen plants.
We can also use the hydrogen to decarbonise heavy transport - road, rail, marine.
Tim Montgomerie: What matters is how much proof Cummings has of the allegations.
It’s been the rumour in Westminster and Whitehall for a long time that there is a big difference between the PM’s outgoings, his expenditure, and the prime ministerial salary, and people wonder how these two things are bridged. The refurbishment of Downing Street is the first time we have had a concrete example of how that gap, between the income he gets from all of us as taxpayers, and potentially the outgoings he has, has reached into a form that we can speculate about...the continued inquiry into that gap, and how it is made up, could be the thing that really starts to dog the premiership.
It's clear to anyone who has done any research on Johnson that's he got a lot of skeletons in the closet and he's done and been involved in some deeply dodgy stuff in the past.
Only a few weeks ago there were tens of thousands of people at cricket stadiums in India, many of them not wearing masks or practising social distancing.
Hubris. We would be wise to beware of it ourselves. As much as I tire of the restrictions, and indeed believe we could just a little faster, we still need to be vigilant.
I think the situation is a reverse of the boy who cried wolf. Johnson has learnt to be cautious when we've finally reached the stage of not needing to be. Farcical.
Personally I am resolved to wait for my vaccine, but the level of vaccination in the country as a whole already removes any public health justification for emergency restrictions on liberty.
I think you are probably right. We are running scared of cases in a population that would most likely have a mild to moderate disease at best, and accumulating evidence that the 33 million who have had at least one dose are incredibly well protected. I think last years breezy optimism has scared and scarred those taking decisions.
Look at Chile, though.
I don't expect another, worse than we've had so far, wave here, but I don't see how the chances of that happening can be lower than 10%. I do a lot of things, like wearing seat belts and life jackets, as a precaution against events which have a less than 0.1% chance of happening...
We still have legal restrictions on whether people can visit our private homes. This is very far removed from seatbelts as a restriction.
It's amazing how much people have ingested these restrictions on our liberty. I found myself today googling can I go to an art gallery before I caught myself in the absurdity of it all.
Well, we've taken the view that it would be damned silly to catch the virus when we're so close to being vaccinated, so the restrictions are neither here nor there - we're going to be cautious anyway. So I had to check whether the legal restrictions on people visiting my home still applied - even if they were lifted I wouldn't be inviting anyone round.
But the philosophical justification for extraordinary restrictions on personal liberty, and on commercial activity, has been the threat to public health. And that no longer exists. We should be making the transition from law to advice. I feel like it is important that I rehearse these arguments with myself, so that once I am vaccinated I will be able to make the mental transition to enjoy the freedom - and to wrest it back from government should that prove necessary.
Only a few weeks ago there were tens of thousands of people at cricket stadiums in India, many of them not wearing masks or practising social distancing.
I guess that’s more a sign of the wider problem that they decided they didn’t need to keep any restrictions in place.
Modi's government have fucked up big time, unfortunately.
OH THE NORTH COUNTREE is a hard countree That mothers a bloody brood; And its icy arms hold hidden charms For the greedy, the sinful and lewd.
And strong men rust, from the gold and the lust That sears the Northland soul, But the wickedest born, from the Pole to the Horn, Is the Hermit of Shark Tooth Shoal.
Now Jacob Kaime was the Hermit's name In the days of his pious youth, Ere he cast a smirch on the village Church By betraying a girl named Ruth.
But now men quake at "Yukon Jake," The Hermit of Shark-Tooth Shoal, For that is the name that Jacob Kaime Is known by from Nome to the Pole.
. . .
Oh, tough as a steak was Yukon Jake -- Hard-boiled as a picnic egg. He washed his shirt in the KIondike dirt, And drank his rum by the keg.
. . .
But, miles away, in Keokuk, Ia., Did a ruined maiden fight To remove the smirch from the village Church By bringing the heathen Light.
. . .
So, two weeks later, she took a freighter, For the gold-cursed land near the Pole, But Heaven ain't made for a lass that's betrayed -- She was wrecked on Shark-Tooth Shoal!
All hands were tossed in the Sea, and lost -- All but the maiden Ruth, Who swam to the edge of the sea lion's ledge Where abode the love of her youth.
He was hunting a seal for his evening meal (He handled a mean harpoon) When he saw at his feet, not something to eat, But a girl in a frozen swoon,
Whom he dragged to his lair by her dripping hair, And he rubbed her knees with gin, -- To his great surprise, she opened her eyes And revealed -- his Original Sin!
. . .
But a hopeless rake was Yukon Jake, The hermit of Shark Tooth Shoal! And the dizzy maid he rebetrayed And wrecked her immortal soul!...
Then he rowed her ashore, with a broken oar, And he sold her to Dan McGrew For a husky dog and some hot eggnog -- As rascals are wont to do.
Now ruthless Ruth is a maid uncouth With scarlet cheeks and lips, And she sings rough songs to the drunken throngs That come from the sealing ships.
For a rouge-stained kiss from this infamous miss They will give a seal's sleek fur, Or perhaps a sable, if they are able; It's much the same to her.
Oh, the North Countree is a rough countree, That mothers a bloody brood; And its icy arms hold hidden charms For the greedy, the sinful and lewd.
And strong men rust, from the gold and the lust That sears the Northland soul, But the wickedest born from the Pole to the Horn Was the Hermit of Shark-Tooth Shoal!
“they will not be able to fly as much, have to buy electric cars, eat less meat and completely renovate their home at vast expense to eradicate gas boilers”
That is what is going to be necessary, though. Moving from the century of oil & gas to a zero-carbon century is going to require serious sacrifices.
May as well be honest about it. People see through the political framing bullshit, and then get angry.
Is it worth it? It seems to be presumed that 2deg C of warming is such a potential catastrophe that its worth any amount of sacrifice to avoid it. This is a dubious assumption on two grounds:
1) Other than loudly bleating about the "scientific consensus" being that warming is bad, and periodically blaming any bad weather of any kind on global warming (usually just as unsupported assertion) no one seems to want to talk about what a given degree of warning might mean. It would be logical to expect both winners and losers from the process to start with, but no one seems to want to talk about any potential gains, only losses, and only then in the most nebulous of terms.
2 degrees of warming means that rice won’t grow in south east Asia.
A billion hungry Chinese with pointy sticks will not be a good thing for the west
2 degrees is pretty much baked in. The question for our children is whether we can stop it there.
Indeed. Basically we're already steaming straight towards the iceberg. We might be able to turn slightly enough to deflect off it rather than ram it, but we're not going to avoid it and the only question is how bad the damage is going to be.
A poor analogy. If the Titanic had not seen the iceberg and had just rammed it then the damage would probably not have been terminal as only the front compartments would have flooded: damage it was designed to withstand. Because they did see it (although too late to miss entirely) the result was a gash along the side of the ship opening up too many compartments to the sea for the ship to stay afloat.
Can't Boris just cut back the spending a bit? I mean, I know he has numerous kids, ex-wives, etc to support. But what other outgoings does a PM have? No rent or mortgage. Does he pay for food? Morrisons deliver.
Tim Montgomerie: What matters is how much proof Cummings has of the allegations.
It’s been the rumour in Westminster and Whitehall for a long time that there is a big difference between the PM’s outgoings, his expenditure, and the prime ministerial salary, and people wonder how these two things are bridged. The refurbishment of Downing Street is the first time we have had a concrete example of how that gap, between the income he gets from all of us as taxpayers, and potentially the outgoings he has, has reached into a form that we can speculate about...the continued inquiry into that gap, and how it is made up, could be the thing that really starts to dog the premiership.
I wouldn't be surprised if Cummings would prefer to see someone like Rishi Sunak, Priti Patel or Kemi Badenoch fight the next election for the Tories rather than Johnson again.
Can't Boris just cut back the spending a bit? I mean, I know he has numerous kids, ex-wives, etc to support. But what other outgoings does a PM have? No rent or mortgage. Does he pay for food? Morrisons deliver.
It seems to me that he's got into a cycle of spending like he has a lot more money than he really does
Tim Montgomerie: What matters is how much proof Cummings has of the allegations.
It’s been the rumour in Westminster and Whitehall for a long time that there is a big difference between the PM’s outgoings, his expenditure, and the prime ministerial salary, and people wonder how these two things are bridged. The refurbishment of Downing Street is the first time we have had a concrete example of how that gap, between the income he gets from all of us as taxpayers, and potentially the outgoings he has, has reached into a form that we can speculate about...the continued inquiry into that gap, and how it is made up, could be the thing that really starts to dog the premiership.
I wouldn't be surprised if Cummings would prefer to see someone like Rishi Sunak, Priti Patel or Kemi Badenoch fight the next election for the Tories rather than Johnson again.
Only a few weeks ago there were tens of thousands of people at cricket stadiums in India, many of them not wearing masks or practising social distancing.
Hubris. We would be wise to beware of it ourselves. As much as I tire of the restrictions, and indeed believe we could just a little faster, we still need to be vigilant.
I think the situation is a reverse of the boy who cried wolf. Johnson has learnt to be cautious when we've finally reached the stage of not needing to be. Farcical.
Personally I am resolved to wait for my vaccine, but the level of vaccination in the country as a whole already removes any public health justification for emergency restrictions on liberty.
I think you are probably right. We are running scared of cases in a population that would most likely have a mild to moderate disease at best, and accumulating evidence that the 33 million who have had at least one dose are incredibly well protected. I think last years breezy optimism has scared and scarred those taking decisions.
Look at Chile, though.
I don't expect another, worse than we've had so far, wave here, but I don't see how the chances of that happening can be lower than 10%. I do a lot of things, like wearing seat belts and life jackets, as a precaution against events which have a less than 0.1% chance of happening...
We still have legal restrictions on whether people can visit our private homes. This is very far removed from seatbelts as a restriction.
It's amazing how much people have ingested these restrictions on our liberty. I found myself today googling can I go to an art gallery before I caught myself in the absurdity of it all.
Well, we've taken the view that it would be damned silly to catch the virus when we're so close to being vaccinated, so the restrictions are neither here nor there - we're going to be cautious anyway. So I had to check whether the legal restrictions on people visiting my home still applied - even if they were lifted I wouldn't be inviting anyone round.
But the philosophical justification for extraordinary restrictions on personal liberty, and on commercial activity, has been the threat to public health. And that no longer exists. We should be making the transition from law to advice. I feel like it is important that I rehearse these arguments with myself, so that once I am vaccinated I will be able to make the mental transition to enjoy the freedom - and to wrest it back from government should that prove necessary.
Tim Montgomerie: What matters is how much proof Cummings has of the allegations.
It’s been the rumour in Westminster and Whitehall for a long time that there is a big difference between the PM’s outgoings, his expenditure, and the prime ministerial salary, and people wonder how these two things are bridged. The refurbishment of Downing Street is the first time we have had a concrete example of how that gap, between the income he gets from all of us as taxpayers, and potentially the outgoings he has, has reached into a form that we can speculate about...the continued inquiry into that gap, and how it is made up, could be the thing that really starts to dog the premiership.
This is all just part of Boris Johnson's profound admiration for Winston Churchill and sincere desire to emulate his role model.
Who was bailed out more than once IIRC by wealthy benefactor, some of whom may well have expected (and got?) so kind of quid for their quo.
Can't Boris just cut back the spending a bit? I mean, I know he has numerous kids, ex-wives, etc to support. But what other outgoings does a PM have? No rent or mortgage. Does he pay for food? Morrisons deliver.
It seems to me that he's got into a cycle of spending like he has a lot more money than he really does
Its what politicians do with the country's finances so its no surprise they do it with their own.
Can't Boris just cut back the spending a bit? I mean, I know he has numerous kids, ex-wives, etc to support. But what other outgoings does a PM have? No rent or mortgage. Does he pay for food? Morrisons deliver.
It seems to me that he's got into a cycle of spending like he has a lot more money than he really does
Have any bookies started taking bets, on the odds Boris Johnson will end up like his Turkish grandsire - being torn to pieces in the street by an enraged mob of his fellow countrymen?
Can't Boris just cut back the spending a bit? I mean, I know he has numerous kids, ex-wives, etc to support. But what other outgoings does a PM have? No rent or mortgage. Does he pay for food? Morrisons deliver.
Given that Boris will receive tens of millions after he leaves politics it really is a mystery.
Not sure Dom really cares about BoJo or the Tories anymore does he? He got Brexit
Insofar as Dom cares about anything I would have thought that he would be sore about no longer being lord of all he surveys. It's the sort of thing that could rankle until the end of your days. Clearly he is not the type to brood quietly.
Tim Montgomerie: What matters is how much proof Cummings has of the allegations.
It’s been the rumour in Westminster and Whitehall for a long time that there is a big difference between the PM’s outgoings, his expenditure, and the prime ministerial salary, and people wonder how these two things are bridged. The refurbishment of Downing Street is the first time we have had a concrete example of how that gap, between the income he gets from all of us as taxpayers, and potentially the outgoings he has, has reached into a form that we can speculate about...the continued inquiry into that gap, and how it is made up, could be the thing that really starts to dog the premiership.
I don't think the stories of duplicity dishonesty and being crap are going to be what finishes Johnson but the enemies he's built up. Reading Alan Duncan's book gives an idea how many would give an organ to finish him off. None more so than the Ghastly Goves. Husband and wife.
Not sure Dom really cares about BoJo or the Tories anymore does he? He got Brexit
Insofar as Dom cares about anything I would have thought that he would be sore about no longer being lord of all he surveys. It's the sort of thing that could rankle until the end of your days. Clearly he is not the type to brood quietly.
Isn't his best chance of coming back therefore bringing down BoJo and going back to work with say Gove or Sunak
Tim Montgomerie: What matters is how much proof Cummings has of the allegations.
It’s been the rumour in Westminster and Whitehall for a long time that there is a big difference between the PM’s outgoings, his expenditure, and the prime ministerial salary, and people wonder how these two things are bridged. The refurbishment of Downing Street is the first time we have had a concrete example of how that gap, between the income he gets from all of us as taxpayers, and potentially the outgoings he has, has reached into a form that we can speculate about...the continued inquiry into that gap, and how it is made up, could be the thing that really starts to dog the premiership.
I don't think the stories of duplicity dishonesty and being crap at his job are going to be what finishes Johnson if this turns out to have legs but the enemies he's built up. Reading Alan Duncan's book tells you how many people who would give away an organ to finish him off. None more so than the Ghastly Goves. Husband and wife.
Soon to be ex-wife, if rumours are to be believed.
Tim Montgomerie: What matters is how much proof Cummings has of the allegations.
It’s been the rumour in Westminster and Whitehall for a long time that there is a big difference between the PM’s outgoings, his expenditure, and the prime ministerial salary, and people wonder how these two things are bridged. The refurbishment of Downing Street is the first time we have had a concrete example of how that gap, between the income he gets from all of us as taxpayers, and potentially the outgoings he has, has reached into a form that we can speculate about...the continued inquiry into that gap, and how it is made up, could be the thing that really starts to dog the premiership.
I don't think the stories of duplicity dishonesty and being crap at his job are going to be what finishes Johnson if this turns out to have legs but the enemies he's built up. Reading Alan Duncan's book tells you how many people who would give away an organ to finish him off. None more so than the Ghastly Goves. Husband and wife.
Soon to be ex-wife, if rumours are to be believed.
That particular coupling makes you feel sorry for both of them.
Can't Boris just cut back the spending a bit? I mean, I know he has numerous kids, ex-wives, etc to support. But what other outgoings does a PM have? No rent or mortgage. Does he pay for food? Morrisons deliver.
Given that Boris will receive tens of millions after he leaves politics it really is a mystery.
I'm not sure he will. Is there much call for an incoherent clown?
Not sure Dom really cares about BoJo or the Tories anymore does he? He got Brexit
Insofar as Dom cares about anything I would have thought that he would be sore about no longer being lord of all he surveys. It's the sort of thing that could rankle until the end of your days. Clearly he is not the type to brood quietly.
Isn't his best chance of coming back therefore bringing down BoJo and going back to work with say Gove or Sunak
Sure. It's not within his gift though. Yes, he'll provide lots of entertaining material for Newsnight and the Guardian, but Johnson has long done enough to justify being defenestrated on the grounds of standards in public office. The idea of a scandal bringing Johnson down is absurd.
Not sure Dom really cares about BoJo or the Tories anymore does he? He got Brexit
Insofar as Dom cares about anything I would have thought that he would be sore about no longer being lord of all he surveys. It's the sort of thing that could rankle until the end of your days. Clearly he is not the type to brood quietly.
Isn't his best chance of coming back therefore bringing down BoJo and going back to work with say Gove or Sunak
Nobody is going to bring back Dom.
He has his uses and his merits but being at the heart of government isn't the place for him.
Can't Boris just cut back the spending a bit? I mean, I know he has numerous kids, ex-wives, etc to support. But what other outgoings does a PM have? No rent or mortgage. Does he pay for food? Morrisons deliver.
Given that Boris will receive tens of millions after he leaves politics it really is a mystery.
I'm not sure he will. Is there much call for an incoherent clown?
Tim Montgomerie: What matters is how much proof Cummings has of the allegations.
It’s been the rumour in Westminster and Whitehall for a long time that there is a big difference between the PM’s outgoings, his expenditure, and the prime ministerial salary, and people wonder how these two things are bridged. The refurbishment of Downing Street is the first time we have had a concrete example of how that gap, between the income he gets from all of us as taxpayers, and potentially the outgoings he has, has reached into a form that we can speculate about...the continued inquiry into that gap, and how it is made up, could be the thing that really starts to dog the premiership.
I don't think the stories of duplicity dishonesty and being crap at his job are going to be what finishes Johnson if this turns out to have legs but the enemies he's built up. Reading Alan Duncan's book tells you how many people who would give away an organ to finish him off. None more so than the Ghastly Goves. Husband and wife.
Soon to be ex-wife, if rumours are to be believed.
That particular coupling makes you feel sorry for both of them.
Can't Boris just cut back the spending a bit? I mean, I know he has numerous kids, ex-wives, etc to support. But what other outgoings does a PM have? No rent or mortgage. Does he pay for food? Morrisons deliver.
Given that Boris will receive tens of millions after he leaves politics it really is a mystery.
I'm not sure he will. Is there much call for an incoherent clown?
As the financial illiterate Blair was given millions by JPMorgan and the Middle Eastern warmonger Blair was given a Middle East peacemaker position I'm sure Boris will have no problem.
Tim Montgomerie: What matters is how much proof Cummings has of the allegations.
It’s been the rumour in Westminster and Whitehall for a long time that there is a big difference between the PM’s outgoings, his expenditure, and the prime ministerial salary, and people wonder how these two things are bridged. The refurbishment of Downing Street is the first time we have had a concrete example of how that gap, between the income he gets from all of us as taxpayers, and potentially the outgoings he has, has reached into a form that we can speculate about...the continued inquiry into that gap, and how it is made up, could be the thing that really starts to dog the premiership.
I don't think the stories of duplicity dishonesty and being crap at his job are going to be what finishes Johnson if this turns out to have legs but the enemies he's built up. Reading Alan Duncan's book tells you how many people who would give away an organ to finish him off. None more so than the Ghastly Goves. Husband and wife.
Soon to be ex-wife, if rumours are to be believed.
That particular coupling makes you feel sorry for both of them.
But where do you hear these things?
There's lots of gossip floating around Westminster about how Gove, Allegedly, has a very close relationship with one of his special advisors, and, Allegedly, an Unnamed Minister has been making use of a grace-and-favour Government owned flat at Admiralty Arch since the beginning of the year.
"Has anyone been held accountable? So far, nobody at the Post Office or Fujitsu has been held accountable, although the High Court judge said he would refer Fujitsu to the Director of Public Prosecutions for possible further action because he had "grave concerns" about the evidence of the company's employees."
Only a few weeks ago there were tens of thousands of people at cricket stadiums in India, many of them not wearing masks or practising social distancing.
I guess that’s more a sign of the wider problem that they decided they didn’t need to keep any restrictions in place.
Modi's government have fucked up big time, unfortunately.
Sky News found someone outside a Delhi hospital who blamed the state government, which I didn’t really believe to be honest.
It is striking that the PM got his own hands dirty telling what, by any objective assessment, appears to have been a pack of lies directly to the press.
I calculated that the differential between the price per KW of electricity and natural gas supplied to my house (2.3p vs 12.8p) is so great I could theoretically save money by generating my electricity with a gas powered genset, despite its inefficiencies.
For apartment complexes with shared heating and hot water, you can use combined heat and power units and then your effective efficiencies are pretty high.
Bear in mind, though, that you can't have the entire country generating electricity at home from natural gas, because the local gas distribution grid has perhaps a fifth of the capacity that is needed.
I wasn't suggesting this is to be encouraged, more pointing out that green electricity can't possibly be claimed to be cheap compared to natural gas if its even remotely economic to generate your own electricity from gas. When idly considering this concept, I think I reckoned that the electricity cost was probably comparable with the grid, and I then got the free heating from the cooling water as a byproduct.
The UK's gas grid probably wouldn't be that overstretched if this did catch on (you can actually get combi boilers that also generate electricity when running) - my annual electricity usage is less than 20% of my gas usage, and that's probably pretty typical. Even at 25% efficiency, that's only going to double my gas consumption.
I was actually looking into this as a "hey save money by generating your own electricity" business, and got into the numbers in some detail. Which is why I know it works for (many) apartment complexes.
The problem with doing in on a more widespread basis is that most (a) most people use more joules of electricity than of gas, and (b) electricity demand varies quite a lot with the time of day. So - unless you want Tesla PowerWalls in every home - you're limited by peak demand.
As an aside, banning gas for home heating is utterly retarded. Natural gas is a super efficient way to heat homes.
@theProle has touched on an interesting point, though. The solid oxide fuel cells from Ceres power, which generate heat and electricity (approx half and half) from natural gas have a combined efficiency of around 90%. They only really work on a fairly large scale, though (200kW plus) - but for large developments they are much more efficient than mains electricity. And the heat can also be used for powering cooling systems via adsorptive refrigeration, so is usable year round.
It’s a great interim fix for reducing carbon footprint in the short/medium term, since it’s economically very attractive for a lot of projects.
Comments
It’s been the rumour in Westminster and Whitehall for a long time that there is a big difference between the PM’s outgoings, his expenditure, and the prime ministerial salary, and people wonder how these two things are bridged. The refurbishment of Downing Street is the first time we have had a concrete example of how that gap, between the income he gets from all of us as taxpayers, and potentially the outgoings he has, has reached into a form that we can speculate about...the continued inquiry into that gap, and how it is made up, could be the thing that really starts to dog the premiership.
We can also use the hydrogen to decarbonise heavy transport - road, rail, marine.
Night all
But the philosophical justification for extraordinary restrictions on personal liberty, and on commercial activity, has been the threat to public health. And that no longer exists. We should be making the transition from law to advice. I feel like it is important that I rehearse these arguments with myself, so that once I am vaccinated I will be able to make the mental transition to enjoy the freedom - and to wrest it back from government should that prove necessary.
Edward E. Paramore Jr.
OH THE NORTH COUNTREE is a hard countree
That mothers a bloody brood;
And its icy arms hold hidden charms
For the greedy, the sinful and lewd.
And strong men rust, from the gold and the lust
That sears the Northland soul,
But the wickedest born, from the Pole to the Horn,
Is the Hermit of Shark Tooth Shoal.
Now Jacob Kaime was the Hermit's name
In the days of his pious youth,
Ere he cast a smirch on the village Church
By betraying a girl named Ruth.
But now men quake at "Yukon Jake,"
The Hermit of Shark-Tooth Shoal,
For that is the name that Jacob Kaime
Is known by from Nome to the Pole.
. . .
Oh, tough as a steak was Yukon Jake --
Hard-boiled as a picnic egg.
He washed his shirt in the KIondike dirt,
And drank his rum by the keg.
. . .
But, miles away, in Keokuk, Ia.,
Did a ruined maiden fight
To remove the smirch from the village Church
By bringing the heathen Light.
. . .
So, two weeks later, she took a freighter,
For the gold-cursed land near the Pole,
But Heaven ain't made for a lass that's betrayed --
She was wrecked on Shark-Tooth Shoal!
All hands were tossed in the Sea, and lost --
All but the maiden Ruth,
Who swam to the edge of the sea lion's ledge
Where abode the love of her youth.
He was hunting a seal for his evening meal
(He handled a mean harpoon)
When he saw at his feet, not something to eat,
But a girl in a frozen swoon,
Whom he dragged to his lair by her dripping hair,
And he rubbed her knees with gin, --
To his great surprise, she opened her eyes
And revealed -- his Original Sin!
. . .
But a hopeless rake was Yukon Jake,
The hermit of Shark Tooth Shoal!
And the dizzy maid he rebetrayed
And wrecked her immortal soul!...
Then he rowed her ashore, with a broken oar,
And he sold her to Dan McGrew
For a husky dog and some hot eggnog --
As rascals are wont to do.
Now ruthless Ruth is a maid uncouth
With scarlet cheeks and lips,
And she sings rough songs to the drunken throngs
That come from the sealing ships.
For a rouge-stained kiss from this infamous miss
They will give a seal's sleek fur,
Or perhaps a sable, if they are able;
It's much the same to her.
Oh, the North Countree is a rough countree,
That mothers a bloody brood;
And its icy arms hold hidden charms
For the greedy, the sinful and lewd.
And strong men rust, from the gold and the lust
That sears the Northland soul,
But the wickedest born from the Pole to the Horn
Was the Hermit of Shark-Tooth Shoal!
I mean, I know he has numerous kids, ex-wives, etc to support. But what other outgoings does a PM have? No rent or mortgage. Does he pay for food? Morrisons deliver.
Who was bailed out more than once IIRC by wealthy benefactor, some of whom may well have expected (and got?) so kind of quid for their quo.
But where do you hear these things?
He has his uses and his merits but being at the heart of government isn't the place for him.
So far, nobody at the Post Office or Fujitsu has been held accountable, although the High Court judge said he would refer Fujitsu to the Director of Public Prosecutions for possible further action because he had "grave concerns" about the evidence of the company's employees."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56718036
This little inside Westminster bubble spat isn’t it...
SNP seemingly breaking the law while campaigning. Article 9 of GDPR violation.
The solid oxide fuel cells from Ceres power, which generate heat and electricity (approx half and half) from natural gas have a combined efficiency of around 90%. They only really work on a fairly large scale, though (200kW plus) - but for large developments they are much more efficient than mains electricity.
And the heat can also be used for powering cooling systems via adsorptive refrigeration, so is usable year round.
It’s a great interim fix for reducing carbon footprint in the short/medium term, since it’s economically very attractive for a lot of projects.