If it hadn’t been for the fight against COVID the above changed perceptions in this Ipsos MORI polling would be quite worrying for ministers. For since the baseline, the last general election in December 2019 there has been one overwhelming priority for the government and that has been the impact of coronavirus.
Comments
1) The government discovered that the retail energy markets were working as intended - i.e. regular switchers got the best deals. They decided that this was unfair on those who couldn't be bothered to switch, and so introduced price caps which mean there are no-longer good deals around for diligent switchers.
2)Global commodities prices are up for pretty much everything (I wonder how much this is relating to lots of countries having printed a load of cash for Covid).
3)We've deliberately gone for expensive electricity from wind + massive amounts of conventional backup rather than cheap coal or gas baseload. Everyone is pretending that wind is competitive, but that's only because we've tilted the playing field until it is.
Incidentally, an amusing story I heard recently - there is a moderate onshore windfarm near me, built on ground which was extensively shallow mined for lead and copper in the early Victorian era. In order to get the required ground stability for the towers, they poured a lot of concrete into holes in the ground. The site engineer did the maths - apparently the turbines should have nicely offset the co2 from the concrete foundations in around 400 years time...
Max I think what you’re missing, is the lack of office has also meant the end of office politics. While I have once had someone scream down the phone at me that I’m a “fucking c**t” on a recorded phone line, generally most people are fairly cordial on email, IM and the phone. Even the most obnoxious knobheads struggle to get their sarcastic disdain across when it’s not person to person. Dunno what end of banking you’re in but the dodgier / corrupt practices are also far harder to do in this brave new world, which is a big plus in my book.
For the office politics reason alone, I’d be perfectly happy never to go in again. Though there are of course many other reasons not to. That said, I’m not remotely ambitious anymore. I just wanna cruise it for 5-10 years. Do my job competently and professionally, engage cordially with the people I need to get things done and have time for the other things in life. And I long ago stopped using work as a crutch for a social life. For the reasons you describe, it’s far better to be friends with people who don’t even understand your job.
@TheScreamingEagles is as genuine as anyone here (low bar, I know).
The debt England and all other football nations owe Scotland for developing game
Why Football’s Coming Home would be better suited to Scottish terraces
...
The Scottish game was so evidently superior to the English game that when clubs in England turned professional they sought players in Scotland. In the first season of the Football League – 1888-89 – Preston won the double. Unbeaten throughout the season they became known as the Invincibles. Eight of the 11 regulars were Scots.
https://www.racingpost.com/sport/the-debt-england-and-all-other-football-nations-owe-scotland-for-developing-game/495248
https://www.newscientist.com/lastword/mg24332461-400-what-is-the-carbon-payback-period-for-a-wind-turbine/
@AllieHBNews
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Thursday’s FINANCIAL TIMES: “WHO seeks halt on Covid boosters as poorer nations struggle for jabs” #TomorrowsPapersToday
In some it is quicker still. This calculation made it 47 days:
https://www.windpowerengineering.com/wind-turbine-carbon-payback-times-shorter-than-expected-finds-new-study/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9861827/Group-scientists-criticise-No10-unacceptable-delay-vaccinating-children-against-Covid.html
In terms of net lives saved, wouldn't it be far better for us to donate most of our stock to Covax than use them for boosters or kids?
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58079107
Yep.
"Lead author and Independent SAGE member Professor Christina Pagel"
iSAGE can sure move quickly on to new terrain when one of their predictions or prescriptions implodes without pausing for breath.
Clearly this site shouldn't have been chosen. Will question him tomorrow.
https://twitter.com/existentialfish/status/1422907573817290755
The US right is falling back on the racist tropes of the 19thC.
A number of key destinations as well as international travel hubs will be removed from the red list – India, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE. India’s placement on the red list was the subject of substantial controversy after MPs accused Boris Johnson of delaying its inclusion in the spring as cases rapidly rose and the new Delta variant emerged.
Mexico, Georgia, Réunion and Mayotte are to be added to the red list. More countries will also be added to the green list where travellers can go regardless of vaccine status. New green list countries are Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Romania and Norway. All changes come into effect at 4am on Sunday 8 August in England.
Government at least has had the atlas out and finally worked out the difference between Reunion and France.
The Prime Minister's former chief adviser also said that Mr Johnson offered him a peerage when he left No 10.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9862213/Dominic-Cummings-claims-Boris-wanted-Carrie-job-lots-foreign-travel.html
WFH suits many but some find it a drag. It all depends on what sort of person you are and what your job is.
Who is going to trust him with anything?
It doesn’t matter how you look at it, the English are getting utterly thrashed by the EU at this Olympics.
😊😊😊
I can't say I'm a fan of either side in the Carrie/Dom war, but on balance I'd rather Dom had won this one. Carries enthusiasm for turning the Tories into the greens will do a lot more damage to the country than Dom having bust ups with Sir Humphrey.
But his fury with the system in general and Johnson in particular is something to behold. Bottom line is that he got played something rotten, didn't he?
Need to vaccinate 12 to 17 by end August. Then third doses for everyone by end Dec.
In 2016 it did even better and its candidate Gary Johnson came third with 4 million votes and 3% of the popular vote.
However Libertarianism is not really conservativism but a mixture of small state economics from the right and social liberalism from the left
Soviet cheating = bad
East German cheating = bad
English cheating = good
So childish.
The Commonwealth has also won more golds than the EU
Thank you for getting into the spirit HY! Good chap. 😃
💤
Or according the twat from the BBC, Texas has 185 new cases....
Anyone competing under the banner "Team GB" must be English as no True Scot would do such a thing?
The UK Football Policing Unit received 600 reports of racist comments sent to England's black players after the defeat and judged 207 to be criminal.
Of these, 123 were posted by people overseas, while 34 came from the UK.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58094408
Interestingly looking back, when I moved into the current house in 2013 dual fuel bills were £125 per month, and it is now also 10% bigger due to a conservatory. That 50%+ real terms cut per unit is half due to steady investment and perhaps half due to switching. My specific energy usage is now some way below 100 kWh per sqm per year (for a 200sqm house).
1 - Agree that market tampering has been unhelpful recently.
2 - Ofgem has been very clear that it is wholesale prices.
3 - These days renewables are very cost competitive.
I'm inclined to view it a little like vaccine refuseniks. We have known this is coming down the road for at least 20 years, and we all had the option to address it or not. That does not help with these thing being society-wide questions - we need a market balance which encourages significant investment by individuals.
"However, at both of those Olympics, sailing, taekwondo and triathlon were still going on in the last four days of the Games so expect 2021 to fall behind again on total medals won."
Obviously life is not like that but it does suggest there might be more to play for.
Jamaica's B-team, of course, and they did stop to make a cup of tea at the last changeover.
Delta is currently the most concerning. It spread in India in the spring and has become dominant globally since. There have been no 'variants of concern' emerging in 2021 so far (lambda and delta+ are not it).
Uniformed speculations about variant emergence may well attract retweets and likes, but this is not helpful at all. We've got enough on our hands without having to deal with uninformed nonsense.
Spreading SARSCoV2 variant fear and despair threatens the mental helth of many and is likely to fuel vaccine hesitancy. Enough! Enough of this. Get a grip.
https://twitter.com/BallouxFrancois/status/1423085061818265600
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/58085748
It's a strange world sometimes.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58083889
Some of the example companies "named and shamed" are on the face of it extremely unfair. John Lewis, one case, 4 years ago. That is clearly a mistake, and probably some weird edge case, where their accounting software bugged out. A huge organisation making a single balls up 4 years ago isn't exactly trying to pull a fast one on workers.
USS Bonhomme Richard fire: Suspect identified as 20-year-old Navy sailor
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58091854
The government acknowledged that many of the breaches were not intentional, but said the minimum wage laws were meant to ensure that a fair day's work received a fair day's pay.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58083889