"the poll found Mr. Biden in a neck-and-neck race with former President Donald J. Trump, who held a commanding lead among likely Republican primary voters even as he faces two criminal indictments and more potential charges on the horizon. Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump were tied at 43 percent apiece in a hypothetical rematch in 2024, according to the poll."
It's alarming that Trump actually has a good chance of winning. I tied in terms of vote share would likely deliver him a majority in the Electoral College.
Yes, it’s entirely feasible, if perhaps still less likely than he loses.
The UK is entirely unprepared of course for its largest ally giving up on Ukraine (and democracy generally).
Well there's nothing we or others can do about it - Trump potentially winning can't be externally influenced, and we could presumably do more but never match the power of the US to act in support of Ukraine.
So the other thing needed is TFL levels of public transport between Greater London and the next town outside, and within and between them.
That's one of the worst things about London, the way TfL public transport stops dead even though the urban area carries on and is indistinguishable from the bit that is "London".
In any kind of rationally governed country things like this would have been dealt with decades ago.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
The issue is the poor insulation of UK homes, many of which are old. Around 20% were built before 1900, and around 75% before 1980. In NZ, fewer than 10% predate the 1940s.
This isn't easy to deal with: retrofitting good levels of insulation to old houses is hard, sometime impossible. Add to that the fact that little has been done to actually make the transition to heat pumps happen: the grid hasn't been updated sufficiently, the cost of upgrading the supply to houses where necessary is prohibitive (we were quoted £20K + VAT), and the supply network isn't there.
The problem is that politicians (I'm looking at you, Boris) have made big promises about targets, but haven't actually done anything to make those targets achievable. The situation on electric cars is even worse than on heat pumps; Boris told COP26 that we'd ban new petrol/diesel cars by 2030, because (as always) he told his audience what they wanted to hear. But the actual hard graft of installing charging points, upgrading the grid and ensuring the electric cars will actually be manufactured at a reasonable price has been neglected. It's not all going to happen by itself.
Although British housing stock is older, nothing really compares with drafty, damp and badly insulated NZ housing stock.
Many of us (most?) grew up with mouldy window-sills. NZ had/has one of the highest rates of asthma in the world. Brick houses were considered a luxury when I was a kid; maybe they still are.
My Dad’s entirely crappy 1950s, wooden house…has a heat pump.
I think the Cons are absolutely right to pick a fight over this, and car ownership, and the JSO-type entreaties because most of us have a car and for very good reasons, and many of us realise the impracticalities of acting too quickly to dispossess us of them, or of penalising ownership because no one thinks it will stop at 10-yr old diesels when there are regulations and fines to impose for zealous councils. All of which the furore over ULEZ has shown so clearly.
This is the coincidence of green politics and the pound in your pocket (not you @Anabobazina), and the latter usually and especially now will win.
Going far beyond that now, and the car issue, though, as the news this mornign shows.
People are wary of money making on the one hand and money costing schemes on the other.
ULEZ, LTNs, etc are money making schemes and people are very cautious about them. Extra taxes, meanwhile, for green initiatives, or higher prices for green energy are money costing schemes and people loathe them.
But plenty don't. I used to live in one, set up in the 1980s. Worked just fine.
Plenty of people used to wear ginormous shoulder pads in the 1980s I'm not sure what lessons we can learn from that.
Google "LTN Fines" and fill your (and the councils') boots.
The fact that councils treat speeding fines as a revenue stream doesn't mean that it's wrong to impose speed limits though.
Correct .
Although there are some stunning stories in America of more than half of some city budgets coming from fines of various kinds, which is both shocking and hilarious as it means they rely on people breaking the law to function!
There’s loads of small towns that have a few miles of freeway inside their jurisdiction, so they put a couple of cops there all day collecting speeding fines.
There’s a booming ‘fight your ticket’ industry that’s developed as a result, with people paying a few bucks to send a carefully-worded response to each courthouse citing precident for overturned cases. As soon as they realise someone is actually prepared to have a lawyer turn up, they usually drop the case.
This particular stat jumps out as much lower than I thought it would be - I know post pandemic there have been a backlog of people wanting to do tests, so am unsure if it would be even lower now?:
"In 2018, in England, 37% of men and women aged 17–20 held a full driving licence."
Most of my younger colleagues don't hold a driving licence. They have better ways to spend the £1000+ that it costs to pass the test, when they don't intend to own a car.
Risks like this have been around for a while. This is from over a year ago;
At its best, this makes the Party flexible and pragmatic, able to pivot around the issues of the day. At its worst, and it really seems to be falling into the worst now, it becomes listless, incapable and slightly baffled by the power it holds. It’s the cat that has finally caught the laser pointer.
Rather than principles or goals, the Tory Party today lives for day-to-day, object level reactions to the things that catch its eye...
Not sure why Turnbull and Asser are targeting me on Facebook, but they want £355 for a WHITE & BLUE CHECK COTTON REGULAR FIT SHIRT with single cuffs and three buttons per cuff, eeuw. Almost inclined to pass on this.
Perhaps some bot had noticed me reading about "absurd tailoring" downthread.
The algorithm has identified you at a PB poster, and therefore highly likely to be a target customer.
"the poll found Mr. Biden in a neck-and-neck race with former President Donald J. Trump, who held a commanding lead among likely Republican primary voters even as he faces two criminal indictments and more potential charges on the horizon. Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump were tied at 43 percent apiece in a hypothetical rematch in 2024, according to the poll."
It's alarming that Trump actually has a good chance of winning. I tied in terms of vote share would likely deliver him a majority in the Electoral College.
Indictments just make the GOP support him more (only no hopers criticise it, and only some of them won't back him as the nominee when he wins), and the general polling seems lukewarm at best on Biden.
Hopefully the actual contest would see enough change their minds, but that's no guarantee, and there'll be lawsuits aplenty on all sides about local election rules I bet.
No because there is mileage in opposing a number of these policies. For all we may think that going “green” is morally positive, and responsible, and will have benefits in the long run, there are a number of serious, serious issues with the current approach:
1. Changes being made without (perceived) public consent/support.
2. Deadlines for phasing out of certain things on which people currently rely without any real integrated solution yet in place for what will replace them (and how it will be paid for).
3. Perception that the changes do not simply make people’s lives “different”, but more inconvenient and costly.
This will be a very serious political issue as we approach the end of the decade.
Yes, because a) while I think there is dissatisfaction brewing right now, I’m not sure it’s a top political issue - yet. And also - who has been in power for the past 13 years and presided over this state of affairs? It all looks a bit disingenuous.
On no. 2, I do wonder if the rationale for keeping the 2030 deadline for ICE cars is all about campaigning against it in the 2027 election.....
Scotland is about to see how popular top down environmental improvements are:
Patrick Harvie is set to penalise owners of fossil fuel boilers in a shake-up of energy efficiency standards under a “massive transition” to how people heat their homes.
The Greens minister has insisted that millions of homes will need to clean up heating systems “at a pace and scale that is consistent with Scotland’s legal climate targets”…..
From 2025, certain trigger points such as the sale of a home, will mean properties will need to meet EPC band C energy efficiency standards, while new fossil fuel boilers will be banned in new buildings from next April.
Not sure why Turnbull and Asser are targeting me on Facebook, but they want £355 for a WHITE & BLUE CHECK COTTON REGULAR FIT SHIRT with single cuffs and three buttons per cuff, eeuw. Almost inclined to pass on this.
Perhaps some bot had noticed me reading about "absurd tailoring" downthread.
My fault.
Turnbull & Asser are my work shirts of choice.
The DR. NO PALE BLUE WEST INDIAN SEA ISLAND COTTON SHIRT WITH DR. NO COLLAR AND CUFF AS SEEN ON JAMES BOND is a steal at £585, but out of stock, to my unutterable chagrin.
What unclassy shite. Ian Fleming was obviously a big Sea Island cotton fan and that should have been the angle rather licensed to shirt 007 bollox for the oiks.
Slightly connectedly I’ve learned that Big Tam used to come through to Glasgow to get his suits made in a now defunct tailor along the road.
Yes. The idea that policies actively harming the environment will make him more popular is ridiculous. I also don't know how much to believe ULEZ lost it for Labour - I imagine a 500 vote deficit would have been dealt with by it just being term time. Indeed, the Lib Dem and Green Party votes would have taken Labour over the line - maybe Labour is just too right wing too squeeze them but still not right wing enough to get Tory voters? Either way, spiteful policies to just burn fossil fuels and promote cars to own the libs might make some Tory voters happy, but it will make more floaters annoyed and piss off the conservationist Tories that exist.
'Environmental groups claiming to represent 20 million people will mobilise their members if UK ministers water down climate commitments, they have warned.
Groups including the RSPB, National Trust and the RSPCA have written to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, who has signalled his willingness to back away from green policies should the Conservatives stand to benefit from it electorally.
“We will not stand by whilst politicians use the environment as a political football. It is courage and leadership that we need now,” they said.
“In the past, we have mobilised many of our members collectively with extraordinary results, and our resolve to stand firm now against any and all attacks on this critical policy agenda remains absolute.”'
Hardly Just Stop Oil. And that was before the latest news.
All the organisations you name have had middling to large scandals in their recent history but it just goes to show that a good name gives you a lot of oomph to talk bollocks.
What was the National Trust's middling to large scandal? The legacy-of-colonialism stuff?
yes
More brouhaha or imbroglio than scandal, excepting in the paranoiac fever dimension the Daily Telegraph inhabits.
This particular stat jumps out as much lower than I thought it would be - I know post pandemic there have been a backlog of people wanting to do tests, so am unsure if it would be even lower now?:
"In 2018, in England, 37% of men and women aged 17–20 held a full driving licence."
Most of my younger colleagues don't hold a driving licence. They have better ways to spend the £1000+ that it costs to pass the test, when they don't intend to own a car.
Very different from when I was their age.
I've seen it be harder to recruit to some roles as a result- plenty of eager young applicants, but if a licence is needed they're out of luck. Wasn't sure if it was a trend.
Not sure why Turnbull and Asser are targeting me on Facebook, but they want £355 for a WHITE & BLUE CHECK COTTON REGULAR FIT SHIRT with single cuffs and three buttons per cuff, eeuw. Almost inclined to pass on this.
Perhaps some bot had noticed me reading about "absurd tailoring" downthread.
The algorithm has identified you at a PB poster, and therefore highly likely to be a target customer.
OK and I have now set up a positive feedback loop in their favour by naming them here. Glad I have wasted their money, sad it is going to Zuck.
I think the Cons are absolutely right to pick a fight over this, and car ownership, and the JSO-type entreaties because most of us have a car and for very good reasons, and many of us realise the impracticalities of acting too quickly to dispossess us of them, or of penalising ownership because no one thinks it will stop at 10-yr old diesels when there are regulations and fines to impose for zealous councils. All of which the furore over ULEZ has shown so clearly.
This is the coincidence of green politics and the pound in your pocket (not you @Anabobazina), and the latter usually and especially now will win.
Going far beyond that now, and the car issue, though, as the news this mornign shows.
People are wary of money making on the one hand and money costing schemes on the other.
ULEZ, LTNs, etc are money making schemes and people are very cautious about them. Extra taxes, meanwhile, for green initiatives, or higher prices for green energy are money costing schemes and people loathe them.
But plenty don't. I used to live in one, set up in the 1980s. Worked just fine.
Plenty of people used to wear ginormous shoulder pads in the 1980s I'm not sure what lessons we can learn from that.
Google "LTN Fines" and fill your (and the councils') boots.
The fact that councils treat speeding fines as a revenue stream doesn't mean that it's wrong to impose speed limits though.
Correct .
Although there are some stunning stories in America of more than half of some city budgets coming from fines of various kinds, which is both shocking and hilarious as it means they rely on people breaking the law to function!
A fine modern American principle that extends to mass incarceration and the prison-industrial complex.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
"the poll found Mr. Biden in a neck-and-neck race with former President Donald J. Trump, who held a commanding lead among likely Republican primary voters even as he faces two criminal indictments and more potential charges on the horizon. Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump were tied at 43 percent apiece in a hypothetical rematch in 2024, according to the poll."
It's alarming that Trump actually has a good chance of winning. I tied in terms of vote share would likely deliver him a majority in the Electoral College.
Yes, it’s entirely feasible, if perhaps still less likely than he loses.
The UK is entirely unprepared of course for its largest ally giving up on Ukraine (and democracy generally).
Well there's nothing we or others can do about it - Trump potentially winning can't be externally influenced, and we could presumably do more but never match the power of the US to act in support of Ukraine.
Not unless SIS have got both the pee tape and an intercept of Trump's call with Putin in which Putin tells him don't worry, old mate, we've dealt with everyone who was a threat in that connection and the payment is in the account for you as per usual. The net effect on the Trump voteshare if both tapes were released would be likely to be negative.
Yes. Find an issue and then hammer it out like crazy, focusing on such false views about the issue as you can get plenty of your would-be supporters to believe. (Opinion polling can help you here.)
Not sure why Turnbull and Asser are targeting me on Facebook, but they want £355 for a WHITE & BLUE CHECK COTTON REGULAR FIT SHIRT with single cuffs and three buttons per cuff, eeuw. Almost inclined to pass on this.
Perhaps some bot had noticed me reading about "absurd tailoring" downthread.
My fault.
Turnbull & Asser are my work shirts of choice.
The DR. NO PALE BLUE WEST INDIAN SEA ISLAND COTTON SHIRT WITH DR. NO COLLAR AND CUFF AS SEEN ON JAMES BOND is a steal at £585, but out of stock, to my unutterable chagrin.
What unclassy shite. Ian Fleming was obviously a big Sea Island cotton fan and that should have been the angle rather licensed to shirt 007 bollox for the oiks.
Slightly connectedly I’ve learned that Big Tam used to come through to Glasgow to get his suits made in a now defunct tailor along the road.
I was going to fulminate against infantile consumerist frivolity, before noting that my choice of watch is dictated by the Fleming novels.
I think Uxbridge was the catalyst that sparked a whole new narrative not only about the ULEZ scheme but the rush to green policies that many cannot afford and especially with the cost of living crisis
Evs are not affordable for millions, heat pumps are not only unaffordable but in many cases not practical, requiring properties to have a 'c' efficiency rating to be sold is also unaffordable for many, and our 2030 ban on ICE cars is silly when the EU is 2035
I have no idea whether Sunak will benefit from his obvious move to differentiate from Labour, but there are 35 million motorists in the UK who are an important group politicially and indeed the Sun is taking up their cause judging by today's front page
Another one with “heat pump denialism”.
Silly comment just as is saying NZ is used in 50% homes in NZ ( actual figure is 40%) when properties in NZ are very different to the UK
This from the Guardian confirms the high cost and uncertainties chills the heat pump market
This particular stat jumps out as much lower than I thought it would be - I know post pandemic there have been a backlog of people wanting to do tests, so am unsure if it would be even lower now?:
"In 2018, in England, 37% of men and women aged 17–20 held a full driving licence."
Most of my younger colleagues don't hold a driving licence. They have better ways to spend the £1000+ that it costs to pass the test, when they don't intend to own a car.
Very different from when I was their age.
The cost is the key. Learning to drive is expensive and far from the basic building block of adulthood that it used to be. That said, I (43) put it off until I was 32, mostly because I was living in London for much of my twenties so therefore (a) was skint, and (b) didn't need to drive.
I would imagine a lot of those 17-20 year olds would be putting it off till after graduating or whatever though.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
I live, as many Londoners do, in a block of flats. Not a high rise or a listed work of 60s brutalist architecture. Just an ordinary, boring block of flats.
At the moment, it's heated by a gas boiler. If that boiler breaks or goes on the fritz, it's fairly easy to get a guy out to fix it or replace it when it goes kaput.
How would heat pumps work? Well, first of all, as it's leasehold, you wouldn't be able to install your own. The building's freeholder would issue you a S20 notice, and everyone would be forced to install them at the same time, probably through one of the freeholder's mates, at a vastly inflated cost, with no say on the final bill - pay up or lose your lease.
Then you have the problem of maintenance. You live on the 5th floor. Your heat pump packs in. You can't just call your friendly neighbourhood boiler expert any more to be round in a jiffy, you have to go through the management company, who will take days if not weeks to send someone out. This will require specialist equipment such as a cherry picker to get up there, and a team - cost to fix even a simple repair, thousands. And probably a very cold house for several weeks.
The only other alternative would be a communal heat source for the whole building, which would require a dedicated space which doesn't exist in my building as it wasn't designed for one. So huge building costs to create and install one. Plus, one of the quirks of communal heating systems for blocks of flats is that they are commercial installations rather than residential ones, therefore you pay commercial rates for the cost of the electricity or gas used to heat the building, meaning your bill goes up an enormous amount as you are not protected by the price cap. According to the Mayor of London, 400,000 people were affected by this last year in London alone.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
I think Uxbridge was the catalyst that sparked a whole new narrative not only about the ULEZ scheme but the rush to green policies that many cannot afford and especially with the cost of living crisis
Evs are not affordable for millions, heat pumps are not only unaffordable but in many cases not practical, requiring properties to have a 'c' efficiency rating to be sold is also unaffordable for many, and our 2030 ban on ICE cars is silly when the EU is 2035
I have no idea whether Sunak will benefit from his obvious move to differentiate from Labour, but there are 35 million motorists in the UK who are an important group politicially and indeed the Sun is taking up their cause judging by today's front page
Another one with “heat pump denialism”.
Silly comment just as is saying NZ is used in 50% homes in NZ ( actual figure is 40%) when properties in NZ are very different to the UK
This from the Guardian confirms the high cost and uncertainties chills the heat pump market
I think Uxbridge was the catalyst that sparked a whole new narrative not only about the ULEZ scheme but the rush to green policies that many cannot afford and especially with the cost of living crisis
Evs are not affordable for millions, heat pumps are not only unaffordable but in many cases not practical, requiring properties to have a 'c' efficiency rating to be sold is also unaffordable for many, and our 2030 ban on ICE cars is silly when the EU is 2035
I have no idea whether Sunak will benefit from his obvious move to differentiate from Labour, but there are 35 million motorists in the UK who are an important group politicially and indeed the Sun is taking up their cause judging by today's front page
Another one with “heat pump denialism”.
Silly comment just as is saying NZ is used in 50% homes in NZ ( actual figure is 40%) when properties in NZ are very different to the UK
This from the Guardian confirms the high cost and uncertainties chills the heat pump market
Scotland is about to see how popular top down environmental improvements are:
Patrick Harvie is set to penalise owners of fossil fuel boilers in a shake-up of energy efficiency standards under a “massive transition” to how people heat their homes.
The Greens minister has insisted that millions of homes will need to clean up heating systems “at a pace and scale that is consistent with Scotland’s legal climate targets”…..
From 2025, certain trigger points such as the sale of a home, will mean properties will need to meet EPC band C energy efficiency standards, while new fossil fuel boilers will be banned in new buildings from next April.
Not sure why Turnbull and Asser are targeting me on Facebook, but they want £355 for a WHITE & BLUE CHECK COTTON REGULAR FIT SHIRT with single cuffs and three buttons per cuff, eeuw. Almost inclined to pass on this.
Perhaps some bot had noticed me reading about "absurd tailoring" downthread.
My fault.
Turnbull & Asser are my work shirts of choice.
Same. Excellent choice.
I find it difficult to spend money on some things even if I can now afford it. I couldn't enjoy a meal which cost £100 or wear a shirt that cost £300, even if they were really good I'd have this sense it wasn't good enough to justify the cost.
It's irrational - someone could say my spending £40 on a shirt was too much since you can get cheaper - but hard to shake.
This particular stat jumps out as much lower than I thought it would be - I know post pandemic there have been a backlog of people wanting to do tests, so am unsure if it would be even lower now?:
"In 2018, in England, 37% of men and women aged 17–20 held a full driving licence."
Most of my younger colleagues don't hold a driving licence. They have better ways to spend the £1000+ that it costs to pass the test, when they don't intend to own a car.
Very different from when I was their age.
The cost is the key. Learning to drive is expensive and far from the basic building block of adulthood that it used to be. That said, I (43) put it off until I was 32, mostly because I was living in London for much of my twenties so therefore (a) was skint, and (b) didn't need to drive.
I would imagine a lot of those 17-20 year olds would be putting it off till after graduating or whatever though.
I expect my younger colleagues, who are graduates and in good jobs, would be happy to pay to get a licence if their circumstances changed, for example if they moved out of the city. But it isn't a priority for them now.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
Highish upfront cost.
Same reason we don't bother with decent insulation, or anything else we can't consume in the next fourteen minutes.
I think Uxbridge was the catalyst that sparked a whole new narrative not only about the ULEZ scheme but the rush to green policies that many cannot afford and especially with the cost of living crisis
Evs are not affordable for millions, heat pumps are not only unaffordable but in many cases not practical, requiring properties to have a 'c' efficiency rating to be sold is also unaffordable for many, and our 2030 ban on ICE cars is silly when the EU is 2035
I have no idea whether Sunak will benefit from his obvious move to differentiate from Labour, but there are 35 million motorists in the UK who are an important group politicially and indeed the Sun is taking up their cause judging by today's front page
Another one with “heat pump denialism”.
Silly comment just as is saying NZ is used in 50% homes in NZ ( actual figure is 40%) when properties in NZ are very different to the UK
This from the Guardian confirms the high cost and uncertainties chills the heat pump market
Can someone explain why electric boilers can't work instead of heat pumps? Much less disruptive in UK homes where space is very limited.
You would think electric heating would be much simpler but I assume it is the cost of running such a system
they're not economical for most people because running a gas boiler is cheaper. if you could combine it with a solar plus battery storage system it'd be worth it. ultimately when I get to the point I need to replace my gas boiler with something other than a like for like I'll seriously look into it.
Not sure why Turnbull and Asser are targeting me on Facebook, but they want £355 for a WHITE & BLUE CHECK COTTON REGULAR FIT SHIRT with single cuffs and three buttons per cuff, eeuw. Almost inclined to pass on this.
Perhaps some bot had noticed me reading about "absurd tailoring" downthread.
My fault.
Turnbull & Asser are my work shirts of choice.
Same. Excellent choice.
I find it difficult to spend money on some things even if I can now afford it. I couldn't enjoy a meal which cost £100 or wear a shirt that cost £300, even if they were really good I'd have this sense it wasn't good enough to justify the cost.
It's irrational - someone could say my spending £40 on a shirt was too much since you can get cheaper - but hard to shake.
Not at all irrational. Unless you work in an industry where that sort of conspicuous consumption is vital, in which case I suppose it's rational. As I observe in one or two friends and relatives.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
Presumably they are Woke and will turn your kids into genderqueer critical race theorists.
"the poll found Mr. Biden in a neck-and-neck race with former President Donald J. Trump, who held a commanding lead among likely Republican primary voters even as he faces two criminal indictments and more potential charges on the horizon. Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump were tied at 43 percent apiece in a hypothetical rematch in 2024, according to the poll."
It's alarming that Trump actually has a good chance of winning. I tied in terms of vote share would likely deliver him a majority in the Electoral College.
Yes, it’s entirely feasible, if perhaps still less likely than he loses.
The UK is entirely unprepared of course for its largest ally giving up on Ukraine (and democracy generally).
Well there's nothing we or others can do about it - Trump potentially winning can't be externally influenced, and we could presumably do more but never match the power of the US to act in support of Ukraine.
Not unless SIS have got both the pee tape and an intercept of Trump's call with Putin in which Putin tells him don't worry, old mate, we've dealt with everyone who was a threat in that connection and the payment is in the account for you as per usual. The net effect on the Trump voteshare if both tapes were released would be likely to be negative.
Just as well there isn’t a tape of Biden admitting to a quid pro quo of aid to Ukraine being dependent on the prosecutor looking at Burisma being fired. The same Burisma that was paying a drug addict Hunter Biden $5m a year for consultancy services.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
It is the cost and the unsuitable nature of many of our homes, especially older ones
Furthermore it is the same as so much of the green agenda, it is being rushed rather than have a longer transition period
The UK represent just 1% of carbon emissions, and any sensible discussions on this would realise that you cannot change people's cars, their home heating systems, and many other aspect their life in just a few years
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
It is the cost and the unsuitable nature of many of our homes, especially older ones
Furthermore it is the same as so much of the green agenda, it is being rushed rather than have a longer transition period
The UK represent just 1% of carbon emissions, and any sensible discussions on this would realise that you cannot change people's cars, their home heating systems, and many other aspect their life in just a few years
What’s 1% of carbon emissions got to do with anything. NZ represents a tiny fraction of that, and it’s mass movement to heat pumps has almost nothing to do with the “green agenda”.
Anyway, on your indexed pension you can afford it more than most, so cough up.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
What's wrong with having a separate hot and cold tap?
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
Highish upfront cost.
Same reason we don't bother with decent insulation, or anything else we can't consume in the next fourteen minutes.
I fear it’s as simple as this. Brits are cheap-asses.
Still early days; treat with caution. But if it really is real, then it's potentially world-changing. But it's probably not real. And if it is, the question is how the **** it works.
The way the various papers on this new substance were released is both suspicious, and also an utterly realistic example of the way science can work in practice.
(Incidentally, I recently listened to an In Our Time on superconductors. In the 1900s, a scientist spent years trying to work out how superconductors worked. In the end he said: "They don't".)
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
What's wrong with having a separate hot and cold tap?
Nothing, if you are wedded to living in the 1950s.
Risks like this have been around for a while. This is from over a year ago;
At its best, this makes the Party flexible and pragmatic, able to pivot around the issues of the day. At its worst, and it really seems to be falling into the worst now, it becomes listless, incapable and slightly baffled by the power it holds. It’s the cat that has finally caught the laser pointer.
Rather than principles or goals, the Tory Party today lives for day-to-day, object level reactions to the things that catch its eye...
Indeed and you see it among some of the Conservative-inclined on here. An idea or a policy is announced and as soon as a poll shows public support, it becomes a good idea to be supported.
I remember John Major on election night 1997 saying something tabout what is to be a Conservative and how it "goes with the grain of the British people". I'm sure what he didn't mean by that was any policy will do, as long as it's popular.
That's the problem with following a populist agenda - you have to keep chasing what is popular and espousing it no matter how much it may contradict with anything else.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
2-3 years ago we were fitting plenty, now people have realised that they do not heat very well their popularity has collapsed. Just one of example of many, we fitted a heat pump system to a primary school replacing their gas boiler system. During the winter their classrooms were full of plug in radiators as the new system did not provide anywhere near enough heat. Two Local Authorities near me have stopped converting heating systems to Heat Pumps due to this (and the vast expense, they cost 5 times as much to install compared to a gas boiler system) and another installs hybrid systems with a heat pump but also a gas boiler as they know the heat pump will not provide enough heat on a cold day.
Heat pumps can work in very well insulated properties where widnows and doors are shut at all times. Otherwise on a cold day you will be cold.
Sunak's anti-green posture could be a mistake, but he needs to be called out on it in a skilful way. Labour need to make and win the arguments they would like to make, rather than just constantly re-triangulating.
Starmer's downward trend on approval ratings is a lot to do with his temerity on ULEZ. (possibly on North Sea as well, though I accept that honouring existing licenses as at Labour assuming power always was policy). I accept the need to be cautious but, somewhere, on something, Labour has to hold still and make a defence of their own policies and not just shrink from facing down bullshit Tory campaign astroturfing assuming that astroturfing will win.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
It is the cost and the unsuitable nature of many of our homes, especially older ones
Furthermore it is the same as so much of the green agenda, it is being rushed rather than have a longer transition period
The UK represent just 1% of carbon emissions, and any sensible discussions on this would realise that you cannot change people's cars, their home heating systems, and many other aspect their life in just a few years
What’s 1% of carbon emissions got to do with anything. NZ represents a tiny fraction of that, and it’s mass movement to heat pumps has almost nothing to do with the “green agenda”.
Anyway, on your indexed pension you can afford it more than most, so cough up.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
What's wrong with having a separate hot and cold tap?
It's an unnecessary holdover from historic plumbing set ups. There are better ways.
Don't tell me we should be getting nostalgic or protective over tap set ups now? These matters should be all about function and efficiency.
There are two competing factors - most people have cars, most people live in urban areas. Gross simplification:
- Non-drivers tend to be poor, young or green, and therefore not Tory voters.
- Drivers in rural areas are probably solid Tory voters (in England at least).
- People in urban areas spend a very large proportion of their income on their car, to then spend much of the week stuck in traffic. They might have young children they need to ferry around.
They probably lament the lack of good bus/train/ tram service, or don't feel comfortable letting their kids cycle or walk to school because of the amount of traffic. They depend utterly on their cars, but wish they didn't.
They like holidaying in places like Centre Parcs. They take city breaks to Europe and walk around, or use public transport.
They might have a membership to the RSPB. They might be thinking about to Cycle2work, but are scared of being hit by a driver.
They see the news about wildfires and flooding. About air pollution. About obesity.
I think Sunak has overcooked it. Labour should respond with a positive case for public transport and active travel.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
It is the cost and the unsuitable nature of many of our homes, especially older ones
Furthermore it is the same as so much of the green agenda, it is being rushed rather than have a longer transition period
The UK represent just 1% of carbon emissions, and any sensible discussions on this would realise that you cannot change people's cars, their home heating systems, and many other aspect their life in just a few years
What’s 1% of carbon emissions got to do with anything. NZ represents a tiny fraction of that, and it’s mass movement to heat pumps has almost nothing to do with the “green agenda”.
Anyway, on your indexed pension you can afford it more than most, so cough up.
Why do you personalise your comments, and by the way you have no knowledge whatsoever of my pension or circumstances
It has been explained to you, not only in the Guardian article I posted, but by others and yet you want to ignore the perfectly reasonable engagement with you and hurl insults which is a sure sign you have no arguments left
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
"...Why oh why can't people spend thousands of pounds on removing a perfectly good heating system and replace it with one I like, even if if violates their lease? It's entirely incomprehensible!..."
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
They work on the same principals that fridges and freezers do except there's a lot of work and cost setting up the system. you'll notice that fridges and freezers are well insulated. without that it'll not work (or it'll work and cost a LOT).
regardless of the technology we move to the next government has to do a lot to support and improve home insulation throughout the country.
It is whistling in the wind. Whatever the Conservatives do will make no difference. We should remember Uxbridge has been Conservative for a long as I can remember, Hillingdon and Harrow swung slightly to them in last years locals, yet in the by election they lost a 7,000 majority. ULEX will be introduced in the suburbs, probably with some extra enhancements.
Not sure why Turnbull and Asser are targeting me on Facebook, but they want £355 for a WHITE & BLUE CHECK COTTON REGULAR FIT SHIRT with single cuffs and three buttons per cuff, eeuw. Almost inclined to pass on this.
Perhaps some bot had noticed me reading about "absurd tailoring" downthread.
My fault.
Turnbull & Asser are my work shirts of choice.
The DR. NO PALE BLUE WEST INDIAN SEA ISLAND COTTON SHIRT WITH DR. NO COLLAR AND CUFF AS SEEN ON JAMES BOND is a steal at £585, but out of stock, to my unutterable chagrin.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
What's wrong with having a separate hot and cold tap?
Nothing, if you are wedded to living in the 1950s.
This is why I still wallpaper the ceilings, dammit!
I think Uxbridge was the catalyst that sparked a whole new narrative not only about the ULEZ scheme but the rush to green policies that many cannot afford and especially with the cost of living crisis
Evs are not affordable for millions, heat pumps are not only unaffordable but in many cases not practical, requiring properties to have a 'c' efficiency rating to be sold is also unaffordable for many, and our 2030 ban on ICE cars is silly when the EU is 2035
I have no idea whether Sunak will benefit from his obvious move to differentiate from Labour, but there are 35 million motorists in the UK who are an important group politicially and indeed the Sun is taking up their cause judging by today's front page
Another one with “heat pump denialism”.
Silly comment just as is saying NZ is used in 50% homes in NZ ( actual figure is 40%) when properties in NZ are very different to the UK
This from the Guardian confirms the high cost and uncertainties chills the heat pump market
Can someone explain why electric boilers can't work instead of heat pumps? Much less disruptive in UK homes where space is very limited.
You would think electric heating would be much simpler but I assume it is the cost of running such a system
they're not economical for most people because running a gas boiler is cheaper. if you could combine it with a solar plus battery storage system it'd be worth it. ultimately when I get to the point I need to replace my gas boiler with something other than a like for like I'll seriously look into it.
I have no doubt that running a gas boiler is cheaper, but as we saw last year that cheapness is much more volatile to changes in global energy markets in a way that a decarbonised energy grid doesn't need to be.
The question is what we migrate from gas boilers to. The cost of renewable energy is trending down vs gas, which if it continues will means electric boilers become more efficient over time.
Given concerns over how good heat pumps are at heating for some houses, and the disruption / high up front cost that they result in, why not just phase out gas boilers and phase in electric boilers in a similar way to cars.
Increase tax on gas usage incrementally over time to help subsidise the cost of switching.
Easiest to do this in a way where people don't notice a big disruptive step change in their lives.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
It is the cost and the unsuitable nature of many of our homes, especially older ones
Furthermore it is the same as so much of the green agenda, it is being rushed rather than have a longer transition period
The UK represent just 1% of carbon emissions, and any sensible discussions on this would realise that you cannot change people's cars, their home heating systems, and many other aspect their life in just a few years
What’s 1% of carbon emissions got to do with anything. NZ represents a tiny fraction of that, and it’s mass movement to heat pumps has almost nothing to do with the “green agenda”.
Anyway, on your indexed pension you can afford it more than most, so cough up.
Why do you personalise your comments, and by the way you have no knowledge whatsoever of my pension or circumstances
It has been explained to you, not only in the Guardian article I posted, but by others and yet you want to ignore the perfectly reasonable engagement with you and hurl insults which is a sure sign you have no arguments left
But the 1 percent argument is a pretty thin one.
The UK is less than 1 percent of the world population, so on average we are creating more than our share of pollution right now.
Besides, the world is largely made of one percents. If they all take the same path as you are suggesting then we're all stuffed.
On the Chinese version of PB (just imagine!) there are probably people asking why China should put itself out in the UK won't.
There are two competing factors - most people have cars, most people live in urban areas. Gross simplification:
- Non-drivers tend to be poor, young or green, and therefore not Tory voters.
- Drivers in rural areas are probably solid Tory voters (in England at least).
- People in urban areas spend a very large proportion of their income on their car, to then spend much of the week stuck in traffic. They might have young children they need to ferry around.
They probably lament the lack of good bus/train/ tram service, or don't feel comfortable letting their kids cycle or walk to school because of the amount of traffic. They depend utterly on their cars, but wish they didn't.
They like holidaying in places like Centre Parcs. They take city breaks to Europe and walk around, or use public transport.
They might have a membership to the RSPB. They might be thinking about to Cycle2work, but are scared of being hit by a driver.
They see the news about wildfires and flooding. About air pollution. About obesity.
I think Sunak has overcooked it. Labour should respond with a positive case for public transport and active travel.
I saw another tweet (can't find it) where it was pointed out that this latest pivot to older voters represents a last stand for the Tories.
They have essentially abandoned the young family as a voter base. These voters are few in number, not ideologically attached to their cars, and care deeply about the future and the safety of their children.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
Your contempt and snide asides at this country are truly something to behold.
Not sure why Turnbull and Asser are targeting me on Facebook, but they want £355 for a WHITE & BLUE CHECK COTTON REGULAR FIT SHIRT with single cuffs and three buttons per cuff, eeuw. Almost inclined to pass on this.
Perhaps some bot had noticed me reading about "absurd tailoring" downthread.
My fault.
Turnbull & Asser are my work shirts of choice.
Same. Excellent choice.
I find it difficult to spend money on some things even if I can now afford it. I couldn't enjoy a meal which cost £100 or wear a shirt that cost £300, even if they were really good I'd have this sense it wasn't good enough to justify the cost.
It's irrational - someone could say my spending £40 on a shirt was too much since you can get cheaper - but hard to shake.
I wanted to like as I feel like that on most things (especially a shirt), but I disagree re a meal so I guess it is horses for courses (pun not intended). I like cooking so find paying £40 for a meal I could cook better a waste unless the main objective is the company and not the meal, which is usually the case. However I do enjoy a Michelin star taster menu. I can't make that. It usually tastes amazing and for 3 hours of enjoyment £100 - £200 is money well spent.
Edit: Just did a double take on the shirts. Really that much for a shirt?
I think Uxbridge was the catalyst that sparked a whole new narrative not only about the ULEZ scheme but the rush to green policies that many cannot afford and especially with the cost of living crisis
Evs are not affordable for millions, heat pumps are not only unaffordable but in many cases not practical, requiring properties to have a 'c' efficiency rating to be sold is also unaffordable for many, and our 2030 ban on ICE cars is silly when the EU is 2035
I have no idea whether Sunak will benefit from his obvious move to differentiate from Labour, but there are 35 million motorists in the UK who are an important group politicially and indeed the Sun is taking up their cause judging by today's front page
Another one with “heat pump denialism”.
Silly comment just as is saying NZ is used in 50% homes in NZ ( actual figure is 40%) when properties in NZ are very different to the UK
This from the Guardian confirms the high cost and uncertainties chills the heat pump market
Can someone explain why electric boilers can't work instead of heat pumps? Much less disruptive in UK homes where space is very limited.
You would think electric heating would be much simpler but I assume it is the cost of running such a system
they're not economical for most people because running a gas boiler is cheaper. if you could combine it with a solar plus battery storage system it'd be worth it. ultimately when I get to the point I need to replace my gas boiler with something other than a like for like I'll seriously look into it.
I have no doubt that running a gas boiler is cheaper, but as we saw last year that cheapness is much more volatile to changes in global energy markets in a way that a decarbonised energy grid doesn't need to be.
The question is what we migrate from gas boilers to. The cost of renewable energy is trending down vs gas, which if it continues will means electric boilers become more efficient over time.
Given concerns over how good heat pumps are at heating for some houses, and the disruption / high up front cost that they result in, why not just phase out gas boilers and phase in electric boilers in a similar way to cars.
Increase tax on gas usage incrementally over time to help subsidise the cost of switching.
Easiest to do this in a way where people don't notice a big disruptive step change in their lives.
Re your last sentence this is at the very heart of where trouble is brewing
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
What's wrong with having a separate hot and cold tap?
Nothing, if you are wedded to living in the 1950s.
I think Uxbridge was the catalyst that sparked a whole new narrative not only about the ULEZ scheme but the rush to green policies that many cannot afford and especially with the cost of living crisis
Evs are not affordable for millions, heat pumps are not only unaffordable but in many cases not practical, requiring properties to have a 'c' efficiency rating to be sold is also unaffordable for many, and our 2030 ban on ICE cars is silly when the EU is 2035
I have no idea whether Sunak will benefit from his obvious move to differentiate from Labour, but there are 35 million motorists in the UK who are an important group politicially and indeed the Sun is taking up their cause judging by today's front page
Another one with “heat pump denialism”.
Silly comment just as is saying NZ is used in 50% homes in NZ ( actual figure is 40%) when properties in NZ are very different to the UK
This from the Guardian confirms the high cost and uncertainties chills the heat pump market
I think Uxbridge was the catalyst that sparked a whole new narrative not only about the ULEZ scheme but the rush to green policies that many cannot afford and especially with the cost of living crisis
Evs are not affordable for millions, heat pumps are not only unaffordable but in many cases not practical, requiring properties to have a 'c' efficiency rating to be sold is also unaffordable for many, and our 2030 ban on ICE cars is silly when the EU is 2035
I have no idea whether Sunak will benefit from his obvious move to differentiate from Labour, but there are 35 million motorists in the UK who are an important group politicially and indeed the Sun is taking up their cause judging by today's front page
Another one with “heat pump denialism”.
Silly comment just as is saying NZ is used in 50% homes in NZ ( actual figure is 40%) when properties in NZ are very different to the UK
This from the Guardian confirms the high cost and uncertainties chills the heat pump market
Can someone explain why electric boilers can't work instead of heat pumps? Much less disruptive in UK homes where space is very limited.
You would think electric heating would be much simpler but I assume it is the cost of running such a system
they're not economical for most people because running a gas boiler is cheaper. if you could combine it with a solar plus battery storage system it'd be worth it. ultimately when I get to the point I need to replace my gas boiler with something other than a like for like I'll seriously look into it.
I have no doubt that running a gas boiler is cheaper, but as we saw last year that cheapness is much more volatile to changes in global energy markets in a way that a decarbonised energy grid doesn't need to be.
The question is what we migrate from gas boilers to. The cost of renewable energy is trending down vs gas, which if it continues will means electric boilers become more efficient over time.
Given concerns over how good heat pumps are at heating for some houses, and the disruption / high up front cost that they result in, why not just phase out gas boilers and phase in electric boilers in a similar way to cars.
Increase tax on gas usage incrementally over time to help subsidise the cost of switching.
Easiest to do this in a way where people don't notice a big disruptive step change in their lives.
There is another issue which is less understood is that the electricity grid is in need of a major upgrade. that's just with the demand from the large number of electric cars in the next 10 years. add on 23million or so electric boilers and the grid is in trouble.
not that I'm saying it's not something we should be doing. in fact I think it is, along with incentives for better home insulation.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
What's wrong with having a separate hot and cold tap?
Nothing, if you are wedded to living in the 1950s.
Mad. Just mad.
Heh, I thought this was in response to a post on trans issues. If you're getting triggered by mixer taps, CR, then I think you may need another beer and a rest in the sun. Unless too much time in the sun is the issue.
Rishi on X - he's going to use our Brexit freedoms to protect the traditional British pub.
"I want to protect the price of your pint at the pub.
And now the UK has left the EU, we can do just that.
So we’re bringing in one of the biggest shake ups to the alcohol duty system in the last 140 years."
"Your pint" grates as much as "our women" did in his pitches to the hustings last year. The person I go to the pub with most often drinks your glass of wine or your gin and tonic, both going up in the shake up. As is your 6 bottles for 25% off at Tesco which is the staple diet of his core vote.
I think Uxbridge was the catalyst that sparked a whole new narrative not only about the ULEZ scheme but the rush to green policies that many cannot afford and especially with the cost of living crisis
Evs are not affordable for millions, heat pumps are not only unaffordable but in many cases not practical, requiring properties to have a 'c' efficiency rating to be sold is also unaffordable for many, and our 2030 ban on ICE cars is silly when the EU is 2035
I have no idea whether Sunak will benefit from his obvious move to differentiate from Labour, but there are 35 million motorists in the UK who are an important group politicially and indeed the Sun is taking up their cause judging by today's front page
Another one with “heat pump denialism”.
Silly comment just as is saying NZ is used in 50% homes in NZ ( actual figure is 40%) when properties in NZ are very different to the UK
This from the Guardian confirms the high cost and uncertainties chills the heat pump market
Can someone explain why electric boilers can't work instead of heat pumps? Much less disruptive in UK homes where space is very limited.
Electric boilers are only ~98% efficient but heat pumps are 200% - 400% efficient as they are using energy to transfer heat from the external environment into the house rather generating heat directly.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
It is the cost and the unsuitable nature of many of our homes, especially older ones
Furthermore it is the same as so much of the green agenda, it is being rushed rather than have a longer transition period
The UK represent just 1% of carbon emissions, and any sensible discussions on this would realise that you cannot change people's cars, their home heating systems, and many other aspect their life in just a few years
What’s 1% of carbon emissions got to do with anything. NZ represents a tiny fraction of that, and it’s mass movement to heat pumps has almost nothing to do with the “green agenda”.
Anyway, on your indexed pension you can afford it more than most, so cough up.
Why do you personalise your comments, and by the way you have no knowledge whatsoever of my pension or circumstances
It has been explained to you, not only in the Guardian article I posted, but by others and yet you want to ignore the perfectly reasonable engagement with you and hurl insults which is a sure sign you have no arguments left
But the 1 percent argument is a pretty thin one.
The UK is less than 1 percent of the world population, so on average we are creating more than our share of pollution right now.
Besides, the world is largely made of one percents. If they all take the same path as you are suggesting then we're all stuffed.
On the Chinese version of PB (just imagine!) there are probably people asking why China should put itself out in the UK won't.
Every country keeps using fossil fuels as long as there are other countries using fossil fuels ... hmmm, not sure this is the best approach.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
You aren’t going to be overly happy with your new place of residence then,
Not only do Americans have worse dental hygiene but there’s a higher chance you or your family will get shot or develop an opioid addiction. But at least you don’t have to tolerate separate taps anymore.
I think Uxbridge was the catalyst that sparked a whole new narrative not only about the ULEZ scheme but the rush to green policies that many cannot afford and especially with the cost of living crisis
Evs are not affordable for millions, heat pumps are not only unaffordable but in many cases not practical, requiring properties to have a 'c' efficiency rating to be sold is also unaffordable for many, and our 2030 ban on ICE cars is silly when the EU is 2035
I have no idea whether Sunak will benefit from his obvious move to differentiate from Labour, but there are 35 million motorists in the UK who are an important group politicially and indeed the Sun is taking up their cause judging by today's front page
Another one with “heat pump denialism”.
Silly comment just as is saying NZ is used in 50% homes in NZ ( actual figure is 40%) when properties in NZ are very different to the UK
This from the Guardian confirms the high cost and uncertainties chills the heat pump market
Can someone explain why electric boilers can't work instead of heat pumps? Much less disruptive in UK homes where space is very limited.
You would think electric heating would be much simpler but I assume it is the cost of running such a system
Electricity is, what? 3-4x gas cost per kWh? So electric boiler costs around that multiple to run. Which is why your heat pump, if producing >3 times the heat energy compared to input electrical energy is reckoned to be cheaper than gas (geting that 3x is very possible, but requires running in a most efficient way, which in turn needs to be producing at not too high a temperature which is what implies the need for different radiatiors/underfloor heating and good insulation).
Gas costs though, one would think, will not be dropping. Electricity costs could be, if we roll out enough wind/solar power (although demand will be increasing greatly too, so we'd need to roll out a lot).
I have known people who have chosen electric boilers over oil when that has been the choice (no mains gas). Coupled with solar, it can be worthwhile versus oil, but unlikely versus gas.
Direct solar water heating for hot water (with electrical top up as required) is something we could look at more in the UK.
Now I think about it, all my household faucets have hot and cold through the same stream.
having two taps something that's becoming less common. if you look at bathroom sinks on the B&Q website you'll find 252 sinks with 1 tap hole but only 41 with 2.
Heat pumps are used in around 50% of NZ homes (climate, not so different from the UK’s), and more so in the colder regions.
So that's a full 325 people in NZ who benefit from heat pumps. Yay.
Typical head-in-the-sand arrogance.
Using simple arrows and highlighting please let me know where the heat pumps go here:
What percentage of Britons live in 1960s brutalist towers?
Brutalist towers should be easy: single central heating and cooling system for the whole building as is the case with office blocks. Community heating, ideally with its own solar generation covering at least some of the electricity requirements.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I did assume something like this.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
What's wrong with having a separate hot and cold tap?
Nothing, if you are wedded to living in the 1950s.
I don't have a problem mixing hot and cold water in the sink by putting the plug in.
Rishi on X - he's going to use our Brexit freedoms to protect the traditional British pub.
"I want to protect the price of your pint at the pub.
And now the UK has left the EU, we can do just that.
So we’re bringing in one of the biggest shake ups to the alcohol duty system in the last 140 years."
"Your pint" grates as much as "our women" did in his pitches to the hustings last year. The person I go to the pub with most often drinks your glass of wine or your gin and tonic, both going up in the shake up. As is your 6 bottles for 25% off at Tesco which is the staple diet of his core vote.
Apart from that...
I hadn't realised that the alcohol duty system was a pressing issue that requires immediate prime ministerial attention.
The little shit must be the least authentic populist in world politics.
There are two competing factors - most people have cars, most people live in urban areas. Gross simplification:
- Non-drivers tend to be poor, young or green, and therefore not Tory voters.
- Drivers in rural areas are probably solid Tory voters (in England at least).
- People in urban areas spend a very large proportion of their income on their car, to then spend much of the week stuck in traffic. They might have young children they need to ferry around.
They probably lament the lack of good bus/train/ tram service, or don't feel comfortable letting their kids cycle or walk to school because of the amount of traffic. They depend utterly on their cars, but wish they didn't.
They like holidaying in places like Centre Parcs. They take city breaks to Europe and walk around, or use public transport.
They might have a membership to the RSPB. They might be thinking about to Cycle2work, but are scared of being hit by a driver.
They see the news about wildfires and flooding. About air pollution. About obesity.
I think Sunak has overcooked it. Labour should respond with a positive case for public transport and active travel.
I saw another tweet (can't find it) where it was pointed out that this latest pivot to older voters represents a last stand for the Tories.
They have essentially abandoned the young family as a voter base. These voters are few in number, not ideologically attached to their cars, and care deeply about the future and the safety of their children.
It's also what happens when a party has a negligible number of young working age people in its ecosystem. There's hardly anyone left in Conservative networks who can point out the problems with the party's current direction.
It's one thing saying "it will see me out" about a piece of furniture. It's different and worse saying it about a party/country/climate system.
But as long as we don't have to inconvenience ourselves, that's the main thing, eh?
Rishi on X - he's going to use our Brexit freedoms to protect the traditional British pub.
"I want to protect the price of your pint at the pub.
And now the UK has left the EU, we can do just that.
So we’re bringing in one of the biggest shake ups to the alcohol duty system in the last 140 years."
"Your pint" grates as much as "our women" did in his pitches to the hustings last year. The person I go to the pub with most often drinks your glass of wine or your gin and tonic, both going up in the shake up. As is your 6 bottles for 25% off at Tesco which is the staple diet of his core vote.
Apart from that...
If we have had the same duty system for the last 140 years, what does the EU have to do with it?
Never mind tweaks to the cost of a beer. How about tweaks* to the inability of the hospitality sector to find staff?
Rishi on X - he's going to use our Brexit freedoms to protect the traditional British pub.
"I want to protect the price of your pint at the pub.
And now the UK has left the EU, we can do just that.
So we’re bringing in one of the biggest shake ups to the alcohol duty system in the last 140 years."
"Your pint" grates as much as "our women" did in his pitches to the hustings last year. The person I go to the pub with most often drinks your glass of wine or your gin and tonic, both going up in the shake up. As is your 6 bottles for 25% off at Tesco which is the staple diet of his core vote.
"Too often, pubs at the heart of our communities are undercut by supermarket competitors.
So we’re levelling the playing field, making the duty paid on pints in pubs up to 11p cheaper than at the shop.
That means cheaper drinks when you go out, leaving more money in your pocket."
He genuinely (I bet) doesn't realise that supermarket beer is one third the price of pub. He can't fill up a car and he drives, so how would he know what happens in pubs?
this X thread is so bad, it feels as if written by a piss-taking spad who will be rickrolling us shortly.
And back again on topic, what does it matter to TAMITS if the IRR for a 20 grand heat pump is positive they haven't got the 20 grand in the first place. As we have discussed on here before, such savings are only available to those with some degree of liquid capital. It is not the domain of those living hand to mouth and relying on foodbanks or pay day lenders.
Rishi is on the right track here.
But yes "your pint" is only said by people who have never in their lives had "a pint", and perhaps have never been to a pub outside photo opportunities.
Rishi on X - he's going to use our Brexit freedoms to protect the traditional British pub.
"I want to protect the price of your pint at the pub.
And now the UK has left the EU, we can do just that.
So we’re bringing in one of the biggest shake ups to the alcohol duty system in the last 140 years."
"Your pint" grates as much as "our women" did in his pitches to the hustings last year. The person I go to the pub with most often drinks your glass of wine or your gin and tonic, both going up in the shake up. As is your 6 bottles for 25% off at Tesco which is the staple diet of his core vote.
Apart from that...
The strategy is certainly clear enough. He'll either get the reactionary end of that Leave vote back in the tent or die trying.
There are two competing factors - most people have cars, most people live in urban areas. Gross simplification:
- Non-drivers tend to be poor, young or green, and therefore not Tory voters.
- Drivers in rural areas are probably solid Tory voters (in England at least).
- People in urban areas spend a very large proportion of their income on their car, to then spend much of the week stuck in traffic. They might have young children they need to ferry around.
They probably lament the lack of good bus/train/ tram service, or don't feel comfortable letting their kids cycle or walk to school because of the amount of traffic. They depend utterly on their cars, but wish they didn't.
They like holidaying in places like Centre Parcs. They take city breaks to Europe and walk around, or use public transport.
They might have a membership to the RSPB. They might be thinking about to Cycle2work, but are scared of being hit by a driver.
They see the news about wildfires and flooding. About air pollution. About obesity.
I think Sunak has overcooked it. Labour should respond with a positive case for public transport and active travel.
I saw another tweet (can't find it) where it was pointed out that this latest pivot to older voters represents a last stand for the Tories.
They have essentially abandoned the young family as a voter base. These voters are few in number, not ideologically attached to their cars, and care deeply about the future and the safety of their children.
Not few in number, you mean, surely?
And some of th eoldies are worried about their grandchildren in the wider context, too.
Rishi on X - he's going to use our Brexit freedoms to protect the traditional British pub.
He spins more than my washing machine.
What it is. The government is introducing a big increase in alcohol duty including on beer, but is keeping duty on draught beer as it is. It's good to see him using his Brexit freedoms when most EU members have lower rates of duty, including on draught beer.
I fucking hate single taps. How do you know how much cold water you are putting in to a bath if it's all coming out of the same tap.
Eh ? You're trying to get a bath to the right temperature for you or a little one, surely more difficult to judge with two taps as you can't stick your hand under it and go "that's about right" (After initially running straight hot because the warm water is 'coming through'). Easier with a single faucettap
Now I think about it, all my household faucets have hot and cold through the same stream.
having two taps something that's becoming less common. if you look at bathroom sinks on the B&Q website you'll find 252 sinks with 1 tap hole but only 41 with 2.
Now this is proper research! Well done you. Most admirable!
This debate on heat pumps etc is exactly the problem and why this will become a really key electoral issue in time.
Who is making the decision on how we are replacing the method of heating in all our homes? Who is paying for it? What will it be? Will it heat as well as a gas boiler, or worse? How much will it cost to run? Will it fit on the house? What about [insert other living arrangements - flats, houses with no garden, terraces, buildings with odd boundary issues etc]?
I don’t have the blindest clue what I am going to be expected to do when gas boilers are phased out, and I have an interest in current affairs etc. Can we not see how mind bendingly confusing and concerning this will be to millions of people?
The decisions being taken at the top are woeful, the groundwork to prepare people shameful, the information is not there.
Rishi on X - he's going to use our Brexit freedoms to protect the traditional British pub.
"I want to protect the price of your pint at the pub.
And now the UK has left the EU, we can do just that.
So we’re bringing in one of the biggest shake ups to the alcohol duty system in the last 140 years."
"Your pint" grates as much as "our women" did in his pitches to the hustings last year. The person I go to the pub with most often drinks your glass of wine or your gin and tonic, both going up in the shake up. As is your 6 bottles for 25% off at Tesco which is the staple diet of his core vote.
Apart from that...
The strategy is certainly clear enough. He'll either get the reactionary end of that Leave vote back in the tent or die trying.
Comments
In any kind of rationally governed country things like this would have been dealt with decades ago.
Many of us (most?) grew up with mouldy window-sills.
NZ had/has one of the highest rates of asthma in the world. Brick houses were considered a luxury when I was a kid; maybe they still are.
My Dad’s entirely crappy 1950s, wooden house…has a heat pump.
There’s a booming ‘fight your ticket’ industry that’s developed as a result, with people paying a few bucks to send a carefully-worded response to each courthouse citing precident for overturned cases. As soon as they realise someone is actually prepared to have a lawyer turn up, they usually drop the case.
Very different from when I was their age.
At its best, this makes the Party flexible and pragmatic, able to pivot around the issues of the day. At its worst, and it really seems to be falling into the worst now, it becomes listless, incapable and slightly baffled by the power it holds. It’s the cat that has finally caught the laser pointer.
Rather than principles or goals, the Tory Party today lives for day-to-day, object level reactions to the things that catch its eye...
https://www.joxleywrites.jmoxley.co.uk/p/the-problem-with-the-conservative
Hopefully the actual contest would see enough change their minds, but that's no guarantee, and there'll be lawsuits aplenty on all sides about local election rules I bet.
Slightly connectedly I’ve learned that Big Tam used to come through to Glasgow to get his suits made in a now defunct tailor along the road.
That can be either ground source heat pump or air source or CHP hot water. Equipment on the ground / basement or roof.
The European countries where heat pumps have taken off include several with far more apartment living than the UK.
I would imagine a lot of those 17-20 year olds would be putting it off till after graduating or whatever though.
At the moment, it's heated by a gas boiler. If that boiler breaks or goes on the fritz, it's fairly easy to get a guy out to fix it or replace it when it goes kaput.
How would heat pumps work? Well, first of all, as it's leasehold, you wouldn't be able to install your own. The building's freeholder would issue you a S20 notice, and everyone would be forced to install them at the same time, probably through one of the freeholder's mates, at a vastly inflated cost, with no say on the final bill - pay up or lose your lease.
Then you have the problem of maintenance. You live on the 5th floor. Your heat pump packs in. You can't just call your friendly neighbourhood boiler expert any more to be round in a jiffy, you have to go through the management company, who will take days if not weeks to send someone out. This will require specialist equipment such as a cherry picker to get up there, and a team - cost to fix even a simple repair, thousands. And probably a very cold house for several weeks.
The only other alternative would be a communal heat source for the whole building, which would require a dedicated space which doesn't exist in my building as it wasn't designed for one. So huge building costs to create and install one. Plus, one of the quirks of communal heating systems for blocks of flats is that they are commercial installations rather than residential ones, therefore you pay commercial rates for the cost of the electricity or gas used to heat the building, meaning your bill goes up an enormous amount as you are not protected by the price cap. According to the Mayor of London, 400,000 people were affected by this last year in London alone.
I really can’t understand why there is so much resistance to heat pumps, when they are mainstream in growing parts of the world.
It’s like the British insistence on bad dentistry, or having a separate hot and cold tap.
It's irrational - someone could say my spending £40 on a shirt was too much since you can get cheaper - but hard to shake.
England starting strong again, but I'm concerned about how much they drop off in the last 20 mins.
Same reason we don't bother with decent insulation, or anything else we can't consume in the next fourteen minutes.
China 0
41 mins
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/65468316
https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1686125005141078017
Furthermore it is the same as so much of the green agenda, it is being rushed rather than have a longer transition period
The UK represent just 1% of carbon emissions, and any sensible discussions on this would realise that you cannot change people's cars, their home heating systems, and many other aspect their life in just a few years
NZ represents a tiny fraction of that, and it’s mass movement to heat pumps has almost nothing to do with the “green agenda”.
Anyway, on your indexed pension you can afford it more than most, so cough up.
Brits are cheap-asses.
https://twitter.com/Andercot/status/1686286684424691712
Still early days; treat with caution. But if it really is real, then it's potentially world-changing. But it's probably not real. And if it is, the question is how the **** it works.
The way the various papers on this new substance were released is both suspicious, and also an utterly realistic example of the way science can work in practice.
(Incidentally, I recently listened to an In Our Time on superconductors. In the 1900s, a scientist spent years trying to work out how superconductors worked. In the end he said: "They don't".)
for anyone interested, here are two relatively understandable videos on it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjzL9cS3VW8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV2AexANG34
I remember John Major on election night 1997 saying something tabout what is to be a Conservative and how it "goes with the grain of the British people". I'm sure what he didn't mean by that was any policy will do, as long as it's popular.
That's the problem with following a populist agenda - you have to keep chasing what is popular and espousing it no matter how much it may contradict with anything else.
Heat pumps can work in very well insulated properties where widnows and doors are shut at all times. Otherwise on a cold day you will be cold.
Sunak's anti-green posture could be a mistake, but he needs to be called out on it in a skilful way. Labour need to make and win the arguments they would like to make, rather than just constantly re-triangulating.
Starmer's downward trend on approval ratings is a lot to do with his temerity on ULEZ. (possibly on North Sea as well, though I accept that honouring existing licenses as at Labour assuming power always was policy). I accept the need to be cautious but, somewhere, on something, Labour has to hold still and make a defence of their own policies and not just shrink from facing down bullshit Tory campaign astroturfing assuming that astroturfing will win.
Don't tell me we should be getting nostalgic or protective over tap set ups now? These matters should be all about function and efficiency.
- Non-drivers tend to be poor, young or green, and therefore not Tory voters.
- Drivers in rural areas are probably solid Tory voters (in England at least).
- People in urban areas spend a very large proportion of their income on their car, to then spend much of the week stuck in traffic. They might have young children they need to ferry around.
They probably lament the lack of good bus/train/ tram service, or don't feel comfortable letting their kids cycle or walk to school because of the amount of traffic. They depend utterly on their cars, but wish they didn't.
They like holidaying in places like Centre Parcs. They take city breaks to Europe and walk around, or use public transport.
They might have a membership to the RSPB. They might be thinking about to Cycle2work, but are scared of being hit by a driver.
They see the news about wildfires and flooding. About air pollution. About obesity.
I think Sunak has overcooked it. Labour should respond with a positive case for public transport and active travel.
It has been explained to you, not only in the Guardian article I posted, but by others and yet you want to ignore the perfectly reasonable engagement with you and hurl insults which is a sure sign you have no arguments left
regardless of the technology we move to the next government has to do a lot to support and improve home insulation throughout the country.
We should remember Uxbridge has been Conservative for a long as I can remember, Hillingdon and Harrow swung slightly to them in last years locals, yet in the by election they lost a 7,000 majority. ULEX will be introduced in the suburbs, probably with some extra enhancements.
The question is what we migrate from gas boilers to. The cost of renewable energy is trending down vs gas, which if it continues will means electric boilers become more efficient over time.
Given concerns over how good heat pumps are at heating for some houses, and the disruption / high up front cost that they result in, why not just phase out gas boilers and phase in electric boilers in a similar way to cars.
Increase tax on gas usage incrementally over time to help subsidise the cost of switching.
Easiest to do this in a way where people don't notice a big disruptive step change in their lives.
The UK is less than 1 percent of the world population, so on average we are creating more than our share of pollution right now.
Besides, the world is largely made of one percents. If they all take the same path as you are suggesting then we're all stuffed.
On the Chinese version of PB (just imagine!) there are probably people asking why China should put itself out in the UK won't.
They have essentially abandoned the young family as a voter base. These voters are few in number, not ideologically attached to their cars, and care deeply about the future and the safety of their children.
Edit: Just did a double take on the shirts. Really that much for a shirt?
not that I'm saying it's not something we should be doing. in fact I think it is, along with incentives for better home insulation.
And now the UK has left the EU, we can do just that.
So we’re bringing in one of the biggest shake ups to the alcohol duty system in the last 140 years."
"Your pint" grates as much as "our women" did in his pitches to the hustings last year. The person I go to the pub with most often drinks your glass of wine or your gin and tonic, both going up in the shake up. As is your 6 bottles for 25% off at Tesco which is the staple diet of his core vote.
Apart from that...
Not only do Americans have worse dental hygiene but there’s a higher chance you or your family will get shot or develop an opioid addiction. But at least you don’t have to tolerate separate taps anymore.
Gas costs though, one would think, will not be dropping. Electricity costs could be, if we roll out enough wind/solar power (although demand will be increasing greatly too, so we'd need to roll out a lot).
I have known people who have chosen electric boilers over oil when that has been the choice (no mains gas). Coupled with solar, it can be worthwhile versus oil, but unlikely versus gas.
Direct solar water heating for hot water (with electrical top up as required) is something we could look at more in the UK.
The little shit must be the least authentic populist in world politics.
It's one thing saying "it will see me out" about a piece of furniture. It's different and worse saying it about a party/country/climate system.
But as long as we don't have to inconvenience ourselves, that's the main thing, eh?
Never mind tweaks to the cost of a beer. How about tweaks* to the inability of the hospitality sector to find staff?
"Too often, pubs at the heart of our communities are undercut by supermarket competitors.
So we’re levelling the playing field, making the duty paid on pints in pubs up to 11p cheaper than at the shop.
That means cheaper drinks when you go out, leaving more money in your pocket."
He genuinely (I bet) doesn't realise that supermarket beer is one third the price of pub. He can't fill up a car and he drives, so how would he know what happens in pubs?
this X thread is so bad, it feels as if written by a piss-taking spad who will be rickrolling us shortly.
Rishi is on the right track here.
But yes "your pint" is only said by people who have never in their lives had "a pint", and perhaps have never been to a pub outside photo opportunities.
And some of th eoldies are worried about their grandchildren in the wider context, too.
What it is. The government is introducing a big increase in alcohol duty including on beer, but is keeping duty on draught beer as it is. It's good to see him using his Brexit freedoms when most EU members have lower rates of duty, including on draught beer.
Who is making the decision on how we are replacing the method of heating in all our homes? Who is paying for it? What will it be? Will it heat as well as a gas boiler, or worse? How much will it cost to run? Will it fit on the house? What about [insert other living arrangements - flats, houses with no garden, terraces, buildings with odd boundary issues etc]?
I don’t have the blindest clue what I am going to be expected to do when gas boilers are phased out, and I have an interest in current affairs etc. Can we not see how mind bendingly confusing and concerning this will be to millions of people?
The decisions being taken at the top are woeful, the groundwork to prepare people shameful, the information is not there.