Having admitted they've renditioned him in error...
Trump's lawyers are arguing that because they've dumped this guy in a Salvadoran prison, he can't file a habeas corpus petition, because he's no longer in American custody. They're arguing that once you get to sent to El Salvador, no court can order the govt to bring you back. https://x.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1906903088461656383
Surely the courts can order the government to take all necessary steps to persuade El Salvador to release him.
Reeves' problem is she has annoyed the right with taxes on farmers and business owners and cutting pensioners winter fuel allowance.
Then she has now annoyed the left by cutting spending on welfare, overseas aid and the civil service
The headlines are terrible but beyond the headlines some headway is being made. Take the Motability scam. 21% if all new cars in the UK are purchased under Motability. Able bodied family members using Motability vehicles for their full time use and not the disabled user. Provider CEOs earning million pound salaries and awarding themselves millions of pounds in bonuses. Kwik fit making a fortune on sole supply of only prestige branded tyres. Even those managing the scheme agree the system has been abused.
AIUI, too, pensioners who are disabled (like me) cannot take advantage of Motability. I can see the sense of disabled non-pensioners having assistance with transport, especially if it enables them to work, of course.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
I've nothing against getting the electric power we need. We should be building solar, wind and nuclear as quickly as feasibly possible as well as upgrading the grid and electrifying everything. Absolutely. But our use of oil and gas should be restricted to the production of chemicals and fertilizers as soon as we can manage. It's a crime and a waste to be burning the stuff, whether domestically produced or imported.
Until the Treasury is forced to bin the Green Book and a government starts to properly invest in the infrastructure a country with X million more people in it than 20 years ago needs - all Chancellors are going to look useless..
What sort of infrastructure have you in mind?
Bat tunnels and carbon capture. Possibly in a combined system.
We'll probably end up with carbon tunnels and bat capture.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
HS2 is only a disaster because I will repeat this for the thousandth time
1) the Government didn't leave them alone to build it 2) the requirements were gold plated on top of diamond encrusted gold 3) in the case of Euston 3 different projects (HS2, fixing TfL's station, the tunnel to Euston) have all been put into the HS2 pot. 4) the economic model ignores all journeys that aren't to and from London because oh it was too complex 4b) it really didn't consider the impact of an empty WCML and ECML would have on capacity uses on the WCML / ECML and freight
On 1 we should have a permanently employed team working on HS2 Manchester, then HS2 Leeds. We should also be working on HS3 expanding from Birmingham to Bristol / Exeter / Swansea.
Tom Harwood has proposed HS4 linking London, via Oxford into the S West as far as Plymouth.
Nice one, just giving a moment's pause before remembering the date; and even then, in Trump world, nothing is impossible. Perhaps Derek Hatton commissioned it.
This is the problem. If someone does a Trump-related April fool joke today, how the hell are we going to know? I mean, possible spoof headlines:
"Trump: We'll annex Greenland." "Trump: We'll annex Canada." "Trump: Putin's a pretty straight up kind of guy"
This one would be an obvious joke, though: "Trump: I'm committed to NATO and Ukraine and Canada and Greenland are partners, not enemies."
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
Having admitted they've renditioned him in error...
Trump's lawyers are arguing that because they've dumped this guy in a Salvadoran prison, he can't file a habeas corpus petition, because he's no longer in American custody. They're arguing that once you get to sent to El Salvador, no court can order the govt to bring you back. https://x.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1906903088461656383
What's El Salvador getting out of this?
I would assume lots of money.
Much of which will end up in the personal bank accounts of prominent people at both ends.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
I've nothing against getting the electric power we need. We should be building solar, wind and nuclear as quickly as feasibly possible as well as upgrading the grid and electrifying everything. Absolutely. But our use of oil and gas should be restricted to the production of chemicals and fertilizers as soon as we can manage. It's a crime and a waste to be buring the stuff.
I not only drive an EV, I'm doing my bit to try and promote their adoption. And going off how many people (scores) have bought a car with my referral code I've helped many in their own EV journey.
But we can't just switch off North Sea oil. Even if we transition to new EVs only by 2030 there will be millions of vehicles on the road that need fuel. It will take a decade and more to run those down. So why would we want to rely on imported oil for all that time when we can dig our own?
I want the UK to become leading edge on green energy. But it would be bonkers to switch to imported oil as we do so.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
The lack of tidal is one of those head scratchers, like why don’t all volcanic countries have 100% geothermal power like Iceland, given how cheap it is.
Usually when I’m wondering “how hard can it be” I do a bit of internet research and find out that actually it is very hard and/or expensive, but the internet is a little lacking in tidal myth busting. The Wikipedia page lists several issues but none seem particularly major.
Just got an email from OGH stating he's not happy with TSE's performance thus far, and is installing ME as, er, "Lord Protector" of PB.com!
Leon DMed me. They now identify as Sheon. Alongside their new partner (a woman their own age) they are moving to Wick to join a regenerative vegan commune working for climate justice, interfaith dialogue and open borders.
Reeves' problem is she has annoyed the right with taxes on farmers and business owners and cutting pensioners winter fuel allowance.
Then she has now annoyed the left by cutting spending on welfare, overseas aid and the civil service
The headlines are terrible but beyond the headlines some headway is being made. Take the Motability scam. 21% if all new cars in the UK are purchased under Motability. Able bodied family members using Motability vehicles for their full time use and not the disabled user. Provider CEOs earning million pound salaries and awarding themselves millions of pounds in bonuses. Kwik fit making a fortune on sole supply of only prestige branded tyres. Even those managing the scheme agree the system has been abused.
AIUI, too, pensioners who are disabled (like me) cannot take advantage of Motability. I can see the sense of disabled non-pensioners having assistance with transport, especially if it enables them to work, of course.
Wasn't Motability supposed to replace the Invacars of the 1970s?
I think in principle it is a good idea, and I don't see why genuine users of all ages shouldn't benefit, but when a disabled person's relative gets full time access to a partially paid for out of public funds, discounted leased BMW, that isn't appropriate. If the idea is simply to grant mobility to someone who's mobility is compromised give them the choice of either a Corsa (or equivalent) or a Berlingo (or equivalent). No one needs a Range Rover part paid for from the Motability fund.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
The lack of tidal is one of those head scratchers, like why don’t all volcanic countries have 100% geothermal power like Iceland, given how cheap it is.
Usually when I’m wondering “how hard can it be” I do a bit of internet research and find out that actually it is very hard and/or expensive, but the internet is a little lacking in tidal myth busting. The Wikipedia page lists several issues but none seem particularly major.
Having admitted they've renditioned him in error...
Trump's lawyers are arguing that because they've dumped this guy in a Salvadoran prison, he can't file a habeas corpus petition, because he's no longer in American custody. They're arguing that once you get to sent to El Salvador, no court can order the govt to bring you back. https://x.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1906903088461656383
Surely the courts can order the government to take all necessary steps to persuade El Salvador to release him.
Meaning what? And enforceable how?
In theory, I'd assume the logal system could hold the officials responsible accountable for human trafficking and no doubt other crimes, but bringing a case will be practically difficult and obviously the Trump state won't bring one against itself.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
However as with personal finance you need to cut your spending otherwise you never get out of the hole. Keeping sticking things on your credit card will never help you. By all means spend on infrastructure but at same time you need to reduce state day to day spending.
Morning all and off topic, I can report something that may surprise people. I've had something of a change of heart about Donald Trump. Yep. Yes, I have. I can see what he's all about now, what he's trying to achieve both at home and abroad. Sure he can be a bit tacky at times, but as American presidents go I think we could do a lot worse.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
The lack of tidal is one of those head scratchers, like why don’t all volcanic countries have 100% geothermal power like Iceland, given how cheap it is.
Usually when I’m wondering “how hard can it be” I do a bit of internet research and find out that actually it is very hard and/or expensive, but the internet is a little lacking in tidal myth busting. The Wikipedia page lists several issues but none seem particularly major.
Minor objection to Cornwall and Scapa Flow: that's not where the consumption is. A lot of infrastricture would be needed to get the leccy to where it was needed. Still, not beyond the wit of man.
I'd say there must be a couple of dozen good sites in England alone which could collectively supply England's electricity. Scotland of course is massively overprovided with potential sites.
Interesting thing about the UK: our tides are very very high by international standards. Tidal really does appear to be an open goal.
I have a scheme in mind for a barrage across Morecambe Bay, which would have the neat effect of also providing a shortcut to Barrow from 90% of England.
Having admitted they've renditioned him in error...
Trump's lawyers are arguing that because they've dumped this guy in a Salvadoran prison, he can't file a habeas corpus petition, because he's no longer in American custody. They're arguing that once you get to sent to El Salvador, no court can order the govt to bring you back. https://x.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1906903088461656383
Surely the courts can order the government to take all necessary steps to persuade El Salvador to release him.
Meaning what? And enforceable how?
In theory, I'd assume the logal system could hold the officials responsible accountable for human trafficking and no doubt other crimes, but bringing a case will be practically difficult and obviously the Trump state won't bring one against itself.
You issue a court order instructing the US government to do whatever it takes. That gives all the negotiating leverage to Rl Salvador. Add in a fine of, say, $10m per day u til he is returned
Reeves' problem is she has annoyed the right with taxes on farmers and business owners and cutting pensioners winter fuel allowance.
Then she has now annoyed the left by cutting spending on welfare, overseas aid and the civil service
The headlines are terrible but beyond the headlines some headway is being made. Take the Motability scam. 21% if all new cars in the UK are purchased under Motability. Able bodied family members using Motability vehicles for their full time use and not the disabled user. Provider CEOs earning million pound salaries and awarding themselves millions of pounds in bonuses. Kwik fit making a fortune on sole supply of only prestige branded tyres. Even those managing the scheme agree the system has been abused.
AIUI, too, pensioners who are disabled (like me) cannot take advantage of Motability. I can see the sense of disabled non-pensioners having assistance with transport, especially if it enables them to work, of course.
Wasn't Motability supposed to replace the Invacars of the 1970s?
I think in principle it is a good idea, and I don't see why genuine users of all ages shouldn't benefit, but when a disabled person's relative gets full time access to a partially paid for out of public funds, discounted leased BMW, that isn't appropriate. If the idea is simply to grant mobility to someone who's mobility is compromised give them the choice of either a Corsa (or equivalent) or a Berlingo (or equivalent). No one needs a Range Rover part paid for from the Motability fund.
I'm surprised Starmer hasn't set up a 'Scam Czar' by now. Plenty of opportunities for Red Top headlines
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
The lack of tidal is one of those head scratchers, like why don’t all volcanic countries have 100% geothermal power like Iceland, given how cheap it is.
Usually when I’m wondering “how hard can it be” I do a bit of internet research and find out that actually it is very hard and/or expensive, but the internet is a little lacking in tidal myth busting. The Wikipedia page lists several issues but none seem particularly major.
Minor objection to Cornwall and Scapa Flow: that's not where the consumption is. A lot of infrastricture would be needed to get the leccy to where it was needed. Still, not beyond the wit of man.
I'd say there must be a couple of dozen good sites in England alone which could collectively supply England's electricity. Scotland of course is massively overprovided with potential sites.
Interesting thing about the UK: our tides are very very high by international standards. Tidal really does appear to be an open goal.
I have a scheme in mind for a barrage across Morecambe Bay, which would have the neat effect of also providing a shortcut to Barrow from 90% of England.
@danroan Chelsea turn £90m loss into £128m profit after sale of women's team to their own parent company.
I would love to know how they are going to game the system this year - they've got nothing left to sell having sold the hotels last time round..
If you can sell the womens team to a subsidiary/sister company, I don't see why they can't sell branding rights or future TV revenues in a similar fashion and just make the constraints irrelevant. And then dare the authorities to hold them to account as Man City have done by lawyering up.
We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
New type of nuclear power plant plus cutting corners seems like a great combination.
At least HBO will get some new material for a series out of it.
I'm not a nuclear engineer, but what is new about these small reactors? We've been building and using them for many decades.
The basic idea is a submarine reactor with a larger core. Rather like the reactors the Americans created for their aircraft carriers after USS Enterprise.
'Sadiq Khan's TFL is planning to permanently change the name of London's Whitechapel station simply to Chapel after a council-funded report claimed "the existing designation reinforces racial stereotypes and gives in to a narrative of colonialism".
Reeves' problem is she has annoyed the right with taxes on farmers and business owners and cutting pensioners winter fuel allowance.
Then she has now annoyed the left by cutting spending on welfare, overseas aid and the civil service
The headlines are terrible but beyond the headlines some headway is being made. Take the Motability scam. 21% if all new cars in the UK are purchased under Motability. Able bodied family members using Motability vehicles for their full time use and not the disabled user. Provider CEOs earning million pound salaries and awarding themselves millions of pounds in bonuses. Kwik fit making a fortune on sole supply of only prestige branded tyres. Even those managing the scheme agree the system has been abused.
AIUI, too, pensioners who are disabled (like me) cannot take advantage of Motability. I can see the sense of disabled non-pensioners having assistance with transport, especially if it enables them to work, of course.
Wasn't Motability supposed to replace the Invacars of the 1970s?
I think in principle it is a good idea, and I don't see why genuine users of all ages shouldn't benefit, but when a disabled person's relative gets full time access to a partially paid for out of public funds, discounted leased BMW, that isn't appropriate. If the idea is simply to grant mobility to someone who's mobility is compromised give them the choice of either a Corsa (or equivalent) or a Berlingo (or equivalent). No one needs a Range Rover part paid for from the Motability fund.
Having admitted they've renditioned him in error...
Trump's lawyers are arguing that because they've dumped this guy in a Salvadoran prison, he can't file a habeas corpus petition, because he's no longer in American custody. They're arguing that once you get to sent to El Salvador, no court can order the govt to bring you back. https://x.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1906903088461656383
Surely the courts can order the government to take all necessary steps to persuade El Salvador to release him.
Meaning what? And enforceable how?
In theory, I'd assume the logal system could hold the officials responsible accountable for human trafficking and no doubt other crimes, but bringing a case will be practically difficult and obviously the Trump state won't bring one against itself.
You issue a court order instructing the US government to do whatever it takes. That gives all the negotiating leverage to Rl Salvador. Add in a fine of, say, $10m per day u til he is returned
And you hold the us lawyers criminally liable
"Whatever it takes" is a dangerously open but meaningless phrase (which I'd hope no court would go anywhere near). That's an open door to military action - which would be an obvious invite to the Trump adminstration to start deportations to Greenland.
You can hold people liable for the decision to abduct and deport someone illegally; I don't see how you can hold them accountable for failing to bring them back when they have no authority to do so and can only work on best endeavours. Surely no lawyer would go near a case if operating under those conditions?
But it's all irrelevant. The administration would ignore the court order anyway and challenge it on appeal.
Is it ridiculous post competition night on PB this evening? There have been an unusually high (or low) calibre of entries, but that one is a pretty solid effort. I'm sorry I missed the fun, I can normally give allcomers a good show when it comes to posting bollocks.
I didn’t think much of the series. It left me wondering just how much research went into it. It felt to me like something not from the real world. Hackneyed.
If a case like that actually happened, it would be as massive and explosive media frenzy. Yet the police detective racks up at a school 2 days later, that hardly seems touched by it, goes into a a class with his own son in it. His son takes him aside to explain they’ve all got it fundamentally wrong down at the station, and explains emoji’s to him. WTF?
After an opening episode that was like an episode of Doctors, that second one torpedoed it for me.
The third was pretty good. Could have been an excellent one off drama of its own.
Overall the one take gimmick didn’t work for the story, which would have been better served told iteratively including the trial and sentencing. We were never shown how the UK was reporting and reacting to this crime, another angle that made the story feel short and unformed.
Where it tried to apportion motive, it got proper lost and does not deserve the attention this loopy and increasingly populist government has given it. Some people are born bad seeds, quick to a red mist and violent temper, this TV show tried to blame the internet. This bad seed would have been capable of such a crime a hundred years ago, long before the internet.
Thanks. Prejudices confirmed, good work.
Saves me the bother of watching a schmaltzy and earnest diatribe that will just bug me.
As for the subject. It’s in us. The point of civilisation is to know that, and move determinedly onwards and upwards.
It wasn’t so much schmaltzy, more sort of hollow. Almost opposite to schmaltzy as no emotional attachment was built from characters with viewer - except maybe in third part, where you felt sorry for a clinical psychologist for putting herself through that. Then again maybe she is driven there in the same way those in Netflix Mind Hunter were gagging to interview Charlie to see what he says, as it was privilege for them to have access to a superstar. Nor was it particularly preachy, as it’s never clear what it’s preaching. For example, police wander through a school saying “why do schools always smell of vomit?” Are they trying to make some sort of deep social commentary to explain why 13 year olds are butchering each other? Switch the cleaning products to fabreeze fresh cotton and everything will be alright? It was much like that all the way through. Baffling. The chase and arrest of the one who supplied the knife was from a children’s show, very poor television. My school didn’t smell of vomit. I may not have spent much time in it, but sure it didn’t smell of vomit when I was there. Maybe it’s my own nose after growing up on a working farm.
There’s better things out there more worthy of a binge. The Leopard was good. The Pitt is really good too. The Pitt builds all that attachment with reviewer which Adolescence failed to do.
Willy Glenn was right to post that to ridicule Starmer as heading a “bandwagon” government.
'Sadiq Khan's TFL is planning to permanently change the name of London's Whitechapel station simply to Chapel after a council-funded report claimed "the existing designation reinforces racial stereotypes and gives in to a narrative of colonialism".
'Sadiq Khan's TFL is planning to permanently change the name of London's Whitechapel station simply to Chapel after a council-funded report claimed "the existing designation reinforces racial stereotypes and gives in to a narrative of colonialism".
'Sadiq Khan's TFL is planning to permanently change the name of London's Whitechapel station simply to Chapel after a council-funded report claimed "the existing designation reinforces racial stereotypes and gives in to a narrative of colonialism".
'Sadiq Khan's TFL is planning to permanently change the name of London's Whitechapel station simply to Chapel after a council-funded report claimed "the existing designation reinforces racial stereotypes and gives in to a narrative of colonialism".
Having admitted they've renditioned him in error...
Trump's lawyers are arguing that because they've dumped this guy in a Salvadoran prison, he can't file a habeas corpus petition, because he's no longer in American custody. They're arguing that once you get to sent to El Salvador, no court can order the govt to bring you back. https://x.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1906903088461656383
Surely the courts can order the government to take all necessary steps to persuade El Salvador to release him.
Meaning what? And enforceable how?
In theory, I'd assume the logal system could hold the officials responsible accountable for human trafficking and no doubt other crimes, but bringing a case will be practically difficult and obviously the Trump state won't bring one against itself.
Having admitted they've renditioned him in error...
Trump's lawyers are arguing that because they've dumped this guy in a Salvadoran prison, he can't file a habeas corpus petition, because he's no longer in American custody. They're arguing that once you get to sent to El Salvador, no court can order the govt to bring you back. https://x.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1906903088461656383
Surely the courts can order the government to take all necessary steps to persuade El Salvador to release him.
Meaning what? And enforceable how?
In theory, I'd assume the logal system could hold the officials responsible accountable for human trafficking and no doubt other crimes, but bringing a case will be practically difficult and obviously the Trump state won't bring one against itself.
You issue a court order instructing the US government to do whatever it takes. That gives all the negotiating leverage to Rl Salvador. Add in a fine of, say, $10m per day u til he is returned
And you hold the us lawyers criminally liable
"Whatever it takes" is a dangerously open but meaningless phrase (which I'd hope no court would go anywhere near). That's an open door to military action - which would be an obvious invite to the Trump adminstration to start deportations to Greenland.
You can hold people liable for the decision to abduct and deport someone illegally; I don't see how you can hold them accountable for failing to bring them back when they have no authority to do so and can only work on best endeavours. Surely no lawyer would go near a case if operating under those conditions?
But it's all irrelevant. The administration would ignore the court order anyway and challenge it on appeal.
'Sadiq Khan's TFL is planning to permanently change the name of London's Whitechapel station simply to Chapel after a council-funded report claimed "the existing designation reinforces racial stereotypes and gives in to a narrative of colonialism".
'Sadiq Khan's TFL is planning to permanently change the name of London's Whitechapel station simply to Chapel after a council-funded report claimed "the existing designation reinforces racial stereotypes and gives in to a narrative of colonialism".
We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
New type of nuclear power plant plus cutting corners seems like a great combination.
At least HBO will get some new material for a series out of it.
I'm not a nuclear engineer, but what is new about these small reactors? We've been building and using them for many decades.
The new ones are going to be bigger than the old ones and not located under the sea
Different fuel also. US and British naval reactors use HE uranium. That's relatively easy to secure against proliferation risks when it's in a naval vessel, less so when it's in a field in County Durham so the RR SMR is going to use uranium dioxide or Nutella or something.
This line that it's just a proven design of a submarine reactor but on the back of a truck is RR trying disassociate the effort from the usual nightmarish cost and schedule blow-outs of civil nuclear projects.
'Sadiq Khan's TFL is planning to permanently change the name of London's Whitechapel station simply to Chapel after a council-funded report claimed "the existing designation reinforces racial stereotypes and gives in to a narrative of colonialism".
@malcolmg thanks for,your comment last night. I looked up respective fees and as I tend to buy trackers for the long term I’d be about 450 quid a year better off moving to iii.
Reeves' problem is she has annoyed the right with taxes on farmers and business owners and cutting pensioners winter fuel allowance.
Then she has now annoyed the left by cutting spending on welfare, overseas aid and the civil service
The headlines are terrible but beyond the headlines some headway is being made. Take the Motability scam. 21% if all new cars in the UK are purchased under Motability. Able bodied family members using Motability vehicles for their full time use and not the disabled user. Provider CEOs earning million pound salaries and awarding themselves millions of pounds in bonuses. Kwik fit making a fortune on sole supply of only prestige branded tyres. Even those managing the scheme agree the system has been abused.
Given that we have developed the majority of the UK in ways that make its population utterly car dependent (see PB discussions passim) Motability in principle makes perfect sense: people can use their PIP mobility benefits in any way they see fit, including running a car on a lease scheme but since so many are going to do the latter it makes perfect sense for all concerned to centralise the leasing, maintenance & insurance etc in order to get a better deal for all concerned.
Allowing the person getting the vehicle to upgrade to a more expensive one at their own cost doesn’t seem particularly outrageous either & prevents a specific vehicle from ending up being the mark of Cain (like the NHS glasses of yore).
The problems with Motability are twofold: One is a consequence of PIP being extended to far too many people who have very dubious justifications for receiving it. The second is that the tax exclusions that are given to Motability purchases tilt the balance heavily in favour of using PIP for Motability & away from using public transport. Those tax benefits also apply to any extra payments made to upgrade the vehicle.
The latter can fixed by a wave of the legislative wand. The former really requires legislation to fix the steady extension in what counts as requiring PIP under the law over the last decade.
I predict the instincts of bureaucracy will be to make the entire system more expensive by trying to fix the latter with more heavy handed policing of PIP applications. Convincing government to tweak legislation where required in light of experience is much harder than it needs to be.
'Sadiq Khan's TFL is planning to permanently change the name of London's Whitechapel station simply to Chapel after a council-funded report claimed "the existing designation reinforces racial stereotypes and gives in to a narrative of colonialism".
.....It might not make an instant difference but it'll make people feel better about things
....and for those it doesn't it'll give them something else on which to concentate their ire
European nations don't want us back.
If not now never but I'm not sure they won't. Anyone can see that the UK's best chance is as part of a united Europe and having the 8th wealthiest country inside has to be a benefit to the other Europeans.
The alternative of being a theme park between Scandinavia and mainland Europe isn't really sustainable unless we get some decent rides.
'Sadiq Khan's TFL is planning to permanently change the name of London's Whitechapel station simply to Chapel after a council-funded report claimed "the existing designation reinforces racial stereotypes and gives in to a narrative of colonialism".
.....It might not make an instant difference but it'll make people feel better about things
....and for those it doesn't it'll give them something else on which to concentate their ire
European nations don't want us back.
If not now never but I'm not sure they won't. Anyone can see that the UK's best chance is as part of a united Europe and having the 8th wealthiest country inside has to be a benefit to the other Europeans.
The alternative of being a theme park between Scandinavia and mainland Europe isn't really sustainable unless we get some decent rides.
Most in the UK don't want to be a state of a Federal EU, many who voted Remain like me would have voted Leave had the Euro been a requirement of staying.
At most we may return to EFTA ultimately that is it
Liberation Day? More like Whack Your Own Country in the Face Day.
Unless you can survive without imports, these costs are simply on US Commerce and the American People, Donald. Global Trade simply doesn’t work in kindergarten understanding you have.
If America doesn’t have it, and your commerce needs it, your own country has to pay the passed on tarrifs. If you can’t make it cheaper than elsewhere in the world - which you can’t, you can’t compete with globalisation, you can’t just switch globalisation off, you don’t have that power - then you have to take it in with your own Tarif on top.
Then you just wave goodbye to manufacturing for export for ever, as you price yourself out of the export market.
@malcolmg thanks for,your comment last night. I looked up respective fees and as I tend to buy trackers for the long term I’d be about 450 quid a year better off moving to iii.
I’m going to open an iii account today.
@Taz HL is actually reasonably priced if you buy & hold ETFs (because the fees are capped for shareholdings, whereas they are uncapped for mutual funds). But I think III still comes out ahead if you have a SIPP & don’t need/want other bits of the HL offering
Liberation Day? More like Whack Your Own Country in the Face Day.
Unless you can survive without imports, these costs are simply on US Commerce and the American People, Donald. Global Trade simply doesn’t work in kindergarten understanding you have.
If America doesn’t have it, and your commerce needs it, your own country has to pay the passed on tarrifs. If you can’t make it cheaper than elsewhere in the world - which you can’t, you can’t compete with globalisation, you can’t just switch globalisation off, you don’t have that power - then you have to take it in with your own Tarif on top.
Then you just wave goodbye to manufacturing for export for ever, as you price yourself out of the export market.
Though even the EU and Biden imposed tariffs on Chinese imports, Trump has just expanded them to imports from the rest of the world
'Sadiq Khan's TFL is planning to permanently change the name of London's Whitechapel station simply to Chapel after a council-funded report claimed "the existing designation reinforces racial stereotypes and gives in to a narrative of colonialism".
'Sadiq Khan's TFL is planning to permanently change the name of London's Whitechapel station simply to Chapel after a council-funded report claimed "the existing designation reinforces racial stereotypes and gives in to a narrative of colonialism".
.....It might not make an instant difference but it'll make people feel better about things
....and for those it doesn't it'll give them something else on which to concentate their ire
European nations don't want us back.
If not now never but I'm not sure they won't. Anyone can see that the UK's best chance is as part of a united Europe and having the 8th wealthiest country inside has to be a benefit to the other Europeans.
The alternative of being a theme park between Scandinavia and mainland Europe isn't really sustainable unless we get some decent rides.
Most in the UK don't want to be a state of a Federal EU, many who voted Remain like me would have voted Leave had the Euro been a requirement of staying.
At most we may return to EFTA ultimately that is it
Interestingly and anecdotally as the Brexit generation move on people are getting much more used to the Euro. It's being increasingly used in stores and for travel and and it seems to be popular. A bit like decimilisation it's an easy currency to understand and is much more widely accepted internationally than sterling.
Liberation Day? More like Whack Your Own Country in the Face Day.
Unless you can survive without imports, these costs are simply on US Commerce and the American People, Donald. Global Trade simply doesn’t work in kindergarten understanding you have.
If America doesn’t have it, and your commerce needs it, your own country has to pay the passed on tarrifs. If you can’t make it cheaper than elsewhere in the world - which you can’t, you can’t compete with globalisation, you can’t just switch globalisation off, you don’t have that power - then you have to take it in with your own Tarif on top.
Then you just wave goodbye to manufacturing for export for ever, as you price yourself out of the export market.
Though even the EU and Biden imposed tariffs on Chinese imports, Trump has just expanded them to imports from the rest of the world
Not the same though. Tariffs on dumping is a sensible thing to do. Tarrifs otherwise are harmful.
.....It might not make an instant difference but it'll make people feel better about things
....and for those it doesn't it'll give them something else on which to concentate their ire
European nations don't want us back.
If not now never but I'm not sure they won't. Anyone can see that the UK's best chance is as part of a united Europe and having the 8th wealthiest country inside has to be a benefit to the other Europeans.
The alternative of being a theme park between Scandinavia and mainland Europe isn't really sustainable unless we get some decent rides.
Most in the UK don't want to be a state of a Federal EU, many who voted Remain like me would have voted Leave had the Euro been a requirement of staying.
At most we may return to EFTA ultimately that is it
Interestingly and anecdotally as the Brexit generation move on people are getting much more used to the Euro. It's being increasingly used in stores and for travel and and it seems to be popular. A bit like decimilisation it's an easy currency to understand and is much more widely accepted internationally than sterling.
It means loss of control over interest rates, Brussels and Frankfurt imposed austerity when required (see Greece) etc.
There will never be a majority in the UK for the Euro apart from inner city London and some university towns and cities
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
The lack of tidal is one of those head scratchers, like why don’t all volcanic countries have 100% geothermal power like Iceland, given how cheap it is.
Usually when I’m wondering “how hard can it be” I do a bit of internet research and find out that actually it is very hard and/or expensive, but the internet is a little lacking in tidal myth busting. The Wikipedia page lists several issues but none seem particularly major.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
The lack of tidal is one of those head scratchers, like why don’t all volcanic countries have 100% geothermal power like Iceland, given how cheap it is.
Usually when I’m wondering “how hard can it be” I do a bit of internet research and find out that actually it is very hard and/or expensive, but the internet is a little lacking in tidal myth busting. The Wikipedia page lists several issues but none seem particularly major.
I had a go at this on PB a few months ago. In summary - tidal doesn't solve any of our problems or fill any niches. It's surprisingly intermittent, it doesn't store much energy, it doesn't generate much power anyway relative to chucking up more turbines.
.....It might not make an instant difference but it'll make people feel better about things
....and for those it doesn't it'll give them something else on which to concentate their ire
European nations don't want us back.
If not now never but I'm not sure they won't. Anyone can see that the UK's best chance is as part of a united Europe and having the 8th wealthiest country inside has to be a benefit to the other Europeans.
The alternative of being a theme park between Scandinavia and mainland Europe isn't really sustainable unless we get some decent rides.
Most in the UK don't want to be a state of a Federal EU, many who voted Remain like me would have voted Leave had the Euro been a requirement of staying.
At most we may return to EFTA ultimately that is it
Interestingly and anecdotally as the Brexit generation move on people are getting much more used to the Euro. It's being increasingly used in stores and for travel and and it seems to be popular. A bit like decimilisation it's an easy currency to understand and is much more widely accepted internationally than sterling.
NB. I notice even the football sites are now talking about transfers in Euros
.....It might not make an instant difference but it'll make people feel better about things
....and for those it doesn't it'll give them something else on which to concentate their ire
European nations don't want us back.
If not now never but I'm not sure they won't. Anyone can see that the UK's best chance is as part of a united Europe and having the 8th wealthiest country inside has to be a benefit to the other Europeans.
The alternative of being a theme park between Scandinavia and mainland Europe isn't really sustainable unless we get some decent rides.
Most in the UK don't want to be a state of a Federal EU, many who voted Remain like me would have voted Leave had the Euro been a requirement of staying.
At most we may return to EFTA ultimately that is it
Interestingly and anecdotally as the Brexit generation move on people are getting much more used to the Euro. It's being increasingly used in stores and for travel and and it seems to be popular. A bit like decimilisation it's an easy currency to understand and is much more widely accepted internationally than sterling.
How is the Euro any easier than any other currency to understand?
.....It might not make an instant difference but it'll make people feel better about things
....and for those it doesn't it'll give them something else on which to concentate their ire
European nations don't want us back.
If not now never but I'm not sure they won't. Anyone can see that the UK's best chance is as part of a united Europe and having the 8th wealthiest country inside has to be a benefit to the other Europeans.
The alternative of being a theme park between Scandinavia and mainland Europe isn't really sustainable unless we get some decent rides.
Most in the UK don't want to be a state of a Federal EU, many who voted Remain like me would have voted Leave had the Euro been a requirement of staying.
At most we may return to EFTA ultimately that is it
Interestingly and anecdotally as the Brexit generation move on people are getting much more used to the Euro. It's being increasingly used in stores and for travel and and it seems to be popular. A bit like decimilisation it's an easy currency to understand and is much more widely accepted internationally than sterling.
It means loss of control over interest rates, Brussels and Frankfurt imposed austerity when required (see Greece) etc.
There will never be a majority in the UK for the Euro apart from inner city London and some university towns and cities
I don't recall there being a 'majority' for decimal coinage. Just seemed to happen.
.....It might not make an instant difference but it'll make people feel better about things
....and for those it doesn't it'll give them something else on which to concentate their ire
European nations don't want us back.
If not now never but I'm not sure they won't. Anyone can see that the UK's best chance is as part of a united Europe and having the 8th wealthiest country inside has to be a benefit to the other Europeans.
The alternative of being a theme park between Scandinavia and mainland Europe isn't really sustainable unless we get some decent rides.
Most in the UK don't want to be a state of a Federal EU, many who voted Remain like me would have voted Leave had the Euro been a requirement of staying.
At most we may return to EFTA ultimately that is it
Interestingly and anecdotally as the Brexit generation move on people are getting much more used to the Euro. It's being increasingly used in stores and for travel and and it seems to be popular. A bit like decimilisation it's an easy currency to understand and is much more widely accepted internationally than sterling.
It means loss of control over interest rates, Brussels and Frankfurt imposed austerity when required (see Greece) etc.
There will never be a majority in the UK for the Euro apart from inner city London and some university towns and cities
That is just not what the polls are saying though.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
The lack of tidal is one of those head scratchers, like why don’t all volcanic countries have 100% geothermal power like Iceland, given how cheap it is.
Usually when I’m wondering “how hard can it be” I do a bit of internet research and find out that actually it is very hard and/or expensive, but the internet is a little lacking in tidal myth busting. The Wikipedia page lists several issues but none seem particularly major.
I had a go at this on PB a few months ago. In summary - tidal doesn't solve any of our problems or fill any niches. It's surprisingly intermittent, it doesn't store much energy, it doesn't generate much power anyway relative to chucking up more turbines.
Depends on the scale of the schemes. The bid tidal pond schemes are mega power station sized.
As to energy storage - what is predictable is tidal lag round the country. The tide at location X is very consistently Z hours off the tide at Y.
Which means by siting the schemes appropriately and using tidal ponds to stretch the generating period, you can get predictably 24/7 power.
Plans to extend Great Western electrification may be announced today.
Railnews understands that projects in both CP7 and CP8 are set to extend electrification from Newbury to Somerset, Devon and Cornwall in a series of related upgrades, and that a ‘launch budget’ of £104 million has been set aside to pay for scoping work.
Plans to extend Great Western electrification may be announced today.
Railnews understands that projects in both CP7 and CP8 are set to extend electrification from Newbury to Somerset, Devon and Cornwall in a series of related upgrades, and that a ‘launch budget’ of £104 million has been set aside to pay for scoping work.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
I've nothing against getting the electric power we need. We should be building solar, wind and nuclear as quickly as feasibly possible as well as upgrading the grid and electrifying everything. Absolutely. But our use of oil and gas should be restricted to the production of chemicals and fertilizers as soon as we can manage. It's a crime and a waste to be buring the stuff.
I not only drive an EV, I'm doing my bit to try and promote their adoption. And going off how many people (scores) have bought a car with my referral code I've helped many in their own EV journey.
But we can't just switch off North Sea oil. Even if we transition to new EVs only by 2030 there will be millions of vehicles on the road that need fuel. It will take a decade and more to run those down. So why would we want to rely on imported oil for all that time when we can dig our own?
I want the UK to become leading edge on green energy. But it would be bonkers to switch to imported oil as we do so.
Why would we want to rely on imported oil for all that time when we can dig our own? Because it will be cheaper and more efficient to import probably. If the world is serious about net zero, there will be plenty of existing production and it will be cheap. We won't need to do new digging or drilling.
Plans to extend Great Western electrification may be announced today.
Railnews understands that projects in both CP7 and CP8 are set to extend electrification from Newbury to Somerset, Devon and Cornwall in a series of related upgrades, and that a ‘launch budget’ of £104 million has been set aside to pay for scoping work.
£104m for "scoping work".
After the catastrophic costs explosion of the previous scheme we need to keep a tight lid on this. The GWR electrification scheme ended up with vastly over-specced OHLE which thanks to screwups installing the piling meant that we got vastly over-specced metalwork etc sent for scrap.
Having admitted they've renditioned him in error...
Trump's lawyers are arguing that because they've dumped this guy in a Salvadoran prison, he can't file a habeas corpus petition, because he's no longer in American custody. They're arguing that once you get to sent to El Salvador, no court can order the govt to bring you back. https://x.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1906903088461656383
Surely the courts can order the government to take all necessary steps to persuade El Salvador to release him.
I can't see why El Salvador would be particularly interested in holding on to them. If they get to keep the money the US paid them, you'd think they'd be perfectly happy to send back anyone the US asked for, on request.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
The lack of tidal is one of those head scratchers, like why don’t all volcanic countries have 100% geothermal power like Iceland, given how cheap it is.
Usually when I’m wondering “how hard can it be” I do a bit of internet research and find out that actually it is very hard and/or expensive, but the internet is a little lacking in tidal myth busting. The Wikipedia page lists several issues but none seem particularly major.
I had a go at this on PB a few months ago. In summary - tidal doesn't solve any of our problems or fill any niches. It's surprisingly intermittent, it doesn't store much energy, it doesn't generate much power anyway relative to chucking up more turbines.
Depends on the scale of the schemes. The bid tidal pond schemes are mega power station sized.
As to energy storage - what is predictable is tidal lag round the country. The tide at location X is very consistently Z hours off the tide at Y.
Which means by siting the schemes appropriately and using tidal ponds to stretch the generating period, you can get predictably 24/7 power.
I don't think there's anything wrong with tidal power, it's just getting crowded out by wind - a proven technology with a settled supply chain. Funnily enough, that's what's happening to O&G too, with offshore supply ships etc getting snapped up by all the new offshore developments.
.....It might not make an instant difference but it'll make people feel better about things
....and for those it doesn't it'll give them something else on which to concentate their ire
European nations don't want us back.
If not now never but I'm not sure they won't. Anyone can see that the UK's best chance is as part of a united Europe and having the 8th wealthiest country inside has to be a benefit to the other Europeans.
The alternative of being a theme park between Scandinavia and mainland Europe isn't really sustainable unless we get some decent rides.
Most in the UK don't want to be a state of a Federal EU, many who voted Remain like me would have voted Leave had the Euro been a requirement of staying.
At most we may return to EFTA ultimately that is it
Interestingly and anecdotally as the Brexit generation move on people are getting much more used to the Euro. It's being increasingly used in stores and for travel and and it seems to be popular. A bit like decimilisation it's an easy currency to understand and is much more widely accepted internationally than sterling.
It means loss of control over interest rates, Brussels and Frankfurt imposed austerity when required (see Greece) etc.
There will never be a majority in the UK for the Euro apart from inner city London and some university towns and cities
That is just not what the polls are saying though.
The polls aren't even showing consistently over 50% for rejoining the EU let alone joining the Euro too and Reform are on the rise
Liberation Day? More like Whack Your Own Country in the Face Day.
Unless you can survive without imports, these costs are simply on US Commerce and the American People, Donald. Global Trade simply doesn’t work in kindergarten understanding you have.
If America doesn’t have it, and your commerce needs it, your own country has to pay the passed on tarrifs. If you can’t make it cheaper than elsewhere in the world - which you can’t, you can’t compete with globalisation, you can’t just switch globalisation off, you don’t have that power - then you have to take it in with your own Tarif on top.
Then you just wave goodbye to manufacturing for export for ever, as you price yourself out of the export market.
Though even the EU and Biden imposed tariffs on Chinese imports, Trump has just expanded them to imports from the rest of the world
Trump is a businessman cum President - he is not a God, he can’t switch globalisation off. None of the populist leaders can. No matter what they promised people to get their vote.
'Sadiq Khan's TFL is planning to permanently change the name of London's Whitechapel station simply to Chapel after a council-funded report claimed "the existing designation reinforces racial stereotypes and gives in to a narrative of colonialism".
This is going to be one of those moments we all agree with Leon about Wokery Gone Mad, isn’t it?
If we except this, next it will be the big one they are after - The White Cliffs of Dover. Which must become just cliffs of Dover.
I think this is all Daily Mail/GB News making something of nothing. Why have leftie Bristol City Council done nothing about Whiteladies Road and Blackboy Hill? Or have they and I missed it?
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
I've nothing against getting the electric power we need. We should be building solar, wind and nuclear as quickly as feasibly possible as well as upgrading the grid and electrifying everything. Absolutely. But our use of oil and gas should be restricted to the production of chemicals and fertilizers as soon as we can manage. It's a crime and a waste to be buring the stuff.
I not only drive an EV, I'm doing my bit to try and promote their adoption. And going off how many people (scores) have bought a car with my referral code I've helped many in their own EV journey.
But we can't just switch off North Sea oil. Even if we transition to new EVs only by 2030 there will be millions of vehicles on the road that need fuel. It will take a decade and more to run those down. So why would we want to rely on imported oil for all that time when we can dig our own?
I want the UK to become leading edge on green energy. But it would be bonkers to switch to imported oil as we do so.
Why would we want to rely on imported oil for all that time when we can dig our own? Because it will be cheaper and more efficient to import probably. If the world is serious about net zero, there will be plenty of existing production and it will be cheap. We won't need to do new digging or drilling.
Just so we're clear. The proposal is that extracting oil from someone else's well, paying them a premium for it and shipping it to the UK will be cheaper than extracting oil from our existing wells?
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
The lack of tidal is one of those head scratchers, like why don’t all volcanic countries have 100% geothermal power like Iceland, given how cheap it is.
Usually when I’m wondering “how hard can it be” I do a bit of internet research and find out that actually it is very hard and/or expensive, but the internet is a little lacking in tidal myth busting. The Wikipedia page lists several issues but none seem particularly major.
I'm not an expert but this is PB so I'm going to comment anyway. I think the issues around tidal tend to be that the water is not a great environment for equipment (so a lot of maintenance, cleaning weed etc is required. I think there is also the build up of silt and mud etc in the lagoons. Neither is insoluble.
The bigger opponents will almost certainly be the green/environmental lobby who will rail against the destruction of habitats etc. And they will have a point for once. But arguably the return (green energy) is worth the environmental cost.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
The lack of tidal is one of those head scratchers, like why don’t all volcanic countries have 100% geothermal power like Iceland, given how cheap it is.
Usually when I’m wondering “how hard can it be” I do a bit of internet research and find out that actually it is very hard and/or expensive, but the internet is a little lacking in tidal myth busting. The Wikipedia page lists several issues but none seem particularly major.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
The lack of tidal is one of those head scratchers, like why don’t all volcanic countries have 100% geothermal power like Iceland, given how cheap it is.
Usually when I’m wondering “how hard can it be” I do a bit of internet research and find out that actually it is very hard and/or expensive, but the internet is a little lacking in tidal myth busting. The Wikipedia page lists several issues but none seem particularly major.
Plans to extend Great Western electrification may be announced today.
Railnews understands that projects in both CP7 and CP8 are set to extend electrification from Newbury to Somerset, Devon and Cornwall in a series of related upgrades, and that a ‘launch budget’ of £104 million has been set aside to pay for scoping work.
If you believe that, the white cliffs of Dover are now called cliffs.
Liberation Day? More like Whack Your Own Country in the Face Day.
Unless you can survive without imports, these costs are simply on US Commerce and the American People, Donald. Global Trade simply doesn’t work in kindergarten understanding you have.
If America doesn’t have it, and your commerce needs it, your own country has to pay the passed on tarrifs. If you can’t make it cheaper than elsewhere in the world - which you can’t, you can’t compete with globalisation, you can’t just switch globalisation off, you don’t have that power - then you have to take it in with your own Tarif on top.
Then you just wave goodbye to manufacturing for export for ever, as you price yourself out of the export market.
Though even the EU and Biden imposed tariffs on Chinese imports, Trump has just expanded them to imports from the rest of the world
Trump is a businessman cum President - he is not a God, he can’t switch globalisation off. None of the populist leaders can. No matter what they promised people to get their vote.
Having admitted they've renditioned him in error...
Trump's lawyers are arguing that because they've dumped this guy in a Salvadoran prison, he can't file a habeas corpus petition, because he's no longer in American custody. They're arguing that once you get to sent to El Salvador, no court can order the govt to bring you back. https://x.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1906903088461656383
Surely the courts can order the government to take all necessary steps to persuade El Salvador to release him.
Meaning what? And enforceable how?
In theory, I'd assume the logal system could hold the officials responsible accountable for human trafficking and no doubt other crimes, but bringing a case will be practically difficult and obviously the Trump state won't bring one against itself.
You issue a court order instructing the US government to do whatever it takes. That gives all the negotiating leverage to Rl Salvador. Add in a fine of, say, $10m per day u til he is returned
And you hold the us lawyers criminally liable
"Whatever it takes" is a dangerously open but meaningless phrase (which I'd hope no court would go anywhere near). That's an open door to military action - which would be an obvious invite to the Trump adminstration to start deportations to Greenland.
You can hold people liable for the decision to abduct and deport someone illegally; I don't see how you can hold them accountable for failing to bring them back when they have no authority to do so and can only work on best endeavours. Surely no lawyer would go near a case if operating under those conditions?
But it's all irrelevant. The administration would ignore the court order anyway and challenge it on appeal.
The administration argues that it correctly used the provisions of the Alien Enemies Act to detain and deport these individuals.
Unless the court rules that the administration was acting outside the terms of the act, then the matter ends there, as far as the US legal system is concerned.
Of course that would mean Trump could disappear anyone, citizens included, in such a manner. And once those individuals were outside of the US, they'd be disappeared to the US legal system, too.
Liberation Day? More like Whack Your Own Country in the Face Day.
Unless you can survive without imports, these costs are simply on US Commerce and the American People, Donald. Global Trade simply doesn’t work in kindergarten understanding you have.
If America doesn’t have it, and your commerce needs it, your own country has to pay the passed on tarrifs. If you can’t make it cheaper than elsewhere in the world - which you can’t, you can’t compete with globalisation, you can’t just switch globalisation off, you don’t have that power - then you have to take it in with your own Tarif on top.
Then you just wave goodbye to manufacturing for export for ever, as you price yourself out of the export market.
Though even the EU and Biden imposed tariffs on Chinese imports, Trump has just expanded them to imports from the rest of the world
Trump is a businessman cum President - he is not a God, he can’t switch globalisation off. None of the populist leaders can. No matter what they promised people to get their vote.
Yes he really is a jizz President and businessman.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
I've nothing against getting the electric power we need. We should be building solar, wind and nuclear as quickly as feasibly possible as well as upgrading the grid and electrifying everything. Absolutely. But our use of oil and gas should be restricted to the production of chemicals and fertilizers as soon as we can manage. It's a crime and a waste to be buring the stuff.
I not only drive an EV, I'm doing my bit to try and promote their adoption. And going off how many people (scores) have bought a car with my referral code I've helped many in their own EV journey.
But we can't just switch off North Sea oil. Even if we transition to new EVs only by 2030 there will be millions of vehicles on the road that need fuel. It will take a decade and more to run those down. So why would we want to rely on imported oil for all that time when we can dig our own?
I want the UK to become leading edge on green energy. But it would be bonkers to switch to imported oil as we do so.
Why would we want to rely on imported oil for all that time when we can dig our own? Because it will be cheaper and more efficient to import probably. If the world is serious about net zero, there will be plenty of existing production and it will be cheap. We won't need to do new digging or drilling.
There's also a balance of payments consideration, which you've not taken account of.
Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 13m 10 years ago, one in five workers received less than 2/3 the median hourly wage. Now only about one in thirty do. Just amazing.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
The lack of tidal is one of those head scratchers, like why don’t all volcanic countries have 100% geothermal power like Iceland, given how cheap it is.
Usually when I’m wondering “how hard can it be” I do a bit of internet research and find out that actually it is very hard and/or expensive, but the internet is a little lacking in tidal myth busting. The Wikipedia page lists several issues but none seem particularly major.
I'm not an expert but this is PB so I'm going to comment anyway. I think the issues around tidal tend to be that the water is not a great environment for equipment (so a lot of maintenance, cleaning weed etc is required. I think there is also the build up of silt and mud etc in the lagoons. Neither is insoluble.
The bigger opponents will almost certainly be the green/environmental lobby who will rail against the destruction of habitats etc. And they will have a point for once. But arguably the return (green energy) is worth the environmental cost.
Yep. If you're serious about conservation, plastering our grouse moors with turbines is far preferable. The UK's remaining ecological value is almost all in our coasts and wetlands.
Otoh, you could probably design the lagoons in such a way to mitigate. Some of our best habitats are artificial.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
The lack of tidal is one of those head scratchers, like why don’t all volcanic countries have 100% geothermal power like Iceland, given how cheap it is.
Usually when I’m wondering “how hard can it be” I do a bit of internet research and find out that actually it is very hard and/or expensive, but the internet is a little lacking in tidal myth busting. The Wikipedia page lists several issues but none seem particularly major.
I'm not an expert but this is PB so I'm going to comment anyway. I think the issues around tidal tend to be that the water is not a great environment for equipment (so a lot of maintenance, cleaning weed etc is required. I think there is also the build up of silt and mud etc in the lagoons. Neither is insoluble.
The bigger opponents will almost certainly be the green/environmental lobby who will rail against the destruction of habitats etc. And they will have a point for once. But arguably the return (green energy) is worth the environmental cost.
Habitats are not insurmountable. The Swansea test bed lagoon (which did not proceed) had Wildlife and Wetlands and Greenpeace onside. Fish laders canmake provision to enable migrating fish to return to spawning grounds where applicable. The lagoon holds water until there is a sufficient drop on the outer perimeter. Once that is released, the birds can again feed on the inner mudflats. But providing alternative locations is included within the design. It is a ignificanrt part of the planning applications.
The Greens just need educating on how limited the intrusion is. And the benefits. Let's see how many of them would rather have a nuclear sub's reactor in their region...
We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
New type of nuclear power plant plus cutting corners seems like a great combination.
At least HBO will get some new material for a series out of it.
I'm not a nuclear engineer, but what is new about these small reactors? We've been building and using them for many decades.
The new ones are going to be bigger than the old ones and not located under the sea
Different fuel also. US and British naval reactors use HE uranium. That's relatively easy to secure against proliferation risks when it's in a naval vessel, less so when it's in a field in County Durham so the RR SMR is going to use uranium dioxide or Nutella or something.
This line that it's just a proven design of a submarine reactor but on the back of a truck is RR trying disassociate the effort from the usual nightmarish cost and schedule blow-outs of civil nuclear projects.
Most of which are determined by regulatory requirements. A pre-approved standard design, which require approval only once, would be massively cheaper in that respect.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
The lack of tidal is one of those head scratchers, like why don’t all volcanic countries have 100% geothermal power like Iceland, given how cheap it is.
Usually when I’m wondering “how hard can it be” I do a bit of internet research and find out that actually it is very hard and/or expensive, but the internet is a little lacking in tidal myth busting. The Wikipedia page lists several issues but none seem particularly major.
I'm not an expert but this is PB so I'm going to comment anyway. I think the issues around tidal tend to be that the water is not a great environment for equipment (so a lot of maintenance, cleaning weed etc is required. I think there is also the build up of silt and mud etc in the lagoons. Neither is insoluble.
The bigger opponents will almost certainly be the green/environmental lobby who will rail against the destruction of habitats etc. And they will have a point for once. But arguably the return (green energy) is worth the environmental cost.
Yep. If you're serious about conservation, plastering our grouse moors with turbines is far preferable. The UK's remaining ecological value is almost all in our coasts and wetlands.
Otoh, you could probably design the lagoons in such a way to mitigate. Some of our best habitats are artificial.
I'm reminded of just how full of marine life maritime wrecks become.
"The Home Guard was set up in May 1940 as Britain's 'last line of defence' against German invasion. Members of this 'Dad's Army' were usually men above or below the age of conscription and those unfit or ineligible for front line military service."
Why is there only one Dad involved and who was he?
Having admitted they've renditioned him in error...
Trump's lawyers are arguing that because they've dumped this guy in a Salvadoran prison, he can't file a habeas corpus petition, because he's no longer in American custody. They're arguing that once you get to sent to El Salvador, no court can order the govt to bring you back. https://x.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1906903088461656383
Surely the courts can order the government to take all necessary steps to persuade El Salvador to release him.
Meaning what? And enforceable how?
In theory, I'd assume the logal system could hold the officials responsible accountable for human trafficking and no doubt other crimes, but bringing a case will be practically difficult and obviously the Trump state won't bring one against itself.
You issue a court order instructing the US government to do whatever it takes. That gives all the negotiating leverage to Rl Salvador. Add in a fine of, say, $10m per day u til he is returned
And you hold the us lawyers criminally liable
"Whatever it takes" is a dangerously open but meaningless phrase (which I'd hope no court would go anywhere near). That's an open door to military action - which would be an obvious invite to the Trump adminstration to start deportations to Greenland.
You can hold people liable for the decision to abduct and deport someone illegally; I don't see how you can hold them accountable for failing to bring them back when they have no authority to do so and can only work on best endeavours. Surely no lawyer would go near a case if operating under those conditions?
But it's all irrelevant. The administration would ignore the court order anyway and challenge it on appeal.
The administration argues that it correctly used the provisions of the Alien Enemies Act to detain and deport these individuals.
Unless the court rules that the administration was acting outside the terms of the act, then the matter ends there, as far as the US legal system is concerned.
Of course that would mean Trump could disappear anyone, citizens included, in such a manner. And once those individuals were outside of the US, they'd be disappeared to the US legal system, too.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
I've nothing against getting the electric power we need. We should be building solar, wind and nuclear as quickly as feasibly possible as well as upgrading the grid and electrifying everything. Absolutely. But our use of oil and gas should be restricted to the production of chemicals and fertilizers as soon as we can manage. It's a crime and a waste to be buring the stuff.
I not only drive an EV, I'm doing my bit to try and promote their adoption. And going off how many people (scores) have bought a car with my referral code I've helped many in their own EV journey.
But we can't just switch off North Sea oil. Even if we transition to new EVs only by 2030 there will be millions of vehicles on the road that need fuel. It will take a decade and more to run those down. So why would we want to rely on imported oil for all that time when we can dig our own?
I want the UK to become leading edge on green energy. But it would be bonkers to switch to imported oil as we do so.
Why would we want to rely on imported oil for all that time when we can dig our own? Because it will be cheaper and more efficient to import probably. If the world is serious about net zero, there will be plenty of existing production and it will be cheap. We won't need to do new digging or drilling.
Just so we're clear. The proposal is that extracting oil from someone else's well, paying them a premium for it and shipping it to the UK will be cheaper than extracting oil from our existing wells?
Quote possibly if it's N Sea oil vs Saudi or US onshore production.
We all know that Labour were given a hospital pass by the Tories. The economy in bits, public services an underfunded shambles and local government on the brink of collapse.
We should not allow the Tories to get away from the grotesque mess they made.
But - and its a big but - Labour have shown themselves to lacking in ideas and now trapped by treasury orthodoxy which insists that the way to restart an economy on its knees is cut some more, to fix public services is to break them harder, the way to restore confidence is make everyone depressed.
This is stupid. You cannot cut your way to growth. We need to invest.
No, we need to facilitate private sector investment and growth.
Government is brilliant at investing in crap - politically dictated projects that make no economic sense, from Concorde to HS2 to ...
On energy it should be encouraging, not preventing, the private sector to exploit our hydrocarbon reserves.
On transportation, it should be building the projects that will boost the economy the most, which are generally roads in and around London, rather than the dismal disaster of HS2.
On housing, the government should be facilitating private sector self-build.
It should be cutting business regulation and taxes, and if necessary increasing taxes like VAT which harm economic growth much less, as Mrs Thatcher did in her first term.
Etc etc.
Oh I agree - private sector investment. But that only happens when the strategic framework is done by the state.
My two biggies are Housing and Energy.
Housing? The private sector is fast at buying land and slow at building houses. And what it does build are the wrong types of homes sold at daft prices. We need to demolish and rebuild broken towns and with the greatest respect I don't see Taylor Wimpey going to shareholders like my mum asking her to invest in building affordable homes in Mansfield. It'll need to be government and local authorities setting development zones and then directing what types of homes to build for the LHA. At which point Taylor Wimpey etc can bid for the contract.
Energy? I agree that we should keep drilling oil and gas - its nonsensical to stop doing so and then import it. We also need to supercharge clean energy industry - don't settle for imported equipment we should be designing, building and exporting. Which needs a stable policy and government tax bungs to get started. We're all talking about SMRs but again that needs government to say they actually want them and to slash the timetable to actually build them quickly.
Transport? Can't all be London because then you don't have an economy. All of our competitors in Europe connect up towns and cities - we have to do the same.
Business? Needs to invest in skills and facilities. I have a much longer list of ideas, but the starting place should be Corporation Tax cuts only for companies who invest in skills and infrastructure. When we cut their taxes and ask for nothing in return we get nothing in return. Productivity is so low in this country because we have largely unskilled unmotivated workers left ignored by their employers.
Global fossil fuel usage is still climbing. A crime against future generations .
10% council tax on unbuilt homes would bring more housing to market than any sad yet comic cry for growth and a pointing finger.
As for Labour. Shakes head. A hard stop on selling council houses would have been an easy win. WFA needed to be stopped. End of 2026 allowing time to get your house draught proofed would have less dumb.
I’m not surprised Casino is considering joining.
Globally, yes. And we're doing very well in the UK with our transition away from fossil fuels. EV use is growing and fuel cars getting more efficient through hybrid drivetrains. We burn no coal and little gas to generate power. People like me still burn oil for home heating but we're in decline.
We need to go further and faster on clean energy - it's the future of energy independence and will be a brilliant way for the UK to make money. But we can't just stop drilling the oil and gas still in our waters. With the best will in the world we still need the stuff - oil especially. If we stop digging our own we have to import it. How does that make any sense?
If every country with oil and/or gas reserves applies the same logic, then the Earth is fucked. We need need to stop digging our own and stop importing. Not for purposes other than burning, and not immediately, of course, but as ASAP.
The question becomes when the 'possible' in ASAP is. And it is probably further away then you or I would like. And in the meantime, unless you want to fuck the country up, we need to ensure we get the power we need. In terms of electricity, possibly lots more as we get more electric cars and electric boilers.
Tidal. A proper investment. The oldest tidal scheme is in northern France. It’s been generating since about 1890. Only minimal maintenance has been required.
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
The lack of tidal is one of those head scratchers, like why don’t all volcanic countries have 100% geothermal power like Iceland, given how cheap it is.
Usually when I’m wondering “how hard can it be” I do a bit of internet research and find out that actually it is very hard and/or expensive, but the internet is a little lacking in tidal myth busting. The Wikipedia page lists several issues but none seem particularly major.
I'm not an expert but this is PB so I'm going to comment anyway. I think the issues around tidal tend to be that the water is not a great environment for equipment (so a lot of maintenance, cleaning weed etc is required. I think there is also the build up of silt and mud etc in the lagoons. Neither is insoluble.
The bigger opponents will almost certainly be the green/environmental lobby who will rail against the destruction of habitats etc. And they will have a point for once. But arguably the return (green energy) is worth the environmental cost.
Yep. If you're serious about conservation, plastering our grouse moors with turbines is far preferable. The UK's remaining ecological value is almost all in our coasts and wetlands.
Otoh, you could probably design the lagoons in such a way to mitigate. Some of our best habitats are artificial.
Yes, the areas potentially affected are important ecologically, but that has to be offset against the gains elsewhere, in my view - and the potential to create new important environments. Any development would need to make that case, though: this is what will be lost, this is what will replace it, this is the cost/benefit here and elsewhere.
'Sadiq Khan's TFL is planning to permanently change the name of London's Whitechapel station simply to Chapel after a council-funded report claimed "the existing designation reinforces racial stereotypes and gives in to a narrative of colonialism".
Liberation Day? More like Whack Your Own Country in the Face Day.
Unless you can survive without imports, these costs are simply on US Commerce and the American People, Donald. Global Trade simply doesn’t work in kindergarten understanding you have.
If America doesn’t have it, and your commerce needs it, your own country has to pay the passed on tarrifs. If you can’t make it cheaper than elsewhere in the world - which you can’t, you can’t compete with globalisation, you can’t just switch globalisation off, you don’t have that power - then you have to take it in with your own Tarif on top.
Then you just wave goodbye to manufacturing for export for ever, as you price yourself out of the export market.
Though even the EU and Biden imposed tariffs on Chinese imports, Trump has just expanded them to imports from the rest of the world
Trump is a businessman cum President - he is not a God, he can’t switch globalisation off. None of the populist leaders can. No matter what they promised people to get their vote.
Yes he really is a jizz President and businessman.
They have "Motor cum parcel" vans on the Indian Railways
Comments
https://x.com/oxfordclarion/status/1906630094019317857?s=61
"Trump: We'll annex Greenland."
"Trump: We'll annex Canada."
"Trump: Putin's a pretty straight up kind of guy"
This one would be an obvious joke, though:
"Trump: I'm committed to NATO and Ukraine and Canada and Greenland are partners, not enemies."
Cornwall and Scapa Flow between them would provide 24 hr power for a millennium and cost less than the latest EDF nuclear jobby.
At least HBO will get some new material for a series out of it.
She comes across as not giving a toss about the environment, wanting to "build baby build" regardless of the damage caused.
Much of which will end up in the personal bank accounts of prominent people at both ends.
But we can't just switch off North Sea oil. Even if we transition to new EVs only by 2030 there will be millions of vehicles on the road that need fuel. It will take a decade and more to run those down. So why would we want to rely on imported oil for all that time when we can dig our own?
I want the UK to become leading edge on green energy. But it would be bonkers to switch to imported oil as we do so.
Usually when I’m wondering “how hard can it be” I do a bit of internet research and find out that actually it is very hard and/or expensive, but the internet is a little lacking in tidal myth busting. The Wikipedia page lists several issues but none seem particularly major.
I think in principle it is a good idea, and I don't see why genuine users of all ages shouldn't benefit, but when a disabled person's relative gets full time access to a partially
paid for out of public funds, discounted leased BMW, that isn't appropriate. If the idea is simply to grant mobility to someone who's mobility is compromised give them the choice of either a Corsa (or equivalent) or a Berlingo (or equivalent). No one needs a Range Rover part paid for from the Motability fund.
In theory, I'd assume the logal system could hold the officials responsible accountable for human trafficking and no doubt other crimes, but bringing a case will be practically difficult and obviously the Trump state won't bring one against itself.
Still, not beyond the wit of man.
I'd say there must be a couple of dozen good sites in England alone which could collectively supply England's electricity. Scotland of course is massively overprovided with potential sites.
Interesting thing about the UK: our tides are very very high by international standards. Tidal really does appear to be an open goal.
I have a scheme in mind for a barrage across Morecambe Bay, which would have the neat effect of also providing a shortcut to Barrow from 90% of England.
And you hold the us lawyers criminally liable
https://x.com/danwootton/status/1906971669287080110
About 30 former players had launched a class action against Celtic Plc for damages.
Thompsons Solicitors said that 70% of those cases had now been settled and that further settlements are expected in the coming weeks.'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpvr2117ev8o
You can hold people liable for the decision to abduct and deport someone illegally; I don't see how you can hold them accountable for failing to bring them back when they have no authority to do so and can only work on best endeavours. Surely no lawyer would go near a case if operating under those conditions?
But it's all irrelevant. The administration would ignore the court order anyway and challenge it on appeal.
Nor was it particularly preachy, as it’s never clear what it’s preaching. For example, police wander through a school saying “why do schools always smell of vomit?” Are they trying to make some sort of deep social commentary to explain why 13 year olds are butchering each other? Switch the cleaning products to fabreeze fresh cotton and everything will be alright? It was much like that all the way through. Baffling. The chase and arrest of the one who supplied the knife was from a children’s show, very poor television.
My school didn’t smell of vomit. I may not have spent much time in it, but sure it didn’t smell of vomit when I was there. Maybe it’s my own nose after growing up on a working farm.
There’s better things out there more worthy of a binge. The Leopard was good. The Pitt is really good too. The Pitt builds all that attachment with reviewer which Adolescence failed to do.
Willy Glenn was right to post that to ridicule Starmer as heading a “bandwagon” government.
And Blackfriars to be renamed Friars of colour?
The replies are fun too, plenty of gullible idiots out there.
If we except this, next it will be the big one they are after - The White Cliffs of Dover. Which must become just cliffs of Dover.
What a bunch of bellends.
This line that it's just a proven design of a submarine reactor but on the back of a truck is RR trying disassociate the effort from the usual nightmarish cost and schedule blow-outs of civil nuclear projects.
I’m going to open an iii account today.
Allowing the person getting the vehicle to upgrade to a more expensive one at their own cost doesn’t seem particularly outrageous either & prevents a specific vehicle from ending up being the mark of Cain (like the NHS glasses of yore).
The problems with Motability are twofold: One is a consequence of PIP being extended to far too many people who have very dubious justifications for receiving it. The second is that the tax exclusions that are given to Motability purchases tilt the balance heavily in favour of using PIP for Motability & away from using public transport. Those tax benefits also apply to any extra payments made to upgrade the vehicle.
The latter can fixed by a wave of the legislative wand. The former really requires legislation to fix the steady extension in what counts as requiring PIP under the law over the last decade.
I predict the instincts of bureaucracy will be to make the entire system more expensive by trying to fix the latter with more heavy handed policing of PIP applications. Convincing government to tweak legislation where required in light of experience is much harder than it needs to be.
The alternative of being a theme park between Scandinavia and mainland Europe isn't really sustainable unless we get some decent rides.
At most we may return to EFTA ultimately that is it
Unless you can survive without imports, these costs are simply on US Commerce and the American People, Donald. Global Trade simply doesn’t work in kindergarten understanding you have.
If America doesn’t have it, and your commerce needs it, your own country has to pay the passed on tarrifs. If you can’t make it cheaper than elsewhere in the world - which you can’t, you can’t compete with globalisation, you can’t just switch globalisation off, you don’t have that power - then you have to take it in with your own Tarif on top.
Then you just wave goodbye to manufacturing for export for ever, as you price yourself out of the export market.
Its another one where we need Mandy to politely tell the Americans to go fuck themselves.
We need bigger exclusion zones outside such clinics, specifically to stop the kind of organised hate mobs you get in America.
There will never be a majority in the UK for the Euro apart from inner city London and some university towns and cities
https://www.severncommission.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Severn-Estuary-Commission-Report-1.pdf
As to energy storage - what is predictable is tidal lag round the country. The tide at location X is very consistently Z hours off the tide at Y.
Which means by siting the schemes appropriately and using tidal ponds to stretch the generating period, you can get predictably 24/7 power.
Plans to extend Great Western electrification may be announced today.
Railnews understands that projects in both CP7 and CP8 are set to extend electrification from Newbury to Somerset, Devon and Cornwall in a series of related upgrades, and that a ‘launch budget’ of £104 million has been set aside to pay for scoping work.
Or April. 1st.
After the catastrophic costs explosion of the previous scheme we need to keep a tight lid on this. The GWR electrification scheme ended up with vastly over-specced OHLE which thanks to screwups installing the piling meant that we got vastly over-specced metalwork etc sent for scrap.
The bigger opponents will almost certainly be the green/environmental lobby who will rail against the destruction of habitats etc. And they will have a point for once. But arguably the return (green energy) is worth the environmental cost.
Unless the court rules that the administration was acting outside the terms of the act, then the matter ends there, as far as the US legal system is concerned.
Of course that would mean Trump could disappear anyone, citizens included, in such a manner. And once those individuals were outside of the US, they'd be disappeared to the US legal system, too.
Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social
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13m
10 years ago, one in five workers received less than 2/3 the median hourly wage. Now only about one in thirty do. Just amazing.
https://bsky.app/profile/duncanweldon.bsky.social/post/3llqqd4gyuc2r
Otoh, you could probably design the lagoons in such a way to mitigate. Some of our best habitats are artificial.
The Greens just need educating on how limited the intrusion is. And the benefits. Let's see how many of them would rather have a nuclear sub's reactor in their region...
Brains Trust Question:
"The Home Guard was set up in May 1940 as Britain's 'last line of defence' against German invasion. Members of this 'Dad's Army' were usually men above or below the age of conscription and those unfit or ineligible for front line military service."
Why is there only one Dad involved and who was he?
Agree on the grouse moors.