Listening to Today and they are talking about the problem with bots taking all tue driving test slots.
Chair of the Transport committee just said that they need a new website for booking to stop this but it will take 5 years.
Would any of our resident tech people explain to an analogue caveman like myself how it takes 5 years to build such a site and can they not buy existing ones off the shelf used by other countries and tweak it?
Seems absolutely bonkers that it takes 5 years.
Nope - I could use DVLAs preferred tool and give them a system within 6 months fully tested - and probably in a lot less time.
But the fix is simple - cancelled appointments go back into a pool and are available to everyone - don’t let instructors change the id on a test
Or add another question to the current system "What is your driving licence number?" And state that only someone with that licence can use that appointment, and heavily publicise that restriction. It would take less than a day to implement.
And that would help how? The problem is there are not enough test slots because there are not enough examiners. It is the same as with popular concerts. Arenas won't magically get bigger if you ban Ticketmaster. There won't be more driving tests available if you ban bots.
What there might be, is a better way of managing the slots that do exist, and not allowing the people who run the bots a risk-free profit at public expense.
It wouldn't seem unreasonable to get the DfT Perm Sec into the SOS's office and tell him to have a solution by this time next week. In the meantime, maybe they should suspend bookings.
Suspending bookings would aggravate the shortage.
Forget bots and block bookings. They are a symptom of the problem which is not enough slots.
The government is said to be recruiting more examiners, but is also said to be doing this very slowly. It could offer more money; it could fast track instructors to become examiners; offer part-time jobs; it could try to attract back retired examiners. All these are supply side reforms because that is where the bottleneck is.
There is not enough slots because currently it’s possible to charge £4-500 for a test slot so the touts can afford to book slots and not be that bothered if they don’t resell all of them (hence the examiners seating there board.
As I said your solution is only a partial fix unless supply was infinite - there is a risk of someone trying to game the current system for profit. So y oh need to disable those seeking profit as well as increase supply
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
There is another problem with migrant hotels. Sooner or later Nigel Farage will notice that either more money is paid to house homeless migrants than homeless Britons, or Angela Rayner's new houses are given straight to the migrants to get them out of the hotels.
Decades ago, this inflamed racial tensions in London. New council estates were handed over to immigrants and not locals on the waiting list. Nothing to do with woke, but simply need – immigrant families (the clue is in the name) had more children than native newly-married couples, so had higher priority.
There is that very funny interview Big Ange gave where in the first breath she said we need loads of new homes for people then when it was stated that the estimated number of new migrants will take up most of that extra capacity she said there are already loads of homes for migrants.
Listening to Today and they are talking about the problem with bots taking all tue driving test slots.
Chair of the Transport committee just said that they need a new website for booking to stop this but it will take 5 years.
Would any of our resident tech people explain to an analogue caveman like myself how it takes 5 years to build such a site and can they not buy existing ones off the shelf used by other countries and tweak it?
Seems absolutely bonkers that it takes 5 years.
Nope - I could use DVLAs preferred tool and give them a system within 6 months fully tested - and probably in a lot less time.
But the fix is simple - cancelled appointments go back into a pool and are available to everyone - don’t let instructors change the id on a test
Or add another question to the current system "What is your driving licence number?" And state that only someone with that licence can use that appointment, and heavily publicise that restriction. It would take less than a day to implement.
And that would help how? The problem is there are not enough test slots because there are not enough examiners. It is the same as with popular concerts. Arenas won't magically get bigger if you ban Ticketmaster. There won't be more driving tests available if you ban bots.
It helps because it means you don’t have someone booking appointments (as a tout) trying to make money from it.
If you can’t make money from it the touts would stop booking appointments because they wouldn’t be able to sell them to for £200 more.
Now granted it would screw up a few honest driving instructors but it’s a necessary evil.
The lack of test examiners is completely separate to the fact people can currently operate as touts - and while more examiners would reduce the market value of a test it won’t fix the problem that people can currently profit from it
At my youngest’s driving test (which he passed, fortunately!) I was chatting to one of the examiners who told me that on one day earlier in the week no one had turned up to take any of the booked slots.
Obviously completely anecdotal, but something is going seriously wrong in the system if examiners (or students) are letting paid for tests go unused.
Yes, the current situation is absurd. After months of trying, my step daugher has finally managed to get a test date, and that was only by hitting the apply button at precisely the moment the next tranche of dates was released. Meanwhile, as you say, examiners are wasting their time waiting for people who don't show, probably because they don't exist or have unknowingly had a test booked in their name.
The process has been incredibly frustrating for her and others that I know who have had similar difficulties.
Congratulations to your son, by the way!
Doesn't every provisional driving license haven a unique number ? Aren't they required for booking a test ?
Companies can get access to a portal that enables them to block tests without details.
Individuals can only book tests for themselves - using their provision license as you say.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
There is another problem with migrant hotels. Sooner or later Nigel Farage will notice that either more money is paid to house homeless migrants than homeless Britons, or Angela Rayner's new houses are given straight to the migrants to get them out of the hotels.
Decades ago, this inflamed racial tensions in London. New council estates were handed over to immigrants and not locals on the waiting list. Nothing to do with woke, but simply need – immigrant families (the clue is in the name) had more children than native newly-married couples, so had higher priority.
Evidence: there’s a large Somalian family recently moved in to a council house down the road from me in NW1. Three or four kids. Whole house. They’re obviously not rich judging by the father’s car
I wish them well of course and have no idea of their true circumstances - is there a disabled granny as well? Etc. But I can’t help noticing they are living in an extremely desirable london townhouse probably worth £2-3m on the open market. Next to Regent’s Park
Judging by their faltering English they are recent migrants to the UK
As I say, I wish them the best. But you can see how the perception of this would drive some people mad - and is catnip to any would be nativist demagogue
Just to be clear, I am not targeting people that have always believed climate change to be a hoax and are now saying net zero should be cancelled.
I am targeting people that used to claim climate change was a hoax and apparently now believe in it they just don’t want to actually do anything about it.
For example, Richard Tice who was a climate change denier now strongly insists he believes in climate change but hates any solution that is proposed.
I just don't see why impoverishment with the highest electricity prices in Europe is the way to go..🤨 China has over a 1000 coal fired power stations (with more to come) and are there really going to be EV's whizzing around Cape Town with their rolling blackouts? 🤨🧐
Total non sequitur.
UK energy prices: highest in Europe due to marginal price of gas generation and a poor transmission system. And shit household insulation.
Swedish energy prices: lowest in Europe, with a largely green grid from nuclear, hydro and wind.
Highest energy prices in Europe are in CEE and SE Europe, which is heavily dependent on coal and imported gas.
You're bright enough to know that this is, at a huuuuuuuge stretch, a biased and partial answer to the question of why British energy bills are so high.
Perhaps you might want to consider why it is, if you're actually right, that well-intentioned dissembling needs to be deployed constantly to support your argument.
I’m sure there are plenty of other complex reasons beyond grid constraints and our non-regionalised pricing system, but these are the big ones the experts repeatedly reference. There is certainly no clear correlation between renewable energy loading and energy costs, yet people are forever arguing as if that’s the case, usually with virtually no challenge.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
There is another problem with migrant hotels. Sooner or later Nigel Farage will notice that either more money is paid to house homeless migrants than homeless Britons, or Angela Rayner's new houses are given straight to the migrants to get them out of the hotels.
Decades ago, this inflamed racial tensions in London. New council estates were handed over to immigrants and not locals on the waiting list. Nothing to do with woke, but simply need – immigrant families (the clue is in the name) had more children than native newly-married couples, so had higher priority.
Numbers in hotels can come down even if arrivals are up a bit. Labour has been deporting more and processing quicker. Keep doing that and numbers in hotels can be brought down very significantly.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
What’s interesting is historically these people have been dumped in poor areas like Rochdale, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
Listening to Today and they are talking about the problem with bots taking all tue driving test slots.
Chair of the Transport committee just said that they need a new website for booking to stop this but it will take 5 years.
Would any of our resident tech people explain to an analogue caveman like myself how it takes 5 years to build such a site and can they not buy existing ones off the shelf used by other countries and tweak it?
Seems absolutely bonkers that it takes 5 years.
Nope - I could use DVLAs preferred tool and give them a system within 6 months fully tested - and probably in a lot less time.
But the fix is simple - cancelled appointments go back into a pool and are available to everyone - don’t let instructors change the id on a test
Or add another question to the current system "What is your driving licence number?" And state that only someone with that licence can use that appointment, and heavily publicise that restriction. It would take less than a day to implement.
And that would help how? The problem is there are not enough test slots because there are not enough examiners. It is the same as with popular concerts. Arenas won't magically get bigger if you ban Ticketmaster. There won't be more driving tests available if you ban bots.
It helps because it means you don’t have someone booking appointments (as a tout) trying to make money from it.
If you can’t make money from it the touts would stop booking appointments because they wouldn’t be able to sell them to for £200 more.
Now granted it would screw up a few honest driving instructors but it’s a necessary evil.
The lack of test examiners is completely separate to the fact people can currently operate as touts - and while more examiners would reduce the market value of a test it won’t fix the problem that people can currently profit from it
At my youngest’s driving test (which he passed, fortunately!) I was chatting to one of the examiners who told me that on one day earlier in the week no one had turned up to take any of the booked slots.
Obviously completely anecdotal, but something is going seriously wrong in the system if examiners (or students) are letting paid for tests go unused.
Yes, the current situation is absurd. After months of trying, my step daugher has finally managed to get a test date, and that was only by hitting the apply button at precisely the moment the next tranche of dates was released. Meanwhile, as you say, examiners are wasting their time waiting for people who don't show, probably because they don't exist or have unknowingly had a test booked in their name.
The process has been incredibly frustrating for her and others that I know who have had similar difficulties.
Congratulations to your son, by the way!
Doesn't every provisional driving license haven a unique number ? Aren't they required for booking a test ?
Apparently unscrupulous actors, who have access to the business system for booking tests, reserve tests using other people’s driving licences without their consent, and then switch in the details of whoever buys the test.
Steve Bray has been cleared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court of “flouting a police ban on playing anti-Conservative and anti-Brexit music through speakers outside Parliament in March last year.”
Oh FFS....
Last time I was in London, I went to Westminster wondering if I'd see anybody famous and all I saw was Steve Bray. Oh well.
He really needs help.
Well, he certainly could use a break. Perhaps Scott could take a couple of shifts for him?
There is no doubt he is the hardest "working" man in politics.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
What’s interesting is historically these people have been dumped in poor areas like Rochdale, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
I hope this trend accelerates.
But, but, surely Sir Kier smashed the gangs and brought all this to an end? He did a speech about it and everything.
Steve Bray has been cleared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court of “flouting a police ban on playing anti-Conservative and anti-Brexit music through speakers outside Parliament in March last year.”
Oh FFS....
Last time I was in London, I went to Westminster wondering if I'd see anybody famous and all I saw was Steve Bray. Oh well.
He really needs help.
Why? He has an occupation he likes, enough money to get by, and can take time off as he feels fit. That's more than most people, tbh.
So why don't those people who think they would be better off working in a factory actually get a job in a factory ?
Now some will be in rural areas where there are few or no factories and that's not going to change.
But most will simply not have the skillset needed.
And that is a failure of partly themselves and partly of the US education/training system.
What was the point in training them to do something Chinese workers have been trained for decades to do - with great manual dexterity - for a small fraction of the cost required of an American? Who would possibly put money into that?
Not Trump's tame billionaires for sure.
There will be plenty of vacancies for skilled workers in US manufacturing, and the US economy generally, right now.
That is what the US government should be focussing on.
Most Trump voters do not have the level of high skill required for the non automated manufacturing jobs still on offer in the US.
Many of their fathers worked on mass production line jobs though robots or Chinese workers now do
So they'll end up blaming Trump for not bringing back the past because those jobs are not going to come back.
No they support Trump whacking cheap Chinese imports with tariffs to bring some of the production of those goods back to the US
So they'll get higher prices but they wont get any more jobs.
And there certainly will not be any manufacturing jobs for these unskilled Trump voters you keep talking about.
Not if they only buy American goods and products.
There also comes a point where over 100% tariffs on Chinese goods imports means it makes more sense to produce those goods for the US market in the US
If you are only buying American goods you will be buying fewer more expensive goods.
And 100% tariffs only stop you importing from China, there will be other countries who produce the goods at a price above China but well below the price it would cost in the USA
Every other nation also has a 10% tariff and of course if production goes to other nations not the US from China Trump would of course just whack up tariffs on imports from those nations again too
Production is not going back to the USA. It's a complete fantasy.
There is a great article in the NYTimes today about an American businessman who owns factories in South-East Asia producing grilling accessories and kitchen items. When asked about moving production back to the USA, his response is that this is very risky because:
(1) How can he outfit an American factory given the hefty tariffs that now hit imports of equipment and machinery from around the world ? (2) How can he hire enough people in an era of mass deportation of immigrants in the USA ? (3) Presidents are elected for four years & factories take at least that long to recover the costs of building. If a new President changes the rules, then he'll be stuck with a loss-making factory in the USA, while his competitors could use lower-wage countries to make their goods.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
The crack cocaine of immigration. As more towns see hotels or blocks of flats full of the boat people, and them hanging around their quiets villages, anti immigrant sentiment will rise.
It’s everything the public dislike about immigration crystallised into a short, sharp hit. Anti immigration parties wouldn’t have been believed if they had made it up, & there doesn’t seem to be a way to stop it
Deportation are up, but still a very small number, 8000 people a year up from 6500, and a half of that total is basically down to the Albanian deal that was done plus Romanians. My understanding is now the Albanian gangs aren't sending people via the small boats now, they have plenty of labour for criminal enterprises.
And obviously 8k is a rounding error when you have 500k+ net legal migrants.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
What’s interesting is historically these people have been dumped in poor areas like Rochdale, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
I hope this trend accelerates.
The Lib Dems are underestimated as a vehicle for nativism. If this becomes an issue in Tory/Lib Dem marginals they could outflank the Tories on the right.
Listening to Today and they are talking about the problem with bots taking all tue driving test slots.
Chair of the Transport committee just said that they need a new website for booking to stop this but it will take 5 years.
Would any of our resident tech people explain to an analogue caveman like myself how it takes 5 years to build such a site and can they not buy existing ones off the shelf used by other countries and tweak it?
Seems absolutely bonkers that it takes 5 years.
Nope - I could use DVLAs preferred tool and give them a system within 6 months fully tested - and probably in a lot less time.
But the fix is simple - cancelled appointments go back into a pool and are available to everyone - don’t let instructors change the id on a test
Or add another question to the current system "What is your driving licence number?" And state that only someone with that licence can use that appointment, and heavily publicise that restriction. It would take less than a day to implement.
And that would help how? The problem is there are not enough test slots because there are not enough examiners. It is the same as with popular concerts. Arenas won't magically get bigger if you ban Ticketmaster. There won't be more driving tests available if you ban bots.
It helps because it means you don’t have someone booking appointments (as a tout) trying to make money from it.
If you can’t make money from it the touts would stop booking appointments because they wouldn’t be able to sell them to for £200 more.
Now granted it would screw up a few honest driving instructors but it’s a necessary evil.
The lack of test examiners is completely separate to the fact people can currently operate as touts - and while more examiners would reduce the market value of a test it won’t fix the problem that people can currently profit from it
At my youngest’s driving test (which he passed, fortunately!) I was chatting to one of the examiners who told me that on one day earlier in the week no one had turned up to take any of the booked slots.
Obviously completely anecdotal, but something is going seriously wrong in the system if examiners (or students) are letting paid for tests go unused.
Yes, the current situation is absurd. After months of trying, my step daugher has finally managed to get a test date, and that was only by hitting the apply button at precisely the moment the next tranche of dates was released. Meanwhile, as you say, examiners are wasting their time waiting for people who don't show, probably because they don't exist or have unknowingly had a test booked in their name.
The process has been incredibly frustrating for her and others that I know who have had similar difficulties.
Congratulations to your son, by the way!
Doesn't every provisional driving license haven a unique number ? Aren't they required for booking a test ?
Companies can get access to a portal that enables them to block tests without details.
Individuals can only book tests for themselves - using their provision license as you say.
Surely this is dead easy to fix if there are enough tests available - only let companies book 10% more tests than the number actually filled (not booked) in the previous tranche.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
There is another problem with migrant hotels. Sooner or later Nigel Farage will notice that either more money is paid to house homeless migrants than homeless Britons, or Angela Rayner's new houses are given straight to the migrants to get them out of the hotels.
Decades ago, this inflamed racial tensions in London. New council estates were handed over to immigrants and not locals on the waiting list. Nothing to do with woke, but simply need – immigrant families (the clue is in the name) had more children than native newly-married couples, so had higher priority.
Evidence: there’s a large Somalian family recently moved in to a council house down the road from me in NW1. Three or four kids. Whole house. They’re obviously not rich judging by the father’s car
I wish them well of course and have no idea of their true circumstances - is there a disabled granny as well? Etc. But I can’t help noticing they are living in an extremely desirable london townhouse probably worth £2-3m on the open market. Next to Regent’s Park
Judging by their faltering English they are recent migrants to the UK
As I say, I wish them the best. But you can see how the perception of this would drive some people mad - and is catnip to any would be nativist demagogue
So just tell everyone who raises it they are racist and that will soon shut people up.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
What’s interesting is historically these people have been dumped in poor areas like Rochdale, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
I hope this trend accelerates.
It depends how you do it. In my area (a very rich part of leafy Surrey) a local hotel had been used for Asylum seekers for 2 years. Nobody knew. It appears they were welcomed into the community. It has now been refurbished and is being returned to its previous use and locals are upset they are leaving. You can check it out - Thatchers Hotel.
I suspect you get more issues when these are put in overcrowded deprived areas or you overload an area.
Similarly around this way we have Send prison. Most people wouldn't even know it was there. In fact I just looked it up and found out it is a women's prison, whereas I thought it was a young offenders prison (might have changed use). It is next door to East Clandon. You could not find a more quintessential picture postcard village and nobody cares. If you tried to build one though.....
I noted that the Oscars are going to have a special award for stunt performers....Ed Davey must be in the running.
From the 2027 Oscars it’s past due as an award but it does mean that Tom Cruise won’t get it (and he really should as he often does stunts stuntmen refuse to do).
On behalf of all PB I am proceeding to the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, having earlier placed my hand in the golden handprint of Nur-Sultan Nazarbayev
Steve Bray has been cleared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court of “flouting a police ban on playing anti-Conservative and anti-Brexit music through speakers outside Parliament in March last year.”
As I read it, non-local police tried to move him on, displaying a map of where he was allowed to be under a specific piece of legislation. He pointed out that the map was out of date so kept on. They returned later and confiscated his speakers anyway.
And he was cleared.
So it's more like avoiding a speeding ticket when all the limit signs were hidden in a hedge.
Police cockup, not breaking a law.
Lesson 101: bring a relevant prosecution, and get your ducks in a row.
So why don't those people who think they would be better off working in a factory actually get a job in a factory ?
Now some will be in rural areas where there are few or no factories and that's not going to change.
But most will simply not have the skillset needed.
And that is a failure of partly themselves and partly of the US education/training system.
What was the point in training them to do something Chinese workers have been trained for decades to do - with great manual dexterity - for a small fraction of the cost required of an American? Who would possibly put money into that?
Not Trump's tame billionaires for sure.
There will be plenty of vacancies for skilled workers in US manufacturing, and the US economy generally, right now.
That is what the US government should be focussing on.
Most Trump voters do not have the level of high skill required for the non automated manufacturing jobs still on offer in the US.
Many of their fathers worked on mass production line jobs though robots or Chinese workers now do
So they'll end up blaming Trump for not bringing back the past because those jobs are not going to come back.
No they support Trump whacking cheap Chinese imports with tariffs to bring some of the production of those goods back to the US
So they'll get higher prices but they wont get any more jobs.
And there certainly will not be any manufacturing jobs for these unskilled Trump voters you keep talking about.
Not if they only buy American goods and products.
There also comes a point where over 100% tariffs on Chinese goods imports means it makes more sense to produce those goods for the US market in the US
Yes, and Mr Trump will then be done by the other handle on the other end of the rake.
Usonians want cheap goods, not to pay 50-100% extra for their consumer disposables for the sake of Putting America First.
On behalf of all PB I am proceeding to the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, having earlier placed my hand in the golden handprint of Nur-Sultan Nazarbayev
On behalf of all PB I am proceeding to the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, having earlier placed my hand in the golden handprint of Nur-Sultan Nazarbayev
Wandering around Central Asia these last weeks, one thing I’ve noticed. Kids. Everywhere. Billions of them. Babies in planes. Pushchairs in lifts. School kids laughing in streets. Young people!
It can be a tad annoying but also very heartening. How is Central Asia avoiding birth rate collapse? Because it really is - a startling outlier
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
What’s interesting is historically these people have been dumped in poor areas like Rochdale, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
I hope this trend accelerates.
It depends how you do it. In my area (a very rich part of leafy Surrey) a local hotel had been used for Asylum seekers for 2 years. Nobody knew. It appears they were welcomed into the community. It has now been refurbished and is being returned to its previous use and locals are upset they are leaving. You can check it out - Thatchers Hotel.
I suspect you get more issues when these are put in overcrowded deprived areas or you overload an area.
Similarly around this way we have Send prison. Most people wouldn't even know it was there. In fact I just looked it up and found out it is a women's prison, whereas I thought it was a young offenders prison (might have changed use). It is next door to East Clandon. You could not find a more quintessential picture postcard village and nobody cares. If you tried to build one though.....
There's certainly a few here in the Flatlands.
Some are in completely inappropriate industrial locations with very little in the way of local facilities so you see people wandering about. The Rotherham one was in this category although it was also near to a couple of recent housing estates which is where the trouble started.
I think the problem is putting so many people all in one place. I assume this is because they are monitored in some way but there has to be a better solution.
In some ways an old airfield - with new facilities and not just some crappy portacabins - would actually be a better solution, even if it starts to look like a prison camp. I mean, so does Centre Parcs, and people pay to go there...
Of course, the government would do it on the cheap thus rendering it unviable.
I noted that the Oscars are going to have a special award for stunt performers....Ed Davey must be in the running.
From the 2027 Oscars it’s past due as an award but it does mean that Tom Cruise won’t get it (and he really should as he often does stunts stuntmen refuse to do).
It would have been a really fitting thing to give him the first ever award for it. He might be a weird Scientologist, but its undeniable his dedication to the craft of doing these stunts.
Just to be clear, I am not targeting people that have always believed climate change to be a hoax and are now saying net zero should be cancelled.
I am targeting people that used to claim climate change was a hoax and apparently now believe in it they just don’t want to actually do anything about it.
For example, Richard Tice who was a climate change denier now strongly insists he believes in climate change but hates any solution that is proposed.
I just don't see why impoverishment with the highest electricity prices in Europe is the way to go..🤨 China has over a 1000 coal fired power stations (with more to come) and are there really going to be EV's whizzing around Cape Town with their rolling blackouts? 🤨🧐
Total non sequitur.
UK energy prices: highest in Europe due to marginal price of gas generation and a poor transmission system. And shit household insulation.
Swedish energy prices: lowest in Europe, with a largely green grid from nuclear, hydro and wind.
Highest energy prices in Europe are in CEE and SE Europe, which is heavily dependent on coal and imported gas.
You're bright enough to know that this is, at a huuuuuuuge stretch, a biased and partial answer to the question of why British energy bills are so high.
Perhaps you might want to consider why it is, if you're actually right, that well-intentioned dissembling needs to be deployed constantly to support your argument.
Is TimS right? The answer appears to be 'Mostly Right'
"Conclusion: The marginal pricing system, heavily influenced by gas, is a major driver of high UK electricity prices, amplified by global gas volatility. Transmission constraints add costs but are less significant. Other factors—high gas reliance, inefficient housing, and policy levies—also contribute. Reforms like zonal pricing or decoupling renewables from gas prices could help, but no single fix addresses all issues."
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
What’s interesting is historically these people have been dumped in poor areas like Rochdale, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
I hope this trend accelerates.
It depends how you do it. In my area (a very rich part of leafy Surrey) a local hotel had been used for Asylum seekers for 2 years. Nobody knew. It appears they were welcomed into the community. It has now been refurbished and is being returned to its previous use and locals are upset they are leaving. You can check it out - Thatchers Hotel.
I suspect you get more issues when these are put in overcrowded deprived areas or you overload an area.
Similarly around this way we have Send prison. Most people wouldn't even know it was there. In fact I just looked it up and found out it is a women's prison, whereas I thought it was a young offenders prison (might have changed use). It is next door to East Clandon. You could not find a more quintessential picture postcard village and nobody cares. If you tried to build one though.....
There's certainly a few here in the Flatlands.
Some are in completely inappropriate industrial locations with very little in the way of local facilities so you see people wandering about. The Rotherham one was in this category although it was also near to a couple of recent housing estates which is where the trouble started.
I think the problem is putting so many people all in one place. I assume this is because they are monitored in some way but there has to be a better solution.
In some ways an old airfield - with new facilities and not just some crappy portacabins - would actually be a better solution, even if it starts to look like a prison camp. I mean, so does Centre Parcs, and people pay to go there...
Of course, the government would do it on the cheap thus rendering it unviable.
We saw in COVID China and Australia put up very quickly lots of pre-fab dwellings to house people.
Steve Bray has been cleared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court of “flouting a police ban on playing anti-Conservative and anti-Brexit music through speakers outside Parliament in March last year.”
Oh FFS....
Last time I was in London, I went to Westminster wondering if I'd see anybody famous and all I saw was Steve Bray. Oh well.
He really needs help.
Well, he certainly could use a break. Perhaps Scott could take a couple of shifts for him?
There is no doubt he is the hardest "working" man in politics.
Who, Scott or Bray ?
I remember thinking of a film of Bray:
"Hmm. Why is he standing a few feet down the entrance ramp to a car park?"
The authorities do get some sympathy, given the complexity:
Wandering around Central Asia these last weeks, one thing I’ve noticed. Kids. Everywhere. Billions of them. Babies in planes. Pushchairs in lifts. School kids laughing in streets. Young people!
It can be a tad annoying but also very heartening. How is Central Asia avoiding birth rate collapse? Because it really is - a startling outlier
Just to be clear, I am not targeting people that have always believed climate change to be a hoax and are now saying net zero should be cancelled.
I am targeting people that used to claim climate change was a hoax and apparently now believe in it they just don’t want to actually do anything about it.
For example, Richard Tice who was a climate change denier now strongly insists he believes in climate change but hates any solution that is proposed.
I just don't see why impoverishment with the highest electricity prices in Europe is the way to go..🤨 China has over a 1000 coal fired power stations (with more to come) and are there really going to be EV's whizzing around Cape Town with their rolling blackouts? 🤨🧐
Total non sequitur.
UK energy prices: highest in Europe due to marginal price of gas generation and a poor transmission system. And shit household insulation.
Swedish energy prices: lowest in Europe, with a largely green grid from nuclear, hydro and wind.
Highest energy prices in Europe are in CEE and SE Europe, which is heavily dependent on coal and imported gas.
You're bright enough to know that this is, at a huuuuuuuge stretch, a biased and partial answer to the question of why British energy bills are so high.
Perhaps you might want to consider why it is, if you're actually right, that well-intentioned dissembling needs to be deployed constantly to support your argument.
Is TimS right? The answer appears to be 'Mostly Right'
"Conclusion: The marginal pricing system, heavily influenced by gas, is a major driver of high UK electricity prices, amplified by global gas volatility. Transmission constraints add costs but are less significant. Other factors—high gas reliance, inefficient housing, and policy levies—also contribute. Reforms like zonal pricing or decoupling renewables from gas prices could help, but no single fix addresses all issues."
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
What’s interesting is historically these people have been dumped in poor areas like Rochdale, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
I hope this trend accelerates.
It depends how you do it. In my area (a very rich part of leafy Surrey) a local hotel had been used for Asylum seekers for 2 years. Nobody knew. It appears they were welcomed into the community. It has now been refurbished and is being returned to its previous use and locals are upset they are leaving. You can check it out - Thatchers Hotel.
I suspect you get more issues when these are put in overcrowded deprived areas or you overload an area.
Similarly around this way we have Send prison. Most people wouldn't even know it was there. In fact I just looked it up and found out it is a women's prison, whereas I thought it was a young offenders prison (might have changed use). It is next door to East Clandon. You could not find a more quintessential picture postcard village and nobody cares. If you tried to build one though.....
There's certainly a few here in the Flatlands.
Some are in completely inappropriate industrial locations with very little in the way of local facilities so you see people wandering about. The Rotherham one was in this category although it was also near to a couple of recent housing estates which is where the trouble started.
I think the problem is putting so many people all in one place. I assume this is because they are monitored in some way but there has to be a better solution.
In some ways an old airfield - with new facilities and not just some crappy portacabins - would actually be a better solution, even if it starts to look like a prison camp. I mean, so does Centre Parcs, and people pay to go there...
Of course, the government would do it on the cheap thus rendering it unviable.
We saw in COVID China and Australia put up very quickly lots of pre-fab dwellings to house people.
Yes, although you'd need plenty of communal facilities too which probably weren't required for Covid...
This half way house of putting people "in the community" even when there isn't really one locally, and also not allowing them to work just doesn't seem to be right to me.
Either allow them to work and live vaguely normally, or have a dedicated facility and process them faster. One or the other!
Just to be clear, I am not targeting people that have always believed climate change to be a hoax and are now saying net zero should be cancelled.
I am targeting people that used to claim climate change was a hoax and apparently now believe in it they just don’t want to actually do anything about it.
For example, Richard Tice who was a climate change denier now strongly insists he believes in climate change but hates any solution that is proposed.
I just don't see why impoverishment with the highest electricity prices in Europe is the way to go..🤨 China has over a 1000 coal fired power stations (with more to come) and are there really going to be EV's whizzing around Cape Town with their rolling blackouts? 🤨🧐
Total non sequitur.
UK energy prices: highest in Europe due to marginal price of gas generation and a poor transmission system. And shit household insulation.
Swedish energy prices: lowest in Europe, with a largely green grid from nuclear, hydro and wind.
Highest energy prices in Europe are in CEE and SE Europe, which is heavily dependent on coal and imported gas.
You're bright enough to know that this is, at a huuuuuuuge stretch, a biased and partial answer to the question of why British energy bills are so high.
Perhaps you might want to consider why it is, if you're actually right, that well-intentioned dissembling needs to be deployed constantly to support your argument.
Is TimS right? The answer appears to be 'Mostly Right'
"Conclusion: The marginal pricing system, heavily influenced by gas, is a major driver of high UK electricity prices, amplified by global gas volatility. Transmission constraints add costs but are less significant. Other factors—high gas reliance, inefficient housing, and policy levies—also contribute. Reforms like zonal pricing or decoupling renewables from gas prices could help, but no single fix addresses all issues."
With thanks again to Grok.
Thanks, what was the prompt?
Are UK energy prices: highest in Europe due to marginal price of gas generation and a poor transmission system
Wandering around Central Asia these last weeks, one thing I’ve noticed. Kids. Everywhere. Billions of them. Babies in planes. Pushchairs in lifts. School kids laughing in streets. Young people!
It can be a tad annoying but also very heartening. How is Central Asia avoiding birth rate collapse? Because it really is - a startling outlier
Answers on a Mother’s Day card, please
Nought much else to on an evening?
Nope. Not that. They all have phones and laptops and iPads like the rest of us. They also have big cities with bars like Almaty and Astana
Here’s another anomaly. No litter - or almost none. And no graffiti. Not sure I’ve seen a single piece of graffiti since arriving. There are also signs everywhere warning you not to litter - and warnings about fines - and the fines are enforced (so I am told)
So it can be done. We just pathetically lack the will in the west. Start nicking people for littering - and make it HURT - and it stops
Wandering around Central Asia these last weeks, one thing I’ve noticed. Kids. Everywhere. Billions of them. Babies in planes. Pushchairs in lifts. School kids laughing in streets. Young people!
It can be a tad annoying but also very heartening. How is Central Asia avoiding birth rate collapse? Because it really is - a startling outlier
Answers on a Mother’s Day card, please
Nought much else to on an evening?
Nope. Not that. They all have phones and laptops and iPads like the rest of us. They also have big cities with bars like Almaty and Astana
Here’s another anomaly. No litter - or almost none. And no graffiti. Not sure I’ve seen a single piece of graffiti since arriving. There are also signs everywhere warning you not to litter - and warnings about fines - and the fines are enforced (so I am told)
So it can be done. We just pathetically lack the will in the west. Start nicking people for littering - and make it HURT - and it stops
Its the Singapore model.
Its the first thing I noticed when I got back from Asia, just how every f##king thing in London appears to be tagged. I can only imagine what people from Asia think.
So why don't those people who think they would be better off working in a factory actually get a job in a factory ?
Now some will be in rural areas where there are few or no factories and that's not going to change.
But most will simply not have the skillset needed.
And that is a failure of partly themselves and partly of the US education/training system.
What was the point in training them to do something Chinese workers have been trained for decades to do - with great manual dexterity - for a small fraction of the cost required of an American? Who would possibly put money into that?
Not Trump's tame billionaires for sure.
There will be plenty of vacancies for skilled workers in US manufacturing, and the US economy generally, right now.
That is what the US government should be focussing on.
Most Trump voters do not have the level of high skill required for the non automated manufacturing jobs still on offer in the US.
Many of their fathers worked on mass production line jobs though robots or Chinese workers now do
So they'll end up blaming Trump for not bringing back the past because those jobs are not going to come back.
No they support Trump whacking cheap Chinese imports with tariffs to bring some of the production of those goods back to the US
They won't support paying the higher prices this implies though.
Average hourly wage in the US: $24.10, while in China it was around $3.60 (2022 figures).
The more they buy American goods, the less the tariffs rise hits them too
I know we did this the other day, but if US manufacturers could compete prior to tarrifs they would have done, so the price of the replacement US produced goods will be higher than the pre tariff prices. So the consumer is still paying more regardless. They get hit by the tariff either directly (by buying Chinese) or indirectly (by buying higher priced untariffed US goods).
It is a lose lose deal.
If you bought US goods before the price you pay will be unchanged
That's not the case.
Firstly, many "US goods" have cross-border supply chains so the cost of producing US goods will increase. Secondly, if your foreign competitor's price goes through the roof, you can respond that by increasing your production OR increasing your prices. The second is probably wiser as increasing capacity is costly, and you don't know if the President will change his mind tomorrow (indeed, he has on computers and smartphones as well as delaying tariffs generally).
I'm not a fan of strategic trade policies anyway, but if you're going to do it then you definitely don't do it like Trump. You pick the targets carefully depending on what production you're keen to bring on-shore. Then you give yourself a chance of driving investment decisions by setting it on a ratchet where you arrive at whatever the level is over a few years - so you're clear it's long term and give time to respond via investment. As it is, the tariffs are very annoying for those importing goods or materials into the US, but they aren't likely to drive behaviour in the way proponents want - companies just suck it up and wait for policy to change as it's so hard to make a proper assumption as to what policy will be next week let alone in 2028.
Wandering around Central Asia these last weeks, one thing I’ve noticed. Kids. Everywhere. Billions of them. Babies in planes. Pushchairs in lifts. School kids laughing in streets. Young people!
It can be a tad annoying but also very heartening. How is Central Asia avoiding birth rate collapse? Because it really is - a startling outlier
Answers on a Mother’s Day card, please
Nought much else to on an evening?
Nope. Not that. They all have phones and laptops and iPads like the rest of us. They also have big cities with bars like Almaty and Astana
Here’s another anomaly. No litter - or almost none. And no graffiti. Not sure I’ve seen a single piece of graffiti since arriving. There are also signs everywhere warning you not to litter - and warnings about fines - and the fines are enforced (so I am told)
So it can be done. We just pathetically lack the will in the west. Start nicking people for littering - and make it HURT - and it stops
Its the Singapore model.
Its the first thing I noticed when I got back from Asia, just how every f##king thing in London appears to be tagged.
I know. I hate it. And it makes me despair - the whole of Western Europe is now like this. Paris is just as bad as London
In Kazakhstan it’s particularly noticeable because they inherited a terrible Soviet attitude to the environment - that it is something to be exploited and trashed. Not least the Aral Sea
Yet somehow they are turning it around. Instilling civic pride and enforcing the law. When I went to the charyn canyon national park (extremely boring) I was given, like everyone else, a bag for me to take my garbage home. And looming over me was a huge sign saying: BAG YOUR TRASH OR ELSE
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
What’s interesting is historically these people have been dumped in poor areas like Rochdale, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
I hope this trend accelerates.
It depends how you do it. In my area (a very rich part of leafy Surrey) a local hotel had been used for Asylum seekers for 2 years. Nobody knew. It appears they were welcomed into the community. It has now been refurbished and is being returned to its previous use and locals are upset they are leaving. You can check it out - Thatchers Hotel.
I suspect you get more issues when these are put in overcrowded deprived areas or you overload an area.
Similarly around this way we have Send prison. Most people wouldn't even know it was there. In fact I just looked it up and found out it is a women's prison, whereas I thought it was a young offenders prison (might have changed use). It is next door to East Clandon. You could not find a more quintessential picture postcard village and nobody cares. If you tried to build one though.....
There's certainly a few here in the Flatlands.
Some are in completely inappropriate industrial locations with very little in the way of local facilities so you see people wandering about. The Rotherham one was in this category although it was also near to a couple of recent housing estates which is where the trouble started.
I think the problem is putting so many people all in one place. I assume this is because they are monitored in some way but there has to be a better solution.
In some ways an old airfield - with new facilities and not just some crappy portacabins - would actually be a better solution, even if it starts to look like a prison camp. I mean, so does Centre Parcs, and people pay to go there...
Of course, the government would do it on the cheap thus rendering it unviable.
The reasons why hotels were used in the first place is pure Process State.
It is very easy to stop things happening. So any attempt to build purpose built sites was blocked. So they came up with the barge idea. Again, blocked.
It is very hard to stop someone using a hotel to house the number of people that it is licensed for.
It meet all the fire regs, safety, disability accessibly (probably) etc etc.
It may very well be a bad solution - but it is *easy*.
The government hires the whole hotel out. There is no planning permission, consultation, change of use, public enquiries or anything else.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
What’s interesting is historically these people have been dumped in poor areas like Rochdale, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
I hope this trend accelerates.
It depends how you do it. In my area (a very rich part of leafy Surrey) a local hotel had been used for Asylum seekers for 2 years. Nobody knew. It appears they were welcomed into the community. It has now been refurbished and is being returned to its previous use and locals are upset they are leaving. You can check it out - Thatchers Hotel.
I suspect you get more issues when these are put in overcrowded deprived areas or you overload an area.
Similarly around this way we have Send prison. Most people wouldn't even know it was there. In fact I just looked it up and found out it is a women's prison, whereas I thought it was a young offenders prison (might have changed use). It is next door to East Clandon. You could not find a more quintessential picture postcard village and nobody cares. If you tried to build one though.....
There's certainly a few here in the Flatlands.
Some are in completely inappropriate industrial locations with very little in the way of local facilities so you see people wandering about. The Rotherham one was in this category although it was also near to a couple of recent housing estates which is where the trouble started.
I think the problem is putting so many people all in one place. I assume this is because they are monitored in some way but there has to be a better solution.
In some ways an old airfield - with new facilities and not just some crappy portacabins - would actually be a better solution, even if it starts to look like a prison camp. I mean, so does Centre Parcs, and people pay to go there...
Of course, the government would do it on the cheap thus rendering it unviable.
The reasons why hotels were used in the first place is pure Process State.
It is very easy to stop things happening. So any attempt to build purpose built sites was blocked. So they came up with the barge idea. Again, blocked.
It is very hard to stop someone using a hotel to house the number of people that it is licensed for.
It meet all the fire regs, safety, disability accessibly (probably) etc etc.
It may very well be a bad solution - but it is *easy*.
The government hires the whole hotel out. There is no planning permission, consultation, change of use, public enquiries or anything else.
Just to be clear, I am not targeting people that have always believed climate change to be a hoax and are now saying net zero should be cancelled.
I am targeting people that used to claim climate change was a hoax and apparently now believe in it they just don’t want to actually do anything about it.
For example, Richard Tice who was a climate change denier now strongly insists he believes in climate change but hates any solution that is proposed.
I just don't see why impoverishment with the highest electricity prices in Europe is the way to go..🤨 China has over a 1000 coal fired power stations (with more to come) and are there really going to be EV's whizzing around Cape Town with their rolling blackouts? 🤨🧐
Total non sequitur.
UK energy prices: highest in Europe due to marginal price of gas generation and a poor transmission system. And shit household insulation.
Swedish energy prices: lowest in Europe, with a largely green grid from nuclear, hydro and wind.
Highest energy prices in Europe are in CEE and SE Europe, which is heavily dependent on coal and imported gas.
You're bright enough to know that this is, at a huuuuuuuge stretch, a biased and partial answer to the question of why British energy bills are so high.
Perhaps you might want to consider why it is, if you're actually right, that well-intentioned dissembling needs to be deployed constantly to support your argument.
Is TimS right? The answer appears to be 'Mostly Right'
"Conclusion: The marginal pricing system, heavily influenced by gas, is a major driver of high UK electricity prices, amplified by global gas volatility. Transmission constraints add costs but are less significant. Other factors—high gas reliance, inefficient housing, and policy levies—also contribute. Reforms like zonal pricing or decoupling renewables from gas prices could help, but no single fix addresses all issues."
With thanks again to Grok.
Electricity isn't the only energy bill though. Very roughly, and in comparison to other European countries:
Petrol - cheap Diesel - expensive Domestic gas - very cheap Domestic electricity - average Industrial gas - average Industrial electricity - very expensive
Broadly speaking, the UK doesn't have it too bad. It's industrial electricity which is the real killer.
Just to be clear, I am not targeting people that have always believed climate change to be a hoax and are now saying net zero should be cancelled.
I am targeting people that used to claim climate change was a hoax and apparently now believe in it they just don’t want to actually do anything about it.
For example, Richard Tice who was a climate change denier now strongly insists he believes in climate change but hates any solution that is proposed.
I just don't see why impoverishment with the highest electricity prices in Europe is the way to go..🤨 China has over a 1000 coal fired power stations (with more to come) and are there really going to be EV's whizzing around Cape Town with their rolling blackouts? 🤨🧐
Total non sequitur.
UK energy prices: highest in Europe due to marginal price of gas generation and a poor transmission system. And shit household insulation.
Swedish energy prices: lowest in Europe, with a largely green grid from nuclear, hydro and wind.
Highest energy prices in Europe are in CEE and SE Europe, which is heavily dependent on coal and imported gas.
You're bright enough to know that this is, at a huuuuuuuge stretch, a biased and partial answer to the question of why British energy bills are so high.
Perhaps you might want to consider why it is, if you're actually right, that well-intentioned dissembling needs to be deployed constantly to support your argument.
Is TimS right? The answer appears to be 'Mostly Right'
"Conclusion: The marginal pricing system, heavily influenced by gas, is a major driver of high UK electricity prices, amplified by global gas volatility. Transmission constraints add costs but are less significant. Other factors—high gas reliance, inefficient housing, and policy levies—also contribute. Reforms like zonal pricing or decoupling renewables from gas prices could help, but no single fix addresses all issues."
With thanks again to Grok.
Thanks, what was the prompt?
Are UK energy prices: highest in Europe due to marginal price of gas generation and a poor transmission system
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
What’s interesting is historically these people have been dumped in poor areas like Rochdale, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
I hope this trend accelerates.
It depends how you do it. In my area (a very rich part of leafy Surrey) a local hotel had been used for Asylum seekers for 2 years. Nobody knew. It appears they were welcomed into the community. It has now been refurbished and is being returned to its previous use and locals are upset they are leaving. You can check it out - Thatchers Hotel.
I suspect you get more issues when these are put in overcrowded deprived areas or you overload an area.
Similarly around this way we have Send prison. Most people wouldn't even know it was there. In fact I just looked it up and found out it is a women's prison, whereas I thought it was a young offenders prison (might have changed use). It is next door to East Clandon. You could not find a more quintessential picture postcard village and nobody cares. If you tried to build one though.....
There's certainly a few here in the Flatlands.
Some are in completely inappropriate industrial locations with very little in the way of local facilities so you see people wandering about. The Rotherham one was in this category although it was also near to a couple of recent housing estates which is where the trouble started.
I think the problem is putting so many people all in one place. I assume this is because they are monitored in some way but there has to be a better solution.
In some ways an old airfield - with new facilities and not just some crappy portacabins - would actually be a better solution, even if it starts to look like a prison camp. I mean, so does Centre Parcs, and people pay to go there...
Of course, the government would do it on the cheap thus rendering it unviable.
The reasons why hotels were used in the first place is pure Process State.
It is very easy to stop things happening. So any attempt to build purpose built sites was blocked. So they came up with the barge idea. Again, blocked.
It is very hard to stop someone using a hotel to house the number of people that it is licensed for.
It meet all the fire regs, safety, disability accessibly (probably) etc etc.
It may very well be a bad solution - but it is *easy*.
The government hires the whole hotel out. There is no planning permission, consultation, change of use, public enquiries or anything else.
The barge idea wasn't really blocked - Labour scrapped it.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
What’s interesting is historically these people have been dumped in poor areas like Rochdale, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
I hope this trend accelerates.
It depends how you do it. In my area (a very rich part of leafy Surrey) a local hotel had been used for Asylum seekers for 2 years. Nobody knew. It appears they were welcomed into the community. It has now been refurbished and is being returned to its previous use and locals are upset they are leaving. You can check it out - Thatchers Hotel.
I suspect you get more issues when these are put in overcrowded deprived areas or you overload an area.
Similarly around this way we have Send prison. Most people wouldn't even know it was there. In fact I just looked it up and found out it is a women's prison, whereas I thought it was a young offenders prison (might have changed use). It is next door to East Clandon. You could not find a more quintessential picture postcard village and nobody cares. If you tried to build one though.....
There's certainly a few here in the Flatlands.
Some are in completely inappropriate industrial locations with very little in the way of local facilities so you see people wandering about. The Rotherham one was in this category although it was also near to a couple of recent housing estates which is where the trouble started.
I think the problem is putting so many people all in one place. I assume this is because they are monitored in some way but there has to be a better solution.
In some ways an old airfield - with new facilities and not just some crappy portacabins - would actually be a better solution, even if it starts to look like a prison camp. I mean, so does Centre Parcs, and people pay to go there...
Of course, the government would do it on the cheap thus rendering it unviable.
The reasons why hotels were used in the first place is pure Process State.
It is very easy to stop things happening. So any attempt to build purpose built sites was blocked. So they came up with the barge idea. Again, blocked.
It is very hard to stop someone using a hotel to house the number of people that it is licensed for.
It meet all the fire regs, safety, disability accessibly (probably) etc etc.
It may very well be a bad solution - but it is *easy*.
The government hires the whole hotel out. There is no planning permission, consultation, change of use, public enquiries or anything else.
No local democracy shouldn't be a selling point.
When all options have been exhausted...
NIMBYism ensured that no solution requiring any planning input could move forward. At every attempt a coalition of locals and pro-asylum groups formed to block it.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
What’s interesting is historically these people have been dumped in poor areas like Rochdale, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
I hope this trend accelerates.
It depends how you do it. In my area (a very rich part of leafy Surrey) a local hotel had been used for Asylum seekers for 2 years. Nobody knew. It appears they were welcomed into the community. It has now been refurbished and is being returned to its previous use and locals are upset they are leaving. You can check it out - Thatchers Hotel.
I suspect you get more issues when these are put in overcrowded deprived areas or you overload an area.
Similarly around this way we have Send prison. Most people wouldn't even know it was there. In fact I just looked it up and found out it is a women's prison, whereas I thought it was a young offenders prison (might have changed use). It is next door to East Clandon. You could not find a more quintessential picture postcard village and nobody cares. If you tried to build one though.....
There's certainly a few here in the Flatlands.
Some are in completely inappropriate industrial locations with very little in the way of local facilities so you see people wandering about. The Rotherham one was in this category although it was also near to a couple of recent housing estates which is where the trouble started.
I think the problem is putting so many people all in one place. I assume this is because they are monitored in some way but there has to be a better solution.
In some ways an old airfield - with new facilities and not just some crappy portacabins - would actually be a better solution, even if it starts to look like a prison camp. I mean, so does Centre Parcs, and people pay to go there...
Of course, the government would do it on the cheap thus rendering it unviable.
The reasons why hotels were used in the first place is pure Process State.
It is very easy to stop things happening. So any attempt to build purpose built sites was blocked. So they came up with the barge idea. Again, blocked.
It is very hard to stop someone using a hotel to house the number of people that it is licensed for.
It meet all the fire regs, safety, disability accessibly (probably) etc etc.
It may very well be a bad solution - but it is *easy*.
The government hires the whole hotel out. There is no planning permission, consultation, change of use, public enquiries or anything else.
No local democracy shouldn't be a selling point.
When all options have been exhausted...
NIMBYism ensured that no solution requiring any planning input could move forward. At every attempt a coalition of locals and pro-asylum groups formed to block it.
Pro asylum people are sometimes so crazy - open all the borders! Let anyone in! - I sometimes genuinely wonder if they are crypto-fascists trying to facilitate a far right takeover
Wandering around Central Asia these last weeks, one thing I’ve noticed. Kids. Everywhere. Billions of them. Babies in planes. Pushchairs in lifts. School kids laughing in streets. Young people!
It can be a tad annoying but also very heartening. How is Central Asia avoiding birth rate collapse? Because it really is - a startling outlier
Answers on a Mother’s Day card, please
Nought much else to on an evening?
Nope. Not that. They all have phones and laptops and iPads like the rest of us. They also have big cities with bars like Almaty and Astana
Here’s another anomaly. No litter - or almost none. And no graffiti. Not sure I’ve seen a single piece of graffiti since arriving. There are also signs everywhere warning you not to litter - and warnings about fines - and the fines are enforced (so I am told)
So it can be done. We just pathetically lack the will in the west. Start nicking people for littering - and make it HURT - and it stops
Its the Singapore model.
Its the first thing I noticed when I got back from Asia, just how every f##king thing in London appears to be tagged. I can only imagine what people from Asia think.
Just to be clear, I am not targeting people that have always believed climate change to be a hoax and are now saying net zero should be cancelled.
I am targeting people that used to claim climate change was a hoax and apparently now believe in it they just don’t want to actually do anything about it.
For example, Richard Tice who was a climate change denier now strongly insists he believes in climate change but hates any solution that is proposed.
I just don't see why impoverishment with the highest electricity prices in Europe is the way to go..🤨 China has over a 1000 coal fired power stations (with more to come) and are there really going to be EV's whizzing around Cape Town with their rolling blackouts? 🤨🧐
Total non sequitur.
UK energy prices: highest in Europe due to marginal price of gas generation and a poor transmission system. And shit household insulation.
Swedish energy prices: lowest in Europe, with a largely green grid from nuclear, hydro and wind.
Highest energy prices in Europe are in CEE and SE Europe, which is heavily dependent on coal and imported gas.
You're bright enough to know that this is, at a huuuuuuuge stretch, a biased and partial answer to the question of why British energy bills are so high.
Perhaps you might want to consider why it is, if you're actually right, that well-intentioned dissembling needs to be deployed constantly to support your argument.
Is TimS right? The answer appears to be 'Mostly Right'
"Conclusion: The marginal pricing system, heavily influenced by gas, is a major driver of high UK electricity prices, amplified by global gas volatility. Transmission constraints add costs but are less significant. Other factors—high gas reliance, inefficient housing, and policy levies—also contribute. Reforms like zonal pricing or decoupling renewables from gas prices could help, but no single fix addresses all issues."
With thanks again to Grok.
Thanks, what was the prompt?
Are UK energy prices: highest in Europe due to marginal price of gas generation and a poor transmission system
So it really just repeated what you gave it.
No, it answered the question. I'd like to ask other PBers if they have used AIs which ones they have found useful. I've used a few and some give just plausible but completely wrong answers - so it's always worth being skeptical, My son is buying a leasehold flat and everything I asked Grok about that and then checked with usual Bing and Google searches turned out to be correct. I'm now looking at a charger and battery for my 2nd hand e-208 and again it's proved useful. So, it's really up to you to poke holes in Grok's conclusion - or you could admit that you may be wrong.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
What’s interesting is historically these people have been dumped in poor areas like Rochdale, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
I hope this trend accelerates.
It depends how you do it. In my area (a very rich part of leafy Surrey) a local hotel had been used for Asylum seekers for 2 years. Nobody knew. It appears they were welcomed into the community. It has now been refurbished and is being returned to its previous use and locals are upset they are leaving. You can check it out - Thatchers Hotel.
I suspect you get more issues when these are put in overcrowded deprived areas or you overload an area.
Similarly around this way we have Send prison. Most people wouldn't even know it was there. In fact I just looked it up and found out it is a women's prison, whereas I thought it was a young offenders prison (might have changed use). It is next door to East Clandon. You could not find a more quintessential picture postcard village and nobody cares. If you tried to build one though.....
There's certainly a few here in the Flatlands.
Some are in completely inappropriate industrial locations with very little in the way of local facilities so you see people wandering about. The Rotherham one was in this category although it was also near to a couple of recent housing estates which is where the trouble started.
I think the problem is putting so many people all in one place. I assume this is because they are monitored in some way but there has to be a better solution.
In some ways an old airfield - with new facilities and not just some crappy portacabins - would actually be a better solution, even if it starts to look like a prison camp. I mean, so does Centre Parcs, and people pay to go there...
Of course, the government would do it on the cheap thus rendering it unviable.
The reasons why hotels were used in the first place is pure Process State.
It is very easy to stop things happening. So any attempt to build purpose built sites was blocked. So they came up with the barge idea. Again, blocked.
It is very hard to stop someone using a hotel to house the number of people that it is licensed for.
It meet all the fire regs, safety, disability accessibly (probably) etc etc.
It may very well be a bad solution - but it is *easy*.
The government hires the whole hotel out. There is no planning permission, consultation, change of use, public enquiries or anything else.
The solution is to return every illegal migrant to the country they just left.
Wandering around Central Asia these last weeks, one thing I’ve noticed. Kids. Everywhere. Billions of them. Babies in planes. Pushchairs in lifts. School kids laughing in streets. Young people!
It can be a tad annoying but also very heartening. How is Central Asia avoiding birth rate collapse? Because it really is - a startling outlier
Answers on a Mother’s Day card, please
Nought much else to on an evening?
Nope. Not that. They all have phones and laptops and iPads like the rest of us. They also have big cities with bars like Almaty and Astana
Here’s another anomaly. No litter - or almost none. And no graffiti. Not sure I’ve seen a single piece of graffiti since arriving. There are also signs everywhere warning you not to litter - and warnings about fines - and the fines are enforced (so I am told)
So it can be done. We just pathetically lack the will in the west. Start nicking people for littering - and make it HURT - and it stops
Its the Singapore model.
Its the first thing I noticed when I got back from Asia, just how every f##king thing in London appears to be tagged. I can only imagine what people from Asia think.
I'm with you both on this one.
Pavement parking, too.
Going to the Polish Supermarket this morning, there was a huge (pantechnicon) parked across the pavement, unloading.
In the road it only gives 1.75 cars rather than 1.25 cars width, so there's no earthly point in doing it. Yet they don't even think. It's a vehicle - keep it in the carriageway.
Wandering around Central Asia these last weeks, one thing I’ve noticed. Kids. Everywhere. Billions of them. Babies in planes. Pushchairs in lifts. School kids laughing in streets. Young people!
It can be a tad annoying but also very heartening. How is Central Asia avoiding birth rate collapse? Because it really is - a startling outlier
Answers on a Mother’s Day card, please
Nought much else to on an evening?
Nope. Not that. They all have phones and laptops and iPads like the rest of us. They also have big cities with bars like Almaty and Astana
Here’s another anomaly. No litter - or almost none. And no graffiti. Not sure I’ve seen a single piece of graffiti since arriving. There are also signs everywhere warning you not to litter - and warnings about fines - and the fines are enforced (so I am told)
So it can be done. We just pathetically lack the will in the west. Start nicking people for littering - and make it HURT - and it stops
Its the Singapore model.
Its the first thing I noticed when I got back from Asia, just how every f##king thing in London appears to be tagged. I can only imagine what people from Asia think.
Just to be clear, I am not targeting people that have always believed climate change to be a hoax and are now saying net zero should be cancelled.
I am targeting people that used to claim climate change was a hoax and apparently now believe in it they just don’t want to actually do anything about it.
For example, Richard Tice who was a climate change denier now strongly insists he believes in climate change but hates any solution that is proposed.
I just don't see why impoverishment with the highest electricity prices in Europe is the way to go..🤨 China has over a 1000 coal fired power stations (with more to come) and are there really going to be EV's whizzing around Cape Town with their rolling blackouts? 🤨🧐
Total non sequitur.
UK energy prices: highest in Europe due to marginal price of gas generation and a poor transmission system. And shit household insulation.
Swedish energy prices: lowest in Europe, with a largely green grid from nuclear, hydro and wind.
Highest energy prices in Europe are in CEE and SE Europe, which is heavily dependent on coal and imported gas.
You're bright enough to know that this is, at a huuuuuuuge stretch, a biased and partial answer to the question of why British energy bills are so high.
Perhaps you might want to consider why it is, if you're actually right, that well-intentioned dissembling needs to be deployed constantly to support your argument.
Is TimS right? The answer appears to be 'Mostly Right'
"Conclusion: The marginal pricing system, heavily influenced by gas, is a major driver of high UK electricity prices, amplified by global gas volatility. Transmission constraints add costs but are less significant. Other factors—high gas reliance, inefficient housing, and policy levies—also contribute. Reforms like zonal pricing or decoupling renewables from gas prices could help, but no single fix addresses all issues."
With thanks again to Grok.
Thanks, what was the prompt?
Are UK energy prices: highest in Europe due to marginal price of gas generation and a poor transmission system
So it really just repeated what you gave it.
Taking your replay at face value, I asked Grok "It seems that UK electricity prices are so high due to renewables" and it said "So, are renewables the culprit? They contribute to costs through subsidies and grid upgrades, but gas prices and the market’s pricing model are bigger factors right now. Long term, more storage and smarter grids could let renewables shine, but we’re not there yet. It’s less about renewables being “bad” and more about a system still playing catch-up"
That seems to have mostly disagreed with my prompt.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
There is another problem with migrant hotels. Sooner or later Nigel Farage will notice that either more money is paid to house homeless migrants than homeless Britons, or Angela Rayner's new houses are given straight to the migrants to get them out of the hotels.
Decades ago, this inflamed racial tensions in London. New council estates were handed over to immigrants and not locals on the waiting list. Nothing to do with woke, but simply need – immigrant families (the clue is in the name) had more children than native newly-married couples, so had higher priority.
Evidence: there’s a large Somalian family recently moved in to a council house down the road from me in NW1. Three or four kids. Whole house. They’re obviously not rich judging by the father’s car
I wish them well of course and have no idea of their true circumstances - is there a disabled granny as well? Etc. But I can’t help noticing they are living in an extremely desirable london townhouse probably worth £2-3m on the open market. Next to Regent’s Park
Judging by their faltering English they are recent migrants to the UK
As I say, I wish them the best. But you can see how the perception of this would drive some people mad - and is catnip to any would be nativist demagogue
It'd be interesting to know where a 'would-be nativist demagogue' would want them to live.
Why are the government being so weird about delivery of new supplies for the blast furnace? The morning round of media was this weird i can't tell you nothing about the delivery, commercially sensitive. Its coal, not gold bars or nuclear warheads.
If the blast furnaces stop burning, irreparable (well very expensive and time consuming to repair) damage is done. Isn't the argument today that the Chinese have sabotaged the furnaces?
Kemi's idea of replacing them with electric arc furnaces is not a great one mind. I am at the Tata Port Talbot site once a month and the whole place is like the Marie Celeste. The arc furnaces will not be operational there for years.
That wasn't my point that is a separate issue.
I was wondering why they are being weird about saying when / where the delivery is coming from. You would think having taken action, they would want to reassure we now have the situation under control, coal will arrive in x days, etc.
It is also the confusing take of today they continued to say even if we do nationalise it, we are going to look to offload it ASAP to a private entity but no Chinese companies allowed. But we know nobody wanted it last time.
I really don't understand why they don't just say we are going to nationalise it, it is the only way forward and it is vital for national security.
Since when have you Tories been pro nationalisation? You'll be asking for Thames Water to be nationalised next.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
What’s interesting is historically these people have been dumped in poor areas like Rochdale, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
I hope this trend accelerates.
It depends how you do it. In my area (a very rich part of leafy Surrey) a local hotel had been used for Asylum seekers for 2 years. Nobody knew. It appears they were welcomed into the community. It has now been refurbished and is being returned to its previous use and locals are upset they are leaving. You can check it out - Thatchers Hotel.
I suspect you get more issues when these are put in overcrowded deprived areas or you overload an area.
Similarly around this way we have Send prison. Most people wouldn't even know it was there. In fact I just looked it up and found out it is a women's prison, whereas I thought it was a young offenders prison (might have changed use). It is next door to East Clandon. You could not find a more quintessential picture postcard village and nobody cares. If you tried to build one though.....
There's certainly a few here in the Flatlands.
Some are in completely inappropriate industrial locations with very little in the way of local facilities so you see people wandering about. The Rotherham one was in this category although it was also near to a couple of recent housing estates which is where the trouble started.
I think the problem is putting so many people all in one place. I assume this is because they are monitored in some way but there has to be a better solution.
In some ways an old airfield - with new facilities and not just some crappy portacabins - would actually be a better solution, even if it starts to look like a prison camp. I mean, so does Centre Parcs, and people pay to go there...
Of course, the government would do it on the cheap thus rendering it unviable.
The reasons why hotels were used in the first place is pure Process State.
It is very easy to stop things happening. So any attempt to build purpose built sites was blocked. So they came up with the barge idea. Again, blocked.
It is very hard to stop someone using a hotel to house the number of people that it is licensed for.
It meet all the fire regs, safety, disability accessibly (probably) etc etc.
It may very well be a bad solution - but it is *easy*.
The government hires the whole hotel out. There is no planning permission, consultation, change of use, public enquiries or anything else.
The solution is to return every illegal migrant to the country they just left.
That is basically government policy now, which is a big step up from the last government, whose policy was not to process anyone so the numbers built up and they could be outraged.
However, PR problems occur as people don't understand who actually constitutes as an "illegal migrant" and the steps necessary to make such a determination.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
There is another problem with migrant hotels. Sooner or later Nigel Farage will notice that either more money is paid to house homeless migrants than homeless Britons, or Angela Rayner's new houses are given straight to the migrants to get them out of the hotels.
Decades ago, this inflamed racial tensions in London. New council estates were handed over to immigrants and not locals on the waiting list. Nothing to do with woke, but simply need – immigrant families (the clue is in the name) had more children than native newly-married couples, so had higher priority.
Evidence: there’s a large Somalian family recently moved in to a council house down the road from me in NW1. Three or four kids. Whole house. They’re obviously not rich judging by the father’s car
I wish them well of course and have no idea of their true circumstances - is there a disabled granny as well? Etc. But I can’t help noticing they are living in an extremely desirable london townhouse probably worth £2-3m on the open market. Next to Regent’s Park
Judging by their faltering English they are recent migrants to the UK
As I say, I wish them the best. But you can see how the perception of this would drive some people mad - and is catnip to any would be nativist demagogue
It'd be interesting to know where a 'would-be nativist demagogue' would want them to live.
Do we have any on here we can ask?
I would suggest “not in some of the most expensive desirable property in the United Kingdom”. And I would enforce a law that gives you greater rights to more expensive areas the longer you have lived in the UK, if you were born here, etc
I believe the Tories brought in a law - or were about to - somewhat to this effect? Then Starmer cancelled it ASAFP
It’s like Labour all secretly want Farage to win in 2029
Going to the Polish Supermarket this morning, there was a huge (pantechnicon) parked across the pavement, unloading.
This is a pet hate of mine as my sister is a wheelchair user. There's a Indian takeaway in our village, customers and delivery drivers constantly park on the pavement even though there's a car park literally a stone's throw away.
I had a loud and intense discussion about this when the owner blocked the pavement with his car while unloading, preventing my sister from getting though. He seemed completely baffled anyone would object to him parking on the pavement.
And there's zero enforcement of course, my complaints to the local council and Police have resulted in a big fat pile of no action at all.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
What’s interesting is historically these people have been dumped in poor areas like Rochdale, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
I hope this trend accelerates.
It depends how you do it. In my area (a very rich part of leafy Surrey) a local hotel had been used for Asylum seekers for 2 years. Nobody knew. It appears they were welcomed into the community. It has now been refurbished and is being returned to its previous use and locals are upset they are leaving. You can check it out - Thatchers Hotel.
I suspect you get more issues when these are put in overcrowded deprived areas or you overload an area.
Similarly around this way we have Send prison. Most people wouldn't even know it was there. In fact I just looked it up and found out it is a women's prison, whereas I thought it was a young offenders prison (might have changed use). It is next door to East Clandon. You could not find a more quintessential picture postcard village and nobody cares. If you tried to build one though.....
There's certainly a few here in the Flatlands.
Some are in completely inappropriate industrial locations with very little in the way of local facilities so you see people wandering about. The Rotherham one was in this category although it was also near to a couple of recent housing estates which is where the trouble started.
I think the problem is putting so many people all in one place. I assume this is because they are monitored in some way but there has to be a better solution.
In some ways an old airfield - with new facilities and not just some crappy portacabins - would actually be a better solution, even if it starts to look like a prison camp. I mean, so does Centre Parcs, and people pay to go there...
Of course, the government would do it on the cheap thus rendering it unviable.
The reasons why hotels were used in the first place is pure Process State.
It is very easy to stop things happening. So any attempt to build purpose built sites was blocked. So they came up with the barge idea. Again, blocked.
It is very hard to stop someone using a hotel to house the number of people that it is licensed for.
It meet all the fire regs, safety, disability accessibly (probably) etc etc.
It may very well be a bad solution - but it is *easy*.
The government hires the whole hotel out. There is no planning permission, consultation, change of use, public enquiries or anything else.
It’s a massive earner for the hotel owner and middle man as well A network of middlemen are making millions from the migrant crisis by striking deals with run-down hotels and filling them with asylum seekers.
Companies are taking fees and commission every time a migrant is given accommodation, a Sunday Times investigation has revealed.
The cost to the taxpayer of housing a asylum seeker is between £127 and £148 a day — a total daily bill of £8 million. The investigation found that hotel owners receive between £40 and £80, with the rest going to the middlemen companies.
Wandering around Central Asia these last weeks, one thing I’ve noticed. Kids. Everywhere. Billions of them. Babies in planes. Pushchairs in lifts. School kids laughing in streets. Young people!
It can be a tad annoying but also very heartening. How is Central Asia avoiding birth rate collapse? Because it really is - a startling outlier
Answers on a Mother’s Day card, please
Nought much else to on an evening?
Nope. Not that. They all have phones and laptops and iPads like the rest of us. They also have big cities with bars like Almaty and Astana
Here’s another anomaly. No litter - or almost none. And no graffiti. Not sure I’ve seen a single piece of graffiti since arriving. There are also signs everywhere warning you not to litter - and warnings about fines - and the fines are enforced (so I am told)
So it can be done. We just pathetically lack the will in the west. Start nicking people for littering - and make it HURT - and it stops
Its the Singapore model.
Its the first thing I noticed when I got back from Asia, just how every f##king thing in London appears to be tagged. I can only imagine what people from Asia think.
I'm with you both on this one.
Pavement parking, too.
Going to the Polish Supermarket this morning, there was a huge (pantechnicon) parked across the pavement, unloading.
In the road it only gives 1.75 cars rather than 1.25 cars width, so there's no earthly point in doing it. Yet they don't even think. It's a vehicle - keep it in the carriageway.
Pavement parking is generally legal (except in London) as long as pedestrians can still get past. That would include a wheelchair or double buggy. But the offence is obstructing the highway which is not a ticketable offence so the police can't be arsed.
Like you, it annoys me when vehicles block the pavement and still don't give space for 2 cars to pass, as you say it's pointless
Just to be clear, I am not targeting people that have always believed climate change to be a hoax and are now saying net zero should be cancelled.
I am targeting people that used to claim climate change was a hoax and apparently now believe in it they just don’t want to actually do anything about it.
For example, Richard Tice who was a climate change denier now strongly insists he believes in climate change but hates any solution that is proposed.
I just don't see why impoverishment with the highest electricity prices in Europe is the way to go..🤨 China has over a 1000 coal fired power stations (with more to come) and are there really going to be EV's whizzing around Cape Town with their rolling blackouts? 🤨🧐
Total non sequitur.
UK energy prices: highest in Europe due to marginal price of gas generation and a poor transmission system. And shit household insulation.
Swedish energy prices: lowest in Europe, with a largely green grid from nuclear, hydro and wind.
Highest energy prices in Europe are in CEE and SE Europe, which is heavily dependent on coal and imported gas.
You're bright enough to know that this is, at a huuuuuuuge stretch, a biased and partial answer to the question of why British energy bills are so high.
Perhaps you might want to consider why it is, if you're actually right, that well-intentioned dissembling needs to be deployed constantly to support your argument.
Is TimS right? The answer appears to be 'Mostly Right'
"Conclusion: The marginal pricing system, heavily influenced by gas, is a major driver of high UK electricity prices, amplified by global gas volatility. Transmission constraints add costs but are less significant. Other factors—high gas reliance, inefficient housing, and policy levies—also contribute. Reforms like zonal pricing or decoupling renewables from gas prices could help, but no single fix addresses all issues."
With thanks again to Grok.
Electricity isn't the only energy bill though. Very roughly, and in comparison to other European countries:
Petrol - cheap Diesel - expensive Domestic gas - very cheap Domestic electricity - average Industrial gas - average Industrial electricity - very expensive
Broadly speaking, the UK doesn't have it too bad. It's industrial electricity which is the real killer.
My guess would be that the high UK electricity prices are due primarily to the relatively high proportion of UK electricity generated by gas power stations.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
There is another problem with migrant hotels. Sooner or later Nigel Farage will notice that either more money is paid to house homeless migrants than homeless Britons, or Angela Rayner's new houses are given straight to the migrants to get them out of the hotels.
Decades ago, this inflamed racial tensions in London. New council estates were handed over to immigrants and not locals on the waiting list. Nothing to do with woke, but simply need – immigrant families (the clue is in the name) had more children than native newly-married couples, so had higher priority.
Evidence: there’s a large Somalian family recently moved in to a council house down the road from me in NW1. Three or four kids. Whole house. They’re obviously not rich judging by the father’s car
I wish them well of course and have no idea of their true circumstances - is there a disabled granny as well? Etc. But I can’t help noticing they are living in an extremely desirable london townhouse probably worth £2-3m on the open market. Next to Regent’s Park
Judging by their faltering English they are recent migrants to the UK
As I say, I wish them the best. But you can see how the perception of this would drive some people mad - and is catnip to any would be nativist demagogue
It'd be interesting to know where a 'would-be nativist demagogue' would want them to live.
Do we have any on here we can ask?
I would suggest “not in some of the most expensive desirable property in the United Kingdom”. And I would enforce a law that gives you greater rights to more expensive areas the longer you have lived in the UK, if you were born here, etc
I believe the Tories brought in a law - or were about to - somewhat to this effect? Then Starmer cancelled it ASAFP
It’s like Labour all secretly want Farage to win in 2029
Was this written in code? Would you mind providing a key?
Why are the government being so weird about delivery of new supplies for the blast furnace? The morning round of media was this weird i can't tell you nothing about the delivery, commercially sensitive. Its coal, not gold bars or nuclear warheads.
If the blast furnaces stop burning, irreparable (well very expensive and time consuming to repair) damage is done. Isn't the argument today that the Chinese have sabotaged the furnaces?
Kemi's idea of replacing them with electric arc furnaces is not a great one mind. I am at the Tata Port Talbot site once a month and the whole place is like the Marie Celeste. The arc furnaces will not be operational there for years.
That wasn't my point that is a separate issue.
I was wondering why they are being weird about saying when / where the delivery is coming from. You would think having taken action, they would want to reassure we now have the situation under control, coal will arrive in x days, etc.
It is also the confusing take of today they continued to say even if we do nationalise it, we are going to look to offload it ASAP to a private entity but no Chinese companies allowed. But we know nobody wanted it last time.
I really don't understand why they don't just say we are going to nationalise it, it is the only way forward and it is vital for national security.
Since when have you Tories been pro nationalisation? You'll be asking for Thames Water to be nationalised next.
I don't know how many times you keep up with this rubbish that I am a Tory, despite being told time and time again otherwise.
I posted several times about Boris cancelling his task force for reducing reliance on China for crucial element of our economy as an absolutely stupid move. It was an opportunity to think carefully about the elements of the economy that going full globalisation might not be ideal. Virgin steel production seems like a good example of something that we might need to think about. The base chemicals for advanced pharmaceuticals is another.
Also, again it isn't really if I am pro nationalisation or not, Starmer stood on a platform for the leadership that they were pro it for rail, water, etc. And now given the opportunity to do so (and same with Port Talbot), I find it a bit confusing they don't seem to want to now.
Gives a 0.5% swing from Liberal to Conservative since 2021 and a far bigger swing from the NDP to the Liberals and Conservatives and a 2% swing from PPC to Conservative and a swing from the BQ to the Liberals and Conservatives.
Not that big an outlier either, most polls have the Liberals on 42%-46% and the Conservatives on 37% to 44%
Why are the government being so weird about delivery of new supplies for the blast furnace? The morning round of media was this weird i can't tell you nothing about the delivery, commercially sensitive. Its coal, not gold bars or nuclear warheads.
If the blast furnaces stop burning, irreparable (well very expensive and time consuming to repair) damage is done. Isn't the argument today that the Chinese have sabotaged the furnaces?
Kemi's idea of replacing them with electric arc furnaces is not a great one mind. I am at the Tata Port Talbot site once a month and the whole place is like the Marie Celeste. The arc furnaces will not be operational there for years.
That wasn't my point that is a separate issue.
I was wondering why they are being weird about saying when / where the delivery is coming from. You would think having taken action, they would want to reassure we now have the situation under control, coal will arrive in x days, etc.
It is also the confusing take of today they continued to say even if we do nationalise it, we are going to look to offload it ASAP to a private entity but no Chinese companies allowed. But we know nobody wanted it last time.
I really don't understand why they don't just say we are going to nationalise it, it is the only way forward and it is vital for national security.
Since when have you Tories been pro nationalisation? You'll be asking for Thames Water to be nationalised next.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
There is another problem with migrant hotels. Sooner or later Nigel Farage will notice that either more money is paid to house homeless migrants than homeless Britons, or Angela Rayner's new houses are given straight to the migrants to get them out of the hotels.
Decades ago, this inflamed racial tensions in London. New council estates were handed over to immigrants and not locals on the waiting list. Nothing to do with woke, but simply need – immigrant families (the clue is in the name) had more children than native newly-married couples, so had higher priority.
There is that very funny interview Big Ange gave where in the first breath she said we need loads of new homes for people then when it was stated that the estimated number of new migrants will take up most of that extra capacity she said there are already loads of homes for migrants.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
There is another problem with migrant hotels. Sooner or later Nigel Farage will notice that either more money is paid to house homeless migrants than homeless Britons, or Angela Rayner's new houses are given straight to the migrants to get them out of the hotels.
Decades ago, this inflamed racial tensions in London. New council estates were handed over to immigrants and not locals on the waiting list. Nothing to do with woke, but simply need – immigrant families (the clue is in the name) had more children than native newly-married couples, so had higher priority.
Evidence: there’s a large Somalian family recently moved in to a council house down the road from me in NW1. Three or four kids. Whole house. They’re obviously not rich judging by the father’s car
I wish them well of course and have no idea of their true circumstances - is there a disabled granny as well? Etc. But I can’t help noticing they are living in an extremely desirable london townhouse probably worth £2-3m on the open market. Next to Regent’s Park
Judging by their faltering English they are recent migrants to the UK
As I say, I wish them the best. But you can see how the perception of this would drive some people mad - and is catnip to any would be nativist demagogue
It'd be interesting to know where a 'would-be nativist demagogue' would want them to live.
Do we have any on here we can ask?
I would suggest “not in some of the most expensive desirable property in the United Kingdom”. And I would enforce a law that gives you greater rights to more expensive areas the longer you have lived in the UK, if you were born here, etc
I believe the Tories brought in a law - or were about to - somewhat to this effect? Then Starmer cancelled it ASAFP
It’s like Labour all secretly want Farage to win in 2029
But it's a feature not a bug of London that you have council housing slap bang in desirable locations. It mixes things up as opposed to having sterile rich ghettos. Eg there's some near me. I often pass quite close to it. Wouldn't have it any other way.
Why are the government being so weird about delivery of new supplies for the blast furnace? The morning round of media was this weird i can't tell you nothing about the delivery, commercially sensitive. Its coal, not gold bars or nuclear warheads.
If the blast furnaces stop burning, irreparable (well very expensive and time consuming to repair) damage is done. Isn't the argument today that the Chinese have sabotaged the furnaces?
Kemi's idea of replacing them with electric arc furnaces is not a great one mind. I am at the Tata Port Talbot site once a month and the whole place is like the Marie Celeste. The arc furnaces will not be operational there for years.
That wasn't my point that is a separate issue.
I was wondering why they are being weird about saying when / where the delivery is coming from. You would think having taken action, they would want to reassure we now have the situation under control, coal will arrive in x days, etc.
It is also the confusing take of today they continued to say even if we do nationalise it, we are going to look to offload it ASAP to a private entity but no Chinese companies allowed. But we know nobody wanted it last time.
I really don't understand why they don't just say we are going to nationalise it, it is the only way forward and it is vital for national security.
Since when have you Tories been pro nationalisation? You'll be asking for Thames Water to be nationalised next.
I don't know how many times you keep up with this rubbish that I am a Tory, despite being told time and time again otherwise.
Why are the government being so weird about delivery of new supplies for the blast furnace? The morning round of media was this weird i can't tell you nothing about the delivery, commercially sensitive. Its coal, not gold bars or nuclear warheads.
If the blast furnaces stop burning, irreparable (well very expensive and time consuming to repair) damage is done. Isn't the argument today that the Chinese have sabotaged the furnaces?
Kemi's idea of replacing them with electric arc furnaces is not a great one mind. I am at the Tata Port Talbot site once a month and the whole place is like the Marie Celeste. The arc furnaces will not be operational there for years.
That wasn't my point that is a separate issue.
I was wondering why they are being weird about saying when / where the delivery is coming from. You would think having taken action, they would want to reassure we now have the situation under control, coal will arrive in x days, etc.
It is also the confusing take of today they continued to say even if we do nationalise it, we are going to look to offload it ASAP to a private entity but no Chinese companies allowed. But we know nobody wanted it last time.
I really don't understand why they don't just say we are going to nationalise it, it is the only way forward and it is vital for national security.
Since when have you Tories been pro nationalisation? You'll be asking for Thames Water to be nationalised next.
I don't know how many times you keep up with this rubbish that I am a Tory, despite being told time and time again otherwise.
I posted several times about Boris cancelling his task force for reducing reliance on China for crucial element of our economy as an absolutely stupid move. It was an opportunity to think carefully about the elements of the economy that going full globalisation might not be ideal. Virgin steel production seems like a good example of something that we might need to think about. The base chemicals for advanced pharmaceuticals is another.
Also, again it isn't really if I am pro nationalisation or not, Starmer stood on a platform for the leadership that they were pro it for rail, water, etc. And now given the opportunity to do so (and same with Port Talbot), I find it a bit confusing they don't seem to want to now.
He’s an imbecile, says I’m a Tory too. Anyone who is not 100% happy clappy on board with the Labour govt is a ‘Tory’ in his world. What a mug.
So why don't those people who think they would be better off working in a factory actually get a job in a factory ?
Now some will be in rural areas where there are few or no factories and that's not going to change.
But most will simply not have the skillset needed.
And that is a failure of partly themselves and partly of the US education/training system.
What was the point in training them to do something Chinese workers have been trained for decades to do - with great manual dexterity - for a small fraction of the cost required of an American? Who would possibly put money into that?
Not Trump's tame billionaires for sure.
There will be plenty of vacancies for skilled workers in US manufacturing, and the US economy generally, right now.
That is what the US government should be focussing on.
Most Trump voters do not have the level of high skill required for the non automated manufacturing jobs still on offer in the US.
Many of their fathers worked on mass production line jobs though robots or Chinese workers now do
So they'll end up blaming Trump for not bringing back the past because those jobs are not going to come back.
No they support Trump whacking cheap Chinese imports with tariffs to bring some of the production of those goods back to the US
So they'll get higher prices but they wont get any more jobs.
And there certainly will not be any manufacturing jobs for these unskilled Trump voters you keep talking about.
Not if they only buy American goods and products.
There also comes a point where over 100% tariffs on Chinese goods imports means it makes more sense to produce those goods for the US market in the US
Yes, and Mr Trump will then be done by the other handle on the other end of the rake.
Usonians want cheap goods, not to pay 50-100% extra for their consumer disposables for the sake of Putting America First.
Swing voters care about cost of living most which is why the GOP likely lose power at the midterms and in 2028 the White House.
However MAGA want more rustbelt manufacturing jobs first and to tariff the hell out of imports, especially from China, until they get them as well as to deport lots of immigrants and they currently make up most of the Republican primary voters alongside evangelical Christians
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
There is another problem with migrant hotels. Sooner or later Nigel Farage will notice that either more money is paid to house homeless migrants than homeless Britons, or Angela Rayner's new houses are given straight to the migrants to get them out of the hotels.
Decades ago, this inflamed racial tensions in London. New council estates were handed over to immigrants and not locals on the waiting list. Nothing to do with woke, but simply need – immigrant families (the clue is in the name) had more children than native newly-married couples, so had higher priority.
Evidence: there’s a large Somalian family recently moved in to a council house down the road from me in NW1. Three or four kids. Whole house. They’re obviously not rich judging by the father’s car
I wish them well of course and have no idea of their true circumstances - is there a disabled granny as well? Etc. But I can’t help noticing they are living in an extremely desirable london townhouse probably worth £2-3m on the open market. Next to Regent’s Park
Judging by their faltering English they are recent migrants to the UK
As I say, I wish them the best. But you can see how the perception of this would drive some people mad - and is catnip to any would be nativist demagogue
It'd be interesting to know where a 'would-be nativist demagogue' would want them to live.
Do we have any on here we can ask?
I would suggest “not in some of the most expensive desirable property in the United Kingdom”. And I would enforce a law that gives you greater rights to more expensive areas the longer you have lived in the UK, if you were born here, etc
I believe the Tories brought in a law - or were about to - somewhat to this effect? Then Starmer cancelled it ASAFP
It’s like Labour all secretly want Farage to win in 2029
Was this written in code? Would you mind providing a key?
Coz I’m enjoying Astana Nur Sultan and now heading for a gin and tonic in Kazakhstan’s best Game of Thrones themed craft beer bar I’ll do a special “retard service” and give you an easily understood link
“The Labour government officially scraps Conservatives’ proposed ‘British Homes for British Workers’ policy
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
What’s interesting is historically these people have been dumped in poor areas like Rochdale, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
I hope this trend accelerates.
It depends how you do it. In my area (a very rich part of leafy Surrey) a local hotel had been used for Asylum seekers for 2 years. Nobody knew. It appears they were welcomed into the community. It has now been refurbished and is being returned to its previous use and locals are upset they are leaving. You can check it out - Thatchers Hotel.
I suspect you get more issues when these are put in overcrowded deprived areas or you overload an area.
Similarly around this way we have Send prison. Most people wouldn't even know it was there. In fact I just looked it up and found out it is a women's prison, whereas I thought it was a young offenders prison (might have changed use). It is next door to East Clandon. You could not find a more quintessential picture postcard village and nobody cares. If you tried to build one though.....
There's certainly a few here in the Flatlands.
Some are in completely inappropriate industrial locations with very little in the way of local facilities so you see people wandering about. The Rotherham one was in this category although it was also near to a couple of recent housing estates which is where the trouble started.
I think the problem is putting so many people all in one place. I assume this is because they are monitored in some way but there has to be a better solution.
In some ways an old airfield - with new facilities and not just some crappy portacabins - would actually be a better solution, even if it starts to look like a prison camp. I mean, so does Centre Parcs, and people pay to go there...
Of course, the government would do it on the cheap thus rendering it unviable.
The reasons why hotels were used in the first place is pure Process State.
It is very easy to stop things happening. So any attempt to build purpose built sites was blocked. So they came up with the barge idea. Again, blocked.
It is very hard to stop someone using a hotel to house the number of people that it is licensed for.
It meet all the fire regs, safety, disability accessibly (probably) etc etc.
It may very well be a bad solution - but it is *easy*.
The government hires the whole hotel out. There is no planning permission, consultation, change of use, public enquiries or anything else.
It’s a massive earner for the hotel owner and middle man as well A network of middlemen are making millions from the migrant crisis by striking deals with run-down hotels and filling them with asylum seekers.
Companies are taking fees and commission every time a migrant is given accommodation, a Sunday Times investigation has revealed.
The cost to the taxpayer of housing a asylum seeker is between £127 and £148 a day — a total daily bill of £8 million. The investigation found that hotel owners receive between £40 and £80, with the rest going to the middlemen companies.
What a despicable thing to do . Why aren’t the US media all over this ?
The Us media are a little bit busy right now covering the Ass-tronauts all-girls space extravaganza so give them a break, they will get round to minor stuff once the post space trip interviews are over.
What a despicable thing to do . Why aren’t the US media all over this ?
The Us media are a little bit busy right now covering the Ass-tronauts all-girls space extravaganza so give them a break, they will get round to minor stuff once the post space trip interviews are over.
Yes Katy Perry and Jeff Bezos' wife each paid $150 000 just for the deposit on their space trip so want proper coverage of it
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
There is another problem with migrant hotels. Sooner or later Nigel Farage will notice that either more money is paid to house homeless migrants than homeless Britons, or Angela Rayner's new houses are given straight to the migrants to get them out of the hotels.
Decades ago, this inflamed racial tensions in London. New council estates were handed over to immigrants and not locals on the waiting list. Nothing to do with woke, but simply need – immigrant families (the clue is in the name) had more children than native newly-married couples, so had higher priority.
Evidence: there’s a large Somalian family recently moved in to a council house down the road from me in NW1. Three or four kids. Whole house. They’re obviously not rich judging by the father’s car
I wish them well of course and have no idea of their true circumstances - is there a disabled granny as well? Etc. But I can’t help noticing they are living in an extremely desirable london townhouse probably worth £2-3m on the open market. Next to Regent’s Park
Judging by their faltering English they are recent migrants to the UK
As I say, I wish them the best. But you can see how the perception of this would drive some people mad - and is catnip to any would be nativist demagogue
It'd be interesting to know where a 'would-be nativist demagogue' would want them to live.
Do we have any on here we can ask?
I would suggest “not in some of the most expensive desirable property in the United Kingdom”. And I would enforce a law that gives you greater rights to more expensive areas the longer you have lived in the UK, if you were born here, etc
I believe the Tories brought in a law - or were about to - somewhat to this effect? Then Starmer cancelled it ASAFP
It’s like Labour all secretly want Farage to win in 2029
But it's a feature not a bug of London that you have council housing slap bang in desirable locations. It mixes things up as opposed to having sterile rich ghettos. Eg there's some near me. I often pass quite close to it. Wouldn't have it any other way.
Leon appears to want some sort of class-based racism, where the richer you are, the more racist you get to be.
Why are the government being so weird about delivery of new supplies for the blast furnace? The morning round of media was this weird i can't tell you nothing about the delivery, commercially sensitive. Its coal, not gold bars or nuclear warheads.
If the blast furnaces stop burning, irreparable (well very expensive and time consuming to repair) damage is done. Isn't the argument today that the Chinese have sabotaged the furnaces?
Kemi's idea of replacing them with electric arc furnaces is not a great one mind. I am at the Tata Port Talbot site once a month and the whole place is like the Marie Celeste. The arc furnaces will not be operational there for years.
That wasn't my point that is a separate issue.
I was wondering why they are being weird about saying when / where the delivery is coming from. You would think having taken action, they would want to reassure we now have the situation under control, coal will arrive in x days, etc.
It is also the confusing take of today they continued to say even if we do nationalise it, we are going to look to offload it ASAP to a private entity but no Chinese companies allowed. But we know nobody wanted it last time.
I really don't understand why they don't just say we are going to nationalise it, it is the only way forward and it is vital for national security.
Since when have you Tories been pro nationalisation? You'll be asking for Thames Water to be nationalised next.
I don't know how many times you keep up with this rubbish that I am a Tory, despite being told time and time again otherwise.
I posted several times about Boris cancelling his task force for reducing reliance on China for crucial element of our economy as an absolutely stupid move. It was an opportunity to think carefully about the elements of the economy that going full globalisation might not be ideal. Virgin steel production seems like a good example of something that we might need to think about. The base chemicals for advanced pharmaceuticals is another.
Also, again it isn't really if I am pro nationalisation or not, Starmer stood on a platform for the leadership that they were pro it for rail, water, etc. And now given the opportunity to do so (and same with Port Talbot), I find it a bit confusing they don't seem to want to now.
I don't disagree with you over the reluctance to nationalised (and brutally). I don't believe they had much option with Port Talbot. Tata were keen to shut down the furnaces and deals had been done for electric arc furnaces in 2028/29. I think it's a dereliction of duty with the water companies, but then I am more old school leftie than I'd like to believe.
What a despicable thing to do . Why aren’t the US media all over this ?
The Us media are a little bit busy right now covering the Ass-tronauts all-girls space extravaganza so give them a break, they will get round to minor stuff once the post space trip interviews are over.
Yes Katy Perry and Jeff Bezos' wife each paid $150 000 just for the deposit on their space trip so want proper coverage of it
Whilst I’m sure Jeff Bezos’ wife would have loved to have paid to see Lauren Sanchez blasted into space i am thinking Jeff’s finance didn’t have to pay for the trip herself.
Going to the Polish Supermarket this morning, there was a huge (pantechnicon) parked across the pavement, unloading.
This is a pet hate of mine as my sister is a wheelchair user. There's a Indian takeaway in our village, customers and delivery drivers constantly park on the pavement even though there's a car park literally a stone's throw away.
I had a loud and intense discussion about this when the owner blocked the pavement with his car while unloading, preventing my sister from getting though. He seemed completely baffled anyone would object to him parking on the pavement.
And there's zero enforcement of course, my complaints to the local council and Police have resulted in a big fat pile of no action at all.
It's why the paving stones are all smashed up as well, which makes it doubly difficult to get around in a wheelchair. I've resorted to pushing my elderly relatives down the carriageway it can be so bad.
Note that it's not just London with the "blanket" prohibition - Scottish councils now have the power too.
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
There is another problem with migrant hotels. Sooner or later Nigel Farage will notice that either more money is paid to house homeless migrants than homeless Britons, or Angela Rayner's new houses are given straight to the migrants to get them out of the hotels.
Decades ago, this inflamed racial tensions in London. New council estates were handed over to immigrants and not locals on the waiting list. Nothing to do with woke, but simply need – immigrant families (the clue is in the name) had more children than native newly-married couples, so had higher priority.
Evidence: there’s a large Somalian family recently moved in to a council house down the road from me in NW1. Three or four kids. Whole house. They’re obviously not rich judging by the father’s car
I wish them well of course and have no idea of their true circumstances - is there a disabled granny as well? Etc. But I can’t help noticing they are living in an extremely desirable london townhouse probably worth £2-3m on the open market. Next to Regent’s Park
Judging by their faltering English they are recent migrants to the UK
As I say, I wish them the best. But you can see how the perception of this would drive some people mad - and is catnip to any would be nativist demagogue
It'd be interesting to know where a 'would-be nativist demagogue' would want them to live.
Do we have any on here we can ask?
I would suggest “not in some of the most expensive desirable property in the United Kingdom”. And I would enforce a law that gives you greater rights to more expensive areas the longer you have lived in the UK, if you were born here, etc
I believe the Tories brought in a law - or were about to - somewhat to this effect? Then Starmer cancelled it ASAFP
It’s like Labour all secretly want Farage to win in 2029
But it's a feature not a bug of London that you have council housing slap bang in desirable locations. It mixes things up as opposed to having sterile rich ghettos. Eg there's some near me. I often pass quite close to it. Wouldn't have it any other way.
Leon appears to want some sort of class-based racism, where the richer you are, the more racist you get to be.
How can I be racist?!
I’ve said more than once on this very thread that young Kakakh women are incredibly hot
Just to be clear, I am not targeting people that have always believed climate change to be a hoax and are now saying net zero should be cancelled.
I am targeting people that used to claim climate change was a hoax and apparently now believe in it they just don’t want to actually do anything about it.
For example, Richard Tice who was a climate change denier now strongly insists he believes in climate change but hates any solution that is proposed.
I just don't see why impoverishment with the highest electricity prices in Europe is the way to go..🤨 China has over a 1000 coal fired power stations (with more to come) and are there really going to be EV's whizzing around Cape Town with their rolling blackouts? 🤨🧐
Total non sequitur.
UK energy prices: highest in Europe due to marginal price of gas generation and a poor transmission system. And shit household insulation.
Swedish energy prices: lowest in Europe, with a largely green grid from nuclear, hydro and wind.
Highest energy prices in Europe are in CEE and SE Europe, which is heavily dependent on coal and imported gas.
You're bright enough to know that this is, at a huuuuuuuge stretch, a biased and partial answer to the question of why British energy bills are so high.
Perhaps you might want to consider why it is, if you're actually right, that well-intentioned dissembling needs to be deployed constantly to support your argument.
Is TimS right? The answer appears to be 'Mostly Right'
"Conclusion: The marginal pricing system, heavily influenced by gas, is a major driver of high UK electricity prices, amplified by global gas volatility. Transmission constraints add costs but are less significant. Other factors—high gas reliance, inefficient housing, and policy levies—also contribute. Reforms like zonal pricing or decoupling renewables from gas prices could help, but no single fix addresses all issues."
With thanks again to Grok.
Electricity isn't the only energy bill though. Very roughly, and in comparison to other European countries:
Petrol - cheap Diesel - expensive Domestic gas - very cheap Domestic electricity - average Industrial gas - average Industrial electricity - very expensive
Broadly speaking, the UK doesn't have it too bad. It's industrial electricity which is the real killer.
My guess would be that the high UK electricity prices are due primarily to the relatively high proportion of UK electricity generated by gas power stations.
Tbf, a lot of industrial electricity prices are taxes too, though even if we made it tax-free they would still be the highest in Europe.
I think Miliband is doing the right thing by pushing through lots of transmission infrastructure (one of my friends has just got a very good job off the back of it), but removing some of those taxes and introducing nodal pricing would also help.
Why are the government being so weird about delivery of new supplies for the blast furnace? The morning round of media was this weird i can't tell you nothing about the delivery, commercially sensitive. Its coal, not gold bars or nuclear warheads.
If the blast furnaces stop burning, irreparable (well very expensive and time consuming to repair) damage is done. Isn't the argument today that the Chinese have sabotaged the furnaces?
Kemi's idea of replacing them with electric arc furnaces is not a great one mind. I am at the Tata Port Talbot site once a month and the whole place is like the Marie Celeste. The arc furnaces will not be operational there for years.
That wasn't my point that is a separate issue.
I was wondering why they are being weird about saying when / where the delivery is coming from. You would think having taken action, they would want to reassure we now have the situation under control, coal will arrive in x days, etc.
It is also the confusing take of today they continued to say even if we do nationalise it, we are going to look to offload it ASAP to a private entity but no Chinese companies allowed. But we know nobody wanted it last time.
I really don't understand why they don't just say we are going to nationalise it, it is the only way forward and it is vital for national security.
Since when have you Tories been pro nationalisation? You'll be asking for Thames Water to be nationalised next.
I don't know how many times you keep up with this rubbish that I am a Tory, despite being told time and time again otherwise.
Us Tories are against this Nationalisation. It’s dumb. Only happening because of election campaign.
Results from the only poll that matters - PBers - had 25 voters and 22 in favour of Nationalising a bankrupt 2 furnace steel plant in Scunthorpe. Yet again PB has got it completely wrong and needs me to put you right - like PB take on Chagos being hopelessly ill informed till I put you right, and your arguments GE 24 would be later in 2024 not July 4th.
If there is national interest nationalising the Scunthorpe steel plant, then there is an awful lot more much closer to the front of the Q for nationalising on same argument is countrys interest, that’s the truth Saturdays discussion slapped you around with, and an awful lot Q ing in same place equal argument to be nationalised too, not least other steel plants already converted to electric. It’s a no brainer nationalisation bad political and economic decision from any government, especially such a directionless soulless government showing its weakness when spooked by Farage in middle on an election campaign.
The people charged over betting on 4th July election, what if they used the argument “I saw 4th July tipped on the worlds best political betting blog so had a little punt, how can I be accused of a crime?”
I see the rate of boat people arriving is up year on year. A headache that won't go away for the government and of course the system is so jammed up will continue to require loads of hotel rooms for many years to come.
It’s gonna explode. Powder keg awaits matchstick
There is another problem with migrant hotels. Sooner or later Nigel Farage will notice that either more money is paid to house homeless migrants than homeless Britons, or Angela Rayner's new houses are given straight to the migrants to get them out of the hotels.
Decades ago, this inflamed racial tensions in London. New council estates were handed over to immigrants and not locals on the waiting list. Nothing to do with woke, but simply need – immigrant families (the clue is in the name) had more children than native newly-married couples, so had higher priority.
Evidence: there’s a large Somalian family recently moved in to a council house down the road from me in NW1. Three or four kids. Whole house. They’re obviously not rich judging by the father’s car
I wish them well of course and have no idea of their true circumstances - is there a disabled granny as well? Etc. But I can’t help noticing they are living in an extremely desirable london townhouse probably worth £2-3m on the open market. Next to Regent’s Park
Judging by their faltering English they are recent migrants to the UK
As I say, I wish them the best. But you can see how the perception of this would drive some people mad - and is catnip to any would be nativist demagogue
It'd be interesting to know where a 'would-be nativist demagogue' would want them to live.
Do we have any on here we can ask?
I would suggest “not in some of the most expensive desirable property in the United Kingdom”. And I would enforce a law that gives you greater rights to more expensive areas the longer you have lived in the UK, if you were born here, etc
I believe the Tories brought in a law - or were about to - somewhat to this effect? Then Starmer cancelled it ASAFP
It’s like Labour all secretly want Farage to win in 2029
But it's a feature not a bug of London that you have council housing slap bang in desirable locations. It mixes things up as opposed to having sterile rich ghettos. Eg there's some near me. I often pass quite close to it. Wouldn't have it any other way.
Which is fine when it's council housing, not so good when it's spending billions in housing benefits directly to private landlords.
What a despicable thing to do . Why aren’t the US media all over this ?
The Us media are a little bit busy right now covering the Ass-tronauts all-girls space extravaganza so give them a break, they will get round to minor stuff once the post space trip interviews are over.
Those lasses are doing vital work in testing the effects of zero gravity on cosmetic surgery.
Actually Elon should be a pioneer in this field. Am I right that he hasn’t yet slipped the surly bonds of earth? If so, isn’t this a bit fannyish in someone aiming to be the supreme leader of Mars Colony?
Comments
As I said your solution is only a partial fix unless supply was infinite - there is a risk of someone trying to game the current system for profit. So y oh need to disable those seeking profit as well as increase supply
Individuals can only book tests for themselves - using their provision license as you say.
I wish them well of course and have no idea of their true circumstances - is there a disabled granny as well? Etc. But I can’t help noticing they are living in an extremely desirable london townhouse probably worth £2-3m on the open market. Next to Regent’s Park
Judging by their faltering English they are recent migrants to the UK
As I say, I wish them the best. But you can see how the perception of this would drive some people mad - and is catnip to any would be nativist demagogue
Now they are being dumped into the leafy shires and well to do areas and causing some anxiety.
I hope this trend accelerates.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/article/2024/jul/04/they-have-you-over-a-barrel-how-scammers-touts-and-bots-took-over-driving-tests
https://m.farms.com/news/trump-suggests-leniency-on-farm-worker-deportations-225882.aspx
Expect another climb down soon.
Quite convincing obviously.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B67Y94K4?crid=23WV4UYP83EB&keywords=Detective+Jesus:+Thou+Shalt+Not+Kill&qid=1657515035&sprefix=detective+jesus+thou+shalt+not+kill,aps,79&sr=8-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=kylsbou-20&linkId=d07e8d3ab45a07ef0d25987b6dc6258a&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
And obviously 8k is a rounding error when you have 500k+ net legal migrants.
I think it is all far from a solved problem.
It's probably better that way.
I suspect you get more issues when these are put in overcrowded deprived areas or you overload an area.
Similarly around this way we have Send prison. Most people wouldn't even know it was there. In fact I just looked it up and found out it is a women's prison, whereas I thought it was a young offenders prison (might have changed use). It is next door to East Clandon. You could not find a more quintessential picture postcard village and nobody cares. If you tried to build one though.....
Bray was found not guilty of failing without reasonable excuse to comply with a direction given under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 “re prohibited activities in Parliament Square” at Westminster magistrates court.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/apr/14/stop-brexit-man-steve-bray-cleared-flouting-ban-music-outside-parliament
As I read it, non-local police tried to move him on, displaying a map of where he was allowed to be under a specific piece of legislation. He pointed out that the map was out of date so kept on. They returned later and confiscated his speakers anyway.
And he was cleared.
So it's more like avoiding a speeding ticket when all the limit signs were hidden in a hedge.
Police cockup, not breaking a law.
Lesson 101: bring a relevant prosecution, and get your ducks in a row.
Usonians want cheap goods, not to pay 50-100% extra for their consumer disposables for the sake of Putting America First.
It can be a tad annoying but also very heartening. How is Central Asia avoiding birth rate collapse? Because it really is - a startling outlier
Answers on a Mother’s Day card, please
Some are in completely inappropriate industrial locations with very little in the way of local facilities so you see people wandering about. The Rotherham one was in this category although it was also near to a couple of recent housing estates which is where the trouble started.
I think the problem is putting so many people all in one place. I assume this is because they are monitored in some way but there has to be a better solution.
In some ways an old airfield - with new facilities and not just some crappy portacabins - would actually be a better solution, even if it starts to look like a prison camp. I mean, so does Centre Parcs, and people pay to go there...
Of course, the government would do it on the cheap thus rendering it unviable.
The answer appears to be 'Mostly Right'
"Conclusion: The marginal pricing system, heavily influenced by gas, is a major driver of high UK electricity prices, amplified by global gas volatility. Transmission constraints add costs but are less significant. Other factors—high gas reliance, inefficient housing, and policy levies—also contribute. Reforms like zonal pricing or decoupling renewables from gas prices could help, but no single fix addresses all issues."
With thanks again to Grok.
‘Bukkake ruined my carpet.’
"Hmm. Why is he standing a few feet down the entrance ramp to a car park?"
The authorities do get some sympathy, given the complexity:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/640860f4e90e0740dafbbc5f/Map_2.jpg
This half way house of putting people "in the community" even when there isn't really one locally, and also not allowing them to work just doesn't seem to be right to me.
Either allow them to work and live vaguely normally, or have a dedicated facility and process them faster. One or the other!
Here’s another anomaly. No litter - or almost none. And no graffiti. Not sure I’ve seen a single piece of graffiti since arriving. There are also signs everywhere warning you not to litter - and warnings about fines - and the fines are enforced (so I am told)
So it can be done. We just pathetically lack the will in the west. Start nicking people for littering - and make it HURT - and it stops
Its the first thing I noticed when I got back from Asia, just how every f##king thing in London appears to be tagged. I can only imagine what people from Asia think.
Firstly, many "US goods" have cross-border supply chains so the cost of producing US goods will increase. Secondly, if your foreign competitor's price goes through the roof, you can respond that by increasing your production OR increasing your prices. The second is probably wiser as increasing capacity is costly, and you don't know if the President will change his mind tomorrow (indeed, he has on computers and smartphones as well as delaying tariffs generally).
I'm not a fan of strategic trade policies anyway, but if you're going to do it then you definitely don't do it like Trump. You pick the targets carefully depending on what production you're keen to bring on-shore. Then you give yourself a chance of driving investment decisions by setting it on a ratchet where you arrive at whatever the level is over a few years - so you're clear it's long term and give time to respond via investment. As it is, the tariffs are very annoying for those importing goods or materials into the US, but they aren't likely to drive behaviour in the way proponents want - companies just suck it up and wait for policy to change as it's so hard to make a proper assumption as to what policy will be next week let alone in 2028.
In Kazakhstan it’s particularly noticeable because they inherited a terrible Soviet attitude to the environment - that it is something to be exploited and trashed. Not least the Aral Sea
Yet somehow they are turning it around. Instilling civic pride and enforcing the law. When I went to the charyn canyon national park (extremely boring) I was given, like everyone else, a bag for me to take my garbage home. And looming over me was a huge sign saying: BAG YOUR TRASH OR ELSE
And, it works
It is very easy to stop things happening. So any attempt to build purpose built sites was blocked. So they came up with the barge idea. Again, blocked.
It is very hard to stop someone using a hotel to house the number of people that it is licensed for.
It meet all the fire regs, safety, disability accessibly (probably) etc etc.
It may very well be a bad solution - but it is *easy*.
The government hires the whole hotel out. There is no planning permission, consultation, change of use, public enquiries or anything else.
Petrol - cheap
Diesel - expensive
Domestic gas - very cheap
Domestic electricity - average
Industrial gas - average
Industrial electricity - very expensive
Broadly speaking, the UK doesn't have it too bad. It's industrial electricity which is the real killer.
NIMBYism ensured that no solution requiring any planning input could move forward. At every attempt a coalition of locals and pro-asylum groups formed to block it.
Con 44%
Lib 42%
NDP 6%
BQ 4%
Grn 2%
PPC 1%
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2025_Canadian_federal_election#National_polls
I'd like to ask other PBers if they have used AIs which ones they have found useful.
I've used a few and some give just plausible but completely wrong answers - so it's always worth being skeptical,
My son is buying a leasehold flat and everything I asked Grok about that and then checked with usual Bing and Google searches turned out to be correct.
I'm now looking at a charger and battery for my 2nd hand e-208 and again it's proved useful.
So, it's really up to you to poke holes in Grok's conclusion - or you could admit that you may be wrong.
Pavement parking, too.
Going to the Polish Supermarket this morning, there was a huge (pantechnicon) parked across the pavement, unloading.
In the road it only gives 1.75 cars rather than 1.25 cars width, so there's no earthly point in doing it. Yet they don't even think. It's a vehicle - keep it in the carriageway.
and it said
"So, are renewables the culprit? They contribute to costs through subsidies and grid upgrades, but gas prices and the market’s pricing model are bigger factors right now. Long term, more storage and smarter grids could let renewables shine, but we’re not there yet. It’s less about renewables being “bad” and more about a system still playing catch-up"
That seems to have mostly disagreed with my prompt.
Do we have any on here we can ask?
However, PR problems occur as people don't understand who actually constitutes as an "illegal migrant" and the steps necessary to make such a determination.
I believe the Tories brought in a law - or were about to - somewhat to this effect? Then Starmer cancelled it ASAFP
It’s like Labour all secretly want Farage to win in 2029
This affects cancer checks and treatment for eg Fire Fighters, having entered buildings containing significant amounts of asbestos.
His Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, was at the top of Cantor-Fitzgerald.
https://nycclc.org/news/trump-administration-guts-world-trade-center-health
I had a loud and intense discussion about this when the owner blocked the pavement with his car while unloading, preventing my sister from getting though. He seemed completely baffled anyone would object to him parking on the pavement.
And there's zero enforcement of course, my complaints to the local council and Police have resulted in a big fat pile of no action at all.
A network of middlemen are making millions from the migrant crisis by striking deals with run-down hotels and filling them with asylum seekers.
Companies are taking fees and commission every time a migrant is given accommodation, a Sunday Times investigation has revealed.
The cost to the taxpayer of housing a asylum seeker is between £127 and £148 a day — a total daily bill of £8 million. The investigation found that hotel owners receive between £40 and £80, with the rest going to the middlemen companies.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/the-salesmen-making-millions-from-asylum-hotels-k776jfd66
Like you, it annoys me when vehicles block the pavement and still don't give space for 2 cars to pass, as you say it's pointless
I posted several times about Boris cancelling his task force for reducing reliance on China for crucial element of our economy as an absolutely stupid move. It was an opportunity to think carefully about the elements of the economy that going full globalisation might not be ideal. Virgin steel production seems like a good example of something that we might need to think about. The base chemicals for advanced pharmaceuticals is another.
Also, again it isn't really if I am pro nationalisation or not, Starmer stood on a platform for the leadership that they were pro it for rail, water, etc. And now given the opportunity to do so (and same with Port Talbot), I find it a bit confusing they don't seem to want to now.
Not that big an outlier either, most polls have the Liberals on 42%-46% and the Conservatives on 37% to 44%
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2025_Canadian_federal_election
https://x.com/darrengrimes_/status/1865762359148523691?s=61
However MAGA want more rustbelt manufacturing jobs first and to tariff the hell out of imports, especially from China, until they get them as well as to deport lots of immigrants and they currently make up most of the Republican primary voters alongside evangelical Christians
“The Labour government officially scraps Conservatives’ proposed ‘British Homes for British Workers’ policy
By Olivia Barber3 September 2024”
https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/the-government-officially-scraps-conservatives-proposed-british-homes-for-british-workers-policy/5131340.article
Note that it's not just London with the "blanket" prohibition - Scottish councils now have the power too.
I’ve said more than once on this very thread that young Kakakh women are incredibly hot
A win for Trump, or the legacy of Biden’s administration
https://x.com/kobeissiletter/status/1911767847652434089?s=61
I think Miliband is doing the right thing by pushing through lots of transmission infrastructure (one of my friends has just got a very good job off the back of it), but removing some of those taxes and introducing nodal pricing would also help.
Results from the only poll that matters - PBers - had 25 voters and 22 in favour of Nationalising a bankrupt 2 furnace steel plant in Scunthorpe. Yet again PB has got it completely wrong and needs me to put you right - like PB take on Chagos being hopelessly ill informed till I put you right, and your arguments GE 24 would be later in 2024 not July 4th.
If there is national interest nationalising the Scunthorpe steel plant, then there is an awful lot more much closer to the front of the Q for nationalising on same argument is countrys interest, that’s the truth Saturdays discussion slapped you around with, and an awful lot Q ing in same place equal argument to be nationalised too, not least other steel plants already converted to electric. It’s a no brainer nationalisation bad political and economic decision from any government, especially such a directionless soulless government showing its weakness when spooked by Farage in middle on an election campaign.
The people charged over betting on 4th July election, what if they used the argument “I saw 4th July tipped on the worlds best political betting blog so had a little punt, how can I be accused of a crime?”
Actually Elon should be a pioneer in this field. Am I right that he hasn’t yet slipped the surly bonds of earth? If so, isn’t this a bit fannyish in someone aiming to be the supreme leader of Mars Colony?