Categories
5 months ago the Conservatives were the 1/10 favourites to win the Canadian election
5 months ago the Conservatives were the 1/10 favourites to win the Canadian election – politicalbetting.com
Our first MRP of the 2025 Canadian election projects a 21-seat majority for the Liberals (based on our central projection)Liberals: 182 seats (+25 notional change vs 2021)Conservatives: 133 (+7)NDP: 4 (-20)Bloc Québécois: 23 (-11)Greens: 1 (-1)People's: 0 (=)today.yougov.com/politics/art…
0
Comments
The Energy Secretary has been weighing up whether to push ahead with zonal pricing, which would split the country’s single national power market into different regions
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/04/23/miliband-set-to-back-switch-to-regional-electricity-pricing/
Flag Quote · Like
The shown map bears no relation to that (potential) reality, it shows a £5-10/MW hr cost increase or so averaged nationally, not a saving compared to the counterfactual
FTFU.
Regional pricing should give an overall saving (I think !) and there's not enough people living in the north of Scotland to outweigh the increased charges elsewhere
It's difficult to see any downsides. Regional pricing does two things - it reduces transmission costs by incentivising consumption closer to generation, and stimulates generation YIMBYism.
While England banned onshore wind for 9 years, Scotland ploughed on regardless. Why shouldn't people in Scotland, who have embraced new power generation, not benefit? And given so much English generation is near some of the poorest areas, like Teesside, I'd hope you will get some economic levelling up as a result of this cheap energy.
Ukraine of course has not accepted the US peace plan anyway
*innocent face*
And https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5c3c688d40f0b67c62695b27/Regional_Electricity_Generation_and_Supply.pdf says Scotland produces 14% of the UK’s electricity (2017 figures), including 52% of renewables.
https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/west-lothian-domestic-abuse-activist-31284429
Damned crypto-yankees...
Below it is Greg Jackson's (Octopus man) article "Recommended" which is also somewhat at odds with Matt Oliver's piece and particularly his map.
Diplomats ordered to delete similar messages amid backdrop of scepticism towards the late pontiff caused by his support for Gaza
Israel deleted a social media post expressing sorrow for the death of Pope Francis.
A message on the country’s verified X account that read “Rest in Peace, Pope Francis. May his memory be a blessing” was taken down hours after it was posted on Monday.
Israeli diplomatic missions around the world were ordered to delete any similar messages and not to sign condolence books in Vatican embassies, Hebrew media reported.
Isaac Herzog, Israel’s president, posted a message of condolence, but Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, has been silent.
On a visit to the Latin Patriarchate, the central Catholic Church in Jerusalem, opposition MP Gilad Kariv said: “I’m ashamed by the fact that the Israeli government and the Israeli Knesset did not release an official message of condolences. I’m here in order to express my condolences on behalf of the vast majority of Israeli citizens.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/04/23/israel-deletes-pope-francis-condolence-tweet/
https://bsky.app/profile/gelliottmorris.com/post/3lnifsdxoyc2x
# that word that warrants a ban
There is a reason everyone in the Highlands is putting in heatpumps and solar - it's because they are paying a UK average price despite (literally) living underneath enormous turbines. If those costs are transferred to where they belong, you'll see the solar bonanza transfer to the south-east of England, which is a heck of a lot sunnier than the west coast of Scotland.
The more I consider this policy the better it becomes.
https://www.lcp.com/en/insights/publications/zonal-pricing-in-great-britain
"Zonal pricing in Great Britain – Impact on wholesale prices, SSE"
https://insights.lcp.com/rs/032-PAO-331/images/LCP-Delta-Zonal-Pricing-in-Great-Britain-Differences-in-regional-wholesale-electricity-prices-2025.pdf
Blimey. On reading the link, she is a campaigner against domestic abuse, in which cause she set up a charity.
https://www.fticonsulting.com/uk/insights/videos-and-podcasts/assessment-locational-wholesale-electricity-market-design-options
Two sets of consultants with completely differing opinions looks like to me. Pause the video at 5 minutes in.
How this poll relates to Frank Luntz's finding that it is independents rather than true believers abandoning The Donald might be interesting.
That would enable industrial consumption of what's effectively zero marginal cost electricity (which currently causes @Luckyguy1983 conniptions over contention payments).
Calculating the economic benefit of that obviously depends upon a large set of assumptions, which is why it's possible to arrive to wildly different figures.
I would imagine that SSE are not exactly disinterested, when it comes to choosing how to weight those assumptions.
If electricity should be priced regionally, how about adjusting public sector wages to reflect different costs of living by region? That would mean that northern public sector workers might get 20-50% less than those in the south. The unions would be up in arms, so it won't happen. And why should the uniform postal tariff survive? Also rural broadband - why shouldn't people who live on isolated Yorkshire moors pay the full cost of getting regional connections to them?
Also council tax. It doesn't cost multiple times the amount to empty the bins of a band G property as it does to empty those of a band A property. So a far more uniform system of local taxation should be introduced - back to the poll tax. Income tax, too. The better off use fewer public services than the great unwashed, educating their kids privately and using private health care. They should surely pay less tax not more.
Miliband is just targeting this specific subsidy because it will milk the people who don't vote for him yet more than they already are. If it were the other way around, you can bet the idea would have been dead on arrival.
But hopefully if this idea is adopted, ALL other cross-subsidies will unwind. And for a party that is based on stealing from the rich, they may well rue the day.
Stories are beginning to emerge of individuals who have been seized by ICE, and have completely disappeared, without any record to say where they have been sent. That is, we don't even know if they're in the El Salvador concentration camp.
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/25109061.nissan-boss-says-sunderland-uk-not-competitive-place/
Support Israel, not Netanyahu.
Though I appreciate some struggle to separate the two.
After meeting with "senior Republicans" at Mar-a-Lago, Itamar Ben-Gvir said: "They expressed support for my very clear position on how to act in Gaza and that the food and aid depots should be bombed."
https://x.com/jeremyscahill/status/1915000741757964352
Their spiteful response to the Pope’s death is depressingly predictable - they’ve doubled down on being awful again & again and they aren’t about to stop now.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/23/ofwat-investigating-rip-off-cost-of-water-firms-infrastructure-works
"A report by the campaign group Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (Wasp) has found that upgrading a sewage works serving the Oxford area will cost £435m, more than 10 times the £40m cost quoted when the project was proposed. The sewage works is expected to serve between 255,000 and 267,000 people.
In comparison, it cost £29m to build a new sewage works in Assens, Denmark, where the cost of living is on average 13% above that of the UK and the cost of water and sewerage is one of the highest in Europe. It was designed to cater for a population of 100,000, with the capacity to upgrade to 150,000. Sewage treatment works cost less to build in the US, too, where the benchmark cost for a new plant serving approximately a million people is £248m."
But frankly that just serves as a distraction from the particular technical challenge of energy generation and consumption. We know that a large part of the reason why energy is expensive in the UK is due to transmission costs. One way to deal with that is invest billions in new infrastructure to shift power down south. Another is to better match demand with supply, which is what regional pricing helps to do.
...Alan Johnson, the senior vice president for manufacturing, supply chain and Purchasing for Nissan’s Africa, Middle East, India, Europe and Oceania operations, told members of the House of Commons’ Business and Trade Committee that the Sunderland factory “pays more for its electricity than any other Nissan plant in the world”...
An extremely good example of how it might work.
...Ofwat sources confirmed they were reviewing the data and said the regulator would ensure water companies delivered value for money when building new infrastructure. A spokesperson said: “As part of this price review period, we’ll be keeping a much closer eye on the delivery of upgrades and infrastructure projects because of the vast increase in investment. That will include ensuring that they are value for money.”..
This too:
...A United Utilities spokesperson said: “As with all our infrastructure schemes, there are processes in place to ensure we deliver them in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible.”..
He is shocked at just how callous the country is and doesn’t care, a lot of this predates the Hamas attack in 2023.
A fun game Reform Jews play these days is who said it, the Nazis about Jews or the Israelis about the Palestinians.
What's the betting they sold ahead of this ?
BESSENT: NO UNILATERAL OFFER FROM TRUMP TO CUT CHINA TARIFFS
And bipolar changes his mind yet again.
https://x.com/SpencerHakimian/status/1915064006693261466
https://x.com/ghulamabbasshah/status/1915075818528932154
India announces aggressive measures against Pakistan:
1. Indus Water Treaty suspended
2. Attari border crossing closed
3. 48-hour ultimatum for Pakistani citizens to leave India
4. Pakistan’s Defence Attaché declared persona non grata
Awaiting Pakistan's response.
#Pahalgam
#PahalgamAttack
They simply do not care. At all. And they cannot be forced to act under the existing system of oversight, nor can anyone else carry out the work if they won’t.
When they're surrounded by people who hate them and want them dead, like Hamas, and reject peace at every opportunity like the PA, is there any wonder he has an appeal?
Israel needs a firmer leader, who is not corrupt, and will destroy Hamas. Sadly Netanyahu just wants to string along and keep Hamas in power as it suits him.
The latest "deal" effectively finances a capital expansion of the industry, paid for by the customers. The companies will then argue they should reap a "fair return" on that ex[anded capital base, while continuing to operate in the piss taking manner they've maintained for many years.
I'm not sure a nationalised industry could actually do a worse job - and at least any surplus revenue would stay in the country, rather than largely being paid to overseas owners.
https://x.com/AmbJapanUK/status/1914982984857378963
Donald Trump accuses Volodomyr Zelensky of making 'inflammatory' statements about Crimea and says that he has 'no cards to play'
He says Crimea was 'lost years ago' and that Zelensky's comments are making it 'difficult to settle this war'
'He can have peace or he can fight for another three years before losing the whole country'
https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/1915075519642481070
Any regulator that was not so far beyond the horizon of useless that it was next to invisible would see that on first blink. Unfortunately, we have OFWAT.
https://x.com/rapidresponse47/status/1915074200731103424
They agree on everything.
A follow-up on Canada, and I don't think I've heard you say this in all of the talk about Canada becoming the 51st state. Are you concerned that if they became the 51st state, they would be a very, very blue state, very, very big and very, very blue?
Trump)
No, they might be. But it would -- you have that artificial line that goes -- that straight artificial -- that looked like it was drawn by a ruler. Somebody with a -- I don't mean a ruler like a king, I mean, like a ruler, like a ruler, this way. And it's just an artificial line that was drawn in the sand or in the ice.
And can I tell you, Peter, just -- you add that to this country, what a beautiful landmass, the most beautiful landmass anywhere in the world and it was just cut off for whatever reason. It would be great. Now, is it liberal? Maybe. But a conservative until I got involved because I don't care who wins up there.
Frankly, he probably would do better with the liberal than the conservative if you want to know the truth. But just a little while ago, before I got involved and totally changed the election, which I don't care about. Probably it's our advantage actually. But the conservative was leading against, I call him Governor Trudeau, the conservative was leading by 35 points.
So, I don't know about that. I think Canada is a place like a lot of other places. If you have a good candidate, the candidate's going to win.
Were the Conservatives ever 35 points up?