I wonder if I'm the only person who feels a little better towards Rachel after the vicious attack on her yesterday and the rather dignified way she treated it? I suspect not. There's a limit to the number of times the Mail can do this before it starts looking like a rather tawdry vendetta and they've gone way past that limit
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
What do we expect if we jack up visa fees to ridiculous levels, impose absurdly high aviation taxes, don't build nearly enough airport capacity, stop tourists from reclaiming VAT to the delight of the Frogs and impose planning regulations that mean that building cheap accommodation is impossible?
As usual, a greedy, incompetent, short-sighted and stupid government (this one and the last one) shoots itself and the country in both feet.
Why would someone come on holiday to a country where most of the news about hotels is of racists protesting outside them?
Also the hospitality industry is particularly reliant on low waged immigrant staff. Stopping them from coming is harming our domestic tourism industry.
Actions have consequences. Hotels and restaurants really struggle for staff.
Perhaps they should increase wages and offer better hours?
Actions have consequences
Yes, higher prices and shorter hours in the UK put both foreigners and Britons from holidaying here.
It might be good for domestic hospitality workers, but isn't good for the balance of payments.
Your lack of sympathy for the overworked and underpaid British employee is remarkable
IIRC lots of sympathy was displayed for those poor souls whose pay was such that their pension contributions hit the upper limits.
The obvious answer, not taken, was to reduce their pay and pension contributions. Which would be good for the balance of payments.
Because at that point they would just retire.
As I pointed out last week if the Government messes around with pensions in November there are a lot of people who may switch to a 2 or 3 day week or simply completely retire...
Just raise the pension age for them. That way the workshy so-and-soes would be forced to carry on helping the country instead of polishing their bottoms.
If it's good enough for the minimum wage workers, it's good enough for those on mid 6 figures.
Catch is, if you are middle class enough, the formal bits of the pension that the government controls aren't really the important bit.
If you have a paid-off mortgage, and especially if the kids have left home properly, it can be a challenge to spend the money coming in. If you have an inheritance throwing off cash as well, doubly so.
See the pearl-clutching at the idea of not being able to put 20k a year into a cash ISA. For normal people, that's pretty unimaginable.
How to motivate people to work when really don't need the money is one of the great unsolved problems of our time.
TBF a lot of normal people *do* have times when they need that 20K allowance - when they inherit, or when they get a pension lump sum. You don't need that much of either, even if there is some mortgage to pay off etc.
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
The Cuomoists are at the ‘there should be an enquiry into these fake polls that have given Mamdani momentum’ stage, not usually a sign of overweening confidence.
The "real" reason why landlords are selling up - It's all the Tories fault and specifically George Osborne. So there is no foundation to the suggestion it's all Labour's fault.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
The problem Europe has is that there are few beaches *just a little bit further north*. You can go to the Baltic but you are no better off than the UK. Maybe the French Atlantic coast will benefit. I have adapted by travelling in shoulder season, but obviously you can't if you have kids.
Europe is now less hospitable than the tropics, temperatures over 40 degrees are now commonplace whereas as far as I can see most of SE Asia seems to be constant around high 20s to mid 30s
Tourism to Norway is growing at about 15% pa and searches for terms like "cooler destinations" is up hugely
I wonder if I'm the only person who feels a little better towards Rachel after the vicious attack on her yesterday and the rather dignified way she treated it? I suspect not. There's a limit to the number of times the Mail can do this before it starts looking like a rather tawdry vendetta and they've gone way past that limit
It's not a vendetta to laugh at a politician getting caught in the process they themselves campaigned for.
The one they expect to be strictly applied to The Little People.
Be careful what you do with your coffee and all that.
I wonder if I'm the only person who feels a little better towards Rachel after the vicious attack on her yesterday and the rather dignified way she treated it? I suspect not. There's a limit to the number of times the Mail can do this before it starts looking like a rather tawdry vendetta and they've gone way past that limit
That they have gone way past that limit and are still doing it, rather implies that they haven't gone past the limit.
There's going to be quite the flu epidemic in those control towers. Just in time to mess up flights for Thanksgiving...
At what point do the Republicans in Congress see they are committing mass seppuku?
The issue is with the Democrats in the Senate, who have voted against the CR 14 times now.
The Senate needs 60 votes.
Why would Democrat Senators vote for things when Congress isn’t meeting because the Republicans refuse to let it meet.
Eh?
The Republican Senators have turned up every day to vote for the CR, and the Democrats senators (with the notable exception of Sen Fetterman) have voted it down.
The GOP controls every branch of government. Expecting the opposition to rubber stamp whatever they choose doesn't really wash, does it ?
The GOP has no interest in “negotiating” with the Dems re a further budget. It’s an absolute nonsense that the Dems will get anything out of voting for the CR other than giving Trump a win.
Okay, so the federal paychecks don’t go out and the SNAP benefits stop, with the Dem Senators clearly being the roadblock.
Dem Senators are already describing the loss of SNAP benefits as ‘leverage’ against Trump.
Republicans will no doubt argue that it's a problem caused by the (not in power) Dems but I suspect most people blame whoever is in government for any disruption like this, every time.
Sure, but large businesses such as the airlines are clearly taking the GOP line that a Continuing Resolution needs to be passed by the Senate.
They don’t care about party politics, just want to see security staff, border agents, and air traffic control get their paychecks.
Why should the Dems care what the Airlines think? There’s nothing in it for them to pass the CR. So either the GOP compromises or it continues to fail.
Why should the GOP compromise on continuing Biden’s budget?
What are you on about ? Have you forgotten the Big Beautiful Bill already ? And the renewal of the Trump tax cut ?
Today is the kind of day when our transition to our renewables saves us serious cash - currently only 12.8% gas generation and the spot price is £80/MWh.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
What do we expect if we jack up visa fees to ridiculous levels, impose absurdly high aviation taxes, don't build nearly enough airport capacity, stop tourists from reclaiming VAT to the delight of the Frogs and impose planning regulations that mean that building cheap accommodation is impossible?
As usual, a greedy, incompetent, short-sighted and stupid government (this one and the last one) shoots itself and the country in both feet.
Why would someone come on holiday to a country where most of the news about hotels is of racists protesting outside them?
Also the hospitality industry is particularly reliant on low waged immigrant staff. Stopping them from coming is harming our domestic tourism industry.
Actions have consequences. Hotels and restaurants really struggle for staff.
Perhaps they should increase wages and offer better hours?
Actions have consequences
Yes, higher prices and shorter hours in the UK put both foreigners and Britons from holidaying here.
It might be good for domestic hospitality workers, but isn't good for the balance of payments.
Your lack of sympathy for the overworked and underpaid British employee is remarkable
IIRC lots of sympathy was displayed for those poor souls whose pay was such that their pension contributions hit the upper limits.
The obvious answer, not taken, was to reduce their pay and pension contributions. Which would be good for the balance of payments.
Because at that point they would just retire.
As I pointed out last week if the Government messes around with pensions in November there are a lot of people who may switch to a 2 or 3 day week or simply completely retire...
Just raise the pension age for them. That way the workshy so-and-soes would be forced to carry on helping the country instead of polishing their bottoms.
If it's good enough for the minimum wage workers, it's good enough for those on mid 6 figures.
Catch is, if you are middle class enough, the formal bits of the pension that the government controls aren't really the important bit.
If you have a paid-off mortgage, and especially if the kids have left home properly, it can be a challenge to spend the money coming in. If you have an inheritance throwing off cash as well, doubly so.
See the pearl-clutching at the idea of not being able to put 20k a year into a cash ISA. For normal people, that's pretty unimaginable.
How to motivate people to work when really don't need the money is one of the great unsolved problems of our time.
I read somewhere that to achieve the same standard of living of the average middle class American in the 1950s, today's American would only have to work 5 to 10 hours per week. (Caveat: I can't find the source now, sorry.)
I don't think many would have said the average middle class American lifestyle was poor in the 1950s, indeed it was the envy of the world.
So the question is, have we used the advances in productivity and technology wisely, by acquiring ever more 'stuff' rather than enjoying more leisure?
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
The problem Europe has is that there are few beaches *just a little bit further north*. You can go to the Baltic but you are no better off than the UK. Maybe the French Atlantic coast will benefit. I have adapted by travelling in shoulder season, but obviously you can't if you have kids.
Europe is now less hospitable than the tropics, temperatures over 40 degrees are now commonplace whereas as far as I can see most of SE Asia seems to be constant around high 20s to mid 30s
'few beaches *just a little bit further north*'
Plenty in the UK north of Ribble or Humber. Though I dread tdo think of the adjustment the Free Kirk Leodhasach would have to make if Stornoway became the new Ibiza, certainly on Sundays.
We're going to have to develop Scotland.
I was thinking of Northumberland for instance - magnificent beaches. Be a shame to develop them ...
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
The problem Europe has is that there are few beaches *just a little bit further north*. You can go to the Baltic but you are no better off than the UK. Maybe the French Atlantic coast will benefit. I have adapted by travelling in shoulder season, but obviously you can't if you have kids.
Europe is now less hospitable than the tropics, temperatures over 40 degrees are now commonplace whereas as far as I can see most of SE Asia seems to be constant around high 20s to mid 30s
Tourism to Norway is growing at about 15% pa and searches for terms like "cooler destinations" is up hugely
In fairness that could also be a consequence of an ageing population. Oldies tend to be less inclined than the youngsters to spend their holiday frying on a beach.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
What do we expect if we jack up visa fees to ridiculous levels, impose absurdly high aviation taxes, don't build nearly enough airport capacity, stop tourists from reclaiming VAT to the delight of the Frogs and impose planning regulations that mean that building cheap accommodation is impossible?
As usual, a greedy, incompetent, short-sighted and stupid government (this one and the last one) shoots itself and the country in both feet.
Why would someone come on holiday to a country where most of the news about hotels is of racists protesting outside them?
Also the hospitality industry is particularly reliant on low waged immigrant staff. Stopping them from coming is harming our domestic tourism industry.
Actions have consequences. Hotels and restaurants really struggle for staff.
Perhaps they should increase wages and offer better hours?
Actions have consequences
Yes, higher prices and shorter hours in the UK put both foreigners and Britons from holidaying here.
It might be good for domestic hospitality workers, but isn't good for the balance of payments.
Your lack of sympathy for the overworked and underpaid British employee is remarkable
IIRC lots of sympathy was displayed for those poor souls whose pay was such that their pension contributions hit the upper limits.
The obvious answer, not taken, was to reduce their pay and pension contributions. Which would be good for the balance of payments.
Because at that point they would just retire.
As I pointed out last week if the Government messes around with pensions in November there are a lot of people who may switch to a 2 or 3 day week or simply completely retire...
Just raise the pension age for them. That way the workshy so-and-soes would be forced to carry on helping the country instead of polishing their bottoms.
If it's good enough for the minimum wage workers, it's good enough for those on mid 6 figures.
Catch is, if you are middle class enough, the formal bits of the pension that the government controls aren't really the important bit.
If you have a paid-off mortgage, and especially if the kids have left home properly, it can be a challenge to spend the money coming in. If you have an inheritance throwing off cash as well, doubly so.
See the pearl-clutching at the idea of not being able to put 20k a year into a cash ISA. For normal people, that's pretty unimaginable.
How to motivate people to work when really don't need the money is one of the great unsolved problems of our time.
I read somewhere that to achieve the same standard of living of the average middle class American in the 1950s, today's American would only have to work 5 to 10 hours per week. (Caveat: I can't find the source now, sorry.)
I don't think many would have said the average middle class American lifestyle was poor in the 1950s, indeed it was the envy of the world.
So the question is, have we used the advances in productivity and technology wisely, by acquiring ever more 'stuff' rather than enjoying more leisure?
Things like better toilets & showers. Roofs that last longer. Kitchen appliances that cook food better - ovens have improved incredibly, even for basic ones. Much reduced cleaning load on everything....
Today is the kind of day when our transition to our renewables saves us serious cash - currently only 12.8% gas generation and the spot price is £80/MWh.
That can't be true - the push for renewables is all just a scam to charge consumers more, shirley?
Yes, a good result for D66 and again an example of a liberal party coming top to beat a party of the populist right.
As also happened in Canada earlier this year and in France in the 2022 French presidential and legislative elections.
Hence the better Reform do, the more there may be an opportunity for the LDs in the liberal centre if the next general election becomes more about cultural issues than the economy and the traditional battle between Conservatives and Labour (though the tax rising budget expected may see a shift back to that)
The Lib Dems’ appeal is a niche one - in very affluent seats.
The two seats that Reform won last night, are in parts of the country that are completely out of reach for the Lib Dem’s.
Yes they need to broaden their appeal to C1 and C2 majority seats from AB heavy seats to really stop Reform
It's not a huge difference. The only party with a big difference is Reform (11% v 20%).
Yes. Earlier posts miss the point; it's the activists that are middle class, and middle class areas that have the type of people with the time, ability and inclination to put their back into campaigning to build up the LibDem vote
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
Today is the kind of day when our transition to our renewables saves us serious cash - currently only 12.8% gas generation and the spot price is £80/MWh.
I'm on the Octopus Agile TOU tariff, which is £138.6p / MWh at the time of your post. It's worked well so far (Though no winter done yet ) (A weighted av unit cost of 16.88p/KwH since I've been on it from March) but even the TOU tariff is a mile above the wholesale rates and ~ quadruple from 4 - 7.
Yes, a good result for D66 and again an example of a liberal party coming top to beat a party of the populist right.
As also happened in Canada earlier this year and in France in the 2022 French presidential and legislative elections.
Hence the better Reform do, the more there may be an opportunity for the LDs in the liberal centre if the next general election becomes more about cultural issues than the economy and the traditional battle between Conservatives and Labour (though the tax rising budget expected may see a shift back to that)
The Lib Dems’ appeal is a niche one - in very affluent seats.
The two seats that Reform won last night, are in parts of the country that are completely out of reach for the Lib Dem’s.
Yes they need to broaden their appeal to C1 and C2 majority seats from AB heavy seats to really stop Reform
It's not a huge difference. The only party with a big difference is Reform (11% v 20%).
There is a difference between the LDs AB voteshare and C2s and DEs though as I alluded to.
In 2024 the LDs got 15% with ABs, 11% with C2s and just 10% with DEs.
So while the LDs can be the main alternative to Reform in more middle class areas (and on the latest Yougov Reform are basically tied for the lead with ABC1s with Labour with the LDs, Tories and Greens just behind) in working class areas it is still Labour the main alternative to Reform, not the LDs
Today is the kind of day when our transition to our renewables saves us serious cash - currently only 12.8% gas generation and the spot price is £80/MWh.
That can't be true - the push for renewables is all just a scam to charge consumers more, shirley?
It is slightly counterintuitive tbh. When it's windy and sunny, demand for gas typically drops dramatically and therefore the cost of gas falls too. That makes our CfD contracts look like poor value for money - but the reason the gas price is so cheap is precisely because we don't need it any more.
In the winter, we sometimes get these weeks where we have plenty of wind but the gas price remains high - I'm assuming because the rest Europe doesn't have the same wind power available and the demand for gas remains high.
Today is the kind of day when our transition to our renewables saves us serious cash - currently only 12.8% gas generation and the spot price is £80/MWh.
Question about that.
It feels like the following things are true:
a) weather that allows us to ignore the cost of gas is rare but becoming more common b) more wind and solar are still being added, which is why the events are becoming more common c) the effect on prices will be a phase transition/tipping point; not much will seem to happen for ages, then a very sharp reduction.
Is that right, and if so, how close are we to that tipping point?
It also helps explain why we have so little influence on the program compared with Israel - or even Italy, who have managed their limited resources for their F35 program far better than we have.
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
The Seinfelds are Jewish, Cuomo still leads with Jewish voters in NYC as Jews hate Mamdani there as much as they hated Corbyn and now hate Polanski too here.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
What do we expect if we jack up visa fees to ridiculous levels, impose absurdly high aviation taxes, don't build nearly enough airport capacity, stop tourists from reclaiming VAT to the delight of the Frogs and impose planning regulations that mean that building cheap accommodation is impossible?
As usual, a greedy, incompetent, short-sighted and stupid government (this one and the last one) shoots itself and the country in both feet.
Why would someone come on holiday to a country where most of the news about hotels is of racists protesting outside them?
Also the hospitality industry is particularly reliant on low waged immigrant staff. Stopping them from coming is harming our domestic tourism industry.
Actions have consequences. Hotels and restaurants really struggle for staff.
Perhaps they should increase wages and offer better hours?
Actions have consequences
Yes, higher prices and shorter hours in the UK put both foreigners and Britons from holidaying here.
It might be good for domestic hospitality workers, but isn't good for the balance of payments.
Your lack of sympathy for the overworked and underpaid British employee is remarkable
IIRC lots of sympathy was displayed for those poor souls whose pay was such that their pension contributions hit the upper limits.
The obvious answer, not taken, was to reduce their pay and pension contributions. Which would be good for the balance of payments.
Because at that point they would just retire.
As I pointed out last week if the Government messes around with pensions in November there are a lot of people who may switch to a 2 or 3 day week or simply completely retire...
Just raise the pension age for them. That way the workshy so-and-soes would be forced to carry on helping the country instead of polishing their bottoms.
If it's good enough for the minimum wage workers, it's good enough for those on mid 6 figures.
Catch is, if you are middle class enough, the formal bits of the pension that the government controls aren't really the important bit.
If you have a paid-off mortgage, and especially if the kids have left home properly, it can be a challenge to spend the money coming in. If you have an inheritance throwing off cash as well, doubly so.
See the pearl-clutching at the idea of not being able to put 20k a year into a cash ISA. For normal people, that's pretty unimaginable.
How to motivate people to work when really don't need the money is one of the great unsolved problems of our time.
I read somewhere that to achieve the same standard of living of the average middle class American in the 1950s, today's American would only have to work 5 to 10 hours per week. (Caveat: I can't find the source now, sorry.)
I don't think many would have said the average middle class American lifestyle was poor in the 1950s, indeed it was the envy of the world.
So the question is, have we used the advances in productivity and technology wisely, by acquiring ever more 'stuff' rather than enjoying more leisure?
You're missing that a lot of that productivity hasn't gone into 'stuff' but has gone into health for members of that family and social support for people outside of that family.
Today is the kind of day when our transition to our renewables saves us serious cash - currently only 12.8% gas generation and the spot price is £80/MWh.
That can't be true - the push for renewables is all just a scam to charge consumers more, shirley?
It is slightly counterintuitive tbh. When it's windy and sunny, demand for gas typically drops dramatically and therefore the cost of gas falls too. That makes our CfD contracts look like poor value for money - but the reason the gas price is so cheap is precisely because we don't need it any more.
In the winter, we sometimes get these weeks where we have plenty of wind but the gas price remains high - I'm assuming because the rest Europe doesn't have the same wind power available and the demand for gas remains high.
If it's gas pushing up the prices, why am I being sold (And this changes daily for me) gas at £47.40/MwH (& Leccy at £136.70) ?
The price cap is a bonkers £263.50/MwH, wholesales has never been anywhere near that sustained.
I get the utility companies have other costs but the difference is crackers.
Completely O/T listening to Lennie James on Desert Island Discs. What a fine, interesting, intelligent and human individual. Some great music choices too.
Thanks for the recommendation - just listened to this on my morning walk. Lovely, heart-warming and interesting.
Today is the kind of day when our transition to our renewables saves us serious cash - currently only 12.8% gas generation and the spot price is £80/MWh.
That can't be true - the push for renewables is all just a scam to charge consumers more, shirley?
It is slightly counterintuitive tbh. When it's windy and sunny, demand for gas typically drops dramatically and therefore the cost of gas falls too. That makes our CfD contracts look like poor value for money - but the reason the gas price is so cheap is precisely because we don't need it any more.
In the winter, we sometimes get these weeks where we have plenty of wind but the gas price remains high - I'm assuming because the rest Europe doesn't have the same wind power available and the demand for gas remains high.
If it's gas pushing up the prices, why am I being sold (And this changes daily for me) gas at £47.40/MwH (& Leccy at £136.70) ?
Today is the kind of day when our transition to our renewables saves us serious cash - currently only 12.8% gas generation and the spot price is £80/MWh.
Question about that.
It feels like the following things are true:
a) weather that allows us to ignore the cost of gas is rare but becoming more common b) more wind and solar are still being added, which is why the events are becoming more common c) the effect on prices will be a phase transition/tipping point; not much will seem to happen for ages, then a very sharp reduction.
Is that right, and if so, how close are we to that tipping point?
This idea that our energy costs are expensive because they are linked to gas is a fallacy imo. Our renewables are provided on fixed price contracts and the cost of gas doesn't effect them - that's why during Putin's invasion those contracts saved us billions - but when gas prices are low, they cost us.
So there may come a time when 100% of electricity is domestic renewables, but that won't mean that prices crash. The only way you can achieve that is if the technology advances in some way - offshore wind has stalled at about £70 per MWh in today's prices. If gas sits at £40 per MWh then that isn't great, though there are very strong national security arguments for the economic stability renewable contracts provide. And if solar + batteries deliver us £10 per MWh...
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
The Seinfelds are Jewish, Cuomo still leads with Jewish voters in NYC as Jews hate Mamdani there as much as they hated Corbyn and now hate Polanski too here.
My best pal lives in West Village with his Jewish wife and (by default) two Jewish sons, though they’re now both at college. They’re all voting for Mamdani. The Jewish people who have gone baws deep for Bibi in their proxy Zion v Hamas war will be backing Cuomo, the ones with a more nuanced view will not.
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
There's going to be quite the flu epidemic in those control towers. Just in time to mess up flights for Thanksgiving...
At what point do the Republicans in Congress see they are committing mass seppuku?
The issue is with the Democrats in the Senate, who have voted against the CR 14 times now.
The Senate needs 60 votes.
Why would Democrat Senators vote for things when Congress isn’t meeting because the Republicans refuse to let it meet.
Eh?
The Republican Senators have turned up every day to vote for the CR, and the Democrats senators (with the notable exception of Sen Fetterman) have voted it down.
The GOP controls every branch of government. Expecting the opposition to rubber stamp whatever they choose doesn't really wash, does it ?
The GOP has no interest in “negotiating” with the Dems re a further budget. It’s an absolute nonsense that the Dems will get anything out of voting for the CR other than giving Trump a win.
Okay, so the federal paychecks don’t go out and the SNAP benefits stop, with the Dem Senators clearly being the roadblock.
Dem Senators are already describing the loss of SNAP benefits as ‘leverage’ against Trump.
I love the smell of desperation in the morning. I'm afraid blaming this one on the Dems ain't gonna pass anyones sniff test.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
What do we expect if we jack up visa fees to ridiculous levels, impose absurdly high aviation taxes, don't build nearly enough airport capacity, stop tourists from reclaiming VAT to the delight of the Frogs and impose planning regulations that mean that building cheap accommodation is impossible?
As usual, a greedy, incompetent, short-sighted and stupid government (this one and the last one) shoots itself and the country in both feet.
Why would someone come on holiday to a country where most of the news about hotels is of racists protesting outside them?
Also the hospitality industry is particularly reliant on low waged immigrant staff. Stopping them from coming is harming our domestic tourism industry.
Actions have consequences. Hotels and restaurants really struggle for staff.
Perhaps they should increase wages and offer better hours?
Actions have consequences
Yes, higher prices and shorter hours in the UK put both foreigners and Britons from holidaying here.
It might be good for domestic hospitality workers, but isn't good for the balance of payments.
Your lack of sympathy for the overworked and underpaid British employee is remarkable
IIRC lots of sympathy was displayed for those poor souls whose pay was such that their pension contributions hit the upper limits.
The obvious answer, not taken, was to reduce their pay and pension contributions. Which would be good for the balance of payments.
Because at that point they would just retire.
As I pointed out last week if the Government messes around with pensions in November there are a lot of people who may switch to a 2 or 3 day week or simply completely retire...
Just raise the pension age for them. That way the workshy so-and-soes would be forced to carry on helping the country instead of polishing their bottoms.
If it's good enough for the minimum wage workers, it's good enough for those on mid 6 figures.
Catch is, if you are middle class enough, the formal bits of the pension that the government controls aren't really the important bit.
If you have a paid-off mortgage, and especially if the kids have left home properly, it can be a challenge to spend the money coming in. If you have an inheritance throwing off cash as well, doubly so.
See the pearl-clutching at the idea of not being able to put 20k a year into a cash ISA. For normal people, that's pretty unimaginable.
How to motivate people to work when really don't need the money is one of the great unsolved problems of our time.
I read somewhere that to achieve the same standard of living of the average middle class American in the 1950s, today's American would only have to work 5 to 10 hours per week. (Caveat: I can't find the source now, sorry.)
I don't think many would have said the average middle class American lifestyle was poor in the 1950s, indeed it was the envy of the world.
So the question is, have we used the advances in productivity and technology wisely, by acquiring ever more 'stuff' rather than enjoying more leisure?
Things like better toilets & showers. Roofs that last longer. Kitchen appliances that cook food better - ovens have improved incredibly, even for basic ones. Much reduced cleaning load on everything....
It shows up too, in terms of cleaner air, longer lives, car ownership (and cars being much safer), better education etc.
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
The Seinfelds are Jewish, Cuomo still leads with Jewish voters in NYC as Jews hate Mamdani there as much as they hated Corbyn and now hate Polanski too here.
According to the latest polls Jewish voters under 44 are voting 67% Mamdani and of all Jews 43% are. There was one poll which seemed to be saying something else and it's been much much publicised not least in The Jerusalem Post
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
The Seinfelds are Jewish, Cuomo still leads with Jewish voters in NYC as Jews hate Mamdani there as much as they hated Corbyn and now hate Polanski too here.
My best pal lives in West Village with his Jewish wife and (by default) two Jewish sons, though they’re now both at college. They’re all voting for Mamdani. The Jewish people who have gone baws deep for Bibi in their proxy Zion v Hamas war will be backing Cuomo, the ones with a more nuanced view will not.
Not sure Seinfeld's judgment is up to much generally - remember he was dating at 17 year old when he was 39.
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
What do we expect if we jack up visa fees to ridiculous levels, impose absurdly high aviation taxes, don't build nearly enough airport capacity, stop tourists from reclaiming VAT to the delight of the Frogs and impose planning regulations that mean that building cheap accommodation is impossible?
As usual, a greedy, incompetent, short-sighted and stupid government (this one and the last one) shoots itself and the country in both feet.
Why would someone come on holiday to a country where most of the news about hotels is of racists protesting outside them?
Also the hospitality industry is particularly reliant on low waged immigrant staff. Stopping them from coming is harming our domestic tourism industry.
Actions have consequences. Hotels and restaurants really struggle for staff.
Perhaps they should increase wages and offer better hours?
Actions have consequences
Yes, higher prices and shorter hours in the UK put both foreigners and Britons from holidaying here.
It might be good for domestic hospitality workers, but isn't good for the balance of payments.
Your lack of sympathy for the overworked and underpaid British employee is remarkable
IIRC lots of sympathy was displayed for those poor souls whose pay was such that their pension contributions hit the upper limits.
The obvious answer, not taken, was to reduce their pay and pension contributions. Which would be good for the balance of payments.
Because at that point they would just retire.
As I pointed out last week if the Government messes around with pensions in November there are a lot of people who may switch to a 2 or 3 day week or simply completely retire...
Just raise the pension age for them. That way the workshy so-and-soes would be forced to carry on helping the country instead of polishing their bottoms.
If it's good enough for the minimum wage workers, it's good enough for those on mid 6 figures.
Catch is, if you are middle class enough, the formal bits of the pension that the government controls aren't really the important bit.
If you have a paid-off mortgage, and especially if the kids have left home properly, it can be a challenge to spend the money coming in. If you have an inheritance throwing off cash as well, doubly so.
See the pearl-clutching at the idea of not being able to put 20k a year into a cash ISA. For normal people, that's pretty unimaginable.
How to motivate people to work when really don't need the money is one of the great unsolved problems of our time.
Yep - and that's me now.
House paid off - so our outgoings are approximately £900 a month (bills go out tomorrow and I was shifting money round earlier) before food which again isn't massive.
Now I enjoy work but I'm at the point where I really can go - if I don't like the project I can take a few months off and not panic...
I'm currently trying to pay £25k per year on the mortgage (how much I pay off is up to me, so some flexibility) - to try to have it paid off before I retire, with enough time to save a bit more up to fill up the hole in my pension. I'm old enough that I'm not sure I will achieve the second.
How I would spend that if I didn't have a mortgage and pension hole, I really can't imagine. That would represent about a 500% increase in my disposable income - which has never been higher in real terms than now at any point since I had children 20-odd years ago!
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
There's going to be quite the flu epidemic in those control towers. Just in time to mess up flights for Thanksgiving...
At what point do the Republicans in Congress see they are committing mass seppuku?
The issue is with the Democrats in the Senate, who have voted against the CR 14 times now.
The Senate needs 60 votes.
Why would Democrat Senators vote for things when Congress isn’t meeting because the Republicans refuse to let it meet.
Eh?
The Republican Senators have turned up every day to vote for the CR, and the Democrats senators (with the notable exception of Sen Fetterman) have voted it down.
The GOP controls every branch of government. Expecting the opposition to rubber stamp whatever they choose doesn't really wash, does it ?
The GOP has no interest in “negotiating” with the Dems re a further budget. It’s an absolute nonsense that the Dems will get anything out of voting for the CR other than giving Trump a win.
Okay, so the federal paychecks don’t go out and the SNAP benefits stop, with the Dem Senators clearly being the roadblock.
Dem Senators are already describing the loss of SNAP benefits as ‘leverage’ against Trump.
I love the smell of desperation in the morning. I'm afraid blaming this one on the Dems ain't gonna pass anyones sniff test.
Well the Republican Senators have turned up every day to vote in favour of the continuing resolution.
We now have the civil service union as well as two airlines imploring the Dem Senators to vote for the CR so that paychecks go out.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
I'll be investing heavily in a chain of paella shops across Margate, Blackpool and Yarmouth come 2035.
Back in the late 1980s, Jonathon Porrit of the Greens came on Radio 4 to tell us of the dangers of Global Warming.
He finished by saying that if nothing was done, “they will be growing palm trees on the beach at Bournemouth”.
I was very young but I remember thinking that that argument was a terrible way to convince people there was a problem.
In the UK and much of the world the initial problems are more the increase in extreme weather rather than the temperature rise. Not sure if they knew that was also coming back in the 80s or not.
They didn't. The assumption seemed to be, IIRC, that temperatures would increase all round, fairly evenly. In retrospect, the addition of energy into weather systems causing more extreme events should have been obvious.
I don't think it is immediately obvious that there will be more extreme events.
Every thermodynamic process has a heat source and a heat sink. If the sink warms as well as the source, then potentially there's no extra energy available.
There are various non-linearities (such as the saturation point of air) which make it more complicated than that, but the idea that all the extra energy is available is not true.
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
The Seinfelds are Jewish, Cuomo still leads with Jewish voters in NYC as Jews hate Mamdani there as much as they hated Corbyn and now hate Polanski too here.
According to the latest polls Jewish voters under 44 are voting 67% Mamdani and of all Jews 43% are. There was one poll which seemed to be saying something else and it's been much much publicised not least in The Jerusalem Post
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
I'll be investing heavily in a chain of paella shops across Margate, Blackpool and Yarmouth come 2035.
Back in the late 1980s, Jonathon Porrit of the Greens came on Radio 4 to tell us of the dangers of Global Warming.
He finished by saying that if nothing was done, “they will be growing palm trees on the beach at Bournemouth”.
I was very young but I remember thinking that that argument was a terrible way to convince people there was a problem.
In the UK and much of the world the initial problems are more the increase in extreme weather rather than the temperature rise. Not sure if they knew that was also coming back in the 80s or not.
They didn't. The assumption seemed to be, IIRC, that temperatures would increase all round, fairly evenly. In retrospect, the addition of energy into weather systems causing more extreme events should have been obvious.
I don't think it is immediately obvious that there will be more extreme events.
Every thermodynamic process has a heat source and a heat sink. If the sink warms as well as the source, then potentially there's no extra energy available.
There are various non-linearities (such as the saturation point of air) which make it more complicated than that, but the idea that all the extra energy is available is not true.
Butd surely extreme events by their definition are statistical extremes, and this brings into play the shifting of normal curves along the x-axis and all that.
There's going to be quite the flu epidemic in those control towers. Just in time to mess up flights for Thanksgiving...
At what point do the Republicans in Congress see they are committing mass seppuku?
The issue is with the Democrats in the Senate, who have voted against the CR 14 times now.
The Senate needs 60 votes.
Why would Democrat Senators vote for things when Congress isn’t meeting because the Republicans refuse to let it meet.
Eh?
The Republican Senators have turned up every day to vote for the CR, and the Democrats senators (with the notable exception of Sen Fetterman) have voted it down.
The GOP controls every branch of government. Expecting the opposition to rubber stamp whatever they choose doesn't really wash, does it ?
The GOP has no interest in “negotiating” with the Dems re a further budget. It’s an absolute nonsense that the Dems will get anything out of voting for the CR other than giving Trump a win.
Okay, so the federal paychecks don’t go out and the SNAP benefits stop, with the Dem Senators clearly being the roadblock.
Dem Senators are already describing the loss of SNAP benefits as ‘leverage’ against Trump.
I love the smell of desperation in the morning. I'm afraid blaming this one on the Dems ain't gonna pass anyones sniff test.
It will pass the sniff test for those who want it to pass the sniff test.
As long as both sides have a story that their followers are happy with, the standoff can continue. We saw something similar here, 2016-19.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
I'll be investing heavily in a chain of paella shops across Margate, Blackpool and Yarmouth come 2035.
Back in the late 1980s, Jonathon Porrit of the Greens came on Radio 4 to tell us of the dangers of Global Warming.
He finished by saying that if nothing was done, “they will be growing palm trees on the beach at Bournemouth”.
I was very young but I remember thinking that that argument was a terrible way to convince people there was a problem.
In the UK and much of the world the initial problems are more the increase in extreme weather rather than the temperature rise. Not sure if they knew that was also coming back in the 80s or not.
They didn't. The assumption seemed to be, IIRC, that temperatures would increase all round, fairly evenly. In retrospect, the addition of energy into weather systems causing more extreme events should have been obvious.
I don't think it is immediately obvious that there will be more extreme events.
Every thermodynamic process has a heat source and a heat sink. If the sink warms as well as the source, then potentially there's no extra energy available.
There are various non-linearities (such as the saturation point of air) which make it more complicated than that, but the idea that all the extra energy is available is not true.
Butd surely extreme events by their definition are statistical extremes, and this brings into play the shifting of normal curves along the x-axis and all that.
The complication is that the shape of the normal distribution can change, as well as its centre point.
But people were aware of the risk of changes in extremes, though they didn't have any way to quantify that risk.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
The problem Europe has is that there are few beaches *just a little bit further north*. You can go to the Baltic but you are no better off than the UK. Maybe the French Atlantic coast will benefit. I have adapted by travelling in shoulder season, but obviously you can't if you have kids.
Europe is now less hospitable than the tropics, temperatures over 40 degrees are now commonplace whereas as far as I can see most of SE Asia seems to be constant around high 20s to mid 30s
'few beaches *just a little bit further north*'
Plenty in the UK north of Ribble or Humber. Though I dread tdo think of the adjustment the Free Kirk Leodhasach would have to make if Stornoway became the new Ibiza, certainly on Sundays.
We're going to have to develop Scotland.
I was thinking of Northumberland for instance - magnificent beaches. Be a shame to develop them ...
Northumberland is less heavily populated with midges aiui from my last holiday there, so it could ne an option.
If England cooks, do Scottish midges migrate North or South?
If they are West Coast and Damp, is it bye-bye Blackpool and Greater Manchester?
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
I'll be investing heavily in a chain of paella shops across Margate, Blackpool and Yarmouth come 2035.
Back in the late 1980s, Jonathon Porrit of the Greens came on Radio 4 to tell us of the dangers of Global Warming.
He finished by saying that if nothing was done, “they will be growing palm trees on the beach at Bournemouth”.
I was very young but I remember thinking that that argument was a terrible way to convince people there was a problem.
In the UK and much of the world the initial problems are more the increase in extreme weather rather than the temperature rise. Not sure if they knew that was also coming back in the 80s or not.
They didn't. The assumption seemed to be, IIRC, that temperatures would increase all round, fairly evenly. In retrospect, the addition of energy into weather systems causing more extreme events should have been obvious.
I don't think it is immediately obvious that there will be more extreme events.
Every thermodynamic process has a heat source and a heat sink. If the sink warms as well as the source, then potentially there's no extra energy available.
There are various non-linearities (such as the saturation point of air) which make it more complicated than that, but the idea that all the extra energy is available is not true.
Butd surely extreme events by their definition are statistical extremes, and this brings into play the shifting of normal curves along the x-axis and all that.
I think extremes of weather increasing are pretty much accepted - more energy in the system, more moisture in the atmosphere. Perhaps the other factor is changing of climate as things warm. The idea of the gulf stream collapsing is one, albeit unlikely (at least in the short term) but other shifts can be envisaged. The position of the jet stream is critical to the weather observed in the UK - so if we experience significant shifts in its behaviour that can be a challenge.
There's going to be quite the flu epidemic in those control towers. Just in time to mess up flights for Thanksgiving...
At what point do the Republicans in Congress see they are committing mass seppuku?
The issue is with the Democrats in the Senate, who have voted against the CR 14 times now.
The Senate needs 60 votes.
Why would Democrat Senators vote for things when Congress isn’t meeting because the Republicans refuse to let it meet.
Eh?
The Republican Senators have turned up every day to vote for the CR, and the Democrats senators (with the notable exception of Sen Fetterman) have voted it down.
The GOP controls every branch of government. Expecting the opposition to rubber stamp whatever they choose doesn't really wash, does it ?
The GOP has no interest in “negotiating” with the Dems re a further budget. It’s an absolute nonsense that the Dems will get anything out of voting for the CR other than giving Trump a win.
Okay, so the federal paychecks don’t go out and the SNAP benefits stop, with the Dem Senators clearly being the roadblock.
Dem Senators are already describing the loss of SNAP benefits as ‘leverage’ against Trump.
I love the smell of desperation in the morning. I'm afraid blaming this one on the Dems ain't gonna pass anyones sniff test.
It will pass the sniff test for those who want it to pass the sniff test.
As long as both sides have a story that their followers are happy with, the standoff can continue. We saw something similar here, 2016-19.
I think we may see an attack on Venezuela as Trump's latest diversion.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
I'll be investing heavily in a chain of paella shops across Margate, Blackpool and Yarmouth come 2035.
Back in the late 1980s, Jonathon Porrit of the Greens came on Radio 4 to tell us of the dangers of Global Warming.
He finished by saying that if nothing was done, “they will be growing palm trees on the beach at Bournemouth”.
I was very young but I remember thinking that that argument was a terrible way to convince people there was a problem.
In the UK and much of the world the initial problems are more the increase in extreme weather rather than the temperature rise. Not sure if they knew that was also coming back in the 80s or not.
They didn't. The assumption seemed to be, IIRC, that temperatures would increase all round, fairly evenly. In retrospect, the addition of energy into weather systems causing more extreme events should have been obvious.
I don't think it is immediately obvious that there will be more extreme events.
Every thermodynamic process has a heat source and a heat sink. If the sink warms as well as the source, then potentially there's no extra energy available.
There are various non-linearities (such as the saturation point of air) which make it more complicated than that, but the idea that all the extra energy is available is not true.
Butd surely extreme events by their definition are statistical extremes, and this brings into play the shifting of normal curves along the x-axis and all that.
Only if the range of possibilities is increased. So if the sink never gets quite as cold then you've not 'gained' anything.
There's going to be quite the flu epidemic in those control towers. Just in time to mess up flights for Thanksgiving...
At what point do the Republicans in Congress see they are committing mass seppuku?
The issue is with the Democrats in the Senate, who have voted against the CR 14 times now.
The Senate needs 60 votes.
Why would Democrat Senators vote for things when Congress isn’t meeting because the Republicans refuse to let it meet.
Eh?
The Republican Senators have turned up every day to vote for the CR, and the Democrats senators (with the notable exception of Sen Fetterman) have voted it down.
The GOP controls every branch of government. Expecting the opposition to rubber stamp whatever they choose doesn't really wash, does it ?
The GOP has no interest in “negotiating” with the Dems re a further budget. It’s an absolute nonsense that the Dems will get anything out of voting for the CR other than giving Trump a win.
Okay, so the federal paychecks don’t go out and the SNAP benefits stop, with the Dem Senators clearly being the roadblock.
Dem Senators are already describing the loss of SNAP benefits as ‘leverage’ against Trump.
I love the smell of desperation in the morning. I'm afraid blaming this one on the Dems ain't gonna pass anyones sniff test.
It will pass the sniff test for those who want it to pass the sniff test.
As long as both sides have a story that their followers are happy with, the standoff can continue. We saw something similar here, 2016-19.
I think we may see an attack on Venezuela as Trump's latest diversion.
I don't think it would be as a diversion. It's simply something he wants to do for a variety of reasons.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
I'll be investing heavily in a chain of paella shops across Margate, Blackpool and Yarmouth come 2035.
Back in the late 1980s, Jonathon Porrit of the Greens came on Radio 4 to tell us of the dangers of Global Warming.
He finished by saying that if nothing was done, “they will be growing palm trees on the beach at Bournemouth”.
I was very young but I remember thinking that that argument was a terrible way to convince people there was a problem.
In the UK and much of the world the initial problems are more the increase in extreme weather rather than the temperature rise. Not sure if they knew that was also coming back in the 80s or not.
They didn't. The assumption seemed to be, IIRC, that temperatures would increase all round, fairly evenly. In retrospect, the addition of energy into weather systems causing more extreme events should have been obvious.
I don't think it is immediately obvious that there will be more extreme events.
Every thermodynamic process has a heat source and a heat sink. If the sink warms as well as the source, then potentially there's no extra energy available.
There are various non-linearities (such as the saturation point of air) which make it more complicated than that, but the idea that all the extra energy is available is not true.
Butd surely extreme events by their definition are statistical extremes, and this brings into play the shifting of normal curves along the x-axis and all that.
I think extremes of weather increasing are pretty much accepted - more energy in the system, more moisture in the atmosphere. Perhaps the other factor is changing of climate as things warm. The idea of the gulf stream collapsing is one, albeit unlikely (at least in the short term) but other shifts can be envisaged. The position of the jet stream is critical to the weather observed in the UK - so if we experience significant shifts in its behaviour that can be a challenge.
There's a tipping point where stratocumulus simply breaks up - so the UK would be considerably sunnier particularly in winter, but it's about 1600 ppm CO2 so we'd all need to live like Taylor Swift powered by chinese coal to get there any time soon.
There's going to be quite the flu epidemic in those control towers. Just in time to mess up flights for Thanksgiving...
At what point do the Republicans in Congress see they are committing mass seppuku?
The issue is with the Democrats in the Senate, who have voted against the CR 14 times now.
The Senate needs 60 votes.
Why would Democrat Senators vote for things when Congress isn’t meeting because the Republicans refuse to let it meet.
Eh?
The Republican Senators have turned up every day to vote for the CR, and the Democrats senators (with the notable exception of Sen Fetterman) have voted it down.
The GOP controls every branch of government. Expecting the opposition to rubber stamp whatever they choose doesn't really wash, does it ?
The GOP has no interest in “negotiating” with the Dems re a further budget. It’s an absolute nonsense that the Dems will get anything out of voting for the CR other than giving Trump a win.
Okay, so the federal paychecks don’t go out and the SNAP benefits stop, with the Dem Senators clearly being the roadblock.
Dem Senators are already describing the loss of SNAP benefits as ‘leverage’ against Trump.
I love the smell of desperation in the morning. I'm afraid blaming this one on the Dems ain't gonna pass anyones sniff test.
It will pass the sniff test for those who want it to pass the sniff test.
As long as both sides have a story that their followers are happy with, the standoff can continue. We saw something similar here, 2016-19.
I think we may see an attack on Venezuela as Trump's latest diversion.
Since Trump doesn’t start wars he’ll have to brand it as something else. A very special military operation perhaps?
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
I'll be investing heavily in a chain of paella shops across Margate, Blackpool and Yarmouth come 2035.
Back in the late 1980s, Jonathon Porrit of the Greens came on Radio 4 to tell us of the dangers of Global Warming.
He finished by saying that if nothing was done, “they will be growing palm trees on the beach at Bournemouth”.
I was very young but I remember thinking that that argument was a terrible way to convince people there was a problem.
In the UK and much of the world the initial problems are more the increase in extreme weather rather than the temperature rise. Not sure if they knew that was also coming back in the 80s or not.
They didn't. The assumption seemed to be, IIRC, that temperatures would increase all round, fairly evenly. In retrospect, the addition of energy into weather systems causing more extreme events should have been obvious.
I don't think it is immediately obvious that there will be more extreme events.
Every thermodynamic process has a heat source and a heat sink. If the sink warms as well as the source, then potentially there's no extra energy available.
There are various non-linearities (such as the saturation point of air) which make it more complicated than that, but the idea that all the extra energy is available is not true.
Butd surely extreme events by their definition are statistical extremes, and this brings into play the shifting of normal curves along the x-axis and all that.
I think extremes of weather increasing are pretty much accepted - more energy in the system, more moisture in the atmosphere. Perhaps the other factor is changing of climate as things warm. The idea of the gulf stream collapsing is one, albeit unlikely (at least in the short term) but other shifts can be envisaged. The position of the jet stream is critical to the weather observed in the UK - so if we experience significant shifts in its behaviour that can be a challenge.
Yes, the past few years have seen patterns where our weather gets 'stuck' due to a slack jet stream. Is this climate change? Who knows.
It certainly leads to more extreme events, such as persistent rain or drought, but without necessarily making each individual day vastly out of the ordinary - other than the line on the thermometer being a bit higher (which it most certainly is).
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
I'll be investing heavily in a chain of paella shops across Margate, Blackpool and Yarmouth come 2035.
Back in the late 1980s, Jonathon Porrit of the Greens came on Radio 4 to tell us of the dangers of Global Warming.
He finished by saying that if nothing was done, “they will be growing palm trees on the beach at Bournemouth”.
I was very young but I remember thinking that that argument was a terrible way to convince people there was a problem.
In the UK and much of the world the initial problems are more the increase in extreme weather rather than the temperature rise. Not sure if they knew that was also coming back in the 80s or not.
They didn't. The assumption seemed to be, IIRC, that temperatures would increase all round, fairly evenly. In retrospect, the addition of energy into weather systems causing more extreme events should have been obvious.
I don't think it is immediately obvious that there will be more extreme events.
Every thermodynamic process has a heat source and a heat sink. If the sink warms as well as the source, then potentially there's no extra energy available.
There are various non-linearities (such as the saturation point of air) which make it more complicated than that, but the idea that all the extra energy is available is not true.
Butd surely extreme events by their definition are statistical extremes, and this brings into play the shifting of normal curves along the x-axis and all that.
The complication is that the shape of the normal distribution can change, as well as its centre point.
But people were aware of the risk of changes in extremes, though they didn't have any way to quantify that risk.
From physical first principles I think you'd expect more weather extremes from an increasing greenhouse effect.
As the greenhouse effect strengthens and heat is less readily rediated into space, it will increasing tend to move horizonally from the warmer to the cooler parts of the Earth. This is apparent from the fact that the poles are warming faster than the tropics. If more heat has to be transferred from place to place, then you'd imagine that the weather needed to do this would become more dynamic. This could manifest as increasing numbers of storms, or increasing storm intensity, or elements of both.
Edit: It is true though that variation in the incidence and intensity of storms as a result of climate change is a trickier prediction to make, especially at a local level. Unlike, say, sea level rise which is pretty much a certainty.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
The problem Europe has is that there are few beaches *just a little bit further north*. You can go to the Baltic but you are no better off than the UK. Maybe the French Atlantic coast will benefit. I have adapted by travelling in shoulder season, but obviously you can't if you have kids.
Europe is now less hospitable than the tropics, temperatures over 40 degrees are now commonplace whereas as far as I can see most of SE Asia seems to be constant around high 20s to mid 30s
'few beaches *just a little bit further north*'
Plenty in the UK north of Ribble or Humber. Though I dread tdo think of the adjustment the Free Kirk Leodhasach would have to make if Stornoway became the new Ibiza, certainly on Sundays.
We're going to have to develop Scotland.
I was thinking of Northumberland for instance - magnificent beaches. Be a shame to develop them ...
Northumberland is less heavily populated with midges aiui from my last holiday there, so it could ne an option.
If England cooks, do Scottish midges migrate North or South?
If they are West Coast and Damp, is it bye-bye Blackpool and Greater Manchester?
Today is the kind of day when our transition to our renewables saves us serious cash - currently only 12.8% gas generation and the spot price is £80/MWh.
I'm on the Octopus Agile TOU tariff, which is £138.6p / MWh at the time of your post. It's worked well so far (Though no winter done yet ) (A weighted av unit cost of 16.88p/KwH since I've been on it from March) but even the TOU tariff is a mile above the wholesale rates and ~ quadruple from 4 - 7.
Wow, how do you get 16p? Are you a business or residential?
Today is the kind of day when our transition to our renewables saves us serious cash - currently only 12.8% gas generation and the spot price is £80/MWh.
I'm on the Octopus Agile TOU tariff, which is £138.6p / MWh at the time of your post. It's worked well so far (Though no winter done yet ) (A weighted av unit cost of 16.88p/KwH since I've been on it from March) but even the TOU tariff is a mile above the wholesale rates and ~ quadruple from 4 - 7.
Wow, how do you get 16p? Are you a business or residential?
Date from Date to Weighted Avg charge KwH 18/03/2025 23/03/2025 21.56 31 23/03/2025 17/04/2025 16.97 166.5 18/04/2025 17/05/2025 15.76 129.6 18/05/2025 17/06/2025 14.28 94.6 18/06/2025 17/07/2025 15.27 85 18/07/2025 17/08/2025 16.11 136.3 18/08/2025 17/09/2025 13.5 176.8 18/09/2025 17/10/2025 17.68 260.1
Late autumn and winter still to go though where a sunday roast being cooked at 5 o'clock with a gloomy high could push it all up.
Battery linked to solar can push it a bit through the 4-7 peak charge period if there's a bit of sun about.
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
The Seinfelds are Jewish, Cuomo still leads with Jewish voters in NYC as Jews hate Mamdani there as much as they hated Corbyn and now hate Polanski too here.
According to the latest polls Jewish voters under 44 are voting 67% Mamdani and of all Jews 43% are. There was one poll which seemed to be saying something else and it's been much much publicised not least in The Jerusalem Post
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
According to the Telegraph, Labour insisting that Mandy shouldn't lose his title over links to Epstein
Is this true? If so, a good move for Labour?
Maybe we should just abolish the peerage*.
Perhaps inadvertently, KCIII has now set a precedent that you can get your titles taken off you if you’ve been sufficiently naughty.
If he can take the titles off his brother why shouldn’t some Lord or Baroness who is caught doing something questionable get theirs removed too?
It is going to be a bit of a minefield. At the very least it may be the government has to set up some kind of independent forfeiture committee to avoid the monarch being dragged into the politics of scandal - every time there is one now, there will be a louder call for titles to be stripped.
*I would probably make an initial exception for some of the hereditaries, who at least have some history behind them holding a title.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
I'll be investing heavily in a chain of paella shops across Margate, Blackpool and Yarmouth come 2035.
Back in the late 1980s, Jonathon Porrit of the Greens came on Radio 4 to tell us of the dangers of Global Warming.
He finished by saying that if nothing was done, “they will be growing palm trees on the beach at Bournemouth”.
I was very young but I remember thinking that that argument was a terrible way to convince people there was a problem.
In the UK and much of the world the initial problems are more the increase in extreme weather rather than the temperature rise. Not sure if they knew that was also coming back in the 80s or not.
They didn't. The assumption seemed to be, IIRC, that temperatures would increase all round, fairly evenly. In retrospect, the addition of energy into weather systems causing more extreme events should have been obvious.
I don't think it is immediately obvious that there will be more extreme events.
Every thermodynamic process has a heat source and a heat sink. If the sink warms as well as the source, then potentially there's no extra energy available.
There are various non-linearities (such as the saturation point of air) which make it more complicated than that, but the idea that all the extra energy is available is not true.
Butd surely extreme events by their definition are statistical extremes, and this brings into play the shifting of normal curves along the x-axis and all that.
The complication is that the shape of the normal distribution can change, as well as its centre point.
But people were aware of the risk of changes in extremes, though they didn't have any way to quantify that risk.
From physical first principles I think you'd expect more weather extremes from an increasing greenhouse effect.
As the greenhouse effect strengthens and heat is less readily rediated into space, it will increasing tend to move horizonally from the warmer to the cooler parts of the Earth. This is apparent from the fact that the poles are warming faster than the tropics. If more heat has to be transferred from place to place, then you'd imagine that the weather needed to do this would become more dynamic. This could manifest as increasing numbers of storms, or increasing storm intensity, or elements of both.
The warming of the poles is quite likely to be making our weather (via the jet stream) less dynamic as it reduces the temperature contrast between latitudes.
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
The Seinfelds are Jewish, Cuomo still leads with Jewish voters in NYC as Jews hate Mamdani there as much as they hated Corbyn and now hate Polanski too here.
According to the latest polls Jewish voters under 44 are voting 67% Mamdani and of all Jews 43% are. There was one poll which seemed to be saying something else and it's been much much publicised not least in The Jerusalem Post
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
The problem Europe has is that there are few beaches *just a little bit further north*. You can go to the Baltic but you are no better off than the UK. Maybe the French Atlantic coast will benefit. I have adapted by travelling in shoulder season, but obviously you can't if you have kids.
Europe is now less hospitable than the tropics, temperatures over 40 degrees are now commonplace whereas as far as I can see most of SE Asia seems to be constant around high 20s to mid 30s
Tourism to Norway is growing at about 15% pa and searches for terms like "cooler destinations" is up hugely
Norwegian cruises seem very very popular these days.
There's going to be quite the flu epidemic in those control towers. Just in time to mess up flights for Thanksgiving...
At what point do the Republicans in Congress see they are committing mass seppuku?
The issue is with the Democrats in the Senate, who have voted against the CR 14 times now.
The Senate needs 60 votes.
Why would Democrat Senators vote for things when Congress isn’t meeting because the Republicans refuse to let it meet.
Eh?
The Republican Senators have turned up every day to vote for the CR, and the Democrats senators (with the notable exception of Sen Fetterman) have voted it down.
The GOP controls every branch of government. Expecting the opposition to rubber stamp whatever they choose doesn't really wash, does it ?
The GOP has no interest in “negotiating” with the Dems re a further budget. It’s an absolute nonsense that the Dems will get anything out of voting for the CR other than giving Trump a win.
Okay, so the federal paychecks don’t go out and the SNAP benefits stop, with the Dem Senators clearly being the roadblock.
Dem Senators are already describing the loss of SNAP benefits as ‘leverage’ against Trump.
I love the smell of desperation in the morning. I'm afraid blaming this one on the Dems ain't gonna pass anyones sniff test.
It will pass the sniff test for those who want it to pass the sniff test.
As long as both sides have a story that their followers are happy with, the standoff can continue. We saw something similar here, 2016-19.
I think we may see an attack on Venezuela as Trump's latest diversion.
Since Trump doesn’t start wars he’ll have to brand it as something else. A very special military operation perhaps?
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
The Seinfelds are Jewish, Cuomo still leads with Jewish voters in NYC as Jews hate Mamdani there as much as they hated Corbyn and now hate Polanski too here.
According to the latest polls Jewish voters under 44 are voting 67% Mamdani and of all Jews 43% are. There was one poll which seemed to be saying something else and it's been much much publicised not least in The Jerusalem Post
Today is the kind of day when our transition to our renewables saves us serious cash - currently only 12.8% gas generation and the spot price is £80/MWh.
I'm on the Octopus Agile TOU tariff, which is £138.6p / MWh at the time of your post. It's worked well so far (Though no winter done yet ) (A weighted av unit cost of 16.88p/KwH since I've been on it from March) but even the TOU tariff is a mile above the wholesale rates and ~ quadruple from 4 - 7.
Wow, how do you get 16p? Are you a business or residential?
Date from Date to Weighted Avg charge KwH 18/03/2025 23/03/2025 21.56 31 23/03/2025 17/04/2025 16.97 166.5 18/04/2025 17/05/2025 15.76 129.6 18/05/2025 17/06/2025 14.28 94.6 18/06/2025 17/07/2025 15.27 85 18/07/2025 17/08/2025 16.11 136.3 18/08/2025 17/09/2025 13.5 176.8 18/09/2025 17/10/2025 17.68 260.1
Late autumn and winter still to go though where a sunday roast being cooked at 5 o'clock with a gloomy high could push it all up.
Battery linked to solar can push it a bit through the 4-7 peak charge period if there's a bit of sun about.
Do you need battery or solar to get on this tariff?
According to the Telegraph, Labour insisting that Mandy shouldn't lose his title over links to Epstein
Is this true? If so, a good move for Labour?
Maybe we should just abolish the peerage*.
Perhaps inadvertently, KCIII has now set a precedent that you can get your titles taken off you if you’ve been sufficiently naughty.
If he can take the titles off his brother why shouldn’t some Lord or Baroness who is caught doing something questionable get theirs removed too?
It is going to be a bit of a minefield. At the very least it may be the government has to set up some kind of independent forfeiture committee to avoid the monarch being dragged into the politics of scandal - every time there is one now, there will be a louder call for titles to be stripped.
*I would probably make an initial exception for some of the hereditaries, who at least have some history behind them holding a title.
I thought there was already a method for removing a life peerage, and just assumed it was unnecessarily convoluted.
IIRC they did at least introduce a means for people to 'retire' from the Lords, but they get to keep the title, which I would remove - since we are making appointments to serve in the legislature, you should lose the title when no longer formally serving in it. Otherwise it just further incentivizes those people who already purchase a peerage with no intention of actually doing anything for it (having raised money or donated to a party does not count).
As a reminder, one of my oft mentioned Lords reform options is that people who have donated money to a party are not allowed to be given a peerage/honour for 8 years/2 parliaments. And that people who have been MPs likewise have to wait that length.
It's not perfect (I think Mandy would still have gotten one that way), but it is better.
I wonder if I'm the only person who feels a little better towards Rachel after the vicious attack on her yesterday and the rather dignified way she treated it? I suspect not. There's a limit to the number of times the Mail can do this before it starts looking like a rather tawdry vendetta and they've gone way past that limit
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
The Seinfelds are Jewish, Cuomo still leads with Jewish voters in NYC as Jews hate Mamdani there as much as they hated Corbyn and now hate Polanski too here.
According to the latest polls Jewish voters under 44 are voting 67% Mamdani and of all Jews 43% are. There was one poll which seemed to be saying something else and it's been much much publicised not least in The Jerusalem Post
According to the Telegraph, Labour insisting that Mandy shouldn't lose his title over links to Epstein
Is this true? If so, a good move for Labour?
Maybe we should just abolish the peerage*.
Perhaps inadvertently, KCIII has now set a precedent that you can get your titles taken off you if you’ve been sufficiently naughty.
If he can take the titles off his brother why shouldn’t some Lord or Baroness who is caught doing something questionable get theirs removed too?
It is going to be a bit of a minefield. At the very least it may be the government has to set up some kind of independent forfeiture committee to avoid the monarch being dragged into the politics of scandal - every time there is one now, there will be a louder call for titles to be stripped.
*I would probably make an initial exception for some of the hereditaries, who at least have some history behind them holding a title.
I I was his recalcitrant grandson in California, I’d be more than a little worried this morning.
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
The Seinfelds are Jewish, Cuomo still leads with Jewish voters in NYC as Jews hate Mamdani there as much as they hated Corbyn and now hate Polanski too here.
Today is the kind of day when our transition to our renewables saves us serious cash - currently only 12.8% gas generation and the spot price is £80/MWh.
I'm on the Octopus Agile TOU tariff, which is £138.6p / MWh at the time of your post. It's worked well so far (Though no winter done yet ) (A weighted av unit cost of 16.88p/KwH since I've been on it from March) but even the TOU tariff is a mile above the wholesale rates and ~ quadruple from 4 - 7.
Wow, how do you get 16p? Are you a business or residential?
Date from Date to Weighted Avg charge KwH 18/03/2025 23/03/2025 21.56 31 23/03/2025 17/04/2025 16.97 166.5 18/04/2025 17/05/2025 15.76 129.6 18/05/2025 17/06/2025 14.28 94.6 18/06/2025 17/07/2025 15.27 85 18/07/2025 17/08/2025 16.11 136.3 18/08/2025 17/09/2025 13.5 176.8 18/09/2025 17/10/2025 17.68 260.1
Late autumn and winter still to go though where a sunday roast being cooked at 5 o'clock with a gloomy high could push it all up.
Battery linked to solar can push it a bit through the 4-7 peak charge period if there's a bit of sun about.
Do you need battery or solar to get on this tariff?
No. But your results may vary. As I have said I expect winter to push it up a bit due to less solar for myself.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
The problem Europe has is that there are few beaches *just a little bit further north*. You can go to the Baltic but you are no better off than the UK. Maybe the French Atlantic coast will benefit. I have adapted by travelling in shoulder season, but obviously you can't if you have kids.
Europe is now less hospitable than the tropics, temperatures over 40 degrees are now commonplace whereas as far as I can see most of SE Asia seems to be constant around high 20s to mid 30s
'few beaches *just a little bit further north*'
Plenty in the UK north of Ribble or Humber. Though I dread tdo think of the adjustment the Free Kirk Leodhasach would have to make if Stornoway became the new Ibiza, certainly on Sundays.
We're going to have to develop Scotland.
I was thinking of Northumberland for instance - magnificent beaches. Be a shame to develop them ...
Northumberland is less heavily populated with midges aiui from my last holiday there, so it could ne an option.
If England cooks, do Scottish midges migrate North or South?
If they are West Coast and Damp, is it bye-bye Blackpool and Greater Manchester?
According to the Telegraph, Labour insisting that Mandy shouldn't lose his title over links to Epstein
Is this true? If so, a good move for Labour?
Maybe we should just abolish the peerage*.
Perhaps inadvertently, KCIII has now set a precedent that you can get your titles taken off you if you’ve been sufficiently naughty.
If he can take the titles off his brother why shouldn’t some Lord or Baroness who is caught doing something questionable get theirs removed too?
It is going to be a bit of a minefield. At the very least it may be the government has to set up some kind of independent forfeiture committee to avoid the monarch being dragged into the politics of scandal - every time there is one now, there will be a louder call for titles to be stripped.
*I would probably make an initial exception for some of the hereditaries, who at least have some history behind them holding a title.
I I was his recalcitrant grandson in California, I’d be more than a little worried this morning.
According to the Telegraph, Labour insisting that Mandy shouldn't lose his title over links to Epstein
Is this true? If so, a good move for Labour?
Maybe we should just abolish the peerage*.
Perhaps inadvertently, KCIII has now set a precedent that you can get your titles taken off you if you’ve been sufficiently naughty.
If he can take the titles off his brother why shouldn’t some Lord or Baroness who is caught doing something questionable get theirs removed too?
It is going to be a bit of a minefield. At the very least it may be the government has to set up some kind of independent forfeiture committee to avoid the monarch being dragged into the politics of scandal - every time there is one now, there will be a louder call for titles to be stripped.
*I would probably make an initial exception for some of the hereditaries, who at least have some history behind them holding a title.
I I was his recalcitrant grandson in California, I’d be more than a little worried this morning.
The precident has now been set.
Grandson? Has wee Archie been a naughty boy?
Archie will retain his titles and having a mixed race child in the line of succession has some advantages for the royals keeping Andrew with his titles now does not
On topic, if you’re looking for a polling bust for betting purposes, NYC mayoral may be the one. Otoh it might be the self deluding persuading themselves that a serial harasser of women is just what the city wants and needs. 12/1 on comeback kid Cuomo.
The Seinfelds are Jewish, Cuomo still leads with Jewish voters in NYC as Jews hate Mamdani there as much as they hated Corbyn and now hate Polanski too here.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
I'll be investing heavily in a chain of paella shops across Margate, Blackpool and Yarmouth come 2035.
Back in the late 1980s, Jonathon Porrit of the Greens came on Radio 4 to tell us of the dangers of Global Warming.
He finished by saying that if nothing was done, “they will be growing palm trees on the beach at Bournemouth”.
I was very young but I remember thinking that that argument was a terrible way to convince people there was a problem.
In the UK and much of the world the initial problems are more the increase in extreme weather rather than the temperature rise. Not sure if they knew that was also coming back in the 80s or not.
They didn't. The assumption seemed to be, IIRC, that temperatures would increase all round, fairly evenly. In retrospect, the addition of energy into weather systems causing more extreme events should have been obvious.
I don't think it is immediately obvious that there will be more extreme events.
Every thermodynamic process has a heat source and a heat sink. If the sink warms as well as the source, then potentially there's no extra energy available.
There are various non-linearities (such as the saturation point of air) which make it more complicated than that, but the idea that all the extra energy is available is not true.
Butd surely extreme events by their definition are statistical extremes, and this brings into play the shifting of normal curves along the x-axis and all that.
The complication is that the shape of the normal distribution can change, as well as its centre point.
But people were aware of the risk of changes in extremes, though they didn't have any way to quantify that risk.
From physical first principles I think you'd expect more weather extremes from an increasing greenhouse effect.
As the greenhouse effect strengthens and heat is less readily rediated into space, it will increasing tend to move horizonally from the warmer to the cooler parts of the Earth. This is apparent from the fact that the poles are warming faster than the tropics. If more heat has to be transferred from place to place, then you'd imagine that the weather needed to do this would become more dynamic. This could manifest as increasing numbers of storms, or increasing storm intensity, or elements of both.
The warming of the poles is quite likely to be making our weather (via the jet stream) less dynamic as it reduces the temperature contrast between latitudes.
I think that is inverting cause and effect. I'd say the reduction in temperature contrast is actually a consequnce of more dynamic weather; that is, you need more dynamic weather in order to reduce the contrast. Look at Venus, for example: runaway greenhouse effect; virtually no difference in temperature between equator and poles; extremely powerful winds.
Today is the kind of day when our transition to our renewables saves us serious cash - currently only 12.8% gas generation and the spot price is £80/MWh.
Question about that.
It feels like the following things are true:
a) weather that allows us to ignore the cost of gas is rare but becoming more common b) more wind and solar are still being added, which is why the events are becoming more common c) the effect on prices will be a phase transition/tipping point; not much will seem to happen for ages, then a very sharp reduction.
Is that right, and if so, how close are we to that tipping point?
This idea that our energy costs are expensive because they are linked to gas is a fallacy imo. Our renewables are provided on fixed price contracts and the cost of gas doesn't effect them - that's why during Putin's invasion those contracts saved us billions - but when gas prices are low, they cost us.
So there may come a time when 100% of electricity is domestic renewables, but that won't mean that prices crash. The only way you can achieve that is if the technology advances in some way - offshore wind has stalled at about £70 per MWh in today's prices. If gas sits at £40 per MWh then that isn't great, though there are very strong national security arguments for the economic stability renewable contracts provide. And if solar + batteries deliver us £10 per MWh...
There is a also fallacy in the claim that gas generally is 'more expensive' and is keeping bills high. One of the reasons that gas provision is so costly is because it is only used intermittently. All of the costs of building, maintaining and running the gas generation (known as Levelised Cost of Electricity) are loaded onto a short period of actual use. So unit prices appear extremely high. Perversely using this system, he more we use gas (or anyother energy source) the cheaper it become as unit cost. Also certain costs involved in renewable energy are specifically excluded from the LCOE calculation. The most obvious being storage costs.
According to the Telegraph, Labour insisting that Mandy shouldn't lose his title over links to Epstein
Is this true? If so, a good move for Labour?
Maybe we should just abolish the peerage*.
Perhaps inadvertently, KCIII has now set a precedent that you can get your titles taken off you if you’ve been sufficiently naughty.
If he can take the titles off his brother why shouldn’t some Lord or Baroness who is caught doing something questionable get theirs removed too?
It is going to be a bit of a minefield. At the very least it may be the government has to set up some kind of independent forfeiture committee to avoid the monarch being dragged into the politics of scandal - every time there is one now, there will be a louder call for titles to be stripped.
*I would probably make an initial exception for some of the hereditaries, who at least have some history behind them holding a title.
I I was his recalcitrant grandson in California, I’d be more than a little worried this morning.
The precident has now been set.
Grandson? Has wee Archie been a naughty boy?
Archie will retain his titles and having a mixed race child in the line of succession has some advantages for the royals keeping Andrew with his titles now does not
Besides, Andrew has brought proper shame on the Family. Quite how bad that shame is, we will probably never find out, because the Family will make sure of it.
Harry just didn't want to play the game any more. And annoying as that is, he's the wrong nut to use the same sledgehammer on.
According to the Telegraph, Labour insisting that Mandy shouldn't lose his title over links to Epstein
Is this true? If so, a good move for Labour?
Maybe we should just abolish the peerage*.
Perhaps inadvertently, KCIII has now set a precedent that you can get your titles taken off you if you’ve been sufficiently naughty.
If he can take the titles off his brother why shouldn’t some Lord or Baroness who is caught doing something questionable get theirs removed too?
It is going to be a bit of a minefield. At the very least it may be the government has to set up some kind of independent forfeiture committee to avoid the monarch being dragged into the politics of scandal - every time there is one now, there will be a louder call for titles to be stripped.
*I would probably make an initial exception for some of the hereditaries, who at least have some history behind them holding a title.
Titles were forfeited often enough, back in the day.
According to the Telegraph, Labour insisting that Mandy shouldn't lose his title over links to Epstein
Is this true? If so, a good move for Labour?
I don't see it unless there is some wider reform; there are bad 'uns, crooks (imo) and jailbirds in the Lords, untouched.
Lord Taylor is still there (11 months in prison, expenses fiddling). As is Baroness Uddin, and as was Lord Hanningfeld until his death last year. Lady Mone is still there. Lord Archer was a member until 2024 (perjury etc conviction in 2001) .
Some have resigned after conduct committee findings (eg Lord Ahmad).
But generally they protect their own afaics.
Yes it needs clearing out. No, I don't see Lord Mandelson as being a serious enough case to trigger said clearout.
The UK had a £26bn tourism deficit in the first half of the year:
Overseas residents made an estimated 7.2 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £4.7 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Overseas residents made an estimated 9.3 million visits to Great Britain and spent an estimated £7.9 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 18.7 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £16.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025.
Residents of Great Britain made an estimated 26.0 million visits outside of the UK and spent an estimated £22.1 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025.
Which is approximately how much money the government borrowed from foreign sources.
Just think if we could only create a giant sun and get rid of the excrement from the South Coast beaches we could have our own Cote d'Azur and all Rachel's problems would be over
That might happen, as tourists notice the traditional Mediterranean resorts are becoming unpleasantly hot, and look for alternatives.
I'll be investing heavily in a chain of paella shops across Margate, Blackpool and Yarmouth come 2035.
Back in the late 1980s, Jonathon Porrit of the Greens came on Radio 4 to tell us of the dangers of Global Warming.
He finished by saying that if nothing was done, “they will be growing palm trees on the beach at Bournemouth”.
I was very young but I remember thinking that that argument was a terrible way to convince people there was a problem.
In the UK and much of the world the initial problems are more the increase in extreme weather rather than the temperature rise. Not sure if they knew that was also coming back in the 80s or not.
They didn't. The assumption seemed to be, IIRC, that temperatures would increase all round, fairly evenly. In retrospect, the addition of energy into weather systems causing more extreme events should have been obvious.
I don't think it is immediately obvious that there will be more extreme events.
Every thermodynamic process has a heat source and a heat sink. If the sink warms as well as the source, then potentially there's no extra energy available.
There are various non-linearities (such as the saturation point of air) which make it more complicated than that, but the idea that all the extra energy is available is not true.
Butd surely extreme events by their definition are statistical extremes, and this brings into play the shifting of normal curves along the x-axis and all that.
The complication is that the shape of the normal distribution can change, as well as its centre point.
But people were aware of the risk of changes in extremes, though they didn't have any way to quantify that risk.
From physical first principles I think you'd expect more weather extremes from an increasing greenhouse effect.
As the greenhouse effect strengthens and heat is less readily rediated into space, it will increasing tend to move horizonally from the warmer to the cooler parts of the Earth. This is apparent from the fact that the poles are warming faster than the tropics. If more heat has to be transferred from place to place, then you'd imagine that the weather needed to do this would become more dynamic. This could manifest as increasing numbers of storms, or increasing storm intensity, or elements of both.
The warming of the poles is quite likely to be making our weather (via the jet stream) less dynamic as it reduces the temperature contrast between latitudes.
I think that is inverting cause and effect. I'd say the reduction in temperature contrast is actually a consequnce of more dynamic weather; that is, you need more dynamic weather in order to reduce the contrast. Look at Venus, for example: runaway greenhouse effect; virtually no difference in temperature between equator and poles; extremely powerful winds.
Temperature difference where? At the surface or in the upper atmosphere? The two are very different.
We know very little about the weather on Venus below the clouds (at 45km or so?). The landers found almost no wind.
According to the Telegraph, Labour insisting that Mandy shouldn't lose his title over links to Epstein
Is this true? If so, a good move for Labour?
Maybe we should just abolish the peerage*.
Perhaps inadvertently, KCIII has now set a precedent that you can get your titles taken off you if you’ve been sufficiently naughty.
If he can take the titles off his brother why shouldn’t some Lord or Baroness who is caught doing something questionable get theirs removed too?
It is going to be a bit of a minefield. At the very least it may be the government has to set up some kind of independent forfeiture committee to avoid the monarch being dragged into the politics of scandal - every time there is one now, there will be a louder call for titles to be stripped.
*I would probably make an initial exception for some of the hereditaries, who at least have some history behind them holding a title.
Titles were forfeited often enough, back in the day.
AIUI it needs an Act of Parliament to remove a Life Peerage, and suspension or expulsion from the Lords requires a jail sentence of a year, or other criteria (have not looked up), under the House of Lords Reform Acts 2014 and 2015.
Comments
3rd May 2006 -> 2nd May 2007 for the maximum.
The UK only has 37 out of a planned 138 F-35 jets in service - almost four decades since the programme, led by the US, was conceived.
https://news.sky.com/story/damning-report-eviscerates-uks-complacent-fast-jets-programme-13461038
TL/DR; no planes; no pilots; short-term savings increased long-term costs.
The Public Accounts Committee report on which that story is based can be found at:-
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cmselect/cmpubacc/1232/report.html
The "real" reason why landlords are selling up - It's all the Tories fault and specifically George Osborne. So there is no foundation to the suggestion it's all Labour's fault.
https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/news/section-24-tax-changes-real-reason-why-so-many-landlords-quitting
/Tongue in cheek
The one they expect to be strictly applied to The Little People.
Be careful what you do with your coffee and all that.
Or that tawdry vendettas are good for business.
Have you forgotten the Big Beautiful Bill already ?
And the renewal of the Trump tax cut ?
I don't think many would have said the average middle class American lifestyle was poor in the 1950s, indeed it was the envy of the world.
So the question is, have we used the advances in productivity and technology wisely, by acquiring ever more 'stuff' rather than enjoying more leisure?
In 2024 the LDs got 15% with ABs, 11% with C2s and just 10% with DEs.
So while the LDs can be the main alternative to Reform in more middle class areas (and on the latest Yougov Reform are basically tied for the lead with ABC1s with Labour with the LDs, Tories and Greens just behind) in working class areas it is still Labour the main alternative to Reform, not the LDs
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/trackers/voting-intention?crossBreak=abc1
In the winter, we sometimes get these weeks where we have plenty of wind but the gas price remains high - I'm assuming because the rest Europe doesn't have the same wind power available and the demand for gas remains high.
It feels like the following things are true:
a) weather that allows us to ignore the cost of gas is rare but becoming more common
b) more wind and solar are still being added, which is why the events are becoming more common
c) the effect on prices will be a phase transition/tipping point; not much will seem to happen for ages, then a very sharp reduction.
Is that right, and if so, how close are we to that tipping point?
Quinnipiac found 60% of Jews voting for Cuomo but only 33% of New York city voters overall backing Cuomo
https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3940
The price cap is a bonkers £263.50/MwH, wholesales has never been anywhere near that sustained.
I get the utility companies have other costs but the difference is crackers.
So there may come a time when 100% of electricity is domestic renewables, but that won't mean that prices crash. The only way you can achieve that is if the technology advances in some way - offshore wind has stalled at about £70 per MWh in today's prices. If gas sits at £40 per MWh then that isn't great, though there are very strong national security arguments for the economic stability renewable contracts provide. And if solar + batteries deliver us £10 per MWh...
Are you sure of your numbers? This version suggests about a 2 degree change, not 4.5.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/26/zohran-mamdani-jewish-voters-new-york
Cuomo is revolting, Mamdani is an idiot.
How I would spend that if I didn't have a mortgage and pension hole, I really can't imagine. That would represent about a 500% increase in my disposable income - which has never been higher in real terms than now at any point since I had children 20-odd years ago!
We now have the civil service union as well as two airlines imploring the Dem Senators to vote for the CR so that paychecks go out.
Every thermodynamic process has a heat source and a heat sink. If the sink warms as well as the source, then potentially there's no extra energy available.
There are various non-linearities (such as the saturation point of air) which make it more complicated than that, but the idea that all the extra energy is available is not true.
A not so secret meeting of Europeans about support for Ukraine.
Why try to make it secret?
@CentreWrite_ is now live!
We will be releasing a new article from a top thinker every day, starting with @andrew_lilico on Britain's intellectual right.
https://centrewrite.brightblue.org.uk
https://x.com/BGStaniszewski/status/1984196959511699724
As long as both sides have a story that their followers are happy with, the standoff can continue. We saw something similar here, 2016-19.
But people were aware of the risk of changes in extremes, though they didn't have any way to quantify that risk.
If England cooks, do Scottish midges migrate North or South?
If they are West Coast and Damp, is it bye-bye Blackpool and Greater Manchester?
Will @Cookie flee to Sheffield?
Is this true? If so, a good move for Labour?
It certainly leads to more extreme events, such as persistent rain or drought, but without necessarily making each individual day vastly out of the ordinary - other than the line on the thermometer being a bit higher (which it most certainly is).
As the greenhouse effect strengthens and heat is less readily rediated into space, it will increasing tend to move horizonally from the warmer to the cooler parts of the Earth. This is apparent from the fact that the poles are warming faster than the tropics. If more heat has to be transferred from place to place, then you'd imagine that the weather needed to do this would become more dynamic. This could manifest as increasing numbers of storms, or increasing storm intensity, or elements of both.
Edit: It is true though that variation in the incidence and intensity of storms as a result of climate change is a trickier prediction to make, especially at a local level. Unlike, say, sea level rise which is pretty much a certainty.
18/03/2025 23/03/2025 21.56 31
23/03/2025 17/04/2025 16.97 166.5
18/04/2025 17/05/2025 15.76 129.6
18/05/2025 17/06/2025 14.28 94.6
18/06/2025 17/07/2025 15.27 85
18/07/2025 17/08/2025 16.11 136.3
18/08/2025 17/09/2025 13.5 176.8
18/09/2025 17/10/2025 17.68 260.1
Late autumn and winter still to go though where a sunday roast being cooked at 5 o'clock with a gloomy high could push it all up.
Battery linked to solar can push it a bit through the 4-7 peak charge period if there's a bit of sun about.
Perhaps inadvertently, KCIII has now set a precedent that you can get your titles taken off you if you’ve been sufficiently naughty.
If he can take the titles off his brother why shouldn’t some Lord or Baroness who is caught doing something questionable get theirs removed too?
It is going to be a bit of a minefield. At the very least it may be the government has to set up some kind of independent forfeiture committee to avoid the monarch being dragged into the politics of scandal - every time there is one now, there will be a louder call for titles to be stripped.
*I would probably make an initial exception for some of the hereditaries, who at least have some history behind them holding a title.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=trump+credits+Adelson+with+buying+the+Golan+heights#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:ed971970,vid:nP0HPGvxrUM,st:0.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKjnZmtPcGE/?hl=en
IIRC they did at least introduce a means for people to 'retire' from the Lords, but they get to keep the title, which I would remove - since we are making appointments to serve in the legislature, you should lose the title when no longer formally serving in it. Otherwise it just further incentivizes those people who already purchase a peerage with no intention of actually doing anything for it (having raised money or donated to a party does not count).
As a reminder, one of my oft mentioned Lords reform options is that people who have donated money to a party are not allowed to be given a peerage/honour for 8 years/2 parliaments. And that people who have been MPs likewise have to wait that length.
It's not perfect (I think Mandy would still have gotten one that way), but it is better.
The precident has now been set.
How did Bloomberg do with Muslims ? How did Labour under Miliband do with Muslims ? How does Khan do with Jews?
Could be interesting
Of course Israel is a major confounding variable but thats something you can ask about
As I have said I expect winter to push it up a bit due to less solar for myself.
https://share.octopus.energy/rainy-peak-310
Harry just didn't want to play the game any more. And annoying as that is, he's the wrong nut to use the same sledgehammer on.
https://x.com/uniteeconomy/status/1984196573006299291?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
They need Anas the Scaffy Whisperer in to sort it out.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/glasgow-bin-strike-anger-should-25346881
Lord Taylor is still there (11 months in prison, expenses fiddling). As is Baroness Uddin, and as was Lord Hanningfeld until his death last year. Lady Mone is still there. Lord Archer was a member until 2024 (perjury etc conviction in 2001) .
Some have resigned after conduct committee findings (eg Lord Ahmad).
But generally they protect their own afaics.
Yes it needs clearing out. No, I don't see Lord Mandelson as being a serious enough case to trigger said clearout.
We know very little about the weather on Venus below the clouds (at 45km or so?). The landers found almost no wind.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/31/country-diary-a-hellish-fungus-foul-of-stench-and-spindly-of-finger