I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Number 37. An interesting one in Dartford. James Buchan elected to the Borough Council in a Byelection in the summer, and has now switched to the Tories.
(Current Kent Council Reorganisation is leaning towards 3 or 4 unitaries as far as I can see.)
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Dredge the rivers is hilariously wrong. Just ridiculous. Happily we have experts working hard to find ways to reduce flooding and advising the government so we don't repeat the stupidity of the past.
Those experts wouldn't be beavers would they?
No, it is neither wrong, nor ridiculous. An attempt has been made here to 'debunk' the ulitity of dredging that depended on an article that turned out to be a mealy-mouthed acknowledgement that dredging could have prevented a flooding event in the Fens.
Oh, I missed 'the stupidity of the past' - that past when these sorts of floods were a rarity would that be? That stupid past.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while there is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
The curious thing is that Musk has previously backed, with his own money, brand and talent, the "innovation not hair shirt" approach. And with the improvements in solar and batteries, that has very largely worked. A very large percentage of the solution exists, and capitalism is delivering it. It's just a question of doing it.
Yay capitalism.
And now it seems that Musk is backing away from his triumph, just as it is happening. Why? Has he been driven mad by his own opinion machine?
You should watch his commentary. He’s not backing away from anything, he thinks much of the US economy can and should be powered by solar / batteries with electric consumption. He just does not think climate change is the most pressing matter for human civilisation. Nor does Bill Gates any more of course.
I often feel quite uneasy on trains, particularly when I go into London, and even more so when they stop between stations. It crosses my mind that something like last night in Huntingdon might happen. (I read that they stopped the train between stations, but maybe that isn’t right, haven’t heard it again since). It would be my worst nightmare, my thoughts are with the passengers
I suppose there will be more security on trains now, as there are at airports post 9/11 (not comparing the two events)
I don’t really remember anything over here changing after the Thalys attack in ‘15.
The Spanish take train security very seriously with airport-style security at stations and, possibly, on the train. Between Santiago and Madrid, the train went through a shed slowly which I wondered if it was a security check of some description, but not sure.
It’s tricky. I don’t know if Spain do that for all metro-style trains or if it’s just the long distance ones. Should we do that here? Perhaps.
Every intercity train?
Every local train?
Every tube and metro service?
Every bus?
Totally impractical.
What Spain do isn’t impractical. Whether it’s logical, I don’t know.
I guess you could argue that gaps between stations makes a difference.
It is performative.
Tight security on 10% of trains, with the rest totally vulnerable.
The bombings in London were on tube trains and a bus, not on HSTs.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Does dredging rivers not increase floods at the lower end? Hence measures such as increased forest to slow down percolation into said rivers? I thought that was a basic.
It's the same reason we use Sustainable Drainage Systems in new developments.
I'd add reduced water usage as an obvious strategy, We use 25% more than our most efficient European peers (which is usually taken as Denmark).
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Dredge the rivers is hilariously wrong. Just ridiculous. Happily we have experts working hard to find ways to reduce flooding and advising the government so we don't repeat the stupidity of the past.
Those experts wouldn't be beavers would they?
No, it is neither wrong, nor ridiculous. An attempt has been made here to 'debunk' the ulitity of dredging that depended on an article that turned out to be a mealy-mouthed acknowledgement that dredging could have prevented a flooding event in the Fens.
Oh, I missed 'the stupidity of the past' - that past when these sorts of floods were a rarity would that be? That stupid past.
They were rarer because climate change (a thing you deny exists) has made them more common. But there were still plenty of devastating floods in the past, e.g.
I often feel quite uneasy on trains, particularly when I go into London, and even more so when they stop between stations. It crosses my mind that something like last night in Huntingdon might happen. (I read that they stopped the train between stations, but maybe that isn’t right, haven’t heard it again since). It would be my worst nightmare, my thoughts are with the passengers
I suppose there will be more security on trains now, as there are at airports post 9/11 (not comparing the two events)
I don’t really remember anything over here changing after the Thalys attack in ‘15.
The Spanish take train security very seriously with airport-style security at stations and, possibly, on the train. Between Santiago and Madrid, the train went through a shed slowly which I wondered if it was a security check of some description, but not sure.
It’s tricky. I don’t know if Spain do that for all metro-style trains or if it’s just the long distance ones. Should we do that here? Perhaps.
Every intercity train?
Every local train?
Every tube and metro service?
Every bus?
Totally impractical.
What Spain do isn’t impractical. Whether it’s logical, I don’t know.
I guess you could argue that gaps between stations makes a difference.
Having briefly used the Spanish network it does seem to work pretty well, though my suspicion (which may be wrong) is that a large part of the network is big intercity services so fewer and more organised departures. Also from my experience, Spanish train stations are huge so it’s easier to control crowds. I am not sure how one would install full security apparatus in some of our very small overcrowded stations.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while there is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
The curious thing is that Musk has previously backed, with his own money, brand and talent, the "innovation not hair shirt" approach. And with the improvements in solar and batteries, that has very largely worked. A very large percentage of the solution exists, and capitalism is delivering it. It's just a question of doing it.
Yay capitalism.
And now it seems that Musk is backing away from his triumph, just as it is happening. Why? Has he been driven mad by his own opinion machine?
You should watch his commentary. He’s not backing away from anything, he thinks much of the US economy can and should be powered by solar / batteries with electric consumption. He just does not think climate change is the most pressing matter for human civilisation. Nor does Bill Gates any more of course.
The correct answer is what Musk is doing, advancing the state of technology. Unfortunately the Chinese are doing the same.
What’s undoubtedly the wrong answer is what Ed Miliband is doing. Throwing tens of billions at energy subsidies, while still giving consumers and business the highest power bills in the developed world.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while there is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
The curious thing is that Musk has previously backed, with his own money, brand and talent, the "innovation not hair shirt" approach. And with the improvements in solar and batteries, that has very largely worked. A very large percentage of the solution exists, and capitalism is delivering it. It's just a question of doing it.
Yay capitalism.
And now it seems that Musk is backing away from his triumph, just as it is happening. Why? Has he been driven mad by his own opinion machine?
You should watch his commentary. He’s not backing away from anything, he thinks much of the US economy can and should be powered by solar / batteries with electric consumption. He just does not think climate change is the most pressing matter for human civilisation. Nor does Bill Gates any more of course.
No, he thinks the most pressing matter for human civilisation is Wikipedia saying mean things about him, so he’s invented the laughable Grokipedia. Why are you looking to Musk for answers? The guy’s a loon.
I like Kemi, and hope she is given time. A Tory-Reform govt with her in partnership with Farage would be better than a Reform majority in my opinion.
A Reform majority govt would be hindered by the lack of experience in navigating the Machiavellian corridors of Whitehall. But equally there’s not a lot of experience left in the Tory parliamentary party with that knowledge either.
So much will rest on whether Farage brings in Big Dogs from industry for his shadow cabinet or just makes Tice Chancellor in waiting.
Why would Big Dogs from industry have any better experience?
They don’t have experience of Whitehall but they have run big organisations and should do better than no marks like Matt Hancock, who sums up the last 25 years of British governance for me.
Starmer had run a big organisation- the CPS. That experience doesn't seem to be helping him much. The dynamics and constraints on the boss are totally different.
Farage's "unelected Cabinet of top people" currently seems like a bit of sticking plaster over the accusation that he wouldn't have enough experienced MPs to form a government, and that the ones he has fall into the fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists category. Except with less of the closeting these days.
As for the answer, perhaps we have to accept that cabinet jobs are now mostly too big for one brain to process, and decide what to do about that.
LOL CPS, public useless body , nothing like running a real business wher e you have to balance books and actually have productivity , oversight, profits , etc. The clown could not run a bath.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Does dredging rivers not increase floods at the lower end? Hence measures such as increased forest to slow down percolation into said rivers? I thought that was a basic.
It's the same reason we use Sustainable Drainage Systems in new developments.
I'd add reduced water usage as an obvious strategy, We use 25% more than our most efficient European peers (which is usually taken as Denmark).
(I see my last para is off subthread).
As a further key strategy I'd add peatland restoration, where we are very much a leader.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
He would have been munching on his quinoa and adjsting his sandals when he posted that
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Dredge the rivers is hilariously wrong. Just ridiculous. Happily we have experts working hard to find ways to reduce flooding and advising the government so we don't repeat the stupidity of the past.
Those experts wouldn't be beavers would they?
No, it is neither wrong, nor ridiculous. An attempt has been made here to 'debunk' the ulitity of dredging that depended on an article that turned out to be a mealy-mouthed acknowledgement that dredging could have prevented a flooding event in the Fens.
Oh, I missed 'the stupidity of the past' - that past when these sorts of floods were a rarity would that be? That stupid past.
See my post above. There are definitely some lower cost interventions available that would lessen the burden on dredging. I would love to buy the largely unused pasture land up the slope from my house to put in some scrapes, that dry out in summer and fill up quickly and release slowly upon a downpour. This would make material difference to surface flooding on the main road at the bottom of the slope.
And actually there’s no reason why the land could not still be grazed for the three weeks a year as correctly. A localised problem solved for the cost of one man and a digger for a day.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Dredge the rivers is hilariously wrong. Just ridiculous. Happily we have experts working hard to find ways to reduce flooding and advising the government so we don't repeat the stupidity of the past.
Those experts wouldn't be beavers would they?
No, it is neither wrong, nor ridiculous. An attempt has been made here to 'debunk' the ulitity of dredging that depended on an article that turned out to be a mealy-mouthed acknowledgement that dredging could have prevented a flooding event in the Fens.
Oh, I missed 'the stupidity of the past' - that past when these sorts of floods were a rarity would that be? That stupid past.
Dredging works, but our industrial past means the river beds often have things in them that are best not brought to the surface. (of course there's an assumption that the current event is linked to recent ones in some way, it might not be, but the direction of travel outside of this individual event seems now predetermined).
I like Kemi, and hope she is given time. A Tory-Reform govt with her in partnership with Farage would be better than a Reform majority in my opinion.
A Reform majority govt would be hindered by the lack of experience in navigating the Machiavellian corridors of Whitehall. But equally there’s not a lot of experience left in the Tory parliamentary party with that knowledge either.
So much will rest on whether Farage brings in Big Dogs from industry for his shadow cabinet or just makes Tice Chancellor in waiting.
Why would Big Dogs from industry have any better experience?
They don’t have experience of Whitehall but they have run big organisations and should do better than no marks like Matt Hancock, who sums up the last 25 years of British governance for me.
Starmer had run a big organisation- the CPS. That experience doesn't seem to be helping him much. The dynamics and constraints on the boss are totally different.
Farage's "unelected Cabinet of top people" currently seems like a bit of sticking plaster over the accusation that he wouldn't have enough experienced MPs to form a government, and that the ones he has fall into the fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists category. Except with less of the closeting these days.
As for the answer, perhaps we have to accept that cabinet jobs are now mostly too big for one brain to process, and decide what to do about that.
You are presupposing most of them have a brain to start with, issue is we are electing donkeys to be racehorses.
Listening to Sky News just now, it sounds like one person with a knife and two arrests. I think @MarqueeMark is right that we shouldn’t assume that there were two perpetrators.
Maybe somebody just happened to be travelling home with a narwhal tusk...
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
'Why don't those wankers talk about Sudan?'
'Talks about Sudan'
'Those wankers are just jumping on a new bandwagon!!'
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Most of that transformation was under Boris Johnson, so go after him. Immigration in 2024 had already dropped significantly, to less than half of what it had been in 2022/3. 2025 is expected to show lower figures again. Voters have already expressed themselves at the ballot box and politicians have already listened and reacted.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
It’s quite amazing that large groups of people can spend two years loudly protesting for a ceasefire in Gaza, yet all remain terribly silent when the ceasefire actually happens.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
She can’t win with you, can she? If she doesn’t say anything about Sudan, you’d accuse her of being too obsessed with Palestine and ignoring Sudan. If she does say something about Sudan, you accuse her of jumping on a bandwagon.
So unless you unhesitatingly support every house building proposal put forward you're a NIMBY? I don't know why I am defending a Reform politician but he doesn't say no additional housing in his leaflet. He calls for "infrastructure first" development which seems entirely sensible to me.
23% saying Badenoch is doing a good job is actually higher than the Conservative current voteshare. So if Kemi can improve the Conservative votershare to match that level ahead of the May local elections she would at least have near matched the 2024 Tory general election score and maybe secured her leadership. Not only a majority of Conservative voters but slightly more Reform voters than not saying he has done a good job will provide some encouragement to her.
However, the fact that less than half of Conservative voters say she should lead the party into the next general election is less encouraging for her. If the Conservatives see significant losses in the local and Senedd and Holyrood elections next year therefore she will likely face a VONC she would lose if she has not already resigned first. Cleverly or Jenrick would then probably replace her as Conservative leader, maybe Cleverly could even get a coronation if he gets 2/3 of Tory MPs behind him similar to how the 1922 cttee effectively ensured Sunak became Tory leader and PM in late 2022 with a clear majority of Conservative MPs behind him
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
She can’t win with you, can she? If she doesn’t say anything about Sudan, you’d accuse her of being too obsessed with Palestine and ignoring Sudan. If she does say something about Sudan, you accuse her of jumping on a bandwagon.
She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".
Neither Palestinian nor Sudan are part of that brief.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
If she plugged away at one issue for the rest of her life you'd probably call her an obsessive fanatic.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Dredge the rivers is hilariously wrong. Just ridiculous. Happily we have experts working hard to find ways to reduce flooding and advising the government so we don't repeat the stupidity of the past.
In some specific places - the man made ditches in Somerset a lack of mainatainance (I.e. dredging) was certainly an issue for widespread flooding of the levels. That’s a man made system not being maintained., and the levels reverting to being a flood system.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
She can’t win with you, can she? If she doesn’t say anything about Sudan, you’d accuse her of being too obsessed with Palestine and ignoring Sudan. If she does say something about Sudan, you accuse her of jumping on a bandwagon.
She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".
Neither Palestinian nor Sudan are part of that brief.
It is actually possible to care about more than one thing.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Dredge the rivers is hilariously wrong. Just ridiculous. Happily we have experts working hard to find ways to reduce flooding and advising the government so we don't repeat the stupidity of the past.
Ignoring science and failing to put the necessary effort into understanding environmental processes, such as the interactions between landuse and geomorphology/ecology etc., at different points in catchments is a signature modus operandi of the libertarian right. They’d rather loudly blare out simplistic ‘common sense’ solutions whilst having no interest whatsoever in joining the dots to understand why the problems are happening in the first place. Hold back that tide! Build some sandcastles!
23% saying Badenoch is doing a good job is actually higher than the Conservative current voteshare. So if Kemi can improve the Conservative votershare to match that level ahead of the May local elections she would at least have near matched the 2024 Tory general election score and maybe secured her leadership. Not only a majority of Conservative voters but slightly more Reform voters than not saying he has done a good job will provide some encouragement to her.
However, the fact that less than half of Conservative voters say she should lead the party into the next general election is less encouraging for her. If the Conservatives see significant losses in the local and Senedd and Holyrood elections next year therefore she will likely face a VONC she would lose if she has not already resigned first. Cleverly or Jenrick would then probably replace her as Conservative leader, maybe Cleverly could even get a coronation if he gets 2/3 of Tory MPs behind him similar to how the 1922 cttee effectively ensured Sunak became Tory leader and PM in late 2022 with a clear majority of Conservative MPs behind him
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
She can’t win with you, can she? If she doesn’t say anything about Sudan, you’d accuse her of being too obsessed with Palestine and ignoring Sudan. If she does say something about Sudan, you accuse her of jumping on a bandwagon.
Look, she's a young girl with rich and connected parents, it's vitally important that she's taken down a peg or two.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Just so we are clear. You decry the endless posts from all the people who like you demand to deport all the illegals because they are "fighting age" muslims?
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
She can’t win with you, can she? If she doesn’t say anything about Sudan, you’d accuse her of being too obsessed with Palestine and ignoring Sudan. If she does say something about Sudan, you accuse her of jumping on a bandwagon.
She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".
Neither Palestinian nor Sudan are part of that brief.
What do you mean, “She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".”? She’s a private individual. She can do what she wants.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Just so we are clear. You decry the endless posts from all the people who like you demand to deport all the illegals because they are "fighting age" muslims?
I'm nobody's keeper, or accountable for the actions and opinions of others. Go and have your straw man arguments with someone else.
On topic, Badenoch's problem is the same as Starmer's problem - they don't actually stand for anything.
Starmer stood on a platform of CHANGE from the failed Tory policies. Not being the Tories being the CHANGE that people wanted. Badenoch projects a platform of CHANGE from the failed Tory policies. Not being the Tories being the CHANGE that people want.
Its the same thing. OK Badenoch also attacks Labour but she and her team spend most of their time attacking policies which were their policies until they were removed from office.
Have a clue who you are and what your aim is - other than being in office or a one-word slogan - and you may get somewhere. With a government this awful, it should be gift week for the Tories.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
She can’t win with you, can she? If she doesn’t say anything about Sudan, you’d accuse her of being too obsessed with Palestine and ignoring Sudan. If she does say something about Sudan, you accuse her of jumping on a bandwagon.
She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".
Neither Palestinian nor Sudan are part of that brief.
It is actually possible to care about more than one thing.
From the River Nile to the Red Sea, Sudan will be free!
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
The current government wish to implement ID cards to solve the problem of illegal immigration, because they say it would make it impossible for such people to work or access services. Estimates vary but the right ballpark of illegal immigrants currently in the UK is 1 million, give or take another year or two of influx.
What is Starmer’s plan once ID cards are rolled out? An amnesty on those people but being really tough honest guv on new entrants? Forcible deportations? Doing nothing and forcing those people ever deeper into the black economy?
It would be absurd to go with option 3. And option 1 would be politically suicidal. So we can only assume that Starmer wishes to deport 1m people. So I agree with the Prime Minister, for narrowing down to the precise demographic that should be forcibly deported, which rather inconveniently for him, is a very large number indeed.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Just so we are clear. You decry the endless posts from all the people who like you demand to deport all the illegals because they are "fighting age" muslims?
I'm nobody's keeper, or accountable for the actions and opinions of others. Go and have your straw man arguments with someone else.
Thats ok thanks. I am just curious because you appear to be the sole person wanting to deport all illegals who isn't foaming about Islam.
What are the reasons why you want to deport them? We've dismissed race. So why?
23% saying Badenoch is doing a good job is actually higher than the Conservative current voteshare. So if Kemi can improve the Conservative votershare to match that level ahead of the May local elections she would at least have near matched the 2024 Tory general election score and maybe secured her leadership. Not only a majority of Conservative voters but slightly more Reform voters than not saying he has done a good job will provide some encouragement to her.
However, the fact that less than half of Conservative voters say she should lead the party into the next general election is less encouraging for her. If the Conservatives see significant losses in the local and Senedd and Holyrood elections next year therefore she will likely face a VONC she would lose if she has not already resigned first. Cleverly or Jenrick would then probably replace her as Conservative leader, maybe Cleverly could even get a coronation if he gets 2/3 of Tory MPs behind him similar to how the 1922 cttee effectively ensured Sunak became Tory leader and PM in late 2022 with a clear majority of Conservative MPs behind him
Matching the worst ever Conservarive party UK election is a pretty low bar.
The reason Badenoch may survive as leader is simply what @TSE says in the header.The alternatives are even worse.
I think Badenoch's biggest failure is her lack of control over her party. She has Jenrick, Lam and others upstaging her, and the confusion over the deportation plan for those on ILR is a consequence.
I rather like the Seleukid Empire. As well as the Grainger three part book series, you might find this smaller YouTube channel's series on the Empire quite interesting: https://www.youtube.com/@obscurehistory1
I realise neither of these things are relevant to the Badenoch header or the breaking news story, but then, neither is all this Thunberg nonsense. And, unlike the latter, you might find these historical video channels interesting to watch.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Does dredging rivers not increase floods at the lower end? Hence measures such as increased forest to slow down percolation into said rivers? I thought that was a basic.
It's the same reason we use Sustainable Drainage Systems in new developments.
I'd add reduced water usage as an obvious strategy, We use 25% more than our most efficient European peers (which is usually taken as Denmark).
(I see my last para is off subthread).
As a further key strategy I'd add peatland restoration, where we are very much a leader.
Indeed.
I'm involved in a small peatland restoration project although lowland rather than the degraded upland bogs that are the main issue for flooding.
There's been lots of good work in the Pennines but more is needed and there's still resistance on some estates.
Our recent flooding problems are mostly due to urbanisation and extra flood defences upstream though
The river itself is just a drainage channel long since diverted from its original course and can't be deepened without collapsing the flood banks. In any case it is tidal, so the base water level can't be lowered.
I have never managed to work out where this dredging obsession comes from.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
She can’t win with you, can she? If she doesn’t say anything about Sudan, you’d accuse her of being too obsessed with Palestine and ignoring Sudan. If she does say something about Sudan, you accuse her of jumping on a bandwagon.
She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".
Neither Palestinian nor Sudan are part of that brief.
What do you mean, “She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".”? She’s a private individual. She can do what she wants.
She should learn from Boyan Slat, who by many orders is a more impressive individual and having a superior impact for environmentalism. He is less celebrated but has quietly and efficiently built a team that is on the verge of making a material dent in the problem of plastic pollution.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Just so we are clear. You decry the endless posts from all the people who like you demand to deport all the illegals because they are "fighting age" muslims?
I'm nobody's keeper, or accountable for the actions and opinions of others. Go and have your straw man arguments with someone else.
Thats ok thanks. I am just curious because you appear to be the sole person wanting to deport all illegals who isn't foaming about Islam.
What are the reasons why you want to deport them? We've dismissed race. So why?
Is shouldn’t be too controversial to say that any foreigner sentenced to imprisonment should be deported, should it?
Race and religion have nothing to do with it, merely nationality and criminality.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Dredge the rivers is hilariously wrong. Just ridiculous. Happily we have experts working hard to find ways to reduce flooding and advising the government so we don't repeat the stupidity of the past.
In some specific places - the man made ditches in Somerset a lack of mainatainance (I.e. dredging) was certainly an issue for widespread flooding of the levels. That’s a man made system not being maintained., and the levels reverting to being a flood system.
That's the point of the levels. The best method is for the rain to run off slowly so that it soaks into the ground and aquifers rather than running off in torrents and destroying everything downstream as it overwhelms flood defenses. Intelligent people spend a lot of time modelling this at Universities with physical and computer models
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Deportations are up under Labour.
There's not enough zeros on the numbers yet. I'm not shilling for the conservatives on this matter.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
She can’t win with you, can she? If she doesn’t say anything about Sudan, you’d accuse her of being too obsessed with Palestine and ignoring Sudan. If she does say something about Sudan, you accuse her of jumping on a bandwagon.
She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".
Neither Palestinian nor Sudan are part of that brief.
Labour are supposed to be a party of democratic socialism and looking out for the interests of the working classes. How's that going?
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
She can’t win with you, can she? If she doesn’t say anything about Sudan, you’d accuse her of being too obsessed with Palestine and ignoring Sudan. If she does say something about Sudan, you accuse her of jumping on a bandwagon.
She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".
Neither Palestinian nor Sudan are part of that brief.
What do you mean, “She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".”? She’s a private individual. She can do what she wants.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
She can’t win with you, can she? If she doesn’t say anything about Sudan, you’d accuse her of being too obsessed with Palestine and ignoring Sudan. If she does say something about Sudan, you accuse her of jumping on a bandwagon.
She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".
Neither Palestinian nor Sudan are part of that brief.
What do you mean, “She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".”? She’s a private individual. She can do what she wants.
She should learn from Boyan Slat, who by many orders is a more impressive individual and having a superior impact for environmentalism. He is less celebrated but has quietly and efficiently built a team that is on the verge of making a material dent in the problem of plastic pollution.
Why? Can’t Slat do things his way and Thunberg do things her way?
One thought that popped into my head was whether it is worth setting up a new branch of the armed forces where if you join there is no drill, no assault courses and forced marches or sleeping in tents in the field in strange places.
This branch would operate all future tech warfare from bases in the UK/Cyprus/ME/Norway etc where they sleep in their bed on base, three square a day etc but their role is remote drone flying and targeting. Attract in the computer game geeks who don’t do much exercise but have already spent a decade and a half sitting on their arses controlling computers to shoot up things.
If you set it up as a separate arm of the forces so you can specifically advertise that there’s no hard physical, no chance of being in a war zone etc it might create a new line of recruitment we need. I know from the article that we still need infantry on the ground to deliver systems and control them in some circus but I’m sure one line of development will be focussed on far remote warfare.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Just so we are clear. You decry the endless posts from all the people who like you demand to deport all the illegals because they are "fighting age" muslims?
I'm nobody's keeper, or accountable for the actions and opinions of others. Go and have your straw man arguments with someone else.
Thats ok thanks. I am just curious because you appear to be the sole person wanting to deport all illegals who isn't foaming about Islam.
What are the reasons why you want to deport them? We've dismissed race. So why?
Is shouldn’t be too controversial to say that any foreigner sentenced to imprisonment should be deported, should it?
Race and religion have nothing to do with it, merely nationality and criminality.
If we know they’re not going to be imprisoned if we deport them, then is deporting them the right thing to do? If we know they’re going to executed on sight if we deport them, then is deporting them the right thing to do?
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Dredge the rivers is hilariously wrong. Just ridiculous. Happily we have experts working hard to find ways to reduce flooding and advising the government so we don't repeat the stupidity of the past.
In some specific places - the man made ditches in Somerset a lack of mainatainance (I.e. dredging) was certainly an issue for widespread flooding of the levels. That’s a man made system not being maintained., and the levels reverting to being a flood system.
You should have seen what [edit] the Somerset Levels were like before the monks got digging.
Controversially, it's hard to anyone how anyone else in the current Conservative Party would be doing any better at this time. Jenrick would have sold the party to Reform and Stride, for all this brave talk last week, isn't much known outside Devon.
Cleverly, who is clearly @HYUFD's favourite - swapping one Essex MP for another - is perhaps (or not) going to go for the London Mayoralty in 2028 and given Sadiq has apparently said he's going to run for a fourth term (reasoning, I presume, Labour are going to lose the 2029 election and he'll have more clout as London mayor than as an out-of-favour backbench opposition MP but given his record on political analysis, it probably means Labour will win the next GE easily), has an outside chance of victory.
Beyond that, the likes of Coutinho or Lam as leader would be analogous to Romulus Augustulus as Roman Emperor in the spring of 476AD with Nigel Farage playing the role of Odoacer.
I don't think Badenoch is doing too badly after a poor start. So much will depend on the May 2026 elections in Scotland, Wales, London and elsewhere. The elections this year were off the high water mark of 2021 so losses were expected.
In 2022, the projected national shares were Labour 35%, Conservatives 30%, LDs 19%, Greens 11%. The Conservatives lost 485 seats then and will be looking to minimise 2026 losses or to have those losses look insignificant next to those of Labour. There were 4,411 seats fought in 2022 against 4,249 up for grabs next May.
Cleverly is no longer looking at the London Mayoralty but is back in Shadow Cabinet and the frontbench. Seb Coe is now the CCHQ preferred candidate for London Mayor in 2028.
Cleverly is probably the Conservatives best bet, if Kemi goes, to win back swing voters who voted for Boris in 2019, Labour in 2024 and have now switched to Farage as well as to get tactical votes from Labour and the LDs in Conservative held seats to beat Reform.
As you suggest in terms of the locals the Conservatives could even win back some seats from Labour and even some councils such as Barnet and Westminster given even on current polls there has been a swing from Labour to Conservative since 2022. The problem is there has been an even bigger swing since then from Tory to Reform
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Just so we are clear. You decry the endless posts from all the people who like you demand to deport all the illegals because they are "fighting age" muslims?
I'm nobody's keeper, or accountable for the actions and opinions of others. Go and have your straw man arguments with someone else.
Thats ok thanks. I am just curious because you appear to be the sole person wanting to deport all illegals who isn't foaming about Islam.
What are the reasons why you want to deport them? We've dismissed race. So why?
I want to deport them because they're illegal immigrants, and they should be deported. This is not controversial, this is the law as written and how it has been written and settled for a very long term. It's like saying I want shop lifters prosecuted, I want drunk drivers banned.
A whole lot of people seemed to have had a conversation and decided that those in breach of their immigration status should no longer be detained and then deported. But havent bothered to tell parliament about it.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
She can’t win with you, can she? If she doesn’t say anything about Sudan, you’d accuse her of being too obsessed with Palestine and ignoring Sudan. If she does say something about Sudan, you accuse her of jumping on a bandwagon.
She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".
Neither Palestinian nor Sudan are part of that brief.
It is actually possible to care about more than one thing.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Deportations are up under Labour.
There's not enough zeros on the numbers yet. I'm not shilling for the conservatives on this matter.
Net immigration is substantially down and deportations are up: both of those numbers are moving in the direction you want. Can you find no praise for that?
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Does dredging rivers not increase floods at the lower end? Hence measures such as increased forest to slow down percolation into said rivers? I thought that was a basic.
It's the same reason we use Sustainable Drainage Systems in new developments.
I'd add reduced water usage as an obvious strategy, We use 25% more than our most efficient European peers (which is usually taken as Denmark).
(I see my last para is off subthread).
As a further key strategy I'd add peatland restoration, where we are very much a leader.
Indeed.
I'm involved in a small peatland restoration project although lowland rather than the degraded upland bogs that are the main issue for flooding.
There's been lots of good work in the Pennines but more is needed and there's still resistance on some estates.
Our recent flooding problems are mostly due to urbanisation and extra flood defences upstream though
The river itself is just a drainage channel long since diverted from its original course and can't be deepened without collapsing the flood banks. In any case it is tidal, so the base water level can't be lowered.
I have never managed to work out where this dredging obsession comes from.
Went to see the peatland restoration work downstream from Glastonbury last month. Most interesting, if a bit squishy - great fun too.
F1: saw on my Twitter feed a rumour, apparently serious, they're considering mandatory 2 stops at every race next season.
What they should do is allow in race refuelling, when I were a lad, it made races even more exciting as teams came up with great strategies with the number of fuel stops and when.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
The current government wish to implement ID cards to solve the problem of illegal immigration, because they say it would make it impossible for such people to work or access services. Estimates vary but the right ballpark of illegal immigrants currently in the UK is 1 million, give or take another year or two of influx.
What is Starmer’s plan once ID cards are rolled out? An amnesty on those people but being really tough honest guv on new entrants? Forcible deportations? Doing nothing and forcing those people ever deeper into the black economy?
It would be absurd to go with option 3. And option 1 would be politically suicidal. So we can only assume that Starmer wishes to deport 1m people. So I agree with the Prime Minister, for narrowing down to the precise demographic that should be forcibly deported, which rather inconveniently for him, is a very large number indeed.
It has to be a winning electoral strategy, surely. Forget about the other stuff for the moment, the number of illegals is so large, parts of the state need to be repurposed to carry it out. Deport. Deport. Deport.
Well it turns out that the Ukranian attack on Tuapse Oil Terminal was worse than first thought.
Not only is the terminal itself, one of only three in Russia and originator of $7bn/year in exports, completely destroyed, but two dodgy tankers that were on site are also still on fire.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
She can’t win with you, can she? If she doesn’t say anything about Sudan, you’d accuse her of being too obsessed with Palestine and ignoring Sudan. If she does say something about Sudan, you accuse her of jumping on a bandwagon.
She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".
Neither Palestinian nor Sudan are part of that brief.
Labour are supposed to be a party of democratic socialism and looking out for the interests of the working classes. How's that going?
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Just so we are clear. You decry the endless posts from all the people who like you demand to deport all the illegals because they are "fighting age" muslims?
I'm nobody's keeper, or accountable for the actions and opinions of others. Go and have your straw man arguments with someone else.
Thats ok thanks. I am just curious because you appear to be the sole person wanting to deport all illegals who isn't foaming about Islam.
What are the reasons why you want to deport them? We've dismissed race. So why?
Is shouldn’t be too controversial to say that any foreigner sentenced to imprisonment should be deported, should it?
Race and religion have nothing to do with it, merely nationality and criminality.
Do we know how much of our prison capacity is filled by foreign criminals who could have been deported?
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Does dredging rivers not increase floods at the lower end? Hence measures such as increased forest to slow down percolation into said rivers? I thought that was a basic.
It's the same reason we use Sustainable Drainage Systems in new developments.
I'd add reduced water usage as an obvious strategy, We use 25% more than our most efficient European peers (which is usually taken as Denmark).
(I see my last para is off subthread).
As a further key strategy I'd add peatland restoration, where we are very much a leader.
Indeed.
I'm involved in a small peatland restoration project although lowland rather than the degraded upland bogs that are the main issue for flooding.
There's been lots of good work in the Pennines but more is needed and there's still resistance on some estates.
Our recent flooding problems are mostly due to urbanisation and extra flood defences upstream though
The river itself is just a drainage channel long since diverted from its original course and can't be deepened without collapsing the flood banks. In any case it is tidal, so the base water level can't be lowered.
I have never managed to work out where this dredging obsession comes from.
Flooding is a natural process. Our obsession with making all land profitable, or capable of building houses on, is the problem.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
She can’t win with you, can she? If she doesn’t say anything about Sudan, you’d accuse her of being too obsessed with Palestine and ignoring Sudan. If she does say something about Sudan, you accuse her of jumping on a bandwagon.
She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".
Neither Palestinian nor Sudan are part of that brief.
What do you mean, “She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".”? She’s a private individual. She can do what she wants.
She should learn from Boyan Slat, who by many orders is a more impressive individual and having a superior impact for environmentalism. He is less celebrated but has quietly and efficiently built a team that is on the verge of making a material dent in the problem of plastic pollution.
Why? Can’t Slat do things his way and Thunberg do things her way?
Greta’s claim to fame was being a kid who was rude to grownups. This got her, and thus her cause, attention. She is now just an adult who is rude to other adults and has no solutions. Which is instead harmful to her cause(s).
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Just so we are clear. You decry the endless posts from all the people who like you demand to deport all the illegals because they are "fighting age" muslims?
I'm nobody's keeper, or accountable for the actions and opinions of others. Go and have your straw man arguments with someone else.
Thats ok thanks. I am just curious because you appear to be the sole person wanting to deport all illegals who isn't foaming about Islam.
What are the reasons why you want to deport them? We've dismissed race. So why?
Is shouldn’t be too controversial to say that any foreigner sentenced to imprisonment should be deported, should it?
Race and religion have nothing to do with it, merely nationality and criminality.
Why not just deport everyone who gets imprisoned shrugemoji
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Does dredging rivers not increase floods at the lower end? Hence measures such as increased forest to slow down percolation into said rivers? I thought that was a basic.
It's the same reason we use Sustainable Drainage Systems in new developments.
I'd add reduced water usage as an obvious strategy, We use 25% more than our most efficient European peers (which is usually taken as Denmark).
(I see my last para is off subthread).
As a further key strategy I'd add peatland restoration, where we are very much a leader.
Indeed.
I'm involved in a small peatland restoration project although lowland rather than the degraded upland bogs that are the main issue for flooding.
There's been lots of good work in the Pennines but more is needed and there's still resistance on some estates.
Our recent flooding problems are mostly due to urbanisation and extra flood defences upstream though
The river itself is just a drainage channel long since diverted from its original course and can't be deepened without collapsing the flood banks. In any case it is tidal, so the base water level can't be lowered.
I have never managed to work out where this dredging obsession comes from.
We had an almighty red trousers-on-red trousers stooshie once because one landowner wanted another landowner to dredge his gravel beds (good for what remains of the salmon). Difficult to keep a straight face.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Just so we are clear. You decry the endless posts from all the people who like you demand to deport all the illegals because they are "fighting age" muslims?
I'm nobody's keeper, or accountable for the actions and opinions of others. Go and have your straw man arguments with someone else.
Thats ok thanks. I am just curious because you appear to be the sole person wanting to deport all illegals who isn't foaming about Islam.
What are the reasons why you want to deport them? We've dismissed race. So why?
Is shouldn’t be too controversial to say that any foreigner sentenced to imprisonment should be deported, should it?
Race and religion have nothing to do with it, merely nationality and criminality.
Why not just deport everyone who gets imprisoned shrugemoji
Because we cant do anything about our own neds, we're stuck with them.
What I don't understand is wht the ECML is shut down. Can't they shunt the train into a siding? Or what am I missing?
From what I heard this morning, there's potentially evidence on the line, for example a knife might have been thrown on the track, as well potential evidence on the platform at Huntingdon.
But from what I can see the ECML is back operating (albeit with delays and cancellations.)
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Does dredging rivers not increase floods at the lower end? Hence measures such as increased forest to slow down percolation into said rivers? I thought that was a basic.
It's the same reason we use Sustainable Drainage Systems in new developments.
I'd add reduced water usage as an obvious strategy, We use 25% more than our most efficient European peers (which is usually taken as Denmark).
(I see my last para is off subthread).
As a further key strategy I'd add peatland restoration, where we are very much a leader.
Indeed.
I'm involved in a small peatland restoration project although lowland rather than the degraded upland bogs that are the main issue for flooding.
There's been lots of good work in the Pennines but more is needed and there's still resistance on some estates.
Our recent flooding problems are mostly due to urbanisation and extra flood defences upstream though
The river itself is just a drainage channel long since diverted from its original course and can't be deepened without collapsing the flood banks. In any case it is tidal, so the base water level can't be lowered.
I have never managed to work out where this dredging obsession comes from.
Went to see the peatland restoration work downstream from Glastonbury last month. Most interesting, if a bit squishy - great fun too.
A short video I posted about it recently that is quite interesting.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Just so we are clear. You decry the endless posts from all the people who like you demand to deport all the illegals because they are "fighting age" muslims?
I'm nobody's keeper, or accountable for the actions and opinions of others. Go and have your straw man arguments with someone else.
Thats ok thanks. I am just curious because you appear to be the sole person wanting to deport all illegals who isn't foaming about Islam.
What are the reasons why you want to deport them? We've dismissed race. So why?
Is shouldn’t be too controversial to say that any foreigner sentenced to imprisonment should be deported, should it?
Race and religion have nothing to do with it, merely nationality and criminality.
Why not just deport everyone who gets imprisoned shrugemoji
Because we cant do anything about our own neds, we're stuck with them.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Just so we are clear. You decry the endless posts from all the people who like you demand to deport all the illegals because they are "fighting age" muslims?
I'm nobody's keeper, or accountable for the actions and opinions of others. Go and have your straw man arguments with someone else.
Thats ok thanks. I am just curious because you appear to be the sole person wanting to deport all illegals who isn't foaming about Islam.
What are the reasons why you want to deport them? We've dismissed race. So why?
Is shouldn’t be too controversial to say that any foreigner sentenced to imprisonment should be deported, should it?
Race and religion have nothing to do with it, merely nationality and criminality.
If we know they’re not going to be imprisoned if we deport them, then is deporting them the right thing to do? If we know they’re going to executed on sight if we deport them, then is deporting them the right thing to do?
Surely how we deal with illegal immigrants who are also criminals is driven by what is the best outcome for us - i.e. them not being here and not costing us money - rather than for them?
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Just so we are clear. You decry the endless posts from all the people who like you demand to deport all the illegals because they are "fighting age" muslims?
I'm nobody's keeper, or accountable for the actions and opinions of others. Go and have your straw man arguments with someone else.
Thats ok thanks. I am just curious because you appear to be the sole person wanting to deport all illegals who isn't foaming about Islam.
What are the reasons why you want to deport them? We've dismissed race. So why?
Is shouldn’t be too controversial to say that any foreigner sentenced to imprisonment should be deported, should it?
Race and religion have nothing to do with it, merely nationality and criminality.
Why not just deport everyone who gets imprisoned shrugemoji
Put all crims on an island, loaded with weapons. Last man standing becomes England football manager?
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while their is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
It’s not worth it at the cost of all else, which is the Miliband approach. You do that which is most economic and not that which is not. It’s rather extraordinary by the way to characterise Musk as a climate denialist and rather undermines your opinion on this matter.
I didn't call Musk a denialist, did I? Miliband's approach is almost indistinguishable from the previous government.
Anyway, the logical outcome from this kind of debate is we need to think about investing much more in adaptation. Flooding is the obvious one (particularly SE England).
Dredge the rivers. Build more reservoirs to store the water, so we don't have winter floods and summer droughts every sodding year. Old school actual water management, as banned by the EU's absurd habitats regulations - the ones we no longer have to abide by. Next.
Does dredging rivers not increase floods at the lower end? Hence measures such as increased forest to slow down percolation into said rivers? I thought that was a basic.
It's the same reason we use Sustainable Drainage Systems in new developments.
I'd add reduced water usage as an obvious strategy, We use 25% more than our most efficient European peers (which is usually taken as Denmark).
(I see my last para is off subthread).
As a further key strategy I'd add peatland restoration, where we are very much a leader.
Indeed.
I'm involved in a small peatland restoration project although lowland rather than the degraded upland bogs that are the main issue for flooding.
There's been lots of good work in the Pennines but more is needed and there's still resistance on some estates.
Our recent flooding problems are mostly due to urbanisation and extra flood defences upstream though
The river itself is just a drainage channel long since diverted from its original course and can't be deepened without collapsing the flood banks. In any case it is tidal, so the base water level can't be lowered.
I have never managed to work out where this dredging obsession comes from.
Went to see the peatland restoration work downstream from Glastonbury last month. Most interesting, if a bit squishy - great fun too.
What I don't understand is wht the ECML is shut down. Can't they shunt the train into a siding? Or what am I missing?
Surely the train itself is the crime scene, and could be moved somewhere secure where BTP forensics team can look over it?
Perhaps the incident continued onto the platform where the train stopped, and it makes sense to leave the train where it is, to make the investigation easier.
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Just look at Greta. Completely forgotten about climate change and wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.
Don’t make stuff up. I just looked at her Instagram. The majority of recent posts are about Sudan, while there are others about Palestine and about climate change.
Sudan? So she's found a new bandwagon to jump on.
She can’t win with you, can she? If she doesn’t say anything about Sudan, you’d accuse her of being too obsessed with Palestine and ignoring Sudan. If she does say something about Sudan, you accuse her of jumping on a bandwagon.
She's supposed to be an "environmental campaigner".
Neither Palestinian nor Sudan are part of that brief.
It is actually possible to care about more than one thing.
And better than not caring about anything.
I get a bit of a vibe from the 'What about Sudan' guys that they're not that bothered about Sudan, what they really want is everyone else to to be not that bothered about Gaza. As has been explained on several occasions to the naturally and deliberately hard of thinking, Sudan is not demanding to be considered part of the 'civilised' west, nor is either side in their horrible civil war being described as a strong ally by our government. Where they might have a smidgeon of a point is that another strong ally of the UK, the UAE, seems to be syphoning UK-bought arms to the RSF, though I daresay that's another thing that they'll be not that bothered about.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Just so we are clear. You decry the endless posts from all the people who like you demand to deport all the illegals because they are "fighting age" muslims?
I'm nobody's keeper, or accountable for the actions and opinions of others. Go and have your straw man arguments with someone else.
Thats ok thanks. I am just curious because you appear to be the sole person wanting to deport all illegals who isn't foaming about Islam.
What are the reasons why you want to deport them? We've dismissed race. So why?
Is shouldn’t be too controversial to say that any foreigner sentenced to imprisonment should be deported, should it?
Race and religion have nothing to do with it, merely nationality and criminality.
If we know they’re not going to be imprisoned if we deport them, then is deporting them the right thing to do? If we know they’re going to executed on sight if we deport them, then is deporting them the right thing to do?
Surely how we deal with illegal immigrants who are also criminals is driven by what is the best outcome for us - i.e. them not being here and not costing us money - rather than for them?
Is it good for the victims (who are among us) if someone evades punishment? Is saving money more important that justice being seen to be done?
I see it COP30 this week in Brazil. There’s been little fanfare about it in the lead up to it. A few years ago it would have had significant coverage.
Main countries aren’t bothering. Hard to see what it can achieve aside from the regular demand for ‘climate reparations’.
And, yet, the problem is more serious than ever.
It just goes to show how fickle and shallow much opinion is on this.
Musk has spoken quite a bit in the last 48 hours about climate change. I think his view is correct. This doesn’t need to be solved at the cost of all else in the next 5 years, but it needs to have been addressed roughly by the time the century is out.
In truth, man made climate change is rather low down the list for likely causes of civilisational collapse.
That's not really how climate change works though, is it?
It's going to be exceptionally difficult to reverse and, while there is enormous uncertainty about the severity and nature of the ongoing damage, it's almost certainly better value to reduce emissions now than spend billions on flood defences and deal with mass migration from Africa, crop blight etc etc. Or at least it is if you are younger or care about the next few generations.
The same people who were denying climate change existed have now reached a final, late stage of denialism where they insist it's not worth doing anything about. It's pathetic and transparent.
The curious thing is that Musk has previously backed, with his own money, brand and talent, the "innovation not hair shirt" approach. And with the improvements in solar and batteries, that has very largely worked. A very large percentage of the solution exists, and capitalism is delivering it. It's just a question of doing it.
Yay capitalism.
And now it seems that Musk is backing away from his triumph, just as it is happening. Why? Has he been driven mad by his own opinion machine?
Is it more perhaps that he's no longer the sole beneficiary of the innovative route to swerving climate change? I can install solar and batteries, and buy a Renault 5, without him seeing any of my cash. Or maybe it's just the Luckyguy1983 instinct which is if the establishment (EU, scientists, Westminster, Holyrood, whatever) advocate for it, ot must be wrong?
(This is a great example of why you should subsidise people like Musk though - the societal benefits of his investment are now much wider than his private gains).
Well it turns out that the Ukranian attack on Tuapse Oil Terminal was worse than first thought.
Not only is the terminal itself, one of only three in Russia and originator of $7bn/year in exports, completely destroyed, but two dodgy tankers that were on site are also still on fire.
The nation needs to stop with the 'don't look back in anger'. We need to be livid, we need to be angry we need to show the inherent exceptionalism of British civilisation and express that anger to the institutions and the people that man them and their failure, not the individuals who shouldnt be here, or came because it was a rational choice for them to do so, but the people who let them in. Every politician needs to be afraid that the ballot box is coming for them. Every local government officer, every civil servant, every charity worker and activist who's charity is supping from the taxpayer and is complicit in how our nation has rapidly transformed over the last decade. But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
Thanks for taking the bait. This is the absurdity of you religious war warriors. Even now you are dancing round your handbag unwilling to state precisely which people you want to deport and why.
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
I'm fairly clear. I want to deport every damn illegal immigrant, every one of them. I wand the IRL rules changed that anyone with IRL who is convicted of a crime that involves a custodial sentence is added to the list of deportees. That's enough to be getting on with. I dont care what religion they are. I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Just so we are clear. You decry the endless posts from all the people who like you demand to deport all the illegals because they are "fighting age" muslims?
I'm nobody's keeper, or accountable for the actions and opinions of others. Go and have your straw man arguments with someone else.
Thats ok thanks. I am just curious because you appear to be the sole person wanting to deport all illegals who isn't foaming about Islam.
What are the reasons why you want to deport them? We've dismissed race. So why?
Is shouldn’t be too controversial to say that any foreigner sentenced to imprisonment should be deported, should it?
Race and religion have nothing to do with it, merely nationality and criminality.
If we know they’re not going to be imprisoned if we deport them, then is deporting them the right thing to do? If we know they’re going to executed on sight if we deport them, then is deporting them the right thing to do?
Surely how we deal with illegal immigrants who are also criminals is driven by what is the best outcome for us - i.e. them not being here and not costing us money - rather than for them?
Is it good for the victims (who are among us) if someone evades punishment? Is saving money more important that justice being seen to be done?
While it’s true that you always arm to fight the next war than the last one, the war in Ukraine has torn up much of the playbook when it comes to how a land war is fought in the 21st century.
Both sides have used millions, millions of small drones, not to mention the longer-range large one-way drones currently taking out O&G facilities across Russia.
One good thing it has shown, is that current Western kit is considerably better than Soviet kit, although the Chinese are still pushing the innovation so we need to make sire we don’t fall behind.
The single most important lesson for me is that, given a severely constrained budget, we need to stop wasting money on legacy kit, especially the flawed stuff. So truncate or terminate Ajax, and definitely terminate Challenger 3. An MBT is about the least urgent requirement for the UK, and Challenger 3 will be used by literally no one else in NATO. And use the money saved build the army some serious artillery (with a year's worth of ammunition rather than a week's) and drone capacity.
The choices for the navy and airforce are a lot less clear (though again, all of their kit is useless without a far larger stock of munitions). We need to make some choices, though, rather than trying to do a bit of everything, badly.
Comments
It just shows the protesting "community" is essentially fungible, and primarily a social club.
I'd better post this early.
Number 37. An interesting one in Dartford. James Buchan elected to the Borough Council in a Byelection in the summer, and has now switched to the Tories.
(Current Kent Council Reorganisation is leaning towards 3 or 4 unitaries as far as I can see.)
No, it is neither wrong, nor ridiculous. An attempt has been made here to 'debunk' the ulitity of dredging that depended on an article that turned out to be a mealy-mouthed acknowledgement that dredging could have prevented a flooding event in the Fens.
Oh, I missed 'the stupidity of the past' - that past when these sorts of floods were a rarity would that be? That stupid past.
Tight security on 10% of trains, with the rest totally vulnerable.
The bombings in London were on tube trains and a bus, not on HSTs.
It's the same reason we use Sustainable Drainage Systems in new developments.
I'd add reduced water usage as an obvious strategy, We use 25% more than our most efficient European peers (which is usually taken as Denmark).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_Thames_flood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_of_1968
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muckle_Spate
etc.
What’s undoubtedly the wrong answer is what Ed Miliband is doing. Throwing tens of billions at energy subsidies, while still giving consumers and business the highest power bills in the developed world.
As a further key strategy I'd add peatland restoration, where we are very much a leader.
But it makes me feel a bit dirty that the change is through Farage and Reform.
And actually there’s no reason why the land could not still be grazed for the three weeks a year as correctly. A localised problem solved for the cost of one man and a digger for a day.
(of course there's an assumption that the current event is linked to recent ones in some way, it might not be, but the direction of travel outside of this individual event seems now predetermined).
https://x.com/tomhfh/status/1984787292955857221?s=61
I think the general conclusion is that the actress is an attractive young lady.
That’s my conclusion for sure. She certainly has a nice couple of attributes.
'Talks about Sudan'
'Those wankers are just jumping on a new bandwagon!!'
To say nothing of the ultimate absurdity. This is put down as "Christianity" against Islam. But most of the "we're Christians" mob aren't...
However, the fact that less than half of Conservative voters say she should lead the party into the next general election is less encouraging for her. If the Conservatives see significant losses in the local and Senedd and Holyrood elections next year therefore she will likely face a VONC she would lose if she has not already resigned first. Cleverly or Jenrick would then probably replace her as Conservative leader, maybe Cleverly could even get a coronation if he gets 2/3 of Tory MPs behind him similar to how the 1922 cttee effectively ensured Sunak became Tory leader and PM in late 2022 with a clear majority of Conservative MPs behind him
Neither Palestinian nor Sudan are part of that brief.
I've not mentioned religion, directly or indirectly, or intended to infer.
Starmer stood on a platform of CHANGE from the failed Tory policies. Not being the Tories being the CHANGE that people wanted.
Badenoch projects a platform of CHANGE from the failed Tory policies. Not being the Tories being the CHANGE that people want.
Its the same thing. OK Badenoch also attacks Labour but she and her team spend most of their time attacking policies which were their policies until they were removed from office.
Have a clue who you are and what your aim is - other than being in office or a one-word slogan - and you may get somewhere. With a government this awful, it should be gift week for the Tories.
What is Starmer’s plan once ID cards are rolled out? An amnesty on those people but being really tough honest guv on new entrants? Forcible deportations? Doing nothing and forcing those people ever deeper into the black economy?
It would be absurd to go with option 3. And option 1 would be politically suicidal. So we can only assume that Starmer wishes to deport 1m people. So I agree with the Prime Minister, for narrowing down to the precise demographic that should be forcibly deported, which rather inconveniently for him, is a very large number indeed.
What are the reasons why you want to deport them? We've dismissed race. So why?
The reason Badenoch may survive as leader is simply what @TSE says in the header.The alternatives are even worse.
I think Badenoch's biggest failure is her lack of control over her party. She has Jenrick, Lam and others upstaging her, and the confusion over the deportation plan for those on ILR is a consequence.
Or, for a relaxing yet detailed look at lesser known groups from ancient history, check out https://www.youtube.com/@JustAnotherHistoryChannel/videos
I realise neither of these things are relevant to the Badenoch header or the breaking news story, but then, neither is all this Thunberg nonsense. And, unlike the latter, you might find these historical video channels interesting to watch.
I'm involved in a small peatland restoration project although lowland rather than the degraded upland bogs that are the main issue for flooding.
There's been lots of good work in the Pennines but more is needed and there's still resistance on some estates.
Our recent flooding problems are mostly due to urbanisation and extra flood defences upstream though
The river itself is just a drainage channel long since diverted from its original course and can't be deepened without collapsing the flood banks. In any case it is tidal, so the base water level can't be lowered.
I have never managed to work out where this dredging obsession comes from.
While Jenrick would prop up Farage, no guarantee Badenoch would and Cleverly certainly would not
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/prediction_main.html
The statement is expected before 10 am at the scene of the incident where cordons remain in place.
Race and religion have nothing to do with it, merely nationality and criminality.
One thought that popped into my head was whether it is worth setting up a new branch of the armed forces where if you join there is no drill, no assault courses and forced marches or sleeping in tents in the field in strange places.
This branch would operate all future tech warfare from bases in the UK/Cyprus/ME/Norway etc where they sleep in their bed on base, three square a day etc but their role is remote drone flying and targeting. Attract in the computer game geeks who don’t do much exercise but have already spent a decade and a half sitting on their arses controlling computers to shoot up things.
If you set it up as a separate arm of the forces so you can specifically advertise that there’s no hard physical, no chance of being in a war zone etc it might create a new line of recruitment we need. I know from the article that we still need infantry on the ground to deliver systems and control them in some circus but I’m sure one line of development will be focussed on far remote warfare.
Cleverly is probably the Conservatives best bet, if Kemi goes, to win back swing voters who voted for Boris in 2019, Labour in 2024 and have now switched to Farage as well as to get tactical votes from Labour and the LDs in Conservative held seats to beat Reform.
As you suggest in terms of the locals the Conservatives could even win back some seats from Labour and even some councils such as Barnet and Westminster given even on current polls there has been a swing from Labour to Conservative since 2022. The problem is there has been an even bigger swing since then from Tory to Reform
It's like saying I want shop lifters prosecuted, I want drunk drivers banned.
A whole lot of people seemed to have had a conversation and decided that those in breach of their immigration status should no longer be detained and then deported. But havent bothered to tell parliament about it.
Not only is the terminal itself, one of only three in Russia and originator of $7bn/year in exports, completely destroyed, but two dodgy tankers that were on site are also still on fire.
https://x.com/osinttechnical/status/1984913621684494529
But from what I can see the ECML is back operating (albeit with delays and cancellations.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHMYvzgfJ1I
Perhaps the incident continued onto the platform where the train stopped, and it makes sense to leave the train where it is, to make the investigation easier.
Where they might have a smidgeon of a point is that another strong ally of the UK, the UAE, seems to be syphoning UK-bought arms to the RSF, though I daresay that's another thing that they'll be not that bothered about.
Such as Class 769, which started out as 319 units…
(This is a great example of why you should subsidise people like Musk though - the societal benefits of his investment are now much wider than his private gains).
So truncate or terminate Ajax, and definitely terminate Challenger 3. An MBT is about the least urgent requirement for the UK, and Challenger 3 will be used by literally no one else in NATO.
And use the money saved build the army some serious artillery (with a year's worth of ammunition rather than a week's) and drone capacity.
The choices for the navy and airforce are a lot less clear (though again, all of their kit is useless without a far larger stock of munitions).
We need to make some choices, though, rather than trying to do a bit of everything, badly.