OK so I read the Fingleton report. Not a classic. It’s so specific to the nuclear industry that the Starmers comments don’t make much sense. Fingletron’s intro that mentions “process over outcome using complex procedures as protection” and “lack of incentives aligned with the public interest” feel like are talking about a different document to the report and it’s recommendations which is really odd.
I wonder what nuclear experts think of it.
Not a nuclear expert by any stretch but I wonder if Starmer has looked at Hinckley point and the length of time to progress, and been advised to spread the load of energy infrastructure around more, and not put all eggs in the renewable basket. Saying that its a bit like commissioning submarines, you have to do it years in advance to plan for what they are going to do in 10 years time, then when they come on board, technology has moved onto the next thing and they are nearly obsolete.
A change in tone definitely, civil service have been working in the background this year to free up planning and development mechanisms away from red tape, whilst keeping on top of environmental issues.
Proof of pudding will be in the eating, but don't expect too much given the ongoing shambles in other areas of government. I also note the environmental funding proposals announced today are asking a fair bit of lifting from the private sector, maybe trying to guilt trip large companies into environmental obligations when they announce new construction developments?
IMO Doubling down on nuclear after the Hinckley point disaster shows how fixed and closed their mindset is and they refuse to challenge their own out dated assumptions. Just like everything else they can’t imagine anything else so they jus5 fiddle around the edges. Doubt it helps that Starmer is of early retirement age
One of the opening lines is “ Nuclear technology is essential to the UK’s future”. Not at at £1.40mwh it shouldn’t be !
Hinckley point c should be a national scandal
This chap, who has form for another scandal, signed it off.
"Police inquiry into Post Office and Horizon may run out of cash Officers have told victims there will have to be ‘tough decisions’ on Operation Olympos despite the number of criminal suspects doubling to eight"
There never is. The British state is like an abuser who gets away with years of abuse but is never held properly accountable: it is untrustworthy, incompetent, malicious and unwilling / incapable of change, no matter what promises it makes or how many apologies are dragged out of it. We have a Potemkin justice system. And the inquiry reports lead to little more than a lot of bad headlines for a few days but no real change.
There is absolutely no point any more to any of it.
Budget eh?
Sorry I forgot to add that to my list -
Prediction - "It turned out that there 146 senior people potentially chargeable in matters arising from the Post Office. 3 are dead. 112 have taken early retirement. The rest have been diagnosed with stress and are in the luxury sections of various in-patient facilities paid for from their Post Office packages. So it would not be in the interests of justice to pursue them further. We have charged the lady who cleans on Thursdays with misconduct in a public office."
So much for Rogers prognostication about the public not understanding the lies being told by Reeves. They understand all right. She's been dancing on a pinhead. Its a question of when she falls.
So much for Rogers prognostication about the public not understanding the lies being told by Reeves. They understand all right. She's been dancing on a pinhead. Its a question of when she falls.
Obviously the CIEEM [Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management] are against it, but whisper quietly that some of their members might be happy not to have to deal with such nonsense.
Might reduce a bit of the red tape, although not for big developments.
On the other hand, I think it will now be mandatory for national infrastructure projects. Swings and roundabouts...
That has potential to unclog a lot of currently clogged up developments.
I'm not sure on the scale of the upside.
"This would exempt over 95% of current development projects from delivering net gain and effectively wipe out more than £50 million in the annual market value of BNG overnight, triggering a likely collapse."
Our village is trying to refurbish an old village hall into 2 social houses (owned by a charity) for the elderly.
They have everything in place but are being required to resubmit the BNG work at a cost of a further £10k (paid by the charity). The council has ruled that the proposed gardens for the house don’t count towards biodiversity net gains because they are gardens…
Gardens don't count because there's no control over what happens to them once the house is occupied.
Is the £10k the off-site credit cost or the report cost? That seems excessive for a small site.
The basic idea of BNG was a good one but the bureaucracy is eating all the money and leaving rather less for the biodiversity.
I wouldn’t focus on the £10k specifically as that was an offhand figure over lunch. It’s more that knocking down an old build to build 2 new social houses on the same footprint has now taken 4 years and still no progress despite 10s of thousands of reports for the local council…
The fundamental question though is there is an existing unused building. It will be replaced by 2 used buildings. Why do you need to prove BNG - it’s not a greenfield build
That seems very weird, there is no need for BNG if there's no habitat loss.
There's all the traffic assessments, flood risk assessments and other nonsense but if nobody can point at a map and say what habitat is being lost then I can't see where that would come from.
I suppose if you are losing a tree or two there could be some minor adjustments, but given that without a TPO a tree or two could be cut down in the normal management of a garden that seems pointless.
Comments
Poor polling on the budget for labour
Less trusted than Truss !!!!!!
https://news.sky.com/story/budget-2025-over-a-third-of-britons-think-rachel-reeves-exaggerated-bad-news-13478111
https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2017/12/15/ed-davey-doubts-over-hinkley-point-nuclear/
Sorry I forgot to add that to my list -
Prediction - "It turned out that there 146 senior people potentially chargeable in matters arising from the Post Office. 3 are dead. 112 have taken early retirement. The rest have been diagnosed with stress and are in the luxury sections of various in-patient facilities paid for from their Post Office packages. So it would not be in the interests of justice to pursue them further. We have charged the lady who cleans on Thursdays with misconduct in a public office."
#NU10K
Will it affect Labour polling? They are into their core vote, already. Not sure how many of the diehards they have now, they can lose.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/12/the-missile-meant-to-strike-fear-in-russias-enemies-fails-once-again/
Their new ICBM failed a launch test. Again.
This is of interest because it is supposed to replace the proven, but ancient R36. Which was (mostly) manufactured in *Ukraine*.
NEW THREAD
There's all the traffic assessments, flood risk assessments and other nonsense but if nobody can point at a map and say what habitat is being lost then I can't see where that would come from.
I suppose if you are losing a tree or two there could be some minor adjustments, but given that without a TPO a tree or two could be cut down in the normal management of a garden that seems pointless.
Sounds like a local council issue...