Not clear from Ruperts proclamation if the 10 candidates Restore can manage this year will run as Restore or as GY First as both are registered Either way, utterly pathetic effort from 'a new nationsl party thats the last chance to save the UK' even if they win the GY wards
TBH, until I saw it was posted yesterday I imagined it was an April fool.
"A Reform source confirmed that Derek Roberts, who was the party's second on the list in Pen-y-Bont Bro Morgannwg, has stood down for "personal reasons" that have not been made public.
"The party's sixth candidate, Owain Clatworthy, has left in protest at the selection process. Both decisions emerged after Corey Edwards, the first candidate on the list, stood down last week after a photo appeared to show him performing a Nazi salute."
Looks like there is a competition between Reform Scotland and Reform Wales as to who has the most bonkers candidates. Scotland possibly just ahead, at the moment? Come on, you Welsh!
Reform have some horrendous candidates, but at least they don’t have Maggie Chapman.
The problem with casting a closer relationship with Europe as the solution to the world's current economic malaise is that it kind of misses the point. The key problem at present is a shortage of ENERGY. Europe has an energy deficit. Up until 2022 it filled that gap with gas from Russia. Now it fills that gap with gas (and oil) from the US and Middle East. It swapped one dependency for another. We can debate whether that dependency is inevitable, the extent to which it's a function of geology and/or political decisions taken years ago. Regardless, right now Europe is highly exposed to the problems in the Gulf. And without US energy imports it is in BIG trouble. A closer relationship between the UK and the EU does not solve this conundrum.
I think renewables as a share of energy production in Europe is up 6 percentage points between 2022 and 2025. That’s the other side of this equation. If Europe, including the UK, can keep pushing that number up, and accelerate the increase, then we solve the problem. Big international cooperative projects, like the one to support offshore wind power in the North Sea, are part of that and are helped by that closer relationships between the UK and EU. The unreliable nature of much renewable power is also helped by pan-European cooperation.
Bollocks. Doing that only bakes in higher energy costs. There is no country with a high level of penetration of wind and solar in its energy mix that does not have higher than average energy costs. If I'm lying, find one.
Spain is 60% renewables, and has some of the lowest prices in the EU.
I'm curious what your alternative would be for Europe ?
The lowest prices 'in the EU'. I really don't care what Europe does, I just don't want us to be pulled down with them.
Right now, the higher ther proportion of renewables in your electricity generation mix (Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Norway being the top), the lower the electricity price.
Now that's not always going to be the case, but -at the same time- if the Straits of Hormuz remain closed to LNG traffic for a sustained period of time, you are really, really, really going to want non-hydrocarbon generation in the mix. (There is no chance of meaningful quantities of new UK natural gas coming on stream on five year view. Nor is HPC likely to go live on that time horizon.)
Now with a nice chart:
How are Spain pulling that off?
Not much connection across the Pyrenees, so Iberia is closeish to a closed system.
Not clear from Ruperts proclamation if the 10 candidates Restore can manage this year will run as Restore or as GY First as both are registered Either way, utterly pathetic effort from 'a new nationsl party thats the last chance to save the UK' even if they win the GY wards
Occurs to me that the anniversary of the Falklands war is tomorrow and given what's going on with Trump/Starmer/NATO would be an opportune time for Milei to make his move.
They have recently acquired some F-16s, but generally I think the Argentine armed forces are in relatively much worse state than the British compared to 1982.
I don't think even Dura could foresee a failure of the British garrison to defend against an attempted Argentine invasion.
The British Army is only there in Company strength so maybe 100 troops. If MPA is secured by the invaders then they'd have to hold out for months before any relief arrived. Doesn't seem likely..
Bernard Manning will soon get fucking interested in the Falklands if/when he needs a distraction from domestic woes. He might see a window of opportunity while Trump is on office. Any future POTUS probably won't row in behind him like Trump will.
The problem with casting a closer relationship with Europe as the solution to the world's current economic malaise is that it kind of misses the point. The key problem at present is a shortage of ENERGY. Europe has an energy deficit. Up until 2022 it filled that gap with gas from Russia. Now it fills that gap with gas (and oil) from the US and Middle East. It swapped one dependency for another. We can debate whether that dependency is inevitable, the extent to which it's a function of geology and/or political decisions taken years ago. Regardless, right now Europe is highly exposed to the problems in the Gulf. And without US energy imports it is in BIG trouble. A closer relationship between the UK and the EU does not solve this conundrum.
I think renewables as a share of energy production in Europe is up 6 percentage points between 2022 and 2025. That’s the other side of this equation. If Europe, including the UK, can keep pushing that number up, and accelerate the increase, then we solve the problem. Big international cooperative projects, like the one to support offshore wind power in the North Sea, are part of that and are helped by that closer relationships between the UK and EU. The unreliable nature of much renewable power is also helped by pan-European cooperation.
Bollocks. Doing that only bakes in higher energy costs. There is no country with a high level of penetration of wind and solar in its energy mix that does not have higher than average energy costs. If I'm lying, find one.
Spain is 60% renewables, and has some of the lowest prices in the EU.
I'm curious what your alternative would be for Europe ?
The lowest prices 'in the EU'. I really don't care what Europe does, I just don't want us to be pulled down with them.
Renewables costs upfront in solar panels, wind turbines and batteries etc, but from then on the electricity is free. Infrastructure to get and then burn fossil fuels also has upfront costs and continuing running costs. Moving towards renewables and electrification is a good investment and also a move towards energy independence.
If the Government were buying and running turbines and panels, these points might be relevant, but it isn't, so they're not. The UK's wind and solar installations are built via auctions where the Government guarantees a minimum price - without those guarantees at a sufficient level, companies don't build them. And as companies know the Government must meet self-imposed renewables targets, they simply refuse to bid until the price rises to their liking. We keep hearing about how cheap solar panels are now - but the solar strike price has *risen* in recent years. So someone might be benefitting from the cheapness of solar but it isn't us.
That's actually a legitimate criticism of our wind power regime, and I don't entirely disagree. But of course it's also true of much of the UK's utilities that we pay too much to overseas owners (thank Mrs T for that.)
Solar is a bit different. CFDs did save customers money last year. The strike price fell 6.5% this year, and in any event only about 60% of solar capacityfalls under government CFD, and the percentage is falling.
Bombe platform isn't a member of the British Polling Council.
I might pass a PB ruling prohibiting their use on PB.
That'll be because it's not a polling company, and this isn't a poll. It's a projection based on a variety of inputs. I believe these include national polling, by-election results and demographic data. It obviously doesn't take into account targeted campaigning and may not consider other local factors.
If the hooligans terrorising Clapham and assaulting police officers were white and waving the flag of St George, the police response would have been swift and heavy.
Instead, the only arrests so far have been 3 teenage girls.
Comments
Total: 60 seats
SF 22
DUP 14
APNI 11
SDLP 5
Green 3
UUP 2
PBP 1
TUV 1
Ind 1
Nationalist 27
Unionist 17
Other 16
Either way, utterly pathetic effort from 'a new nationsl party thats the last chance to save the UK' even if they win the GY wards
NEW THREAD
Bernard Manning will soon get fucking interested in the Falklands if/when he needs a distraction from domestic woes. He might see a window of opportunity while Trump is on office. Any future POTUS probably won't row in behind him like Trump will.
But of course it's also true of much of the UK's utilities that we pay too much to overseas owners (thank Mrs T for that.)
Solar is a bit different. CFDs did save customers money last year. The strike price fell 6.5% this year, and in any event only about 60% of solar capacityfalls under government CFD, and the percentage is falling.
If the hooligans terrorising Clapham and assaulting police officers were white and waving the flag of St George, the police response would have been swift and heavy.
Instead, the only arrests so far have been 3 teenage girls.
Reform will end two tier policing.