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Post by leftieliberal on Aug 7, 2022 16:46:01 GMT
We do need more nuclear power, we also need a lot more onshore wind power. The current hurdles in the planning process needs dismantling. There needs to be a presumption in favour if onshore wind unless there are substantial environmental reasons why they shouldn't be built in a specific area. The current restrictions on onshore wind are barmy Yes, a more left wing approach isn’t just about who owns it, but ensuring greater security of supply, which nuclear and wind can assist. Interestingly read an article the other day in which Octopus were arguing we could relatively easily refit existing older turbines with more modern ones that could provide up to three times the leccy, with potentially fewer planning hurdles as they’re on existing sites “Zoisa North-Bond, chief executive of Octopus Energy Generation, said: “It’s quite difficult to build new models at the moment given where planning sits on onshore wind.
“But with repowering, we have the ability to be able to go in and look at sites which have already been designated and developed for that purpose.
“For turbines coming to the end of their life or those that are not as efficient as they could be, we can go in and put in much more powerful models. In some instances these could power up to two to three times more homes.”Telegraph I'm waiting to see if Octopus buy Bulb from the Government: www.energylivenews.com/2022/08/01/octopus-asks-for-1bn-government-support-to-seal-bulb-takeover-deal/ As I'm still a Bulb customer and I will need to move to one of Octopus' tariffs before the wind-farm I have joined a co-op to build starts generating, it will be easier if I am already an Octopus customer.
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Post by pete on Aug 7, 2022 16:49:44 GMT
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Post by bedknobsandboomstick on Aug 7, 2022 17:31:23 GMT
We do need more nuclear power, we also need a lot more onshore wind power. The current hurdles in the planning process needs dismantling. There needs to be a presumption in favour if onshore wind unless there are substantial environmental reasons why they shouldn't be built in a specific area. The current restrictions on onshore wind are barmy What we need is to make use of our biggest natural energy resource; tidal power. The government abandoning the Swansea tidal lagoon project should be high up on everyone's list of truely stupid decisions.
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Post by shevii on Aug 7, 2022 18:16:36 GMT
24 hours late!
Opinium @opiniumresearch The results from this week's @observeruk @opiniumresearch voting intention poll:
Con 34% (no change) Lab 37% (no change) Lib Dem 12% (+1) Green 6% (no change)
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steve
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Post by steve on Aug 7, 2022 18:42:50 GMT
![](//storage.proboards.com/7248232/thumbnailer/neRbYrqrFmAxzPaNmlrA.png) For our English monitors.
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johntel
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Post by johntel on Aug 7, 2022 19:26:53 GMT
steve - "If Ukraine begins to achieve military victory and starts rolling back Russian forces then Russian military doctrine calls for the use of tactical nuclear weapons and chemical agents." Only, I think, if Russia is deemed to be imperiled. But Putin deems Crimea and Donbass to be part of Russia.
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alurqa
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Post by alurqa on Aug 7, 2022 20:49:10 GMT
This 20 minute report from DW posits that the Russian economy is not as robust as is being made out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzvR958CYTwThe true impact of sanctions on Russia | DW Business Special As Europeans suffer high energy costs and the prospect of a rough winter, some have begun to ask if Western sanctions against Russia were in fact an own goal. On the face of it, Russia’s economy is not going through the meltdown once predicted and Moscow continues to make billions from selling its oil and gas to the world. However, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his team at Yale School of Management say the narrative that Russia is riding out the sanctions is false. Their own research suggests Russia’s economy is suffering much more severely than widely reported. In this DW Business Special we discuss his findings.
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mercian
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Post by mercian on Aug 7, 2022 21:27:18 GMT
alurqaVery interesting. One bit that struck me was that China and India are demanding massive discounts to buy Russian oil.
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Post by alec on Aug 7, 2022 21:39:38 GMT
c-a-r-f-r-e-w - repowering is very much in vogue in the wind industry atm, (as it always was, tbh) but the grid upgrades required can still be a big issue. Interestingly, there is also an issue with older turbines having more down time. This is partly down to more age related breakdowns, but beyond that it's also to do with financing. Once a turbine has repaid the investment, owners will place fixing it lower down their priority list, in favour of fixing turbines where there are outstanding finance agreements to repay, as here, downtime loses them more money as they potentially delay repayments. I've read that this is quite a major impact on older turbine efficiency, and is an artifact of the way we rely on private power supply companies.
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Post by alec on Aug 7, 2022 21:44:57 GMT
@alurqu - I posted that Yale report some days ago, and it chimes with other data I have been posting for a while now. There are a number of Russian economic sectors that have effectively shut down due to sanctions. Their car industry output fell by 97.5% in June, and there are consistent reports that their military suppliers can no longer manufacture tanks and other equipment because they can't get the parts. Most commercial bakeries in Russia use German make equipment, which isn't being serviced, so is gradually degrading. There was also a cataclysmic fall in their gas revenues in July, which is indicative of their weakness. If they shut down the gas and oil, they won't last very long at all.
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Post by neila on Aug 7, 2022 22:41:20 GMT
@alurqu - I posted that Yale report some days ago, and it chimes with other data I have been posting for a while now. There are a number of Russian economic sectors that have effectively shut down due to sanctions. Their car industry output fell by 97.5% in June, and there are consistent reports that their military suppliers can no longer manufacture tanks and other equipment because they can't get the parts. Most commercial bakeries in Russia use German make equipment, which isn't being serviced, so is gradually degrading. There was also a cataclysmic fall in their gas revenues in July, which is indicative of their weakness. If they shut down the gas and oil, they won't last very long at all. I read somewhere that although there is a lot of scope for redirecting Russian oil exports, there is essentially nowhere (in the short term at least) for gas exports to go other than Europe. If Russia plays the gas cut-off card, Europe will cancel their payments and the impact on Russia's cash flow could potentially be enormous I'd have thought? (You'd know better than me, energy markets is something I've only deigned to learn anything about because of recent events). I also read that Wagner (i.e. the Russian state in Implausible Deniability mode) is offering getting on for $4000 dollars a month for new recruits. That's a lot of money to fork out if you need literally tens if not hundreds of thousands of fresh infantry to prosecute a war of attrition.
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Post by JohnC on Aug 7, 2022 22:45:39 GMT
Is it possible to just ask a question for information on here without being accused of being 'riled'? This is exactly what you wrote: "What has the UK done good in the world? Presumably it would be a very short list. Why do those cynical ex-colonial countries want to keep close ties to the UK through the Commonwealth? Would they not benefit economically with closer ties to China?" I wouldn't say it reads just at an request for information but has a distinct edge to it, with a note of sarcasm in the second sentence. Anyway I had no objection and did reply to all those points. That's just you interpreting the question as you wanted to interpret it. You could if you wanted accept the question at face value.
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Post by eor on Aug 8, 2022 1:34:26 GMT
Meanwhile in the US... big win for Joe Biden with some part of his renewable energy stuff finally passing the Senate**, enmeshed with various cost-reductions and subsidies for healthcare. www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/7/senate-democrats-approve-big-biden-deal-house-to-vote-nextIt's a lot less than he wanted on energy in particular, but it's also a lot more than it looked like he'd get a while ago when both agendas seemed dead - and the manner of the change is critical too, it's come about through exactly the kind of "been in the Senate for 50 years" backroom grind that Biden more usually gets knocked for. The dramatic shift became apparent late last week, so if there's to be a polling impact it should start coming through later this week. (** it *should* pass the House ok, unless a group on the left object that it's far too timid - but in the Senate Bernie Sanders strikingly outlined such objections and then voted for it anyway as better than nothing, so it seems likely it'll go through)
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Post by eor on Aug 8, 2022 2:08:00 GMT
Also in the US - the mid-term elections have got a fair bit more interesting. The House is still looking likely to go Republican; the polls have narrowed slightly in recent weeks, tho some of that is real shift and a bit due to the timing of who reports when. www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/2022-generic-congressional-vote-7361.html#pollsThe Senate picture is more dramatic - and says a lot about the system. Pennsylvania has a retiring Republican Senator of no particular regard who is somewhat unexpectedly looking more likely to be replaced by a Democrat. That (combined with the fact that a 50-50 tie means the White House has the casting vote) is causing forecasts of control to flip fairly easily, but what's also pretty damning is that it really does seem to come down to Pennsylvania. There are seats up in Florida, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Ohio, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin, and with three months to go it seems extraordinary that most of those could be considered fairly settled outcomes. Of course, some of those predictions may look very silly in a few months time, and/or Events may change the direction, but it does also demonstrate how entrenched the polarisation has become, that we're not talking about six or seven Key Battlegrounds but instead a host of likely outcomes.
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steve
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Post by steve on Aug 8, 2022 5:32:51 GMT
![](//storage.proboards.com/7248232/thumbnailer/xdmZnxrHicwEjseHiLga.png) Lest we forget.
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steve
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Post by steve on Aug 8, 2022 5:46:29 GMT
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Post by pete on Aug 8, 2022 7:26:42 GMT
The government nor bank of England won't say a word about these overpaid tossers making hay while others starve or freeze to death. Suddenly inflation won't count.
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Post by crossbat11 on Aug 8, 2022 7:37:44 GMT
What better way to lick one's football club allegiance derived wounds than wallowing in a festival of English eccentricity on a glorious summer's day. I am of course referring to the annual Battle of Evesham Re-enactment and the accompanying festival that both celebrates and commemorates old medieval ways.
First, the result. Despite most of the crowd rooting for them, Simon De Montfort and his valiant men lost for the 757th year in succession. Prince Edward and that dastardly cad Mortimer, who personally slew a dismounted Simon on the battlefield, triumphed once more. The Royalist hordes, outnumbering Simon's gallant men four to one, prevailed yet again and wrought bloody revenge on De Montfort's renegade and largely mercenary forces. Simon, an early version of the great Oliver Cromwell, had deposed Henry III, holding him in captivity, and was ruling England as a sort of Lord Protector. An early historical hero of mine. He presided over a short lived monarchy free utopia.
But talking to some of Simon's defeated men, sweltering under four layers of protective clothing and chainmail in 27 degrees heat, they assured me that they'd return for another tilt next year. They were hoping for a better result but I fear history is not on their side. The foot soldier I spoke too about next year's prospects swiftly made his way to the mead tent after our brief conversation. He was talking merrily away on his mobile phone as he did so. We were bridging centuries in terms of garb and technology here.
To the distant strain of medieval music in the air and the aroma of various wood burning stoves cooking potages, we wandered around the festival, talking to longbow makers, wool spinners and mead makers as we did so. I had a go on the target range, firing little stone filled pouches with a catapult. I didn't trouble the scorers
We finished with an idle hour in the beer and cider tent before walking the four miles back home, some part along the slowly gliding Avon and then through early harvested wheat fields. No sign of Theresa May either, thankfully. We spoke to one of the farmers taking a break from harvesting who told us that the wheat yield and quality was extraordinarily good this year. Early Spring rain and recent arid conditions the cause. The price was good too, although the recent partial relief of the Russian blockade in the Black Sea had nudged world wheat prices down a little, he told me.
A life affirming day. A slice of my sort of England, enjoyed on a truly beautiful summer's afternoon in the bountiful Vale of Evesham.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2022 7:38:55 GMT
More than 18000 have people crossed the Chanel as undocumented clandestine migrants.
A military intelligence reports says hat during the first ten days in July 2863 migrants were transported by 9 gangs.
37.5% ( the largest cohort) were from Albania-followed by 13% from Iran.
Albania is a member of NATO and an official candidate for membership in the European Union .
Times report.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2022 7:43:35 GMT
Putin Games :-
"Moldova’s deputy prime minister has warned that a separatist official’s call for Russia to annex the breakaway region of Transnistria and a series of sophisticated bomb threats designed to paralyse the nation’s capital may be a prelude to a pro-Russian military operation against his country.
Russia maintains a force of more than 1,500 troops inside Transnistria, which split from Moldova with Moscow’s help during a civil war between 1990 and 1992. The local separatist force, estimated at about 20,000, including security services, is inter- operable with Kremlin troops but thought to be poorly equipped.
The bomb threats and plan for accession to the Russian Federation announced on July 22 by Vitaly Ignatyev, Transnistria’s foreign minister, coincided with a wave of pro-Russian secessionism in the autonomous Gagauzia region in Moldova’s south.
In an exclusive interview with The Times, Oleg Serebrian, the deputy prime minister who is tasked with reintegrating Transnistria into Moldova, warned that his government could be dragged into the war across the border just as Ukraine prepares to take back control of its Black Sea coast.
“This is a clear provocation — the idea that they should have independence is old, but that they should join Russia was unexpected and was the first time they said this,”
The government suspects the developments are a reaction to the European Union’s acceptance of Moldova as a candidate member on June 23, he said."
Times
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Post by shevii on Aug 8, 2022 7:46:10 GMT
The House is still looking likely to go Republican; the polls have narrowed slightly in recent weeks, tho some of that is real shift and a bit due to the timing of who reports when. When did that happen? Not been paying attention but I thought the House was definitely staying Dem and the Senate was the issue- and hadn't occurred to me it might not. They don't seem to have many specific House district polls so I assume they have something equivalent to an MRP?
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Aug 8, 2022 7:47:20 GMT
The city in general has probably made a lot of money from lockdown, and now from the commodities futures market. So why not pay? alurqa Very interesting. One bit that struck me was that China and India are demanding massive discounts to buy Russian oil. Of course, but discounts from the pre invasion price, the pre ending of lockdown price, or the current price?
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Post by alec on Aug 8, 2022 8:03:21 GMT
Worth re-iterating this, from Sunak -
"Families are facing a long, hard winter with rising bills.
Yet Liz’s plan to deal with that is to give a big bung to large businesses and the well-off, leaving those who most need help out in the cold.
Worse still, she has said she will not provide direct support payments to those who are feeling the pinch most.
Scrapping the health and social care levy will give the average worker around £170.
But someone on the national living wage will get less than £60 for the year.
Pensioners will not get a penny.
And her corporation tax cuts don’t benefit small businesses — they just put money back in the coffers of the biggest companies with the largest profits.
These tax cuts simply won’t touch the sides.
We need clear-eyed realism, not starry-eyed boosterism."
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Aug 8, 2022 8:05:24 GMT
This morning's news returns to the problem of finding a NHS dentist. News headline just said government regards solving this 'a priority'. Spokesperson for dentists says bottom line is funding is only provided to treat about half the population. It seems dentists are each given a quota of actions to perform, so once they have treated that quota number of patients or fillings, they will not be paid for doing any more. So they dont. As a priority it would seem there is a simple and obvious way to solve the problem, just provide the money to increase those quotas. I mean, the dentists are saying that basically the government has set up a system to operate dentistry, and then deliberately chosen to only treat half the nation.
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Post by pete on Aug 8, 2022 8:38:44 GMT
We do need more nuclear power, we also need a lot more onshore wind power. The current hurdles in the planning process needs dismantling. There needs to be a presumption in favour if onshore wind unless there are substantial environmental reasons why they shouldn't be built in a specific area. The current restrictions on onshore wind are barmy What we need is to make use of our biggest natural energy resource; tidal power. The government abandoning the Swansea tidal lagoon project should be high up on everyone's list of truely stupid decisions. Anyone know how much energy would tidal power give us?
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Post by crossbat11 on Aug 8, 2022 8:45:00 GMT
alec
Yes, fine words from Sunak but his platform and campaigning pitch isn't much better, is it? The easy bit is dismantling Truss's shallow populism and fantasy economics. It's a bit like picking the wings off a fly, but Sunak, despite his technocratic and banking credentials that make him appear the adult in the room, is little better.
He's started to promise some jam today, laced with some "sensible" platitudes about how difficult it's all going to be, then loads of jam tomorrow pre-election. He's also getting down and dirty in the culture wars. Liz wants to string up illegal immigrants but he's going the cruise ship processing route. He's trying to win the war on woke with Truss too.
In many ways, Sunak's campaign is the worse of the two because of its intellectual dishonesty. Truss's defence is her genuine stupidity. Sunak knows where we are as a country but is pandering to the delusions of his party instead.
He's basically a political coward. He knows he's talking rubbish but is too afraid to countenance the truth and reality. I expect he thinks he'll lose if he does.
Desperate times.
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Post by mandolinist on Aug 8, 2022 9:04:09 GMT
An anecdote, which might show just how divided our politics has become:
My partner went to a local glazing and glass cutting outfit recently, whilst waiting in the queue of two, the owner and the other customer had a wide ranging conversation. They agreed that they did not believe the war in Ukraine was real, that climate change was a conspiracy, that "Boris" was a top bloke, when the phrase "and as for monkey pox" was uttered, he turned and left the shop. We may need a bathroom mirror quite a lot, but really not enough to shop there.
The bubble phenomena of only socialising with people who at least share some of the same attitudes as yourself is very powerful and very pervasive. Clearly the two people having the conversation thought it was perfectly normal, whilst my partner thought it was utterly abnormal. Their divergent experiences shocked him. I suspect it is why Liz Truss is winning amongt Conservative members, but there is no one on this board who can understand it, it may also be why those in the centre of the Labour party cannot see how moving further left will win more votes and why those of us on the left believe that staying in the centre is a recipe for disaster. It may also be why Starmer MAY be right to not flesh out his policy offer at the moment, or he may just be riven with indecision.
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Post by crossbat11 on Aug 8, 2022 9:20:00 GMT
mandolinist
I agree with some of your observations but I think this idea the people live in social bubbles that exclude people who have different views about politics and life, is a strange concept to me. Maybe some people do but, if so, it's a shrivelled existence. Why would you choose friends on the basis of their political views unless you were particularly intolerant and/or have a very shrunken hinterland that takes you little beyond self selecting groups of people?
Most of time I don't do politics with friends or relatives. The two people your partner overheard in the shop are very familiar to me. As they should be to all of us who live normal lives. They may well be ill informed or mistaken in their views but that doesn't make them bad people to be shunned and avoided.
Understanding how millions of our fellow citizens think, and more importantly why they they think that way, is a fundamental part of winning political arguments and elections, whether you're a centrist or on the left.
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steve
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Post by steve on Aug 8, 2022 9:21:21 GMT
![](//storage.proboards.com/7248232/thumbnailer/oMbIApSOPowHdR0KjQks.png) I suspect that Truss has already had her honeymoon period before the voting has finished. Events are already in place and her plans , what there are of them won't make any difference to the economic crisis facing millions. Of course holiday boy Spaffer and the invisible chancellor have decided that they deserve a well earned break from inept government and consequently while the other muppets are engaged in a beauty( yuk) pageant nothing happens. The country needs better than these passed their sell by date snake oil chancers.
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neilj
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Post by neilj on Aug 8, 2022 9:30:36 GMT
The government nor bank of England won't say a word about these overpaid tossers making hay while others starve or freeze to death. Suddenly inflation won't count. But apparently those highest earners need big pay rises to incentivise them. Those at the bottom of the pay scales are money grabbing greedy gits holding the country to ransom...
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