CornwallFox

They're throwing up clean energy systems faster than the rest of the world combined. More wind and solar capacity than the entire rest of the planet each year. Plus they're pushing it out to other countries. They're leading the world and trump's refusal to move the US forward is going to lose the US's supremacy.

Is it a good policy or bad policy? Given it's the first freeze in thirty years is it the best outcome for passengers in thirty years?

His post suggests he doesn't believe in the science, rather than believing and ignoring. Nobody who follows the science would ignore it.

I'm going to assume that you're rage baiting rather than really being this silly.

He's been terrible forever. The odd half decent defensive performance and everybody forgets he's a non league footballer.

Just protection from Russia imo. China is zero threat militarily. There's one country that goes around the world threatening or attacking anybody it doesn't agree with, and that isn't China.

The issue I have with journalists today is no matter who they talk to, and no matter what the issue, whatever the interviewee , they just automatically put the opposing argument in a way that makes the interviewee look silly, even if they're right to start with. This isn't about the starmar interview, I haven't seen it and no idea what happened, just an observation about interviews in general. Surely they should be there so the interviewee can explain their policy and what they think the various pros are and why they've made that choice, then yes some push back and challenge, but in a sensible way. Instead interviewers now don't give any pretty opportunity for explanation or nuance. It gives zero help to the public and simply builds on that feeling politicians can't be trusted when I'm not sure that's true in most cases.

My dad is lost to GB news/reform but even he has mentioned liking Andy Burnham. Worth a try if starmar can't stem the tide 🤣 I happen to think starmar is a pretty honest guy trying to do what's best for the country but has had some failures (economically) and been battered by right wing media and just hasn't been able to get a message out that sticks. The winter fuel fiasco pretty much screwed them from day one. If they'd just put the point of no winter fuel payment where it is now to start with they wouldn't have made such a mess. I don't think they're doing too badly overall but I don't think 99% of people could tell you anything they've done beyond the handful of things the media and social media has battered them over.

Growing up in Leicester in the 80s and 90s I was of the view it needed 95% demolition. Since then maybe 30% has been with some great results. Highcross from the outside looks great. The cathedral quarter and jubilee Square are great improvements. The area near the high cross car park with hotels etc is better. Curve and the bar opposite good additions. Still another 65% to go though. Not sure why some are calling for high rises though. The ones we have look abysmal. Leicester isn't exciting enough to draw in real money so they'd end up shabby and unkempt.

On every subject

Remove it entirely and then if you want the broadest shoulders to take the cost add some sort of wealth tax or a new rate of income tax over a very high figure like £500k (they won't do that).

95% of benefit recipients are in work. Then there's a tranche that are disabled or carers. When we're talking about benefits, can we have a conversation that focuses on that 95% and not the 0.1% that take the micky? By focusing on those we end up creating a system that offers no support if you or me really needed it. Build a system to provide genuine support, and then add in severe penalties for those abusing it. Don't set the system up to begin with the severe penalties.

While lots of countries were hit hard, it's hard to say that we responded well given I was having meetings at work about going remote in February, when the government didn't implement really strong controls until being forced into lockdown a month later. Anybody with half a brain could see China, Italy, Spain and I think it was Iran, and what they were dealing with, and could see something needed to be done asap. Allowing major sporting events to continue in front of full crowds in march. Eat out to help out. Boris shooting down labour calls for an early and short circuit breaker lockdown before then having to do a full lockdown a shortly after. These were all ridiculous and only a tiny sample of the ridiculous decision making we witnessed. Boris spent far too much time playing politics with their decisions and not enough time acting like a war PM which is what he should have been doing.

https://news.sky.com/story/new-record-for-wind-powered-electricity-in-britain-13472884 The National Energy System Operator (Neso) has predicted Britain could hit another milestone in the months ahead by running the grid for a period entirely with zero carbon power, renewables and nuclear. A new wind record has been set for Britain, with enough electricity generated from turbines to power 22 million homes, the system operator has said. The mark of 22,711 megawatts (MW) was set at 7.30pm on 11 November, beating the previous high for wind power generation of 22,253 MW set on 18 December last year. At the time, wind was providing 43.6% of Britain's electricity, enough to keep around three-quarters of British homes powered, the National Energy System Operator (Neso) said. The country had experienced windy conditions, particularly in the north of England and Scotland. Neso said gas at the time was providing 12.5% of generation, while 12.1% came from "embedded wind", which supplies power directly to local distribution networks rather than the high-voltage transmission network. Also, 11.3% came from interconnectors with other countries, 8% from nuclear, 8% from biomass, 1.4% from hydro, and 1.1% from storage. Neso has predicted that Britain could hit another milestone in the months ahead by running the electricity grid for a period entirely with zero carbon power, renewables and nuclear. Kayte O'Neill, chief operating officer at Neso, said the record showed that "our national grid can run safely and securely on large quantities of renewables generated right here in Britain". She went on to say: "I look forward to seeing if we can hit another clean energy milestone in the months ahead: running Britain's electricity grid entirely zero carbon." Neso said wind power is now the largest source of electricity generation for the UK, and the government wants to generate almost all of the UK's electricity from low-carbon sources by 2030.

Please turn up and win this game. I know a stoke fan. Really could do with a decent performance.

It's horrific imo. It's fine drawing that out but fake chimneys around a strangely shaped stadium? It's gonna look hideous, not that I think it'll ever be built. Looks a bit like they've bought up the London 2012 opening ceremony props and now have to use them.

Some countries like South Korea did but they'd been affected by SARS and still had that memory. The inquiry specifically calls out the late decisions and deaths around the second lockdown as inexcusable given what had happened and the mistakes with lockdown 1 and the slowness to react. It's unfortunate that those calling out the chaotic and slow response were correct, despite media like the telegraph complaining that lockdowns weren't necessary and restrictions should be eased more quickly etc. some of the media in this country should be looked upon as culpable.

They've lost a lot of equipment and there's a lot of reserves called up right now, domestically trying to keep them enrolled might be difficult though. Plus America will be back in 3 yrs, 2 years from now they'll be looking at an election the next year. Not saying you're wrong, just giving a bit of other way thought. Interesting on the corruption stuff though, that's all news to me 👍🏻

Out of interest, what do you reckon the total annual cost of all that is? Just cos I literally have zero idea if the kinds of costs associated.

I wouldn't claim it was something it wasn't so VAT didn't apply

One of my all time favourite city players

We seem to be in a situation where they want to charge doctor or lawyer rates for jobs that hundreds of thousands of them exist to do. They charge like they're scarce when they aren't. Not all of them, of course, so apologies to any that none of this applies to but many are terrible businessmen. You see tradies on social media showing how they've smashed up the bathroom of a non payer, egged on by other tradies, and wonder who they think will use their services. Not that it's right to not be paid but it's hardly a good look for potential customers. Another thing I saw on social media is a customer had initially agreed to have the work videoed and put on social media, but changed their mind after the job. They posted it anyway and again other tradies supported them and I thought to myself, that's a customer that might have been really happy with your work but now they won't use you again and will give you poor word of mouth reviews. It's stupidity. Plus, and sorry but it's true, lots of them pretend their spouses work for the company, claim things on expenses that aren't for business, lots take cash in hand, and many basically don't pay their proper taxes. Some will even defend that by saying they don't get holiday pay, well no, you include that in your pricing, it's called running a business. As a PAYE employee, that doesn't make me very impressed. To reiterate, I'm not saying all tradesmen do these things. I'm saying too many do.

This is a genuine question, in case it sounds like I'm trying to be clever....I haven't really kept up with Ukraine news, what evidence is there about the pocketing of money and the Ukrainian division? The 2-3 year war timeline - what's your thinking about the things that would happen to take us from here to there? Realistically Russia has been attacking Europe throughout of course, with all sorts of unexplained events and energy failures going on as they test Europe's ability to keep things moving and on in the event of hybrid attacks.

I think you completely misunderstand my view of the world. I've never once suggested everybody should earn the same. I've just pointed out multiple times that our economic system isn't functioning in a way that benefits the population and also recognise that one of the outcomes has been huge wealth at the top Vs real struggle for millions of working people. The question is what to do when all the work is automated. What's your answer if it isn't let humanity actually be human? Or do you believe that humanity was born to work to survive?

Money isn't a real thing. It's a human invention. And it's not even tangible. Coins aren't money, money is electronic. 1s and 0s in the ether. If AI and robotics really took over work then we'd need to redesign how our economy works. There's no reason we couldn't simply give everybody the funds to buy enough to enjoy life. We won't, of course, as having everybody enjoy life doesn't seem to be a goal for those with the power to make it possible.