Brexit, for once some facts.

[guerney]

My circumstances were already difficult, so assessing how much was due to boarding school and how much everything else is pretty much impossible.

Boarding schools can be devastating. But there is, I suggest, a big difference between going at 13 from a healthy, happy home background, and going at 6 from an uncaring home. (Mine was neither extreme.)

He was interned aged 5 - I hate to say it, but "Sad little man" does describe him quite well. Sad but unfathomably confident and competitive, despite his lack of adequate knowledge or skill in a great many activities, which he's certain will make him famous.

 

[guerney]

instead of a windfall tax, I would

my suggestion to Labour is to invest in a national energy storage grid. it will increasingly become a key energy provider and the profit could be used to offset spikes in international market prices.
Ordinary people can understand this strategy.

I think you're underestimating the extraordinary density of ordinary people.

 

[Nev]

my suggestion to Labour is to invest in a national energy storage grid.

No need to fusion energy is just around the corner. Oh wait it's at least 20 years away, weren't they saying that 20 years ago, and 20 years before that?

Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy - BBC News

 

[oyster]

No need to fusion energy is just around the corner. Oh wait it's at least 20 years away, weren't they saying that 20 years ago, and 20 years before that?

Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy - BBC News

And, despite the issues of nuclear waste causing major problems with public support for fission, those same basic issues exist for fusion as well but are ignored/not understood. There will be considerable quantities of radioactive material to be handled.

 

[flecc]

There will be considerable quantities of radioactive material to be handled.

The quantities of nuclear waste from either fission or fusion are not a problem, they are very small compared with the wastes from burning fossil fuels and plant materials. There's only a problem of where to put the nuclear wastes for future safety.

Essentially this is no different a problem than that of climate change. With both the problems at source are the implications of billions of us living the modern life of comfort and convenience that science has given us.

We have a simple choice. Live that life and have the huge costs and considerable inconveniences of dealing adequately with the problems it generates. Or drastically reduce the population in some way over time while reverting to a much simpler life that the earth can sustain.

There is no third way, despite our brief period of enjoying a free lunch appearing to suggest one was possible.
.

 

[Danidl]

And, despite the issues of nuclear waste causing major problems with public support for fission, those same basic issues exist for fusion as well but are ignored/not understood. There will be considerable quantities of radioactive material to be handled.

Not as I understand but ... It is true that neutrons should be released during s fusion , and these can activate some materials .rending them radioactive. However in every case I know, the activation is very short lived . Particularly if the materials are in the lower atomic number range. Back in the day, as an undergraduate, We would have irradiated materials such as potassium to make it radioactive ..and useful in medicine.due to short half life.

 

[Woosh]

No need to fusion energy is just around the corner. Oh wait it's at least 20 years away, weren't they saying that 20 years ago, and 20 years before that?

Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy - BBC News

the problem is engineering which progresses much more slowly than other sciences.
JET's tokamak suffers from having its magnet overheating, otherwise it can do much better than keeping the plasma stable for only 5 seconds. It took people at the JET project 20 years to go from keeping the plasma from 4 seconds to 5 seconds but in doing so, they doubled the amount of fusion energy produced.

 

[guerney]

STEP's fusion energy could contribute to UK net-zero targets

Anyone fancy a spherical tokamak in their backyard?

www.theregister.com

 

[Woosh]

https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/26/uk_step_fusion_site/

I think they are too optimistic.
ITER (the one in Cadarache) won't come to full operation until 2050 and the target is to maintain fusion for 7 minutes.

 

[oyster]

Let's all hope that they are better at quarantining and contact tracing re Lassa fever than they proved to be for Covid.

 

[soundwave]

i got a parking ticket ffs

 

[oldgroaner]

If we had British Gas, that represents one customer for gas. Sure, competition from other countries.

Having multiple suppliers, they are having to compete against each other for what gas is available. Which, I suspect, makes the UK gas price rather more volatile.

What happened to that amazing notion that competition inevitably led to lower prices?

 

[oyster]

What happened to that amazing notion that competition inevitably led to lower prices?

Yes - with 70 companies you need 70 HQs (physical and personnel), boards, computer systems, etc. Must cost a lot even if some of them are very modest.

 

[Woosh]

What happened to that amazing notion that competition inevitably led to lower prices?

competition between producers leads usually to lower price, competition between resellers leads to a race to the bottom. Most of those 70 companies are resellers, not generators.
The current situation arrives because we don't produce much and rely overly on imports.

 

[flecc]

What happened to that amazing notion that competition inevitably led to lower prices?

Yes - with 70 companies you need 70 HQs (physical and personnel), boards, computer systems, etc. Must cost a lot even if some of them are very modest.

Indeed, the point Oyster makes is exemplified in the case of the privatised Thames Water supplying Greater London. Owned in Australia when privatised, the owners broke it into SEVEN different divisions, each with it's own hypothetical HQ, accounting, profitability reporting and all finally contributing to the main company which then added its own accounting and profit margin.

Just an obvious profit multiplying scam under the guise of seeking greater efficiency.
.

 

[oyster]

I see Sir John Major is adding to the criticism of Johnson:

John Major says Boris Johnson broke lockdown laws and is creating mistrust
Former Tory PM fiercely attacks Johnson and issues barely veiled challenge to MPs to remove him

John Major says Boris Johnson broke lockdown laws and is creating mistrust

Former Tory PM says disregard for honesty and standards puts UK’s democratic future at risk

www.theguardian.com

I sincerely hope that Johnson never gets an honour (such as a knighthood). I often pedantically include
"Sir" when referring to Starmer just to emphasise Johnson's lack of honour - whether intrinsically or awarded.

 

[flecc]

I sincerely hope that Johnson never gets an honour (such as a knighthood).

By convention PMs usually get a knighthood, but it will be a very long time before Johnson gets one, if at all.

Tony Blair's knighthood had to wait 17 years after the previous one one for John Major and he won three elections and was considered by many to be a successful PM, despite the contentious Iraq War.

Johnson winning one election to date and absolutely nobody considering him successful at anything isn't likely to suggest he gets a knighthood anytime within future living memory.

Maybe the lowest honour of all, an MBE:

Mendaciousness Boris Exemplifies
.

 

[oyster]

By convention PMs usually get a knighthood, but it will be a very long time before Johnson gets one, if at all.

Tony Blair's knighthood had to wait 17 years after the previous one one for John Major and he won three elections and was considered by many to be a successful PM, despite the contentious Iraq War.

Johnson winning one election to date and absolutely nobody considering him successful at anything isn't likely to suggest he gets a knighthood anytime within future living memory.

Maybe the lowest honour of all, an MBE:

Mendaciousness Boris Exemplifies
.

I wouldn't wish him to be allowed to buy or wear an Old Etonian tie - and certainly nothing awarded, not even MBE - nor Other Buggers' Efforts.

 

[Danidl]

I see Sir John Major is adding to the criticism of Johnson:

John Major says Boris Johnson broke lockdown laws and is creating mistrust
Former Tory PM fiercely attacks Johnson and issues barely veiled challenge to MPs to remove him

John Major says Boris Johnson broke lockdown laws and is creating mistrust

Former Tory PM says disregard for honesty and standards puts UK’s democratic future at risk

www.theguardian.com

I sincerely hope that Johnson never gets an honour (such as a knighthood). I often pedantically include
"Sir" when referring to Starmer just to emphasise Johnson's lack of honour - whether intrinsically or awarded.

I have always had a regard for Major... . He could speak accurately

 

[oldgroaner]

By convention PMs usually get a knighthood, but it will be a very long time before Johnson gets one, if at all.

Tony Blair's knighthood had to wait 17 years after the previous one one for John Major and he won three elections and was considered by many to be a successful PM, despite the contentious Iraq War.

Johnson winning one election to date and absolutely nobody considering him successful at anything isn't likely to suggest he gets a knighthood anytime within future living memory.

Maybe the lowest honour of all, an MBE:

Mendaciousness Boris Exemplifies
.

Boris would prefer an OBE

Other Buggers Errors