A Change of Political Climate 169


I just watched a recording of Westminster yesterday where Tory Minister Amber Rudd announced the government was rapidly dropping the subsidy for solar energy down to zero. Yet the government has just agreed to pay to the nuclear industry a subsidy that will dwarf, in real terms, all the subsidies ever given to the coal and renewable industries combined, and what is more will be paid to the Chinese and the French. I am lost for words.

Nor am I in any way pleased to be proved instantly correct, that Western governments view terrorist incidents like that in Paris primarily as a means to enhance their power and social control. The French government has immediately seized on the pretext to ban all demonstrations at the forthcoming climate change summit in Paris. Yet they have not banned gatherings of large crowds generically, for example at football matches.

Cameron’s announcement of 15% budget and staff increases for the security services was made immediately after the Paris attacks, but was plainly not something thought up in a few hours. The plans for mass surveillance had already been announced, and would have to be staffed. This kind of sickening political opportunism is the true disrespect to the innocent dead.


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169 thoughts on “A Change of Political Climate

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  • fred

    “I just watched a recording of Westminster yesterday where Tory Minister Amber Rudd announced the government was rapidly dropping the subsidy for solar energy down to zero. Yet the government has just agreed to pay to the nuclear industry a subsidy that will dwarf, in real terms, all the subsidies ever given to the coal and renewable industries combined, and what is more will be paid to the Chinese and the French. I am lost for words.”

    When it comes to power generation ministers have to think with their heads not their hearts. In another 20 years the power has got to be there to drive industry, heat homes, light operating theatres.

    When this matter was raised before here there was a lot of fantasy power generation played but no real alternative to nuclear which would enable Britain to meet their pollution and co2 commitments.

    The realtime reality is at http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ .

  • MJ

    “When this matter was raised before here there was a lot of fantasy power generation played but no real alternative to nuclear which would enable Britain to meet their pollution and co2 commitments”

    When Germany closed down its older nuclear power stations following Fukishima it replaced them with new coal-fired stations. It could do this and still meet its emissions commitments by utilising modern filtering/scrubbing technologies that reduce emissions to acceptable levels.

    The problem with nuclear is that, although it may tick all the boxes in respect of emmisions, it remains an enormous environmental threat because of the ever-increasing volumes of spent fuel that need to be stored.

    At present, nuclear fuel rods must be replaced when they have been degraded only by around 20%: get this figure closer to 100% and nuclear might become a sensible option.

  • nevermind

    No Fred, the time is now for everyone to stop wasting energy on a grand scale, through insufficient insulation, old appliances and leaving appliances and lights switched on.
    An over production of electricity by smaller community projects would not only safeguard the net for all, it would bring down prices and make nuclear power a vastly overpriced tax rip off.

  • Robert Crawford

    I received a card from the Scottish Government the other day offering interest free loan up to £10,000, for solar panels, only until the end of this year.

  • Robert Crawford

    Old man Tesla said there was enough thermal energy under every house to power it!

    Look what happened to him!

  • fred

    “When Germany closed down its older nuclear power stations following Fukishima it replaced them with new coal-fired stations. It could do this and still meet its emissions commitments by utilising modern filtering/scrubbing technologies that reduce emissions to acceptable levels.”

    Scrubbing reduces sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide considerably but does little for carbon dioxide. Plus you have to add the environmental impact of bringing all that coal from China.

  • MJ

    “Plus you have to add the environmental impact of bringing all that coal from China”

    No need in Germany’s case, it’s got loads of its own. As does the UK for that matter.

  • Habbabkuk (You may well be a person of interest)

    “The plans for mass surveillance had already been announced, and would have to be staffed. This kind of sickening political opportunism is the true disrespect to the innocent dead.”
    ________________

    The above is fine polemics but defective logic.

    If the plans to enhance security have already been announced and will have to be staffed then it cannot be opportunism for the govt to now announce the extent of that staffing (and its cost). This is because the announcement would have to have been made at some time anyway. Opportunism could only have occurred if the govt had said nothing about its plans to enhance security before and only announced them immediately after the terror attacks.

    +++++++++++++++++++

  • Habbabkuk (You may well be a person of interest)

    MJ

    ““Plus you have to add the environmental impact of bringing all that coal from China”

    No need in Germany’s case, it’s got loads of its own. As does the UK for that matter.”
    ________________

    Not sure about either of those claims – could we have some facts and figures, please?

  • Rhisiart Gwilym

    Just opportunism, was it Craig? Just hopping smartly onto a chance that – sort of – came out of the blue? It all fell out rather well, if that was it, didn’t it? Almost as if it were pre-planned. But that couldn’t be, of course.

  • Salford Lad

    Regarding the Paris bombing, I see that none of the alleged Jihadist have come out of this alive. How can the Security forces trace back the chain of command if the perpetrators are all dead.
    A repeat performance is on the cards if the upper echelons are still in circulation surely.
    Then again dead men tell no tales.

  • Mary

    I have been reminded to put this up. QT tonight. 22.35

    David Dimbleby presents from London.

    Conservative business minister Anna Soubry MP, Motormouth
    Labour’s shadow home secretary Andy Burnham MP, failed leadership candidate
    Former editor of Le Monde Natalie Nougayrede
    Daily Mail columnist and former editor of the Daily Telegraph Sir Max Hastings YCMIU War monger
    Al Jazeera English presenter Mehdi Hasan Faux dissent
    British/Russian businessman and owner of the Independent and Evening Standard newspapers Evgeny Lebedev

    The latter has already had the airwaves today on Radio 4 Today in a sympathetic interview by Mishal Husain

    2hrs 33mins in

    What do powerful Russians think about Putin’s rhetoric on uniting with the West to defeat IS? Evgeny Alexandrovich Lebedev is a Russian-born British chairman and owner of Evening Standard ltd.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06pd3b3

  • deepgreenpuddock

    The energy problem is probably not one that will succumb to the competing pontificators of a website.
    A few years ago-2011- I came across a review of the possibilities for solar PV generation. One section was a survey of the level of insolation /ie the intensity of light, across the country. What was notable was that for the UK there was a very tiny area where it was sufficiently cloud free and the sunshine sufficiently persistent to make solar PV a viable option. The area was on the south coast somewhere around Bournemouth (not sure /memory faulty but it was in that general area). It was really quite a small area-again not quite sure but it was an area roughly a quarter of the area of Dorset.
    Of course there is technical improvement and there were marginal areas where improved
    PV might extend the area. Nevertheless the few percentage points increase in efficiency is unlikely to expand that area by much.
    So, over the last few years I have seen people install PV in some of the most unlikely places. For instance in and around Glasgow which is notorious for its murky weather. I have had serious doubts about the wisdom of giving grants and preferential deals for inputting of energy into the grid, although I would not mind people independently doing this and just using whatever energy they can acquire for themselves. In effect those who do not have solar panels are subsidising and giving money through tax and energy bills to those who do. It just seems like a totally disreputable lottery , and the misuse of precious resources. In effect it is a penalty on those who do not have (probably pointless) solar panels.
    Solar seems attractive because there is of course a huge amount of it but the reality is that the density of solar energy is very very low, and at current technological levels ( the practical level is about 15% capture). In the greater part of this country this translates into having about 100 sq.metres of PV panel, facing in the right direction,without shade, in order to make some impact on the electricity bill. For most people this is impractical and a poor use of resources.
    there are all sorts of arguments and discussion points here but it is not very practical to go into them but generally, PV in this country is only worthwhile in rather few cases where conditions are optimal.
    The problem I see is that there is no attempt or perhaps a very crude attempt, to define these relatively few places and the benefit from them is not distributed in any way that makes any sense or is equable in any way.
    Having said that there has been solar water heating available for a long time and that makes a lot of sense and I am not quite sure why that has never been promoted more vigorously. Partly it is to do with the lamentable plumbing and heating systems that have been retrofitted to a housing stock that s very poorly designed, in the most part. Most of the council houses built in the 20th century had utterly useless heating and service and ventilations systems which I can only interpret as being related to the social prejudices of the time where ‘class’ was highly entrenched and ‘poverty’ was in effect imposed by the upper/professional classes who expressed their prejudices and venal impulses in the design and inadequacies of woeful housing.
    Huge numbers of people are condemned to poorly ventilated , mould infested unhealthy habitations which could be cured with a couple of hundred pounds worth of ventilation provision and some basic education.
    Anyway to cut a long story short-not sure I disagree with the removal of the current regime of subsidy and grants for PV but at the same time there is a need to promote all kinds of renewable energy where it is viable.
    There is also certainly an argument in favour of nuclear-but one has to question the thinking behind the Chinese Charitable contribution that is represented by Osbourne’s scheme. I have thoughts on that but i will be interested to hear some more on the topic from anyone.

  • Mary

    O/T and alarming

    Cracks in bricks at core of Hunterston nuclear reactor

    1 hour ago

    Hunterston B has two advanced gas-cooled reactors and began operating in 1976

    Cracks have been discovered in bricks which make up the core of one of two nuclear reactors at the Hunterston B power station in Ayrshire.

    Operator EDF Energy said the cracks in three graphite bricks were found during planned maintenance on Reactor Three.

    The firm insisted there were no safety implications and the finding had no impact on the operation of the reactor.

    A similar issue – known as “keyway root cracking” was identified in Hunterston’s other reactor last year.

    EDF Energy said it was publicising the latest findings “as part of its commitment to openness and transparency”.

    /..
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-

    Dismissed as normal ageing by EDF.

  • Salford Lad

    Scotland yesterday was the recipient of Syrian refugees,flown in from abroad.
    Strange that Nicola Sturgeon should be influenced by the warmongering hysteria induced by the MSM in reaction to the Paris atrocities. Only Jeremy Corbyn alone has kept a cool head despite pressure from even his own MP’S.
    Beat the drum and whisle the Fife and we all march off to war. The return is a rag tag and bobtail of shattered lives and limbs.

  • RobG

    I think I mentioned on another thread that in my rural part of France, on Tuesday the phones were down for most of the day. I found it interesting that many people were saying “it’s the government”.

    Here’s South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, speaking last month. The terms ‘swivel-eyed loon’ and ‘batshit crazy’ are a tad pejorative, so I won’t use them here. Oh, and bear in mind that what America is doing in Syria is totally against international law…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=96&v=mC7Fz0d9H8M

  • Pan

    Craig – “This kind of sickening political opportunism is the true disrespect to the innocent dead.”

    Despite Habba’s attempt at obfuscation of your entirely valid logic (and insight), I believe you are in the right.

  • Kempe

    ” No need in Germany’s case, it’s got loads of its own. As does the UK for that matter. ”

    Germany is expected to import 53 million tonnes of coal this year, down from 56 million last year, 12 million tonnes from Russia. A lot of Germany’s own coal is brown lignite, one of the most polluting and least energy efficient varieties.

  • nevermind

    It is sad that Ms Sturgeon is even entertaining the idea of ‘bombing those who are left in Syria, Mary, agreed.
    @deepgreenpuddock this country might not be able to get much back from solar, but it has enormous potential for tidal energy schemes, some who would also safeguard the coast line from rising sea levels for some time to come.
    The greatest energy revolution can come from communities next to the coast generating their own power and feeding the over production into the net, sustainable power that is manageable, unlike nuclear which obviously has a massive problem with its worst case scenario and or long term dangerous storage legacies.

    Subsidies that apply to other non fossil fuel generators ‘must apply’ to all others who generate their own energy, according to a court ruling by the Hague and in Germany which has an achievable target of 35% alternatives by 2020.

    ” SolarWorld, Q-Cells, and Conergy are solar-power companies based in Germany. These companies dominate the world market. Every third solar panel and every second wind rotor is made in Germany, and German turbines and generators used in hydro energy generation are among the most popular worldwide.[43]

    Nearly 800,000 people work in the German environment technology sector; an estimated 214,000 people work with renewables in Germany, up from 157,000 in 2004, an increase of 36%.[43]”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Germany

    @ the person on disinterest who is too lazy to look it up himself, “Not sure about either of those claims – could we have some facts and figures, please?

    look at how easy it was, even Germans can get the information up in no time, so how about explaining yourself? have you been brought up with servants? How many servants can you afford today?

  • Salford Lad

    There is no more pernicious form of propaganda than that of omission.
    The Western MSM is subservient to the Western security services and Govts. They publish and criticise only to that agenda. Otherwise they have difficulties with jobs ,licensing and advertising, plus other forms of pressure.
    iT IS DIFFICULT TO PUBLISH THE TRUTH WHEN YOUR PAYCHECK AND MORTGAGE DEPEND ON MAINTAINING THE LIES.
    Only in the blogosphere will you get a semblance of the truth.

  • fedup

    How can the Security forces trace back the chain of command if the perpetrators are all dead.

    Clairvoyants silly!!!
    Although the suicide movies are no longer trending, the French SIS damn fine well knew who and what was coming as the torrents of leaking data prove.

    However the fact remains; to suppress a huge minority of the Muslims in France and elsewhere with all manner of trumped up charges and not to expect any reaction from these discriminated against and suppressed multitudes is a silly expectations that evidently the Oligarch Owned Media are are too busy waxing lyrical about.

    How many of these terrorists had French nationality? How many of these didn’t have a home country other than France?

    The grotesque racism on display discounts many factors and only hangs onto the “Islamic” and the Frankenstein creature of Daesh (ISIS/IS/ISIL) that is in fact the evolved al Qaeda and as everyone knows the creature of CIA and the Western SIS.

    As we debate French parliament is debating the extension of state of emergency for the next three months. Martial law is no longer the default mode of administration of the banana republics, Hollande is enjoying the power of the martial law too!

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