Our politics is fucked if even our elected representatives can't be bothered to even think "How does this stuff actually work"
Or maybe via an idea
I’ve always liked of govt giving every 18yos - going to uni or not - a £20k career kickstarter’ fund. Purposes
would be quite tightly constrained what it can be used for - maybe funds held by govt and signed off by a financial adviser. Pay off some student loan if you want
Is there not some sort of useful reform that could also act as a bureaucratic sidestep around this? Avoid issue by doubling nominal domestic tuition fees but then use that to fund a much broader and more generous better sliding scale of ‘bursarys (fee discounts) for British students
Rugby Union would be Europe’s NFL if it had a plan for Six Nations 8/10/12 team expansion. That was incredible.
Ed Glaeser discussing potholes? I must be in heaven.
ICYMI, a superb piece on the real lessons for UK energy policy from the Iran war, by a proper expert... 🤓
(TL;DR - it's madness to close off the development of Britain’s own gas reserves, and to penalise existing production with extremely high taxes)
dieterhelm.co.uk/energy-clima...
Much less sexy announcement but exactly what you’d hope a Chancellor would be willing to back the military brass on. Quite perverse that Portsmouth Naval Base being historic home of RN and skyline concerns are the barrier to it being a modern home of the Royal Navy and national security.
Royal Navy much better positioned for future delivery of ships with covered build halls at Govan, Rosyth (and Belfast soon) speeding things up. Big gap with no covered dry docks for maintenance/upgrades to work 15-20% faster - one or two probably worth an additional £1bn+ Type 45 and/or Type 26 hull
In a global online marketplace, BBC/ITV/Reach etc all face same threat. BBC can act as Noah’s Ark for other British production/local news against flood of Netflix/Google/Tiktok options. Create an undisputed ‘British’ homepage on the internet to funnel more eyeballs more effectively into ecosystem.
A bit like BBC proposal for iPlayer to host all FTA UK content, I wonder if eventually BBC News website ends up as homepage/funnel for UK local news. Encourage quality not incumbency by BBC buying syndication rights on high quality stories wherever they come from, not giving Reach free journalists.
Helping with bills best served by reducing demand/waste as you say but then via temporary boost to UC, child benefit, pensions etc as needed. But policy leading to stubborn inflation and higher rates bad for economy and worst for the costs of the new renewables we need to be more resilient next time
Not just ‘don’t forget’ but prioritise. Energy one (large) household bill, but leaving business to struggle will push up prices in rest of the basket while hours/jobs cut mean others lose income to pay. Shrink productive capacity and leaves a nasty stagflation hangover.
And car cloning which can be extremely distressing and financially damaging to the victims on top of the criminal behaviour it enables. Wouldn’t be surprised if combined we’re talking numbers not hugely different to France or the cost. Shockingly under-policed and punished malign behaviour.
UK equivalent is ghost plates to avoid ANPR cameras (lots in London to avoid ULEZ and congestion charge
But temptation and opportunity grows with any system you make more complex to do achieve more aims e.g. charge more based on pollution, try to help disabled people on top of dealing with speeding, insurance or parking offences.
Surprisingly British-coded failure by the French state here. Part-privatised vehicle registration system and reliance on good faith that people wouldn’t abuse access to commit fraud.
Compared to 2022, the gas side of this crisis is translating differently to power.
*This is just a snapshot alert* but look at these recent days in GB wholesale markets. Gas at ~£40MWh, power at £50-60/MWh - that power price is barely/not covering the cost of burning gas.
So what's going on?
Headline somewhat obscuring who is the victim here. ‘Govt success in tackling fraudulent buying and selling of student visas using fake London outposts’. Real victims are the mugs who thought they were there to learn.
Absolutely. And if anything were to be done, better to focus on business energy costs.
Fantastic news during an energy crisis. Turbines casually cranking out 23GW this evening.
The credibility gap is real though, you can’t be announcing this stuff or spending any time or money on it without a backlash if people don’t think you’ve done the groundwork to deliver. I had high hopes for Marvin but the haters didn’t kill this one, they just called it right.
Great move. Have you thought about replacing them with First Ministers and Mayors, taking their seats ex-officio? Lords reform and democratisation by small steps seems the best strategy at this point. Step after that would give them power to delay/amend bills relating to their competences.
Disagree. Bristol has a lot of low hanging transport and housing fruit to pick - and in so doing prove it can handle big projects and make the trade-offs to deliver politically and financially - before asking for a multi-billion pound underground. Eventually yes, but avoidance activity right now
Yeah, it’s really disappointing. Especially when Livingstone, for his many faults, showed what you could do with a vision and willingness to be bold to deliver it. Burnham’s CAZ policy and retreat a proto-Starmerish failure. Labour Mayors/Ministers still struggling to leave comfort of opposition.
Sorry, I thought you were diminishing it on EdM’s behalf. Didn’t realise we were agreeing. I’d still say it all safely sits fairly under CCS but no big deal.
Ok, he’s building a massive new gas power station and a brand new gas-to-hydrogen plant as well as funding the abatement of these and some legacy hard to decarbonise gas processes, all on top of the pipes, terminals and underground storage to pump that CO2 back into. Not sure that’s any cuddlier tbh
Does seem to be a desire that people who disagree on this must be coming from some sort of anti-renewables/decarbonisation position, rather than disagreeing about the most effective path for UK to do this given real budget constraints and the impacts of shocks. Ed Miliband is spending £21bn on CCS
This Iran stuff should be a chance for UK to think hard beyond Chagos deal. Cyprus has come into focus. But all other BOTs and the Channel Islands too. Choice to be part of the UK with devolved government and seats at Westminster or part ways? And what is the Commonwealth for?
West Ham - especially any new owners - might be keen to give up their £3.9m rent and take the £20m losses off of the Mayors hands.
Live from the London Stadium shortly. I have a theory that the Premier League’s new squad cost ratios rules might be great news for Sadiq Khan and bad news (but actually good long-term) for West Ham and their stadium rental deal of century
