News0 min ago
Labour's Five Missions....
28 Answers
unveiled today.
https:/
doesn't include "Rejoin the EU".
......mistake?
https:/
doesn't include "Rejoin the EU".
......mistake?
Answers
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//Making Britain a '"clean energy superpower", removing fossil fuels from all of Britain's electricity generation by 2030//
Good luck with that one.
Yesterday, late evening gas was the source of 50.9% of the UK's electricity supply. The National Grid's own figures (helpfully provided by Thecorbyloon in another thread yesterday) show that in 2022 over 38% of the UK's electricity was sourced using gas. At this very moment, 44% of electricity demand is being met by gas. Some 27% is being met by wind and 8% by solar:
https:/
The only substantial planned expansion in capacity is of these latter two (i.e. more wind turbines and more solar). Battery storage is not a viable commercial option at present and is unlikely to be any time soon. There are times when neither the sun shines nor the wind blows (not hard enough, anyway). So even if wind and solar were to be expanded to have the potential capacity to meet all the country's demand, there would be times when they were producing little or nothing. That's where gas comes in.
So instead of bandying pointless slogans about (such as the UK becoming a "clean energy superpower") it would be more useful for the electorate to learn precisely how Mr Starmer envisages this target being achieved in the next seven years. As far as I can see, it hasn't a cat in Hell's chance of succeeding.
Good luck with that one.
Yesterday, late evening gas was the source of 50.9% of the UK's electricity supply. The National Grid's own figures (helpfully provided by Thecorbyloon in another thread yesterday) show that in 2022 over 38% of the UK's electricity was sourced using gas. At this very moment, 44% of electricity demand is being met by gas. Some 27% is being met by wind and 8% by solar:
https:/
The only substantial planned expansion in capacity is of these latter two (i.e. more wind turbines and more solar). Battery storage is not a viable commercial option at present and is unlikely to be any time soon. There are times when neither the sun shines nor the wind blows (not hard enough, anyway). So even if wind and solar were to be expanded to have the potential capacity to meet all the country's demand, there would be times when they were producing little or nothing. That's where gas comes in.
So instead of bandying pointless slogans about (such as the UK becoming a "clean energy superpower") it would be more useful for the electorate to learn precisely how Mr Starmer envisages this target being achieved in the next seven years. As far as I can see, it hasn't a cat in Hell's chance of succeeding.
All politicians have a 'list' that they trot out as what they will do if they are elected - remember Ed Milliband's 'set in stone' nonsense?
But we are all old enough and experienced enough to know that what they promise, as against what they can, and would, deliver, are very very different.
Labour are only popping the 'energy efficiency' piffle in at the end to deflect hostility from the hugely vocal, and equally hugely ignored and irrelevant Climate Change lobby.
As NJ has pointed out, the notion of 'climate change' is something that all governments, present and future, have to pay lip service to, and that is absolutely all it can ever be.
Anyone with a basic grasp of how the National Grid operates, knows full well that the much trumpeted electric car 'revolution' is a fantasy, with no hope of serious realisation in the next fifty years.
They make a noise about it, but like the current government, they actually do very little, because there is very little that can actually be done.
The problem is Climate Change wonks vote, so their votes are needed, and they have to be pacified with a few vague promises that will vanish after the next election, and the five or six after that as well.
But we are all old enough and experienced enough to know that what they promise, as against what they can, and would, deliver, are very very different.
Labour are only popping the 'energy efficiency' piffle in at the end to deflect hostility from the hugely vocal, and equally hugely ignored and irrelevant Climate Change lobby.
As NJ has pointed out, the notion of 'climate change' is something that all governments, present and future, have to pay lip service to, and that is absolutely all it can ever be.
Anyone with a basic grasp of how the National Grid operates, knows full well that the much trumpeted electric car 'revolution' is a fantasy, with no hope of serious realisation in the next fifty years.
They make a noise about it, but like the current government, they actually do very little, because there is very little that can actually be done.
The problem is Climate Change wonks vote, so their votes are needed, and they have to be pacified with a few vague promises that will vanish after the next election, and the five or six after that as well.
// Even most remoaners wont want to rejoin under the punitive conditions that would no doubt be imposed ... //
It might not be so punitive after all -- the EU wouldn't want to be seen as being too vindictive, because in fact most members and prospective members, e.g. Ukraine, actively *want* to join. But that's all hypothetical right now. To my mind, a far more serious concern would be to set the precedent that joining or leaving the EU becomes directly attached to the General Election cycle. If we told the EU that, in effect, our position on membership could change every five years, then they would probably just tell us to naff off.
We only left in 2020, and we're still resolving Brexit-related issues to this day. Trying to rejoin again already just seems to add to all of that, and might restoke the divisions -- even if there is an apparent trend towards wishing to rejoin, I'm not sure if it's anything more than a short-term reaction to what could well be called "teething trouble".
It's not sensible to try and rejoin until there's a cross-party and cross-country consensus on the point. And that's probably a decade away at least.
It might not be so punitive after all -- the EU wouldn't want to be seen as being too vindictive, because in fact most members and prospective members, e.g. Ukraine, actively *want* to join. But that's all hypothetical right now. To my mind, a far more serious concern would be to set the precedent that joining or leaving the EU becomes directly attached to the General Election cycle. If we told the EU that, in effect, our position on membership could change every five years, then they would probably just tell us to naff off.
We only left in 2020, and we're still resolving Brexit-related issues to this day. Trying to rejoin again already just seems to add to all of that, and might restoke the divisions -- even if there is an apparent trend towards wishing to rejoin, I'm not sure if it's anything more than a short-term reaction to what could well be called "teething trouble".
It's not sensible to try and rejoin until there's a cross-party and cross-country consensus on the point. And that's probably a decade away at least.
Clare - // // Even most remoaners wont want to rejoin under the punitive conditions that would no doubt be imposed ... //
The difficulty is, Britain originally joined an 'economic community', which has steadily morphed into a federalist state with far-reaching rules and supervision of the UK's laws and sanctions to an utterly unsuitable degree.
Everyone who argues for a return to the EU argues from an economic perspective, apparently assuming that we could re-negotiate the ludicrously unfair trarif constraints that saw us underpinning massive contributions to the EU budget, in return for the European Court Of Human Rights deciding that we had no control over our own borders.
In my view, anyone that seriously imagines that the EU would take us back without an immediate return to the previous situation, with the UK in thrall to unelected bureaucrats squeezing money out of us with their ruinous economic policies, is living in a fantasy.
If Europe can't bleed us dry, they don;t want us, and we would hope that no government would allow that situation to be set up again, would not try and steer us in that direction.
It would be political suicide to tie us to the European machine again, when we are still trying to untangle their Machiavellian intrigues from last time.
The difficulty is, Britain originally joined an 'economic community', which has steadily morphed into a federalist state with far-reaching rules and supervision of the UK's laws and sanctions to an utterly unsuitable degree.
Everyone who argues for a return to the EU argues from an economic perspective, apparently assuming that we could re-negotiate the ludicrously unfair trarif constraints that saw us underpinning massive contributions to the EU budget, in return for the European Court Of Human Rights deciding that we had no control over our own borders.
In my view, anyone that seriously imagines that the EU would take us back without an immediate return to the previous situation, with the UK in thrall to unelected bureaucrats squeezing money out of us with their ruinous economic policies, is living in a fantasy.
If Europe can't bleed us dry, they don;t want us, and we would hope that no government would allow that situation to be set up again, would not try and steer us in that direction.
It would be political suicide to tie us to the European machine again, when we are still trying to untangle their Machiavellian intrigues from last time.
AH: "In my view, anyone that seriously imagines that the EU would take us back without an immediate return to the previous situation, with the UK in thrall to unelected bureaucrats squeezing money out of us with their ruinous economic policies, is living in a fantasy. " - Yet Hymie et al still post their 5C propaganda almost daily.
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