No one can say that running a country is easy, though running it into the ground seems to be an easier option; a couple of examples to open up:
The first is from the DfT. A report supports spending £3 billion on the scheme below; having failed miserably in keeping the road standard high enough to actually drive on they take the easy option under the guise of healthier living.
In itself there is little to complain about. Sensible cycle ways if used are indeed safer than that offered now, but in most cases the current road structure cannot handle the extra lanes so the traffic becomes squeezed out.
That is also ok according to the same source as air quality is improved etc etc. There is never any question mark over the fact that business is hit by lower footfall as customers go online, firms close and jobs are lost, but if you can dress it all up with the catch-all climate change banner then you have a valid (in their eyes) excuse not to update the infrastructure so money is saved to be squandered on other schemes.
See (2)...
1. The report was critical of some areas of the Government’s approach to active travel and said it was not on track to achieve its key policy aim of increasing cycling and walking.
A DfT spokesperson said: “We are investing £3 billion up to 2025 to delivering safe and inclusive active travel infrastructure across all parts of the country which enables everyone to build healthier journeys into their lives.
2. "Britain’s green energy disaster should be an awful warning to Americans.
"The UK’s electricity prices are the highest since records began in 1920 and are now amongst the highest in all Europe. One reason for this is obvious: slightly less than half our electricity comes from gas-burning Combined Cycle Gas Turbines (CCGTs) and gas now costs £90 per megawatt-hour (MWh), nearly five times higher than normal. CCGTs are cheap to build (around £650m per GW) and operate. In normal times they would generate electricity at a total cost of £40 per MWh. That’s now risen to nearly £150/MWh.
"As an example, the offshore wind farms Hornsea Two and Moray East were completed in 2022 with capital costs of £2.77 billion per GW and £2.75bn/GW, more than four times the cost of CCGT capacity. They’re expensive to maintain, which is not surprising since offshore windfarms have all their many generators mounted at the top of 200-metre tall masts far away from land. Estimates of maintenance costs are as high as £200m per GW installed, per annum. The nominal cost of offshore wind generation is £170/MWh – noticeably higher than that for CCGTs, even in these dire times of high gas prices.
"In 2021 the UK annual grid balancing costs reached £4.19 billion, £150 per household. For context, back in 1995 when we didn’t have much wind power the balancing cost for the grid was a mere £250 million per annum. A large, and growing, contribution to these costs is constraint management, as when a wind farm producing electricity which isn’t wanted – perhaps when it is windy in the middle of the night – is paid NOT to put that electricity into the grid. “
Remember that these systems need constantly running back up for when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine, so we are in actual fact paying for two systems. It would be with no storage for the renewables anywhere in sight and even then limited, simpler to run the fossil fuel and nuclear plants and save ourselves a fortune as well as be self sufficient; it is a question that is never asked.
There must be an awful lot of money being diverted into net zero schemes for all the basic wrongs to be ignored.
Out of curiosity I wonder why Lord Deben (formerly John Gummer), he of the mad cow baguette, lives in a listed manor house which cannot be upgraded with insulation to the standards he insists everyone else should attain. Surely he should sell and purchase an eco dwelling... just asking? He is of the ‘GB can lead the world in green technology’ so why not lead by example?
There must be an awful lot of money being diverted into net zero schemes for all the basic wrongs to be ignored.
Out of curiosity I wonder why Lord Deben (formerly John Gummer), he of the mad cow baguette, lives in a listed manor house which cannot be upgraded with insulation to the standards he insists everyone else should attain. Surely he should sell and purchase an eco dwelling... just asking? He is of the ‘GB can lead the world in green technology’ so why not lead by example?
“The most absurd and insane thing about the whole green movement is that they believe humans can control the Earth's climate by micro-adjusting a 0.04% trace gas.”And why is it that anyone who has a contrary position on CC even if qualified is either ignored ridiculed? …
Geologist, Professor Ian Plimer, utterly demolishes the human-induced "climate emergency" fairy tale in three and a half minutes:"[Six of the six] great ice ages started when we had more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than now. We have 0.04% of that gas in the atmosphere... Well that means nothing to me, because the atmosphere has changed in its carbon dioxide content from over 20% to now, which is really low in geological time. If we halved it, all plant life would die, and animals would die."
It is interesting seeing how many of the Just Stop Oil protesters are of the non-working or privileged class. Many have been outed, the latest being the young man carried off the pitch at Lord's: he is the son of a millionaire who in turn owns an investment company that backs green ‘opportunities’.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12247059/Student-21-carried-Jonny-Bairstow-Just-Stop-Oils-protest-grew-5-2m-house.html
We suffered ‘nudge’ units, an idea we can thank David ‘I’m not a quitter’ Cameron for during Covid and still they exist despite being sold off to a charity. Quite how a government propaganda unit can become charitable is another subject!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/01/13/downing-streets-controversial-nudge-unit-accused-exploiting/
David Halpern, author of the highly praised Hidden Wealth of Nations, has argued that a society of trustworthy citizens is a platform for economic growth and individual wellbeing.
And so the elites now think they have a way of controlling the masses, how very Orwellian of them. Hard to believe this nation leads the world in population thought control; China must be very envious.
In truth nothing surprises anymore. Daily we get NHS missives on new drugs and treatments that will save lives; the fact the majority are not able to see a doctor makes all this pointless, and should they actually make it to the treatment phase there are no beds for them in hospitals, well not until they have figured a means to get rid of the elderly bed blockers - having been subject to recent efforts to expunge myself so as to not be a burden on the State I can speak with some authority in that area.
Perhaps it is owing to lack of housing, which is only created by the huge numbers of immigrants coming into the country; after all we would not need these housing estates for the indigenous population as it is static in growth.
And ditto with all our other clapped-out infrastructure: energy production, roads, they will solve that by making it too expensive and too inconvenient for the masses to drive, all other transport apart from flying which naturally they also view as ‘unnecessary’ and harmful to the environment will also become too expensive as recent flight fares to holiday destinations are proving.
Water companies, which I wrote about some while back are living up to the facts I wrote about: suddenly everyone is noticing that water shortages in the country can only be averted by spending ever more of taxpayers' money despite the fact they were all privatised.
All this is small beer compared with the elephant in the room: climate change. Endless experts, remember them during Covid?, are telling us the tipping point is nearly upon us and after that we all fry, though even if true we will still be expected to shell out what we have left in a futile Canute moment.
Only thirty years ago we were told, no it was insisted, we were entering a mini ice age; experts?
The only thing for sure is that if Mother Earth is going through one of its cycles of extreme weather as it has done since since conception, there is bugger all we can do about it. You may all remember when the world sky turned dark pink when Mount St Helen's blew up: there was nothing they could do to stop that and we are due more of the same.
It is only 11,700 years since the end of the ice age, we are still coming out of it. This is just a blink of the eye in the evolution of Earth, yet somehow EVs are going to make a difference; the only difference is that there will not be enough electricity to power them all and all the other electric ‘improvements’.
