Social media is abuzz with the observation that, though the Government has cancelled the Winter Fuel Payment for millions of pensioners, nearly £12 billion has been found for international ‘climate aid’. (And that may be just one of many reasons why the Government is so keen to censor social media.) The critics are right: despite finding a £22 billion “black hole” in the country’s finances, the new Government is committed to spending money it does not have on things that do not serve our needs, and which we did not vote for.
For many years, the fact that global warming is not “the biggest problem facing mankind” has been staring governments in the face. The far greater problem for Britain’s senior population is the winter – climate as usual, not climate change. Before Covid, the Government’s grim ‘Excess Winter Deaths’ (EWD) statistic reflected, in large part, Britain’s capacity to look after its elderly. Between the 1950s and 1990s, excess winter deaths fell by two thirds. Then, as energy prices rose, they began to increase again. The chaos of Covid will conceal this metric of indifference for some time to come. (Which is why the following chart stops in 2019.)
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Touche:
and
And in practical terms cannot meet the stated objectives.
The previous government borrowed an average of £128 billion every year for 14 years.
The current government in opposition never challenged that.
Why?
In 2024 ONS estimate 33 million are in employment.
£128 bn = £3880 per person in employment every year for 14 years.
What did they spend it on?
And it is not even their money. It is ‘our’ money.
What can a government build in the UK with £128 billion pounds every year?
Schools, hospitals, roads, HS2 [white elephant], transport infrastructure, military equipment …….
What did they spend it on instead?
Or economics. Intermittency of wind and solar has a cost. The companies cannot operate with a continuous output, sales and revenue stream to cover costs and give return on investment. The capital and operating costs are continuous, and lifetime of wind and solar over which to amortise capital costs and generate revenue for RoI are about half that for fossil fuels and nuclear.
And yet the Net Zeroids yap about how wind and solar prices are falling below fossil fuel prices – but the idiots cannot understand that that adversely affects the revenues of the supplying companies. So those low prices do not include the intermittency cost bourn by the consumer and taxpayer to stop the suppliers going belly up.
And part of that intermittency cost is the cost of gas generation in continuous operation as back-up.
These companies will always need subsidising, either through direct taxpayer funded cash or inflated wholesale prices – or both.
They are just not viable business enterprises without Government mandated market distortion to stop the normal supply-demand-price process which gives “unfair” competition from the continuous output and revenue stream of fossil fuel and nuclear generators.
The more wind and solar added to the mix, the greater the intermittency and therefore the greater that intermittency cost. Talk about ‘storage’ to address this, just adds more to the intermittency cost. Storage itself, dependent on intermittent wind and solar for recharge, will have its own intermittency problem and costs, and companies operating storage will need subsidy and inflated supply prices.
Of course the notion that storage sufficient to give continuous supply to the grid when conditions are not right for wind and solar, avoids the inconvenience of physics.
Are any politicians in Westminster or, really, anywhere, able to read?
‘Since 1750, additions to the atmospheric CO2 concentration derived from natural emission sources associated with biological processes are about 4.5 times larger than the contribution from fossil fuel emissions (e.g., 22.9 ppm per year from nature, 5.2 ppm per year from fossil fuel combustion).
In other words, observed CO2 data contradict the climate narrative that says anthropogenic fossil fuel burning is driving CO2 concentration changes.’
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/08/30/new-study-co2s-atmospheric-residence-time-4-yearsnatural-sources-drive-co2-concentration-changes/
Yes Deeply Flawed analysis & isn’t co2 needed for plants to thrive
and doesn’t Gaia manufacture 95% of the trace chemical?
and didn’t Co2 levels start to rise after the ending of the medieval little ice age circa 1720-1820, long before cars, natural gas and air conditioners?
and isn’t Co2 at historically low levels compared to times past and isn’t the extinction of flora guaranteed at around 150 ppm for Co2?
and we are at a measely 425 ppm?
wouldn’t you want more of the miracle chemical and not less?
the secular cult of warmtarding is an embarrassment to the idea that humans are rational.
All of the “science” has been decided mate. Our Political Class do want to know anything other than the group think consensus science that they use to bludgeon us with. Ask the average person about CO2 and how much of it comes from humans and what effect it has and I guarantee they will not be able to answer you. This is why the government can get away with saying whatever they want about climate and get away with it. If people were to actually find out that there is nothing unusual or unprecedented about current climate or temperature and that there is zero evidence for a “climate crisis” they would be very angry indeed, but they simply don’t know and I would suggest 95% don’t want to even try to investigate for themselves. This is the power that propaganda has and when the public think it has all to with science, they blindly accept it as most are scientifically illiterate. If only they could realise this issue has little to do with science and is mostly a political social economic and moral issue
Why would they care what the “truth” or “reality” is? The useful idiots can see which way the wind is blowing and all they need to be sure of is that they will not be holding the parcel when the music stops. It’s the voters who need to be able to read, and understand that most politicians cannot be trusted with much.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution atmospheric concentration of CO2 was 280ppm – we are told. This must have got there from some other process than fossil fuel emissions.
So did that process stop when we started burning coal? Unlikely. So whatever put that 280ppm there has carried on.
Undoubtedly fossil fuel emissions have made some contribution – but how much? Lots of guesswork and claims but no evidence it is ‘most’ of the current increase to 420ppm. And even if it is, so what?
The only evidence from observation we have of any effect higher concentration has, is a surge in plant growth in arid areas – shrinking deserts – and increased crop yields.
All good.
Climate Change and Climate Change Policies are mostly NOTHING to do with the climate. It is globalist politics all emanating from the UN/WEF. ——Sustainable Development is all about a world run by technocrats that no one ever heard of or voted for but our Political class and in particular the Labour Party with Miliband and Starmer are all fully onboard with taking UK taxpayers money and using it for phony pretend to save the planet policies. But it is a very strange kind of socialism that seeks to keep very poor people poor in the third world by coercing them into not using the very fuels that would bring them out of their misery and allow them to develop and prosper. Instead climate polices fob them off with some money for turbines and solar panels.
——-At the very same time our political class led from the front now by the insidious Labour Party will attempt to save the planet harder and faster than all other governments by attempting to be rid of fossil fuels by the utterly ridiculous date of 2030, and coercing us all into using heat pumps, electric cars etc and soon smart meters to ration energy use will become COMPULSORY.
It’s going to be quite convenient for the Tyrants if a sizeable number of pensioners die of the cold this year. It’ll be put down to Covid/Bird flu/MonkeyScam …… and they’ll save a fortune on the State Pension which they can use to implement even more lunatic policies.
But they care about saving lives, look how they’re going after smokers {sarcasm}.
Indeed.
“...a world run by technocrats that no one ever heard of or voted for…”
That is the reality and the same scenarios are playing out across the world.
Look at free speech for example, it is being viciously curtailed in this country, now Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Canada. The reality is that the globalists are running these countries and despite some on our side being of the opinion that there is no central command structure there most certainly is and probably the UN or WEF led, or a combination.
Starmer is nothing more than a puppet. A thoroughly immoral and degenerate one but still a puppet. To believe differently is simply naïvity. The people pushing the eco nonsense know it is nonsense but it provides the cover and the excuses for their evil machinations. Our politicians fall in line because they believe they might be invited to join the technocrat’s elite class but are too stupid to realise that at some point they will be ruthlessly cast away having served the masters’ bidding.
The sad part of the whole pantomime is that there are an awful lot of Sceptics who believe that our system can be redeemed via the political route as my daily forays into Guido’s blog confirm. This is so far from the truth as to be off the scale. I will not stop repeating…
Our salvation will not arrive via the ballot box.
They hover along between various think tanks. The WEF & UN is infamous now with a growing number (still too small) but that IMO is just one of many. Bilderberg, Trilateral commission and Council for Foreign Relations are other big players. I’m sure you’re aware, this is more for readers who are new to all this.
Not going so well for the EV market. Take some good news where you can get it.
Don’t count any chickens yet. The planet savers will simply conjure up more taxpayer funded Subsidies (bribes)——-Roll up roll up, sign up for the new EV half price scheme.
The government/bagcarriers know that their their only solution is to cut consumption. This is being done by reducing population (mmmRNA jabs tick), increasing prices and refusing to buy oil from rogue states and their best bet – ensuring all homes have heat pumps.
Heat pumps, in addition to their expense. can only ever “work” if your property is insulated.
The problem with insulation (relatively cheap) is that most of the UK’s housing stock, especially oop North have cavity walls. The cavity is there for a reason which is to stop damp ingress which leads to mould and consequential health problems (think of the extra NHS burden though). Homes need fresh air/draughts to circulate in order to maintain health.
So,in order to overcome the problem of home owners not wanting insulation and heat pumps HMG will simply decree that in order to sell your property it has to be insulated and have heat pump/s.
It’s for the Greater Good you see..
Oh, by the way,one very elegant way of increasing air circulation in your home is to chop say 6″ off the bottom, or top of your doors as mooted by Scotland during the covid “crisis”. Such are the brains of those in charge.
Yep ——Climate Blackmail
It must be obvious to Cameron after treaty Xi to fish ‘n’ chips, that democracy cannot be slush-funded across borders.
It must be obvious to Sith Lord Blair that democracy cannot be extended across borders by ‘conflict’.
It must also have dawned on Rashy Sanook, Jedi knight, that international cooperation in the form of supporting a country at war, one that was acknowledged to be corrupt before the conflict – and which treated people with disabilities as animals, Soviet style – doesn’t make it any more democratic, and, as wars of democracy do, has probably made it less so.
It must be self-evident to all these international developers from the Afghan ‘experience’ that equality cannot be imposed on a society by fiat. A lesson in the effect of international development could be learned from the Helmand Valley Project ‘experience’.
UN admits “global warming” isn’t about the science. ‘Climate change policy is about how we redistribute the world’s wealth.
Keir Stalin is just “redistributing” some of our wealth like the good little Communist he is.
https://www.climatedepot.com/2017/05/24/global-warming-is-not-about-the-science-un-admits-climate-change-policy-is-about-how-we-redistribute-the-worlds-wealth/
“£12 billion has been found for international ‘climate aid’”
And £9 billion in public sector worker bribes, £3 billion (annually) to Ukraine.
There’s that ‘hole’ filled with change.
Another way to fill the hole is with this ghastly Socialist tyranny.
‘The pledges are oaths to put intergovernmental pacts above the interests of national populations.’
Taken at face value that’s bad enough. But the reality is that these intergovernmental pacts apply only to Western governments, the home of barely 16% of humanity. Major non-Western governments such as China, India, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia and Iran have no serious interest in joining in – content to watch the West destroying itself.
Read this over my Sunday morning cup of tea. The article says it all but it‘s not good for my blood pressure. Any good news from this ghastly government would be most welcome.
We those insulation enthusiasts, may I remind you that to live in a home with people, cooking and perhaps pets also means ventilation, a little of which will rapidly undo all that heat (and moisture) retention.