Last winter’s energy crisis was much less bad than many had predicted – thanks in large part to unusually warm weather. Indeed, 2022-23 was Europe’s “joint-second warmest winter on record”, so demand for natural gas was much lower than it might have otherwise been.
However, it was still cold and people still had to heat their homes. Yet according to the Economist, high gas prices discouraged many Europeans from doing so, leading to 68,000 excess deaths across the continent. The magazine had actually predicted that this would happen and was proven correct – or so it claims.
How did its analysts get to the figure of 68,000? They begin by noting that there were 149,000 excess deaths between November 2022 and February 2023 – which is 8% higher than the five-year average from 2015-2019. About 60,000 were officially recorded as Covid deaths, so these were subtracted from the total.
They then looked to see whether energy prices were correlated with the non-Covid excess deaths rate across European countries, and found that they were – as shown in the chart below.
There’s a strong positive association between energy prices and non-Covid excess deaths per 100,000. Note that Britain had among the highest energy prices and among the highest non-Covid excess deaths.
The Economist ran a model controlling for various factors, and found that “a price rise of around €0.10 per kwh” was associated with “an increase in a country’s weekly mortality of around 2.2%”. Which implies that if energy prices had not risen, there would have been 68,000 fewer deaths in Europe.
Now, I have one quibble with their methodology: they appear to have used the absolute number of excess deaths per 100,000 as their outcome measure – which doesn’t really account for ageing and ‘rewards’ countries with lower birth rates. However, the biases aren’t huge, and it’s unlikely to have seriously affected their analysis. (The true figure might be 10-15% lower.)
Incidentally, they also estimate how many lives were saved by energy subsidies, and come up with a figure of 26,600. Given that subsidies were on the order of €600 billion, that works out to around €25 million per life saved – well-above standard estimates of the ‘value of a statistical life’.
The rise in energy prices last year was partly due to uncertainty sparked by Russia’s invasion, and was therefore probably inevitable. However, it was also due to Europe’s self-imposed sanctions on Russian energy, along with Russia’s decision to cut gas supplies (before the Nord Stream sabotage).
As the Spectator noted in a recent editorial, the sanctions on Russia have largely failed. They haven’t stopped Russia waging war let alone “turned the rouble to rubble”. And they’ve helped the Chinese, our supposed rivals, who’ve been able to buy energy at a discount.
On top of all that, it seems, they got elderly Europeans killed.
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DS, would you mind keeping this sort of insanity to yourself..
It really doesnt help my mental health…
I feel your pain ! Terms were changed but the idiot word police left “ Daughter” in there ‘ HA ! What’s next to replace that you muppets !!
I’m completely with you but if we ignore this stuff, it simply gets worse. We are all fighting a poisonous neo-Maoist cult.
As a kid, I listened to Radio Luxenburg 208 after being sent to bed. Their major sponsor in the late 70’s seemed to advertise every 5 minutes – and they offered a free sample! I didn’t know what they were, so as a young lad (anything free seemed like a good deal), I wrote off for my free “gift” to Tampax tampons Ltd, Havant, Hampshire….. How my 3 elder sisters howled with laughter when my parcel arrived……
Those days seem so innocent now…
Go on then, tell me how a man can use a tampon?
Ask the party currently leading the German government (SPD). One of the past pet projects of some of its backbenchers was equipping men’s loos with facilties to support menstruating men.
I suppose he could always stick it up his a**e and pretend.
Take two, insert deeply into ears and remarkably all the negative comments just disappear
Alcoholics who get rectal bleeding use them…
… apparently!
grim
My old boss at work who at times was a bit forgetful went into the ladies loo at work and tried to dry his hands in the tampon disposal incinerator. He clearly also hadn’t noticed the lack of urinals.
After breaking my nose playing hockey, I had nose reset when I came around from the general anaesthetic I had a tampon up each nostril. It brought a tear to my eyes having them removed. Other than the above application I’m not sure where a tampon would come in handy for me, I’m open to suggestions?
Shove it down the throat of an inclusion/trans activist.
A friend of a friend had to use tampons after contracting something from drinking unfiltered water while hiking in New Zealand leading to a collapse of the colon.
I always carry a couple in my survival kit. Very compressed and when opened are great for starting a fire. Some other uses too.
Geoff Pullar Lancashire and England opening bat (no pun intended) got 99* and saved the game in a test against India with a Tampon up his bottom. The previous night’s curry having disagreed with him.
Ms Hill criticised Always earlier this year for ‘dehumanising’ women by referring to girls as ‘bodies with female sex organs‘ in a pamphlet explaining puberty to children.
You couldn’t make this up. If someone ever wants a real example of women being objectified by reducing them to their sex organs, that would be it.
It’s a classic case of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”.
I prefer: If you can’t beat em, hit them harder
Get a friend to help?
Insane and sad that the money from all this nonsense is not used for more early screening for cervical cancer and prostrate cancer.
Or providing free period products in schools for girls who need them.
What about testicular cancer? There isn’t anywhere near enough awareness about this. There’s a race for life, I wouldn’t want to loose that race, for breast cancer. It’s about time we had a sprint for sperm.
Have just come across a trans website where men who have not had the Op, actually go into supermarkets and buy tampons & sanitary pads so they can show them off in their trolley and at the checkout till. I wonder if they actually stick them into their Yfronts as well every month!
Probably some intersex sanitary product sharing going on in this household. I’m so confused watching this clip, but on a scale of 0 to ‘totally effed up’, where do you think the kids will be when they hit adulthood? How do people like this even get together in the first place?
https://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1701564155952496943
What a mess I cannot even comment except both kids had an IQ larger than the 3 adults .
Dear Ms. Hill, it has been reported to us that you appear to be long overdue your next installment of Maoist re-education.
Please make your way to your nearest re-education compound, and be prepared to demonstrate a fully updated vaccination schedule when requested.
If you fail to do so, or if your schedule is not fully up-to-date with all latest boosters, we will unfortunately have to switch your Digital ID status to ‘RED’, which would then mean your remaining CBDC balance will become inaccessible to you.
Please note that a ‘RED’ ID status will likely mean your smart door lock will no longer allow you to re-enter your residence, so we recommend remaining there until you comply with the above requirements.
Moreover, for every day of non-compliance with the above you will be required to pay a fine of 250 CBDC GBP, with the daily open balance accumulating interest at 15% pa.
Kind regards,
Your Local Re-Education and ID Enforcement Authority
Acting under Royal Charter and UN/WHO directive 420/69
Another product to boycott…..
Bud lite them, they will soon get the message, I am sure there are lots of men who need the product, for their periods,
This afternoon, when I have a bit of time I intend to contact Always and ask this simple question….
What is inclusive about your approach when it ignores both basic biological reality and science…and even worse rejects and is un-inclusive to half of the population of the world?
Why do you hate women and girls so much you wish to eradicate them from the English language and thus from History?
…or words to that effect..feel free to join me…
https://www.always.co.uk/en-gb/feminine-products/sanitary-towels/
Moreover, why must the by far overwhelming majority of people who don’t believe that gendered souls can be born in wrong bodies be forced to dance to the tune of the preciously few people (<< 1%) who do believe this? Why is it legitimate that people controlling a publically traded company try to employ the power of the organization at their disposal to force others to use language in a certain way? They don’t have any political mandate for this.
Always is a company selling certain kinds of products. If they think their customers will appreciate being referred to as bodies with female sex organs they can employ this language when marketing their products. They have no right to demand that anybody else does.