ALAN SIMPSON
News from Somewhere Else
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If there are seminal moments in politics, Jeremy Corbyn’s speech at the 2018 Labour Conference will go down as one of then. This was when the planet took centre stage.
It wasn’t the 130 forest fires raging across the USA that got to me, nor the UK’s moorland fires, the torrential storms hitting Belfast with 2 months rain in 2 hours, the lightning strikes that took out …
When I was a child there was a low wall not far from my nan’s house. It was lined with the nobbled ‘knuckles’ of what had once been an iron-railing fence.
It was one of the biggest infrastructure projects in human history. For much of the 1930’s, and at a cost of 3.3bn francs, France built itself a 900-mile network of tunnels, underground bunkers…
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.” (Greek proverb) Britain has 5.5 million men, and 6.5 million women, who are of pensionable age.
It is 4 years since the death of my friend and mentor, Tony Benn. I could argue that he turns up in every article I write, but that’s a poor substitute for the daily conversations into which he poured tea and optimism in equally copious quantities.
Transformation Moment
My pamphlet 'Transformation Moment' is intended to support the case for a radical shift in energy thinking; as much about democracy as technology, and about 'systems' rather than just supply.
This is rubbish. It isn't about leaving people in cold homes but stopping the UK running a 'capacity market' scam. The Tories were funding coal rather than clean energy or energy efficiency. The irony is that we needed the EU to stop them.
@daveberkeleyuk @PaulEmbery @adamvaughan_uk @AlanSimpson01 If May signs off this bad deal, the UK will remain subjected to the competition and state-aid regulations that prevent the UK government from doing right by its citizens in situations such as this.
Help! I’m down to be Brexit Secretary between 2-4pm on 12th January but have a dentist’s appointment. Can anyone swap their shift with me?
May to ask Wayne Rooney if he'd like to make a guest appearance as a Cabinet Minister while he's in the country? Lots of free positions he could choose from.
Brilliant, brilliant news! At last the Tories are blocked from subsidising 'dirty' by pretending it's clean.
This judgment effectively annuls previous state aid permission to provide subsidies for existing fossil fuel energy plant. I have long criticised this bizarre arrangement which simply throws money at old dirty power stations. https://t.co/wykTxvAm1G
Great pitch from Clive Lewis: we have a decade in which to cut CO2 emissions in half, and must do the same again in both the decades that follow.
It's when 'Just Transition' and 'Just In Time Transition' become the same thing.
.@labourlewis “Concept of #JustTransition has to be assessed carefully - when I was shadow defence secretary, I made a remark about swords to ploughshares for defence sector jobs to a union rep - he told me that’s boll*cks, because nobody has ever done it”
One fifth of national budget reserved for shift into renewables. Fracking licences revoked. If Labour wants the votes of the young, this is where it must look.
Spain plans switch to 100% renewable electricity by 2050
Ambitious scheme also aims to fully decarbonise country’s economy shortly after
www.theguardian.com
Appalling that Ofgem should threaten the investigator who exposed corporate abuse of the scheme rather than the companies milking the system. Classic example of a system that stinks.
Millions 'misspent on green energy abuse'
Energy regulator Ofgem is accused of mismanagement by a whistleblower.
www.bbc.co.uk
So, if we're to avoid culling farmers as well we need to go back to the drawing board and look for a better plan
Farming industry to blame for TB crisis, not just badgers â report
Movement of cattle and poor fencing hamper control efforts, says government review
www.theguardian.com