OV9

Net Zero is the biggest waste of cash this country will ever spend money on.

A local council is patting itself on the back because it has a big battery bank in the town. This is for the grid support so it can charge when cheap and unload when high load demands. For the price of that, plus the LTSA to look after it, they could have added thousands of solar panels onto council houses helping those with minimum incomes and the council themselves where they cover the bills.
They could have planted thousands of trees, instead they remove them as apparently in 2024 a tree is very expensive to look after.
They could have insulated even more council run homes, again lowering running costs.

That battery will not last as long as they think, will cost more than they think and be less effective than they think. But the logic will never arrive, they will be too busy mutually masterbating over their “path to net zero” sound bites to listen.

Politics is like Instagram, show what you think people want while being utterly devoid of any substance.

Dave!

Oh and Starmers a cunt

Dave!

Even is a liberal conservative I think that Starmer himself is a decent person. Remember when he took on McDonalds as a young barrister ?He's just got some shit cabinet members, like Reeves.

To be fair, you can replace Starmer with a whole host of politicians and get the same result.

I don’t like any weakness on prosecuting criminal acts. In general this country is pretty pathetic on low level crime which imo is the wrong thing to do to deter crime from escalating. He was known as Softie Starmer, so light on crime.

It just feels like more of the same but they are getting out running, he specifically attacked Sunak saying he would take the WFA for pensioners away and now what has he done ?

I just assume that life will get more expensive for most and the unions will get whatever they want.

I read a comment about how many stealth taxes Labour put in, well over 100 but don’t know if the Conservatives did the same on the same scale so will do a bit of geekery when I’m back home.

Dave!

Yeah Starmer doesn’t seem like a bad person, he also doesn’t seem like he’s that fussed about being a politician though. He’s just doing as he’s told.

With instructions that look like they’re coming from the same playbook as Sunak was being led from.

Simon wrote: Wed Aug 28, 2024 8:58 pm
We all need to get to Net Zero somehow. Waiting for other countries to get there first isn't the answer. We just need to bring everyone with us, nationally and globally.

This is very true, unless you're a fan of extreme weather, mass migration and food shortages.

It’s what I’ve always said about this stuff.

Don’t worry about what others are doing, do the best you can. Everyone making a small effort to improve has a big effect.

So far all the things I’ve seen in the forestry world regarding carbon reduction are borderline scams and less sustainable than 10 years ago. So that side of it is all nonsense.

Farming doesn’t seem to be going too great. Thought we wanted to have greater food security but paying farmers more to not grow food, build houses in their fields, and growing shit to make biodiesel. Can’t eat any of that.

We also still export a lot of produce though so you know, it’s hard to see where the line is there.

Outdoor smoking ban in the pipeline... excuse the pun.

It's like Steven Hughes joked many years ago...

Government - Smoking is Dangerous

People - so we can't buy Cigarettes

Government - no you can, they're very profitable for us, tax wise. But you can only smoke them on your own in the middle of a forest, under a blanket .

We were on holiday in Germany last week and smoking is still a thing there. I didn’t notice any vaping. It was pretty gross having other peoples smoke imposed on you when you’re just walking around minding your own business. I’d forgotten what it used to be like here.

Mito Man wrote: Thu Aug 29, 2024 10:14 am So far all the things I’ve seen in the forestry world regarding carbon reduction are borderline scams and less sustainable than 10 years ago. So that side of it is all nonsense.

Farming doesn’t seem to be going too great. Thought we wanted to have greater food security but paying farmers more to not grow food, build houses in their fields, and growing shit to make biodiesel. Can’t eat any of that.

The genuinely sad reality is that we're a small, densely populated island with expensive land which makes it very hard for British farmers to be competitive in a global market. That's why we import over half our vegetables and 85% of our fruit. It's infinitely cheaper to produce stuff in Morrocco, Spain and Kenya. Same goes for meat, the reason we have NZ lamb is because England is 25x more densely populated than NZ, so they've been able to make lamb meat for a fraction of the cost of ours for the last 150 years, even when you factor in freezing and shipping.

The UK always has been fundamentally reliant on imports to feed the population.

And the government ELMs, countryside stewardship and sustainable farming initiative have been a bit of a mess under the tories, but they are genuinely done with the right intent to move in the right direction.

Gavster wrote: Thu Aug 29, 2024 11:08 am The UK always has been fundamentally reliant on imports to feed the population.

So what your saying is that to protect the environment, we should close the borders ???

There are old hippies who are isolationist in that way

Sundayjumper wrote: Thu Aug 29, 2024 11:06 am We were on holiday in Germany last week and smoking is still a thing there. I didn’t notice any vaping. It was pretty gross having other peoples smoke imposed on you when you’re just walking around minding your own business. I’d forgotten what it used to be like here.

It's still a thing in most of Europe. Was the same in Sweden and Denmark and that really did surprise me, given how they're thought of as being such a healthy nation.

Can't decide if it's worse tripping over discarded disposable vapes and having to breathe in the stench of what smells like a Lush shop vs. a bit of ciggy smoke

dinny_g wrote: Thu Aug 29, 2024 11:37 am

Gavster wrote: Thu Aug 29, 2024 11:08 am The UK always has been fundamentally reliant on imports to feed the population.

So what your saying is that to protect the environment, we should close the borders ???

I don't quite follow your thinking although I'm sure it is funny

It would be a great way to malnourish the population, we were only a few weeks away from famine during WW1 because of closed borders and battered supply chains. The UK was even more dependent on imports back then, we're marginally more self-sufficient today.

Gavster wrote: Thu Aug 29, 2024 1:29 pm

dinny_g wrote: Thu Aug 29, 2024 11:37 am

Gavster wrote: Thu Aug 29, 2024 11:08 am The UK always has been fundamentally reliant on imports to feed the population.

So what your saying is that to protect the environment, we should close the borders to immigrants ???

I don't quite follow your thinking although I'm sure it is funny

Sorry, too vague - edited for clarity...

I hate the smell of smoke but it’s where will it end ?

This won’t be the end of the “we know what’s good for you” rubbish they like to spout. So after the smoking ban what will be fixated on next ?

Freedom is very important, it shouldn’t only be important for the things we enjoy.

Dave!

If that’s the case, why are weed and magic mushrooms illegal?

Neither are as harmful as cigarettes, both have even shown positive results in multiple medical trials.

Smoking is gross and harmful to the smoker and people around them. It’s also a source of a huge amount of litter.

Nothing would be lost from a ban.

All very true Zed...

Folks are bound to default to the "thin edge of the wedge" arguments. "What's next" etc.

Edit - Sorry Dave - I didn't see your response. What wasn't aimed at you per se...