Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Breitbart; The British House of Lords has stated in a report that young people should shoulder the burden of net zero, because older people won’t benefit from the expenditure.
… Lord Hollick, Chair of the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee, said:
“The Government has set ambitious targets for net zero including a carbon-free power system by 2035; however there is no point planning a carbon-free energy future if you haven’t got a clue how you will get there or how it will be paid for.
“We now need urgent action from the Government to answer outstanding questions on issues such as how they will incentivise households to replace gas boilers with heat pumps – and what plans there are for the 6 million homes where heat pumps may be unsuitable – what funding mechanisms will be established to encourage investment in small modular nuclear reactors and how the upgrade of our infrastructure to allow the use of hydrogen for heating will be funded. These are basic questions that need to be answered before we will get the investment we need to get to net zero.
“The amounts that can realistically be raised via surcharges on energy bills is not enough. Bills are regressive as the poor pay more of their income on energy costs; it is also unfair to the current generation as we are asking current billpayers to cover the huge costs of something that is designed to mainly benefit future generations. The Government should look again at using greater public borrowing to fund what are huge and long-term infrastructure costs. That would give investors confidence to invest in new technologies and ensure the public aren’t hit immediately with higher bills at a time that many are already struggling with fuel poverty.
“While money is a key challenge it isn’t the only one. We need better co-ordination across Government and a real drive and focus to deliver net zero. This requires tackling highly sensitive, political decisions that affect all consumers and taxpayers. That is why we are calling for a new Energy Transformation Taskforce within government that will report directly to the Prime Minster and take the lead in setting and co-ordinating net zero strategy and policy across government.” …
Read more: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/517/industry-and-regulators-committee/news/161468/uk-will-miss-net-zero-target-without-urgent-action-warns-lords-committee/
The House of Lords report, which from my brief review appears to be a mixture of recommendations for communist price controls and a lot of handwaving, is available here.
Given the official UK public debt stands at 103.7% of GDP, I’m not entirely sure where the British Government plans to find creditors dumb enough to lend them the kind of money required for a serious attempt at Net Zero.
But whatever happens, it does make a kind of sense – young people mostly are the ones who believe climate action is necessary, so they should be the ones to pay for it.
Of course, to keep it fair, there should also be an opt out clause for young people who think Net Zero is a stupid waste of resources.
I wonder how many young Greta followers would choose to opt out of paying more tax?
Net zero is just trash talk for people who want government to make an even bigger power grab.
“Net Zero”, is merely the latest buzz expression for the Greenalists to bandy around. There will be a new one quite soon I am sure, in much the same way the kiddywinks like to modify their jargonese language to outwit we oldies so that we can’t understand them. Destroy life on Earth, net zero is achieved!!!
Whenever I hear that buzz expression I substitute “Not Zero” to make it more accurate.
Very good I like it!!! 😉
Exactly, BoJo’s known and unknown prodigy ( there are at least n+2^3, whereby n≥0) have to make up for his past and possible future carelessness.
Maybe we should hijack *net zero* and apply it to UHA global satellite temps.
I’m just wondering when people are going to realise what an economic mess has already been created. Sky-rocketing electricity and fuel prices have just started to bite. This will continue dramatically. And the actual effects towards ‘net zero’? Almost indistinguishable from zero.
When it really starts to have an effect on people’s wallets, it’s going to be terrible. I’m certain that the usual suspects will blame it on:
1. Brexit
2. Conservative government
3. Fossil fuel companies
That’s what they’re doing now.
4.People who think for themselves! (Verboten in a net zero world!!!)
It already has an effect. 8% inflation is not fun.
The answer to the final question is, of course, 97%.
Regards
Dudley
LOL 🙂
Brilliant That will make them think about the
shitproblems they are causingWestern governments will soon be setting up GoFundMe appeals to finance their interest payments.
Like Germany where a 3 year bond is paying -0.6%? It has never been cheaper for governments in the west to borrow money. It many countries it is below inflation meaning
people are paying governments to hold their money.
Yep Governments have an open checkbook. Taxes are meaningless.
Much of the so-called debt is owed from one office in the Bank of England to an office down the corridor in the same BoE.
Yep, just made up from one central bank buying government debt.
That will not last long with current Western policies.
Isn’t it great when government can create inflation that makes their interest problem go away.
The U.S. already does that by asking if you want to give them a portion of your tax refund.
Which raised – wait for it, wait for it… A grand total of $1,268,950.35 in 2021.
A novelist on Kickstarter has raised $24,516,799.00 (as of just now – still 25 days left in the campaign, too).
Those who have a University degree in a subject that doesn’t get you a job and a huge student loan debt already will be overjoyed at the prospect I imagine.
Does anyone know or care how Climate Fridays are doing?
There’s the problem. If you ask young people before they graduate, that’s one thing. If you ask them later, when they haven’t established a career and the student debt is crushing, that’s another thing.
Student debt is well known. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody, but it seems that it does. Kids are deluded into thinking that a basket weaving degree from Podunky State University is a good investment of time and treasure. Of course they will think paying for net zero is a good idea.
correction:
Of course they will think **someone else** paying for net zero is a good idea.
Same goes for their
studentparty loan.There is a simple solution. Students should work and pay their way through university. I told my children this was how it will work for them. They accepted and did degrees that enable them to do real work and did not end up with debt burdens.
Young people in UK should collect water from the nearest river, bring it home and use it for cooking, washing clothes and bathing. That should reduce emissions.
You left out “on foot”, no vehicles/wheels of any kind allowed. If they want stone age “sustainable” “energy”, well that is it.
They’d also address the alleged population issues, they’d probably all be dead by the time the get into their 40s!!!
They can send the bill to Greta Thunderbird who will pass it on to Bill Gates and Klaus Schwob.
The sad fact is, the kids that are not even born yet are going to be paying for this boondoggle without getting a vote on it. We have already emptied the treasury and going into tremendous debt to try to satisfy the green loonies.
Modern civilization was nice while we had it.
Not to worry, government is doing everything it can to ensure they’re not born.
Apart from Boris Johnson, that is, who appears to be doing everything he can to overpopulate the planet!
Just listen to the song that ends.
“When you add it all up
The real cost of my love is no charge”
We need better politicians, not stupid policies that no one needs to focus on or actually worry about, least of all worry, who should be paying for them.
better politicians is an oxymoron. we need real leaders…o, forgot, not allowed as clearly demonstrated in 2020.
They should be realistic and call for the fracking ban to be lifted
Net zero sums u their IQs
Fracking first occurred in Texas in 1945. UK been fracking in the North Sea for best part of 50 years. Nullius novus sub-solis!!!
“ 50-year-old fracking site that makes a mockery of the Balcombe zealots:”
https://scotlandagainstspin.org/2013/08/50-year-old-fracking-site-that-makes-a-mockery-of-the-balcombe-zealots/
Nice one!!!
“Fracking” by explosives started somewhere near to 1900, probably in Pennsylvania.
Horizontal drilling is the new part.
That too has been going on for decades, with techniques first developed so a North Sea platform could exploit satellite fields without the expense of a whole new rig. One that truly impressed me was a satellite in the Oseberg field, 5km from the main platform, where the well was accurately steered through an impermeable stratum that was barely more than a metre thick.
Then of course there was Well M at Wytch Farm, which took distance out to 11km. Motivated by the need to avoid upsetting the rich on Sandbanks by despoiling their view of the ocean and across to the Isle of Wight. They since fought off a windfarm, so it is the Eastern side of the Isle that is blighted with Rampion, producing on average 100MW. Not so long ago I calculated that Wytch Farm had produced as much energy as all the UK wind farms operating would produce in their working lives.
And would you believe that “””YOUNG PEOPLE””” use and waist electricity like it’s going out of fashion!!!!
I know some old ones who do too.
The real big wasters are government buildings. I’ve taken neighborhood walks late at night every summer for years (because it is so hot during the day). A local high school takes up most of a city block. There are multiple buildings, a number of athletic fields , several parking lots, a track & competition field with changing rooms, concession stands, administration offices and lots of grandstand seating. Most of it is behind fences with gates locked most of the time. Everything is brightly lit every night , all night long, and nothing in use most of the time.
A good percentage of office buildings in many major cities are fully lit 24×7. They care a lot.
Back when I was still working in an office, we had to make sure someone stood up and waved their arms every 15 minutes, otherwise the lights would turn off, and that was during the day. At midnight, the lights turned off and no amount of jumping about could get them to come back on. (Only happened once, we were monitoring the go live of one of our state installations. I guess nobody told building management to adjust the timers.)
And those were probably fluorescent lamps, which use more energy when turned off and on than when ON in a steady state.
Of course MUCH of the recent energy savings in residential settings and in lighting in general is the invention of LED lamps.
Just before LEDs became cost effective, the US Congress passed legislation banning 100 and 60 watt incandescent lamps and essentially requiring the use of the crap, mercury laden twisty fluorescent lamps. This was to ensure GE could at least break even of the factories they built to make that crap.
I just bought a couple of cases of 60 watt lamps and a package of 100 watt. By the time I started to run low, LEDs became cost effective. I still have some laying around somewhere, but I use LEDs because you don’t need to get the ladder out as often.
Had a friend who rented one of my houses for a couple of years. She was and is a lib. When she moved out I had to replace almost every lamp in the house, she had put in the hazardous waste circle fluorescent lamps everywhere. You ever read the disposal requirements on those. And if you break one, a hazardous waste suit and respirator is the only SAFE way to dress to clean it up. It seems the envirowacos have always been for damage to the environment.
You mean Congress didn’t actually care abut us all?
Ah, the old saying is true then, “Many hands make light work!”. Sorry!!! 🙁
the electrical outlets in their homes emit no co2 and thus clean and green…anybody knows that, that’s why we need ‘lectric carz
Yes, the revolutionary electric walls. Tapped for green electricity.
“Given the official UK public debt stands at 103.7% of GDP, I’m not entirely sure where the British Government plans to find creditors dumb enough to lend them the kind of money required for a serious attempt at Net Zero.”
Actually the cost of servicing UK government debt is at a historic low. Currently a 2yr UK bond is paying about 1% interest. In contrast inflation is running at over 5% so in fact people are paying the UK government to take their money. And there are no shortage of such people.
Borrowing money and spending pushes up inflation. Inflation is contained by raising interest rates. Raising interest rates also raises the cost of government borrowing. Failure to contain inflation leads to currency collapse, more inflation and massive resource misallocation, like people investing in property instead of productive economic activities.
The current low interest rate situation is fragile and temporary.
I’m sure hoping your job is not providing financial advice to government ministers.
House prices in the UK, an estate agent’s email told me yesterday, are going up at 1.3% per month
and it was Government spending, financed by Government borrowing, that is driving that – as City brokers and dealers spend their generous commissions from laundering Government’s printed money
Meanwhile, 8 major shareholders in Big UK Pharma shared out a £10.3 Billion bonus package – and as we all know, they spent it on heat-pumps and sunshine panels
Yes there are plenty stupid people that Government can borrow from – they are the current generation as they get into the 2nd half of their working lives and can thus put money into (City of London brokered) Pension Funds
Also Stupid Students, who as I pointed out recently, pay £20 Million per year just to the Climate Change Dept at Leeds University so that The haha Professors can fiddle on their computers from 9AM until they all go home at 2:30pm.
After enduring the tedious strenuosity of giving names to Antarctic glaciers. 6 of them in fact
For 150 working days per year
Maybe not all that stupid tho – only 23% of them ever pay back the student loan.
But that’s coming to en end. The salary/repayment threshold has been lowered and they now got until they retire (instead of 30yrs) to pay the thing back
And it’s not Cheap Money – UK Gov. was charging interest at over 5% last time I looked
In fact, the people are sooo stupid they let the Government mandate that they pay into pension schemes- and – that their employers adds in an amount equal twice what the employee puts in.
i.e. Folks in the 40’s onwards are forced into lending money to Government for fear of not having any pension at all when they get to age 65
Oh wait, not 65, it is now = age 67 and counting before they can claim a pension
That’s just the start – I could go for hours.
UK is now a complete train wreck- there are more chiefs than Indians and the Chief chief is a pathetic diabetic drunkard while boys and girls have entirely parted company – UNLESS – the latter think they can get something from the former..
A Nice New House In The Country for example
btw Princess Nutz, how much did your £200,000 Downing St. kitchen cost – after you’d ripped out the £40,000 pile of crap your predecessor installed 4 yrs previous?
It’s all happened exactly the same: 2,000 years ago in Ancient Rome
At least the Romans invented plumbing, made good concrete and knew what a bidet is and how to use one
It’s really rather telling and sad innit – the fixation of UK people on Toilet Paper during the Covid paranoia scare.
Because some while ago, intrepid researchers simply stopped people in random places and took a swab off their hands/fingers.
No names/ addresses details or anything, just the swab
Over 70% of them had ‘Faecal Material’ on their hands..
IOW They hadn’t even washed their hands after having taken a dump.
Maybe they deserve what’s coming, Covid was just a taster.
Data-miners – wherefore art thou?
Let’s see toilet paper consumption vs per-capita Covid expiries
The amount that your employer is putting into your pension fund on your behalf, is also coming from your salary.
Your employer decides how much they are willing to pay for your services. Then they deduct government fees like disability, etc, and of course the money they “contribute” to your pension fund, and then pay you whatever is left over. So in fact the employee is paying for all of it.
Borrowing and spending is the easy part.
Blaming other people is also easy in a low-information world. Where are the torches, pitchforks and yellow vests in response to Western governments’ trashing our energy systems and economies?
It’s never ceased to amaze me how ignorant most leftists are of even basic economics. You really have to work at staying that dumb.
Apparently you’ve never heard of the British taxpayer? And let’s be clear – taxpayer – not citizen. Most citizens don’t actually pay their fair share.
If only the people that will benefit from net zero have to pay for it, wouldn’t it be simpler just to shelve it ?
Nobody will benefit from it, therefore nobody needs to pay for it.
Yes exactly right, Jeroen!
If those who “won’t benefit from the expenditure” should not pay, then the Green subsidy harvesters should be the only ones to pay, since it will be true for everyone else that they won’t benefit from the expenditure.
It is not the fault of the young that (some of) their elders have lied to them.
Nor is it the fault of the older generations that criminals are using this scam to destroy the west, although it is probably true that the majority of the scammers are not under 30.
We really need political reform in the UK.
First get rid of the monarchy. Second, scrap the House of Lords which is a body of unelected, hereditary peers who, with only a few exceptions (Matt Ridley) haven’t a clue what they’re talking about on any subject.
I agree but the Parliamentary dictatorship likes the monarchy
A head of state who does exactly as she is told
Neither Biden nor Putin inspires as an alternative. Nor Merkel or Macron.
The HoL hasn’t been hereditary since Tony Blair kicked most of them out. Instead it is a repository of failed left wing politicians, installed by Blair and as a sop to Nick Clegg during the Cameron coalition. A return to hereditaries in the House of Lords would probably increase their average knowledge significantly.
It’s actually worse than you say, HotScot. Very few in the House of Lords are hereditary peers these days – Matt Ridley is one of the very few left. Most of its (unelected) members are tied into the same old political parties that mess up our lives from the Commons – and they, in turn, are virtually all supporters of the one-party state, the Establishment Party.
Without the Monarchy, the UK tourist industry would collapse; big time money loss for no practical change in politics.
France has a thriving tourist industry, not just the beaches in the south of the country or skiing in winter, and their Royal Family and the landowners were dealt with in the ultimate fashion.
Even the stately houses in France are pretty empty as a result of the revolution. It just needs good marketing.
Mea Culpa, Ben. I didn’t consider the large, warm UK beaches nor its extensive system of ski resorts. My youngest daughter like haggis, so I guess the UK cuisine can also compete with France and Italy for gourmet tourists.
I see we have a Russian in the house of Lords regarded by the security services as a threat. But he’s one of Boris’ mates so it’s not a problem.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10582709/Boris-Johnson-intervened-help-Russian-newspaper-boss-Evgeny-Lebedev-peerage.html
I call all monarchies the rule by the last successful murderer. The line of the current kings/queens was started by the edge of a sword on the previous kings/queens and ruling family.
The current monarchs families just had really good timing.
I think that it is unfair to expect young people to pay the cost of green policies. After all, some young people are not science denying green fanatics. I think the entire cost of green policies should be borne by greens of all ages.
Bill T: “ I think the entire cost of green policies should be borne by greens of all ages.”
–
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That’s how ‘extras’ should be paid for. In my State (U.S.) those who hunt, fish, and boat pay for licenses, which is just another tax on their hobby or interest.
However, those fees do not go into the general fund where they can be frittered away on the pols’ cronies. They are used for hunting, fishing, and boating improvements and maintenance. The users pay and the users benefit.
If it’s not roads or bridges which benefit everyone, extras should be a ‘users pay’ tax system.
Why not something similar for the green boondoggles? Everyone was doing just fine with coal and nuclear and everyone needs electricity. But those who want to add green bells and whistles should pay for the bells and whistles.
Yes, brilliant. Climate Nutters should pay 6X for electricity, with it available only on Tuesdays and Fridays.
The problem is that greens are all liberals. And liberals’ sole governing philosophy is; ‘better living through using government to make somebody else pay for it.’
Reading the article, not too interesting…wait a minute…”small nuclear reactors…”! Looks like there’s a Yin and Yang to British culture after all. Go for it.
“wait a minute…”small nuclear reactors…”!
a Yin and Yang to British culture after all. Go for it”
A whole long screed pushing for Big Government, communist style price/economic controls, a huge program of spending funded with borrowed money, and a plan to place the responsibility for the debt onto a new generation who have no say in the matter at all. *AGAIN*
And finally, SMRs, a tiny stupid little sop to the realists.
Do not tell me you fell for it. Please, do not tell me you fell for it.
OUCH, I told you not to tell me that!
You fell for it.
OT. On my news notification page popped up link to an article written by respected British journalist: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10581335/PETER-HITCHENS-saw-coming-Thats-wont-join-carnival-hypocrisy.html
A grain of truth thrown into the frenzy of fog of war. I recommend it to the readers anywhere.
I have a Ukrainian friend who has family members and friends trapped in cities being bombarded by Russia.
As I said before, I gave Russia the benefit of the doubt when they bit off a few regions with majority Russian population – maybe the Russians in those regions were being mistreated.
Then Putin started giving speeches deploring the breakup of the Soviet Union as a “geopolitical catastrophe”, and shelling civilians who by their actions make it very obvious they do not want to be part of Russia.
So I’m finding it a bit difficult to take the Russian POV on this issue.
I have indirect experience trough members of family and number of relatives of both sides, the USSR and the NATO. and it is not pleasant.
This crisis is as much to do with power struggle between two global powers and regional domination as it is within Ukraine.
This is a much larger and far more dangerous repeat of what happened with Serbia under rule of Milosevic.
Kosovo (/read KievRus) was cradle of Serbian (/Russian) nation, history, religion and culture.
Milosevic (/Putin) would not it let it go and be Albanised (/Ukranised as Putin sees it) without a fight.
Both Milosevic and Putin behaved in atrocious manner.
That is were the parallel ends.
Milosevic was defeated by relentless NATO bombing initiated by Blair & Clinton, of even more westernised capital Belgrade, despite neither of parties involved were members of NATO and unlikely to be for many decades to come.
Serbia lost the war and Kosovo, Milosevic ended in The Hague.
Russia is not Serbia and Putin is not Milosevic, and in this case Ukraine is the the one who is going to pay the unbearable price.
Question is: Were Ukrainian leaders wise enough to find an alternative way?
Latvia seems to have found a way to find common ground between the various ethnicities in its population. It had a similar bumpy ride after independence and some mistakes may have been made but they seem to be integrating different ethnicities into one Latvian people. Of course the situations may be very different – Ukraine may have a higher number of ethnic Russians and more regionalised populations than Latvia, for example, but it is interesting to see how countries approach a similar problem in different ways.
I look at Finland (even not Slavic) as an example that could have been followed to live content with much larger and somewhat unpleasant neighbour.
Whatever final outcome of this crisis (excluding nuclear confrontation) in a decade or even less Russian military having learned ‘the Ukrainian lesson’ is going to be even more dangerous and ruthless, the Russian neighbours should bear that in mind.
I remember overnighting in a motel in Lappeenranta having crossed the border near Vyborg. Two vehicles pulled up disgorging Soviet Army soldiers in full uniform: they had freedom of movement into Finland, and stayed a couple of rooms down.
“Milosevic was defeated by relentless NATO bombing initiated by Blair & Clinton,”
The bombing did not defeat Milosevic. It wasn’t until NATO ground troops went in that the war was brought to an end.
Clinton wanted to fight the war from 25,000 feet, but found out it takes ground troops to win a war.
Clinton’s ignorance was actually a good thing as Clinton refused to put American ground troops in, when NATO did, and therefore, the NATO force did not have an American commander, but a British commander, and this saved us from World War III when the British commander prevented U.S. General Clark from attacking Russian troops at an airport the Russians were occupying. Clark would have been in charge had Clinton agreed initially to send in ground troops. Aren’t we lucky. A fool was prevented from carrying out a foolish act.
Ground troops. You have to have ground troops if you want to win the war. Once ground troops were introduced into the area, the war was over in a matter of weeks. Ground troops save lives by getting it over quick. Bombing people from 25,000 feet just makes them angry and more determined.
At what was the NATO destruction of many military, government and residential buildings in Belgrade and elsewhere meant for?
It included countries main TV and radio transmission centre full of engineers (more than dozen of I knew personally), destroying the main TV and radio mast about 15 miles away, knocking out the Chinese embassy, etc.
Many hundreds or even thousand people camped day and night on a bridge linking two parts of the city, for weeks on end to stop the NATO destroying it after the initial attempt failed.
What you are talking were not combat NATO but UNPROFOR (later KFOR) peace keeping troupes racing from Bosnia, but Russians arrived at the Pristina airport first.
They just sat there, the Russians at one end of the runway and British general Mike Jackson with his men at the other. They would meet at the airport’s terminal for talks and meals; both vodka and whiskey were served.
No surprise that Jackson didn’t want to start WWIII, even less so his Russian counterpart.
Actually they were NATO KFOR troops at the time; British, American and Norwegian under NATO leadership and command structure. The Russians were UN SFOR troops that raced out of Bosnia and hurriedly repainted SFOR into KFOR at the time. Confusing as the whole thing was an alphabet soup of acronyms and which area you were operating determined which colour beret you wore that day.
There was bloke Wesley Clark popping up on every single news bulletin justifying stuff they were doing during bombardment as ‘collateral damage’.
It was said so often that phrase passed into local vocabulary, to such an extent that when kids were caught
doing anything wrong they would say ‘pardon,
collateral damage’ and run away, without even knowing what it meant.
Wesley Clark is a fool.
Don’t listen to any advice give by Wesley Clark.
We are very lucky he wasn’t in charge during that war.
Generals can be fools, too. For every general who wins a battle, there is a general on the other side who loses the battle.
Generals are not perfect. They make mistakes. Although I wouldn’t call Wesley Clark’s stupidty a mistake. It’s just stupidity and cluelessness. Not something you want in a general.
Thank God he is retired.
I talked to my ex wife in Tula Russia yesterday. She told me 20+ bodies of young soldiers were returned to their parents yesterday. Putin’s minions in the press have many Russians convinced that the war is justified by the problems in the Donbas region. I wonder how long that will last as the bodies of soldiers continue to rise.
Well they are surrounded by an expanding NATO. The US went crazy when Russia wanted missals in Cuba. I find it interesting how people are shocked about Russia.
Putin was right about nukes on the border – see my comment here…
Do you think Ukraine is the new Black Lives Matter?
How can Russia be surrounded by NATO, when there isn’t a single NATO country on it’s border. Beyond that, even if every country that has considered joining NATO were to join, less than a third of it’s borders would be with NATO countries.
For generations, Finland has been adamant that they have no need for NATO. Thanks to Putin’s behavior, they are now reconsidering that stand.
eh?
And Ukraine is defacto NATO with 3 control regions in direct contact.
Mark NATO has expanded since the fall of the Soviet Union. Ukraine is right on their doorstep. Putin has been telling the west of their NATO displeasure for a long time.
This is no different when Russians were about to put nukes in Cuba…the US freaked out. Russia has been freaking out and the weakness of Brandon made this a no brainer. The US should stay away.
The difference of course is that the nukes in Cuba were offensive weapons, whereas Nato is a totally defensive organization. Only Putin could hallucinate that Germany, with it’s pacifist culture, had any intentions to invade Russia. Only now that Putin has put the fear of God into them is Germany finally willing to pay the minimal 2% of GDP into it’s military that NATO membership is supposed to require.
The claim was that Russia is surrounded by NATO, do you care to defend the claim, or are you going to keep trying to dodge the question?
Actually, NATO countries border on Russia in several areas. Norway, Latvia, and Estonia have considerable borders while there is a little spit of Russian land that is totally surrounded by the NATO countries Poland and Lithuania.
This has been the case for decades without NATO invading Russia.
I see maybe 10% of Russian bordering a NATO country. That’s not being “surrounded”. Even if Ukraine were to join NATO, the amount wouldn’t reach 20%.
Missals in Cuba?
Kennedy was theoretically Catholic, why would he be upset about prayer books in “Cuber”?
The problem with your logic is that if Russia is allowed to dictate what kind of government and alliances certain countries are allowed to have, simply because of their misfortune of sharing a border or being nearby, then to be consistent, shouldn’t the US have control over Canada, Mexico, etc.?
There’s a difference between stationing offensive short-range nuclear missiles 90 miles from Miami and just being a member of an alliance. I could be mistaken, but I don’t think there are any nuclear weapons deployed in Poland, Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania.
It’s a false equivalence. There is no military threat to Russia from the emasculated West. None, zip, nada, Nichts. Anyone witnessing Brandon’s performance in Afghanistan would realize that. We’re more concerned with promoting transgender admirals for chrissakes.
No country should reasonably fear aggression by the EU. Russia objects to NATO troops in the Baltics because they stand in the way of Russia annexing those countries, not because they fear being attacked. That’s obvious on the face of it.
Hitler made the same claims about German speakers and ethnic Germans in various parts of Europe too. Eventually realisation dawned on the democracies of Europe. The Munich agreement bought time but even the year that bought and the phoney war meant Britain and France were still not prepared in terms of equipment.
Going on the basis that former Russian (including the USSR) territories should be part of Russia again then we’re talking Finland, Latvia, Lithunania, Estonia, East Germany, Poland, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Albania and of course Belarus. Probably the former Yugoslav republics too. As about 20K russian soldiers died liberating Vienna you could throw a bit of Austria into the mix. That’s before Putin starts looking to the east.
At the moment Ukraine is playing the part of Czechoslavakia in 1938, although putting up a fight at the moment.
Kaliningrad give the excuse for further expansion to the west, Kaliningrad residents may be as keen as Ukrainians on the idea. How does the idea of a European war starting over Poland leading to a global conflict appeal?
Don’t forget resource rich former Soviet republics like Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.
and where are The Good Men?
Out of curiosity, I don’t wanna know but an gonna ask because it’ll only induce mendacity:
How many went to watch the Oliver Stone film after it was linked to here recently..
If you want to learn something, the last thing you would ever do is watch an Oliver Stone movie.
The last thing to do is ever to listen to your advice about not listening, which goes without saying.
This from the guy who believes Putin when he claims that the Ukrainians were using the Chernobyl plant to build a plutonium based dirty bomb.
I know – who’d a thunk it; a nuclear waste processing plant at Chernobyl that has nuclear material in it. It would have been bloody suspicious if there had been a complete absence of nuclear material quite frankly.
Where are all the good men – you’d do better to ask Bonnie Tyler!
Hitchens is’ arguing it is OK to burn your neighbour’s house down with his family inside because he’s been an a**hole to you.
Don’t confuse irridentism and revanchism with anything remotely honorable, decent, just, or even tolerable.
You don’t have to listen to any of the words. Look at the pictures. The nature and the scale of what you are seeing is all you need to understand that there is a villain and to know who it is.
Ergo: if you are a small villain, living next door to a big villain don’t poke it unless you know for certain that another bigger villain going to come to your aid.
In case I describe above another big villain came in to save Tachi from Milosevic, but both ended in The Hague.
Zelenski may have thought that NATO will save his political experiment from Putin, it looks like as was badly let down, but time will tell.
If Zelenski could control his lieutenants and followed example of Finland he might have saved Ukraine from this tragedy.
Initially he tried to sort problems in the east, but too many hot heads on both sides just ignored him and his effort.
I have no dog in this particular quarrel, just talking from a very similar personal experience.
Now we find out that Ukraine was well on the way to a plutonium dirty bomb, using Chernobyl background radiation as cover since 2014, when then President Porochenko gave the go-ahead.
And a Karkiv R&D outfit is involved. Zelensky was not joking at the Munich Security Conference Feb 2022.
Most Ukrainians have no idea whatsoever about this.
Translate yourself :
https://ria.ru/20220306/ukraina-1776880095.html
I’ve seen paranoia before, but this is so over the top it’s positively Olympic class.
You’ll buy into any lie Putin tells
Plutonium is dangerous stuff.
Although there is rumor that D.C. is devising a totally new Periodic table, as the current one is by Mendeleev, a Russian.
Instead of Elements, Hunter Biden’s substances, or Newton’s Essences.
No kidding!
Forgot the meds yet again I see.
No doubt that Plutonium is dangerous. However the claim is that the Ukraine is building a plutonium based dirty bomb.
Care to actually defend your claim, or are you just going to insult anyone who doesn’t worship Putin?
No. “A representative of a competent body” – unnamed sources and no evidence whatsoever. And the “Karkiv R&D outfit” that you so eagerly seized upon is a joint Ukraine/American research reactor designed to produce low level isotopes for medical use. All of which information is available on the internet to people that actually do a bit of background reading, rather than hysterically repeating misinformation from Tass, RIA and Interfax.
Thanks for the link Vuk, BUT: Stalin starved to DEATH hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to make room for ethnic Russians to move into Ukraine.
Sort of how Democrats have killed MILLIONS of American POC babies since R vs W to make room for imported Mexican future Democrat voters.
After the dissolution of the USSR, the Ukrainians finally were able to return to their cultural roots.
The US used to be called the Great Melting Pot, no more. The intentional ‘”Balkanization” of the US VOTER by the Democrat party and their willing helpers in the MSM have created the sharply divided politics of today.
Finally it appears, from reports out of Texas, that “ethnic” American citizen “Hispanics” are beginning to see the light about Democrat policies. Positive news for the US.
Stalin’s death toll was more like 10’s of millions. Most Ukranians are well aware of their history and many have relatives who died.
Stalin, most of the time a drunk Georgian, didn’t care much for either Ukrainian or Russian lives, it’s not only Ukrainians who were starved, Russians didn’t fare any better, about 14 million people ended up in a Soviet gulags. Some Ukrainians but fewer Russians did themselves no favour during Nazi occupation and much of today’s tragedy can be traced directly to that time, Azov brigade is frequently mentioned.
I think Zelenski is a good man, but I fear that he may be just a puppet manipulated by hardliners.
For them Petro Poroshenko, not an angel, was not tough enough and couldn’t be pushed around, brilliant Yulia Timoshenko didn’t have a chance. Comes along Zelenski, TV comic with no political experience, but popular with public, the election winner, just the man for the job.
But hey, we have the wisecrack journo, sometime known as ‘shopping trolley ‘ popular with public, elections winner, pushed around in any direction by advisers, discontent Tories, much cleverer wife and some ‘unjustifiably’ believe by the Russian oligarchs e.g. Lord Evgeny Lebedev,(or google him) son of a now billionaire Russian banker and former KGB agent and Putin’s crony.
It is mind boggling how many Russians became ‘honest and hard working’ billionaires most of them still stashing fortunes in the UK.
Yulia Tymoshenko might have been brilliant but I don’t think I’d trust her in the slightest. A political weathervane and far too cosy as an oligarch, she’s changed her coat just too many times to be believable. Who knows, this might be Zelenski’s turning point – “cometh the hour, cometh the man” and all that!
May be, may be.He is popping up on TV every five minutes asking for this or that and telling the country one thing or another happened.
He is not sitting somewhere in a bunker with his generals planning defence, diversions, army deployment or counter attacks.
More of a TV announcer than the war time army strategist.
Time will tell.
Ukraine’s Parliament chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal
I think the ‘TV Announcer’ look gives him more credibility – he’s letting his military get on with the job in hand which they know how to do and concentrating on the political and civilian side of things; huge mistakes are caused when politicians try to micromanage military situations. If he’d just been as anti-corruption as his TV character it would have been something, but still.
How might this work? The “benefit” can be considered as proportional to life expectancy beyond say 2050. So an income tax addition that is 1% for each year of such life would share it out in a fair manner.
Of course, it would not be long before people started to point out that a consequence of net zero is reduced life expectancy….
How long before this generation of young people realize that it’s all been a scam to enrich the few at the expense of the many. Will they have to wait until they’re in their 50s like me to understand that after decades of “tipping points” not a bloody thing has changed with the climate other than slight natural variations. Will they have to be as poor as serfs, live in cold and dark homes and have to walk or cycle everywhere, rain, sleet, snow or shine. Or will they push back against the billionaires and their buddies in politics before things get too bad.
We’re heading for a tipping point alright, the point at which the personal abundance and freedoms of ordinary people may disappear with those in power wielding Lysenkoist dogma as an excuse to control the masses in the same way as the kings of old used religious dogma and the fear of hellfire and damnation to control their peasants.
The youth are not responsible for this lunacy, as it was the boomers that came up with this idiocy in the first place and then indoctrinated kids into thinking the world will end of we don’t rely on wind and solar, which they then think has no impact whatsoever.
If we want to suggest things like ‘opt-out’, then we can do this already and it should be promoted more. There is nothing stopping any climatard fanatic from going off-grid, so by their delusion, if there are so many of them, then by default the grid capacity would fall accordingly, and problem solved. Basically, tell them to have the courage of their conviction now, across all age groups, and if they won’t do that, then they are not serious about their belief.
As for those with a normal functioning brain, we need to get Government out of the energy sector, whilst ensuring it is based on domestic ownership. Government only knows how to destroy, so take them out of the picture and prevent them from sucking the sector dry through multiple taxation. Simultaneously, it must must be domestically owned to avoid dependence on other nations.
There are some basics that really shouldn’t be this difficult for people to understand.
“The youth are not responsible for this lunacy, as it was the boomers that came up with this idiocy in the first place”
Exactly.
Now what drove the boomers to such madness?
How about seeing optimistic President JFK murdered in broad daylight, and Biden still has not released the files.
The loonies always reveal themselves.
Got your tinfoil hat on?
“The youth are not responsible for this lunacy, as it was the boomers that came up with this idiocy in the first place”
I’m a Boomer. I don’t believe in this climate change lunacy. Don’t blame a whole generation for what a few delusional people do.
Er, the “Father of Global Warming” – James Hansen was born in 1941, so NOT a baby boomer (those born 1946 to 1964).
That would make him the grandpa.
Well the young are going to have to pay anyway based on the timescales involved.
Plus a lot of retirees take their money out of the country to live in a better climate with cheaper everything.
So it’s just like everything else. The people who reliably vote and use that power to their advantage (over 50) spend like a drunken sailor and leave the bills for those who don’t (under 30). Did anyone see anything surprising in this report?
The Government has set ambitious targets for net zero including a carbon-free power system by 2035
Now, my calculations for the UK do not include any ambitious plans for heat pumps. They are based on replacing the current electricity consumption that is not produced by nuclear, wind or solar by more of those elements on a pro rata basis.
Currently, UK electricity consumption per annum is about 330TWh with 123TWh produced by nuclear, wind or solar .
Nuclear 46TWh
Wind 64TWh
Solar 13TWh
The deficit pro rata is
Nuclear 77.4TWh
Wind 107.7TWh
Solar 21.9TWh
So by 2035 the UK needs to build the equivalent of
8 Sizewell B nuclear power stations
18,000 2.5-3MW wind turbines
50 million 265W output solar panels
It’s not going to happen, is it?
In modern Progressivism, it’s always up to someone else to make the real sacrifices. Nearly everyone who cries about the “climate crisis” thinks someone else should pay for it.
Greta, who has always lived a top-tier 1st world lifestyle doesn’t have a clue. In private, I have no doubt that she’d complain vigorously about having to sacrifice any of her creature comforts.
No matter how governments decide to pay for their energy regression, ultimately the younger will get the bulk of the bill, one way or another. What I tell younger people as an older person is that they can tax away every penny of my accumulated wealth, but what is impossible to take away from me is the lifetime of economic opportunities, experiences and relative comfort that I’ve enjoyed for over half a century of my life. If they follow through with this plan, ultimately the only people they will really be punishing is themselves.
Lately I’ve often hear millennials hopelessly complain that they think they’ll never get to live the kind of life I get to live today. If they keep pushing for these kinds of agendas, they will be right.
We should never underestimate the power of “caring,” as we’ve taught recent generations. “Doing” is of little consequence.
Just as soon as they pay off those student loans…
How about nobody needs to “shoulder the burden” of a scam where the “solution” is less money and less liberty for the people, while the garbage elite get all the heat, light, power, gourmet food, limos, private jets, yachts, private security, and every other luxury they desire.
NOBODY should pay for Climate Action towards “Net Zero “.
There is a hugely negative economic value to these efforts.
CO2 is a wholly beneficial trace gas that all life depends on.
AOC’s chief of staff said that the “climate change” agenda is not about the climate. It is about changing the world’s economic system. With the invasion of Ukraine we can see the results of the “climate change” agenda – through energy a vile dictator pretty much controls Europe. Here in the USA we are seeing what the Green New Deal is doing – prices are going up and reliability is going down. We are hobbling ourselves to accomplish the impossible.
Here on this site most of the discussion is feeding into the socialist and communist’s agenda.
Net Zero pursuits are as effective as spending billions scooping out the ocean with tea spoons to offset supposed dangerous sea rise.
At the same time the lunatic climate crusaders are opposed to everything smart.
That makes then pretty dumb.
Far worse is their dishonesty in their agenda.
The world is not advancing any climate fight progress at all. Yet certain countries insist their populous must sacrifice to play climate warrior nation.
Is it bad to say I hate these people?
Climate action? Net zero? How long will this drivel and waste of resources go on for?
The Central England Temperature record gives temperature readings from the year 1659.
To entertain myself, I had a look at the averages for the summer months (June, July, and August).
No year in the entire record has ever reached an average of 18C for these months, and values between equal to or greater than 17C are seen infrequently. Here are the greater than or equal to 17C values , with the year.
1781 17.0
1826 17.6
1846 17.1
1911 17.0
1933 17.0
1947 17.0
1976 17.8
1983 17.1
1995 17.4
2003 17.3
2006 17.2
2018 17.3
Annual averages of more than 10C are however more common. Clearly there are reasons as to why this is so – changes in weather patterns or methodology perhaps.
Given that the CO2 level pre-1750 was 280ppm (so we’re told) and it’s now 410ppm, and given the fractional remperature variations seen in for example the UAH satellite record, it’s surely time we moved on from the ‘hockey stick’ for example and started to look at climate more broadly. There’s still dispute over the ‘hockey stick’ – a controversial paper from 1999 – frankly, in 2022 who cares? Since the IPCC was formed in 1988, we have 34 years of climate data from around the world. Where the detailed and truthful analyses of climate that sould be the subject of research? The endless wrangling over fractional temperature changes seems interminable. If the world’s climates truly are changing adversely, let’s have some other measured data for different regions – for example rainfall, sunshine, and vegetation.
As a long time resident in the UK (now age 73) I fail to see any changes of concern whatsoever in our climate. Net zero is in my view a farce being inflicted on UK residents by unquestioning politicians, few of whom have a scientific background. Consequently they lack the confidence and courage to challenge their advisors and also the climate scientists who claim that we must do something to regulate the planet’s temperature.
Everybody talks about
the weatherclimate, but no one wants to pay anything for it.Nice attempt, but FALSE. Most people don’t talk about the climate. If you think they do, it probably has something to do with who YOU spend time with.
I think there was a quote where, after Reagan’s landslide second election, some lady in NYC exclaimed: “I don’t know how he was elected, I don’t know ANYONE who voted for him!”
”…infrastructure to allow the use of hydrogen for heating…”
What could possibly go wrong?
I agree with your sentiment BUT, as I learned about 6 months ago on this site, the UK had Town Gas with hydrogen as a component before Natural Gas.
Of course they went to natural gas because it was, and still is, better
Perhaps you missed the “as a component” in that statement. They did not, and will not, have pure hydrogen for heating, cars, airplanes (seriously?), or anything else of major importance.
A very stiff beer tax for climate change mitigation should be tried. Remember to throw a beer party on Downing to celebrate.
I agree fully. They should work out the bill for 2021-2050 and send it to all young people starting with Greta. As soon as they agree they can start their climate engineering projects. After all a good builder does not get stuck in without making sure he has 1. the funding 2. the materials needed.
“That is why we are calling for a new Energy Transformation Taskforce”
Has no one in the UK paid attention to Germany’s Energiewende and how ruinous it’s been to the country?
Cue Scanners head exploding scene……..
“communist price controls”
I knew that Harold Wilson was some sort of socialist. I never realised he was a Communist.
Climate action should be completely voluntary until both sides have equal funding to prove or disprove their case. The way research is done you get funding to prove a premise so the case against is ignored or even deliberately concealed when discovered.