Stephen Baseby

@DaveKent101 And lock up your chickens, and your cars. They like eating the wiring.

Defra should carry out a nationwide release of Pine Martens. A predator that is extremely difficult to escape from for grey squirrels. Where they have been released in Ireland, they are annihilating the greys. The red squirrels are returning because they can escape the Martens.

@johnrhanger Not clear your point John. Here in the UK we’ve stopped coal. We moved that generation to China! Easy.

Wonderful!!! The gap between renewables and coal now will grow and grow.

American compares subsidised European rail and unsubsidised USA air travel and is surprised, and confused. Could have left out most of those words.

The Iberian blackout was DEFINITELY caused by renewables according to the report by system operator REE 1. The initial fault was traced to a faulty solar inverter 2. Wind and solar generators tripped when solar generators disconnected due to negative prices. This was a violation of the grid code 3. This loss of wind and solar caused frequency to fall outside grid code tolerances leading to conventional generators and interconnectors tripping and a full grid collapse You may find the facts inconvenient but those ARE the facts

Who else is fed up with people carping on about pensioners owning all the houses and sitting on large savings? Pensioners have paid a mortgage for 35 years so yes,they own their houses. They have to live on their savings for the rest of their lives. It's not rocket science.

@au_tom_otive I’d try to restate this by showing the rate of decline to arrive at “more than twice as long”. Your numbers show that a tank filler would be significantly quicker for an ICE. Most of that dwell time is not filling the tank.

The average petrol forecourt dwell time is 7 minutes (yes, it is - I worked for bp). The average fill is circa 20 litres (200 miles). Charging an EV isn’t the same, but 100 miles in 8 minutes shows how vanishingly irrelevant the difference is becoming.

@SimonCalder Interesting observation, but is this the final straw for commuter bankers. Just why do so many make the flight? We don't even have the EU banking regulator in London any more.

Aim is to avoid last-minute cancellations and boost confidence. Effect would be to prioritise holiday flights like Manchester-Skiathos (not daily through the summer) over business departures such as Heathrow-Frankfurt (10 a day on Lufthansa alone). independent.co.uk/travel/news-an…

Aviation fuel. Government steering a tricky path: "No shortages. But if supplies look like run short in July/August, we'll protect your holiday. By letting airlines cancel flights" Aim: cancel only flights with multiple daily departures to move passengers. gov.uk/government/new…

@SimonCalder Perhaps better advice would be to suggest that holiday makers also looked at the road and rail options, even if only to know there is an escape route.

With talk of jet fuel shortages, many prospective holidaymakers are concerned that their flights may not go ahead. Please don't fret. Business flights are much more likely to be cancelled (with passengers moved to adjacent departures) than holiday flights. independent.co.uk/travel/news-an…

@KathrynPorter26 @molly_hartill Perhaps too early to go with this. I'm picking up stories (direct personal as well as press) which suggest that rental properties are not saleable properties despite the UK's rising res prices. Rental properties tend to be smaller, 1 bedroom. Folk want to buy 2 bedroom upwards.

@molly_hartill Wait until you get evicted when your landlord decides to pack it in and your next rental is £££ more expensive

I’ve been a private renter in London for 10 years. 
This legislation immediately improves my situation - and that of thousands across the country. This is the difference a Labour Government makes. Thanks Ange!

@simonmontefiore Methinks you are too optimistic. The Iranian authorities appear to act on religious purpose, and not the economic value of oil exports. The fundamental error in USA thinking is a focus on economics.

The U.S. Navy’s blockade is revealing a hole in Tehran’s strategy of guerrilla warfare and controlling the Strait of Hormuz - and it may be working... For almost five decades, Iran’s Islamic government has survived financial pressure from the U.S. by selling oil to China. It confronted American military might with guerrilla tactics. But with the U.S. Navy’s blockade, that strategy might have met its match, analysts said. Tehran thought it was gaining the upper hand after the war started in February as it attacked ships navigating the Strait of Hormuz, shutting down commercial traffic and blocking a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies. Six weeks into the conflict, the U.S. responded by blockading shipments from all Iranian ports. wsj.com/world/middle-e… via @WSJ

@SBarrettBar The underlying absurdity is that BMW and Mercedes were quite pleased to build vehicles in the USA, when it suited them. And Merc still do in China. What they do not do is build them in the UK, despite the scale of the UK RHD market (look out of your window at the traffic).

Whatever the argument 10 years ago We are lucky to be out of the EU now.

@holland_tom You should have been living Australia on the 1970s. Watching Gooch taking his twice daily constitutional had even this Englishman laughing.

Until the 1st Test at Perth last winter, the single most demoralising defeat of my cricket-watching career

@robertshrimsley I believe one makes oneself comfortable in a seat. One does not drop onto it.

This is so silly. Handed a safe seat implies a plum parliamentary constituency. She's standing for the council.

@Tusharufo2 I've looked at this graph several times. The only conclusion I can draw is that western peers has been slowing for decades while China's (not shown) booms. What you have observed is that Thatcher built a better base which which we have done as little as our peers.

Thatcher's reforms i.e privatization, deregulation, tax cuts, breaking union power, delivered the best economic growth Britain had seen in decades. The UK outpaced France, Germany, and Italy from 1980-2000s. And Britain hates her for it. Because growth isn't comfortable. Reform means disruption. Closing inefficient state-owned industries. Ending subsidies. Forcing competition. People lose jobs in dying sectors before new opportunities emerge. Thatcher chose long-term prosperity over short-term popularity. The economy boomed. But voters remembered the pain, not the gain The chart shows it clearly, UK growth collapsed after 2000 as the country drifted back toward the European model of high taxes, heavy regulation, and expanding welfare.

@DrSimEvans 15 years! Where are the repair costs in this analysis? The things are the longer living whitewoods but zero repairs is an unlikely scenario, and has anyone yet run a heat pump dryer for 15 years?.

THREAD: A heat-pump tumble dryer could save households more than £700 Lots of overblown reaction to govt phasing out standard dryers – reminds me of when 2009 Mail frontpage wailed about "beloved" incandescent bulbs But heat pump dryers are just a much better technology 1/5

@FormerylNurgle @m3gt2smg @KateFantom And the energy required to maintain a vacuum?

@BasebyStephen @m3gt2smg @KateFantom Depends. A vacuum might be better

People will have you believe that gas is clean. Look at the difference in emissions between Cornwall and East Anglia this morning.

@FormerylNurgle @m3gt2smg @KateFantom Hopefully well ventilated!

@BasebyStephen @m3gt2smg @KateFantom Underground is a good location

@m3gt2smg @FormerylNurgle @KateFantom Takeout from an old utility infrastructure hand. Batteries are a great idea until you try to find somewhere to put them. Unsurprisingly, Australia, the land of vast open spaces, likes batteries. I am with you on what is ideal, but this is the country of compromise.

@BasebyStephen @FormerylNurgle @KateFantom You have missed the key ingredient, battery storage! That doesn’t take half hour to come online. Don’t think anyone would argue oil and coal are dirtier than gas, but the need for gas has its days numbered.

@FormerylNurgle @KateFantom I’ve been following H2 businesses for several years. The most recent UK news is success, in Germany.

@BasebyStephen @KateFantom Except that its a central part of the governments plan. I wrote to the minister and part of his reply is included below. Operational hydrogen LDES by 2031 is large part of 2050 Net Zero

@FormerylNurgle @KateFantom I’m with you on the opportunities but we’re living on a country which has committed to wind, solar, and gas, and has dismissed H2 so low that you’d have to explain it to the political chattering classes to get them to acknowledge it (also, another re piping of gas network)

@BasebyStephen @KateFantom We can do exactly this with LDES in the form of ammonia and/or hydrogen And relatively cheaply. Rough gas bank has capacity for 12TWh of hydrogen storage. Hydrogen can generate steam or converted for electricity Hydrogen can be generated from stranded wind power