@ChelseaUrdu @BritishSteelUK it is backed by UK Export Finance!
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Colin Richardson
4.7K posts
Colin Richardson
@C_Rich81
Editor, Argus Media Worldsteel journalist of the year 2020
Katılım Mart 2016
4.3K Takip Edilen3.4K Takipçiler
The @BritishSteelUK deal to sell 120,000t of billet over three years into Nigeria is interesting, given the expense of producing in the UK. Last year Nigeria imported nearly all of its billet from China at an average of $495/t cfr.
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One thing that really baffles me about gymnastics is why women have to incorporate dance into floor routines. Men appear to be judged on balance, strength and execution, no dance needed. Why is it different for women? Maybe it’s just me but I can’t stand it. @BritGymnastics
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@auonsson @TankerTrackers a fair few of the vessels in Hormuz will surely have been to Iran, or transported Iranian cargo. And as Iran is sanctioned, they'd mainly be sanctioned too, right? Or is this not the case?
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A clear majority (eyeball: 80-90%?) of tankers present in and around Hormuz strait are sanctioned ones.
Probably not news to insiders, like @TankerTrackers who got me the sanctions-list, but it was to me.
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Interesting comments by MEP @ninacarberry today on how the new steel safeguards could impede availability of #steel #HDG supply from South Korea. The UK has just included Turkish HDG in its own safeguard, after imposing a cap on how much can come into that residual quota.
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My son got his annual bonus of £9000.00 After tax etc he actually received £3800.00
How is that even right?
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@izakaminska @joeandthejuice I commute to London and buy a coffee and a water in my local train station, then another coffee (obviously unnecessary and frivolous) and berry bowl when I arrive. It’s pretty much £20 gone.
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Shakes at @joeandthejuice are now £9.20. !!
A BLT from Pret is £4.15 and a latte coffee from Costa is £4.55.
Mind blowing. If you do this every working day all year that’s about £4,800 you’re spending just on what used to be a convenience purchase.
Given average professional salaries are ~ £44k (net about £35k) - not viable!
Got caught out today. I don’t think the morning coffee run or casual lunch pick up is going to be an option for many people much longer!
Sell Starbucks. Buy Thermos flask makers.
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Germany has taken her coal-fired power stations out of mothballs and they are providing a huge percentage of the country’s electricity.
Britain blew up her last remaining coal plants - literally destroyed them.
We need show trials for the fools who did this to us.
Net Zero Watch@NetZeroWatch
The coal-fired power plants in Germany are profitable to run again amid surging electricity demand and a plunge in European carbon prices. The cold snap, soaring demand, and faltering renewable output, especially solar in the winter, have resulted in coal and gas plants meeting almost half of Germany’s electricity demand this week. Net Zero meets reality... #CostOfNetZero
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@unherd @ADOBrien88 Even if British Steel produced steel for defence, it would be a very small fraction of its orders, the sector is not so supportive of total demand. And in its current configuration with the UK cost-burden, the site will struggle to be profitable. Its heavy end is also very old.
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The UK's national security depends on domestic steel.
Selling it abroad could weaken Britain’s industrial backbone, writes @ADOBrien88 👇
buff.ly/qD94MCL
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@IrisDuane I don’t think you can become rich via salary, unless you’re on hundreds of thousands of pounds. Anyone in the death band of over £100k is probably sacrificing as much as possible to get below. There’s a difference between highly paid and wealthy.
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If you earn £100,000 or above you are in the top 4% of earners out of the 65 million people in the UK.
You are, by definition, rich.
Luke Robert Black 🌳@lukerobertblack
You are painfully ignorant Michael. Earning £100,000 as a graduate in London does not make you ‘rich’. When your income goes above £100,000 you lose £1 for every £2 over that threshold. You lose child benefit and childcare. You actually end up worse off than if you earned £99,000. You aren’t eligible for any discounts, any benefits or any services as a high earner and will pay the most for any services. Moreover you are showing your ignorance on stamp duty. A 3/4 bed in London for a family can be well over half a million, more like £600/£700K. Given how expensive mortgages are, moving fees and how long it takes to get a deposit (!), bridging loans, other expenses, stamp duty can add between £20,000 to £30,000 in addition to your bill - this is on top of legal fees, doing work to the property to sell. Yes, you can pay it in one go - or your can spread the cost, meaning you have to borrow MORE money. This renders your mortgage unaffordable and banks will then refuse to loan you the money. Where are we supposed to find an additional £30,000 Michael? Is that “bad planning”?
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"Civil war in the UK steel sector". Nothing different since I started covering it in 2008 = mills with one agenda, buyers with another.
thetimes.com/business-money…
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#BBCQT is a really great example of what is wrong with modern political discourse in the era of social media: everybody eager to make their points without actually listening to others.
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@grok @geekgoddess2024 @DouglasCarswell Austerity in an age of near zero interest rates, brilliant. And I think the banking crisis was a contributor to the deficit, as well as the government response.
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The Conservatives introduced austerity after inheriting a budget deficit over 10% of GDP from Labour's 2008 crisis response, including bank bailouts and fiscal stimulus that doubled public spending as a share of GDP. Their goal was deficit reduction through spending cuts and tax hikes to prevent unsustainable debt growth, higher interest rates, and loss of market confidence seen in eurozone peers. It narrowed the deficit from £153bn in 2010 to near balance by 2019, prioritizing long-term solvency over short-term stimulus despite growth critiques.
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In 1997, the new Blair government in Britain inherited:
✅Strong growth of over 3% a year
✅Debt at 43% of GDP
✅Productivity rising 2% a year
✅UK achieving 5% of global output
✅200,000+ armed forces.
Three decades of Blairite government and we have:
🤡100% debt to GDP
🤡1 percent growth a year
🤡Flatline productivity
🤡Half the share of global output
🤡147,000 regulars in the armed forces
Here are symbolic moments of national decline:
🤪Gordon Brown selling off our gold reserves
🤪Theresa May’s witless Brexit concessions
🤪Gavin Williamson’s “Putin needs to go away” speech
🤪Matt Hancock & co ascientific lockdowns
🤪Grant Shapps and Ben Wallace secretly importing tens of thousands of Afghans
🤪Starmer paying billions to give the Chagos to Seychelles
Enough of the Blairites. Britain needs a restoration.🇬🇧
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@OptionsGeezer @robbell @darrengrimes I can think of privatized formerly public services that are deeply inefficient and super expensive?
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This chart says it all.
Since 1997, private sector productivity has surged.
The public sector? Flatlined.
Billions pumped in. Little to show for it.
This isn’t underfunding, it’s underperforming.
We don’t need more tax hikes.
We need a bonfire of bureaucracy.
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@darrengrimes How hard can you be grafting, if you’re tweeting 10+ times a day?
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@darrengrimes Count how many tweets you’ve sent today, then tell us about your “decent day’s graft”?
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Anxiety benefits? You’ve got to be kidding me.
Another day, another pampered plea on the BBC for taxpayers to fund the 'mild' anxieties of the permanently distressed. While the average white van man is up at 5 am slogging eight hours to keep this country running, the liberal-left thinks a bit of social awkwardness should get you a free pass to the dole.
Enough of this nonsense. Get back to work. Dignity comes from a decent day's graft, not a DWP handout for a bad mood. This broken society needs fewer professional victims and more people paying their own way.
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