Jonathan James retweetledi
Jonathan James
201 posts
Jonathan James@Jonathan_55555
@HilaryCousen @tomhfh @NaturalEngland 1) You encase it in concrete and leave it there in a concrete silo. Sounds stupid, but the space requirements for nuclear waste are absolutely tiny. The chemical industry takes up way more space and has arguably more hazardous material, yet absolutely nobody notices.
QME
@tomhfh @NaturalEngland So nuclear waste is now safe? And an accident would be ok?
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Recent reporting contains several inaccuracies around Natural England's role on Hinkley Point C.
There has been no refusal, no ultimatum and no attempt to halt the project.
Read how we're working with EDF to resolve outstanding issues: naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2026/05/03/hin…
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@HilaryCousen @tomhfh @NaturalEngland 5) This absolute legend explains it all here. hey @isodope x.com/i/status/18705…
isabelle 🪐@isabelleboemeke
My photo kissing a nuclear waste cask went viral and people had… opinions about it. There was outrage, with many claiming it was dangerous and that I was hurting my future children (lol). Here’s why kissing a nuclear waste cask is actually fine🧵
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@HilaryCousen @tomhfh @NaturalEngland 4) We have an expensive legacy problem from the 60's in Cumbria, as we managed to contaminate a load of ancillary equipment by doing stupid things back in the day. But this really isn't the case for Hinckley point C
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@UniqueGav @DrNickA @benohanlon So yes, in the USSR they likely had leadership being paid 10,000 times more than the lowest worker in a far east village in rural Siberia.
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@UniqueGav @DrNickA @benohanlon Stalin had 20 dachas, in the UK that would be classed as a benefit in kind and taxed as income. So Stalin possibly had an income of £280 million when adjusting for inflation. George Orwell "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"
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This tweet is a fascinating insight into the dire state of the U.K.
Mostly it’s people who find it morally abhorrent for people to be on minimum wage serving coffee.
If you can’t use the minimum wage for entry level unskilled work. What can you use it for?
Many seem to think Peter should divert his savings to subsidise higher wages effectively operating at a loss. An economically irrational thing to do. Why would you pay (and work) to lose money?
Many seem to think he should shut the coffee shop down completely, removing those jobs from the market all together. Presumably no jobs is a better outcome than minimum wage jobs.
The minimum wage is now roughly £26k a year. About what I started on as a mathematics lecturer in 2010 after I completed by PhD. I worked 60-80 hours a week.
Your take home pay on the national average wage is only £170 a week more than someone on a minimum wage job. Which in order to get you’d need to have a profession and about a decades worth of experience in that profession.
That’s like one family meal and maybe a trip to the cinema. Hardly worth a decades hard work is it? And if you’re trying to save for a property, you won’t be able to have that.
It also means that the median UK worker is a family meal and some mild entertainment away from morally objectionable abject poverty.
What a mess
Peter McCormack 🏴☠️🇬🇧🇮🇪@PeterMcCormack
A minimum wage of £15 would end my coffee shop, it would have to close, as would many other businesses. I’ll explain for the economically illiterate. Staff costs are currently half our costs, a £15 minimum wage is actually more than £15 an hour for the company, because you have to add: - 12.07% holiday - Sick pay - Maternity pay if and when required - National insurance - Pension contributions These costs would mean the shop loses money because remember, energy costs are up, rates are up, regulations are up. Now you can pass these costs onto the consumer - that would mean charging a lot more for coffee, people won’t pay it. The likes of Starbucks and Costa can, because they have economies of scale. The independent doesn’t. Now the little socialist will say well this is your fault, if you can’t run a business that can afford to pay its staff properly, but the little socialist has never run a business and does not understand the dynamics. Now I could pay some staff off and fill those hours myself or reduce us to one staff member during certain periods - but this proves the point that a minimum wage costs jobs. There was a time when these jobs were done by kids, perhaps on the weekend, paid a lower wage, no holiday and no silly employment rights. Perhaps they were even paid cash. The dynamic worked and small businesses like this could operate. It was also a great first job. Sadly now it isn’t worth employing entitlement youngsters at this level of pay. So alas, I don’t need the stress, the business would close, a number of jobs would be lost. Economics is about understanding these dynamics, no vibes. The cost of living is not solved through passing on inflation to the business, it is solved by ending high inflation and creating prosperity. This is what socialists don’t understand, they can’t create prosperity, they can only destroy it.
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@XanadanX @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT Would you agree that they would be making much more if they were driving a JCB digging holes in construction, rather than driving a tractor and knocking in fence posts? If you put in those hours in a business that required similar skills, then you would be much better off
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@Jonathan_55555 @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT I was back home a few weeks ago and we went out into the country to eat, there were farmers in there - they weren't wearing old threadbare clothes...
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Twelve OECD countries had an annual wealth tax in 1990.
Three still do.
Britain already raises around £40bn a year from taxes on accumulated wealth, none of them called wealth taxes.
The full record: gbtt.info/vanishing-tax
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@XanadanX @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT Ok, I think I'm being too difficult, you can get a nice commercial spec defender as a business expense, so there will definitely be a lot of those. A defender is a nice perk of the job, I agree, but does it balance out working for below minimum wage when you add up all the hours
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@Jonathan_55555 @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT I am tempted to drive by some farms and snap the vehicles I see parked.
OK, I live in an area that probably has more affluent farmers than some but I would expect to see a good proportion of range rover/new land rover defenders.
Which is impossible right? On their income...
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@XanadanX @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT Again back to the average age of a farmer. That's a factor of their age, not their occupation, people in their 60's have a lot of disposable income due to being the lucky generation. The younger farmers I know don't have a ranger rover like the boomers, as there isn't the money
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@XanadanX @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT I think when you were growing up that was probably true. Countryfile Adam can't even get his kids to take over the farm, as there is no money in doing it.
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@Jonathan_55555 @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT Yes, hill farmers who farm sheep are the poorest farmers.
I grew up in a rural area where my parents still live and spent my schooldays with farmers kids and know lots of farmers.
By and large - wealthy.
Not farm workers, but farmers.
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@XanadanX @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT Arable farming has been on it's arse for the last 3 years. That's why they all went into the SFI nature schemes, as it just wasn't paying to grow wheat. The numbers are correct, but it is a particularly bad period for arable, dairy is making ok money though.
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@Jonathan_55555 @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT I would bet that's not average income, but average profit.
I am an accountant and trust me on this - the farm has a lot more value to the family living on it than the £17k.
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@XanadanX @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT In this case and in many others, the guy has some of his own land and rents some as well. So he is both a tenant and a farmer. This isn't a rarity
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@Jonathan_55555 @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT He's not even a farmer - he's a tenant!!!
So he pays an extra cost for accessing the land!
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@XanadanX @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT Accounting simplicity is the reason I believe, not tax adv. It's slowly changing to LTD but the avg age of a farmer is 60 and they aren't know for keeping up with the times. The next gen is moving things on, but it takes a retirement or death before things like that change
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@Jonathan_55555 @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT If 40% of farms are sole traders then there must be some tax advantage there...
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@XanadanX @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT I don't think he bought the equipment new, so depreciation will have already mostly happened. The covid supply shock has also caused some things to go up. I take your point, but this is why an inf allowance would be fair to catch these examples
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@Jonathan_55555 @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT How long did he run it for? Not often 10 or even 5 year old equipment has gone up in value?
If it was gas turbines they are currently in demand so it might be possible!
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@XanadanX @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT The personal example I had was a ltd business, but a sole trader food truck pizza buisiness could end up in this situation with the current high fuel prices. 40% of farms are Sole Traders (my original tractor example isn't too far off)
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@Jonathan_55555 @ElderAtropos99 @GreatBritishTT Why would he be running a substantial manufacturing business as a sole trader?
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