Ruari McCallion

We have spent £180m on plans for a tunnel under Stonehenge. The project is now scrapped. You can be for a tunnel & think spending is a good idea (even if you think the cost of planning is silly). You can be against a tunnel & think spending is a bad idea. But *nobody* can be for spending on this scale with zero result. And yet that is a peculiarly British outcome. Nobody will be reprimanded. Nobody will see their career affected. But that’s £180m of taxpayer money just wazzed up the wall. Totally without repercussions. Multiply this by airport expansions & train route plans and Thames crossings and power stations and other examples you can think of yourself, and… soon you’re talking serious money.

It’s easy to laugh this off with British gallows humour, but learning the lessons of how we spent £179 million to build nothing is crucial if we are to avoid existential decline.

@louderry No, she didn't. Any more than any of the previous licensing rounds did.

Thatcher sold the rights to it in 1989.

@TrudyToogood @JeanHatchet @slipkn0t8 Christmas lights in Oxford Street without any handwringing might be a start?

@JeanHatchet @slipkn0t8 Can we organise an overtly Christian event in Trafalgar Square? If he means what he says? Perhaps a celebration of Muhammad, whereby we all draw what he looks like? 🤔

What a manipulator he is. He’s defending angrily and in an emotionally manipulative fashion because he was caught out encouraging a display of religious dominance he didn’t think people not devoted to Islam still had the will/bravery to object to. He thought the “Islamophobia” slur was well-entrenched and sufficiently silencing. He is going over the top with excuses because he was wrong. No one criticised the right to practise any faith. They criticised the taking over of a large public space (at your encouragement/bragging) Mayor Khan to perform a prayer which in its very nature is in favour of the expansionist aim of devotion to Islam. It also makes statement that other religions and those of no religion are lesser citizens. It is not “inclusive” and a big friendly bunny rabbit version of a display. It excluded women. This is unacceptable in such a space and using such a prayer and in the presence of women of the city who do not adhere to such overt sex-segregationist practise. Lots of men who are gathered together in a public space and excluding women deliberately is ENOUGH for women to object. I do. Now piss off asserting you are discussing “British Values” because British Values don’t exclude women from public spaces.

@stevenage1000 @JasBratfud @wendlingere49 BP isn't North Sea oil.

@JasBratfud @wendlingere49 She sold British petroleum you will now know it as BP

Richard Tice reveals he is very dim, believing we can drill our own oil when Thatcher sold it off.

The oil and gas in the North Sea is the property of the UK. What Thatcher sold was exploitation rights, for which the UK gets royalties. She followed in the footsteps of Tony Benn and the Wilson governments. The developing companies are also taxed on their profits, at 78%. Its probably best to check some facts before making a public spectacle of yourself.

@JeremyCordite @paulmasonnews Alfred the Great? 🤔

@paulmasonnews It's NEVER been our way of life. Read a history book. Alfred the Great, Henry VIII, Bloody Mary, William and Mary etc etc. Religious tolerance has never been a British value.

Religious tolerance *is* our way of life. Badenoch is losing control of her front bench now 👇🏽

I'd probably wear it out in a week.

@Vetinari3 @BWallArthur Every one of those clains is BS. If the EU is doing so well, how come its major economies were under performing the UK?

@BWallArthur "Brexit reduced UK GDP by 6-8%" "investment down 12-18%" "productivity/employment 4% lower" "Illegal immigration increased. Small-boat Channel crossings surged post-Brexit" "Largely better off if rejoined" #Rejoin

Reversing brexit would be a shot in the arm for Britain's economy. For 🇬🇧 security & for 🇬🇧 sovereignty. That's saying nothing for getting back the rights & freedoms we all lost. Reversing brexit would be a huge FU to Putin and Trump & a show of solidarity with Ukraine. 🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇦

@greytownbuilder Because you don't have a manufacturing plant or a multi-storey office block in your back yard.

Explain to me like I’m five: I’m currently getting 8.4 kW of electricity from my solar panels while only using .5kW, the rest is charging my batteries and going back to the grid (it’s a cloudy day). Why then, are we building an LNG terminal while the main LNG fields are on fire?

@JordanEVGuy @hrhhs That is just electricity generation by renewables, not total energy, as another poster just points out. Transport uses something around 40% of total energy and the overwhelming majority is not electrical. Heating, manufacturing, chemical production, etc, ditto.

@hrhhs Official records. 58.09% renewables in 2024. Education is important. uswitch.com/gas-electricit…,(2014%2C%2064%2C522%20GWh).

Renewables are over 50% of the UKs energy each year, and climbing. A few days of wind? These pretend experts on the North Sea are the real activists. They spread lies to tickle their self esteem.

@IsraelArmyStan A.

Let's do international survey. Which side you, in this war. 1. ISRAEL 🇮🇱 2. IRAN 🇮🇷 Give your answer...

No, it's not just climate that causes flooding - far from it. Government policy, especially foolish and ill-thought-out "rewilding" projects have done thing to do with it, too. Remember the catastrophic flooding of the Somerset Levels? That was because the previous Lab gov thought it would be Green & groovy to cut the budget for maintaining the drainage system that was artificial - it had been created and painstakingly dug out buy Medieval monks - & let the land revert to nature. Incredibly stupid idea, as subsequent events proved.

While Reform bang on about ’stupid net zero’ and do all they can to undermine the vital steps we need to take to mitigate the worst of climate outcomes - what do they say to this? Is it just the weather that causes record levels of flooding (drought and wildfires too)……and record costs to either repair or try to prevent. This is the other side of the equation, not hitting net zero has a very real cost - and it’s bigger than the cost of hitting it. Farage is a politician that will say anything for personal gain. He gave us Brexit and that turned out to be a pile of horseshite. Now he’s gunning for green energy, the cheapest, cleanest and safest form of energy we can make - not to mention the fastest. edie.net/defra-confirms…

Today, the Islamic Republic hanged multiple Iranian civilians, some of whom were just teenagers. Amnesty International? Silent. The UN? Silent. Human Rights Council? Silent. The Red Cross? Silent.

@AdamLangriyal @AnthonyGri10669 @guardian

@AnthonyGri10669 @guardian Horribly overpriced and bland decor. Greggs better.

Just been to Gail’s for a pastry. I’ve never been to one before, but since @guardian told me I mustn’t go, I just had to do it.

Can I ask anyone who believes we need change, that survivors of the most horrific abuse need support and that we must all stick together to continue to raise awareness of this horrific national shame to read @fiongoddarduk post here. The work Fiona does is truly inspirational! She doesn’t continue this fight for any personal gain at all. She does it to prevent other children suffering the neglect she experienced when those meant to protect her turned away. But she’s found her voice, and has shared the details of what happened to her for many years, and also how the authorities neglected to protect her. Now she is raising awareness and leafing events around the country. The next event is in Oldham. Please support her by buying tickets and go along if you can. The link is shared below. And please share the link with your own networks as she continues her incredible work building an army pushing for truth, justice and change…. ❤️

If gas is the highest cost of generation, could you explain why it is charged a variety of levies, which raise the price, and the monies raised form a significant part of the subsidies and support given to renewables? Just btw: do you know how much @DaleVince is personally worth and how closely that figure is aligned to the subsidies his company, Ecotricity, has received over the last several years?

@KathrynPorter26 @DaleVince You know full well electricity prices are set through marginal pricing. Until the link is broken cheaper electricity will always be sold at the highest cost of generation….gas

Also the most backward. It assumes we must more closely align with the EU again because it remains a great economic success story when the reality is it’s a bloc in long-term, systemic and increasing decline. A mid-tech backwater which is nowhere in AI or any other major development of the digital economy (in which the UK is doing rather well). Labour’s strange, nostalgic, outdated obsession with Europe is reminiscent of the Old Tory Colonel Blimps and their longing to recreate the British Empire.

@OrestisDel @jonburkeUK @EdConwaySky Domestic production doesn't have to come through the Straits of Hormuz. It's a more secure supply, by definition.

@jonburkeUK @EdConwaySky The refining point matters for oil. But the bigger system question is gas, where prices are set at the margin by LNG/pipeline supply. More domestic production can reduce imports, but unless it displaces the marginal unit, it doesn’t materially change price exposure.

Dear @EdConwaySky: 1/ The U.K only has refinery capacity for 20% of North Sea oil, however much is pumped. 2/ Short term increases in North Sea extraction due to lower taxes will leave us more exposed to imports, reduce revenue for public services, and do nothing for prices.

Somebody born in ‘33 was 45 in ‘78. That's gotta be some sort of record.