General Chat

I'm glad that I live in Oz, as we only recently (2016) had a Federal election, and If N. Korea is to be believed, we won't need another one.

Problem solved :-D :-D

Nuke N Korea?
Seriously though are you sure that the guy with his finger on the button is clear about the relative location of N Korea and Australia in SE Asia?
Really sure...
:-0

Well he's sure!

The worrying aspect being two crazies with a finger on a button each.....and both with massive chips on their shoulders.

Well I was referring to N Korea rather than t'other one, but t'other one does not even know where its own Aircraft carrier groups are :-D :-D

I'm sure an expert will tell him :-D

I wonder how much of Maybot's laundry list will make it past Macron.
She desperately needs some experts instead of failed fascists.
On Jun 8 she may be able to emulate her Tory predecessor Ted Heath who was able to turn a majority of 35 into a debacle. Will the lights go out again?

As we're far less reliant on coal fuelled power stations - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39668889 - the lights will probably stay on.
On the other hand, public transport could grind to a halt!

The govt has so manipulated tax that the development of wind / solar has come almost to a stop in favour of gas/nuclear. All of the nuclear projects are way behind
. If any of the next few winters are bitterly cold and go on to the spring then energy restrictions would be a certainty. Industry in the English Midlands are v worried about the situation now. eg JRT has put new investment on hold until power generation is sorted out.

Not so long ago nuclear power was the devil's spawn. There's a generation of school children now in their 20's who were never told/taught about it as a 'different' form of non-carbon energy. It had been dropped from the National Cirriculum.
You only need Norway and Russia to turn off the tap or France to flick a switch, and the UK is stuffed. It was always a bad idea to be so reliant on other countries regardless of recent developments.

It's a wonder any of us ever gets out of bed in the morning.....

The UK has no native nuclear build capacity and is only able to import uranium fuel via Euratom which the Tories intend to leave.
The Toshiba/westinghouse projects may not go ahead as Toshiba nearly bust.
The Hinckley point EDF designs under cons in France and Finland are years behind. faulty pressure vessels and false safety sign offs have not helped.
Mini nuclear power units unproven.
Chinese much less interested cos of Brexit.
In any case Ukgov wants strike price £ 75 lowest offer is over £ 90. Hinkley is not to be repeated.

Thus as green power had been rejected the UK will rely more and more on imported gas from N Africa and USA fracking.

DRAX B now burns wood chip imported from the USA. Green?

Caroline should try and stay with the thread rather than random and irrevalent flip comments. There was nothing funny about Heath's 3 day week.

Hardly random and flippant, it all sounds so doom and gloom, which in many aspect it is, therefore, it is a wonder we even get out of bed of a morning.
I well remember the 3 day weeks, the times of the power outages due to strike action etc etc. Such is life you take the bad with the good and hopefully in the long run you get more good than bad. Same with general elections they all promise you the Earth and sometimes they deliver on some of their promises in some form or other, but often they don't for various reasons. Is that flippant or realistic?

Et les copains d'abord
:-)

Now you see bringing in a French song about a British general election is that totally 100% staying on track?....if we can only comment if 100% on track that is....

Well it's cheerful and nothing but nothing is going to so occupy the brexit id as much as E Macron and France. EM speaks excellent English.

That's good then so he'll understand her won't he.

‘The big news over the weekend was France’s presidential election.

We now know that center-left candidate Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen will face off in the final round of the presidential election on May 7. Pundits are predicting an easy victory for Macron in the runoff. As unpredictable as this campaign season has been, we can’t rule out the possibility of a Le Pen victory.

On the other hand, if Macron wins, he will find it difficult to reach a consensus with what will probably be a more conservative parliament. And if the result is political gridlock, France’s new government will certainly not placate an electorate that is very much dissatisfied with the political system in France.

The big takeaway from the French presidential election is that there will be major changes ahead, not just for France, but for all of Europe‘.

(Copied from ‘The Trumpet’ magazine.)

I hope that TM rethinks the energy policy when (not if, because there seems to be no real challenger) she is elected.

It's about time we made good use of the tides that surround us, is my opinion.

I am not advocating barrages which can have an adverse effect on ecosystems, but rather submerged tidal power systems with their ensuing substantial long-term benefits when compared with other generators of power.

There are high start-up costs but low running costs with tidal power stations and they ought to be maintenance-free for 30+ years. They are renewable (without decimating forests or digging up the ground beneath our feet nor exhausting gas, coal or shale supplies - tidal power transmits no gh gases).

With a constant operational time, each tidal power system built will reduce the need for tree-eating, ghg-emitting or problematic nuclear-storage power sources. Our actions now could leave behind a legacy that will not adversely affect the lives of many future generations.

Every little helps.

The tidal power has been researched a lot over the last decade or so and I believe they have made advancements. Whether it would provide enough power I don't know but anything helps as there's water everywhere; streams can even harness power.