I'm sure there was a song about blokes like this when I was a kid...🎶"Those inadequate men in their flying machines... 🎶.. or something like that?

And a journal article, for anyone who's a real glutton for punishment....https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2515-7620/ad937f

www.localzeropod.com/episodes/89-...

I talked about this issue in the Local Zero podcast last year with @matthannon.bsky.social, @fraserjfstewart.bsky.social & Rebecca Ford. The concept of 'Assemblies' is being co-opted by those who believe participation, per se, is always good. But if only the usual suspects turn up, nothing changes.

WTF is 'renewable gas'? Industrialist Farts?

'lately' doing a lot of heavy lifting there..... It's both heartening to see government ministers finally putting this back on the agenda and just so extremely frustrating that we have lost more than a decade since the binned Community Energy Strategy. Agreed - kudos to all who kept the faith!

The whole thing came off as "we basically got knocked up too early and are now properly pissed off with all the responsibilities we brought on ourselves, so we thought we'd just, you know, skip out on them". I'm sure their daughter will go far in life with 'adding up different currencies' skills...

“…and why can’t I hear the birds singing?”

Yes but when manly men are scared that they won’t have manly-man jobs that will ensure we all know what very manly men they are, everyone else has to bend the entire system to accommodate this need.

Coalition gov. set up the Urban Community Energy Fund (which I was once lead administrator for!) & its rural equivalent. Both sadly underfunded, cut before their time. Both proved the basic principle that funding the risky development stage unlocks community energy success. Both need reviving!

So maxing renewables makes security sense, and would make massive social economic difference too if community/municipal/decentralised ownership structures were prioritised. I personally think genuine community stake in grid has to also be part of that. Not sure whether Ofgem would agree!

So that leaves us looking for sources that are more secure. Renewables are the cheapest per unit right now. Can deliver most demand. Above about 70% national demand, price per unit really jumps. So nuclear likely to be the remainder (some fuel import issue there too, looking at where uranium is...)

Grid needs upgrading anyway. Absent any climate concern, North Sea gas & oil are in terminal decline anyway, so we need new sources. We could replace with imported oil & gas (if emissions were not a problem), but increasing concern over national security and price vulnerability mean that's not wise.

It doesn't really. ~ 83% of UK popn. lives in urban areas. Getting power from generator to consumer has & will always be the issue. Nuclear is located coastally (for cooling). Wind resource is higher/exposed land/offshore. Solar more southern, more distributed. None perfectly aligned with demand.

This is symptomatic of the wider problem that music education has been destroyed by successive govts. What teen would apply for this degree who’s never benefitted from immersion in musical education generally?

Amen to that!

The word 'rich' is just hopelessly vague. Depending on who is using it, it can mean anything from "my neighbour who earns £70k and has a nice car" to "that Duke who owns half of Scotland." Which type of 'rich' person does your message mean when you say 'stealing all your money?

Yeah, interesting that the author only mentions countries which have English as an official language in this. Feels to me like the best way to protect any country from the toxic influence of US religious fundamentalists is to be non-English speaking. Maybe I should move to Finland....