Woefully unprepared

Exceeding key climate target is now 'imminent and unavoidable', United Nations warns

The warning comes as a group of British MPs warned this summer's record heat and intense wildfires exposed how "woefully unprepared" the country is for the growing risk of blazes.

Exceeding a key global climate target is now "imminent and unavoidable", United Nations (UN) scientists have warned.

It coincides with a new report by MPs today that said Britain urgently needed new equipment to cope with the growing danger of wildfires, driven by global warming.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said the world would soon blow through the goal of limiting warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, reaching at least 1.7C even in a best-case scenario.

Being woefully unprepared is much more than a British problem. India also seems to be woefully unprepared for the coal supply bottlenecks already occurring in a major expansion of its coal-fired power plants.

Maybe there is a lesson to be learned here, although British MPs are woefully unprepared when it comes to learning lessons. As are most voters.

India plans up to 150 gigawatts of new coal-fired power plants

India may have to expand its coal-fired power plants much more than previously planned. 

This was stated by Ghanshyam Prasad, chairman of the state electricity authority CEA, in October 2026 in New Delhi. By 2035, additional plants with a capacity of 105 to 150 gigawatts could be necessary. Previously, the planning provided for only 97 gigawatts. The background to this is the sharp increase in electricity demand, weak hydropower generation and a lack of storage capacities for renewable energies. At the same time, the coal stocks of existing power plants are shrinking, while significant supply bottlenecks are already occurring.

Gas v Twaddle

A Grauniad piece demonstrating yet again the absurd depths environmental twaddle can plumb whenever its fans feel thwarted. 

Jackdaw North Sea gasfield to get go-ahead in blow to climate campaigners

The Jackdaw gasfield will be given the go-ahead on Wednesday, signalling Andy Burnham’s commitment to the North Sea fossil fuel industry and threatening to trigger a row with climate campaigners and Labour MPs.

Tessa Khan, the executive director of the anti-oil campaign group Uplift, said: “Jackdaw will provide around just 2% of our gas demand for roughly 10 years. It has been oversold and won’t stop the overall decline in North Sea jobs, as it will be largely unmanned and operated remotely.”

She added: “Labour’s climate credibility is on the line. No new oil and gasfields are compatible with safe climate limits.”

The whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder that virtue-signalling twaddle still has a firm grip on the political arena, the media and within the government machine.

A poll by Savanta for the climate group E3G and seen by the Guardian shows that nearly a third of voters say they would be less likely to vote Labour if it gives the go-ahead for more North Sea oil drilling.

That includes almost exactly a third of those who voted Labour at the last election, and around half of 18- to 24-year-olds.

Ellie Mae O’Hagan, the UK energy programme lead at E3G, said: “After a summer of deadly heatwaves, the public has made up its mind: more drilling is the wrong answer.

“If the prime minister wants a decade in power to change the country, he should invest in heat pumps and solar, not tax breaks for the oil and gas companies driving up our bills and polluting the planet.”

As I was going to St Ives

According to Hansard, the Bill which is the subject of this video was read the First time and is to be read a Second time on Friday 13 November. Meanwhile, inflation rises, the general decline continues and Andrew Burnham is still UK Prime Minister.

 

I'm glad that we've been able to right this wrong.

Proud - great-niece of two Jarrow marchers marks the 90th anniversary at Downing Street

The historic visit has been hailed by Prime Minister Andy Burnham as a chance to "right the wrong" of 1936, when the Jarrow Marchers' pleas for help went unanswered.

Speaking exclusively to the Shields Gazette, he said: “It's been 90 years since the Jarrow Marchers were turned away. They had walked almost 300 miles to demand jobs and a future for their town, but they were ignored.

“I'm glad that we've been able to right this wrong.

A chap is bound to wonder if there is any virtue-signalling opportunity Burnham wouldn't grasp. William the Conqueror’s Harrying of the North is a tad remote even for Northern Bloke, but as it took place in Manchester, the Peterloo Massacre is a possibility.

Maybe he's done Peterloo already, it's not easy to keep up.

It's a good way to confirm knighthood honours though

Lime warns e-bikes are not for jousting after viral duel in London

Lime has stated that its e-bikes are "not for jousting" after social media videos showed riders dressed in knightly armour duelling across London.

Footage surfaced online over the weekend showing hundreds of people gathered in London Fields, east London, to view artist Jack Carden and actor Camtholomew the First jousting whilst riding the bright green rentable e-bikes.

In the clips, the duo are seen clad in chain mail, red and black cloaks, helmets and full armour, riding towards each other brandishing striped poles.

Limpet

Could Jeremy Corbyn lose his Islington North seat after 43 years?

Jeremy Corbyn has defied the odds to hold onto his north London seat.

But a new poll suggested he could be defeated in Islington North at the next general election, expected in 2029...

However, Martin Baxter, chief executive of Electoral Calculus, warned against writing off Mr Corbyn, 77, already despite the poll’s finding.

He told The Standard; “I'd be a bit cautious on treating that as gospel.

“I've been a long-term resident of Islington myself, and I know how popular Jeremy Corbyn is in his Islington North constituency, even after he left the Labour Party to stand as an independent at the last election.

Jeremy Bernard Corbyn is 77 years old, so it may be too late for him to settle down, read a few books and learn something about how the world works and has worked in the past.

He may as well carry on with the politics instead.

The World Is Too Much With Us

Concern about losing contact with the world beyond brick, tarmac and concrete isn't new, but even that has been corrupted by politics, charlatans, crooks and loons. 

As we know.

This old poem expresses it well, written long ago by a poet most Makerfield voters won't be familiar with. Oh well - please excuse the sarcasm, but good grief, the world really is too much with us. 

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

William Wordsworth (1807)