The Price of 5 A Day

In early July, Shimeon Lee had a useful TPA piece on a Zack Polanski claim about food prices in 2050. 

To the surprise of nobody but Green voters, the claim turns out to be worthless. Worth reading but yet again it does raise an example of the perennial issue - why is rational voting such a forlorn hope? 


A closer look at "The Price of 5 A Day?

Green Party leader Zack Polanski recently made the alarming claim that the price of fresh fruits and vegetables is set to rise 170 per cent by 2050, making them “unaffordable” for many households. This figure comes from a report by the Autonomy Institute, a progressive research organisation, and has already been used to support calls for more climate spending, a higher minimum wage, increased welfare and unprecedented interventions like price caps.

But what is actually behind the 170 per cent figure, and does it really show that fruits and vegetables are about to move beyond the reach of ordinary families? Unsurprisingly, the claim does not stand up to scrutiny. This edition of a closer look examines how this figure has been calculated and what’s wrong with it.

Not when you want just power

A quote from  Kangaroo, a 1923 novel by  D. H. Lawrence set in Australia and said to be strongly autobiographical - 

He was silent for a while.

“Now,” he said slowly. “Now I see that you don’t have only to give all your possessions to the poor. You’ve got to have no poor that can be saved just by possessions. You’ve got to put the control of all supplies into the hands of sincere, sensible men who are still men enough to know that manhood isn’t the same thing as goods. We don’t want possessions. Nobody wants possessions—more than just the immediate things: as you say yourself, one trunk for you, one for me, and one for the household goods. That’s about all. We don’t want anything else. And the world is ours—Australia or India, Coo-ee or Ardnaree, or where you like. You have got to teach people that, by withholding possessions and stopping the mere frenzy for possession which runs the world to-day. You’ve got to do that first, not last.”

“And you think Jack Callcott will do it?”

“I did think so, as he talked to me.”

“Well, then let him. Why do you want to interfere. In my opinion he’s chiefly jealous because other people run the show, and he doesn’t have a look-in. Having once been a Captain with some power, he wants the same again, and more. I’d rather trust William James to be disinterested.”

“Nay, Jack Callcott is generous by nature, and I believe he’d be disinterested.”

“In his way, he’s generous. But that isn’t the same as being disinterested, for all that. He wants to have his finger in the pie, that’s what he wants.”

“To pull out plums? That’s not true.”

“Perhaps not to pull out money plums. But to be bossy. To be a Captain once more, feeling his feet and being a boss over something.”

“Why shouldn’t he be?”

“Why not? I don’t care if he bosses all Australia and New Zealand and all the lot. But I don’t see why you should call it disinterested. Because it isn’t.”

He paused, struck.

“Am I disinterested?” he asked.

“Not”—she hesitated—“not when you want just power.”


D. H. Lawrence - Kangaroo (1923)

UC Berkeley Joins Forces With Nancy Pelosi

Lloyd Billingsley has a useful American Spectator piece on Nancy Pelosi and the modestly named Nancy Pelosi Institute for Representative Democracy (NPI).

The whole piece is well worth reading, including the linked piece Pelosi’s Favorite Stalinist.

UC Berkeley Joins Forces With Nancy Pelosi

Presenting the ‘nonpartisan’ Nancy Pelosi Institute for Representative Democracy (NPI).

Nancy Pelosi is the daughter of Thomas D’Alesandro, a Baltimore mayor and member of Congress. He passed away in 1987, the year Nancy first ran for Congress in California, representing part of San Francisco. In the Congressional Record in 2001, Rep. Pelosi praised Harry Bridges as “the most significant labor leader of the twentieth century” and “beloved by the workers of this nation.” For all but the willfully blind, he wasn’t.

As Joshua Muravchik noted in “Pelosi’s Favorite Stalinist” article, Bridges’ membership in the Communist Party had been revealed a full nine years before Pelosi’s encomium. Bridges was a Stalinist thug dedicated to the Soviet Union, a Communist dictatorship. The former Speaker also has some strange ideas about how democracy works in America.

Lloyd visits a shipwreck

 

Does AI Know You?

Many people may know about IN THE WEIGHTS already, but if not it's interesting.

If you have an online moniker such as the one you use to leave comments, the site will display a range of AI systems which know you and a very brief summary of what they know, if anything.

The move to nuclear

There is a view, which isn't new, that the Net Zero nonsense here in the UK has always been intended to soften us up for going nuclear. Not very plausible as a conspiracy notion, but quite plausible as a long series of nudges from reality which are finally registering with decision-makers. 

For example -

Great Britain plans 14 mini nuclear power plants for eight million households

Great Britain is to receive a private fleet of new mini nuclear power plants from 2034. SGE SMR UK is planning 14 reactors at three locations for this purpose. The plants are expected to supply a total of 4.2 gigawatts and supply almost eight million households. However, the project can only start once locations, operators, financing and permits have been determined.

Behind the project is SGE from Warsaw. The company belongs to the environment of the Polish entrepreneur Michał Sołowow. GE Vernova Hitachi, Samsung C&T, Laing O'Rourke, Aecon and other partners are also involved. Therefore, it is not a purely state project.

The planned reactors will use BWRX-300 technology. Each unit is expected to produce around 300 megawatts of electrical power. This will create a fleet of 4.2 gigawatts with 14 turbines. However, SGE is focusing on series production so that planning and construction run faster.

The BWRX-300 has already achieved Level 2 of the Generic Design Assessment in the UK. The auditors found no fundamental barriers to safety, security, safeguards or environmental protection. Nevertheless, each specific power plant needs further permits. Location, grid connection and emergency planning also count.

Eco-friendly flats