Commiserations for the family and friends of Micheal Meacher.
Labour will win the by-election, I don't think Galloway will stand there if he doesn't end up the Labour candidate himself, he's a Corbyn supporter and he won't stab him in the back.
When Galloway won in Bradford, it was with a lot of support from ex-Tory voters who were disillusioned with the Conservatives, wanted to give Labour a bloody nose and didn't care too much about how to do it. They returned home this year. If Galloway did stand then I don't see anything like that kind of split. Either he'll make little impact and it's something close to an 'as normal' by-election, or he does and sweeps up all the rest of the anti-Labour votes. UKIP and Galloway won't both take a quarter of the vote.
Yes, I remember pbTories rooting for Galloway. I wouldn't have thought he'd be an obvious challenger in the current climate.
When Galloway won in Bradford, it was with a lot of support from ex-Tory voters who were disillusioned with the Conservatives, wanted to give Labour a bloody nose and didn't care too much about how to do it. They returned home this year. If Galloway did stand then I don't see anything like that kind of split. Either he'll make little impact and it's something close to an 'as normal' by-election, or he does and sweeps up all the rest of the anti-Labour votes. UKIP and Galloway won't both take a quarter of the vote.
Yes, I remember pbTories rooting for Galloway. I wouldn't have thought he'd be an obvious challenger in the current climate.
When Galloway won in Bradford, it was with a lot of support from ex-Tory voters who were disillusioned with the Conservatives, wanted to give Labour a bloody nose and didn't care too much about how to do it. They returned home this year. If Galloway did stand then I don't see anything like that kind of split. Either he'll make little impact and it's something close to an 'as normal' by-election, or he does and sweeps up all the rest of the anti-Labour votes. UKIP and Galloway won't both take a quarter of the vote.
Yes, I remember pbTories rooting for Galloway. I wouldn't have thought he'd be an obvious challenger in the current climate.
If Galloway runs he will probably run only as a Labour candidate with Corbyn's blessing, it won't alter the balance in the PLP if Galloway returns to the fold since Meacher was a Corbynite too.
Why has Watson adopted his little boy lost voice..everybody knows he is a bruiser..what a tosser
Tom Watson's "butter wouldn't melt in his mouth" routine, is what he does best. As I've said previously, if you don't follow politics and don't know anything about this character, you would think he seems okay. But I suspect if the Unite Union has it's way, you are looking at the next leader of the Labour Party.
I don't disagree with a lot of that, but I don't see any mileage in buying in technology that is well past it for such a huge amount of money. We should be investing in CCGTs today and researching new technologies for tomorrow. Today and for the foreseeable future CCGTs are more stable, cheaper and less risky than PWRs, plus it won't involve us whoring ourselves out to the Chinese.
Tidal has a lot to prove but certain projects may be viable, barrages are more likely than lagoons though IMO. The Incheon lagoon is an interesting one and we should let the Koreans have a stab at it instead of going ahead with Swansea and finding we are not able to deal with the corrosion and maintenance issues.
As for HS2, as you know my issue is with scope and ambition. The current proposals are inadequate in both respects. For example, we have 8 TBMs from the Crossrail project and the crown owns all underground assets. Why are we not doing the whole of HS2 underground where noise, bridges and land purchases are no longer an issue. The scope is also far too narrow, why are we spending billions on electrifying the GWML when we should be looking at high speed rail, again underground, from London to Swansea and from Swansea to Birmingham via Cardiff. If we are going to do this, we should do it once and do it right. We did 26 miles of tunneling for Crossrail, London to Birmingha, is about 100 miles as the crow flies, add about 20 for additional stops and detours, it must be possible to make it happen, what we lack is not technical ability, but ambition.
That's quite a staggering proposal, and one I haven't seen seriously proposed before. The cost of tunnelling is massive, and very much depends on ground conditions. Also, what are your plans for the city-centre termini, where costs multiply massively and room (particularly in London) is limited?
Mr. Jessop, taking the figures from the report you quoted the cost of driving a tunnel from London to Birmingham would be about £53million per mile, or in round figures £5.3 billion. That doesn't sound too bad to me. The additional costs of building the stations would be offset by not having to purchase land.
One thing I don;t understand is why Wind energy cannot be 'saved' ie stored in batteries or the like to make its usage more reliable.
The capital cost of batteries is huge and they only have a certain number of cycles before they need to be replaced.
There is another option, which is using the excess power from periods of high wind to pull CO2 out of the air and make fuel. This could then somehow be used to even out supply.
If they make them tradeable debentures that might be reasonable. But I'm not sure what rights you could sell to Wentworth, while the Albert Hall (where there is a healthy market) gives you free tickets to most (non reserved) events
Mr. Owls, it might, but if the doctors strike then the focus (and outrage) will be on the absence or limited supply of medical care. It will be played out as doctors caring more about their contracts/themselves than their patients. And that won't help them win the argument.
Edited extra bit: minor change to perform a tautolectomy.
I don't disagree with a lot of that, but I don't see any mileage in buying in technology that is well past it for such a huge amount of money. We should be investing in CCGTs today and researching new technologies for tomorrow. Today and for the foreseeable future CCGTs are more stable, cheaper and less risky than PWRs, plus it won't involve us whoring ourselves out to the Chinese.
Tidal has a lot to prove but certain projects may be viable, barrages are more likely than lagoons though IMO. The Incheon lagoon is an interesting one and we should let the Koreans have a stab at it instead of going ahead with Swansea and finding we are not able to deal with the corrosion and maintenance issues.
As for HS2, as you know my issue is with scope and ambition. The current proposals are inadequate in both respects. For example, we have 8 TBMs from the Crossrail project and the crown owns all underground assets. Why are we not doing the whole of HS2 underground where noise, bridges and land purchases are no longer an issue. The scope is also far too narrow, why are we spending billions on electrifying the GWML when we should be looking at high speed rail, again underground, from London to Swansea and from Swansea to Birmingham via Cardiff. If we are going to do this, we should do it once and do it right. We did 26 miles of tunneling for Crossrail, London to Birmingha, is about 100 miles as the crow flies, add about 20 for additional stops and detours, it must be possible to make it happen, what we lack is not technical ability, but ambition.
That's quite a staggering proposal, and one I haven't seen seriously proposed before. The cost of tunnelling is massive, and very much depends on ground conditions. Also, what are your plans for the city-centre termini, where costs multiply massively and room (particularly in London) is limited?
Mr. Jessop, taking the figures from the report you quoted the cost of driving a tunnel from London to Birmingham would be about £53million per mile, or in round figures £5.3 billion. That doesn't sound too bad to me. The additional costs of building the stations would be offset by not having to purchase land.
Without getting too boring, I think (I'd have to check) that the figures given in that report are for single bores; not the twin bores required for two running lines, so may have to be doubled.
HS2 Phase 1 is also over 200 km in length (220km from memory).
I'm also far from sure the cost of land not purchased would offset the cost of building stations ...
Comments
DCI Settle killed him. Watson just sat tight.
Well, it's an idea...
RIP MIchael Meacher. Seemed like an honest man.
Biden bottles it. Such a shame.
Joe Biden decides not to run for president.
Labour will win the by-election, I don't think Galloway will stand there if he doesn't end up the Labour candidate himself, he's a Corbyn supporter and he won't stab him in the back.
A real breath of fresh air after Starmer's grandstanding and press conferences.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34594675
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-34591272
Right wing press always use context!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34591056
Think that'd be a mistake, and lose them a great deal of public sympathy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-34594599
Cost over runs or were they just unrealistic in the first place?
I reckon the proposed Doctors contract amendments will make a serious problem with the shortage of Doctors significantly worse.
I read a few and it made the Daily Star look almost sensible. As a long standing Sun reader, I was shocked at how dumbed it was.
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/aug/15/investing-debentures-good-idea
Edited extra bit: minor change to perform a tautolectomy.
HS2 Phase 1 is also over 200 km in length (220km from memory).
I'm also far from sure the cost of land not purchased would offset the cost of building stations ...
Ones willing to take on A&E are already rarer than Rocking Horse Sh*t
The NHS cannot afford to lose anymore right now.