Westministenders: A Special Place in Hell

[RedToothBrush]

A quick start to a new thread (as I've not been paying attention this evening!).

May is looking to ditch the Malthouse Compromise. Cos its so rubbish.

The ERG look like they are splitting over it anyway.

Up to sixty Labour MPs could back the WA.

Half the ERG plus Labour Leave Rebels could be enough to get the WA over the line.

Donald Tusk, makes controversial comment by more or less stating the obvious.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/eu_referendum_2016_/3492426-Westministenders-Abbreviation
Guide to Brexit Abbreviations and Terms

Some good news - no, really...

news.sky.com/story/jewish-labour-mp-luciana-berger-faces-no-confidence-vote-after-antisemitism-row-11631209#

Two no confidence motions against Labour MP Luciana Berger for campaigning against antisemitism have been withdrawn.

Have just realised I’ve yet again missed several pages by failing to refresh my view so that’s probably been posted already.

For those wondering why Keir Starmer has gone so quiet
and why *Jeremy Corbyn is being so utterly blinkered,
this article that I read in Private Eye last night made a lot of sense
www.private-eye.co.uk/hp-sauce

Seamus Milne has a deeply poisonous influence on JC
shame that the money that funded his education came from the TV licence payers of this country.

I suspect with election jitters in abundance it was felt that deselecting a well thought of, female, Jewish MP wouldn’t be a good look.

There is also an issue though that getting the power across large distances wastes a lot.

You're up against nature. Pushing electricity through anything takes energy. And rather inconveniently, pushing electricity through copper makes it hot (so that's lost straightaway) and hot things tend to be harder to push electricity through than cold things.

Energy lost in conduction is generally a function of current. So the lower the current the lower the losses ... however Ohms law says lower current=higher voltage for a given amount of energy. Which is why we use massive (440,000 + volts) high voltage pylons to take electricity from power stations to substations and thence to homes.

You can't push the voltage any higher before you start seeing insulation breakdown (and damp air carries electricity).

That's a Ladybird view up to O level. My speciality is more computers and communication systems (well, that's my degree). My DB did Electrical and Electronic engineering at Manchester, so had a better grip on it.

Of course, if we could get rid of that pesky resistance in conductors, we could pump electricity anywhere with practically no losses. Which is why the research into "room temperature superconductors" gets a lot of money attention. However, like nuclear fusion the breakthrough has been "a few years away" since the late 80s . With my computer nerd hat on, I'd be fascinated about the computing implications of superconductors, as they promise circuits that could switch potentially millions of times faster than todays ....

(Of course a breakthrough in fusion technology would also be a great advance).

@OhYouBadBadKitten thanks for that link. I am not at all comforted by the guidance as it just says "figure it out yourselves" really doesn't it. I picked up my repeat prescriptions last week and then requested again this week. I'm hoping the GP doesn't pay too much attention to dates and issues them. I have an extra month of lansoprazole which was my main worry so I'm happier than I was. There was no specific mention of insulin in the guidance which is very worrying.

DGR
WE have the wonderful but mad Nikolai Tesla to thank for the HV transmission system
its not great
but its the best invented yet

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is asking you to make sure you have a minimum of six weeks’ additional supply in the UK, over and above your business as usual operational buffer stocks, by 29 March 2019.

DHSC has also asked suppliers to indicate how they propose to ensure continuity of supply of their products to the NHS as part of the contingency programme.

I'm a few paragraphs in and I'm growling and huffing.

YOU need to stockpile.

And you need to tell us HOW you plan to continue to supply medicines because we haven't figured that one out so we'll leave it with you.

Dest's right there just isn't enough biscuits in the world to make this shite better.

I have this dream that in the future there will be solar power connectors orbiting the earth, beaming down power to the the towns and cities below.

Of course, there are a few tennsy problems with collecting and also efficiently beaming down this solar energy.
In my defence, I read several scifi books per week, so my brain is not really on earth.

More practically, I've heard good reports of thorium reactors, but i don't know how commercially feasible they are.
Maybe a Westministender has inside info ?

I've requested that Brexit prep be added to the agenda for the trustees meeting.

I'll do the same for the drs meeting.

And the school.

I'll be so popular!

Heathrow stockpiling rubber gloves from EU for post-Brexit searches

Not as sinister as it sounds, but Heathrow is stockpiling a list of things it needs to function, which the UK doesn't make

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/08/heathrow-stockpiling-rubber-gloves-from-eu-for-post-brexit-searches

Heathrow is stockpiling rubber gloves to make sure its security guards can continue to search passengers in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The London airport, through which about 200,000 passengers pass each day, said some materials for basic security, including gloves and explosive detector swabs, were not produced in the UK and had to be imported from the EU.

Heathrow is also putting aside supplies of spare parts for its hugely complex baggage systems, whose occasional failures have caused mayhem at the airport.

The chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, said he was confident operations would continue after 29 March but that his team was planning for extra pressure on its cargo facilities as essentials were diverted from sea and land freight to air, to circumvent the potential gridlock at Channel ports.

He said Heathrow was stockpiling for its own operations and those of its suppliers:

“The obvious thing you might think of is our baggage system, which has a Dutch supplier, so do we have the spare parts?

“But some of the other things that are more urgent are the rubber gloves that security officers wear when they are searching somebody.
They come from the EU and if you don’t have them, you can’t search people.

_ Sky Data poll: Irish overwhelmingly back government's pressure on backstop_

Varadkar & the EU are doing what the Irish people want
Those Brexiters who think Irish voters are being held captive, or want Irexit, need to face reality

https://news.sky.com/story/sky-data-poll-irish-overwhelmingly-back-governments-pressure-on-backstop-11629673

in the Irish Republic (79%) think their government should hold out for a legal guarantee that there will be no hard border,
even if it risks a no-deal Brexit on 29 March.

Just 7% think they should prioritise avoiding a no-deal Brexit.
...
just 7% think the Irish government should compromise more,
with almost half (46%) saying they should take a harder line
and 41% saying they're getting the balance about right.

I'm considering starting to drink again...🙄

I'm a lightweight these days though...😂

2 shandys should do it 🍺🍺

Everyone would look really pretty after 2 shandys 👀😁

Norfolk joining Kent in informing its citizenry about martial law, power cuts and food shortages.

The leaflet doesn't mention brexit, because it's obviously got nothing to do with it.

I can't wait to meet the vigilantes.

I imagine lots of those helpful yellow jacket men will get jobs organising 'security'

It's fun isn't it.

twitter.com/COutwin/status/1093854129217257472

Destiel

"I've requested that Brexit prep be added to the agenda for the trustees meeting."

I hope you're more popular than I was when I mentioned the dread subject at our trustees meeting earlier this week. In a curiously familar way, everyone started inspecting their shoes/fingernails and generally acted as though they'd never thought or even heard of the subject and why was this fool talking about it.

These are obviously intelligent and well-informed people, so I can only assume they're all in the head in sand brigade or rabid Brexiteers who just know it will all turn out fine. In which case, it's a bit worrying that they're foodbank trustees. Anyway, they all seemed satisfied by TT's bland statement on the matter.

It's my 1st trustees meeting....and possibly my last!! 👀😩

Note the official description of "resilience" organisations
it's the current Brexit buzzword

If you can't hack it without meds or food, then you're an mc snowflake
(or maybe just poor, disabled)

Well, my logic would be "why do i want to become responsible for a nuclear waste dump in Ulster?"

My logic would be to prevent Ireland being dumped with more of the stuff.

There is a single electricity market on the island of Ireland. Both NI and Ireland form one market together. So yes, NI is for the moment one of the 4 parts of the UK, but doesn't operate as a part of the UK for leccy.

You two ....

You were either farting in the church of Brexit,
or they've been warned not to make waves if they want to continue receiving supplies after No Deal

DGRossetti you are right! I have to de-select myself from politics on the basis I love it.

Meh, I'm not diplomatic enough anyway. Red hot poker in a hornet's nest tends to be more my style, sadly.

Will just keep supporting my fab Labour MP, who voted against article 50, instead.

Re nuclear power. It is by no means perfect, but unless we start using less power, there aren't too many other viable alternatives.

Waste is always an issue, but I think it should go to the most appropriate place in the UK, irrespective of which country that happens to be in. Ideally England, seeing as how we use the most power.

Japanese trade negotiators are looking for a far more favourable trade deal from the UK than the one they've just signed with the EU.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/08/japan-seeking-big-concessions-from-britain-in-trade-talks-eu-brexit

Well I never. If only someone had thought of this kind of problem earlier. And maybe mentioned it to the Werrity-sniffer. Rolling over all those current trade deals doesn't seem to be the easiest deal in the world after all.

Why does the accompanying picture not fill me with confidence?

Now, when did Westministenders first warn that other countries would want more trade concessions than in EU deals ?
Yes, even before the ref
Ditto, the NI border
and businesses leaving the country over the next few years

If we amateurs could predict this so early, why couldn't the professional politicians ?

Bigchoc
Thorium reactors
A friend of mine is adamant that they are the future but he's been saying that for 20 years

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/3503048-Eurovision-You-Decide-Anyone-watching
Whispers Eurovision

I've never been a supporter of nuclear energy precisely because of the storage problem. To cover LeClerc's other points, I also object to the idea that solar and wind 'damage the views' - I'd like to know who it was who decided that very art-deco wind turbines were more lacking in aesthetics than pylons and power stations. Aesthetics are malleable, and that means they can be manipulated. I also disagree, in ignorance, that we don't have enough running water to generate electricity. It's a shame the tidal lagoon idea hasn't been tested in practice. We need more small-scale localised microgeneration. There will be impacts of course, as there are impacts for all power generation: but the impacts for our current method of power generation are known to be very severe, and globalised in scope.