Westministenders: Can you tell your Rs from Elbows?

[RedToothBrush]

This week Mark Sedwill has resigned (or was he pushed?) and David Frost (chief brexit lead) was appointed National Security Adviser in a move that enraged Theresa May. The former prime minister felt that his appointment was unprofessional and that was a political appointment not an independent one and that he lacked experience. Of course in terms of national security we still haven't had that report on Russia and I don't believe The Intelligence and Security Committee has yet been named (not sat since Johnson was appointed as PM).

We have passed the deadline for extending transition and we have now apparently said that negotiations on the end of transition will finish at the end of September.

The bill ending Free movement of people has been signed, amongst much fanfare by the Conservatives saying they have delivered on the Referendum promise. However we might have up to 3million Hong Kongers who we are willing to allow into the country which might not go down too well with those who were unhappy with 'unrestricted EU immigration'.

We also have the demonstration of utter incompetence, outsourcing and lack of coordination and communication from central government and local government in the covid-19 crisis. A national scandal that isn't being properly reported by the press and leave you with the very large question of who is this government serving? If its contract with Deloittes over testing didn't require them to report positive tests to Public Health England, what was the point in the testing? How can this be consistent with 'The Government’s new approach to biosecurity will bring together the UK’s world-leading epidemiological expertise and fuse it with the best analytical capability from across Government in an integrated approach.' and will provide real time analysis and assessment of infection outbreaks at a community level, to enable rapid intervention before outbreaks grow.?

The growing feeling that Brexit is being exploited by this government for personal interests and those of big business at the expense of the general public is one which was feared and grows harder to argue against by the day.

Ah < notalgic > I remember going through the operator to call abroad

Even for local calls, we had a party line shared with the neighbours

• which meant sharing the conversations too, if they / we were nosey

I'm glad about some improvements, but feel sorry for those employees who are now on call 24/7

BigChoc
I used to do tap dialling
a useful skill on "incoming calls only phones" with no dial
as British Telecom used to deny that it worked
so had to write off the bills
and I was good at numbers that started 001

I'm starting to wonder if Cummings was bought one of those Your Year In Astrology books that used to be popular in the 1990's. I think they used to sell them in Clintons near the till, so if you were lucky enough to have someone not know what the hell to get you they could look "thoughtful" by figuring out which star sign that particular month was while they bought you a card. Anyway, I digress. It seems to me that depending on the day and omens unknown, the govt changes it's whim on declaring whether the people need to be safe/careful/alert/drunk/working/home, etc. This is the only non-depressing explanation I can come up with for the shambles. HTH.

UK Travel corridors: countries and territories exemption list

Don't forget to also check rules for the country you wish to visit

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-travel-corridors#travel-corridors-countries-and-territories-exemption-list

From 10 July 2020, unless they have visited or stopped in any other country or territory in the preceding 14 days,
passengers arriving from the following countries and territories will not be required to self-isolate on arrival into England.

Scheme backed by Dominic Cummings to ‘suck’ excess carbon dioxide from the air and bury it underground gets £100m from the Treasury

Doesn't sound any more feasible than the first time I heard this suggestion, from a v drunk engineer

but some firms obviously have a Dept of Wierdo Ideas for Cummings to Spaff Taxpayers Money On

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8485601/Dominic-Cummings-authorises-100m-suck-CO2-sky.html

BigChoc
They will think that the science of Cardiff Bay adds up next.
So much scientific illiteracy
so scary

Hmm Carbon Capture was something I wandered into researching slightly on our Env Health module. I was impressed by it but talking to a friend who lectures in Env Studies he said there were worried about corrosion of pipes IIRC and leakages. I've found the wiki on it for anyone interested en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_capture_and_storage

That was one of many incidences where I read far too widely around the module - but then our lecturer was fired halfway through the term and our replacement just left us looking things up on our phones rather than attempt to "teach"

poulet iirc the cost would be prohibitive

and I'm not keen on burying stuff underground

Yes the idea it would cost less than the upkeep of Trident is quite funny
If they were to swap them though... and keep the £££ for upkeep... I might be on board with it. I'd rather they had experts in charge though which I fear is very very unlikely. Cummings must know a contractor from USA is my suspicion. It will be one of the USA's "great investments" in the UK that we have to pay for.

Cost will be "in the order of billions of dollars"
The costs for coal-fired power CCS facilities are also often expressed in terms of capital cost. New energy investment is dominated by onshore wind and solar PV projects, which are of smaller scale, have lower absolute investment costs and are most frequently reported in dollars per Watt or cents per kWh. The capital cost of CCS facilities is in the order of billions of dollars, making them seem excessive by many orders of magnitude. In the cases where scale is appropriately accounted for, comparisons between CCS and renewables presume like-for-like qualities in plant availability and value to electricity markets. Both advocates of CCS3 and of renewables4 are guilty of drawing stark conclusions from such simple and inappropriate comparisons, in addition to not being clear about key assumptions5 or estimation methods (which the Institute and a wide range of other expert organisations have worked to address6)
www.globalccsinstitute.com/archive/hub/publications/201688/global-ccs-cost-updatev4.pdf

With the caveat: The cost estimates presented above reflect a standard design and estimation method, using information current as of 2015. The estimates should not be used as a predictor of actual project costs in a specific location. Costs of CCS projects within a country or region will vary significantly depending on a range of factors.

I'm trying to remember the deal UK has with Trident, although I think it is basically "STFU we will put it where we like" - wondering if the Scottish Govt would be able to veto this if they decided to put it there? I suspect it would be in Wales, however. (Sorry BCF I didn't click the link as was Daily Fail!).

It's at times like this I wish I was able to use MN on my mobile but alas all I can manage is a FB link www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157570064065186&set=a.10150612642585186&type=3&theater Apt for tomorrow

@BigChocFrenzy

and I'm not keen on burying stuff underground

I don't know. It might work pretty well in former mining towns... what could possibly go wrong?

poulet
You and I and DGR have seriously overlapping FB !!

Well there's a saying about holding hands around the world with people we know...isn't there? Surely it would be easier at present with social distancing anyho!

CCS has been around for a while in the oil industry to enhance oil recovery. There’s also been research to show that using exhausted North Sea fields for CCS would be cheaper than decommissioning.

Given that the IOCs are busy selling their NS assets to minor players and that decommissioning costs could be problematic wrt who picks up the costs, CCS could be very feasible.

red That post made me shudder
One of my strongest memories of early childhood was watching the Aberfan disaster on TV with my parents
(yes, I know it was water that caused the slurry to roll down)

I'd worry about storing waste underwater too - longterm history of that is not good

Equinor, Shell and Total have already commenced a major North Sea CCS project.

www.energylivenews.com/2020/05/18/consortium-of-energy-giants-to-build-worlds-first-carbon-capture-and-storage-network/

northernlightsccs.com/en/about

I seem to recall a carbon capture project being kiboshed by Westminster when it withdrew funding. I think it was at Peterhead but can't remember the details

Aberfan was entirely predictable and down to NCB incompetence. Mine waste was dumped at higher elevations as the available valley floor area had been filled. The higher land was unsuitable as there were known springs, and it was this groundwater that lubricated the base of the tip and caused it to slip. Previous slips had occurred and yet no engineering design had been undertaken and no guidance given to local workers. No inspections had been undertaken either, despite the concerns raised by the local council.

At the time there were no legal requirements to protect the public from mine tips, and under the applicable legislation in 1966 it wasn’t even required to be formally reported.

Planned CCS in the North Sea isn’t “under water”, it’s injected 2500 m below the sea bed into formations that have suitable caps to prevent loss (the same kind of caps that trap oil and gas reserves).

prettybird yes, it was a Shell and SSE project at Peterhead in competition with one at Drax in Yorkshire to win proper Government funding for a full scheme. Axed as the Energy Department couldn’t get agreement with the Treasury.

I don't have much trust in oil companies - maybe because only their cockups and disasters make the headlines

However, the environment is very unforgiving and the consequences of mistakes can be grim

I don't have much trust in oil companies - maybe because only their cockups and disasters make the headlines

That’s the same for any industry or profession. Many accidents / incidents are an accumulation of seemingly minor errors that eventually lead to a major occurrence. A fatal accident at a company I worked for had its origin traced back to someone eating an apple where they shouldn’t have.

Oil interests have also been donating to the hard right in the USA, to fight against mandatory climate change measures