Some tips on getting solar panels installed Get the funding in place. If upfront cash is an issue, check out the alternatives I’ve covered previously. Do some research. The SolarUK subreddit is excellent, as well as people like Gary Does Solar on YouTube. Search local solar installers near you. Make sure they are MCS registered (they will say so if they are and will be on the MCS database) Make a note of your energy usage over the year (in kwh). This will help with getting the right battery size. The advice is often to ‘max out’ the number of panels you can fit. Since labour and scaffolding is a big part of the cost, additional panels often add little to the overall cost. Get an in-person quote from a well-reviewed firm. They will tell you how many panels you can fit on your roof (there are also tools online where to help you approximate this) Go to 2-3 other well-reviewed firms to get more quotes Haggle, if you are so inclined Pick one. Book it in. Get on the right tariff in advance – one which offers cheap overnight rates. This will let you charge your battery cheaply for the next day’s usage, whether it’s sunny or not. Several offer nighttime rates of around 7p per kwh. Pick somewhere for the battery and inverter to go, either in a large cupboard or outside (keeping them in lofts is strongly discouraged now) Sort out energy exporting – as soon as you have a G99 export certificate your installer has (hopefully) got hold of, plus the MCS certificate, you can sign up for an export tariff, e.g. EDF, Octopus, Good Energy, Eon. For renters: start exploring plug-in solar. It’s coming soon (and is already possible with sign off from an electrician). Failing that, pester your landlord. It will boost their EPC and make your home a far nicer place to live.

I've written up some tips on installing solar panels in the UK if you're lucky enough to own your own home (and roof).

These are just tips that worked for me - I'm sure others will have more.

If it helps anyone at all I'll be delighted.

Miliband doubles down on net zero - Energy Live News Labour to announce breaking the link between gas and electricity prices and more renewables push

Ed Miliband today: "The era of fossil fuel security is over and the era of clean energy security must come of age....To ignore two crises in less than five years would be completely irresponsible… our action must now be faster deeper and more wide ranging.”

Lies Industry UK - Darren Jones: An inquiry is underway into the leaking of confidential information to The Guardian. Tom Whitehead, FCDO Deputy Director of Communications, is the husband of The Guardian political editor Crerar.

Amid the noise of ex civil servants closing ranks on the Mandelson vetting saga, I haven’t heard a single one acknowledge that to fail to tell the PM or any other Minister Mandelson had failed vetting was completely unacceptable & put the PM & other ministers in an impossible position.

Now that the media's latest attempt to remove Starmer has failed, time to turn attention to his achievements:
➡️ 0.6% GDP growth in Jan-Feb 2026
➡️ Unemployment down to 4.9%
➡️ Pay rising faster than inflation
➡️ Min wage increased 4.1%
➡️ UK now 5th largest economy
➡️ 35% decrease in small boat crossings

Local Authority Housing Fund: Round 4 prospectus and guidance

The Local Authority Housing Fund will provide £950m so that local authorities can invest to get hold of better accomodation including bringing empty or dilapidated homes back into use.

www.gov.uk/government/p...

A National Plan to End Homelessness

This is why the Homelessness strategy focuses on ending use of the worst forms of temporary accomodation. All children deserve a chance at childhood, especially those at risk of poverty.

www.gov.uk/government/p...

Temporary accommodation linked to deaths of 104 children in England in six years Calls for ‘urgent, sustained action’ over rising number of children who do not have permanent home

Horrendous - but neccessary - understanding of the impact bad temporary accomodation can have on our children. Linked to the deaths of 104 children over the past 6 years, 76 of them babies.

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Labour announce a leak investigation into how the media were passed information on Mandelson's vetting, when ministers were not.

It was announced during the debate in Parliament yesterday during the response by the Chief Secretary to the PM near the end of the debate..

1/3

Telegraph newspaper editorial on Mandelson's appointment in December 2024 versus editorial today

World at One - Fired civil servant accuses PM of 'dangerous misunderstanding' over Mandelson affair - BBC Sounds Sir Olly Robbins tells MPs that Lord Mandelson never failed his vetting.

I don't get it. The vetting was "leaning into" Mandelson being a risky appointment yet Robbins decided this was OK because he would put safety measures in place... yet told no-one. What? And he's somehow the hard-done-by hero?
Listen to Emily Thornberry from 26.50. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

The era of clean energy security Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband's speech at the Good Growth Foundation’s National Growth Debate.

Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband's speech at the Good Growth Foundation’s National Growth Debate.

Then there were an awful lot of others with bad judgement who are clutching at their pearls right now. He clearly would never have been appointed if Trump was not in the WH. He was still in the House of Lords and Privy Council. He's now gone. And we are still not at war

It was clearly not the second. Most of the opposition and media now baying for blood went on the record claiming it was a clever appointment at the time. He was already in the Lords and Privy Council and has now been sacked from all. The decision not to take us to war is far more consequential

We have the receipts!! Shame the mainstream media can’t show this duplicity.. can’t work out why not !😎

Again? Bringing out one of the old favourites. The press in this country have made the UK pretty much ungovernable. Given they seem to have more power than our MPs I'm beginning to think they are the ones who need to be elected in or out rather than our politicians

I really don't think we will agree about this, it would be utterly ridiculous for him to be replaced. The rest of the world, and the Tories and Reform would be laughing themselves stupid

I'm well aware we live in a constitutional monarchy. However, it makes no sense for the Labour Party to have a leadership contest in the middle of World War 3, install someone else the media don't like and have yet another revolving door into Downing Street

It's almost as if the rabid press this country will keep going until they destroy each Labour leader in turn and it doesn't matter who they are

When the electorate voted Labour in, they knew he would be PM. I disagree with you about his leadership. The biggest decision he made was not to take us into an illegal war, that's good enough for me

That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I don't think he should go but if he did the next PM would just be installed by Labour members, not the electorate. Come the next election the next PM would also be the leader of the winning party

What bothers me is that he kept us out of an illegal war and the media are baying for blood. They will not rest until they engineer the likes of Badenoch or Farage into office, both of whom would have made a catastrophic decision to join Trump and Netanyahu in Iran

But they didn't. Partly because they were treated in exactly the same way by the media as Starmer is. He did something neither Brown or Miliband were able to do

Ed Miliband Says He Will “Double Down, Not Back Down” On Clean Energy Ed Miliband has said he will “double down, not back down” on the government’s clean energy mission in the face of critics calling on him to change ...

Ed Miliband has said he'll “double down, not back down” on government’s clean energy mission in the face of critics calling on him to change course

The Energy Sec said "solar panels, heat pumps and EVs are not woke, or a left-wing conspiracy, or even a Marxist plot. They're actually common sense"

The BBC have found a minute to stop whining about Peter Mandelson? Wonders will never cease

OMFG I had to go and check that this ACTUALLY happened.

Since when does the BBC ever do chyrons with a political party's branding, rather than their own? Not to mention this is during a pre-election campaign purdah.

(h/t @iainsol.bsky.social)

This is real? Trust Alex when he says he's checked and it is but this is so beyond what's acceptable from the bbc. What the actual?

Worth a few minutes of your time to watch these videos of the PM giving the facts and the timeline of events around Mandelson.

Don't listen to cherry picked parts with added opinions from comentators.

Listen to the PM himself.

1/5

I imagine he knew just as much as the opposition politicians and journalists did. The ones who were calling it an inspired appointment at the time

Blossom, a lake, a heron, trees in new leaf. James Montgomery: London Tranquility . Holland Park, April, 2026 #HollandPark #London #Spring

James Montgomery: London Tranquility . Holland Park, April, 2026 #HollandPark #London #Spring

[more from the hellhole that is London]