Mandelson was sacked twice from Labour governments and had a well known track record of close relations with oligarchs and Russian and Chinese interests - to appoint him to be US Ambassador without asking for the security advice is a serious misjudgment even taking what PM says as completely correct
And educate people about disinformation including in school like the Finns
Am big advocate of poverty reduction for health but in UK a basic income of say £10k a year would cost £600bn. As entire NHS budget is a quarter of that you wouldn’t put a drug in water if it cost that. High min wage, cheap housing, excellent universal education, healthcare and advice better I think
Cost of new nuclear is £80bn (bound to go way over), take over a decade to build and be very expensive per KWH. For that money you could much more quickly build renewables and energy storage powering 26 million homes without the nuclear waste and risk of accidents
There’s lot to like about Labour’s energy policy and implementation but in time and money nuclear takes to build (not to mention dealing with radioactive waste) we could have created more than enough renewable energy production, storage and electrification of transport, heating and industry
Over 85% over UK power currently coming from cheap, clean, secure, home made energy- let’s keep building and maintaining renewable capacity, adding storage and electrifying and we can reduce bills, pollution and insecurity whilst creating meaningful skilled jobs
In wind turbines, solar panels, batteries, pumped storage, bicycles, electric trains and other vehicles, heat pumps and other tech we have the means to stop climate change, energy insecurity and air pollution
‘The main characters are vaporised!’ The robot alone has more funny lines than all the other Star Wars movies out together- Forest Whitaker’s character! So much to like
Hard agree. My son made me watch Revenge of the Sith earlier this week - humourless, wooden acting, ridiculous ‘actin’ sequences- in contrast Rogue One is funny, rich, brilliant acting performances and the only saber bit is the terrific end scene
A fully electrified UK (and every other country for that matter) powered by renewables built and maintained by local labour would be a cleaner, safer, more prosperous and happier place
That’s a hard one but equally do you really think if we say, doubled the pay we would get better outcomes? As a former Westminster journo and cllr I find too many are greedy, vain and lack strategic vision - I don’t think higher pay solves that, probably makes it worse
You can get very competent people for £100k PA a year in any other business. Problem is culture
They get paid three times the median salary as it is - councillors, on the other hand, gate a pittance and many more of them actually lead important services
82% of Britain’s electricity is currently zero carbon.
This is an incredible achievement of which we should be rightly proud and motivated to go further, faster.
Instead, we’ve got fossil fuelled politicians telling us we should be focusing on 93% depleted North Sea oil & gas.
I read that here when I visited a couple of years ago and you have the gist of it www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/produc...
Renewably powered full electrification is the answer to so many problems. Not easy or cheap in short term but easier and cheaper than continuing with worsening climate change and global energy crises
Fair enough. And our EV is powered by our house rooftop solar panels and a 100% renewable tariff
We drive our EV maybe half an hour a day - surely the 10 odd hours of daylight could top up the battery with a roof solar panel?
World has changed since Brexit - UK needs to be a leading part of European defence, renewable energy and economic development
Only about a quarter of UK electricity is generated from gas - time to break link between volatile gas price and electricity cost to consumer and triple down on switch to domestic renewables, energy storage and electrification of power and transport
I thought I couldn’t like Mamdani more
We’ve been 100% electric heating and cooking for two years - all powered by solar panels and 100% renewable tariff. Everyone should be supported to make similar switch to lower costs, pollution and reliance on unstable dictators and autocrats
"Cars are the most absurd means of transport in a city. They are parked 95 per cent of the time. It takes two tonnes to move someone who weighs 70 kilogrammes. And the denser the city, the more absurd it is."
Labour politicians having to deal with a hostile media environment is timeless (even if channels have changed) need for effective political and comms strategy/delivery also timeless.
I hope you’re right but a proper sense of political direction and positivity communicated effectively would surely help? Blair and Campbell might have other failing but they were very good at this and won three elections in a row whilst halving child poverty and other huge improvements
Portuguese model has cut crime and drug deaths. I don’t know enough about Green policy but I’d like addicts to access safer drugs from clinics (not gangs) whilst being supported to quit, get healthcare and other help. Current policy means criminal gangs exploit people at will
As I say, I’ve been a Labour member for 24 years including 12 as a councillor. I desperately want them to succeed but patently there’s something wrong with the strategy despite some good policies I support. We’ve lost elections to Greens and Plaid whilst trying to pander to Reform curious
The additional cost of ONE fossil fuel price spike on the scale of 2022 = the ENTIRE COST of Net Zero by 2050. We get precisely nothing in return for the first cost, and a whole new, more secure and cheaper energy system from the second one.
#NoBrainer
www.theccc.org.uk/2026/03/11/c...
One of this government’s genuinely really good policies
All good then. Let’s see how that works out at the locals in May. Like you I want the best for Labour but it is failing in political strategy and communications- when it fails it lets down the people it exists to support