Electric car sales soar 51% in mainland Europe as Iran war drives up fuel prices Data shows 224,000 new EVs were registered in March, with Norway leading way in terms of switching

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Back to the simple natural order of things…….. not human arrogance based on destruction of our water,air, environment for profit…… for the 1%

Electric car sales soar 51% in mainland Europe as Iran war drives up fuel prices Data shows 224,000 new EVs were registered in March, with Norway leading way in terms of switching

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

plc.autotrader.co.uk/news-views/p...

EV's now cheaper on average than petrol cars. Also running costs are lower. No wonder EV sales are surging by more than 50% in Europe.

I went and watched the segment on iPlayer. This is absolutely wild. It’s basically doing a free micro political broadcast for Reform during BBC Breakfast.

It's interesting that Tesla doesn't feature in the top 10 list of brands or models.

Peterborough Cathedral recently received a full-scale casting of the most complete titanosaurus skeleton ever found, a 'Patagotitan mayorum' found in Argentina.

I am in love with the idea of a Gothic architecture religious structure hosting a Late Cretaceous dinosaur amidst the stained glass.

A large white waterfowl with orange feet stands in front of a door. On the door is a cardboard sign secured with tape that reads, "DO NOT LET THE DUCK IN." Adding insult to injury, I think the duck might be a goose.

Whatever you do,

We love the library!
#nationallibraryweek

Spain is crushing it ⚡🇪🇸

Solar is delivering the equivalent of 27 nuclear plants during the day. Pumped hydro stores ~3 nuclear plants worth. Batteries already stepping in.

This isn’t a generation problem anymore. It’s storage scale.

Energy scarcity → energy timing. #BESS #Solar

These incredible Buff Tip Moths blend in so well with branches that you might mistake them for sticks. Nature's masters of disguise are truly fascinating!

What does the new £1bn investment in community energy really mean? It’s the largest public investment in community-owned green power in the UK to date. But what exactly is being promised, and how can communities get involved?

UK £1bn investment in community energy to create opportunities for communities to take “a direct stake in a clean, green, more affordable energy future,” to deliver 8GW of locally owned clean energy by 2030.
www.positive.news/environment/...

Also: shred cabbage into a saucepan, put 0.5 cm deep water in pan, some butter and half teaspoon caraway seeds. Bring to boil, put lid on and steam for a few minutes, so cabbage is slightly softened. Also yum !

I was bought up by my mum who always boiled all vegetables for 20 mins, until no texture or taste left, especially cabbage. But:
Fresh home made coleslaw: white cabbage, grated carrot, some red onion, mayonnaise. Yum !

When Angela Rayner underpaid £40,000 in stamp duty, Richard Tice said it was "morally completely indefensible” and she should resign if she had “any moral decency”.

Now we learn he set up four shell companies that let him avoid paying £100,000 he owed in tax and to then transfer the cash to Reform

An image of a tile cutter

Just searched Google images for tile cutter:

Looks like a tile cutter to me, although I could be wrong. They usually press down on a scored tile either side of a central rib. They don't to my knowledge usually have a gauge though, unless it's for measuring the tile before cutting.

BBC Question Time appearances

Zarah Sultana 0
Jeremy Corbyn 1
Mick Lynch 1
-
Nigel Farage 38

Very, very biased selection, even more than Fiona Bruce.

Orbán’s pay cheques: Reform candidate fuelled by profits from Russian oil The Reform candidate at this month’s byelection claims he wants to put Britain first, but is he still on the payroll of Viktor Orbán’s far-right propaganda unit?

These people call themselves patriots. Almost invariably, they turn out to be stooges of foreign powers. goodlawproject.org/orbans-pay-c...

National Emergency Briefing Find a People's Emergency Briefing screening near you, or spot a gap that you can fill by hosting a screening.

Truly astonishing number of screenings already booked for the National Emergency Briefing film. Very likely to be one near you. www.nebriefing.org/screening-map

The Maybe

In light of Orban's loss in Hungary, it is SO vital to go listen to this @naomiaklein.bsky.social interview with @themaybe.org / @alixdunn.com.

Don't mistake the muscularity of anger for real, sustained power. Fascists of all kinds are showing how scared they are every single day.

World’s largest wind farm is getting plugged in Hornsea 3 – a vast, offshore, wind farm project – has reached Norfolk, as renewables cut costs and reduce reliance on gas

Latest details on the largest wind farm in the world – to power 3.3 million homes – as it prepares to connect to the grid.

As renewables saved the UK £1bn in gas imports in March, Reform UK is still saying it wants to scrap Net Zero.

Mapped: The Reform-Orbán Network “Viktor Orbán is the strongest leader in Europe and the EU’s biggest nightmare.” These were the words posted on Twitter by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage about the prime minister of Hungary in April 20...

www.desmog.com/2026/04/08/m...

Desmog describing the links between Reform and Orban's government and his right wing proxies.

On the historical data, it's nice to see the phase out of coal in red and decline of gas in blue.

The historical demand graph is seasonal, so a little difficult to assess trends, but it looks like demand has kept going down slightly until recently and now looks like it may have levelled off. It's expected to rise with further adoption of EV's and heat pumps.

On the www.energydashboard.co.uk/live website you can select historical data from the toolbar at the top, then select 'All data' instead of the default 1d or 2 d (days) option at the top of the graph. It will then show you data from 2009 onwards. It looks like demand may now be level-ish.

Electricity generation stats from: www.energydashboard.co.uk/live

Graph showing electricity generation in the UK over the last 2 days - as described in main text. A broad strip of green denotes good wind generation supplying 58% of electricity.

Nice to see a broad stripe of wind energy contributing about 58% of UK electricity generation in the last 2 days. Also solar contributing big chunks of generation during the day (8% of generation overall) and its only April and a bit cloudy. Imports quite low at 3.7%.

Just planted my 'Casablanca' first early seed potatoes.
'Here's looking at you, spud'.
Now I'm about to do violence to a chocolate rabbit.