[Tubby Isaacs]

Building new houses won't fix the problem, because they'll get snapped up by people who already own homes, because they have the leverage and the housing market is pretty much a one way bet. Whether to move into or to rent out, it doesn't matter. First time buyers will be priced out.

The one way bet is a result of lack of supply though. It'll take a long time to get there admittedly, but if we do, the gains in affordability will come. The market can certainly do that, whatever else it can't do.

[Andy McDandy]

This looks not unlike trolling the Labour Government for easy clicks from Wolfie Smith.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... orth-korea

Anger at UK’s ‘bonkers’ plan to reach net zero by importing fuel from North Korea

Government criticised over list of potential countries for sourcing biomass, which also includes Afghanistan

Eagle-eyed readers might have spotted that the subheading is a bit different from the headline. "List of potential countries" sounds a bit weaker than "plan". Is there a plan at all?

There's support for biomass. There's a list of places with resources, which includes North Korea and Afghanistan. There's no plan for the UK to important biomass from North Korea or Afghanistan, for fairly obvious reasons.

This is tabloid level shit. I'm not by the way a fan of biomass and it would be perfectly fair to say that biomass on the scale needed would involve some of the serious downsides that the article sets out (certainly if everywhere else goes for biomass too). But plan to import biomass from North Korea? That's absolute bollocks.

This is firmly in the "Beckham in Consideration for next James Bond" territory.

Film producers have said that they're looking for a new actor to play Bond. They say they're not ruling anyone out. That's enough for your average journo. Not ruling anyone out means that we're dealing with a set containing everyone. David Beckham is in that set. Therefore he is under however minuscule consideration. Meanwhile, a colleague has mused that he might make an OK James Bond. This means that he is now being "actively considered" for the job. Put it in a tweet and it'll be "frenzied internet speculation", perhaps leading to "celebrities taking to X, formerly known as Twitter" to discuss it.

Journalism, folks.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It's even worse than that. Nobody's ruled anything in or out.

[The Weeping Angel]

Oh no the Dodo have broken lose.

[Andy McDandy]

We fucked them over pretty well, 400 years ago. They haven't evolved thumbs since. Piece of piss.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I believe that Dodos had roughly the intelligence of retarded pigeons.

Puts them on a higher plane than most journalists...

[The Weeping Angel]

More bad journalism from the Grauniad

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... SApp_Other

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra): “This government has been clear that we will change existing policies to ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides that threaten bees and other vital pollinators.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It's possible to read between the lines there and think that it'll be emergency uses allowed. But I think that would be a mistake. This stuff cuts through with voters.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Guardian seems to be surprised that the Treasury models different scenarios. It can't make up it's mind whether investment's going to be cut by 10% across the board or capital gains tax is going to be raised to 39%.

Emergency budgets are usually self-serving bollocks. Reeves must be wishing she'd done one to shut everybody up.

[Tubby Isaacs]

George Monbiot, not for the first time.

https://bsky.app/profile/anthonypainter ... atjkgwme2o

Anthony Painter
‪@anthonypainter.bsky.social‬
The whole argument of this piece hinges on the fact that £21bn is being invested to capture carbon from blue (gas utilising) hydrogen production. You click on the link the piece pivots on and it shows that it's actually £1bn of the capital.

It may or not be £1bn wasted of course, and the scientists in the second article argue very much that is. But if were talking "unprovent technology", then lots of stuff we're looking at as solutions are unproven- isn't green hydrogen? And I'm still not clear on what opponents' solution to highly polluting industrial processes is. Let them close as they get shut down by carbon taxes?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Anthony Painter
‪@anthonypainter.bsky.social‬
Such a useful chart. If you think we can do without fertiliser I've got a human catastrophe to show you.

Chart here.

https://bsky.app/profile/danielwilliams ... ctujs7gi2y

I wonder whether some of the green reaction to this stuff comes from a visceral sense that industrially-produced fertiliser is against nature in some way.

[Philip Marlow]

A gentle and enduring faith.

[davidjay]

A gentle and enduring faith.

Another one who, if it wasn't for the Palestine obsession, you wouldn't be able to know which side they were on.