UK Politics Thread

'And it this 'the establishment' in the room with us now?'
'Yes.. it was us and we were fucking useless'

my brother mentioned that as a junior press officer he once sent an email saying "press conference went ok, Laura Kuenssberg didn't notice that thing", cc'ing in one Laura Kuenssberg

I guess your boss no doubt agreed with your summation.

He never saw it. I spent a very restless night before going into work early and when he arrived, I said I'd sent a personal email to him by mistake and could I delete it from his (then desktop only) system. He agreed while he made a cuppa and a huge sigh of relief was breathed.

Nearly £22bn pledged for carbon capture projects www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4301n3771o

A much better use of the money would be to use it to electrify the whole of the U.K. railway system. Millions of dirty diesel producing journeys eliminated at source.

Not underestimating. I know £22bn would be a drop in the ocean of the total cost. But unless someone actually makes a start it will never get done.
CCS is a waste of investment and ongoing costs. Much better to cut the problem at source

There seem to be radically different approaches to carbon capture, that all have different costs and efficiencies, so I have no idea how effective these plans will actually be.

But I guess announcing a couple of large new projects is better in terms of both image, and in terms of job creation and attracting investment, than doing some scheme to encourage people to improve their insulation. (Which governments in the UK seem to have been doing for at least 30 years already).

As for trains, if the government wants to boost investment, jobs, etc... maybe they should pitch the rail franchises to companies in terms of investment/business opportunities at and around stations, rather than the trains themselves. Get companies to commit to upgrading the lines, trains, etc.. and in return they get to develop the land around the stations, open big shopping malls for commuters, housing, etc..
Kill 2-3 birds with one stone.

Maybe they can do that already and just don't, but it always strikes me when I come back to the UK that even major stations have like one coffee stand and a newsagent, whereas over here they'd have 30 restaurants, department stores, etc.. Plus if they build a bunch of houses/apartments next to the station then they've got a captive audience.

I doubt the train companies over here make any profit from tickets, but they make a lot of profit from rents, etc..

What line of work is that exactly?

One of the worst things I ever had to do was watch them keep my old dear going well after she had passed the point where it was just cruel to. She didn't want it, either but my Dad wouldn't let her go. I was always very 'let people do what they want' anyway but that really did laser focus me on respecting the wishes of the person actually affected.

But I suppose for a lot of people its one of those things that is 'well, I've always been against it until it affected me personally'

When my dad was in hospital at the end, we all knew that he didn't want to be kept going. He'd much rather have died at home in his bed, but he never got that chance. But when the doctors said he was only being kept alive mechanically, my mum, sister, and I were all in agreement that we should let him go. He had never wanted this, but wasn't in a position to choose for himself any more.

I can really see how difficult those conversations could be fraught for some families, but as chopsen mentioned, honest conversations about the end of life are something we as a country could all be better at. I hope debate over this bill would allow for that. Naive, maybe, but a necessary discussion to have.

One step in the right direction for rail passengers:

National Rail operates the stations so it's government money. The point remains on it saving some money but it's a drop in the ocean for the overall budget.

The problem with Euston is how late they declare the fucking platforms. That's why there's a crush anytime. Well that and everything is so fucked that seat reservations are just worthless.

The fundamental problem with Euston is that the platforms are on a narrow(ISH) corridor. All the talks of rebuilding the station revolve around how pretty it is. The only thing they need to do is create more internal space around the platform entrances.

Fuck the Doric arch.

Did anyone see the 22.1 billion pound investment that Labour announced for carbon capture?

It's a bit galling that there's a black hole in the budget of 22 billion but the tax payer is going to fund the oil and gas industry for this.

Yes, the industry that pumps ludicrous amount of shit into the atmosphere are needing help to clean up there act.

This is absolutely absurd. The whole idea is fundamentally flawed and very much a back of a fag packet idea that many scientists think is unobtainable for the proposed gain but makes it look like the oil and gas industry is giving a shit.

Ridiculous.