TheCat

Imagine being on the same side as Hollie....

Turns out that 'my truth' actually is different from 'the truth'.... Seemingly old Liz was accurate....'recollections may vary'....even for those claiming victimhood....

Ellis Genge now tested positive today for COVID, after Joe Marler earlier this week (sort of strangley conincidental that England have without their top two looseheads, given we are without our top two tightheads (both suffered concussion from scotland game last week).....There's got to be an outside chance that the England V Australia match gets cancelled tomorrow........be pretty surprising if the England camp didnt get another positive test or 2 in the next 24 hours (its not like scrum training is very socially distanced!)...if that was the case, would Rugby Australia be saying its safe for thier players to be playing against an England sqaud which has been infiltarated by the virus... As I type I see that the Irish have also had a case in the squad..... Could be a weekend of much less rugby than originally thought. I hope not, as I have tix for twickers tomorrow....

It's okay. Once we all have electric cars powered by sustainable energy, they'll be sure to open up all the streets again, as they'll be no carbon or air quality issues... So just be patient for the next 20 years...

My understanding is that STV is different to AV....but. Could be wrong. Those are very unusual events that those novelty parties win a random seat, and never such that they actually matter. Just anecdotally, I think most people take at least their first 2-3 preferences pretty seriously. I would think all those in favour of a 'progressive alliance' in the UK would do the same.... But as you say, no system's perfect.

Well off thread topic here....but have never understood why the Preferential Voting system (also called 'Alternative Vote') doesnt get more attention in the UK...people seem to either talk about FPTP or proportional representation..... Having lived with with pref voting in Australia, I cant recall anyone really moaning about its outcomes....seems like a fair and sensible system to me...as doesnt rely on parties reaching a consensus/coalition...there is always one winner in each seat...but it should be the least objectionable person to the majority of voters in that seat, even if not all of their first choice... For reference if not familiar.... Alternative Vote (AV) Voters rank candidates in order of preference by marking 1, 2, 3 and so on. First preference votes are counted first. If a candidate receives more than 50 per cent of the first preference votes then they are elected. If no candidate reaches 50 per cent, the candidate with the fewest first preference votes is eliminated. Their second preference votes are reallocated to the remaining candidates. If one candidate has more votes than the other remaining candidates put together, that candidate is elected. If not, the process is repeated until one candidate has more votes than the other remaining candidates put together. This candidate wins the election.

Spartacus Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It has raised a question for me > > With the onslaught of news via the internet, do > people still buy and can be categorized as a > certain paper reader or are they also getting > their news, information and influences from a > number of sources including social misinformation > media ? For me the answer is uncatagorically..yes....and the rise of the internet means that people naturally find news sources already in aligntment with their own views and biases. So while previoulsy one may have read a paper which 'leaned' one way or the other, the intenet has turned 'leaning' into full on toppling over and has accelerated partisan views on either side of any debate you care to name. Hence why public discource is so divided and acrimonious....as one can always find a third party news story to support an existing view, making it much easier to feel validated and smug that one is 'right'.....there's no need to be challenged with pesky alternative views, you can just close the browser.... We're all guilty of this..some on occasion..some more often than not!

This taught me everything about the papers when I came to this country. I see no reason to veer away from this.... unfort The Express doesnt make the cut.....

I dont even know why we need a COP.....not when the Dulwich Sports Ground Bonfire night/fireworks show this Sat night has gone 'green' with a 'virtual bonfire'....I for one can't wait for my children to experience the fastastic thrill of a fire projected on to a screen, with the sound coming out of some nearby speakers. This (defiitley not token) gesture for one night of the year will certainly be appreciated by all the local green loving punters who will drive to the sports ground in their SUV's, while leaving their central heating on at home so its nice and toasty when they get back from a tough night supporting such an important green intitiative... https://metro.co.uk/2021/09/29/dulwich-fireworks-night-goes-green-with-virtual-bonfire-and-sparkler-ban-15333961/

Spartacus Wrote: -------------------------------------------------- > > Not convinced it's clear to outside London drivers > as its a white circle with a black border and ULEZ > in black. Didn't really jump out as to what it is > in my opinion. Sounds like it's actually a very black and white issue.

I tripped over in the street today. Bloody brexit.

KidKruger Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I?m falling out of love with the UK. > Question is, where to go. I'll agree with the person that's called me a 'near' racist and a bastard.... Even a bastard can agree that this country is getting tough going.....time to move I think....

Well played EDF....only 4 moves until Boris Johnson and the Tories get blamed....

No queue at EDR this morning. All fuels available.

It's a shame how backwards the game has gone im Canada since the start of professionalism. They were probably on a par with the Pacific island nations 25 years ago. Now they're getting beaten by Chile. As you say thoug Alan, the flip side of that is the development of the game in South America....

I think you're totally justified feeling it's a bit rude. It's your home, and to see that you're wearing one and then not even offer is def rude (or at a very minimum, acknowledge the issue and apologise if they don't have one with them). Forget covid, it's not even about the covid rules, it's about the rule of common sense when in someone else's home....it's not dissimilar to if someone saw you take your shoes off to go into certain rooms in your own house, and the visitor didn't offer to do the same.

Thanks Alan, appreciate the heads up!.....fortunatley, I have a mate who plays for a London club who managed to snag a couple of the wallabies game a few weeks ago. Lets hope I can leave twickers happy for the first time since 2015.... https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-union/statement-game-wallabies-must-win-at-twickenham-to-prove-they-re-a-force-again-20211008-p58yg4.html

Yep, was down about 19% on the open this morning, but recovered during the morning, and currently down about 6% from yesterday. You can obviously track it yourself on the link which Ianr posted to above to the Intercontinental Exchange website should you wish. My guess is that even if the gas price eases, the cap for consumers will be raised.....as some of these Utility providers are bleeding cash at the moment. Changing the topic to Nigello's original question for this thread...what will you do...well I have just been putting together a little 'blackout kit' in a box as a precaution for this winter. Hopefully it wont have to be used, but having a box in one easy spot with battery lanterns, External charging batter for phones, matches, candles, and a board game or two - just makes things that little bit less stressful if the lights suddenly go out this winter, ratehr than fumbling around trying to remember where you last put them in the dark!

Yes. Look, im not even sure what you're trying to argue to be honest....you seem to be getting yourself very mixed up with the relationship between coal and gas. Which as I've said, is not as simple as looking at rises in the cost of generation fuels. There's a baseload versus peak load type arguement at play there as to how coal versus gas plants genrally work, and as i've already mentioned, the cost of electricity generation at a peak-load gas plant is much more sensitive to the price of gas, than the cost of electricity generation at a baseload coal plant is to the price of coal...this is the main pint you seem to be missing. In anycase....lets strip all that back. and make it nice and simple for you.....my original point was about reckless adoption of renewables in place of old coal fired capacity. The wind isnt blowing, so there's little power from renewables, which means you need to fire up peak-load style gas plants, which are 1) expensive to start up, 2) have a generation cost highly sensitive to the increases in gas price. Old coal baseload plants are not designed to be switched on and off, they just run constantly, providing energy whenever we need it....so if much of that capacity was still running it wouldn't be a case of firing them up when the wind dies down, they would alrerady be running. And the increase in cost of coal would not have had the same impact on generation cost as the rise in price of gas has. As an aside, I should point out that 1) the % increases in coal you're talking about were from temporary multi-year lows, so the 'normalised' prices was much higher than your starting point anyway, so the increase you reference is a bit of a distortion, and 2)the two charts you've linked to are for US domestic nat gas and a US referenced domestic coal price - so both interesting, but these are largely separate markets, so while an interesting reference point, are largely irrelevant to the discussion in the UK. Anyway....I've sort of had enough of this banal conversation, you can either choose to try and understand what im saying, or keep on furiously googling to try and prove me wrong...which you wont, because im making a very basic point that anyone that knows anything about this isnt really going to try to debate....if we still had more coal fired plants in operation and a smoother transition to renewables, yes we might have 'some' rises in electivity price as a result of coal price increases, but we wouldn't be seeing such huge rises in the overall cost of electricity generation in the UK right now because we wounlt need to fire up all this nat gas capacity.... PS if you're just trying to argue with me because you think Im an advocate for dirty coal over renewables...im not. Im totally for the low carbon transition of the energy mix, it just needs to be done in a manner which maintains the security of the energy system.

ianr Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > jazzer wrote: > ------------- > > What is the live market data? And where > > is the data from? What is the market? > > The energy market??? The oil market? > > As you don't say what it > > is how are we supposed to know? > > A search on, say "wholesale 1 month future on UK > Nat gas", from The Cat's post, brings up numerous > sources, including > https://www.theice.com/products/910/UK-Natural-Gas > -Futures/data?marketId=5188706 > https://www.theice.com/products/910/UK-Natural-Gas > -Futures/. Thanks Ian. I wasnt aware it was freely available on the Ice website.....so any can peruse until their hearts content... its flying again this morning...up another 19% at the moment.....40% in 2 days....a proper squeezed market.....this is surely going to wipe out quoite a few of these small utilities companies who have setup and remain unhedged.

Fark Malumbu....sephiroth thinks you're even worse than people like me! That's very low indeed.

Umm not really....we pay a fee for access to live market data, I can't just post it on random internet forum I'm afraid..and Im not really trying to win an argument here or prove a point with evidence. The price was up 20 percent today for wholesale 1 month future on UK Nat gas...I just thought people without that live access may be interested in that....you can either choose to believe that or not, I don't really mind which!

The evidence I have for the gas price being up is that the price to purchase natural gas in the UK is higher than it was yesterday:) As DR says, its what most people would call the wholesale gas price.....which is now actually up 20% today as I type..... (jokes aside, its something I can monitor on a live basis for my work - and it doesn't mean you'll suddenly be paying 20% more for your electricity tariff or gas tariff, but as DR also saya, some part of it will filter through in time)

UK gas prices up another 13% this morning......its going to be a tough, tough winter if the wind doesnt blow consistently all winter (which it wont)....

Thank you DR. Thank f@ck for that:)...this thread finally got somewhere.... Yes, I agree totally that is indeed a very plausible reason for the difference in coverage....its nice that after so many posts we get some discussion on the actual question, rather than mostly just having a go at the person that asked it! Given most of this thread I've been defending myself, rather than discussing the question....I've thought about the answer to the question a lot myself (as it really was a genuine question!).....and I think that clearly the similarities with the SE is probably the main driver for the difference in coverage on that day. There's also the rarity of the random murder issue I mention above & there's the middle class nature of the victim (being a school teacher) which obviously is likely to resonate with many in the media. The point of asking the question was to find out what the broader community thought on the issue, not to promote an agenda, and not to prompt an unnecessary battle around whether uncomfortable questions are allowed to be asked or not.... Any other reasons anyone cares to raise? (PS: on your question of context for the male murders i mentioned. IM afraid due to the brief nature of the coverage, I cant provide any. And that was sort of what prompted the initial question - someone's son/brother/father/husband has just been killed in a nearby neighbourhood (at least one othem was also south London), and I couldnt even tell you their names or the circumstances. If I had to guess from the momentary footage and memory, I'd say they may have been gang related....which of course opens up an entirely different set of issues for discussion)