New Diesel & Petrol Ban

[John Brown]

Hmmm. Have we all forgotten Boris and Baron David Brownlow? I believe Boris claimed he'd paid for the Downing Street redecorating himself at the time.

 

[Chris152]

So are you content that the leader of our government should be accepting freebies the value of which, if he had carried on at the reported rate, could well have exceeded his salary as PM?
If the rules allow this then in my view they certainly shouldn't.
And the idea that these gifts are invariably purely altruistic on the part of the donors seems a little naive.

Not very comfortable with it, but I do find it very amusing that so many conservative voters have suddenly developed a very sensitive moral compass. Here's Nadine getting her nickers in a bit of a twist:
https://www.thepoke.com/2024/10/03/...8pT_IGOPBvYLH13BOg_aem_lp4VhBPlCIZfFM29-kgp7A

 

[John Brown]

Not very comfortable with it, but I do find it very amusing that so many conservative voters have suddenly developed a very sensitive moral compass. Here's Nadine getting her nickers in a bit of a twist:
https://www.thepoke.com/2024/10/03/...8pT_IGOPBvYLH13BOg_aem_lp4VhBPlCIZfFM29-kgp7A

I, too, find the mock outrage and sanctimonious self-righteousness amusing.
I just hope this thread doesn't get shut down before the novelty wears off.

 

[SammyQ]

They are next to the Radisson hotel and Lloyds Bank Building on Cromac Place.

Yes. The gasworks site was still there when I came to Belfast in 1981, but was being wound down as Belfast no longer had mains gas. I am not sure if the gasometers were even still intact at that point. The site was subsequently "developed" (haugh- tho!!) into a business hub (appalling neologism), call centre, hotel, etcetera. The only redeeming fact about the makeover was that ITV House was on the other side of the Ormeau Road and you could sometimes spot the "good and the great" going to their cars in the park at the side.

 

[Yorkieguy]

So what was incorrect? Long after we stopped using town gas the holders if you prefer were in use as local storage at much lower pressure than the high pressure grid creating a demand buffer. After the 1993 attacks they were identified as a high risk target in the same way as stored potable water still is, I believe the final decision to remove them was taken in 1999 although it was not a quick process.

When gas was made locally from coal, it was stored in the gasholders, and distributed around the local distribution system at low pressure, but North Sea Gas changed how the National Transmission System developed. Gas was no longer produced locally, but needed to be transmitted over long distances, and pipelines were built from Easington (1967), Bacton (1968), Theddlethorpe (1972), St. Fergus (1977), Teesside (1993) and the Morecombe Bay gas field at Barrow (1985), integrating into the nationwide NTS. Compressors were built to push gas through the transmission pipelines under high pressure. This is the ‘motorway network’ for gas, transporting gas at up to 94 bar (1,363 PSI) pressure. (A fully inflated car tyre is about 2 bar). It’s made up of steel pipelines, and gas turbines and electric turbines at compressor stations push the gas around the network.

The gas then enters the low pressure distribution system, now known as the UK Gas Distribution Network (GDN) that runs the regional gas distribution networks that connect to the national gas transmission system operated by the NTS. The GDN reduces the pressure for domestic, commercial and industrial customers (through the yellow high density polyethylene these days, which have replaced cast iron pipes since the 70)s.

National Gas steps is System Operator as the ‘residual balancer’ of the network. Each day, the National Control Centre monitors the NTS linepack (the amount of gas stored in transmission pipes) and can take action to keep the balance of supply and demand within acceptable limit.

I would certainly concede that a lot of gasholders we're decommissioned well into the 90s, long after they were not needed. (I think may have listed status). they were extremely expensive to demolish, and all of the buildings and pipework too. Gasworks covered large area of land, which become contaminated with tar and all sorts of other substances. The gasholders in Hull were still in situ in the early 90s, but were not in use. The gasworks had been there since 1823, and in the ensuing years, no thought was given to environmental concerns.

https://www.nationalgas.com/about-us/history-gas-industry

https://powercompare.co.uk/blog/gas-distribution-networks/#:~:text=The UK gas distribution network,businesses, and industrial gas users

I don't know what the IRA thought would happen if they attached a bomb to a gasholder. Maybe they thought it would 'blow up'. The gas would burn, but it wouldn't explode. They could have done things in remote locations which would have been far more devastating, with little chance of detection, but let's not go there.

The NTS is largely owned these days by the Aussies - Macquarie Asset Management.

What was my British Gas pension has been via Centrica, Transco, Lattice, and now National Grid:

https://nguk.pensions.nationalgrid.com/national-gas-transmission-ngt-an-update-on-the-sponsoring-employer-of-section-b#:~:text=On 20 July 2023, National,ownership to 80% of NGT

No wonder the dropped 'British'.

Pension still arrives, so I'll throw another prawn on the barbie!

 

[Jake]

I believe the initial post you responded to from @Spectric referred to an interview seen that suggested a more effective method of managing a multicultural society was that of authoritarianism giving the Balkans as an example. He then went on the imply that we in the UK may expect more authoritarian policies in the future to maintain order here. I may be wrong, but it did not to me read like he is a proponent for this.

Precisely. He was repeating something from a probably propaganda source (note he refused to identify the person) which was seeking to promote (true) authoritarianism by exploiting racial division. Spectric was not saying that he was promoting it or agreed with it, but at the same time he was regurgitating and spreading it while saying it would be wrong not to have an open mind to it. No. Really no need for an open mind to fascist propaganda dung. That's a really basic 'just asking questions' approach to promoting poisonous ideas (cf Joe Rogan etc).

 

[Hypnotic Chimera]

So are you content that the leader of our government should be accepting freebies the value of which, if he had carried on at the reported rate, could well have exceeded his salary as PM?
If the rules allow this then in my view they certainly shouldn't.
And the idea that these gifts are invariably purely altruistic on the part of the donors seems a little naive.
If nothing else it shows that he, and others have appallingly bad judgement.
There is absolutely no reason whatsoever why any politician, from any party, should be involved in this sort of thing.

My first question would be: how do you know about Starmer accepting gifts?
Second would be: what is your understanding of when these gifts were accepted and over what time frame?
If you can answer those without reference to any source of "info" then we can delve into your viewpoint a bit further.