[Youngian]

Talk of energy here. Andrea Jenkyns spekes her Branes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8jrjgpgjgo

No it isn't but even if it was, Lincs is largely an industrial landscape created by human beings for commercial purposes. Following a career elevation by Boris Johnson, Andrea Jenkyns is likely to be the most moronic mayor since err Boris Johnson

Andrea Jenkyns said Lincolnshire had become a "dumping ground for solar and pylons", adding that, if elected, she would work to "frustrate this process" of new developments. She also called for cables to be buried underground and fracking to be introduced.

[Tubby Isaacs]

There's by no means a complete map of places with mayoralties. The old Humberside, I can see that as mayoralty, Why Lincolnshire as a whole though?

Is fracking popular in Lincolnshire? It isn't anywhere else. I don't give that "policy" very long before it's dropped.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Having seen off all comers with the brilliant argument that the government should print a load more money, Richard Murphy has moved on to food.

It's above my pay grade, but I grant you, ultra processed foods don't sound very good. What's the take then? That they're bad? Yep, and he goes further.

Craving the dopamine hits that Wes Streeting is dedicated to providing

There is no excuse for Wes Streeting not to know that. But as Upton Sinclair once said:

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
I suspect Streeting suspects his whole future career depends on feigning such ignorance. He is an ethical black hole.

I'd happily see Streeting moved, he's unnecessarily provocative, but I mean, what? In terms of targeting unhealthy stuff, he's banning new smokers and seeking to extend (quite a lot) the sugar tax. How does that fit into his "ethics" and "future career", whatever that means? Rather than "Streeting's been promised millions of pounds by doughnut companies" (if that's the accusation), isn't it a more likely explanation that governments have always been wary of whatever Murphy thinks should happen? It's not like the EU is racing to regulate either.

[Boiler]

No it isn't but even if it was, Lincs is largely an industrial landscape created by human beings for commercial purposes.

North Lincs maybe, but not South Lincs - mostly agriculture.

I'm faced with the dilemma of voting for the Tory to try and keep her at bay...

[The Weeping Angel]

Having seen off all comers with the brilliant argument that the government should print a load more money, Richard Murphy has moved on to food.

It's above my pay grade, but I grant you, ultra processed foods don't sound very good. What's the take then? That they're bad? Yep, and he goes further.

Craving the dopamine hits that Wes Streeting is dedicated to providing

There is no excuse for Wes Streeting not to know that. But as Upton Sinclair once said:

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
I suspect Streeting suspects his whole future career depends on feigning such ignorance. He is an ethical black hole.

I'd happily see Streeting moved, he's unnecessarily provocative, but I mean, what? In terms of targeting unhealthy stuff, he's banning new smokers and seeking to extend (quite a lot) the sugar tax. How does that fit into his "ethics" and "future career", whatever that means? Rather than "Streeting's been promised millions of pounds by doughnut companies" (if that's the accusation), isn't it a more likely explanation that governments have always been wary of whatever Murphy thinks should happen? It's not like the EU is racing to regulate either.

When it comes to Streeting you can pretty much say anything no matter how deranged and plenty of people will believe it.

[Youngian]

North Lincs maybe, but not South Lincs - mostly agriculture.

Agriculture is the industry I was referring to, Jenkyns and Tice appear to think it's a national park.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Back to one of my usual bugbears-academics off their patch.. This is completely wrong on Labour's spending plans- OBR say big increase in spending and borrowing. I actually agree with what he's saying about the counter-productive emphasis on immigration. I'm hoping that will settle down at about the level before Brexit, and Labour moves away from it.

An underrated thing driving Reform is tax. People don't like it being put up to pay for stuff. Yet the same people criticizing Labour will blithely tell them to just put up fuel duty, as if that's not something Reform will run with. I think they should, but at least I acknowledge it's not easy.

[Boiler]

North Lincs maybe, but not South Lincs - mostly agriculture.

Agriculture is the industry I was referring to, Jenkyns and Tice appear to think it's a national park.

Ah - my apologies. Certainly around here I am reminded of something a long-departed French teacher once told my class; upon asking a visiting teacher from France what he thought of England, he replied "C'est trop vert"...

[The Weeping Angel]

In today's "bears shit in forest news", pylons are much cheaper than the alternatives.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ore-costly

Labour endorsed the report by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), which found underground cables were on average about 4.5 times more expensive than overhead lines.

In some cases, burying the cables is vastly more expensive. For example, a typical 15km-long 5,000MW overhead line was estimated by the report’s authors to have a build cost of nearly £40m, while an equivalent underground cable would cost about £330m or, in a new tunnel, £820m.

Not just more costly, vastly more costly.

I know Lincolnshire is the best county for Kippers, but I think it's going to test the theory that "you beat them by doing good stuff" is going to be tested to distraction there. Mark Carney dropped some climate policy to see off Pierre Pumpy Pants. If he felt he needed to do that with Trump talking about the "51st state", I fear how much traction Farage could get here. I suppose Canada is an energy producer, and that sort of politics is an easier sell there. Even so, I wonder.

Which climate policies were these? I know he scrapped some sort of tax, but I'm not sure if that was climate-related or not. Morgan Jones has a piece on Labour List saying that Labour are in danger of doing what they did after Uxbridge.

https://labourlist.org/2025/04/local-el ... ns-labour/

Labour probably won’t do very well at this week’s local elections. We are on track to lose council seats and potentially all four of the mayoralties that are up for grabs. The fact that the Tories won’t do well either is cold comfort. And on top of that, there’s a by-election in Runcorn where Labour are fighting a serious challenge from Reform.

That it won’t be a good night is more or less assured, even a few days out. However: how you react to defeat is almost as important as whether you were defeated or not in the first place. What lessons Labour learns from this set of locals will be vital to the path of this government. Unfortunately, it has a track record of learning the wrong ones.

I am of the view that the first year of Labour government has not gone well (in this, I am entirely unremarkable: 68% of fellow members agree with me). I am also of the view that the problems currently afflicting the party had their first flowering almost two years ago, in the party’s reaction to its defeat at the Uxbridge by-election, a case in point in how not to respond to defeat. The attitudes that first appeared then have put down roots and sprouted, and now threaten to choke the government.

[Tubby Isaacs]

My understanding is that Carney scrapped a modest carbon tax, but I may be wrong.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Surprised at this. Going to make the housing target much harder to meet.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... nd-by-2027

Solar panels to be fitted on all new-build homes in England by 2027
Government to press ahead with net zero plans as Keir Starmer rejects Tony Blair’s criticisms of climate policy

My approach would be get the houses built and get the big solar farms built, and not worry too much about roof top solar. I wonder if this is a sop to the sort of people complaining about solar farms. I'm not sure there's much reasoning with those voters- they'll always find a car park or railway station without solar panels on.

I dunno, are there solid reasons for this policy? Does it become much harder to fit solar panels later?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Agriculture is the industry I was referring to, Jenkyns and Tice appear to think it's a national park.

Is Jenkyns not going to get some blowback from her role in making it much harder to export agricultural produce to people who want to buy it? I know that even in rural areas, most people don't have anything to do with farming, but you'd think there was some politically engaged opinion that could make itself felt in a low turnout election like Greater Lincolnshire Chief Dogcather, or whatever she's running for.

[davidjay]

Agriculture is the industry I was referring to, Jenkyns and Tice appear to think it's a national park.

Is Jenkyns not going to get some blowback from her role in making it much harder to export agricultural produce to people who want to buy it? I know that even in rural areas, most people don't have anything to do with farming, but you'd think there was some politically engaged opinion that could make itself felt in a low turnout election like Greater Lincolnshire Chief Dogcather, or whatever she's running for.

Their voters don't care if they're worse off. They'll eat grass as long as it's British grass and no foreigners have walked on it.

[Tubby Isaacs]

From the Editor of Rail Magazine. Quite close to an endorsement of government policy. I think the 15 times as expensive figure is probably very dubious- France had spent a lot more on rail for a long time, so there will be a lot of passive provision already there for new schemes that makes them look cheap. But clearly, it has been too expensive here. I know the planning regime has been around for ages, but yI wonder if it might have been reformed by the Tories if the first section of HS2 hadn't been through Buckinghamshire. I know they have Tories in the North of England too, but Northumberland doesn't have the political connections.

One of the major issues in this week’s local elections will be planning. It’s become a political hot potato, the crunch point for a combination of issues people feel passionately about from environmental conservation and service waiting lists to immigration and housing shortages.

It matters for rail too.

High speed rail in this country has turned out to be 15 times more expensive than in other major European countries. This government says it’s determined to reform systems around planning that seem to conspire against major infrastructure projects.

Last month, it introduced to Parliament the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to remove obstacles to large-scale developments, making it easier to realise major rail projects.

Despite Parliamentary approval, HS2 still faced having to get consent from 8,000 different interested parties. The government will now reform the statutory consultee system that requires developers to consult with way too many bodies on too many subjects, all of which adds to delays and increases costs.

It will change the rules to prevent challenges to infrastructure projects coming back to court again and again. And it will replace the system of meeting case-specific environmental goals with wider environmental assessments that consider possible mitigations as well as impacts. The infamous bat tunnel is one example of this, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds per bat that might be better spent on conservation in other ways if the rules only allowed it.

Developers could then proceed with less bureaucracy and without gold-plating their proposals to mitigate the risk in a process that’s not always clear on exactly what requirements developers must meet.

Together, these changes could speed up projects. Planning reform is just getting under way, and there are still many questions around what shape the new regime should take and how it will be administered. But change is coming. And it should make major rail projects run more smoothly, more quickly, and while not actually within budget, perhaps a little less over budget.