Mailwatch(ed) Forum

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/powe ... y-shake-up

Powering Britain's future: Electricity bills to be slashed for over 7,000 businesses in major industry shake-up

Certainly a case for this. But all I can see is they're removing some costs that pay for renewables. How are they paying for this? Borrowing? Not cheap.

David Henig is unimpressed with the industrial strategy.

Who is David Henig?

Henig's a trade guy rather than an industrial strategy guy, isn't he? Giles Wilkes is who I look to industrial strategy. He's spotted some tensions, but not particularly hostile so far.



I recall when Philip Hammond was talking industrial strategy, it was pointed out that, yeah, he'd picked out some sectors with high growth potential, but they seemed to be concentrated in places like Cambridge.

I’m a little surprised that Yvette Cooper intends to proscribe the group called “Palestine Action” as a terrorist organisation after they breached security at the RAF base in Brize Norton and chucked red paint in the engines of a transporter plane.

I’m only slightly more surprised to find myself in (some) agreement with the erstwhile Corbyn acolyte Shami Chakrabarti, who thinks that proscription of the organisation as terrorist is something of an overkill. Palestine Action’s activities without question do entail criminality by the individuals carrying them out, and those individuals can be and should be prosecuted for that criminality, but terrorists ? Really ?

On the other hand …

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g83l33wdeo

From Aber's link above

In a statement, Palestine Action said: "The real crime here is not red paint being sprayed on these war planes, but the war crimes that have been enabled with those planes because of the UK Governme

These people are unhinged. I think banning the group is the right thing to do because, well, who knows what they might do next? They are definitely crossing the line between legitimate protest and acts of terrorism.

I broadly agree with their aims, but not with their statements or actions.

They are diametrically opposed to Palestine Inaction, so it is little wonder that HMG has taken this equally indefensible route.

It is as ludicrous as it is portentous.

The Terrorism Act (2000)- ie before Al-Qaeda, ISIS etc- mentions serious damage to property as terrorism. I think sabotaging a military aircraft (which I'm told would be used, if at all, in Eastern Europe in a conflict with Russia) looks like a reasonable thing to include within that. Just daubing paint on the aircraft wouldn't have counted.