Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Josquius]

Alternative solutions are for addressing the demand site. They want to address the supply side.

I'm not sure what you mean.
There's demand side methods like cutting down on energy use and then there's supply side methods like renewables, nuclear, etc...

[Tamas]

Alternative solutions are for addressing the demand site. They want to address the supply side.

I'm not sure what you mean.
There's demand side methods like cutting down on energy use and then there's supply side methods like renewables, nuclear, etc...

What I mean is that strictly speaking, just demanding to cut domestic oil consumption solves precisely nothing. Except it increases reliance on foreign imports since those are readily available so demand for oil will not fall just because you are not producing it domestically. Putting the oil you burn out of your regulatory reach, and making your country vulnerable.

[Admiral Yi]

Another way to put it is, you don't cut domestic consumption by cutting domestic supply.  Oil is fungible. 

[Sheilbh]

Although gas and electricity aren't, but we have physical connections with continental Europe that allow trading. So in Q2 of this year compared with 2021, gas and electricity exports from the UK were up 600%.

Part of that will be domestic production but most acting as a land bridge - getting LNG and then piping it. I think it is difficult to disconnect UK fossil fuel decisions from the wider European context at this moment.

And despite the name, I understand that gas is the bigger bit of UK fossil fuels than oil.

[Josquius]

Alternative solutions are for addressing the demand site. They want to address the supply side.

I'm not sure what you mean.
There's demand side methods like cutting down on energy use and then there's supply side methods like renewables, nuclear, etc...

What I mean is that strictly speaking, just demanding to cut domestic oil consumption solves precisely nothing. Except it increases reliance on foreign imports since those are readily available so demand for oil will not fall just because you are not producing it domestically. Putting the oil you burn out of your regulatory reach, and making your country vulnerable.

I think it can be read from what they're saying that they don't want oil to be stopped and nothing to be done to make up  for this. Seems a pretty obvious implication that renewables and other solutions would be called for to make up for the loss rather than we just stop using oil and... that's it.

Also as absolutist and impractical as their message is, that isn't to say they're completely in the wrong (ignoring their dumb methods). Zero oil should be our goal that we put massive efforts towards achieving even if actually getting there is some way off- more oil drilling contracts without severely tight restrictions would be a step in the wrong direction here.

[Admiral Yi]

What is IRA?

[The Larch]

What is IRA?

Inflation Reduction Act, I assume. Biden's "Build Back Better" act after being reworked to appease Manchin.

[Gups]

For Shelf and Tamas. THe biggest single obstacle to building houses in the UK is the Green Belt. Unfortuantely it's a sacred cow and no politician will go near it.

https://www.planoraks.com/posts-1/notes-from-the-green-belt-welcome-to-basildon

Extract:

"Is the Green belt "under threat"? Depends who you ask. But to give you a feel: in the last year, the area of England's Green Belt  increased by over 24,000 hectares. It's well over doubled in size since the late 1970s. So. Worry not. England's Green Belt isn't exactly on its last legs. We desperately need to have a proper, grown up conversation about the Green Belt - what it's actually for, how it works, and how its mangled and misapplied by policymakers and politicians. Which is something I've been moaning about for years - including here in the Financial Times here, and (I'm sorry to say) many, many times on this blog including here. But all that's for another day."

[HVC]

In Ontario the premier just expanded the green belt while at the same time removing some areas from the green belt to expand housing (I believe it's still a net expansion). Some municipalities are displeased with this new developable land, but tough titties to them. Nothing they can do.

[Tamas]

The true evil of Rees-Mogg revealed: it is possible he might be profiting from BUILDING PROPERTIES!

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/nov/15/jacob-rees-mogg-faces-questions-over-land-for-housing-development

[Sheilbh]

I react similarly whenever I see people on the left with conspiracy theories about how the Tories are in the pocket of property developers. I wish

If property developers are donating loads to the Tories it seems to have been about as effective as all the Londongrad money. You can give them as much money as you want but the only thing they care about is their own immediate political interest.

[Sheilbh]

Really interesting episode of Empire podcast on East African Indians, in part tied to Sunak (I hadn't realised quite how remote his ties to India are - and even then, post-partition, are geographically to Pakistan). But the wider story itself is really interesting and as they say not very well known in the UK, except for Amin's expulsion.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Eh, I don't think his ties are that remote. Punjab which is where his family is originally from had historically been well known as a part of "India" regardless of what political boundaries were drawn--until the stark partition of India/Pakistan. Being from a Hindu Punjab family, post-partition they certainly would have felt no ties to Pakistan whatsoever.

In America at least you have plenty of O'Neals and Schmidts who still tout Irish/Germany ancestry, when their family tree might have to go back 150 years to find a person actually born outside the United States; Rishi's grandparents being born in India and emigrating to East Africa seems fairly close an association to me.

[Josquius]

For Shelf and Tamas. THe biggest single obstacle to building houses in the UK is the Green Belt. Unfortuantely it's a sacred cow and no politician will go near it.

https://www.planoraks.com/posts-1/notes-from-the-green-belt-welcome-to-basildon

Extract:

"Is the Green belt "under threat"? Depends who you ask. But to give you a feel: in the last year, the area of England's Green Belt  increased by over 24,000 hectares. It's well over doubled in size since the late 1970s. So. Worry not. England's Green Belt isn't exactly on its last legs. We desperately need to have a proper, grown up conversation about the Green Belt - what it's actually for, how it works, and how its mangled and misapplied by policymakers and politicians. Which is something I've been moaning about for years - including here in the Financial Times here, and (I'm sorry to say) many, many times on this blog including here. But all that's for another day."

How is it growing? Local councils deciding in response to planning requests to add bits?
I always thought it was something fairly set in stone.

We do need a far more flexible green belt approach. More trade offs based on the quality of the green belt, accessibility, greater environmental value being created elswhere, etc....
It should be a far different matter to build housing on a patch of scabby grass where someone keeps horses vs a remote area of natural beauty.

[Gups]

How is it growing? Local councils deciding in response to planning requests to add bits?
I always thought it was something fairly set in stone.

The green belt is simply a planning allocation or designation. A local plan will haveareas of land coloured in on a map. Some land will be allocated for housing or commerical or retail. Some land is allocated as green belt. Local plans are supposed to be reviewed and re-issued every 5 years although the reality s very different.

So teh green belt is not, and never has been, set in stone. It is in perpetual motion but generally advancing. What is important to note about it is that it is a way of stopping development and specifically to prevent urban/suburban sprawl. It is not for the protection of the countryside (there are different designations for that) but it has that undeserved reputation.