S

[S @_Financeguy]

@gideonrachman @b_judah Really interesting. @b_judah view is clearly not Blair’s and it would have been interesting to know what he thinks about TB’s analysis

[Winston @ChurchillWw]

About 14 GW of combined-cycle gas is scheduled for 2028 in the US pipeline, but less than 2 GW is under construction, because lead times for large-frame gas turbines now exceed five years. Reuters reported capital costs above $2,400 per kilowatt in 2026 as equipment, labor, and engineering have all moved higher.
https://t.co/8pKHS9DSIT

[S @_Financeguy]

@ChrisGiles_ @s8mb .. to account for the cost of the volatility and interrupt ability of gas..

[S @_Financeguy]

@ChrisGiles_ @s8mb We are locked into Hinckley C and Sizewell C which will also raise prices and hedging against gas price volatility (and/or turning into inflation risk) is more expensive than firming and grid connecting RES. Some people assume that the problem with ReS is intermittency but fail.

[Nat Bullard @NatBullard]

New, deeply-reported @WSJ piece by @Jennifer_Hiller on Arizona's data center cluster, the grid response, and how the Phoenix is becoming a test case for who pays what for power. Happy to see @Halcyon in there too!

[Jan Rosenow @janrosenow]

The worst heat pump is more efficient than the best gas boiler.

A gas boiler turns one unit of energy into less than one unit of heat.

A heat pump delivers 3 to 4 units of heat for every unit of input.

More in future Substack long read. Sign up here: https://t.co/In5lBaF2ox

[S @_Financeguy]

It’s possible that we haven’t got the talent to make Brexit work but that’s not a great sell. It’s much more likely that the breakdown in the goods trade has not been made up by the expansion of services to the extent required.

[S @_Financeguy]

Ha! The UK was harder hit than any other country by GFC harder than Spain or Italy by the euro crisis. Where’s the bounce back from that ? You’d have expected that like the US the UK fin sector would have staged a big recovery after 2014. It was killed by Brexit.

[Julian Jessop @julianHjessop]

It therefore makes more sense to focus on France and Germany.

Here, David acknowledges that "Brexit Britain" has outperformed Germany and says he will come back to this 👇

But the obvious explanation for the relatively poor performance of *both* the UK and Germany is their relatively high energy costs, not Brexit!

Energy costs also go a long way towards explaining why both have underperformed against France (and others, notably Spain). (4/n)

[S @_Financeguy]

Besides the promise of Brexit was that with control over our own destiny, we’d prosper in a way that we hadn’t before. Deregulated financial services etc. everyone knows that a decade later it has worked out like that. We are not happy with what has happened.

[David Fishman @pretentiouswhat]

This Economist article on China's solar industry has some problems.

I won't waste ink getting all hyperbolic about it. I'll just highlight the places where I think a healthy copy-edit could have helped the piece a lot. 🧵

[S @_Financeguy]

🤣 people fail to grasp that Blair cares only about Blair

[Lara Spirit @lara_spirit]

EXC: Tony Blair privately advised Keir Starmer to fight on as prime minister in the weeks before publicly accusing him of having “no coherent plan” to run the country

The prime minister sought Blair’s counsel in a private call after Labour's local election losses earlier this month

Blair, who was not previously thought to be in close contact with Starmer, told him that he should seek to remain in No 10 for the foreseeable future

While Blair conveyed serious concerns about the direction of the current government, he advised that those seeking to replace him, chiefly Streeting and Andy Burnham, were yet to outline how they would lead differently

[S @_Financeguy]

It might not be in Labour’s interests but it may well be in the interests of the UK. And if a political party’s interests are not aligned with those of the country then they should fail

[Lewis Goodall @lewis_goodall]

Why Rejoin cannot be Labour's answer

Labour keeps learning the wrong lessons from Brexit. Burnham has something which Labour has lacked- a theory of power. Something Rejoin would fatally undermine.

Latest piece from me.

https://t.co/uANMCyx3Wp

[S @_Financeguy]

Where does it say that anywhere in our constitution. You made that up.

[Julian Jessop @julianHjessop]

For those suggesting Labour should just put #rejoinEU in their next manifesto and get a mandate that way... 🤔

A General Election which might be won with just a third of the votes cast simply cannot trump a (single issue) Referendum where more than half wanted to leave the EU!

[Julian Jessop @julianHjessop]

For those suggesting Labour should just put #rejoinEU in their next manifesto and get a mandate that way... 🤔

A General Election which might be won with just a third of the votes cast simply cannot trump a (single issue) Referendum where more than half wanted to leave the EU!

[S @_Financeguy]

Brillant. Totally agree @FrenchResponse! Aznavour, George Moustaki, Marie Curie, Bugatti, Nakamura!

[French Response @FrenchResponse]

The fascinating thing about French culture is that people keep enriching it.

[French Response @FrenchResponse]

The fascinating thing about French culture is that people keep enriching it.