Research Software Engineer at The University of Sheffield. Also lifts, bakes & listens to songs on repeat. Only here to occasionally scream into the void.
@GWHayduke97 Hey, I think I saw this tweet back in Jan and bothered to see a doctor after self-managing it for a decade or more. Following a biopsy I've been diagnosed with a textbook case of Eosinophilic Oesophagitis (EoE).
Thanks for the kick!
Britain is in an Energy Emergency.
But the Government is FAILING TO ACT. They have no plan, no idea what to do, and they’re leaving us exposed.
So today we’re launching The LFG Emergency Energy Bill to SAVE OUR INDUSTRIES and GET BILLS DOWN
Here’s how it would get bills down IMMEDIATELY:
1️⃣ SCRAP all levies on energy bills. These stealth taxes on the British people are unnecessarily hiking up their bills by hundreds of pounds.
2️⃣ REOPEN THE NORTH SEA, and directly deploy the tax revenue generated to GET BILLS DOWN.
3️⃣ Stop new CfD contracts and launch an investigation into the system that signed them off. Last year, billpayers paid £1.5 billion for big renewable corporations to THROW ENERGY AWAY. By 2030, it’ll be £8 billion. The existing settlement is a national scandal.
4️⃣ Scrap Clean Power 2030 targets. These needless constraints have pushed civil servants to procure wind at any cost – and at huge expense to the British people.
5️⃣ DITCH the duties of energy regulators, NESO and Ofgem, towards Net Zero goals, so their only focus is to MINIMISE ENERGY COSTS, subject to security of supply.
6️⃣ Hold auctions for connecting to the grid, and directly deploy the revenue generated to GET BILLS DOWN
Our Emergency Energy Bill has cross-party support. It is ready to PASS IMMEDIATELY. It does what governments for the past 20 years didn’t – it takes RADICAL ACTION to SAVE OUR INDUSTRIES and GET BILLS DOWN.
There’s no excuse. Last week, the US suspended access to some of the world’s leading frontier AI models. Britain is vulnerable - and our energy prices are strangling our national security. We cannot afford to be at the mercy of other countries or events beyond our control any longer.
The Government needs to GET BILLS DOWN NOW or explain why they’re still letting this emergency destroy our future.
Force Westminster to ACT. Send our Bill to your local MP and sign our letter to the Prime Minister and Ed Miliband. GET BILLS DOWN, NOW!
Last week, we revealed that the Chair of Natural England, Tony Juniper, signed a petition to block the development of Hinkley Point C – the same nuclear power plant they are now attempting to halt the construction of.
So what’s the truth about Natural England and Tony Juniper? Are they simply a taxpayer funded branch of the anti-nuclear body?
Well, Juniper’s activism extends back decades – to his time as director of ‘Friends of the Earth’.
In 2005, he wrote an article entitled “Say no to Labour’s nuclear nightmare”, arguing that “investment in a programme to construct new nuclear power plants is not justified” and it “would greatly increase the risk of nuclear proliferation”.
At the next election, he was selected as the Green Party’s parliamentary candidate for Cambridge, standing on a platform to “phase out nuclear power and resolutely oppose any new nuclear power stations”.
Though he failed to win a seat, Juniper continued to fight against nuclear energy. He argued that “renewables, not nuclear, is [the] way forward”, even going on to say that “nuclear simply does not work in the context of modern energy economics”. After a quarter of a century of “following”, he once told his followers, “we can do without nuclear”.
In 2016, Juniper signed the Greenpeace petition to stop the development of Hinkley Point C and promoted articles opposing the development on his [then] Twitter account.
Three years later, the Conservative Government appointed the former Green candidate and anti-nuclear Juniper as the Chair of Natural England. He has since been reappointed in 2022, again by the Tories, and in 2025 by the Labour Government.
In that time, Natural England have repeatedly tried to delay development and increase costs, infamously insisting upon the £700 million fish disco that will save one salmon every decade. They’ve even blocked kite festivals, new housing, road expansions, and new train lines.
Under Juniper’s leadership, Natural England has stopped at nothing to block developments that would improve the lives of millions. It seems they prefer bats, newts, salmon, and hairy spiders over British industries, which have been decimated by the highest energy prices in the developed world.
It begs the questions: why are we making it so hard to build in Britain? Why does the British state promote degrowth?
@StuOfSociology@jodcoll The reason councils have had to cut back on things like libraries, is due to all the other statutory costs they've been lumbered with by central government.
Similarly, volunteers are now litterpicking nationwide, where council can only afford to cover priority routes.
@StuOfSociology@jodcoll You misunderstand my position.
The volunteer run libraries serve local populations that otherwise wouldn't have easy access to a library. I'm not suggesting that volunteers are in anyway as experienced or qualified as full-time library staff.
@StuOfSociology@jodcoll Yes the council is not legally obliged to be open by the council. Hence why volunteers fought to take them over.
That's different, from not being part of the Sheffield library system. A Sheffield library card can be used in SCC or Vol libraries, and books returned to either.
@StuOfSociology@jodcoll Not sure which page you're reading
"Some library services in Sheffield are delivered by us, and some by community groups and volunteers."
https://t.co/fVxiXGhR73
@StuOfSociology@jodcoll In particular, the one I volunteer at sits within a community centre which has much longer hours. So most books are checked out/discharged via the self-service machine when the library desk isn't open.
@StuOfSociology@jodcoll Volunteers took over running a number of Sheffield's libraries a decade ago after funding cuts. We're still part of the Sheffield libraries system, using their infrastructure, user accounts etc. Our library front desk is staffed by vols ~6 hrs a day 5 days a week, 2 hours Sat.
@jodcoll I volunteer at a volunteer run library as part of Sheffield libraries.
Our system; you email our print gmail, and we print it off.
Considered a self-service due to; non-technical vols, complex print requests and the library not always being staffed. It didn't make financial sense
Self-employed income, got paid a small amount today. Login to declare it, sorry you can only report for the April 2024-April 2025 tax year. 🤦♂️
Seems designed for people with highly ad-hoc self-employed income to fall foul of this.
Good to hear @LFGSheffield chapter member Rob speaking about litter picking and local civic action on BBC Sounds. His contribution starts at 3:08:55 👇
https://t.co/i7QPOq81YU
@ForgedInCode I've no idea, grok suggests some of the valves need to be reversible for two-way.
Presumably replacing valves would require represurrising the coolant. So perhaps not as trivial as planned.
Though what's to stop it being built for two way, but with a single direction pump?
Given the currently ridiculous legislation around heat pumps; one-way (great ) good, two-way (heat + cool) evil.
How viable is a heat-pump which can be up/down-graded as required to achieve cooling whilst allowing the one-way incentives?
NEW: Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook has just announced the BIGGEST EVER reforms to national policy to deliver more homes! Here are the five biggest: 🧵
@ky__zo This was trialled in the UK in 2009. My father said that he (and others he knew) didn't like it, because too impersonal or something.
https://t.co/Nl6SQm6dp8
The BIGGEST change to nuclear regulation in the history of this country.
Government was set to bottle it.
YOU pushed for it, you tweeted, you shared videos, you signed letters and you didn't let up.
Govt gave in. They accepted these RADICAL CHANGES.
Now we hold them to it.
Chancellor promised to respond to @JohnFingleton1 Nuclear Review at the Budget.
Instead she's bottled it. NO commitments at all. Nothing!
High energy costs are CRUSHING British industry and living standards. It is URGENT that ALL recommendations MUST be implemented ASAP.
An official report has called for RADICAL reforms that would revolutionise nuclear power in Britain.
Government is rumoured to be wavering.
We have 2 days before the Budget to PUSH them to act.
Tell your MP: ACCEPT ALL the recommendations. 👇