Ruh roh https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68773704

Both daughters worked in retail at weekends/summer when they were at school/university.

Middle aged arseholes were the worst apparently - male and female.

As of yesterday, woodburning stoves have been banned in Scotland - you can’t have one in a new build home. Same as you can’t have an oil or gas powered boiler in a new build.

This seems … odd. And incredibly unpopular. And somewhat ignorant of rural norms in Scotland, especially further north.

There’s been some negative press around it and the response from the Scottish Government seems to be ‘we held a public consultation and the results were 50/50 in favour’. I’ve looked up the consultation. There were a grand total of 71 responses. From our population of five and a half million.

Yep. All new build homes must have electric and/or heat pump systems.

Funny how there’s nothing about barbecues or fire pits, if it’s all about how harmful wood smoke can be.

Or anything about regulating the quality of wood burners and installations instead - new builds would have been getting up to date stoves with safe, low-emission chimneys anyway.

One of the upshots is that new build homes won’t have chimneys any more. So they’ve allowed a whole section in the new building regs about ‘decorative chimney design’. Fake chimneys!

Hahaha, less detectable than chimneys though, brilliant

poprock wrote:

I found this interesting, in a ‘how others see us’ kind of way.

The New Yorker magazine on the state of Britain and how exactly the Tories have put us in this mess.

What have 14 years of Conservative rule done to Britain?

It’s a fairly straightforward recent political history of the UK, dotted through with interviews that are mostly from the Tory side. It paints a picture of continuous incompetence, more than anything else. There’s no shame shown at all, not even in the fact that there’s been no actual political ideology beyond ‘staying in power’.

Just sat and read all of that. It's absolutely damning.

I’m trying to pay attention because there’s a danger that this eventually gets extended to a ban on existing use. Which would really fuck us over, along with all of our neighbours. And, to be fair, most of rural Scotland.
There’s some irony in businesses (mostly farmers) being given enormous grants to build biofuel systems that burn wood pellets at the same time this is happening. Total mixed messages and lack of connected thinking.

cockbeard wrote:

It's a complete fucking madness

I know I bang on about Finland sometimes but hell I really enjoyed living there and they weren't complete fuckwits

We spend so much on minutiae whilst ignoring a holistic viewpoint. The only "good" (moderately justifiable) reason for this would be issues with particulates. This completely fails to recognise the fact that all (except maybe nuclear) other fuels generated particles just that they are too small to be as easily measured, that alone doesn't make them any less harmful, just less detectable

I can understand the ban in urban environments maybe, but it makes no sense in rural developments. A sensible approach would be to require planning permission to install one. Then local circumstances could be factored into the decision.

Might quietly park the plan to look into getting a wee stove installed in the flat ahead of next winter.

poprock wrote:

I seem to be all about the politics chat today. There’s a nice interview with Mhairi Black in The Big Issue. I’ll be sad when she’s not my MP any more, because I quite like her. https://www.bigissue.com/news/politics/mhairi-black-mp-westminster-tory-culture-war-trump-fascism/

Is Westminster defunct or is any system destined to fail when politicians are having to juggle power and responsibility with party politics? I actually think the Scottish parliament is a perfect example of how different it can be. It’s designed to make a majority as unlikely as possible. Once [the SNP] have achieved a majority but that was an anomaly. I’m in favour of proportional representation because it represents what society looks like much better, but also because no one party has a monopoly. It forces you to listen, engage and work with other people.

I like them a lot. It's a real shame they'll be stepping down as well,.

Thanks, but I’m pretty sure I’m older than you. I know I don’t look it.

acemuzzy wrote:

Ruh roh https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68773704

Sorry, don’t have a BBC account.

Could someone give me the gist, please?

Ah, okay.. Thank you.

I do work in a shop.

Starmer will also promise to make the UK’s nuclear deterrent the “bedrock” of his security plan to keep Britain safe.

His plan to keep Britain safe is pissing away billions of pounds on something symbolic of a faded empire that is unsuitable in the modern world, probably illegal to use and is morally indefensible.

I suppose it's consistent for him.