Unplug the fridge: UK gears up for hard cold winter and BBC secretly plans for a national blackout

by Jo Nova

Things are getting serious Mum.

Snow on rooves over norwich. UK. Photo

Nearly half of Britons are already finding it hard to pay their energy bills. Over two million UK households are behind in their payments, and some have started unplugging fridges, hand washing their clothes and skipping meals, and it’s not even winter. The National Grid manager is so desperate they’re setting up a scheme to pay people to switch off their own electricity at peak hour, and the going rate for these precious Negawatts is £3,000 per megawatt hour.

There’s the hint of a war footing building. Thousands of shared refuges from the cold are being planned across the country, and the WarmSpaces website is setting up a directory.

Last week someone leaked that the BBC was secretly planning what to do if the UK gets a full two-day national blackout in the dead of winter. Apparently the BBC will advise people to use their car radios, or haha “battery powered receivers” (do the millennials know what they are?) to tune in the BBC. If they manage that, the BBC could then helpfully tell them, the minute after it was too late to do anything, that the blackouts may affects their gas supply, their mobile phone, the cash machines and  all the traffic lights too. And don’t call an ambulance unless you really need it.  But that’s OK, because if their phone battery goes flat, they won’t be able to anyway.

Maybe the BBC could stop covering up for Big Government and advise people to buy batteries, food, fuel, and a small radio now instead. Was the leak was their way of doing that?

hat tip to Tallbloke and GWPF

Someone leaked out the BBC plans in case there’s a nation-wide winter blackout:

Britons will allegedly be advised to stick to car radios or battery-powered receivers to get the necessary information amid a power cut. One draft of these scripts states that a blackout could last up to two days, with hospitals and police placed under “extreme pressure”.

Another warns: “The government has said it is hoped power will be restored in the next 36 to 48 hours.”

People will be comforted to know that there will be no shortage of bureaucrats:

It also states that an emergency coordination centre has been launched in Wales, while in Scotland the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is chair of a devolved government emergency planning meeting in light of the ordeal.

 This is how to tell people their food supply might be at risk without saying it.

The script also states: “Officials are saying there is no current risk to food supply and distribution. But they’re asking people to look out for vulnerable neighbours and relatives.”

There really are a lot of warm spaces being planned. Wolverhampton has 0.4% of the UK population:

As Winter Looms, Britons Bank on Warming Hubs

The phenomenon is widespread — the 262,000-resident city of Wolverhampton alone expects 38 such centers to open within its limits this year. But issues such as disability access, amenities and even ideal indoor temperatures may vary widely. Lewis’s how-to guide is aimed at ensuring that these often bottom-up, locally organized facilities are inclusive, financially sustainable and welcoming.

The UK National Grid wants to pay people for having their own little blackout at peak times:

UK homes can become virtual power plants to avoid outages

Fintan Slye the director of National Grid’s electricity system operator

We can now confirm our proposals for how much people and businesses can be paid for shifting their electricity use outside peak times. We anticipate paying a rate of £3,000 per megawatt hour. Businesses and homes can become virtual power plants and, crucially, get paid like one too.

For a consumer that could mean a typical household could save approximately £100, and industrial and commercial businesses with larger energy usage could save multiples of this. We are working with Ofgem to get this scheme launched in November…

If they have to pay people as much as £3,000 per megawatt hour to turn off their own power, it shows how highly people value the service. And, presumably, only the poor will take the deal, upend their daily schedule, screw with their body clocks, or cook with candles indoors.

Photo: Sebastiandoe

9.9 out of 10 based on 80 ratings

150 comments to Unplug the fridge: UK gears up for hard cold winter and BBC secretly plans for a national blackout

  • #

    Johannes Leak says it so well in this morning’s Cartoon……………………..

    https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/cd0a377a83c912f8a2d667e1d3e610b3?width=1024

    310

  • #
    erasmus

    At the same time, the BBC has been featuring Guterrez, that recycled commo head of the increasingly useless UN. The OS program overnight here featured him and Climate Activists from three different countries doing the usual “we’ll all be rooned” unless we act now.

    320

    • #
      Curious George

      Is there anything wrong with writing an obituary for electric power in advance? I believe every newspaper stores obituaries in a “morgue”.

      110

    • #
      Geoffrey Williams

      It’s a friggin disgrace. Why are we forced to listen to Guterres on our own National radio service that we the people pay for with our taxes ?! Yes one can turn off the radio but we shouldn’t have to . .
      I heard him this morning with his horrid broken English accent ranting off the usual lies about 2.5 degrees of warming etc etc and all those countries who weren’t paying up money to the IPCC to save the planet. Next meeting is cop27 and will be in Egypt another expensive jaunt for the gullible fools from around the world to turn up in huge numbers and emit thousands more tonnes of co2. But its ok for them but not ok for the masses who are paying ! Surely people can see through this brainwashing . .

      300

  • #
    exsteelworker

    Hey Albo and Bowen, this where Australia is heading under your ruinables everywhere leadership. We need cheap reliable energy now!

    800

    • #
      OldOzzie

      Goldman Sachs’ Jeff Currie: ‘$3.8 Trillion of Investment in Renewables Moved Fossil Fuels from 82% to 81% of Overall Energy Consumption’ in 10 Years

      Economist Jeff Currie of Goldman Sachs (Global Head of Commodities Research in the Global Investment Research Division): “Here’s a stat for you, as of January of this year. At the end of last year, overall, fossil fuels represented 81 percent of overall energy consumption. Ten years ago, they were at 82. So though, all of that investment in renewables, you’re talking about 3.8 trillion, let me repeat that $3.8 trillion of investment in renewables moved fossil fuel consumption from 82 to 81 percent, of the overall energy consumption. But you know, given the recent events and what’s happened with the loss of gas and replacing it with coal, that number is likely above 82.” – The net of it is clearly we haven’t made any progress.

      240

      • #
        OldOzzie

        Meanwhile – Germany Is Dismantling A Wind Farm To Make Way For A Coal Mine

        A wind farm is being dismantled in western Germany to make way for an expansion of an open-pit lignite coal mine in a “paradoxical” situation highlighting the current prioritization of energy security over clean energy in Europe’s biggest economy.

        The dismantling of at least one wind turbine at the wind farm close to the German coal mine Garzweiler, operated by energy giant RWE, has already started. RWE says that lignite, or brown coal, has been mined from the Garzweiler coalfields for over 100 years.

        RWE also said at the end of September that three of its lignite-fired coal units that were previously on standby would return to the electricity market on schedule in October.

        “The three lignite units each have a capacity of 300 megawatts (MW). With their deployment, they contribute to strengthening the security of supply in Germany during the energy crisis and to saving natural gas in electricity generation,” RWE said last month.

        Now the company is expanding the lignite mine at Garzweiler after a court in Münster in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia ruled in favor of the energy group in a land dispute in March this year to expand the lignite mine.

        Commenting on the dismantling of wind turbines to make way for expanding a coal mine, Guido Steffen, a spokesperson for RWE, told the Guardian, “We realise this comes across as paradoxical.”

        “But that is as matters stand,” Steffen added.

        270

      • #
        OldOzzie

        $3.8 TRILLION, FOR – essentially nothing.

        Jeff Currie, who is Global Head of Commodities Research for Goldman Sachs, describes the utter futility of “green” energy:

        Finally, given the total absence of the allegedly intended impact of spending on wind and solar, how in the world has $3.8 trillion (and counting) gone up in smoke?

        Easy: enormous amounts of money have been made by a small number of people, at the expense of the rest of us. And those people have shared a small share of their ill-gotten gains with politicians.

        180

        • #
          robert rosicka

          Socialist economics 101 , there is no problem that can’t be solved by throwing money at it . And if in then it doesn’t work blame the other guy .

          10

    • #
      BrianTheEngineer

      The National Energy Market is now dead as Dan Dan the Commie Man is about to renationalize the Victorian Power Generation.
      It is impossible to compete against an entity that can make losses that are subsidized by the Taxpayer.

      200

      • #

        Brian
        I am actually not negative here. With Dan nationalising VIC his govt now takes all the responsibility for the astronomical mess he will create. His plan will completely destroy Victoria as an economic entity and hurl the populace back to something akin to the pre Industrial age, with any production/industry and major users that are left built around the cyclical nature of ruinables. Or people will have to generate their own power, but the only cost effective reliable way to provide power when required is via small generators . And Dan will probably outlaw them.

        When all of this hits and the value of assets plummets as peoples life savings are wiped out and people starve then I would not want to be in Dans or his successors shoes. And at the same time we will have seen a cooling climate as the suns cycles work away in the background – exposing the utter lies Dan and others are putting out.

        90

        • #
          Ted1.

          Small generators are extremely inefficient, extremely polluting and a pain to work with.

          No new regulations needed to ban them. In numbers they couldn’t pass under existing regulations.

          00

  • #

    Hopefully the political reaction will be strong. I doubt the present government will survive and at some point a pro-energy movement should emerge and field candidates for election.

    I do not think there is a color left for them.

    411

    • #
      MichaelB

      I do not think there is a color left for them.

      This new movement you propose may have to look outside the visible spectrum for a colour.
      But not infrared, that sounds like communism on steroids…

      120

    • #
      John Hultquist

      Greta sees CO2. Let’s ask her what color it is and use that. 🙂

      220

    • #
      Bruce

      Mummy, Mummy; what did we use before candles?

      Electricity!

      H. L. Mencken’s 1919 “Prejudices”, contains the following thoughtful words:

      “Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”

      And NOT that black flag with all the squiggles on it.

      Caveat: The usual penalties for independent thoughts and actions will be applied with excessive enthusiasm.

      71

  • #
    MichaelinBrisbane

    Keen to have the link to the video of Tuesday night’s debate at the Belmont RSL!

    [I have asked the organiser, and hope to get a link. It was a good night, there should be more of these. 🙂 – Jo ]

    250

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    Shows what happens when you privatise essential services. That is the takeaway from this mess

    253

    • #
      yarpos

      ah yes of course, Government efficiency and competence would have seen them through. Except of course its Government policy by ideology that’s driving the whole mess.

      460

    • #
      David Maddison

      Peter, regardless of who owns the windmills, panels and batteries, do you serioisly think unreliables can be cheaper than proper coal, gas, nuclear and hydro production?

      Do you have any clue of the number of bird killers, panels and incredibly huge number and size of batteries (whether electrochemical or hydro) required to replace proper power production?

      The Green Dream of the National Socialists didn’t work 90 years ago and it’s still not going to work now.

      Find another socialist cause to support or better yet, become a rational thinker.

      See: Green Tyranny: Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate Industrial Complex by Rupert Darwall

      410

    • #
      wal1957

      “let’s blame privatisation”! says fitz
      That has got to be the dumbest take on the current situation.

      260

    • #
      bobby b

      “Shows what happens when you privatise essential services. That is the takeaway from this mess.”

      Another parrot pining for the fjords. Sorry, son, that parrot is dead.

      250

    • #
      Old Cocky

      Natural monopolies require well thought out regulations and effective oversight/enforcement.
      That applies whether they are run by government or private industry.

      Unfortunately, governments don’t seem to be any good at designing regulations or managing compliance.

      120

      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        so you add cost by having regulations, and a resourcing cost to enforce compliance to those regulations. not a free market then.

        Natural monopolies are better of outside the private framework.

        For example, the poles and wires should not be a profit centre for private companies, but under the system as it is at the moment, you pay a service charge which varies (in NSW according to Canstar blue) varies from 71.10 cents per day to 121.55 cents per day, using the exact same infrastructure (the poles and wires).

        [This is ignorant. Poles and wires need maintenance and replacement, upgrades, etc. To deny that is to deny reality. Stop being obtuse. – LVA]

        32

        • #
          b.nice

          LOL.. You really think it costs the same to provide electricity in different quantities, to different places, at different time, doesn’t cost money !?

          You really think implementing erratic and unreliable supplies into the grid, doesn’t cost an enormous amount of money !?

          Why remain so totally divorced from reality..?

          50

        • #
          Peter Fitzroy

          LVA – why the variation then?

          [ Because the cost of generation is variable depending upon available sources, fuel mix, RET costs, etc. The poles and wires do not cause the variation you describe. Absent a major event, poles and wires have a long life. Generation costs are extremely volatile such as when a open cycle gas turbine topping plant must be brought online for a few hours to handle peak loads or a scarcity in wind/solar or coal reserves run low. – LVA]

          01

        • #
          Old Cocky

          A monopoly or monopsony is about as far as one can get from perfect competition, which is what you probably think you mean by using the term “free market”.

          Neither private sector nor government-run monopolies tend to work in the best interests of consumers.

          20

    • #
      Gerry

      Right on cue for Dans proposal for the govt to retake electricity. Lockstep is so obvious sometimes.

      100

    • #
      b.nice

      Don’t be so naive !

      The mess was created totally and completely by leftist government edicts. !

      110

    • #
      Dennis

      NSW Coalition attempted to reduce the unacceptably high operating costs at the Electricity Commission by closing it down and transferring the assets to government owned private companies structured to be managed and operated as private sector businesses. Later the following Labor NSW Government removed the senior executives and replaced them with Labor friendly executives, the off government budget accounting hid debt that was transferred to government as extra dividends.

      At that time the NSW Government Railway Workshops at Chullora were closed and the work put out to tender with private sector companies. The also high operating costs included, as reported by Workshop management at a Bankstown District business group established to discuss operational matters of common interest, absenteeism every day was 6 out of every 10 employees away on sick leave or other reason.

      Both being public service areas of employment and therefore union dominated.

      60

  • #
    Graham Richards

    Climate change has one big positive claim to fame…….

    It gets rid of all governments that crow about it..

    Watch & wait!

    300

    • #
      wal1957

      Yeah, but the lot that replaces them want to do the same.
      It’s clear that there is little difference between the 3 major parties when it comes to ‘gerbil warming’ and unreliables. However voters still insist on voting for either/or of the 2 parties.
      Then they wonder why the pollies steer us down the same ideological path.

      180

    • #
      Graham Richards

      I believe the brand new PM Sunak has already done the WEF’s bidding & reversed Former 45 day wonder PM’ reopening of gas fracking.

      Next move will be rejoin the EU!!??

      This PM will be worse than “the blitz” of WWll.

      290

      • #
        PeterPetrum

        He is a WEF acolyte. I bet within a year, or sooner, he will be pushing to rejoin the EU, if he has not been subject to a citizens’ arrest and put in the Tower.

        90

        • #
          Dennis

          Former Goldman Sachs employee.

          70

        • #
          PADRE

          Actually Sunak, in spite of being a WEF acolyte, did support BREXIT, I know because he is the MP in the constituency in which I still have a vote. According to friends in that constituency he he was active during the referendum campaign.

          However, re-introducing the fracking ban is stupidly disingenuous as although the Conservative manifesto did ban fracking, there was a caveat that it could happen subject to geological safety assurances. These were given. If gas were to be produced in England, there would have to controls on where it ended up, rather like in WA.

          70

          • #
            Graham Richards

            If you believe the WEF won’t try to force a return to the EU thru Sunak then I’ve got a bridge in Sydney to sell you.
            Sunak championed Brexit to get a foothold in government before working to make sure they return to EU.

            20

          • #
            mikewaite

            I rather suspect that the decision was not made because of a personal agreement with anti fracking or green energy zealots,
            but to protect the seats of vulnerable consevative MPs. The region where fracking would take place is also one where at the
            last election conservative MPs took over traditional labour seats , but with small majorities.
            The vocal activities of anti fracking residents, even if only a small number, allied to the BBC incessant propaganda
            against fracking could have returned those seats to labour and endangered a Tory win at the next general election.

            10

  • #
    mundi

    The crazy government action is going to make it worse.

    Look at the bill that is going to put a cap on prices. So they are going to just declare the price of power to be 22p/kwhour, even though current supply demand has the price around 60p/kwhour.

    Then their solution for that is… pay pile not to use power, even though the power will be cheap.

    Absolute clowns.

    210

  • #
    el+gordo

    Most of the models are forecasting mild weather this UK winter. with average to above average temperatures.

    411

    • #
      b.nice

      Ahhh.. so in “highly likely” that its going to be a really cold winter, then ! 😉

      330

      • #
        el+gordo

        They are focussing on the NAO and its teleconnection to La Nina. There is no reason to expect a return of the 2009-10 European winter.

        30

      • #
        el+gordo

        So many variables, mustn’t forget the meandering jet stream and blocking.

        ‘The latest ECM week 3-4 outlook maintains high pressure over central and south portions of Europe implying the developing widespread dry pattern is likely to last well into November.’ (Climate Impact Company)

        20

    • #
      Muzza

      Models that(they assure us) can predict the climate 100 years out, but cannot hindcast yesterday’s/last week’s weather, are not to be trusted.

      170

      • #
        el+gordo

        I’m aware of the problem with models, junk in junk out, with some curve fitting and a bit of tweaking, the desired result emerges.

        The modellers are doing their best to reinforce prejudices, often at the expense of good science. AGW modellers don’t feel the need to hindcast their models because they already accept that global warming is real.

        20

  • #
    b.nice

    Its bizarre that a country which has always had cold freezing winters.. would be concerned about the fantasy of “global warming”, when most warming would be in winter anyway.

    It makes absolutely zero logic at all.

    Surely they should be saying.. “you beaut, mate.. bring it on”.

    Instead they set about to destroy everything that makes winter livable in these colder climates. !

    Its INSANE !!

    380

    • #
      David Maddison

      Yes, Brits spend a fortune on holidays to warm places just to escape the freezing and miserable winter weather.

      300

    • #
      PeterPetrum

      As an expat Scot another 2.5°C (in 100 years) in my country of birth would be a blessing. This is madness.

      70

    • #

      b.nice
      October 27, 2022 at 5:59 am ·
      “Instead they set about to destroy everything that makes winter livable in these colder climates. !
      “Its INSANE !!”

      Or is it treason? And deliberately so?

      I do hope I live long enough to see the reckoning for this appalling mess.
      But I fear there will be a ‘Lies and Reconciliation Commission’
      If you admit you lied, repeatedly, you can keep your all ill-gotten gains, Mr Billionaire . . .

      Auto, about to start searching for suppliers of Pitchforks….

      00

  • #
    Dave in the States

    It’s all so unnecessary. All because they think co2 is evil. What is more evil, the consequences of an unnecessary war against hydrocarbon fuels, WWIII, or the harmless trace gas itself? The devil is laughing.

    330

  • #
    David Maddison

    Here’s an idea.

    Those forests they transport across The Atlantic from the US to burn in the Drax power station, why don’t they ship the wood to UK homes directly so they can burn it to keep warm, assuming they have an appropriate fire place.

    200

    • #
      MrGrimNasty

      People would choke to death in the cities if a significant number of people start burning stuff to stay warm in a stagnant cold spell. Air pollution would suddenly be real.

      120

      • #
        ozfred

        Especially at the lot sizes in the new suburban developments. I wonder if they are large enough to allow for the planting of sufficient trees to mitigate the “urban heat effect”

        40

    • #
      Dave Ward

      “Assuming they have an appropriate fire place”

      As far as I’m aware no new-build houses in the UK have had a fireplace or chimney for at least 20 years. However, some on an estate near me have imitation fibreglass chimneys! These stand out a mile because they fade & weather differently to real bricks. Homeowners who install wood burners usually have external stainless steel flues.

      10

  • #
    David Maddison

    Even if the world was warming, when has episodes of warming ever been a problem in human history?

    I keep asking warmists and they can’t tell me.

    E.g. Civilisation thrived during the Minoan, Egyptian, Roman and Medieval warm periods.

    Why is warming a problem, even if it was true?

    410

    • #

      Conversely, Civilisation has struggled during those colder periods. It’s very difficult to grow food under 10 feet of snow.

      220

      • #
        David Maddison

        I think the reason the potato was made popular in France and Europe generally was because it was far more cold tolerant than wheat and helped alleviate famine during the Little Ice Age.

        200

        • #
          Neville

          Yes David the potato was a saviour for a long time, but the blight/ famine in Ireland plus famines in other parts of Europe etc helped cause the French revolution and a very high loss of life.
          The populations then were tiny but famines in Europe were much more common during the LIA and many people eventually migrated to the USA, Canada and Australia.
          And after gold was discovered Australia’s population quickly increased and Melbourne was one of the fastest growing cities in the world.

          120

        • #
          Ross

          Yeah, nah. Simple yield advantage compared with wheat. Even the poorest potato crop can yield 10 t/ha. (Most current day commercial crops are 40-50 t/h). Plus potatoes have an advantage with storage.

          120

        • #
          Geoffrey Williams

          I thought it was Macdonalds . .

          20

    • #
      Neville

      AGAIN David, warming has never been the problem.
      In fact we are living in the most BENIGN climate and prosperous period in Human history, but nearly everyone chooses to ignore the UN data and the evidence .
      Look up OWI Data or Macrotrends or even Wiki etc, yet the so called leader of the so called free world tells us we are now facing the end times and the barking mad MSM + clueless pollies etc join in and yap the same drivel.
      Unfortunately stupid teachers and many indoctrinated kids BELIEVE this lunacy and many voters also carry this burden with them to the ballot box.
      Why so many people embrace this FANTASY world is beyond me and we’ll just have to ride out their brain fades until they start to WAKE UP.
      But this could take a long time and we somehow have to find better ways of delivering our message from the REAL world.
      BTW Jo how did the debate go and were you happy with the fairness and audience’s response? Just asking?

      250

  • #
    Rick

    Has it occurred to anyone else to wonder how, if there are blackouts, the local councils will find the energy to heat the “warm spaces?” (I always smile when I hear that because it triggers mental images of crutches and arm pits!) There’s a thought that will now stay with you for a lifetime! LOL
    The answer, of course is that they will be using diesel powered generators (gen-sets), for the simple reason that they can’t rely on “renewable energy” or the grid, in an emergency.
    Once again the folly of the Green revolution takes every opportunity to bite the proles on the bum!

    230

    • #
      Ross

      When the lights go out in Wolverhampton, you’ll hear this low background “hummmm” as all the diesels kick in to gear.

      90

    • #
      another ian

      And the “APC wash”

      10

    • #
      mikewaite

      Will the councils insist that the people crowding into the warm spaces are all masked and vaccinated . After all it is only a few months ago that community spaces
      were restricted in occupation levels, masks mandatory and all doors and windows had to be wide open to expel the virus.
      UK Govt, BBC, most councils still addicted to belief in “the Covid Curse”.

      20

  • #
    Penguinite

    With a projected 50% rise in the cost of power, the southern half of Australia, at least, will be in the same boat come June 2023. And solar/wind will be insufficient to save the day. Especially in winter. Nevertheless, as we freeze we will still be subsidising the ‘Big End of Town’ while they luxuriate on their tax dodge dividends from solar/wind investment arrays.

    200

    • #
      David Maddison

      If the government and/or its agencies plus the Lamestream media admit to 50% you can bet it’s going to be a huge amount more. I’d say closer to 100%.

      The Left are drooling at the prospect.

      140

  • #
    John Hultquist

    These come in pretty colors:

    Kaito KA500 5-way Powered Solar Power, Dynamo Crank, Wind Up Emergency AM/FM/SW

    .. and will even charge your cell phone.
    This one, and there are many, I found on Amazon.

    50

  • #
    Saighdear

    EH? that’s a surprise – all of it, since I switch over to Sky Arts or Sat tv when the beeb news comes on.
    Now for the present: we have a non-smart power meter which tells us that our TWIN Deep freezers use £1 / day, our kitchen fridge freezer barely 1/2 of that and power costs us in October 33p/ kWhr … so what’s the beef? OK last year before our super supplier went bust we had been paying only 18.8p/kWhr which got reduced to 12.5p/kWhr and finally now increased from 28p to 33p per unit, being paid out with UK assistance to a German supplier. Great, eh ….. and they want us to have a smart meter. Nae chance. But I do have an elderly neighbour who has never changed from the original Supplier, paying around 50p. …. what to do. Horse at the trough, if it aint drinking, watch it doesn’t Jump over or into the trough !

    70

  • #
    yarpos

    “Lewis’s how-to guide is aimed at ensuring that these often bottom-up, locally organized facilities are inclusive, financially sustainable and welcoming.” the middle of all this and they still dribble “the message”

    How about just making sure they exist and are reliably warm.

    50

  • #
    RobB

    Father forgive them, for they know not what they do…

    Do the British MP’s who have just voted against fracking, in the teeth of a major energy shortage, have any idea what they have just done?

    https://www.netzerowatch.com/mps-kill-uk-fracking-prospects-in-huge-gift-to-putin/

    140

  • #

    NO !!!!! NFI is what they have…………………

    20

  • #
    RexAlan

    And Rishi Sunak restores the ban on fracking, it only took him 2 days. Reminds me of Biden and the XL pipeline.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11357409/Rishi-Sunak-RESTORES-ban-fracking-Tories-return-2019-manifesto-pledge.html#reader-comments

    Please read the comments.

    Rishi Sunak is a member of the WEF

    https://www.weforum.org/people/rishi-sunak

    150

    • #
      Dave in the States

      Truss had to go.

      Just like Abbot
      Just like Trump
      Just like Abe (although retired but still a force)

      So much for the will of the people.

      Who will be next? Let us hope that Giorgia Meloni, and the new leadership in Sweden can hold on.

      290

  • #
    Serge Wright

    You can’t help but see the great irony of the CC policies, where many thousands of people have violently protested over many years for the removal of the very energy sources that put food on their table every day and prevent them from freezing during the long cold winters. Now they finally have their wish in the UK and we’re not far behind in Australia. Aesop’s fable “Be careful what you wish for, you may live to regret it” has now reached that regret stage and much more regret will follow !!!

    130

  • #
    Macspee

    What happened on Tuesdany evening?

    40

  • #
    Serge Wright

    “Businesses and homes can become virtual power plants and, crucially, get paid like one too”

    Do they really think that the general public are that stupid ?. Of course what they really mean is this “Please everyone, turn off your power so that the ruling elites and their important friends can keep warm. Oh, and here is some loose change…”

    60

  • #
    Neville

    More on the REAL CLIMATE CATASTROPHISMs over a very long period of time.
    Unlike today’s wonderful climate and our very high, prosperous Human populations those very long ago periods would’ve been like hell on Earth for our much earlier Human populations.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/10/26/lets-talk-about-real-climate-cataclysms/

    10

  • #

    I came across a book recently called “Weird Weather” by Paul Simons.

    Just to make the Brits feel better during their coming power issues, here is an extract:

    Britain has been savaged by dramatic meteorology for thousands of years. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the climate grew so bad that more people died from famine than from the Plague which followed soon afterwards. During that terrible period whole seaports such as Forvie in Scotland, Danwich in East Anglia and the ancient town of Winchelsea in Sussex were wiped of the map by violent storms.
    And in the 1700’s during the Little Ice Age, the winters turned so cold that the Thames froze over, Eskimos visited Scotland, and polar bears reached Iceland on ice floes.

    The weather is pretty mild right now compared to the past…..

    70

  • #
    John Watt

    Ms Thorpe should be ecstatic now that the colonisers are setting themselves up to join the third world.

    40

  • #
    David Maddison

    How many UK supermarkets have backup generators for their fridges and freezers and how many hours or days backup?

    Once the supply of refrigerated and frozen food thaws, that’s when starvation starts to happen.

    The Left are loving this because they want a population reduction of non-Elites anyway and an overall reduction of the standard of living including such “luxuries” as …. warmth.

    80

    • #
      KP

      Just imagine what your local Health Authority will say about eating food that may not have been kept quite frozen when the supermarket’s power went off….

      I’m sure it will be more “starve rather than risk disease from unfrozen meat pies”

      60

    • #
      RobB

      Well, in Northern Europe you dont need a fridge in winter, just so long as you have a secure backyard… Soon they wont even need a fridge indoors…

      30

  • #
    TdeF

    All this misery is based on the lie that a major atmospheric gas, carbon dioxide, is NOT in constant and rapid equilibrium. That is so outrageous it would need proof and there is none.

    We are told that carbon dioxide, by far the most soluble of the gases oxygen, nitrogen, argon does not enter the water for 80 years on average.

    Solubility at 10C in grams per kg Argon 0.08g N2 0.024g O2 0.056 but CO2 is a massive 2.5g.

    Carbon Dioxide is 100x Nitrogen, 50x Oxygen solubility. But we are told it is insoluble?

    We are told that humans control the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. It is a lie of such proportion it is also unbelievable that so many say nothing. Why? Intimidation?

    The excuse is that the vast mass of carbon dioxide is in the deep ocean and never sees daylight, not for thousands of years. However radio carbon dating shows that the water at the bottom of the deep ocean is only 300 years old. Given that the only source of Carbon 14 is the high atmosphere and only a tiny 2% of CO2 is in the atmosphere at any time, the time to swap all the CO2 over is 300/50 or 6 years. So CO2 is in rapid exchange from the bottom of the ocean to the top. Bubbles in beer and champagne rise from the bottom.

    It doesn’t matter whether CO2 causes heating when people are freezing. What matter is whether humans have any effect on CO2 levels.
    Which is why the pushers of this terrible lie focus on ’emissions’ because if you measure CO2, there is no observable impact of human activity on CO2 whatsoever. No fires, no volcanoes, no shutdown for two years, nothing. (And if the zero point was added to the graph, it would be a flat straight line.)

    Evil is done when good men stay silent. And Rishi Sunak has reimposed the ban on fracking.

    171

    • #
      TdeF

      And of course freezing people to death and starving them in the name of stopping warming is obvious madness.

      140

      • #
        TdeF

        In sunny Australia, we are shutting down all manufacturing, farming, stopping dams, telling people to eat insects, that the Great Barrier Reef is dead because we are producing CO2.

        98% of all CO2 comes from overseas and 50% of that from China. So our solution is to buy windmills and solar panels and cars and manufactures from China while they punish us for asking who created the Wuhan Flu?

        It’s quite insane, a National madness. And how much have the seas risen in the last 100 years? Forget science. Has anyone noticed any sea level rise at all? Has anyone noticed any warming at all? Why do people believe such obvious rubbish?

        330

        • #
          David Maddison

          Well said TdeF.

          It’s bizarre isn’t?

          People freezing to death at the same time as claiming catastrophic man-made global warming and remaining obsessed with “carbon” (sic) emissions.

          It’s “doublethink” from Nineteen Eighty Four.

          Doublethink is a process of indoctrination in which subjects are expected to simultaneously accept two conflicting beliefs as truth, often at odds with their own memory or sense of reality.

          170

        • #
        • #
          Philip

          I have noticed less big frosts in winter. Everyone around here says so. But so what? To what effect is that? Nothing. Winters are still cold. Can it be proved it is not natural variation? No.

          20

        • #

          Just check out the sea level readings at Fort Denison in Sydney Harbour. Measurements from around the mid 1800s I do believe. Not much to be alarmed about whatsoever.

          50

          • #
            Dennis

            Yes, contrary to the Climate Council prediction the Sydney Opera House did not get swamped by rising seas by 2000.

            50

        • #
          TdeF

          It’s not as if there is any problem with sea level rises or temperature changes. They have happened through all time. It was catastrophic changes as predicted, not any of which happened in the last century while all continents have been through floods and droughts and storms and wars. And ended up much the same as in 1900 except that everyone is better off.

          But now we are undoing the entire industrial revolution as a bad thing? It has been the best development in human history, the end of slavery, the end of poverty, the end of wars. And the UN/EU/WEF seem determined to bring back all three.

          60

  • #
    Turtle

    The late Christopher Booker warned them. They didn’t listen.

    90

  • #
    Daffy deVere

    Sad, but its what happens if you keep voting for mendacious fools, keep believing and encouraging a feckless media, and keep yourself ignorant of the deceit of the rich and powerful.

    151

  • #
    Ronin

    Room for a new sitcom, ” It ain’t half cold Mum,”.

    130

  • #
    David Maddison

    It’s difficult to believe today that Once Great Britain conquered much of the known world, the sun never set on the British Empire and they were among the leaders of the Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution and the Industrial Revolution.

    130

  • #
    David Maddison

    Rishi Sunak is just another wealthy Elite Socialist pretending to be a conservative.

    If the people of the UK aren’t already disappointed with him, they soon will be.

    He is rather reminiscent of Michael Rimmer in “The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer” (1970), Rimmer played by Peter Cook.

    110

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      I like that movie very much. Arthur Lowe is also very good.
      It took a long while before it became available on DVD, and I thought that they wanted Tony Blair out of the way in case he (or his lawyers) thought it actionable.

      O/T but I notice that Great Britain had 9 P.M.s between 1801 and 1830 and Lord Liverpool did over 15 of those years
      Coincidentally 9 P.M.s in 30 years recently and Tony Blair did 12 of those.
      There was a cartoon on The Spectator recently with a couple departing the UK for Italy “to get stable politics”.

      40

      • #
        David Maddison

        For many years, back in the day, I had to be content with an appallingly badly recorded NTSC VHS tape copy from free to air TV I purchased from Ebay from the US.

        It was so disappointing that it took so long to be released. It also seems not to be very well known.

        Now it can even be viewed free on YouTube. https://youtu.be/WT_prfYb6DE

        30

  • #
    Ronin

    Turn off the fridge, leave the milk and butter on the front porch.

    50

  • #
    TdeF

    My understanding is that the British government copied our illegal RET (hidden carbon tax) which means that the starving freezing poor are still paying for more windmills as much as for electricity. In Australia it is still $6Billion a year in theft from your elecricity bills to give cash to owners of windmills and solar panels. The government pays nothing. We do.

    At what point does either government think the cheaper renewables funded by theft will cut in and reduce our electricity bills?

    Try NEVER. Because it’s all theft based on lies. And socialist governments which pretend to care for the poor and needy are taxing them out of existence with no exemption. And the rich are buying new Teslas, subsidized by the poor.

    170

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      TdeF:
      Don’t try to understand the British electricity schemes. Yes, they introduced ‘a Carbon Tax’ but only on coal and oil. Burning wood, straw and biofuel (from crops) isn’t penalised whatever the amount of CO2 emitted but get subsidies. Whole forests are being destroyed to warm big houses/barns/stables etc. in northern Ireland (about a billion in subsidies) and don’t mention the forests flattened in Scotland to make room for more wind turbines. Nor the millions of tons of wood chips imported by Drax from the USA, Canada and Slovakia because that is profitable rather than using coal (at a loss) and with 32% extra CO2.
      Then those off-shore wind farms pull every rort they can find. “Wind is cheap” chant the Greens but not at £212 a MWh (about $381) when the contract said they would deliver at £79 a MWh (there is a loophole). And if the wind blows too much they expect £60 on what they might have generated, even if they can sell their output off-grid (another loophole).
      And, if the wind doesn’t blow, they have destroyed the reliable generation so fall back on ‘Peaking Plants’ which burn imported gas inefficiently, so higher costs and higher emissions. And the Dept. of the Environment worries about newts.

      70

  • #
    BrianTheEngineer

    The National Energy Market is now dead as Dan Dan the Commie Man is about to renationalize the Victorian Power Generation.
    It is impossible to compete against an entity that can make losses that are subsidized by the Taxpayer.

    130

    • #
      TdeF

      Thanks to the RET, the government has invented at way that it is impossible for coal power stations to compete against windmills which are totally subsidized by the bill payer and enforced by government regulation, carbon ‘certificates’ which require enforced donations to windmills and solar for every $ given to coal. And Andrews is not nationalizing, he is personally controlling the means of production. A communist dictator’s next move.

      120

  • #
    John Connor II

    Well, I did say get out of the UK…🙄

    Ex Goldman Sachs stooge Sunak with his wealth, big pharma & WEF ties, will implement a digital currency, which he’s a huge fan of, and the lives of the unwashed will be so much better.

    Maybe the BBC could stop covering up for Big Government and advise people to buy batteries, food, fuel, and a small radio now instead.

    LOL at the thought of BBC integrity.

    They’re broke – how can they buy batteries, especially Li-ion?
    Fuel – oxidises quickly so storage is < 6 months.
    Small radio – so they can hear the voice of Lord-on-high Sunak on BBC radio espousing a bright future perhaps?

    Yes – stockpile longlife food that can be eaten without cooking. Beans, tinned vegetables, preserved fruit etc.
    Buy USB rechargeable LED floodlights. I've got 4.
    Candles for backup.
    Flexible solar panels, cheap regulator/charger and a car battery. That'll power 12v gear like laptops, routers, lights, camping gear like 12v coffee makers.
    Showers – well, they are poms after all. 😎

    You know things are really tough when you have to unplug your wine fridge…

    90

    • #
      John Connor II

      Another one for the JC 2 lexicon.

      GREEN = Greatly Reduce the Energy on Earth that’s Needed

      Works for both interpretations…

      50

    • #
      John Connor II

      Just a note here on refrigerated meat.
      The supermarket prepacked type is flushed with oxygen and the pack contains around 30% CO2 (shock!!) to preserve it.
      Without refrigeration and in cool conditions, your prepacked meat will last up to 3 weeks.

      Don’t forget that outside gas bbq either!

      30

  • #
    John Connor II

    Had to laugh.

    An anagram of Rishi Sunak is Hi Risk Anus. 🤣

    80

  • #
    b.nice

    Germany’s heritage also being brought to its knees

    Glassblowing, heritage bakeries etc etc..

    Basically any business, large or small that realise on cheap reliable energy.. is being destroyed by the green religious ideology.

    The Germans are doing it to themselves…

    Just like the UK is doing it to themselves…

    Just like the USA is doing it to themselves…

    And just like Australia is doing it to themselves…

    I would not want to be a young person growing up into our destroyed societies !!

    40

  • #
    Philip

    If this doesn’t wake people up there is no hope for them.

    30

  • #

    I’ll bet nothing ‘Made In China’ lasts this long.

    Umm, ‘battery powered receivers’.

    Long before FM radio arrive here in Oz, (1975) that was basically all there was, sometimes scratchy AM transistor radios.

    In December 1968, I shelled out $64.99 on a battery powered receiver, a lot of money back then for a transistor radio.

    It was a National Panasonic R-247JB, an eight transistor unit, powered by three D Cells, with AM band and SW, and here’s an image of that exact radio.

    It sits on my desk to this day, used to listen to ABC News, (612 – 4QR) but mainly used for the cricket. (612 – 4QR) I get the whole Summer Test Series broadcasts out of each set of batteries.

    54 years old, as good operation now as the day I first turned it on.

    Strange thing about batteries and, by extrapolation torches.

    We went through Cyclone Marcia while we were in Rockhampton.

    There was the usual panic right up to the night before it hit on the Friday morning.

    On that night before, my good lady and I were doing the usual weekly shop in Woolworths, and, other than staples we might need for a week if the power went out (six days we lost it for) I was looking for a specific torch. The aisle that held all the torches and batteries was stripped bare, and that’s half the length of an aisle on one side floor to top of shelves. Everything gone. On the end of one of the food aisles, well away from the torches and batteries was one of their weekly specials …… a display from floor to to top of shelves (so above head height) and the Special was exactly the thing I was looking for ….. a Dolphin Torch. They were retailing for half normal price, and as an added extra, they included an extra battery.

    The shelf was untouched and I was the first to take one from that display. One of the floor staff was walking by, and I asked why they hadn’t sold, and she told me that I was the first to buy one, and they couldn’t give them away.

    The original battery lasted until the night before the power came back on, used constantly. In the bathroom, I balanced it, leaning a little, so that it shone into the mirror, and it lit the bathroom almost as well as the ordinary lighting.

    Anecdotal, but indicative, of how old things (transistor radios and Dolphin torches) do not even enter the thinking these days, and if they do, they are scoffed at as somehow old tech, and therefore not as good as the new ‘stuff’.

    Incidental – Trivia question. In 1978, the AM band changed to a 9KHz frequency difference. Go and look at any (every one of them) AM radio station frequency, and it’s divisible by 9.

    Tony.

    120

    • #
      David Maddison

      I enjoyed those comments Tony.

      Also, 9kHz channel spacing for AM radios is used for Europe and 10kHz in US, and Australia before 1978. If you buy a digital radio make sure it supports the relevant channel spacing, preferably both.

      Also, the AM band was extended from 1602kHz to 1611kHz to 1701kHz adding 11 extra channels in the 9kHz countries and adding to 1600kHz from 1610kHz to 1700kHz in the 10kHz countries adding 10 channels.

      Incidentally, I just wrote an article about torches.

      https://www.siliconchip.com.au/

      https://www.siliconchip.com.au/Issue/2022/November/The+Technology+of+Torches

      30

      • #
        Dave Ward

        My Sony ICF 2001 portable radio (bought en-route to a holiday in Australia during 1988) has a selectable 9/10khz setting for the scan function, and thanks to continuous coverage from 150khz to 30mhz will pick up any AM/SSB transmission in that range. I still use it from time to time. How many present day transmitting sites would still be broadcasting during a prolonged power cut is debatable…

        10

    • #
      Earl

      During a 1962 visit to Papua New Guinea the Queen approached a PNG government official asking him how he was.
      “Your wooooosh, grrr, hisss, majesty I am very well”. She smiled and he went on “And how grrr, woooosh, hiss, harrrrr, has your trip been so far your majesty?”. “Very enjoyable” she replied.
      “I grrrr, hisss, woooosh hope you continue to phish, wooooosh, grrr continue to enjoy it your majesty”.
      The queen smiled and stated “Sir, you do speak English very well where were you taught?”
      “The BBC shortwave teaching service your majesty wooosh, grrrr hisssss”.

      80

    • #
      Annie

      I had a visit to Victoria (we were living in England at that time) planned for March 2009, to see family members (planned from before the fires). The firestorm in this area was not fully over at the time I travelled so I thought a small battery radio would be useful. I found a small Sony radio in Dubai Duty Free and still have it. It’s not so crash hot on LW and MW (except 774) but fine on FM.

      40

    • #
      John Connor II

      I still prefer my LED panels…

      I have a 20 million candlepower torch similar to this:

      https://www.amazon.com/Cyclops-Colossus-18-Million-Candlepower-Spotlight/dp/B00HY8Q5FA/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=20+million+candlepower+spotlight&qid=1666853815&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIzLjIwIiwicXNhIjoiMy4xOSIsInFzcCI6IjEuNTkifQ%3D%3D&sr=8-3

      It’s 15 years old with a sealed 12v battery and I charge it once a year and it’s still as good as new, and one hell of a long beam too!
      I had, from new, the original Hewlett Packard 35 scientific calculator.
      15 years later the battery was still fine.
      These days, battery life is a joke by design. Planned obsolescence…

      20

  • #
    Lawrie

    Albo can still honour his election promise of $275 per household. Actually he can do much better. I read where we subsidise wind and solar to the tune of $7 billion each year which works out to be $280 per person so just by scrapping the subsidies the average household could be over $1000 better off every year. Its a win win; Albo keeps his promise and more, people have an extra $1000 per family. There are no downsides unless you own a wind farm so for most of us its a win, win, win situation.

    50

    • #
      Dennis

      Commentator-Treasurer Chalmers told the National Press Club “yes” when asked if the $275 was in the budget, and later in Parliament when asked where it is listed in his Budget he said he didn’t understand the question asked at the National Press Club.

      Of course he didn’t want to answer, televised address and room full of journalists.

      40

    • #
      Dennis

      I understand that the Morrison Government scheduled those subsidies to end by 2030, causing a problem for investors considering new installations now.

      And probably why Albanese Federal Labor and Andrews Vic State Labor are planning to invest taxpayer’s monies into new wind and solar, transmission lines, etc?

      40

  • #
    TdeF

    I keep asking myself, what am I not seeing? How can this be possible, governments inflicting such pain on their own people?

    Why aren’t the great universities of Oxford and Cambridge protesting this travesty of science?

    Why is everyone being asked to pay for windmills and transmission lines and solar panels through their electricity bills when everything was fine? Why isn’t coal being used? Why has fracking stopped? Why is nuclear now a pariah?

    There is no problem. No temperature or sea level problem in a century, other than short term ones everyone has seen before. There has been no Climate Change. Nor is any expected. And has 1.5C in 150 years such a disaster? No one could even tell. Has the ‘world temperature’ even changed by 0.01C in the last decade? And who cares?

    So what is wrong? Why is everyone silent? And why is the story from the UN/EU one of endless disaster from carbon dioxide when there has been nothing at all in the same 150 years? And who said methane was a problem? And compounds of nitrogen? Australia now has a methane reduction goal. Why? When will we pass a law banning termites?

    The tide change in London is up to 7 metres but someone is worried about a few mm in a century? Really? The Thames used to freeze over. Do we want that back?

    What is the silence all about? All we hear about are protests against climate change by people who have no idea of science. Why?

    But I guess I am asking the wrong people? I would love to know why anyone thought there was an actual problem? And where?

    180

    • #
      TdeF

      And how can UK and Australian politicians punish their own people when China generates more than half the world’s CO2? And no one says anything?

      Are we ‘setting a moral example’ by our self flagellation? If so, for whom? The poor of Africa who have no electricity? Or an example of Western Democratic st*pidity for the people of China who are digging coal as fast as they can and hoarding gas?

      110

    • #
      KP

      What it shows is that what you learned was a lie!

      Politicians are not intelligent, they do not care about you, they will not help you when it suits them.

      Science is not true, scientists are not honest, they will not work in your interests, even if you are paying them.

      Society is not run by a voting system, it makes no difference whether Teedledum or Tweedledumber is in power, and as far as they’re concerned its not them against them, its them against us.

      People are stupid, and getting more-so. Already there are tests showing our problem-solving abilities are decreasing with each generation, and while the average IQ is pretty banal, every second person you meet is more dumb than that! Do not expect your fellow-citizens to understand, be concerned about, or help with any of the above statements.

      I do feel quite some sympathy for those wishing to get rid of the masses sometimes, but probably not for the same reasons!

      All those ideas, assumptions, work ethics and moralities of the 1950s were built on quicksand were never true to start with.

      80

      • #
        RexAlan

        Society is not run by a voting system. So true.

        “If voting were important, then they wouldn’t let us do it”. – Mark Twain

        60

      • #
        el+gordo

        ‘People are stupid, and getting more-so.’

        The communications revolution has made us dumber, there is a PhD in that.

        00

    • #
      Ando

      Elementary questions you would think when embarking on freezing elderly citizens to death in the name of ‘climate action’ but the msm is not only silent but pushing the same lunatic agenda. What a disgrace.

      30

  • #
    David Maddison

    This is the net result of the deliberate dumbing down of the education system over the last 50 years or so and the softening up of the Sheeple in preparation of a Marxist take over.

    It’s part of the fulfillment of 1967 plan of the German communist Rudi Dutschke who conceived of “the Long March Through the Institutions”.

    101

  • #
    Phillip Bratby

    Well I’ve got my generator ready with lots of fuel, the oil tank is full, the log store is full, and as a backup, I have a couple of camping stoves with gas bottles

    10

  • #
    Zane

    Down jackets are going to be hot sellers.

    20

  • #
    Gerald the Mole

    Getting electricity back after a complete shut-down is bad enough – aka black start. Getting gas back is horrific. Joanne any chance of a good technical article on these issues?

    40

  • #
    Phil O'Sophical

    I am sure someone mid the myriad comments will have said this, but blacking out the BBC might even be worth a few power cuts. People might have time to reflect and think for themselves. A break from the manic-obsessive green lies, jab propaganda, woke lefties, non-comedians and nannying or fear-inducing weather forecasts when light drizzle might come in for an hour.

    20

  • #
    Dave Ward

    Having a fully charged phone is of limited use when the base stations they rely on are also mains powered. A recent study (from Italy, I think it was) found that many have as little as 30 minutes battery back up. This will almost certainly apply to the large numbers of “Street Corner” cabinets which distribute the internet to individual properties and business.

    Some 30 years ago, when I worked in the telecoms industry, our “local” AM radio station used a bog standard phone line to feed the studio output to the transmitter. This, of course, was powered by the telephone exchange, which had large batteries AND diesel backup.

    I’ll bet that once the power goes out over wide areas for a few hours there won’t be much to listen to on your battery/wind-up radio, never mind using mobiles & the internet. And once BT/Openreach have completed replacing “Plain Old Copper” with VOIP we probably won’t be able to make a landline call either!

    Time to dust off my old CB radios…

    10