'Setting up the site, and maintaining it, are Denbighshire Countryside Services and members of the North Wales Little Tern Group and Merseyside Ringing Group. Volunteers are welcome to help construct the fencing on the following dates: Tuesday, April 15; Thursday, April 24; and Tuesday-Friday, April 29–May 2.' who the hell would call themselves, the Merseyside Ringing Group
Good news for any Hull wine drinkers that will be around at the end of the century. Will it replace fizzy pop? https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/english-wine-hull-bordeaux-climate-change-b2733044.html
Rewind to the 1970's and my geography teacher was telling us the next ice age was coming. The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
Latest installment of #BatshitBonkersBritain. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot (see what I did there?). All political references removed. And it's an utter joke (if that helps it fit with this thread) .... Cutting edge British defence companies are being refused bank accounts by some of the UK’s biggest financial institutions over ethical concerns, The i Paper can reveal. One company that makes critical armoured vehicles used by the British military, including by Special Forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, was turned down by HSBC for a bank account whilst others have struggled to get loans or investment for future manufacturing. Often the reasons for a bank refusing to offer facilities are not given but can be linked to involvement in potential “lethal” activities or not being “green” enough. .... SC Group, which was previously known as Supacat, and has won contracts with the Ministry of Defence worth tens of millions of pounds, has said it has struggled to get any investments or loans because it isn’t “green”. SC Chief Executive Nicholas Ames claims it was almost impossible to arrange a commercial loan to invest in future manufacturing in Britain because lenders were only looking to finance green companies. .... Ames .. said “Every time we [approach] banks, debt funds or equity funds, they’re all going: ‘we’ve all moved into [ethical investing], we’ve all moved into the green funds. Come back to us with something green.’” A number of major defence companies have told The i Paper of the problems they are facing being “debanked” by major institutions. The defence industry has long complained about so-called environment, sustainabily and governance (ESG) red-tape that critics say guide investors away from the British defence sector. Another major British defence firm, 4GD, which uses AI and robots to help train British soldiers, said they had to stop attending investment meetings in the UK after being turned away once the hosts realised they worked in defence. The company is now considering relocating to the US and claims it currently has three US states pitching for them to move across the Atlantic. Robert Taylor, director of 4GD said that it has been turned down by every major lender for loans and has been forced to seek more expensive alternative funding that has resulted in 20 per cent of his revenues being used to service private finance loans. Mr Taylor said: “There are only probably one or two high street banks that have reliably offered bank accounts to defence companies. We have had a number of colleagues be debanked just before tenders, especially when there is a transition from what would be considered non-lethal to lethal work.” Mr Taylor’s firm has stopped seeking investment from British companies due to the trepidation around military work. He said: “We have basically, as a company, stopped going to investment meetings in the UK. They were just complete waste of time. We were turned away at meeting rooms. We’ve been turned away before the meetings. We’ve been turned away in the room. The second defence comes up: ‘Not interested. Sorry, can’t.” The lack of financing is forcing UK firms to take investment from the US or Israel, providing further ethical risk and undermining the UK’s sovereignty and national security.
Laughable, almost. Much like British Steel scrambling around for imported coking coal, oddly we could produce our own at a mine in Whitehaven. Oh no it wouldn't fit with net zero, so instead ship it in from overseas, on sludge burning ships. **** off, Ed.
A doctor gives an 80-year-old man a jar and asks to give him a sample of semen so he can measure his sperm count for part of his physical exam... "Take this jar home and bring back a sample tomorrow," he asks. "Sure," replies the old fella. The next day, he returns to the doctor’s office and gives him the jar, which is as clean and empty as it was the previous day. The doctor asked him what happened. The man explained, "Well doc, it’s like this. First I tried with my right hand, but nothing. Then I tried with my left hand, but still nothing. Then I asked my wife for help. She tried with her right hand, and then with her left, but still nothing. She tried with her mouth, first with the teeth in, and then with her teeth out, still nothing. We even asked Eileen, the lady next door to help out. She tried too, first with both hands. Then an armpit, and she even tried squeezing it between her knees, but still nothing." The doctor was shocked! "You asked your next door neighbour?" "Yeah, that's right," the old man replied, "None of us could get the lid off."
Steverico yesterday afternoon as he drove us to town, he was on a mega rant. The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
We're not importing coking coals - the UK no longer has coke ovens so CC would be pointless. What we're importing is a single blend of coal for injection directly into the furnaces; a procedure developed in the 1990s making the amount of coke required for a BF charge to be reduced, it makes quite a decent saving, apparently. Just for info, we were importing Aussie coal long before net zero was a ''thing'' - their coal is so much easier to get at (making it cheaper) and far lower in Sulphur content than any UK coal. As an ex steelworker it pains me to see the state of the place; despite all the good will in the world there really is no easy fix for the steelworks ills. Scunthorpe and surrounding villages are built on iron ore deposits but, all the good stuff's LONG gone - we have to import it; we have no coke ovens so coke has to be imported, despite all of this the site continues to make some of the best steel in the world, for how long - I have no idea.
