I find the fact that we import our carbon fuels from Australia (!!), North America, South America, South Africa, Russia (until recently) absolutely ridiculous, even scandalous. Not only meaning we are so dependent on others for critical resources that we actually already have access to ourselves, but that we are causing even more (in fact way more) pollution & harm than if we mined / drilled it ourselves, plus we are paying more than we need to and giving skilled employment and massive profit to others. To my mind, it's utter madness, unnecessary, and driven by highly questionable agendas. I get totally one argument that it's done to speed up our transition, but as we know, our impact is anyway next to meaningless world wide. Of course we should transition over time, but not like this. And the pressure should be on other countries to do the same, not on ourselves when we're miles further on than nearly anywhere else. Lack of sensible investment over recent decades has also come back to bite us, but the clock can't be turned back. Madness, and incompetence. (I know you knew all that CZ).
Spoken by a most honourable politician, well, compared to the latest news. Perhaps best if left at Francis Urqhart. Is fictional politics in breach of the no politics rule?
the reason we imported our coal rather than produce our own was 1, the cost - many international coals are opencast and have seams many feet thick near the surface and therefore cheaper to extract - rather than uk deep mines which are only a few feet thick and deep underground with much faulting and expensive to extract 2. most UK coal is high in sulphur and some high in chlorine as well which results in acid rain / environmental cost of extracting it from being pumped into the atmosphere 3. most UK coal has already been economically extracted and nearly all the companies that were extracting coal went bust - plus we don't have the expertise anymore - in any event you can turn international coal on and off if we don't want it - anyone opening a new mine would need a 20 year contract or the like 4 Nimbys - no one wants a coal mine near their house anymore - it would also be the start of 'Just Stop Coal'
Was or is?!? So you are seriously saying our coal is that bad that it's more environmentally friendly and cheaper to ship it half way around the world? With what would be latest current day practices, not those from the 60's and earlier? Nope, don't buy it. Also, there's the strategic matter of security of supply (at least until we have viable alternatives). And oil & gas. As with railways, unforgivable mistakes made over the decades, including the most recent ones.
Even China buys its coal from Australia as they can get it out the ground so much cheaper than anyone else.
I voted to remain to hope that my kids and grandkids would be able to learn, work or live in Europe, free from visa and red tape, I voted for them I suspect a lot of people did, but all gone now that’s why I despise Brexiteers, ****s all.
trust me - was my job for over 30 years - bought and sold coal all over the world, around 20mt per annum - sorry you 'don't buy it', but I did and with the greatest, on this subject, know exactly what I'm talking about - coal isn't an homogenous product, it's the result of how it was formed millions of years ago - UK coal has a higher ash content as well as other environmental nasties - has to be washed when it gets to the surface because of the roof and floor of the seam that ends up being brought to the surface - expensive to extract, extensive to prepare - compared to a huge open cast site which can be extracted clean once the top layer has been removed please log in to view this image supersize operations in Colombia - check out the size of the white vehicle on the left - bit different from going down a shaft 800 metres deep and then travelling a few kilometres to the coal face and then bringing the coal back to the surface either by conveyor or using skips is hardly environmentally friendly compared to shipping over 150kt in one go by ship
Oh, don't ya just hate it when a knowlegeable twat chucks his hat into the ring!! You could have strung it out a bit. "I used to sell coal." And leave it at that. Everyone conjuring images of you, oss and cart, flat cap, and a sack of coal on ya shoulder.
Quality journalism from the Bristol post https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/...kCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar
And how many of our monolingual kids took advantage of those opportunities when they could? Very few. Though millions came over here to work as so many can speak the language.
Over 200,000 British students studied in EU countries under the Erasmus programme between 1987 and 2013. The number of EU students studying in the U.K. has now halved, causing funding issues for many universities.
If it makes you feel less angry, your grandchildren can work, study and live in the EU relatively simply, without too much red tape - they just can't be unemployed in the EU, beyond the initial 90 day tourist visa.
Not many if you divide it by the number of years.? There are still 120,000 EU students in the UK, far more than we had in the EU at any one time. Other countries had far more students using the Erasmus programme than we did.
The UK replacement, the Turing Scheme has opened it up to more countries, to students from lower incomes, and provides better support for such as travel etc. The main other difference is that Erasmus benefited EU mainland students over UK and other nationalities.
