According to Guido Fawke’s blog, the government is set to make a Mr Darren Minnikins homeless by foreclosing on his mortgage through the nationalised bank Northern Rock.

I think (although I can’t remember where I read it) that Northern Rock are involved in more foreclosure actions than any other mortgage provider at the moment. So, if I’m right, getting repossessed by Northern Rock is effectively repossession by the government. That’s a hell of a way to replenish the council-housing stocks :S

…the UK’s Energy Policy is full of wind.

Labour MP John Hutton stated on the BBC Politics Show that it is the UK government’s intention to build 7,000 or so new wind turbines for electricity generation around the UK. In a slightly inflammatory fashion, the BBC has pointed out that would be one turbine for every two miles of coastline but they fail to note that it would only be the case if they were set equidistantly around the coast. They will, of course, be arranged in ‘batteries’ to allow for easier installation, maintenance and shorter cable runs. The placement, however, is very far from the problem.

The real problem seems to be minister’s lack of basic understanding when it come to how the electricity grid is operated.

Mr Hutton said:

“There is the potential, we believe, out there, using the resources that there are around the UK to generate maybe all of the electricity that households need … from offshore wind sources,”

Certainly there is. When the wind is blowing.

7,000 wind turbines would be rather less than useful for electricity generation when there is no wind and they are all idling. This is why wind turbines will never be anything other than supplementary generators. We have to have base-load generation and that is only available from sources which are not dependent on uncontrollable external factors like wind. That limits the options for base load generation to hydroelectric, hydrocarbon (coal, gas, oil) and nuclear. Then we need load-following generation (the generation that takes up any difference between base and peak load), once again, this has to be provided by the controllable sources of hydroelectric, hydrocarbon and nuclear.

So, of the only options for base-load generation:

• Hydroelectric generation is limited in the UK. Once you’ve tapped all the available dams for power, you can’t build any more unless you intend to flood more valley/catchment areas. There is also a concern that non-tidal hydro is adversely affected by droughts. Hydroelectric dams can also load-follow at the risk of depleting the reservoir supply faster.
• Hydrocarbon generation is always the one to take a battering from environmentalists but, once again, that isn’t the real problem. The real issue is that we are running out of hydrocarbon supplies and as such, the price will continue to spiral upwards for this sort of generation
• Nuclear generation, also hated by environmentalists should provide the most effective method of base-load generation. The system itself is clean in operation and if we bought modern French reactors, we could minimise the radioactive waste. It is worth remembering that France generates so much power through it’s 50+ nuclear reactors, they can sell the power on to other nations (including the UK) and boost their economy in the process.

Wind can only supplement these base-load generators. It cannot be a base-load itself and it cannot load-follow reliably. The wind will do as it pleases. We cannot control it.

The people of the UK must ask whether they really want such massive expenditure on a generation system that could see them sat in darkness several days a week.

Photo Credit: André Karwath by-sa-2.5

The UK government is proposing that those caught driving faster than the speed limit should receive double the number of points on their driving licence.

Effectively a speeder would receive 6 points rather than 3 for driving in excess of 45mph in a 30limit, 57mph in a 40limit and 93mph in a 70limit. Therefore, any driver caught speeding to this excess twice would have clocked up 12 points (the UK licence limit) and be eligible for a driving ban of up to 6 months. Presumably, the points for speeding at less the excesses mentioned would remain at 3 points.

This is probably a reasonably good idea as long as the roads are desperately overcrowded in the UK and exceeding the limits to the extent above is bordering on insanity. (It also burns up the commodity oil at a greater rate which is running out). The 3 point system would have to remain for those that exceed the limit to a lesser extent in order to avoid public outcry as you can rarely drive for more than a couple of miles in the UK without encountering one of our dreaded speed traps.

Photo Credit: Andrew Dunn. Copyright Andrew Dunn cc-by-sa-2.0