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You can’t have it all, you know?

Sir Keir Starmer has warned that opposition to the Government’s plans to build more pylons across the countryside would force him to put taxes up.

The Prime Minister said burying new electricity cables underground “costs much more money” which would have to be raised from taxpayers.

Speaking during a trip to New York he said that voters would have to accept “trade-offs” including more development in return for better services.

Nice to see at least one politician admitting reality. All is trade offs after all

25 thoughts on “You can’t have it all, you know?”

  1. These new pylons could have been avoided by building SMRs on the sites of former Magnox nuclear stations where the transmission infrastructure still exists.

    Eventually people might realise these pylons are a direct consequence of choosing offshore wind, however much the ‘great grid upgrade’ propaganda tries to hide it.

  2. He doesn’t really believe that it’s a trade off. He’s just trying to blackmail people into accepting more pylons. Whatever happens, he’s going to put up taxes.

  3. If we need more pylons the Mob – sorry, the Cabinet – are sure to have to consult Dale Vince and pay him £10,000,000,000 for his expert advice…

  4. We can’t have it all, but we can have quite a lot of it.

    I reckon we can have ruined countryside, higher taxes, power outages, and millions more third world tribespeople to enjoy them with.

  5. We could trade off a bit more local CO2 output for few gas power plants, a bit of north sea extraction, much cheaper domestic heating and electricity, higher tax revenues and more reliable power supply.
    That would be daft though!

  6. I wonder how the unfortunates at Port Talbot feel about being martyred on the alter of net zero this morning?

    Or is it the same as the “If it saves one life it will be worth it” mantra we heard during covid?

  7. jgh

    Now if you kept the coal burners running ‘just for the duration of the emergency’, you could have all the electricity you want for as long as you want it.

    Swannypol

    I see you’re more modern than me and jgh. You actually propose using gas. Though if you’re going to adopt these vicious innovations, you could follow Noel C and just build nukes!!!

  8. He doesn’t really believe that it’s a trade off. He’s just trying to blackmail people into accepting more pylons. Whatever happens, he’s going to put up taxes.

    Maybe instead of putting up taxes on little people, stop paying imported diversity to stay in 4 and 5 star hotels and deport the useless phuqs along with stopping the billions spunked overseas for no reason.

    That’s £30 billion or so to begin with.

  9. As the UK shuts its last coal plant, China opens its 40th (approx) this year. Now has about 1,170 of them.
    This sustainability shit is unsustainable. Something’s got to give.

  10. Bloke in North Dorset

    On the same topic, the last coal powered UK power station closed today.

    I’m feel sure that Ed will be desperate to point to the rest of the world applauding our leadership and rushing to follow suit if only some journalist would ask him.

  11. A consequence of removing the winter fuel subsidy and raising energy prices to fund spivs like Dale Vince will be lots of old folk with mysterious illnesses in nice cosy NHS wards.
    Bed blockers? You ain’t seen anything yet.

  12. bloke in spain:

    “It’ll all improve when the tanks thunder over Westminster Bridge. Roll on the far-right coup.”

    I doubt if Sadiq has maintained it well enough to bear the weight. They might have to take the long route round, but I’m patient.

  13. The electricity carried by those pylons terminates at low voltage local grid infrastructure which is mostly underground. Does that mean erecting poles and stringing cables along streets in cities, tiens, villages like it used to be?

    The point that these lunatics overlook is electricity has to get to its point of use – the infrastructure currently in place is incapable of carrying and distributing the proposed load required to replace gas heating and stoves, and charge BEVs.

    The cost, use of resources and disruption in order to do this is prohibitive – ie cannot be done.

  14. There’s at least 300 years of coal still under the ground in the UK. We literally live on an island made of fuel in a sea made of fuel. The “problem” with the remaining coal is that is is very deep coal, it needs higher mechanisation to extract it and comensurate lower employment. Can’t be having that, coal has to be hewn out by hoary-handed sons of toil, dedicated members of The Union.

    We should have spent the 1980s while the “easy” coal was running out using the resources to invest in accessing the “hard” coal in the future. And, as with the transition to containerisation and with Wapping, starting afresh with new technology in new sites would allow a new industry to be built away from the dead hand of the Unions.

  15. burying new electricity cables underground “costs much more money”

    It’s a long shot but as we’re regularly assured that the majority of people living in Gaza do not support Hamas, no sir no sirree not us, then there is an undeniably proficient tunnel-digging labour force that presumably would be delighted to get away from their hated oppressors.

    Now why doesn’t cynical old me think it would end well?

  16. On the same topic, the last coal powered UK power station closed today.

    As did, by a remarkable and completely unrelated coincidence, the last blast furnace in Port Talbot.

    There’s at least 300 years of coal still under the ground in the UK.

    True, but it can’t possibly compete on price with surface mined coal from the Powder River Basin or the Bowen Basin in Oz.

  17. It’ll all improve when the tanks thunder over Westminster Bridge. Roll on the far-right coup.

    No chance. The UK armed forces are now part of the left-liberal establishment.

  18. Theo. One suspects just the officer class. We’ll see what happens when they want to put troops on the streets to quash the coup. I suspect a deluge of sick notes.

  19. @philip – “Bed blockers? You ain’t seen anything yet.”

    Unless they’re so deprived that they die of hypothermia. In which case, not only are they not bed blockers, but they also stop collecting their pensions. However, I’m confident our government would not be intending that.

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