Bassingbourne55

I agree that there should be more tax on the rich, but anyone who can afford the internet can afford an extra 50p a month, especially if it really does go towards equipping the nation with faster broadband.

If the government needs to raise more tax, which is highly likely now after the bail outs, a small tax on internet use is logical. People who can afford computers and broadband subscriptions can easily afford an extra 50p a month.

As a lifelong non-smoker I well remember going to smoke-filled pubs and so I know how much nicer pubs are now for the majority who don’t smoke.

What about the freedom for non-smokers to be able to breathe relatively clean air when they go to pubs?

It just shows that a lot of people value wrecking their lungs with toxic smoke more than they value watching football.

I do think the BNP is a divisive threat threat in our society. I also think is that they are unlikely do much better in elections. The greatest danger they pose is through their actions on the street and at meetings, not what their few elected representatives do, although I suppose that gives them a platform and a bit of credibility as a political force.

The BNP have gained not by increasing their vote but by the collapse in the Labour vote.

Those who used the BNP for a protest vote this time round will probably not vote BNP again.

And just look at the number or unelected people Brown’s bringing into government – Lord Mandelson as his effective deputy, Alan Sugar (yes, really!), Lady Glenys Kinnock, Lord Adonis…….to name just 4.

I know this is nothing new but on this scale – labour was supposed to be democratic but this is despotism!

I wish advertising standards could be applied to religious propaganda.

Susan Boyle is undoubtedly an outsandingly talented singer. I’m not into the kind of music she sings, I’m more into rock and techno, but if she won BGT I wouldn’t think it unfair.

One thing resulting from the huge programme for offshore wind farms is that the need for building land-based windfarms here is much reduced.

These are the statistics I’ve got on land-based, or onshore windfarms in UK.
The figures are the number of individual wind turbines.

Operational now………..3390
Under Construction………846
Given…[Read more]

It’s all planned, so the chances are it will happen. It’s at least as likely as the proposed 10-12 new nuclear power stations being built. I’m sure maintenance won’t be cheap, but there’s no cost of mining and transporting the fuel, as with coal. If this is going to be a new industry, ongoing maintenence costs is part and parcel of it, as with…[Read more]

Fusion was cracked ages ago. It’s known as the hydrogen bomb!!!

But seriously, it looks like there’s enough in the idea of controlled fusion to make serious continuing research worthwhile.

Not half a country’s worth arent planned, and they’re high maintenance. Realistically there’s two options long term, coal or nuclear unless someone cracks nuclear fusion

The plan is to produce 35-45% of our electricity from windpower by 2020.

Here’s a link to the Crown Estate’s info on Round 3 proposals, which would be for many far-offshore…[Read more]

You miss my point, I’m not saying that they don’t generate power, just that they don’t generate it when we need it. That’s why they are all but useless, they can’t even store the power they generate (capacitors being useless for this purpose) That’s why for all the alternative energy sources that are built, you need a standard back up supply for.…

[Read more]

Wind power is not inefficient since the ‘fuel’, i.e. wind, is free. The efficiency comes in designing the turbines capture as much of the wind energy as possible and converting it to electrical energy.

The wind energy policy recognises the fact that the wind is inconsistent. The expected total average output from the offshore windfarms,…[Read more]

It’s not climate change we should be worrying about, but rather what we do when the oil and gas runs out. But the solution to both problems is the same – a combination of renewable energy and energy savings.

It is planned that Britain will be producing between 35% and 45% of its electricity from wind power by 2020. The Round 2 offshore windfarms…[Read more]

There are obvioulsly quite a lot of Welsh people in England who are able to speak Welsh, one figure I read for this was over 100,000 but that’s not really what I’m on about in the original post. I mean small pockets on along the English side of the Welsh border where Welsh is spoken day-to-day by a proportion of the inhabitants.

The plain fact…

[Read more]

so are you English hmmmmm no maybe a mixture of French, Dutch with a bit of Scandanavian thrown in….but not English in the true sense of the word……

There has been hundreds of years of mixing between the English, Welsh and Scots.
Also recent genetic evidence suggests the Britonic Celts weren’t all driven out of England, a lot were thought to…[Read more]