Still smiling at chaotic world - amateur šø - dealing with MS life āæļø (humour, cynicism & satire are healthy traits) Cymru š“ó §ó ¢ó ·ó ¬ó ³ó æ Hate extreme politics
Joined March 2009
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Stephen R Jones retweeted
Best anecdote in Carol Thatcher's book about her father is when Sir Denis boarded a train at Paddington in which the only empty compartment was reserved for Rosewood Psychiatric Hospital.
Denis travelled alone and in comfort as far as Reading when "all these chaps piled in", accompanied by a male nurse, who counted them before the train moved off.
'One, two, three, four ... who are you?"
"I'm the Prime Minister's husband."
"Six, seven, eight, nine..."
Stephen R Jones retweeted
My takeaways:
1) Burnham should go for snap election, he wonāt see numbers so good again.
2) Badenochās revived the rotting Tory carcass.
3) Reform, as I predicted, have been toast since Farage Ā£5m bung scandal.
4) Ditto the Greens under Weirdo Polanski.
Stephen R Jones retweeted
Iāve written many times about how the soft left on Labourās backbenches are āeconomic illiteratesā. This is proof positive. Beyond redemption in its misunderstanding of markets, supply, demand, taxes.
Nope, thatās not how taxes and price works. The price is determined by demand and supply.
Companies charge the highest price they can given demand. A tax levied on *profits* does not affect a companyās cost ie supply.
Taxes on *windfall* profits (like oil and gas) are the most efficient kind of tax there is.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
Corporate profit taxes do not directly shift marginal costs but empirical studies show partial pass-through into higher consumer prices. Windfall taxes on oil and gas have deterred investment and production in practice despite theoretical efficiency on rents.
dadun.unav.edu/server/api/corā¦
ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/scpwpsā¦
taxfoundation.org/blog/big-oil-pā¦
scottishfinancialreview.com/2025/09/03/winā¦
Stephen R Jones retweeted
Burnham and Healey are gambling that they will get another chance to do a big budget. But they may look back on this as the best opportunity they had.
There are, to my mind, three possible explanations for their approach.
One is that they would rather not level with their MPs and the country now. The argument goes that they will be in a better place to confront the trade-offs next autumn. But political capital is a depreciating asset.
The second is that they are doing a Mr Micawber, hoping something will turn up to improve the public finances. That could be faster-than-expected growth or a big reduction in government borrowing costs. Either is always possible, but look around the world and you will see the opposite is expected.
The other possibility is that they are planning an early election. That would push the reckoning beyond polling day, giving them more flexibility. As I know all too well, elections are never risk-free.
The problem is that Wednesdayās budget, and the IMFās praise for Britain, are founded on fantasy - the idea that the Labour Party will accept the tight spending limits that are meant to kick in as the next election approaches.
My preference would be for a budget that cut spending, reduced business taxes and enacted growth-enhancing supply-side reform. Yet with his party in no mood for cuts, you can see why Healey is likely to avoid doing anything too bold on Wednesday.
They will never have more room for manoeuvre than now. I know, having done both jobs, that you regret the decisions you donāt take far more than the ones you do.
More on the budget in my @thetimes column today š
thetimes.com/comment/columniā¦
Stephen R Jones retweeted
This is why we remember Aberfan.
Utterly heartbreaking.
I know I write about the royals, but this from Aberfan today just broke me.
Itās from Diane Thomas, 78, a rescuer from the Red Cross who was only 18 at the time of the disaster, and spoke to Prince William.
She said: āThe chapel had been converted into a mortuary so I spent three nights in the mortuary, bathing the children, to try and get slurry off their little faces so their parents could recognise them.
āI took the anorak off one little boy, put my hand in his pocket and came out [with a note that] heād had eight out of 10 for spelling. Iāve been trying all these years to think about how I can trace his mum. I canāt but I want to tell her because I was the last person to hold him and bathe him.ā
This is why today is so important.
Stephen R Jones retweeted
Since I wrote and filed this last night Fintan Slye, whoās remuneration is almost Ā£1m/year to run state-owned Neso, the organisation responsible for managing Britainās power system, told staff he was ādisappointedā in himself and āshould have fixedā the problems before an independent report raised them. Thereās still a widespread feeling in Neso that he puts carrying out the governmentās net zero wishes/obsessions way above the concerns of his staff.
ANDREW NEIL: The British Governmentās relentless and costly pursuit of net zero is a recipe for blackouts.
dailymail.com/debate/articleā¦
Stephen R Jones retweeted
ANDREW NEIL: The British Governmentās relentless and costly pursuit of net zero is a recipe for blackouts.
dailymail.com/debate/articleā¦
Stephen R Jones retweeted
A reminder of what went down on 23 June....
xitter.cf/KathrynPorter26/statusā¦
@neso_energy admits to 5 grid constraints being breached and more or less admits it ran out of reserve suggesting they couldn't cover the largest loss on 23 June
That would be a violation of the SQSS and a breach of NESO's licence condition
@ofgem expects exec pay to be linked to compliance with the licence
So, should bonuses for NESO execs be suspended pending resolution of these issues
Noting that had @ClaireCoutinho not raised these concerns in Parliament none of this would have ever come to light
@Miatsf @mgshanks @AndrewBowie_MP @harrietc @drlukeevans @ashley7fox @TiceRichard @cmackinlay @DavidGHFrost @mattwridley @Iromg @AllisonPearson @MerrynSW @EdConwaySky @afneil @mattotele @jonathan_leake @julietsamuel @energygovuk
This is holding back the UK economy. Burnham should act now if he really believes in grow growth. šš
According to an FT analysis, almost 1,000,000 people are set to be caught in the Ā£100,000 trap by the 2030-2031 tax year.
ft.com/content/248b7408-b4cdā¦
Stephen R Jones retweeted
Must watch: Andrew Neil explains the French protests in just under four minutes.
@Afneil | @StigAbell
Stephen R Jones retweeted
I am calling for a dedicated Dementia Drugs Fund to help people living with Alzheimer's benefit from the amazing scientific progress made in recent years. We found a way forward for cancer patients; let's show the same determination for people affected by dementia. #ForACure #EndingAlzheimers thetimes.com/comment/the-timā¦
Stephen R Jones retweeted
She has paid taxes and honoured her part of the social contract. What on earth was the point? The state has hung her out to dry just to appease the barbarians. Why would anyone pay taxes in France? The state is their enemy
Stephen R Jones retweeted
A powerful intervention from the head of the Army. Something is coming, and government needs to wake up.
He says the public will have to make sacrifices so we can prioritise defence and security.
This is no time for ānational security canāt come at the expense of social securityā. Hard choices are coming whether ministers like it or not.
I have been clear where I would start: cut welfare spending and put the money into defence.
Stephen R Jones retweeted
EXCL: Kemi Badenoch is getting ābattle readyā for an early election ā and has ordered her frontbench to submit their manifesto ideas.
thesun.co.uk/news/40720115/kā¦
Stephen R Jones retweeted
The Times Welfare Inquiry will soon be starting a data library, showing aspects of system.
Below: % of each age group claiming disability benefit (<16 paid to parent)
Stephen R Jones retweeted
Westminster Voting Intention:
LAB: 24% (-3)
CON: 23% (+3)
REF: 21% (-1)
LDM: 12% (+1)
GRN: 11% (=)
via @YouGov, 11-12 Oct
(Changes with 5 Oct)
Stephen R Jones retweeted
Here's a snapshot of grid frequency over the past week - the operational limits have been breached in both directions over the week
Both yesterday and today saw swings between exceeding the upper and lower limits within relatively short periods - today was the most dramatic with a jump above 50.2 Hz, a couple of short drops below 49.8 Hz and then a larger jump above 50.2 Hz in the space of 90 minutes
Friday saw frequency below the operational limit for 9 continuous minutes falling to a low of 49.75 Hz, resolved with Emergency Assistance on the interconnectors while today saw 2.5 minutes above 50.2 Hz rising to a high of 50.278 Hz
Also shown are interconnector flows and SO-SO trades with the times when the intraday limits were breached highlighted - yesterday NESO traded against the flow for 14 consecutive settlement periods (7 hours) with several hours at 2700 MW (vs limit of 1500 MW)
Finally we can see the de-rated margin and loss of load probability for the past week. The margin was healthy at all times and the LOLP was always zero
So, in a well supplied market, NESO has struggled to keep the frequency inside the operational limit and has breached intraday interconnector trading limits multiple times, and extensively yesterday
Not shown here are the EA on Friday and the two large EAs on Monday of 500 MW and 1200 MW. Also not shown are the balancing costs - yesterday was close to Ā£50m which is the highest day ever. Today is Ā£23.44m so far - the daily average is Ā£2.3m. September was a record month and October is on track to be worse
This is not evidence of a system operating securely. It's evidence of a system that's being held together with expensive last-minute actions. Yes, the lights have stayed on, but conditions have been really benign. I'm not sure we can be confident of the same outcome when demand is higher later in winter
Adding insult to injury we hear that NESO has spent Ā£Ā£Ā£ on PR to gaslight us into thinking the grid was operated securely over the summer despite several margin warnings and lots of trading breaches. This week it has again tried to make us believe EMNs and EAs are just ordinary everyday tools and not exceptional actions. The cost and frequency data tell a different story
And at a time when consumers are really struggling with high energy bills, NESO should be doing everything it can to avoid spending so much on balancing and interconnector trading - expenditure which gets added to bills via network costs
@Miatsf @mgshanks @AndrewBowie_MP @ClaireCoutinho @HarrietCross_MP @drlukeevans @Ashley7Fox @ColinMoynihanUK @TiceRichard @DavidGHFrost @mattwridley @cmackinlay @Iromg @AllisonPearson @MerrynSW @EdConwaySky @afneil @mattotele @Jonathan__Leake @CitySamuel @neso_energy @neso_energy @ofgem
Stephen R Jones retweeted
In The Right Way I wrote that hospitals exist to make people better. Their success should be measured by how well they serve the people who depend on them, not by unrelated targets their managers have adopted.
A hospital where green targets ātook priority over the clinical requirementā has forgotten what itās for.
This is why the Conservatives will remove rules that encourage process and box ticking, like PSED and net zero targets, so public bodies have to concentrate on the job they exist to do.
Chilling piece about the QEUH, the Glasgow hospital with an unfortunate habit of killing its patients. This accusation is extraordinary and yet somehow also thoroughly unsurprising.
thetimes.com/magazines/the-sā¦
Stephen R Jones retweeted
The busiest job in Westminster is running after the PM with a dustpan and brush, sweeping up whatever he said five minutes earlier.
Implying the 2016 referendum was illegitimate, until the entire govt comms machine scrambled to clarify what he said. Opening up a Scottish referendum, which his team had to shut down. Telling the WASPI women they deserved recompense, only to backtrack.
Burnham is all over the place, making statements he clearly hasnāt thought through.
Stephen R Jones retweeted
Think strongly in PMās interest to nip in the bud the idea rejoin neednāt involve a second referendum. Public think it needs one, and risk for rejoin side is debate about mechanism for consent bleeds into debate about merits reinforcing arguments that rejoin is anti democratic
