Expensive Bikes To Be Banned From Cycle To Work Scheme
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
This is the sub-heading.
Rachel Reeves is said to be targeting rich commuters by limiting the amount you can claim for bike gear through salary sacrifice
These two paragraphs add some detail.
Workers could be banned from buying ultra-expensive bikes through salary sacrifice schemes amid government concerns that they are being exploited by “high earners in the Surrey Hills”.
The Treasury is understood to be considering limiting the generosity of the government’s Cycle to Work scheme, which allows employees to buy bikes and accessories through an interest-free loan from their employer.
Over the years, I’ve worked with many, who have cycled to work and in the early 1970s, I regularly cycled to my clients in London.
Rachel from Accounts seems to have a death wish for the electoral chances of the Labour Party.
EV Owners To Pay London Congestion Charge From January 2026
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
I asked, Google AI, who will pay the Congestion Charge and received this answer.
Most drivers of petrol or diesel vehicles must pay the London Congestion Charge when driving within the central zone during charging hours. Exemptions apply to those with specific vehicles, such as motorcycles, emergency vehicles, and breakdown service vehicles, as well as individuals with disabilities who have a Blue Badge and are in the “disabled” tax class. Some groups, like residents who applied before August 2020, also receive a significant discount.
Note that the Congestion Charge will increase from £15 a day to £18 a day on January 2.
I can’t see the Labour Party winning the next London elections.
Did Hydrogen Lose Labour The Runcorn And Helsby By-Election
I used to work in the Castner-Kellner works at ICI Runcorn, where hydrogen is produced using electrolysis in the Castner-Kellner process.
That process used a lot of mercury and wasn’t good for the health of the workforce. One of my jobs was to develop instruments to detect mercury in air, blood and urine.
I believe the mercury-based process to produce chlorine, with the hydrogen as a by-product has now been replaced with a membrane-based mercury-free process.
Consider.
- The same plant still produces a large proportion of the hydrogen we use in the UK.
- The Runcorn plant is now owned by INEOS, which in turn is owned by tax-exile and Brexiteer ; Jim Ratcliffe.
- I doubt, Mr. Ratcliffe is a supporter of the Labour Party.
- The big promoters of hydrogen are the Bamfords and their companies ; JCB, Ryse and Wrightbus, who are not considered companies that Labour would support.
- Although, Wrightbus seem to have had some political support lately.
- Google AI can’t find any details on Reform UK’s or Nigel Farage’s views on hydrogen.
- Ed Miliband hasn’t shown himself to be very knowledgeable about hydrogen.
- This article on the BBC is entitled Ellesmere Port Hydrogen Heating Trial Scrapped After Protests.
It strikes me, that if one candidate had got a grip on the hydrogen issue, then there would have been a different result in the by-election.
Government ‘Committed’ To Banning Trail Hunting
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the sub heading.
The government has committed to a trail hunting ban as hunts gather across the UK for traditional Boxing Day meets.
These three paragraphs introduce the article.
Trail hunting – a practice where a scent is laid out for the hunt to follow – was introduced as a “cruelty free” replacement for fox hunting, banned by Labour in 2004.
Animal rights campaigners have urged the government to deliver on its manifesto promise to ban trail hunting.
The Countryside Alliance, which represents hunters, has criticised the decision, and said it would be “extraordinary” for Labour to focus on the ban given the poor state of its relations with rural communities.
Hunting of all forms and that includes shooting and angling is not a simple black-and-white issue and it supports the employment of large numbers of people.
So if you ban hunting, where do you stop?
Some at the extreme, would ban all sports involving animals and make their eating and use for clothing and other products illegal.
Was Gordon Brown Partially Responsible For Labour’s Defeat In The 2019 General Election?
When automatic enrolment into pensions came in, I was very much in favour, as I feel everybody should have a pension.
There is a section called Automatic Enrolment in the Wikipedia entry called Pensions in the United Kingdom.
If you read the section, this is the last paragraph.
Between the introduction of auto enrolment and April 2016, “the overall proportion of eligible employees saving into a workplace pension increased from 55% to 78%” with the largest increases found in the private sector.
Consider.
- When I started work in the 1960s, the average man and the few women on the factory floor weren’t very well educated. But now, they are much more likely to have a few good qualifications.
- Most too will be computer-savvy to a level, that would have been unimaginable to their forerunners in the 1960s.
- Newpapers too, from the Sun and the Mirror to the Times, \guardian, Telegraph and FT, now offer easy-to-read financial advice to help everyone manage their money better.
Many working people today have a pension, that although some didn’t want it, they probably feel could be a help in retirement.
So did Labour’s reckless or ambitious spending plans, frighten many of their traditional supporters?
They certainly frightened me!
Would the election result have been different, if Gordon Brown hadn’t started the modern pension with the Pensions Act of 2008 and had left well enough alone?
As my quote said earlier in 2016, just over three-quarters of eligible employees are saving into a workplace pension.
Some may have been subscribing for over ten years now and they will feel protective of that amount pf money!
I’m Fed Up With Former Or Current Labour MPs Saying They Feel Sorry For Their Constituents
They feel sorry, that everybody will now have at least five years of a Tory government.
But surely, these former and current MPs are partly to blame.
Many of my friends, who have been Labour supporters for decades have kept reminding me of the state of the Labour Party for some time and have just given up.
Many of these MPs now feeling sorry, must have know about the incompetents at the top and their suicidal policies that don’t work.
So why didn’t they change the leadership, which even now seems reluctant to go?
But then Marxists don’t resign like other incompetents.
Jeremy Corbyn: ‘I Will Not Lead Labour At Next Election’
This quote of Jeremy Corbyn is the title of this article on the BBC.
This is the first three paragraphs.
Jeremy Corbyn has said he will not lead Labour into the next election, following a “very disappointing night” for his party.
He said he would stay on as leader during a “process of reflection” on the result, which a BBC forecast says will be its worst for decades.
He added that the issue of Brexit had “polarised” politics and “overridden so much of normal political debate”.
The article also says others in Labour, blame his leadership.
Corbyn should realise that his ultra-Marxist agenda and fence-sitting on Brexit, has been overwhelmingly rejected by the electorate.
He should resign now and retire to his allotment.
But then Marxists don’t resign, they hang on and make matters worse!
Do The British Like Marxism?
If the Exit Poll produced by the BBC, ITV and Sky is correct, the Tories will have a majority of 86.
In the General Election of 1983, Michael Foot, who was not as far to the left as Jeremy Corbyn won 209 seats.
The Exit Poll is showing that Corbyn will win only 191 seats.
I don’t think the British public like Marxism, especially when it comes from someone in London, who went to a posh school.
Labour Pledges To Cut Rail Fares By A Third
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the first two paragraphs.
Labour has announced plans to slash rail fares by 33% and simplify ticket prices for part-time workers if it wins the election on 12 December.
The party also wants to make train travel free for young people under the age of 16 and build a central online booking portal with no booking fees.~
In other reports on the Internet, the cost is given at £1.5 billion and it would be paid for from existing transport budgets. Really!
Labour’s plan would have two immediate effects.
- More people would be using the trains and there would a need for much more investment to provide the extra capacity
- But the train companies would be unprofitable and would hand the franchises back, as they would effectively be bankrupt.
The government would probably want that, but would Bombardier, CAF, Siemens et al continue to supply the new trains needed to British Rail at prices determined by the government?
This Labour proposal has echoes of Saddiq Khan’s fare freeze to get elected as London Mayor, which has caused investment in London’s transport system to be delayed or cancelled.
The Old Order Changeth Yielding Place To New
Two dinosaurs; the Labour Party and the motor industry, got big shocks yesterday.
But both are trying to live in the past with CEOs, who still think that we’re in the 1960s.
This morning, my message read out on Wake Up To Money was this.
I don’t drive any more, but the future is electric and the UK is blessed with a position and a climate to become one of the first countries to power most vehicles with renewables. Vehicle manufacturers must change or die!
Our renewable electricity generation infrastructure is growing apace and in the last few days, the world’s largest offshore wind farm opened, as reported in this article on the BBC, which is entitled First Power From World’s Biggest Offshore Wind Farm.
The Hornsea Wind Farm will have a generating capacity of 6 GW. This is nearly twice as large a capacity as the troubled Hinckley Point C nuclear power station.
But whereas Hinckley Point C will produce continuous power, Hornsea will only produce power when the wind blows.
The National Grid are tasked with keeping the lights on and I agree with them, that energy storage is the solution.
- There are 25,000,000 homes in the UK. If every house in the UK was fitted with a 10 kWh storage battery, that would be a capacity of 250 GWH.
- There are 30,000,000 cars in the UK. If every car in the UK was electric and had a 30 kWh battery, that would be a capacity of 900 GWH.
These are very large numbers and just as the Internet passes data all around the UK and the world, the UK’s National Grid will access all these batteries to store energy, when perhaps the wind is blowing at night and retrieve it when there is a high demand.
On a domestic level, you may have an electric car and a battery in your house, with perhaps solar panels on the roof.
- At night and on sunny days, your batteries will be charged.
- At times of high demand, your stored energy may be sold back to the grid.
- Controlling it all would be an intelligent computer system, which would make sure that your car always had enough charge and you had enough energy for the house.
The problem is that nearly all of our houses and cars don’t fit this model.
The proposed closure of the Honda plant is Swindon, is the first of the many casualties in car manufacturing, that will surely happen.
More by luck, than judgement, when I moved to London after my stroke, I bought a house with the following features.
- Low energy consumption.
- A flat roof, that is now covered in solar panels.
- A garage, that would be suitable for an electric car. Although, I don’t drive, the next owner of this house, probably will.
Millions of houses in this country should be demolished and the land used for new houses that fit the modern age.
The Labour Party is living in the 1960s and Corbyn and McDonell still believe that the Robin Hood approach of stealing from the rich and giving it to the poor, is still the way to go.
But these days, most people want to be responsible for themselves. This is why there has been such a growth in people in the gig economy like Uber, Deliveroo and County Lines.
Everybody wants to take control of their lives and their own micro-economy. That is why I left a safe job at ICI in 1969, at the age of just twenty-two.
Like me, those who start their own successful business don’t want government to come along and use it on pet projects that always seem to fail.
Most politicians and especially Labour ones have never done a real job in their lives and Labour’s defections will hopefully be the first of many from all political parties.
I hope that February 18th 2019, will be remembered as the day when two dinosaurs realised they needed to change their spots.
But they won’t change willingly!
However!
- Companies and individuals will soon be buying electric vehicles in large numbers and only buying diesel and petrol ones, where there is no alternative.
- Voters will not vote for policies that stink of the past, that don’t fit their micro-economy.
There will also be a lot of unsaleable houses and second-hand cars!
The Anonymous Widower 