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« I hope he was joking | Main | Come on down - Josh 291 »
Friday
Sep052014

Flint wins lowlife prize

If we are to have any hope of tackling spiralling energy bills, improving our country’s energy security and stopping dangerous climate change, we must vote to decarbonise the power sector by 2030.

Caroline Flint, shadow Energy & Climate Change Secretary, June 2013.

The future of Thoresby and Kellingley coal mines has now been in limbo for more than five months, which raises concerns about energy security. Both the Business Secretary and the previous Energy Minister, Michael Fallon, said that they were not open to supporting or providing state aid, but the new Minister of State has indicated in meetings that he may be open to state aid, so will the Secretary of State clear up once and for all whether the Government will consider providing it?

Caroline Flint, shadow Energy & Climate Change Secretary, September 2014.

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Reader Comments (21)

The woman is a danger to the future of this country. She hasn't a clue about energy.

Sep 5, 2014 at 11:45 AM | Registered CommenterPhillip Bratby

She's got one foot in the kitchen too.

Sep 5, 2014 at 11:51 AM | Unregistered CommenterJustice4Rinka

I always thought Caroline Flint was a woman cricketer.

Sep 5, 2014 at 11:52 AM | Registered Commenterdavidchappell

I have always hated watching her on question time - she is an extremely rude and arrogant person.

Sep 5, 2014 at 11:53 AM | Unregistered CommenterJack Cowper

Shameless. But then, a handful of honourable exceptions aside, they all are.

Sep 5, 2014 at 11:57 AM | Unregistered CommenterAgouts

BA in American Literature, History + Film Studies from the Uni of East Anglia. Makes a change from PP&E but not a particularly good one.

Sep 5, 2014 at 12:07 PM | Unregistered CommenterJamesG

No limbo for Thoresby, it's closing. The only question is exactly when next year.

Sep 5, 2014 at 12:23 PM | Unregistered CommenterAdam Gallon

Re-opening 'mothballed' coal mines, anyone - to feed those 'mothballed' generating plants..?

PS Anyone noticed (because I don't look at Gridwatch at three in the morning) if wind has sunk to - say - 0.1GW yet..? The lowest I've seen is 0.18...

(Lots of lovely blank space on the surface pressure charts over the UK/Western Europe in the next few days...)

Sep 5, 2014 at 1:28 PM | Unregistered Commentersherlock1

"Spin like Flint"

Sep 5, 2014 at 1:31 PM | Unregistered CommenterJud

I always thought Caroline Flint was a woman cricketer.

You're at risk of showing your age - Rachael Heyhoe Flint played in the English team from 1960 to 1982, i.e. 54 years ago to 32 years ago. She later became a (very entertaining) broadcaster and is now a Tory peer, Baroness Heyhoe Flint. Her politics are not mine but I hold her in high regard.

Caroline Flint? Well, not so much.

Sep 5, 2014 at 1:35 PM | Unregistered CommenterDaveB

Well taught by Milipede her boss for bare faced ignoring his Climate Change Act in current pronouncements, when is someone going to call him out.

Sep 5, 2014 at 1:39 PM | Unregistered CommenterBreath of Fresh Air

sherlock1
Most recent <100MW was 01-Aug-2014 ending at 23:50, which lasted about 40 minutes (according to downloaded data).
30?06/2014 - 01/07/2014 had a periods below that level totaling almost 4 hours.

Hope that helps.

Sep 5, 2014 at 2:11 PM | Unregistered CommenterSandyS

"I always thought Caroline Flint was a woman cricketer."

No, as mentioned that was Rachel Heyhoe Flint, the former England ladies cricket captain, who was once asked if women wear protective boxes and the answer was " Oh yes. We call them manhole-covers."

Sep 5, 2014 at 4:39 PM | Unregistered Commentergraphicconception

Phillip Bratby is right she hasn't a clue about energy. Along with Miliband and Eagle she is technically brainless, not very good at mental arithmetic either.
I thought the Labour party and the trade unions were all for helping the poor. Decarbonising will drive up prices, make industry uncompetitive - closing factories, push more people into fuel poverty.
Expensive energy diverts more income away from other necessities of life. The net result is a reduction in our overall standard of living.
The Indian Government have said they will keep on building coal fired power stations in order to improve the populations standard of living.

Sep 5, 2014 at 5:40 PM | Unregistered CommenterShieldsman

SandyS - thanks..!

Sep 5, 2014 at 5:47 PM | Unregistered Commentersherlock1

@Sherlock1: "PS Anyone noticed (because I don't look at Gridwatch at three in the morning) if wind has sunk to - say - 0.1GW yet..? The lowest I've seen is 0.18..."

Click the download link ( here: http://gridwatch.templar.co.uk/download.php ) and you can download data for every five minutes as far back as 2009. No need to stay up late.

Sep 5, 2014 at 11:02 PM | Unregistered CommenterDerek Sorensen

Derek Sorensen
I haven't managed to download that far back, even when selected, data only seems to go back to 27/05/2011. Although I didn't try loading data from 2009-2011 as it wasn't important to me at the time.

Sep 6, 2014 at 7:56 AM | Unregistered CommenterSandyS

@SandyS - you're right; my mistake.

Sep 6, 2014 at 8:11 AM | Unregistered CommenterDerek Sorensen

I hope this is not a case of grandmothers and sucking eggs.

It is necessary to be careful how many months of records you try to download.

If your Excel is pre-2007 (like mine!) you can only download about 7 months of data because the maximum number of rows (records) is 65,536 - this is about 7 months only (24 x 12 x 31 =8928 records/month, therefore, 65,536/8928 = 7.34 months of records).

If you try to download from 1 January 2014 to 6 September 2014 the records downloaded stop at 1 August 2014.

After 2007 Excel has over one million rows which accommodates more than 9 years of records.

You can find out how many rows your version of Excel supports by opening a blank spreadsheet and pressing "Crtl" + "down arrow" which tales you to the last row in the spreadsheet.

Hope this is useful for owners of ancient copies of Excel, but I stand ready to receive ridicule from more up-to-date readers.

Sep 6, 2014 at 9:50 AM | Unregistered CommenterBrownedoff

Come on, be fair.
She's obviously talking about non-carboniferous coal.

Actually it's bemusing but not entirely surprising that greenie types and those who pander to them are automatically opposed to mining or drilling but get all sentimental about mining once it's shut down, or threatened.

Sep 6, 2014 at 1:51 PM | Unregistered Commenterkellydown

How is she going to get round the EU Directive that we all have to stop mining/burning coal by 2018?
Just shameless politicking.

Sep 9, 2014 at 8:45 AM | Unregistered CommenterGrumpy

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