Published in the Daily Mail Letters, Friday 5th October
NEXT year Didcot Power Station will close to comply with the European Large Combustion Plant Directive. This is a strategic error that will cause economic and energy insecurity. Next year Oxfordshire will lose half of its power supply. This looming energy gap, due to decentralisation of energy production, could cripple industry in a disturbing echo of the 1979 ‘winter of discontent’. Look around your home or business and estimate how many electrical appliances you will need to throw away in order to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in energy use. No more electric guitars, computer games, kitchen gadgets, electric blankets or fast internet; the list is simply endless. There is a predicted energy deficit of around 10-16 GW by 2015 due to power station closures, which may lead to power cuts if 50 per cent household energy savings are not made. We are gaily walking headlong into disaster. Investment in wind technology alone will cost the taxpayer £200bn in the near future. OFGEM also estimates that £200bn of investment is needed for new infrastructure in the National Grid to prevent power cuts in the UK. In total at least £400-500bn more investment is needed to keep the lights on! Not including new nuclear power. This is a lot of money in times of austerity. The UK Is investing the gargantuan sum of money in order to prevent a hypothesised rise in temperatures. We are committing ourselves to the most stringent of carbon emissions in the entire world due to our unique 2008 Climate Change Act which was enacted by Ed Miliband when he was Climate Secretary. This money will also have to come from hard-working taxpayers. Consumers will be paying more for their green electricity tariffs yet receiving less energy for their money. Countries that do not need to comply with this European directive, such as China, are becoming increasingly prosperous while Europe is becoming bankrupt.
This article was plagiarised by journalist David Rose, who also lives in East Oxford, who turned to use all the key concepts to write a full length feature for the Mail on Sunday. I also submitted a full length feature to the Daily Mail on this subject and they cut it very short.
Sunday 28 October 2012
Green movement is bankrupting Europe
Published Oxford Mail, Wednesday 3rd October 2012
NEXT year Didcot Power Station will close to comply with the European Large Combustion Plant Directive. This is a strategic error that will cause economic and energy insecurity. Next year Oxfordshire will lose half of its power supply. This looming energy gap, due to decentralisation of energy production, could cripple industry in a disturbing echo of the 1979 ‘winter of discontent’. Look around your home or business and estimate how many electrical appliances you will need to throw away in order to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in energy use. No more electric guitars, computer games, kitchen gadgets, electric blankets or fast internet; the list is simply endless. There is a predicted energy deficit of around 10-16 GW by 2015 due to power station closures, which may lead to power cuts if 50 per cent household energy savings are not made. We are gaily walking headlong into disaster. Investment in wind technology alone will cost the taxpayer £200bn in the near future. OFGEM also estimates that £200bn of investment is needed for new infrastructure in the National Grid to prevent power cuts in the UK. In total at least £400-500bn more investment is needed to keep the lights on! Not including new nuclear power. This is a lot of money in times of austerity. The UK Is investing the gargantuan sum of money in order to prevent a hypothesised rise in temperatures. We are committing ourselves to the most stringent of carbon emissions in the entire world due to our unique 2008 Climate Change Act which was enacted by Ed Miliband when he was Climate Secretary. This money will also have to come from hard-working taxpayers. Consumers will be paying more for their green electricity tariffs yet receiving less energy for their money. Countries that do not need to comply with this European directive, such as China, are becoming increasingly prosperous while Europe is becoming bankrupt.
NEXT year Didcot Power Station will close to comply with the European Large Combustion Plant Directive. This is a strategic error that will cause economic and energy insecurity. Next year Oxfordshire will lose half of its power supply. This looming energy gap, due to decentralisation of energy production, could cripple industry in a disturbing echo of the 1979 ‘winter of discontent’. Look around your home or business and estimate how many electrical appliances you will need to throw away in order to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in energy use. No more electric guitars, computer games, kitchen gadgets, electric blankets or fast internet; the list is simply endless. There is a predicted energy deficit of around 10-16 GW by 2015 due to power station closures, which may lead to power cuts if 50 per cent household energy savings are not made. We are gaily walking headlong into disaster. Investment in wind technology alone will cost the taxpayer £200bn in the near future. OFGEM also estimates that £200bn of investment is needed for new infrastructure in the National Grid to prevent power cuts in the UK. In total at least £400-500bn more investment is needed to keep the lights on! Not including new nuclear power. This is a lot of money in times of austerity. The UK Is investing the gargantuan sum of money in order to prevent a hypothesised rise in temperatures. We are committing ourselves to the most stringent of carbon emissions in the entire world due to our unique 2008 Climate Change Act which was enacted by Ed Miliband when he was Climate Secretary. This money will also have to come from hard-working taxpayers. Consumers will be paying more for their green electricity tariffs yet receiving less energy for their money. Countries that do not need to comply with this European directive, such as China, are becoming increasingly prosperous while Europe is becoming bankrupt.
Thursday 6 September 2012
Letters RSS Feed
Cheated out of the grade she deserved
10:00am Wednesday 5th September 2012 in Letters
THERE has been widespread controversy regarding the English GCSE
results and some headteachers are quite incensed about the alleged
manipulated marking.
My daughter has received her English results and was pleased to get an A grade. This excellent result was mainly due to an inspiring English teacher at Cheney School, a Ms Corinna Swift.
However, there is a caveat to this happy tale. My daughter’s coursework was all graded at A* level and the only reason her final result was an A rather than an A* was that, inexplicably, her poetry exam was graded as a paltry C.
Even before the furore erupted, my daughter was muttering that “something fishy is going on here.” She felt certain that her poetry would be the best result as she had annotated every single poem and was very confident that she had achieved at least an A in this paper. She also writes excellent poems.
I believe that examiners have deliberately marked down the poetry paper in order to deprive my daughter of her much coveted A* grade. This was cynically done to fulfil a government directive that fewer A* grades be awarded this summer to curb grade inflation.
So my daughter has fallen victim to a political experiment because of Michael Gove’s pompous assertions that GCSEs are too easy and need to be marked more stiffly. He is vainly deluding himself that O levels were harder than GCSEs in order to massage his inflated ego.
I have looked at the papers and they are, if anything, harder than my O level exams. The marking yardstick was changed from the January exam date, whereby my daughter would have secured her A* grade. We have demanded a remark of the poetry paper by AQA because of the manipulated marking and I urge any other parents to do the same if they feel suspicious.
SUSAN THOMAS, Magdalen Road, Oxford
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Cheated out of the grade she deserved
10:00am Wednesday 5th September 2012 in Letters
THERE has been widespread controversy regarding the English GCSE
results and some headteachers are quite incensed about the alleged
manipulated marking.
My daughter has received her English results and was pleased to get an A grade. This excellent result was mainly due to an inspiring English teacher at Cheney School, a Ms Corinna Swift.
However, there is a caveat to this happy tale. My daughter’s coursework was all graded at A* level and the only reason her final result was an A rather than an A* was that, inexplicably, her poetry exam was graded as a paltry C.
Even before the furore erupted, my daughter was muttering that “something fishy is going on here.” She felt certain that her poetry would be the best result as she had annotated every single poem and was very confident that she had achieved at least an A in this paper. She also writes excellent poems.
I believe that examiners have deliberately marked down the poetry paper in order to deprive my daughter of her much coveted A* grade. This was cynically done to fulfil a government directive that fewer A* grades be awarded this summer to curb grade inflation.
So my daughter has fallen victim to a political experiment because of Michael Gove’s pompous assertions that GCSEs are too easy and need to be marked more stiffly. He is vainly deluding himself that O levels were harder than GCSEs in order to massage his inflated ego.
I have looked at the papers and they are, if anything, harder than my O level exams. The marking yardstick was changed from the January exam date, whereby my daughter would have secured her A* grade. We have demanded a remark of the poetry paper by AQA because of the manipulated marking and I urge any other parents to do the same if they feel suspicious.
SUSAN THOMAS, Magdalen Road, Oxford
Comments (1)
12:30pm Wed 5 Sep 12
the wizard
says...
Sorry to read your story and
hear of your dismay, but be warned this is yet another dirty tricks by H
M Gov to manipulate the public that they will have their way and "O"
levels will return. That long, long, long belief by the likes of
Double-Dip Dave and his cronies, and beware Grammar Schools will be
making a come back as well, as those most vaulted of Tory institutions
will re-appear at the profound cost of the working classes, promoting a
bigger rift and divide in society. The next step will be graduation to
Uni being made progressively harder, and then only from Grammar Schools,
in their new form.
This is just the beginning, the thin end of a long wedge. Cam will only deny it but the signs of this are all there, and to deny it, is folly and short sighted. This lot are all for themselves, hence despite all the promises the Financial Institutions which placed us where we are have been allowed to continue almost unabated and the rich just continue to grow richer.
This is just the beginning, the thin end of a long wedge. Cam will only deny it but the signs of this are all there, and to deny it, is folly and short sighted. This lot are all for themselves, hence despite all the promises the Financial Institutions which placed us where we are have been allowed to continue almost unabated and the rich just continue to grow richer.
Saturday 18 August 2012
Take a fairer approach
10:00am Friday 17th August 2012 in Letters
I HAVE to agree with Green Party spokesman Cllr Craig Simmons’s
economic calculations regarding the Temple Cowley Swimming Pool.
He is probably correct in stating that it is more cost effective to save the Temple Pool than to get rid of this much-loved facility.
Although I fully appreciate that deprived areas such as Blackbird Leys deserve extra investment in leisure facilities, I feel that the needs of Temple Cowley and east Oxford residents deserve equal consideration.
The city council needs to adopt a fairer and more balanced approach here instead of favouring one particular electoral ward at the expense of other wards.
Interestingly, my youngest son came home from school one day and said that he is upset with Oxford Labour as they want to shut his favourite pool! Clearly even 11-year-olds are getting involved in this political debate at school.
The Green Party secured an exceptionally high vote in the Temple Cowley Ward last May for this very reason.
Let us hope that a very long stay of execution will be granted for the much-loved Temple Cowley Swimming Pool and that a fairer approach is adopted by the city council regarding leisure facilities.
Magdalen Road
Oxford
Comments (2)
1:20pm Fri 17 Aug 12
Sid Hunt
says...
"deprived areas such as
Blackbird Leys" - 'deprived area' seems to be en vogue currently
appearing in several letters to the OM. Can any of the claimants
actually substantiate the 'deprived area' claims?
7:56pm Fri 17 Aug 12
mytaxes
says...
Why is it a "deprived area",
what about the other areas in Oxford that are getting less and less for
their council tax? How much will council tax increase next year to pay
for their madcap schemes?
Post a commen
Thursday 2 August 2012
Oxford Politics
We’ve made it worse
6:02pm Monday 16th July 2012 in Letters
RECENTLY the Taliban executed a young woman for adultery in line with the strict Sharia law in Afghanistan.
Ironically, Sharia Law is now prevalent in Libya thanks to the monumental incompetence of our Foreign Secretary William Hague.
Under the democratic regime of deposed Gadaffi, Libya had exemplary rights for women.
Indeed I would go as far to say that Colonel Gadaffi was a good leader.
Under his rule, Libyans had free university education and free electricity.
Even the unemployed were entitled to receive a comparable wage as that of a working person. Women had full and equal rights.
Gadaffi was correct in saying that the rebels were Al Qaeda.
William Hague was the prime instigator of the military action. He fancies himself as a Rambo action man.
There are those who believe that Gadaffi was behind Lockerbie or the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher.
There is no proper forensic proof to corroborate either of these theories.
The shots that killed the WPC could not possibly have come from the Libyan embassy.
Gadaffi was smeared and used as a fall guy.
His son also gave millions of pounds to the LSE.
Our Government has cocked up by killing Gadaffi and enabling repressive Sharia law to take the place of the democracy.
Libya is a mess now thanks to William Hague.
Well done idiots in the Foreign Office. You have excelled yourselves again.
SUSAN THOMAS,
Magdalen Road,
Oxford
Zaxharias Ziegla says...
Though time prevents menton of them all, I should have thought Gaddafi's choice of friends rather gave his game away.
Back in the 1960s there was Jean-Bedel Bokasser 1 of Central Africa; later Charles Taylor of Liberia (tried and convicted for crimes against humanity at the Hague); and more recently that charming fellow 'Bob' Mugabe.
Perhaps Susan is hoping for a script witer's job with The Now Show?
Back in the 1960s there was Jean-Bedel Bokasser 1 of Central Africa; later Charles Taylor of Liberia (tried and convicted for crimes against humanity at the Hague); and more recently that charming fellow 'Bob' Mugabe.
Perhaps Susan is hoping for a script witer's job with The Now Show?
7:16pm Tue 17 Jul 12
Fantomas
says...
"The shots that killed the WPC could not possibly have come from the Libyan embassy"
If you have any new evidence, (not conspiracy theories) pertaining to this then I hope that you'll bring them to the proper authorities.
If you have any new evidence, (not conspiracy theories) pertaining to this then I hope that you'll bring them to the proper authorities.
10:51am Wed 18 Jul 12
Megs
says...
I worked, on women's issues,
during the 1990s, in countries where there was Sharia Law. Some have
recently seen revolutions and some military action from foreign
organisations and countries. I can assure Susan Thomas that extreme,
unacceptable behaviour towards women, for which Sharia law may have been
used as the excuse, existed in many of these countries and certainly
predates the UK's & it's allies interventions in the cases she
mentions, of Afghanistan and Libya. Further, the women I have worked
with in such countries know that freedom from dictatorship is a
fundamental aspect of human dignity. They have not been ignorant the
fate they might face if dictatorship is removed and tentative democracy
introduced; but is it not perhaps conceivable that they might like to
engage in the battle for their own rights in their own nation rather
than have some Susan Thomas blethering on about how much better it all
was before, under the old regime?
Sunday 8 July 2012
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This is just the beginning, the thin end of a long wedge. Cam will only deny it but the signs of this are all there, and to deny it, is folly and short sighted. This lot are all for themselves, hence despite all the promises the Financial Institutions which placed us where we are have been allowed to continue almost unabated and the rich just continue to grow richer.