UK News and Discussions

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This is complete insanity. I hope it's challenged in the courts.

We should be developing hydrogen and other solutions to replace coking coal, instead of finding ways to further destabilise our climate.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63892381


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caltrek wrote: Mon Sep 26, 2022 1:03 pm Catholics Outnumber Protestants for First Time in Northern Ireland
by Dominic Glover
September 23, 2022

Introduction:
(Courthouse News) — Census results released on Thursday in the United Kingdom have revealed that Northern Ireland’s Catholic population now outnumbers the Protestant community for the first time in the country’s 101-year history.

According to the data collected last year nationwide, 45.7% of Northern Ireland’s population are Catholic or have a Catholic background. This compares to 43.4% stating they are Protestant or from a Protestant background.


Conclusion:
The (polling) data supports the view that the younger generation regard the debate over Northern Ireland’s status as a civil and political question, rather than pertaining to religious identity.

Such a shift is equally noticeable among Northern Ireland’s political parties. The new generation of Sinn Féin’s leadership have proved themselves willing to be far more critical of the Catholic Church’s historic influence over Ireland. Equally, public schisms between the Democratic Unionist Party and the Free Presbyterian Church – traditionally sister organizations both founded by the Reverend Ian Paisley – have become more common in recent years.

In short, Northern Ireland’s complicated and sensitive politics are increasingly hard to simply map onto religious identity. Though the demographic shift announced this week is hugely significant in terms of future political direction, it has also been a long time coming. The more uncertain decline of sectarianism is perhaps of greater importance, as it points towards a polity that can maintain cross-community relations and prevent a return to violence.
Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/catholi ... -ireland/
Here is something more indepth to add on this: -

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wjfox wrote: Wed Dec 07, 2022 6:47 pm This is complete insanity. I hope it's challenged in the courts.

We should be developing hydrogen and other solutions to replace coking coal, instead of finding ways to further destabilise our climate.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63892381


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Now that's a weird mine
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Great piece by James Murray, which totally and utterly demolishes the case for Woodhouse Colliery going ahead –

The incomplete list of costs that will result from this decision reads: higher carbon emissions at a time when the UK is already not on track to meet its legally binding climate targets; a signal to investors the government is not interested in the transition to a modern green steel industry; an increased global carbon capture and storage requirement; a stranded asset risk for investors; the undermining of the very concept of net zero emissions; and huge damage to the UK's international reputation and moral authority at future climate talks.


It is this last point that is arguably the worst. The UK has rightly been regarded as something of a leader in global climate circles. It has helped many other countries develop their own climate laws and net zero strategies based on the UK's pioneering model. British diplomats have invested countless hours in trying to convince governments with far more severe energy security and development challenges than the UK to eschew coal in favour of clean alternatives. And now this. As Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama asked this morning: "Is this the future we fought for under the Glasgow Pact? Fossil fuels should be phased OUT - not up."


In the face of this litany, what then are the benefits? The list is short. Given there is no obvious shortage of coking coal that needs rectifying and several UK steel firms have said they are unlikely to use the fuel, the main benefit is provided in the form of around 500 jobs in west Cumbria and exports that could lead to some short to medium term returns for Australian private equity investors. And it is in these jobs and exports that we find the main benefit for the government: the ability to paint the Opposition and other critics of the project as 'anti-growth'. The UK's credibility on the international stage and its economic competitiveness in the industries of the future is being sacrificed on the altar of short-term electoral triangulation in the service of the high priests of culture war polarisation.


The government could have provided Cumbria with a large-scale hydrogen hub, energy efficiency upgrades, and a revived nuclear industry. It could have provided the north of England with a functioning rail network, world leading zero carbon industrial hubs and green steelworks, and low-cost wind farms. It could have provided the UK with a clean tech blitz, energy security, and a green industrial revolution. Instead, having failed to deliver any of that, it served up 500 jobs digging up a fuel the world has to stop burning to avert catastrophe. It provided flat-lining wages and soaring energy bills. It provided international hypocrisy and an uncontestable sense that nothing works as well as it did a decade ago. It could have provided a beacon to the world, instead it torched its reputation.

UK coal mine approval: Is this the worst ever climate policy decision?

James Murray

08 December 2022

https://www.businessgreen.com/blog-post ... y-decision
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