Meanwhile in Scotland, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners are about to build the three largest battery energy storage plants in Europe.... to utilise Scotland abundance of surplus renewable energy, and the good interconnectivity in Scotland.
This looks like great news and a major further proof of concept for storage plus renewables to be able to deal with peak demand....
Lets hope this works well!
#Scotland #renewables #energy
h/t FT
How badly to investors view the UK?
For the 9th running there's been a £multi-billion outflow from funds with a UK focus.
As the FTSE continues to 'under-perform' relative to other indices investors are moving their money, mostly to passive globally focussed funds (often excluding the UK).
Certainly, one might argue that such portfolio investment is beside the point, but it impacts on the ability to raise initial investments (due to projections of returns)!
#investment
h/t Investment Week
Ah, yes but they are 'languishing' not because they don't want to work, but because we won't let them.... it would be difficult to make the case that there is mass migration to the UK when one looks at the numbers migrating to other countries, or migrants as a proportion of total population....
Its not rocket science.... as Joshua Fullard (Warwick Business School) points out:
'If the government wants to recruit more teachers & keep existing ones in the profession, it needs to make teaching a financially attractive option for talented professionals. Not just by offering competitive starting salaries & bursaries, but ensuring that salaries remain competititive throughout their professional lives'!
Current pay proposals just don't do that!
#teachers #schools
Despite the rhetoric on immigration, the UK is highly dependent on working migrants;
But are these jobs are being 'stolen' from UK workers (as the anti-migration rhotic has it) or do they allow the UK to maintain a workforce that responds to an ageing population (& more problematically, a dependence on low-wage work).
For Labour policy, it may be difficult to keep economic activity going & crack down on net migration!
A shift away from anti-migrant rhetoric would be good!
#migrants #workers
As with all good conspiracy stories the fact that both Reform & Elon Musk have denied he is considering giving the party $100m to fight the next election in the UK, merely confirms the likelihood of it happening for many commentators.
Certainly Labour are scrambling to tighten up rules on foreign donations to political parties, but if Musk wants to give Farage money, he'll likely find a way... so can we expect Reform's already toxic political profile to become even more toxic?
#politics
Looking at the real & present danger presented by the Far Right, as Jonathan Freedland points out; the simple fact is: 'Labour will only win another term if the lived & felt experience of Britons gets better'...
Whatever, you think of Labour, and many on Mastodon are (at the very least) uncomfortable with things they have already done & not done since winning the election, there are worse things than the current Labour Govt.... and not just the Tories!
#politics
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/06/labour-government-keir-starmer-nigel-farage
now edited for accuracy, thanks for reminding me (although I know I am a serial offender)
If you, like me, have managed to resist the constant badgering on the Google home page to switch to Chrome, it looks like you/we are in the minority....
One more area where Google's monopolistic urges are evident....
I'm guessing Safari users (on Macs) & Firefox users account for much of the residual?
#internet #browsers
h/t FT/Lex for the chart
I see that in the range of metaphors being used to characterise Elon Musk's relations with President Elect Donald Trump, perhaps unsurprisingly given the miss-step at Space X recently, the tale of Icarus is gaining a little traction (where Musk is the boy with the handbuilt wings, of course, and naturally Trump is the sun).
So will Musk find his new friend is not so keen now the election is won - time will tell
#USPol
In the FT, DeAnne Julius (one time member of the BoE/MPC) is warning that a combination of lower output, higher unemployment & rising input prices (all of which she observes in the UK) could lead to the return of 'stagflation'.... and as such is warning the MPC that it should not be considering lowering interest rates further (although its not clear it was).
In other words; the sado-monetarists now conveniently have another reason to keep your mortgage rates high(er).
#inflation #InterestRates
By some accounts Robert Frank's photobook The Americans changed photography for ever.
If you've not seen it here is a section with some contextual captions from The Guardian & you can judge for yourself.
Might be just what you need this Friday?
#photography
You may say we have a new Govt. but if there is to be a change in the level of humanity in how we deal with migrants, its doesn't seem to ave reached either the Home Office or Border Force....
#Migrants #HomeOffice
Hell is not finding that elusive book even though you're sure your bookshop (surely) must have a copy....
as always Tom Gauld raises a smile
#books nostr:npub1kt3hutklgrma64ykjwk4trxq9rtyfnxhkjz729g4pd9xl7hzhrjse75004
#bookshops
Hmmm.... as applicants turn to AI to help write their job applications & employers start to expand the use of AI in sorting applicants, what could possibly go wrong?
The FT calls it an 'arms race', all I see I see is the likely further expansion of risk adverse appointments & the expansion of prejudice hidden within supposedly neutral AI systems.
This will not go well!
#employment #racism #AI
Q. what to make of Denise Coates (head of Bet365)?
She's one of Britain's richest people, yet most of her wages go through Bet365's payroll making her one the UK's largest tax-payers; she support (extensively) a range of charities & invests widely in the local economy....
But, of course, her firm revolutionised gambling & for many compounded the social problems associated with gambling addiction.
If you want to think about it further try this long read.
#gambling
nostr:npub1shdead6zc225cxlyev5z2q9plj3u60u5qay38q8ajgwmet5mygjqhwyzwy
Well, as I understand it a strike is a refusal or withdrawn of work while under contract.... when the contract ends & no new one is in place, that is not a withdrawal of labour its the end of the contract..... indeed, the employers have been trying to get a negotiated extension to the contract while talks continue, but the unions refused... hence, no contract & so no legal agreement to work at all.
Interestingly the walk-out by dock-workers in the USA (across a range of ports on the East coast) is being presented as a 'strike, but, as far as I can see its workers refusing to work without a contract.
Negotiations for a new contract (which deals with concerns about low pay & how automation is expanded) continue, but as the existing contract ended on Monday night, surely workers refusing to continue working is not a strike, it is a reasonable refusal to work without a contract?
#USpol
In the end if artificial intelligence is the 'answer' then the wrong question is being asked....
If your question is how can Big Tech consolidate & expand its power & influence, then yes, the answer might be AI;
But that is not a Q. we really want to consider; the real Q. is how do we reign in & constrain the harmful actions of big tech.... and you know what; AI isn't the answer to that question!.
#artificialintelligence #AI #BigTech
Aha, we're back in the world of serial announcements...
Rachel Reeves has now added to her previously announced commitment to halve the number of consultants used by Govt. departments, a requirement for top civil servant or ministerial sign-off on contracts.... err, surely that would have already have been happening (or should have been)?
In any case, we can expect announcement the third when the Autumn Budget includes the posited £1bn as part of her budgetary projections.
#politics
h/t FT