So I actually learnt some interesting stuff about data centre energy demand last night (anecdotal but well sourced)… - Data centre demand does vary over time, but the “always on” issue means they have a not-trivial baseload need (low confidence) - New grid connections AND grid reliability…

I was just perusing a map of my hometown and… turns out Chester Cathedral (Grade 1 obv) has solar panels! chestercathedral.com/news/solar-p...

Good thread this, and the trade offs are real. But I can’t help but feel that in every choice, one of the options is clearly aligned with Trump’s America and one… isn’t?

Running thread of difficult high level industrial strategy issues the government is expected to get a grip on 1. Energy and AI. Should they prioritise the data centre industry's needs when it comes to new nuclear, restarting gas etc? newsroom.observer.co.uk/cr/AQjcjBUQw...

I read the new Lib Dem policy paper on climate change last week*, and it is genuinely excellent. The proposals are credible and ambitious, and clearly informed by good quality research. www.libdems.org.uk/conference/p...

Something I learnt: Not only is using “Aryan” to mean “white” completely historically illiterate (not that surprising)… … “Aryan” was used by the Persian Emperor Darius I in the 520s BC to bolster his (dubious) claim to the throne

We should definitely bring back follow friday, but we should also bring back starter packs! This is mine - the name hasn’t aged all that well, but the people on it are great go.bsky.app/7314iHd

It’s taken me about a year and a half to get here, but I think the English Teacher record (This Could Be Texas) is in fact one of the best albums of the 2020s. It’s not exactly easy listening, but it gets better and better each time. Just bursting with creativity

Been helping to clear out my father-in-law’s study (for a house move) today. It’s a treasure trove. Here’s something for the YIMBYs

Really good Inside Politics newsletter by @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social this morning, with everything you need to know about Andy Burnham’s leadership credentials. On how he rides “two entirely contradictory political horses” - in Greater Manchester and Westminster ep.ft.com/permalink/em...

The headlines — £31bn in investment, new jobs, faster medical treatments — sound almost too good to be true. What are we giving up in return? Me in @theguardian.com on today's US-UK Tech Deal: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Oh my goodness, how did no one tell me The Beta Band had got back together?

Bemusing as a European to see this argument being used in the USA - which makes up a big share of global carbon emissions, is highly exposed to climate change and has relatively cheap energy

This is a fascinating / depressing story - a novel take on how bad our land use system is. This boat was apparently a “ransom strip” preventing a new development - and the Council paid £1.4m so they could remove it. Incredible that the council couldn’t just revoke the mooring right

Just to try and do some semi-serious maths on this… what would have to be true for AI to boost the economy by 10% in 5 years? There are two routes it could plausibly do this: 1. Raising productivity 2. Boosting demand via additional investment

I reckon a lot of people are answering this without thinking about coffee. (It’s D for me)

Investing in Andrew Sissons could boost the economy in 5 years, says Andrew Sissons

Question: are there any reliable estimates for how energy use by data centres varies through the day? I read a lot about them needing to be on 24/7, but does energy demand stay constant through the day? Or does it fluctuate with demand? And how does this compare to the rest of the grid?

We often forget that the UK is a big outlier: our welfare state is almost all redistribution (not social insurance). People in other countries know that high earners face real economic risks - it's why they support the welfare state!

I was sad to hear this, as a former Cities and Local Growth Unit official. It was a good structure I thought - spanning two government departments and combining local and national teams. Maybe it had run its course (I genuinely don’t know), but we got a lot of stuff done in 2015/16

The proposal is that mutual recognition will be used to reduce approval times, it's just a weird way of phrasing it. So if the Americans sign off a design, it'll count as UK regulatory approval too, and vice versa.

Catching up with this trail of a UK - US deal on nuclear. I have three questions I guess: 1. What does speeding up regulatory approval from four years to two actually involve? Has the government done any risk assessments around that? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The backdrop to Trump’s state sounds extremely challenging, even putting aside Mandelson’s departure. You’ve got the US pressuring the UK over drug prices, as pharma companies cancel investments in the UK… on.ft.com/460qSbw

The backdrop to Trump’s state sounds extremely challenging, even putting aside Mandelson’s departure. You’ve got the US pressuring the UK over drug prices, as pharma companies cancel investments in the UK… on.ft.com/460qSbw

Barclays and Tax. It’s complicated. But at least they disclose the information. The spin from the CEO is very unhelpful. This might be a 🧵! All numbers in £millions. Big picture. Globally they make 8,108 profit before tax. Total tax paid is 2,891. Or 35.65%. 1/4

I’m sure it’s more complicated than this, but… those numbers do not add up to 46%. (From the FT’s lead story about the CEO of Barclays calling for no new bank taxes and public sector wage restraint) on.ft.com/4nkUnKI

This is a harrowing read about Darrian Williams, a teenage boy who was murdered earlier this year in Bristol www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Just got home from a smart work event and my daughter put on my suit jacket and work shoes and pretended to be me at work. She said: “We need more heat pumps. We need to work on the heat pump project.” Ouch!

Tired: build a tram in Leeds Wired: flood the city with Lime bikes

As someone who has been Extremely Online for more than 25 yrs, whose working life is one long hunt for weak signals/what's next, my advice for folks in the UK who don't really need to be on top of the news on an ongoing basis is to spend some regular time tuning out over the next few days

I’m absolutely fascinated by weight loss medications Short term effects & ripples of change from individuals to supermarkets, restaurants & culture It could be a minor ripple or a cascade of dominoes creating widespread changes Here’s my research & thoughts! priteshmistry.ghost.io/jabs-waistli...

Remarkable story here about electricity on the island of Sark costing £1.13 per kWh (more than 4 times what it costs in Britain). It features: - A severely ageing electricity grid - Diesel generators galore - A levy to cover the electricity company's legal costs over an attempt to nationalise it

Totally agree with David on this. The government’s approach to growth looks more and more like Heseltinism - and will be even more so if the workers’ rights plans are watered down

Somewhat sensationalist headline here obscures some really interesting research - which tallies with other available tracking data - on shifting attitudes to climate in the UK. Below are a few quick thoughts on how to understand this, in my view 👇 t.co/gDqlQgQBHn

One of the grimly amusing things about all the post reshuffle talk is the (mostly anonymous) people saying “I would simply cut energy bills”. As if Ed Miliband is guarding the lever marked “cut energy bills” and refusing to let anyone pull it

Made an annotated / simplified version of the OBR chart on tax as a share of GDP since 1997. I've used the October 2024 forecast to show the ~1% of GDP difference between Reeves' and Hunt's plans... public.flourish.studio/visualisatio...

My advice to parents of children who like to jump in puddles: forget wellies; invest in crocs. No struggles getting them on, low risk of them falling off mid puddle, and, most importantly, your child will immediately experience the consequences of their actions

Facing a Sunday morning conundrum of whether to go out and try and dodge the thunderstorms or stay in the house with a very sensory boy bouncing off the walls…

I agree with bits of what Ganesh writes here (optimism is good and there were no good old days). But: 1. It relies on downplaying climate change (and maybe Trumpism tbh) 2. The argument could also be framed as: “Cheer up, things were much worse in the past”. Which is a really pessimistic framing!!

This will be self-indulgent but… I’m going to cave in and say something about the Abundance discourse. I am 100% pro raising living standards and support a lot of Abundance aims. But it is obviously nostalgic as an agenda - we had an unprecedented era of raising living standards from ~1945 - 2007

Something I’ve found frustrating in the post-Twitter era is that I increasingly find myself questioning whether people are acting in bad faith before engaging with their argument. But: a lot of people have turned out to be acting in bad faith! Or to hold views that are (imv) disqualifying

Now confirmed Cooper to FCDO Mahmood to Home Lammy to Justice

Good, no punches pulled thread. You can reform and improve the state, but only if you invest time and money, and only within limits. Pretending there are easy savings has obscured the actual hard choices we face (primarily: do we want the state to do less or pay more tax?)

What the world needs: peace, justice, prosperity. What it's getting: another bleeding Substack: chrisdillow.substack.com This has most of my old Typepad posts (the less execrable ones) since the start of 2021. More may be added.

Really like this post. I have been pretty vocally pro-air con recently (mainly if it’s also used for clean heating tbf). But low cost passive cooling measures - shutters, awnings, urban trees - are great, and would improve our towns and cities a lot

Great thread, hopefully story. I’ve never been sure how much you can trust the sun-national GVA data (even before the problems at the ONS), but this story about Greater Manchester seems very plausible based on what we know

Greater Manchester has been the fastest growing part of the country in the past decade – measured either by total growth or by productivity growth. I’ve had a look into the data to try to work out what is growing and why. Below are some of the things I have found. 🧵 1/7

Shot (We only have an excess of oxygen because of all the Carboniferous plant matter buried in the ground)

I know far more about EHCPs than I’d like to, and I can vouch for what Sam says here. Parents seek EHCPs because it’s now usually the only way to get support for a child. It is no fun at all, for the people requesting them, completing them or rationing the support they are supposed to unlock

Profoundly unhelpful and flat out untrue. No parent would endure the misery of the ECHP system unless they felt it was really necessary.