I think it's pretty 'tight' (I trust https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/fcgi-bin/calcwork23.py?seat=Bedfordshire Mid&postcode=LU2 7BE the maths).
After the leaking of the Tories’ campaign document that suggested they would lose and blame it on Nads, she strikes back. Achieved this reaction.
Lots of good opinion polls for Labour at the moment, including that they are predicted to take @Keighley
Lib Dems not picking anything up are they? Is it thast they just don't get any coverage anymore. You'd think get some of the dissaffected Tory vote.
Really bad news for Khan coming out of early London mayoralty polling. Clearly the ULEZ backlash is in full swing: https://yougov.co.uk/politics/artic...holds-25-point-lead-over-susan-hall-for-mayor
Reform gaining more ground is very interesting. Get enough support and split the vote and the Tories will get utterly decimated by FPTP. Watch as they then suddenly start caring about AV systems.
More dangerous for Labour than it seems. They are all Tories, when it comes down to it, but the more votes Reform get the more hostile the offer from the Tories will get. There is the possibility that between them they will hit on the wedge issue that will expose Labour. On their own, the Tories are toast. They can’t go left or right and take enough people with them, but unified conservatives could or a Reform coup of the Tory Party could succeed in dressing the whole sorry lot up in new clothes.
How is this acceptable…Mike was a good MP and targeted and intimidated out because of his beliefs. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politic...reer-quit-politics-death-threats-israel-gaza/
It's absolutely not acceptable. Intimidation and death threats should be treated very seriously by the law, especially when targeted at elected officials. There didn't seem to be any indication in that article that these threats are even being investigated.
Early signs that Labour's "u-turn" on the £28bn green plan has not had any negative impact on the polls....
Saw a prospective parliamentary candidate on the BBC. Could barely string two sentences of coherent English together. With this risible level of education and experience I am sure the nations future is in safe hands. We have idiots at all levels of government from local councils upwards. No wonder the nation is in the state it is.
A lot of people bang on about how important green issues are to them but in reality don't seem to give much of a toss. Certainly if it's going to hit them in the pocket it becomes a non-issue for many. In Meister manor most can't be bothered to spend 5 mins sorting their rubbish out for recycling. You've got to keep your wits about you dodging food mopeds & Amazon delivery vans when out an about. The parcel returns box in Asda is always full as is one end of the post office.
Heard something last night on PE's Page 94 podcast that really floored me. One of the reasons that the 'dead tree' press is finding it hard is the increasing cost of paper. Apparently there's a world-wide shortage of paper products (leading to prices increases) because Amazon is buying the world's stocks for its packaging...
Meanwhile, Amazon Prime has introduced what appears to be a new default delivery option - to have your item delivered with no packaging. We ordered a gift for a child’s birthday (a set of toy cars) and it was left on the doorstep just as you’d find it on a toy shop’s shelf just with a big shipping label stuck right over the box.
Auto orrect. I just have access on the mobile at the moment. Everything else is boxed up with dust sheets, plastic sheeting as the house is being renovated.
I love this myth I work in the packaging industry, food packaging mainly, but have also worked in the industrial packaging world. There is a shift from kraft paper in corrugate to what they call test liner, in essence a move from virgin papers to recycled. The biggest issues 3 or 4 years ago was the number of papermills that have closed, meaning the production capacity is heavily reduced. Amazon changed their model a few years ago to reduce the amount of packaging they use. They use to accept goods in multi boxes, 1x24 to a case and pack it themselves. Now they only accept goods that are pre postal packed, unless as a supplier you want to pay a premium percentage for Amazon to handle your goods. It means that Amazon can simply pick a pre postal pack, put a label on and send it out. The biggest issue is recycling, collection and councils. Every council has a different collection scheme, some collect cardboard and paper in a dedicated bin, others want it in with mixed recycling and some don't care. The issue is when our mixed recycling bin is full people simply use their general waste bin, diverting paper and board to landfill. The good thing is there are more trees being planted by the paper industry than are being taken down. In effect paper farms. The bad thing is that it uses a lot more energy to recycle paper than it does plastics !! Therefore higher energy costs, on a product that is high in energy heavy production cost, around 60 to 70%, and low capacity pushed pricing up. The mills that closed did so simply because the energy cost was so high it meant that the energy cost exceeded 100% of paper production. Paper can be recycled up to 7 times, plastics around 40 ( depending on plastic material type ) The good news is paper prices have decreased in the last 12 months, virgin paper is still low, recycled content has increased about 4%, but fell by over 30% in the last 12 months. This has little to do with the material but more about the amount of capacity that became available in the last 2 years or so. Master batches of paper have to be sold relatively quickly before the moisture content evaporates, hence when there is capacity it tends to create a race to the bottom quite quickly. Dried out paper isn't much use in manufacturing.
Bringing back memories of clamps: paper roll tower clamps & split arms & tippling clamps, Automatic or Hydraulic Force Control systems, pulp bale clamps etc etc…actually, no, I don’t miss it at all!
To be honest things haven't changed much. The process is more slick and automated, the machines and mechanics are pretty much the same as they were 40 years ago, Get paper, shred it, add water and detergent, wash it, drain it, roll it, and roll it again, steam press it and hay presto a roll of paper ! People would be shocked if they knew that of the water that is taken out of rivers and canals to manufacture paper, only 94% goes back, cleaned and filtered and 6% is left within the paper. OK the water eventually evaporates into cloud and generates rain. but its being taken out of a eco system. If ever anyone wants to go and see something pretty impressive then go to Saica in Manchester - https://www.fkgroup.co.uk/project/saica-recycled-paper-mill/ The machines is fully automated, about a 1/4 mile long and works in sectors and modules, so parts can be closed off for essential maintenance whilst the machine is still running. Basically you throw old paper in one end and 40 minutes later it comes out as nice new mother reels.
The company I worked for manufactured & supplied the clamps used to handle the pulp & the finished rolls. Luckily that was not the product line for which I was responsible so I had to make less visits to North Sweden & Finland in -20c temperatures than may otherwise have been the case!
