Michael Sissons @msissons

@JamesMelville I think I'm losing the will to live. Perhaps, collectively, we have to accept that the UK electorate has got everything it deserves, so narrow and shallow is the thinking on where they put their 'X' on the ballot papers.

🚨Check these figures out from @KonstantinKisin, then wait for @StevenBartlett’s reaction. “Europe is 12% of the world’s population, 25% of the world’s GDP and 60% of the world’s welfare spending.”

So the property market here is flooded with ex rental properties that are now up for sale thanks to Labour Party policies. Nobody is buying because Rachel Reeves increased stamp duty and landlords are selling up thanks to Angela Rayner's rental reforms. And people are fearful for their jobs as employers are lumbered with such high energy bills and national insurance contributions. These people governing us don't know what the hell they're doing.

In my three years covering the energy brief, I have never seen anything like this. I first raised concerns put to me by whistleblowers within NESO in the House of Commons on 7 July. The main allegation is that our grid is not being run securely, and specifically that the rules put in place to prevent blackouts were breached on 23 June, when a heatwave put strain on our electricity supply. Since then, we have seen a conveyor belt of dismissals, denials, and downright lies from NESO and Ministers. The problem? Time and again, the whistleblowers keep being proved right. At first NESO denied that rules were breached on 23 June, telling staff and the press that the allegations were “false”. Ministers Ed Miliband and Michael Shanks said I was “scaremongering”, and Shanks told the House categorically that “at no point did we come close to breaching” reserve standards. However, leaked internal documents have since shown that NESO's initial view was that they did breach reserve standards, and that “system security was compromised”. NESO has confirmed these documents are genuine and has provided no evidence to contradict them. Strike one. Senior management also criticised the whistleblowers internally, saying on an all-staff call that they had “let them down”. They denied this was said, only for a leaked recording to prove that it had been. Strike two. Then Ministers and NESO management insisted an 'independent' investigation would take place, only for it again to become clear that this was not true. Ministers and Ofgem had left NESO to mark their own homework. Engineers were told that if they wanted to contribute, they had to identify themselves to the very NESO managers whose necks would be on the line if the inquiry found them to be at fault. Strike three. After my repeated complaints, some improvements have been made to the investigation. But there is still no route for control room operators to raise concerns about grid security without going through NESO managers. Miliband was completely absent during this scandal, too busy trying – and failing – to become Chancellor. His Ministers have been firmly on the side of NESO management despite their repeated poor behaviour. Whatever your view on renewables, it is clear that the more wind and solar we pile onto our grid, the less engineers can perform the delicate balancing act needed to keep the lights on. You need to have a lot of back-up power on standby in case the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine. And if the wind blows or sun shines too much, you need to pay to switch things off. Balancing costs us £1.5bn per year now, but up to £10bn by 2030 - all paid through your bills. These 'hidden costs' triggered my battle to get the energy department to do a true costing of renewables. We have to look at their full system costs, not just their cost when the wind is blowing the right amount. Sadly, one of Ed Miliband’s first acts was to cancel that work and ask NESO to take it on instead. They delivered one of the most discredited reports I have ever seen, showing through shameless statistical contortions that Labour's dash to Clean Power 2030 was, conveniently, both achievable and consumer-friendly. As the sole shareholder of NESO, only the Secretary of State can hold them to account. The NESO leadership’s craven support for his plans, worked out behind the scenes with his political advisers, shows they had already given up on the standards of impartiality and integrity required from our independent public bodies. When public bodies face no accountability, the British public will always lose. The fact that things have got so bad for expert engineers within our control room that they are talking to an Opposition politician and the press at huge personal risk is shameful. The Ministers dismissing their concerns do these courageous individuals a huge disservice. We should be applauding them, not denigrating them. I will not stop until they are heard.

@JamesMelville My goodness, in the studio he can’t have needed many takes.

@ArchRose90 I have literally no idea what they’re doing in Parliament. They’re useless.

European nations ready to boycott the World Cup in opposition to Infantino's plan to sell off part of FIFA to private investors - with an emergency meeting of UEFA nations planned this week, Sky News has learnt news.sky.com/story/uefa-fur…

UEFA statement on The Times article: ⬇️

The World Cup is not FIFA’s to sell. “Outside investors" should be nowhere near the greatest sporting prize on earth. "Outside investors" should be nowhere near a governing body, even a subsidiary of FIFA. The optics are terrible. The threat of interference is obvious. There was enough political interference in the sport at the World Cup over suspending Folarin Balogun’s suspension. Damaged the integrity of the game. There was commercial interference with the sponsored hydration breaks. Damaged the flow of the game. FIFA insists that the billions raised by “outside investors” will help smaller national associations in the story first reported by the Financial Times and Times. That, coincidentally, should guarantee Gianni Infantino votes to continue as FIFA president next March. FIFA also insists that these outside investors’ involvement in “FIFA Forward Enterprise” will not interfere with the “democratic” process of FIFA. But who are these private investors? What are their motives? Ego? Influence? Alarm bells should be ringing throughout world football about this deeply dangerous development.

"In any other industry, a million customers leaving in three years would prompt a reckoning, a genuine questioning of whether what’s being sold is still what people want. At the BBC, it has instead prompted the top leadership to propose more of the same." economicaffairs.co.uk/p/how-to-fix-t…

No, it's not. Wind and solar are more expensive and the reason our bills are going up Why do you think nobody talked about gas before 2021 when high electricity costs were already an issue? 1. Wind and solar require massive subsidies which are getting bigger in value terms. They cost us £billions per year 2. They are intermittent so we have to spend £billions every year on backup generation and storage 3. They are intermittent so real time balancing costs £billions more per year than with just conventional generation 4. They have very low energy density which means they take up a lot of land and they consist of large numbers of small units (panels, turbines) which all need connecting meaning grid costs are £billions higher than for equivalent conventional generation plus they're often located far from the rest of the grid You should sign up for my free energy training (1 hour) open to all MPs and Peers and then you might not be confused The only metric that matters is what the consumer pays. Unfortunately the UK government does not calculate this by technology since Ed Miliband cancelled the work started by @ClaireCoutinho

This is why I bang on about 20mph limits, smoking bans and pub restrictions. They are not small issues. Britain has become obsessed with reducing risk by tiny amounts, often at huge social and economic cost. The information age has made us terrified. Edge cases and scare stories increasingly drive policy, rather than balance and trade offs. Everything from the impossibility of building nuclear power stations to pricing people out of pubs is shaped by this mindset. People rarely see how these policies compound. They support each new ban or regulation in isolation, then ask: "How did we get here?"

Nate Silver @NateSilver538

5 days ago

This is what's wrong with Britain tbh

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Dear @andyburnham Just to remind you and your new chancellor; The latest HMRC data indicates that to be in the top 10% of UK income taxpayers, you need an annual pre-tax income of roughly £75,000–£80,000. For comparison: Top 10%: around £75,000–£80,000+ Top 5%: around £100,000+ Top 1%: around £200,000+ Around £3.7milliin people only. Total taxes to government from income tax, NI and capital gains tax in Uk -£468 billion Paid by the top 10% of earners taxpayers - roughly £245–258 billion. They already do their bit SO Reduce the welfare bill please!

In this post I summarise the developments since I wrote my analysis of grid security on the 23 June and ask whether @Ofgem is now at risk of failing in its own statutory duties Ofgem seems determined to allow NESO to mark its own homework. It has asked NESO to report on system security and its compliance with its license conditions in late June. Only after receiving this report will Ofgem consider its own investigation Unfortunately, in addition to accusations of running the grid insecurely on 23 June, NESO also stands accused of hiding that fact and even misleading both the public, and, more seriously, ministers Given allegations of dishonesty, it defies logic to expect NESO to prepare an accurate and truthful account of these events, and even were it to do so, many people will simply not find such a report credible Although Ofgem does not have an explicit statutory duty to maintain public confidence in the energy system, its principal statutory objective under the Electricity Act 1989 is to protect the interests of existing and future consumers. Those interests expressly include security of electricity supplies In carrying out its functions, Ofgem must also act in the manner it considers best calculated to protect the public from dangers arising from the generation, transmission, distribution or supply of electricity It must regulate transparently, accountably, proportionately and consistently, targeting action where it is needed Yet when serious concerns are raised about the operation of the electricity system, Ofgem asks the regulated body to confirm whether everything is OK. That’s not independent regulation, and it’s not how other bodies regulate their sectors * Businesses are not allowed to self-report on their financial health - they must be audited * Water companies may not self-report on tap water safety – it is subject to testing * Pharmaceutical companies do not self-certify the safety of new medications, the must be reviewed and licenced by the MHRA and approved by NICE * Aircraft makers cannot asset their aeroplanes are safe, they are certified by the CAA (or relevant overseas regulator) So why does Ofgem think it’s acceptable to allow NESO to self-certify? Given both the seriousness of the allegations and the evidence now in the public domain, Ofgem is putting itself at risk of breaching its own statutory duties if it continues to rely on NESO’s assurances rather than independently establishing the facts I encourage it to think again, and now, finally institute a properly independent investigation into the events of late June. Public confidence, and safety, depend on it @neso_energy @energygovuk @Miatsf @mgshanks @ClaireCoutinho @AndrewBowie_MP @griffitha @NJ_Timothy @TiceRichard @cmackinlay @DHFrost_ @bernardjenkin @Iromg @AllisonPearson @MerrynSW @EdConwaySky @afneil @mattotele @Jonathan__Leake @RachelMillardAS @thetimes @Telegraph @DailyMail @FinancialTimes @business watt-logic.com/2026/07/27/is-…

The wildfires in Europe have prompted Telegraph columnist Tim Stanley to claim that the "angry Online Right" needs to accept Net Zero. But all his 'facts' are wrong, says Paul Homewood in the Climate Skeptic. climateskeptic.org/p/wildfires-sh…

Imagine you ran a business and the top 1% of your customers generated 30% of your income. And then you did everything to make them leave and never come back. Even though they funded your business, you didn’t like them because they were successful. So your business went bust.

Richard Burgon MP @RichardBurgon

3 days ago

Ahead of last year’s budget, over 80,000 people signed my petition calling for a Wealth Tax. A 2% Wealth Tax on assets over £10 million would raise £24 BILLION per year. I believe this is a way to raise crucial funds urgently needed to help tackle the cost-of-living crisis.

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Bill Oddie, what a lovely bloke. He wrote us a letter when we started making The Young Ones, wishing us the very best, and warning us against interference from higher up. He didn’t know anyone in the cast personally. It just came out of the blue. Lovely thing to do.

@KonstantinKisin @JamesMelville I’m honestly not getting what’s transformative. Performative, definitely.

@Baddiel Likewise. By far my favourite programme as a child.

Q: What have 'authorities' done to prepare for climate change? Built more reservoirs? Improved forest mgmt and fire precautions? Strengthened sea defences? A: None of the above. Instead they've banned light bulbs, hoovers and tumble driers And signalled a lot of 'virtue'