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Reply | Madame Le Pen - what next ?
at 15:11 14 Apr 2025
You still don't get it I'm afraid. This is an issue about how political aids, who are supporting MEPs and whose salaries come from the EU, spend their time. All the MEPs are members of political parties and in the real world do not entirely separate their party work from their EU work as MEPs. The allegation from several commentators familiar with how Brussels works is that is is not uncommon for aids to interweave the two kinds of work (and possibly some associated expenses), and that breaks the rules. The Paris-based lawyer who wrote the Spectator article at the link earlier in the thread gives examples. [Post edited 14 Apr 15:25]
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Reply | What a bunch of ********
at 05:37 13 Apr 2025
I am not an expert on this, but from what I have read the way forward with virgin steel is a DRI (directly-reduced iron) plant combined with either an EAF or an electric smelting furnace optimised to work with DRI (such as the Outotec furnace in link below). The DRI plant converts ore to metallic iron ("sponge iron") that can be processed into steel by the EAF/ESF. The direct reduction of iron ore uses a reducing gas that removes oxygen from the iron oxides, and one version uses hydrogen. The advantage of hydrogen over natural gas is that it produces no CO2. This is what Tata is building at its IJmuiden facility in the Netherlands. With adequate investment and preplanning of the EAF, so as to be compatible with the later addition of a DRI plant, Port Talbot could be the same.
https://eurometal.net/tata-steel-moves-forward-with-first-phase-of-green-steel-p
https://www.metso.com/portfolio/dri-smelting-furnace/
Edit: more background here for anybody interested.
This makes an interesting comment on the advantage of an ESF over an EAF, "ESF technology offers steelmakers greater flexibility. They can either use their own DRI or trade all ranges of DRI products based on their value-in-use (VIU) analysis; in contrast DRI-EAF producers are technically limited to high-grade iron ore products." An ESF can process sponge iron made from lower grade ores as well.
https://www.woodmac.com/news/opinion/whats-next-for-green-steel-technologies/#:~ [Post edited 13 Apr 7:19]
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Reply | Championship weekend
at 17:15 12 Apr 2025
Tense 6 minutes of added time at Cardiff, with both sides having chances. Just 2 minutes left now.
FT: 0-1. [Post edited 12 Apr 17:16]
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Reply | Sunderland v Swansea City : Match day thread UPDATED **
at 17:12 12 Apr 2025
Excellent result overall, with the Swans having several good moments early on. We went into our shell towards the end, but the defence toughed it out. I thought our central strikers were disappointing today, while Ronald and Eom had pretty good games, at least compared with some recent performances. |
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Reply | This country
at 11:30 12 Apr 2025
As I understand things, it would still be possible to add a DRI (directly-reduced iron) plant as a front end to the EAF at Port Talbot. From what I have read, an EAF is a less optimal than a purpose-designed furnace to complement DRI, but that seems to be what Tata is building at its Dutch plant. If the will and finance were there, that could still be done at Port Talbot. Admittedly past experience does not fill one with any confidence that this will come onto the agenda. |
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Reply | Hamas sues the UK Government
at 05:23 11 Apr 2025
My question about this is: how far should it be possible for agents of Hamas to mount a legal case to de-proscribe the organisation, when this might be construed as encouragement to others within the UK to express support for Hamas and take action, perhaps against Jewish people? Should the law firm involved itself be in the frame for a possible charge under the Terrorism Act 2006? I'd like to see an MP asking this question. |
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Reply | Taking the Brits for fools
at 18:52 9 Apr 2025
The dark forces line is about the content of the link I posted, and also the way that Russian propagandists, and even MAGA supporters, are trying to use the problems posed by mass immigration into Europe to make us think that we have to choose between oligarchy and a form of liberal social democracy that will destroy our culture. They try to make it hard for people to choose a third way involving representative government that is responsive to the opinions of the population and does not limit its policy options by signing treaties that mean certain "laws" can no longer be changed by national electorates. That was the problem with the EU acquis. |
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Reply | Madame Le Pen - what next ?
at 07:37 9 Apr 2025
Based on the reports I've read, no money went to Le Pen's private bank accounts. The money from EU funds went to pay the salaries of political aids. These aids should have confined their work to supporting the work of MEPs in respect of EU duties, but it appears that the aids concerned were doing work on behalf of Le Pen's National Rally Party, which breaks EU rules and means that under French law a misappropriation of funds may have occurred. Is this understanding of events wrong? |
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Reply | Madame Le Pen - what next ?
at 00:40 9 Apr 2025
The Spectator article for which I posted a link is written by James Tidmarsh, who works for a Paris-based law firm. I think he is right to say that the key issue is the wider context of EU rules rather than the article of French law under which Le Pen was convicted. The arguments are and will be about usual practice concerning what political aids to MEPs in the European Parliament are allowed to do. |
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Reply | Swansea City v Derby County : Match day thread
at 17:07 5 Apr 2025
That was a hard, hard slog. We couldn't have complained if the Rams had left with the points, but our defence held firm. Worth mentioning that Joe Allen again had one of the most important touches of the game. Although his best days have gone, those game-changing moments have probably saved the club an awful lot of money. |
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Reply | Taking the Brits for fools
at 01:45 5 Apr 2025
I wonder if our politicians anticipated the way mass migration would be used by authoritarian regimes and “far right” commentators to make the West look undemocratic and Russia a haven of conservatism? There are some very effective propaganda videos on X/Twitter at present, like the one below from Radio Genoa. This is an account run by Antonio Mastantuono, a self-styled citizen journalist, who (rightly or wrongly) has been investigated by Italian police for hate crime.
https://x.com/RadioGenoa
Which city would you visit between Moscow and London?
I am not sure if the London footage is genuine, but it is a bit of an eye opener if it is. Could it be a pro-Palestine demo? |
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Reply | Why can't the UK
at 10:48 3 Apr 2025
Processing claims more quickly would obviously help, but three thoughts about yuor earlier post come to mind.
1. The idea that 60% of asylum claims are valid is questionable. That is the rough % approved, but there is evidence that our officials are more lenient than officials in several other European countries and there are cases where claims rejected elsewhere are accepted here. Beyond that, it is said that the recent attempt to clear the processing backlog effectively means waving cases through without in-depth one-to-one interviews. I'd say the % who really meet the A1 criteria from the 1951 Convention is a lot lower than 60%.
2. One obstacle to early returns of rejected applicants is that they may come from a country that will not accept returns. We don't seem to be as tough as say the USA in arm-twisting (via reducing visa rights or cutting aid) to get countries to take migrants back, even though the government has made some progress on this.
3. Even where a route to return is possible and a country seems safe, many failed asylum seekers will start legal appeals (at tax payers' expense), which have to be heard. The refugee charities maintain that some persons face persecution even in a country that is generally safe, and that is one line of argument that is successful in many cases (e.g. the applicant may claim to have converted to Christianity, to have criticised the home country government, or to be gay). Another is to claim the right of a family life under the notoriously Article 8 of the ECHR, which seems to have stretched to cover all kinds of things from family food preferences to non-availability of necessary medical treatment for family members in the origin country. Until we are able to limit the ability of courts to stretch the meaning of A8, or exit the ECHR entirely, that third obstacle seems a big problem.
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Reply | Why can't the UK
at 05:22 3 Apr 2025
It isn't really A31 that stops returns. A31 is the article that requires a nation signing up to the Convention to refrain from penalising for illegal entry persons who meet the criteria for refugee status set out in A1. A31 is controversial because the original wording specifies that non-penalisation applies only to persons "who, coming directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened in the sense of article 1, enter or are present in their territory without authorization, provided they present themselves without delay to the authorities and show good cause for their illegal entry or presence." However, over the years human rights lawyers have persuaded courts to water this down by allowing various exceptions to the requirement to come directly from a country where persecution is likely.
The more direct reason why it is hard for the UK to do returns is A33, which prohibits refoulement, meaning return to a country where persecution is likely. One would have thought this would not apply to France - so the obstacle is more to do with politics than the provisions of the 1951 Convention.
Incidentally it is worth reading the original Convention text to see how dated some of the language is. What struck me is that the list of conditions that cause the Convention to cease to apply (A1.C), such as the origin country becoming safe, or the person granted asylum being able to safely return to that country (as appears to happen with some holidays), would apply to many of people granted international protection by the UK. |
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Reply | Taking the Brits for fools
at 04:44 3 Apr 2025
Does anybody think there is a relationship between the soaring numbers of economically inactive or "disabled" working age adults and the huge influx of low-skilled immigrants? The paradox is that even after several years of record immigration numbers, we still have the skills gaps that importing workers was supposed to fill. It is like an endless conveyor belt that coincides will a slow decline in living standards, And there is no magic money tree to fix the problem of falling per capita productivity. |
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