In the news

A photo of some royals and some anti-immigration shit. Daily Mail readers wet dream material.

Last year he took a voluntary paycut from £125k

Also: The basic annual salary of a Member OF Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons is £84,144, as of April 2022.

And you get a free place near Westminster if needed, so the whole comparison is strange, does that mean MPs are overpaid? ;)

And fair play to him for taking a pay cut.

That £84k clearly isn't a coincidence. I suspect it's carefully chosen so MPs can't attack it.

He's fucking good isn't he.

Plus I guess it's "only" an £18.5k real terms paycut.

He probably makes back in 6m on all the free train rides.

probably makes back

I presume union leaders' expenses have been tightened up in the same way MPs were - I remember some stories a few years about Arthur Scargill having to pay his own rent again?

Bexhill

Tbf, if they moved there intentionally it was already too late.

The flat in the Barbican?

Bexhill

I went there about 10 years ago. There was a cafe that had 99 Belgian beers. Was decent.

Also the average age of the people who walked past while you were drinking in there.

Trains, hospitals and schools – there are few aspects of British life left untouched by the winter of discontent. And now Steerpike hears rumblings of industrial discontent at the heart of British democracy itself: in the Houses of Parliament itself. Long-suffering staffers have had to endure months of vermin-infested kitchens, crumbling masonry and asbestos aplenty. Now power cuts over the past two days in the One Parliament Street building have pushed some of those working on the parliamentary estate to the brink.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/union-outcry-over-working-conditions-in-parliament/

you reap what you sow.. it's coming home.. to roost.. building nests and breeding, at the heart of democracy

lovely day so far

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And the exploding fish tank in Berlin

Yeah I saw that. RIP fish..

there is a bit of good news amongst all of that though:

Woman's luggage turns up five months after luxury holiday

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-63990091

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-e­dinburgh-east-fife-63990091

I know I sound like a 100-year old gammon saying this but "compensation culture" does annoy me:

The holiday firm has since agreed to pay Sian £1,436 in compensation for all the replacement items she had to buy - but she feels the disappointment and stress she felt during the holiday has not been addressed.
I spent three days in total in shopping malls and markets buying clothes and sun cream and all the things we needed
Sian Armour had to walk up a gorge in slippery jelly shoes

exploding fish tank in Berlin

When it opened I wanted to swim in the Sky Pool in Battersea. Made by the same firm, not so sure now.

Shouldn't be a surprise but turns out wealthy white middle aged men use all the energy

https://twitter.com/Josh_Gabbatiss/status/1603341658665504768

Much worse than I would have expected. Wow.

Although worth remembering that while the richest 10% account for such a huge chunk of flying emissions, the aviation industry only contributes 2% to global emissions overall. Its a large percentage of a smaller contributory factor.

The "other energy use" bit is mental. Would like to see a breakdown.

Full breakdown is in the link

Its a brutal indictment of consumerism is what it is. The more money you have, the more you spend, the bigger your impact.

I suspect this chart looks even worse if you do it on carbon emissions not energy used, given that 0% of aviation emissions are renewable and some >0% of most other things will be.

Setting aside spurious "carbon offsets" of course.

This graph makes no sense to me.

I wonder if the flights are all personal or work related in which case we are back to job inequality as much as energy.

Surprised that housing is low compared to travel, assumed that all that gas would be far higher than flying/car.

Also public transport is surprisingly high (eg compared to housing). Wonder how they calculate it.

brutal indictment of consumerism

In what way?

"Living standards" are carbon-intensive given the technology available to us. If you had a more equal income distribution this would be worse, no, as low/middle income ppl spend more of their income?