20 years ago today .........
#31
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Originally Posted by pslewis
I have made the very thought of any country attacking the UK a VERY BAD idea - so, no-one has!
Hence you can sleep safe it your bed!
Pete
Hence you can sleep safe it your bed!
Pete
#32
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Originally Posted by pslewis
I have made the very thought of any country attacking the UK a VERY BAD idea - so, no-one has!
Hence you can sleep safe it your bed!
Pete
Hence you can sleep safe it your bed!
Pete
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Originally Posted by unclebuck
How does collecting trollys in Morrisons supermarket car park do that?
#39
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Originally Posted by Anne Robinson
And so the Lewis ego-bandwagon rolls on.
People, when will you ever have had enough of this??
People, when will you ever have had enough of this??
and lets face it, its our job to keep our crumbling elders amused
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Originally Posted by Anne Robinson
And so the Lewis ego-bandwagon rolls on.
People, when will you ever have had enough of this??
People, when will you ever have had enough of this??
I remember him when he was only a lad, when we had fields of grass and trees, not these dodgy new builds, yaddayadda <fades to hovis tune>
****, I nearly forgot, he *is* only a lad, all his I'm an old codger stuff is like everything lewis, A LOAD OF MANURE
#41
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Originally Posted by Jye
****, I nearly forgot, he *is* only a lad, all his I'm an old codger stuff is like everything lewis, A LOAD OF MANURE
#43
Stop it Lewis; your political rants are tedious to the extreme. How many times have I told you not to go around winding people up and spouting ****e the whole time?
If you do not desist immediately, Alistair will come round and give you the bad news.
Two-Jags says get stuffed.
Rgds
T
If you do not desist immediately, Alistair will come round and give you the bad news.
Two-Jags says get stuffed.
Rgds
T
#44
Just as I said earlier PSL, same old rubbish, not much imagination either.
I remember you giving us the impression you had already retired and were just working part time. So why are you now saying you have yet to retire?
Very little of what you say ever seems to add up-like that business over speeding!
As my elderly relative used to say, if you are going to spout BS, then you should have a good memory!
Still can't believe that a so called nuclear scientist can't explain the basics of the Doppler effect.
Les
I remember you giving us the impression you had already retired and were just working part time. So why are you now saying you have yet to retire?
Very little of what you say ever seems to add up-like that business over speeding!
As my elderly relative used to say, if you are going to spout BS, then you should have a good memory!
Still can't believe that a so called nuclear scientist can't explain the basics of the Doppler effect.
Les
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It's all part of a good (bad?) trolls armory Les. Even if he gets cought out lying he'll just disappear for a while and come back as if nothing has ever happened. The thing is, anyone with any brains knows he's talking crap, so let him
#46
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1. Its CHAIRMAN of Governors
2. Its NOT a Primary School
3. I can retire when I want ... I can defer benefits, I can work as a part-time consultant
4. Who is the weasel 'newbie' that is too scared to post as themselves?
5. Anne Robinson - you 'want' me don't you? The power I hold has made you swoon hasn't it?
6. You lot should be working - I need you all to pay towards my Pension!
Har Har Har
Pete
2. Its NOT a Primary School
3. I can retire when I want ... I can defer benefits, I can work as a part-time consultant
4. Who is the weasel 'newbie' that is too scared to post as themselves?
5. Anne Robinson - you 'want' me don't you? The power I hold has made you swoon hasn't it?
6. You lot should be working - I need you all to pay towards my Pension!
Har Har Har
Pete
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People
How many more times must you be told? Please DO NOT feed the troll. Then with any luck, he'll go the way of Mycroft and **** off forever.
Cheers
Kav
How many more times must you be told? Please DO NOT feed the troll. Then with any luck, he'll go the way of Mycroft and **** off forever.
Cheers
Kav
#50
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Originally Posted by Mark Miwurdz
People
How many more times must you be told? Please DO NOT feed the troll. Then with any luck, he'll go the way of Mycroft and **** off forever.
Cheers
Kav
How many more times must you be told? Please DO NOT feed the troll. Then with any luck, he'll go the way of Mycroft and **** off forever.
Cheers
Kav
What a plank!
Pete
#53
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I've lived in Yorkshire all my life, except for a short prison sentence of living in North London for nine months.
At the time of coal strike, I didn't really care. If you'd asked me five years ago, I still probably didn't care, but I do now.
The UK is a net importer of energy. We are set to become increasingly dependant on gas supplies from unstable parts of the world, coal powered generation has declined, and UK Coal appear to have more interest in being a property business rather than produce coal. Nuclear generation is unpopular, and the current batch of power stations come ever and ever closer to the EOL. (including the coal ones)
They recently claimed force majeure on their contract with Drax power station, saying they can not produce enough coal, this is after shutting down the Selby complex, and another few mines in South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.
As recent as last year, they destroyed the pit head at Thorne that has been on care and maintainance since time began (sometime in the 70's)
Hatfield continues to sit there on c+m, with Mr Budge producing about 1 train load of coal a week by re-washing (is that the correct term) the slag heaps around the pit. (watch this one with interest, especially as Drax is short)
What is the cost of putting thousands of people out of work, rather than subsidise an industry that can provide our energy needs for hundreds of years?
It's about time that the government (any of them) of this country started to look at the long term energy needs of this country, and work out exactly where it's all going to come from. When it all goes ***** up, you can't just knock up a new power station and dig a new mine.... where do you get the man power, where do you get the skills from?
I don't for one minute think that you could have the likes of Arther Scargill running the country, not then, and not now, and he placed the miners of the time in a loose loose situation, but I do think UK Coal should be prevented from closing any more mines, or at least any that they do close should be placed on C+M (Selby Complex for one).
Most reserves are probably accessable from the remaining pits, and it should be kept that way.
BTW: does anyone know how far you could travel underground using mines, both past and present? I know that Hatfield and Thorne were linked, and think that some of the mines in Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire are linked together?
We have billions of tonnes of coal reserves, so we should make sure we can use them.
At the time of coal strike, I didn't really care. If you'd asked me five years ago, I still probably didn't care, but I do now.
The UK is a net importer of energy. We are set to become increasingly dependant on gas supplies from unstable parts of the world, coal powered generation has declined, and UK Coal appear to have more interest in being a property business rather than produce coal. Nuclear generation is unpopular, and the current batch of power stations come ever and ever closer to the EOL. (including the coal ones)
They recently claimed force majeure on their contract with Drax power station, saying they can not produce enough coal, this is after shutting down the Selby complex, and another few mines in South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.
As recent as last year, they destroyed the pit head at Thorne that has been on care and maintainance since time began (sometime in the 70's)
Hatfield continues to sit there on c+m, with Mr Budge producing about 1 train load of coal a week by re-washing (is that the correct term) the slag heaps around the pit. (watch this one with interest, especially as Drax is short)
What is the cost of putting thousands of people out of work, rather than subsidise an industry that can provide our energy needs for hundreds of years?
It's about time that the government (any of them) of this country started to look at the long term energy needs of this country, and work out exactly where it's all going to come from. When it all goes ***** up, you can't just knock up a new power station and dig a new mine.... where do you get the man power, where do you get the skills from?
I don't for one minute think that you could have the likes of Arther Scargill running the country, not then, and not now, and he placed the miners of the time in a loose loose situation, but I do think UK Coal should be prevented from closing any more mines, or at least any that they do close should be placed on C+M (Selby Complex for one).
Most reserves are probably accessable from the remaining pits, and it should be kept that way.
BTW: does anyone know how far you could travel underground using mines, both past and present? I know that Hatfield and Thorne were linked, and think that some of the mines in Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire are linked together?
We have billions of tonnes of coal reserves, so we should make sure we can use them.
Last edited by ^Qwerty^; 03 March 2005 at 03:35 PM.
#54
Qwerty - you make some excellent points there. Let's park whether the coal mines should have been closed or not (we'll just have to agree to disagree).
I do agree with you about the lack of long term government vision for energy requirements in the UK and how to provide them safely and sustainably without relying unduly on unstable foreign situations.
Fingers crossed the blokes with the super hot air bubbles in liquid sought out cold fusion quickly!!!
Gordo
I do agree with you about the lack of long term government vision for energy requirements in the UK and how to provide them safely and sustainably without relying unduly on unstable foreign situations.
Fingers crossed the blokes with the super hot air bubbles in liquid sought out cold fusion quickly!!!
Gordo
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Originally Posted by Gordo
This is not relevant - quoting today's prices (including prices from UK Coal - see below) have nothing to do with the economic picture for coal 20 years ago.
The pits still open in this country are largely owned by UK Coal. UK Coal lost £83m (!) in 2003, and lost £1m last year. It's losses over the last 5 years exceed £200m cumulatively. Nice. They made money through the mid-90s due to strong oil prices and their hope is that current high oil prices will skew demand toward their products. The problem is that they're highly dependent upon UK power stations - they're relatively cheap because they've had to undercut the market to stay in business - this is not economically viable in the long term.
Funny how neither UK Coal nor anyone else wanted to buy any other pits which (you imply) would be fantastically competitive and profitable. The Tories rightly removed the huge public liability (and pollution) from the country - to continue subsidising this industry to compete with cheaper overseas coal would be madness.
Gordo
Fact 1- World coal price is £1.84 a gig and is expected to rise and stay high due to the USA, Canada, Australia and China having long term energy policies to increase coal burn generation.
Fact 2- UK Coal tied themselves into long term contracts a few years back at £1.18 a gig. This was an extremely bad move by the CEO who has now been replaced. UK Coal now produce coal at £1.21 a gig. If they were not legally tied into old contracts they would be making millions. Trains are queing at Collieries for coal at this price as the generators are having to pay £1.84 at the docks.
UK coal (Then RJB) bought the entire industry when it was privatised and even leased and reopened other mines such as Clipstone in Notts and Rossington in Yorkshire. You cannot reopen a closed mine once the shafts have been filled, you have to sink new shafts at an average cost of £300million. The tory government lost these reserves for good.
As for subsidies to compete with cheaper imports, we have just established that UK coal is far cheaper. UK coal does not receive direct subsidies to lower it's coal price neither does it need to undercut imports on price to sell the product.
UK Coal can apply to the DTi for upto 20% of the cost of opening up new reserves. This setup was instigated by the EU to keep German mines open, so far UK coal has received over £100million since privatisation 11 years ago. This amount is only one tenth of the money the Government has taken from the miners pension scheme over the last 10 years. The amount of subsidy given to the Mining industry is also a tiny fraction of that given to the Nuclear industry which has had billions from the tax payer. Rebates given to foriegn car plants like Toyota and Nissan far oustrip any grant given to UK mines.
As for polution, modern clean coal powerstation scrub many of the nasties out of the discharge. Countries that are still burning hundreds of millions tonnes of coal a year are investing in projects to pump the CO2 produced from coal burn down old gas field pipelines so nearly all polutants are removed from any discharge to atmosphere.
Australia, Canada and New Zealand are currently on a recruting drive in the UK for mining engineers, mining electrical and mechanical technicians as they can't train people up fast enough to man their rapidly expanding extraction programs.
The UK however has no clear energy policy, renewable energy currently supplies 5% of the UK's needs. Even if every renewable project is granted planning approval the output will not even match the increased demand expected over the next ten years.
Lee
#56
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I'm not sure we agree or disagree to be honest. We had excess capacity in the early 80's, and I would fully agree that it was not viable to keep a pit head open, when the one 5 miles down the road was perfectly capable of reaching the same reserves. (hence my question earlier about distance underground)
But to counter my own argument, I very recently heard that 'one' of the reasons that the Selby complex was uneconomical was because of the cost (read electricity bill) of running the conveyor belt system for such long distances underground.
The events of the early 80's are all water under the bridge, you can't rewind the clock, and nor would I want to, but I firmly believe that UK Coal should be brought back under control of the government, and that people should start looking at the bigger picture. Unfortunately this can not be done by a PLC.
But to counter my own argument, I very recently heard that 'one' of the reasons that the Selby complex was uneconomical was because of the cost (read electricity bill) of running the conveyor belt system for such long distances underground.
The events of the early 80's are all water under the bridge, you can't rewind the clock, and nor would I want to, but I firmly believe that UK Coal should be brought back under control of the government, and that people should start looking at the bigger picture. Unfortunately this can not be done by a PLC.
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Originally Posted by ^Qwerty^
But to counter my own argument, I very recently heard that 'one' of the reasons that the Selby complex was uneconomical was because of the cost (read electricity bill) of running the conveyor belt system for such long distances underground.
Again Selby was having to sell it's coal at the contracted price of £1.18 a gig when it's production cost was over £1.60.
The events of the early 80's are all water under the bridge, you can't rewind the clock, and nor would I want to, but I firmly believe that UK Coal should be brought back under control of the government, and that people should start looking at the bigger picture. Unfortunately this can not be done by a PLC.
If Selby had stayed open and was selling at todays price it would be profitable.
That's why I agree that the nations energy reserves should not be in the hands of a PLC especially a PLC with an American CEO.
Cheers
Lee
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Originally Posted by ^Qwerty^
BTW: does anyone know how far you could travel underground using mines, both past and present? I know that Hatfield and Thorne were linked, and think that some of the mines in Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire are linked together?
We have billions of tonnes of coal reserves, so we should make sure we can use them.
Also the further out you go the harder the mine is to ventilate and you incur the cost of running extra fans and conveyors.
For a single mine and not a complex I would say you will struggle to make it viable if you are mining over eight miles from the shaft or drift.
Cheers
Lee