Posted on April 20, 2008 by robertkyriakides
In life we all make some good decisions and some bad decisions. Decisions that are right are good; decisions that are wrong are bad. In business I make lots of bad decisions but I hope to make more good decisions than bad decisions.
In the strange world of government, we find that governments do not admit [...]
Filed under: Alistair Darling, gordon brown, tax | Tagged: 10% tax band, decisions, reversing decisions | 4 Comments »
Posted on March 13, 2008 by robertkyriakides
Mr Darling’s Budget has been much as I feared; it shows a Government that is good at commissioning reviews and studies but lacking the political courage to make genuinely hard decisions.
The Budget documents states: “Tackling climate change is the most serious and pressing global environmental challenge the world faces.” True. Unfortunately the policies announced under [...]
Filed under: Alistair Darling, Nicholas Stern, carbon emissions, carbon trading, climate change, energy, solar, solar energy, solar panels, targets, tax | Tagged: Budget 2008, evironmental commentary on budget, soalr water heating, stren report, tackling climate change | No Comments »
Posted on March 11, 2008 by robertkyriakides
I am writing this before Mr Darling announces his budget, which according to the papers will be a “Green Budget” with “green” taxes. I have always been in favour of the polluter paying for his hers or its pollution. This is one of the four energy principles that I have written about in the Energy [...]
Filed under: Alistair Darling, PV, carbon emissions, climate change, electricity, energy, gas, global warming, microgeneration, oil, petrol, pollution, solar, solar energy, solar panels, tax, wind turbines | Tagged: bitumen mining, BP, green budget, green taxes, labour, oil prices, reasons for oil prices, tar mining, tithe | 1 Comment »
Posted on March 6, 2008 by robertkyriakides
I decided in October last year to “blog” about the environment and have posted articles almost every day since then. I called this “Ideas for the Environment” because ideas about improving life sometimes turn into real improvements and without the ideas there will be no improvements.
Filed under: Alistair Darling, Hilary Benn, Nicholas Stern, Northern Rock, carbon emissions, climate change, energy, genersys, gordon brown, heat, microgeneration, parliament, pollution, solar, solar energy, tax | Tagged: call for evidence on renewable heat, government distractions, low carbon building programme, Stern Report, whitehall shelves | No Comments »
Posted on February 21, 2008 by robertkyriakides
I have previously written about the excellent work that Suzanne Burgess’s team of energy advisors do at Carlisle’s Energy Efficiency Advice Centre. Their efforts, expertise and commitment over the years have saved tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. They were one of the first energy efficiency teams to support solar thermal and provide an economic high [...]
Filed under: Alistair Darling, Hilary Benn, carbon emissions, climate change, energy, gas, genersys, global warming, heat, natural gas | Tagged: Carisle Energy Efficiency Advice Centre, Carlisle, EEAC, Green Homes Service, Lord Truscott, low carbon building programme, Phase 2, reinventing the wheel, Suzanne Burgess | No Comments »
Posted on January 23, 2008 by robertkyriakides
Alistair Darling has got us in a big mess. Somehow, we all have invested over £2,000 each in the Northern Rock Bank, without knowing it. Mr Darling together with Gordon Brown decided to bail out the failed bank with a defective business plan. It was such a shame that the government appointed regulators operating under [...]
Filed under: Alistair Darling, Northern Rock, genersys, gordon brown, solar panels | Tagged: Alistair Darling Northern Rock, Blair's argument about Iraq similar to Darling's about, failed bank, hiring the Prime Minister, investing in renewables, Richard Branson | 5 Comments »
Posted on January 18, 2008 by robertkyriakides
Natural gas is used to heat around 80% of the United Kingdom’s homes. Most of the homes that are use gas to provide heat also use it to provide hot water, although I would guess (I have not be able to find any statistics) that a small proportion of gas users switch off their boilers [...]
Filed under: Alistair Darling, PV, carbon emissions, climate change, electricity, energy, gas, gordon brown, heat, natural gas, solar panels, wind turbines | Tagged: avaerage home energy prices, climate change, gas grid network, incentives, new homes, particulates, proportion of homes using as for heating, stamp duty, stamp duty rates, treasury, zero carbon homes | 1 Comment »
Posted on January 12, 2008 by robertkyriakides
In May last year Alistair Darling, then Secretary of State for Trade put his name to a document published by his Department which comprised three hundred and forty three pages; it was the Energy White Paper.
You will find that “solar” within the context of a heat creating technology occurs only two times, and once of [...]
Filed under: Alistair Darling, climate change, electricity, energy, gas, heat, microgeneration, solar, solar energy, solar panels | Tagged: Alistair Darling, energy policy, global warming, hypothermia, microgeneration, Northern Rock, solar thermal, solar thermal per capital installations, the energy review | 2 Comments »
Posted on December 20, 2007 by robertkyriakides
Gordon Brown has finally admitted it. He has not ruled out nationalising the Northern Rock. When you walk down a path putting one foot in front of another you should know where the path leads. When he and his chum Alistair Darling decided to rescue the bank, rather than the money of depositors of the [...]
Filed under: Alistair Darling, Northern Rock, gordon brown, grants, microgeneration, solar energy, solar panels | Tagged: Alistair Darling, gordon brown, Lord Truscott, low carbon building programme, microgeneration, Northern Rock | No Comments »
Posted on November 27, 2007 by robertkyriakides
The Energy Savings Trust is the United Kingdom’s agency for helping individuals (as opposed to businesses) to save energy. It does focus on energy savings, as its title suggests) but has some expertise in renewables. There is no specific government agency that promotes the use of micro generated renewable energy, but you would expect that [...]
Filed under: Alistair Darling, carbon emissions, climate change, microgeneration | Tagged: Alistair Darling;attention grabbing; measuring carbon;, cabinet, carbon trust, climate change, energy minister, Energy Savings Trust, green barometer, microgeneration, Phase 2 Low Carbon Building Programme | 2 Comments »