Posted on May 5, 2008 by robertkyriakides
Everyone talks a good environmental game, but very few actually know the rules, so the standard of play is very poor indeed. In the United Kingdom we have a series of disconnected environmental “signals” and schemes and consultations.
We have to be dragged almost screaming by the European Union into any cogent environmental laws and [...]
Filed under: carbon emissions, carbon trading, climate change, energy, law, parliament, pollution, rubbish | Tagged: eco bullying, ETS, european union, Gordian knot, land fill directive, plastic bags, weekly rubbish collections | 3 Comments »
Posted on March 14, 2008 by robertkyriakides
I have been handing out plenty of environmental brickbats to Government Ministers so it is really pleasant to award an environmental bouquet to Caroline Flint, who is the Planning Minister and another to Malcolm Wicks, who is the Energy Minister.
They have instituted changes to the planning rules which will make planning permission for home solar [...]
Filed under: carbon emissions, climate change, energy, genersys, global warming, law, malcolm wicks, microgeneration | Tagged: caroline flint, planning permission for solar, planning rules for solar, solar central heating | No Comments »
Posted on March 8, 2008 by robertkyriakides
People have been grumbling about Home Information Packs. These are surveys which a seller must buy and then have available to potential buyers when a home is marketed. “HIPS” are supposed to contain lots of useful information but enquiries show that less than 7% of potential buyers actually bother to read the Home Information Pack, [...]
Filed under: biomass, carbon emissions, climate change, energy, law | Tagged: contents of HIPs, conveyancing, cost of HIPs, energy performance certificates, future cost of energy, HIPs, home information packs | No Comments »
Posted on February 9, 2008 by robertkyriakides
People have compared the present state surveillance powers to those in the old communist eastern bloc countries. The comparison is unfortunately true. We are spied upon by the state (whose only justification for existence is to serve and protect us), as rigorously and with as little control and with as little respect for our fundamental [...]
Filed under: justice, law, parliament | Tagged: authorities allowed to spy, bugging, Czechoslovakia, eavesdropping, judical control of surveillance, spying, StB, surveillance, velvet revolution | 1 Comment »
Posted on January 25, 2008 by robertkyriakides
On the 28th October 1940 Italy invaded Greece. The invasion inspired my father Nicolas Kyriakides to join the Cyprus Regiment of the British Army in Alexandria; he, along with other Cypriots, was promised that if Cypriots joined the Army after the defeat of the Axis forces Britain would grant Cyrus independence. A higher proportion of Cypriots [...]
Filed under: Jacqui Smith, justice, law | Tagged: an unust society, Cypriot forces in world war 2, definition of a terror suspect, detention without trial, internment, Italy invading Greece, Jacqui Smith, Kalamata, Most Czechoslovakia, stalag 4B, terror suspects, the greeks | 2 Comments »
Posted on January 24, 2008 by robertkyriakides
The European Union will legally require each country in the Union to meet a certain fixed percentage of its energy by renewables by 2020 if plans announced yesterday are approved, as they are likely to be. In the case of the United Kingdom that fixed percentage is 15%. The United Kingdom has got off very lightly; [...]
Filed under: PV, biomass, carbon emissions, climate change, electricity, energy, fuel poverty, genersys, heat, law, malcolm wicks, microgeneration, pollution, solar, solar energy, solar panels, tax, wind turbines | Tagged: BBC, BERR, burning forests, district heating, energy minister, EU renewable targets, intermittancy, proportion of possible soalr thermal contribution to UK, renewable eelctricty, renewable energy, renewable heat | 17 Comments »
Posted on January 20, 2008 by robertkyriakides
In November personal information of 25 million people was “lost” by the Government. Since then there have been many cases of personal information being lost. The most recent case involves the personal information of 600,000 people, which has been lost by the Ministry of Defence.
As well as the loss of data, stored in computer readable [...]
Filed under: identity cards, law, weather | Tagged: confidential information, identity cards, loss of data, prosecutions, secrets, warm January, weather | No Comments »
Posted on January 8, 2008 by robertkyriakides
Stamp Duty Transfer Tax is a jolly way for the Government to raise money. Traditionally, Governments have used Stamp Duty as a means of raising tax for hundreds of years; it was one of those taxes to which the American colonists objected. If you wanted to become a solicitor eighty or so years ago you [...]
Filed under: carbon emissions, carbon offsetting, climate change, energy, gordon brown, law, microgeneration, solar, solar energy, wind turbines | Tagged: climate change, incentives, new homes, stamp duty, stamp duty rates, treasury, zero carbon homes | 2 Comments »
Posted on January 4, 2008 by robertkyriakides
It is much better for the environment if you can take a long journey by rail, instead of by air or plane. Unfortunately the rail way system in the United Kingdom has suffered from under investment for decades. The original railway infrastructure was built to high standards; it still needed to be maintained but maintenance [...]
Filed under: Travel, carbon emissions, law, tax | Tagged: fines, individuals, infrastructure, Network Rail, regulator, taxes, unjust laws | No Comments »
Posted on December 19, 2007 by robertkyriakides
If you are in the United Kingdom and are suspected of being involved in terrorism you can be arrested and detained by the police for up to twenty eight days without be charged with any criminal offence. The Government plans to increase this 28 day period to 42 days, citing the great threat and complexity [...]
Filed under: law | Tagged: 28 days, 42 days, detention, false confessions, freedom, internment, Norther Ireland, police | No Comments »