Utopia, you are standing in it!

Henry VI (December 6, 1421 – May 21,1471) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. The only child of Henry V, and Catherine of Valois was the youngest daughter of King Charles VI of France and his wife Isabeau of Bavaria.

Henry succeeded to the English throne at the age of nine months upon his father’s death, and succeeded to the French throne on the death of his maternal grandfather, Charles VI, shortly afterwards.

Henry inherited the long-running Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453), in which his uncle Charles VII contested his claim to the French throne. He is the only English monarch to have been also crowned King of France, in 1431. His early reign, when several people were ruling for him, saw the pinnacle of English power in France, but…

I remember the celebration in 2016 when Ireland was commemorating the centenary of the Easter Rising. There had already been events months beforehand. On 20 January 2016. Ireland’s first ever commemorative €2 coin went into circulation to mark the centenary year of the Easter Rising.

The Easter Rising , was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the aim of establishing an independent Irish Republic. Of course this event needed to be remembered, because it was such an important step towards Irish independence.

However, fast forward to today, December 6 2021, and you will find there are hardly any events planned. Even though today marks the centenary of an even more important event in Irish history, the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty.

The Treaty formally ended the War of Independence, set the stage…

Europe’s persistent and ongoing wind drought spells the end for never-reliable wind power and the renaissance of ever-reliable nuclear.

As a consequence of the Big Calm and a total collapse in wind power output across Western Europe and the UK, the Brits have now enlisted Rolls Royce to build a fleet of small modular reactors.

And the French have rapidly unveiled plans to build 14 next-generation nuclear plants, adding to the 56 plants currently operating and providing the French with over 70% of their power needs, at a cost roughly half that being paid by their wind and solar ‘powered’ German neighbours. Long-standing French government plans to shutter its existing plants have been quietly shelved.

The reason that nuclear power generation is back with a vengeance is twofold: the evident impossibility of relying upon sunshine and breezes for reliable power; and the political desire to reduce carbon oxide gas…

The Anglo-Irish Treaty, which resulted in independence for what was initially known as the Irish Free State, was signed 100 years ago today. David Torrance outlines how MPs and peers reacted when asked to approve the treaty at a specially convened parliament later that month.

Despite its significance to the history of the United Kingdom, the Anglo-Irish Treaty – signed a century ago on 6 December 1921 – has had remarkably little attention from historians and constitutional scholars.

Especially neglected has been the UK Parliament’s consideration of that treaty, in marked contrast to considerable analysis of the Dáil debates during December 1921 and January 1922. In accordance with Article 18 of the treaty, its provisions required approval by both the UK Parliament and ‘a meeting’ of those elected to the (devolved) Parliament of Southern Ireland in May 1921.

Parliament was convened on 14 December 1921 for the sole purpose…

It’s a rainy morning in Wellington. There have been crashes on my road to work. The roads are full.

Uber wanted to charge me $84 to get to work by 9am. The usual price is $21. So I’m going to Zoom in for the 9am and come in after that when, I expect, prices will be more sensible. (Assuming I still have a job: missing the 9am might be a bigger deal than I think.)

So: one less road user at the peak of a particularly busy day. I’m sure I am not the only one. If it were desperate for me to be there in person for the 9am, I’d have swallowed the extra fee. Or perhaps been a bit more organised and picked up my car yesterday.

The system is working. Now scale.

The Sun and wind might be free, but wind and solar power are by far the most expensive power sources, of them all.

Diffuse and dilute – entirely dependent on the weather (wind – in the case of wind power, and cloud cover in the case of solar) and, in solar’s case, where the Sun sits in the sky – every MW of wind or solar capacity has to be backed up by a MW of reliable, dispatchable capacity, from either coal, gas or nuclear power (and hydro where that might be available).

Over the years, renewable energy rent seekers have attempted to paint a very different picture; viz, by claiming that wind and solar are ‘free’ and getting cheaper all the time. The accounting tricks employed are fairly obvious for those with the faintest idea about how electricity is generated and distributed.

Donn Dears is one such character. Here…

Good casts

Rumpole of the Bailey is a radio series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer based on the television series Rumpole of the Bailey. Five different actors portrayed Horace Rumpole in these episodes: Leo McKern, Maurice Denham, Timothy West, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Julian Rhind-Tutt.

His skill at defending his clients is legendary among the criminal classes. The Timson clan of “minor villains” (primarily thieves) regularly rely on Rumpole to get them out of their latest bit of trouble with the law. Rumpole is proud of his successful handling of the Penge Bungalow Murders “alone and without a leader” (that is, as a “junior” barrister without a QC) early in his career and of his extensive knowledge of bloodstains and typewriters. Cross-examination is one of his favourite activities, and he disdains barristers who lack either the skill or courage to ask the right questions. His…