Very interesting, and confirmation that the Tories and Reform are irresponsible parties with only corporate interests in mind. They are the reason your gran is cold and much more likely to die in winter/vote against her own interests. Labour are better on this but not by much. Vote Green. #heating #InsulateBritain #HeatPump #ClimateChange #Green

Cold and expensive v hot, cheap and eco-friendly: the contrasting histories of home heating in the UK and Sweden https://theconversation.com/cold-and-expensive-v-hot-cheap-and-eco-friendly-the-contrasting-histories-of-home-heating-in-the-uk-and-sweden-275417

Cold and expensive v hot, cheap and eco-friendly: the contrasting histories of home heating in the UK and Sweden

Two professors of energy studies – one British, the other Swedish – explore the very different histories of home heating in their countries.

The Conversation

"Two professors of energy studies – one British, the other Swedish – explore the very different histories of home heating in their countries."

https://theconversation.com/cold-and-expensive-v-hot-cheap-and-eco-friendly-the-contrasting-histories-of-home-heating-in-the-uk-and-sweden-275417

#InsulateBritain #EnergyEfficiency #DistrictHeating #HeatPumps #UnitedKingdom

Cold and expensive v hot, cheap and eco-friendly: the contrasting histories of home heating in the UK and Sweden

Two professors of energy studies – one British, the other Swedish – explore the very different histories of home heating in their countries.

The Conversation
@cedric
"Areeba Hamid, the co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, said Starmer had “caved like a house of cards in the wind”."
Who'd want to be the leader - but buck stops with them. Ghastly reprisal of Cameron 'dropping the green crap'; who can measure impact of the #insulatebritain response?

“How To Start a Revolution in 2026”

by Roger Hallam in Savage Minds on Substack

[Note: #Hallam is an environmental activist known for having co-founded #ExtinctionRebellion, #JustStopOil, #InsulateBritain, the cooperative federation organisation #RadicalRoutes, & the political party #BurningPink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hallam_(activist)]

@uk_politics
@thegreenparty

“Ordinary People Can Run Society—But Only if We Build the Structures to Let Them”

https://open.substack.com/pub/savageminds/p/how-to-start-a-revolution-in-2026

#Press #UK #Revolution #Rupture

Roger Hallam (activist) - Wikipedia

"This is one aspect of what campaigners call “process as punishment”, an approach that now dominates the treatment of protest groups. Even if you are never convicted of a crime, your life is made hell if you dare, visibly and publicly, to dissent." -- @georgemonbiot.bsky.social

I can verify from the experience of close personal friends that this is true.

#UKPol
#ExtinctionRebellion
#InsulateBritain
#PalestineAction

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/07/palestine-action-hunger-strikers-government?CMP=share_btn_url

Let’s be clear: if the Palestine Action hunger strikers die, the government will bear moral responsibility

The three remaining hunger strikers have been convicted of nothing. Yet with astonishing cruelty, ministers refuse to listen to their reasonable demands, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

The Guardian

@johannes_lehmann @Ruth_Mottram

My house in Cambridge was built with walls two bricks wide, in a two parallel, one across pattern. No cavity, and no insulation. Had coal-burning fireplaces at every room (unused but leaking cold air) and radiators heated form a gas furnace. Energy rating E.

We added 10 cm of a dense modern material to the walls, mostly wood pulp as far as I know, and changed the windows to double or triple glass panel. And replaced the heating with an air-source heat pump. Energy rating A+.

This should be done for easily more than half of all homes in the UK.
https://albert.rierol.net/tell/20221008_insulation.html

If, around 1900, all the effort, money, and thought that went into mining and transporting all that coal had gone into building houses with cavity walls and thicker windows, all of this mess would have been averted. Alas, a few fat cats wouldn't have become rich. Tragic. Time for the rich to pay it back.

#InsulateBritain #insulation

Tell (it like it is)

@Ruth_Mottram

"Homes in England had a median Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) score of 68 and homes in Wales had a median EPC score of 67, according to records from the 10 years up to March 2024; both scores are in band D."

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/articles/energyefficiencyofhousinginenglandandwales/2024

The UK government is so broke, or short-sighted, or both, that it's only considering a policy of bringing houses up to band C:

"This chapter discusses findings on energy efficiency ratings and heating systems and how this differs by tenure. It then goes on to discuss insulation measures in dwellings, smart meters by tenure and subjective overheating, then finishes with the average cost of improving dwellings to an energy efficiency rating band C."

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/chapters-for-english-housing-survey-2023-to-2024-headline-findings-on-housing-quality-and-energy-efficiency/chapter-2-energy-efficiency

Bear in mind that any house with an insulation less than in the A band is going to pay a lot in heating and cooling. A lot. It's like a tax on the poor, or a punishment: to endure cold winters and hot summers.

#UK #EnergyRating #insulation #InsulateBritain

Energy efficiency of housing in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics

Insights on the energy efficiency and central heating main fuel type for new and existing homes by property type, tenure, and property age for national and subnational geographies.

Extinction Rebellion may have gone quiet, but climate protest will come roaring back

The pandemic and harsh laws suffocated climate movements as we knew them. Get ready for a new kind of action, says journalist Oliver Haynes

The Guardian

"Oligarchs and corporations on both sides of the Atlantic want to stamp out any threat to their interests. In the US, this effort has been led by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. In the UK, the commissioner for countering extremism, Robin Simcox, appointed by the Conservative government, but who remains in post until July, previously worked at … the Heritage Foundation" -- George Monbiot

#ExtinctionRebellion
#InsulateBritain
#PolyCrisis
#Protest

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/03/protest-britain-activists-quaker-meeting-house

Vilified, arrested, held incommunicado: that’s the price of protest in Britain today

It seems to me that whatever the charges facing the activists at the Quaker meeting house raid, their fundamental crime is dissent, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

The Guardian

"Last year [UK police] sent over 1,000 officers from 39 forces, spending £3m, to shut down a climate camp and arrest 24 people, on the grounds that they might have been planning to occupy a road outside a power station. At the same time, they fail even to investigate serious organised crime, citing insufficient resources" -- George Monbiot

#ExtinctionRebellion
#InsulateBritain
#PolyCrisis
#Protest

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/03/protest-britain-activists-quaker-meeting-house

Vilified, arrested, held incommunicado: that’s the price of protest in Britain today

It seems to me that whatever the charges facing the activists at the Quaker meeting house raid, their fundamental crime is dissent, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

The Guardian