Good news: One of the hotels on my touring itinerary has EV chargers in their FREE basement car park. Always nice to plug in overnight.
Bad news: Said chargers are on yet another network that needs an app or RFID card, the app was never tested properly and the domain for Passwords to store my credentials bears no resemblance to the brand name of the network OR the web site which I had to find to get around a bug in the signup verification process.
So glad I got to debug this at leisure from the settee at home rather than under pressure with a cable in one hand after a day’s driving. And on this occasion NO, NO, NO I don’t want to pay you €6 for an RFID tag I’ll use only once. This is why I need to be sure the app is working instead.
This is what happens when free markets control the rollout of infrastructure. The chaos will end eventually when networks eat each other up and there is just one app or RFID card to rule them all. Till then
To hoteliers: It’s really great hospitality to provide low speed destination charging for guests but, for heavens sake, make sure YOU control the guest experience rather than leave patrons to fight with a network they’ll only use for one night. You provide free parking so go the extra stage and make the charging free too. That way customers can just plug in and know it just works. It’s worth it just for guest happiness and costs far less than you imagine. Or just charge a flat rate at the desk.
How the BBC covered the General Election 54 years ago in 1970. This was the first time they used an exit poll to predict the result near the start of the programme. The wrap up at the end contains some quite prescient predictions of how the Conservatives would get by with a fairly narrow majority — plus someone mentioned how Ted Heath was going to be a better figure than Harold Wilson to negotiate joining the Common Market.
If you’d like to watch a lot of Tories losing their seats here is the BBC’s election night coverage from 1997. It’s a good way of deciding how long you’d need to stay up to see the same this year, or whether your best bet is to go to bed and just get up early instead.
@christineburns
Read RethinkX's Energy Report
htts://rethinkx.com/energy It talks of huge amounts of extreme low cost energy from properly built out solar & wind generation with battery backup. The costs for solar, wind, and backup battery systems are getting very low cost. Over building solar and wind generation allows most day to be supplied by current generation. Batteries are only needed for extended low generation periods. On days when generation is maximal, there will be lots of excess.
Happy twentieth birthday to the Gender Recognition Act — once groundbreaking, now overdue for an update to catch-up with legislation that overtook it, but hopefully at least safe from the unhinged extreme right of the Conservative Party. Read how we forced Labour to pass it on 25th May 2004. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00PB84AUM
The New York Times sticks its thumb on the scale in the matter of Dr Cass’s review, burying a response letter from US paediatricians whilst issuing a push notification to readers for its interview with Cass.
TOMORROW: It’s twenty years since Parliament overwhelmingly passed the Gender Recognition Act. That means it’s been law for longer than many young trans people have been alive. This is the foreword to Volume 2 of my book series about achieving that landmark, Pressing Matters.
NB. The reason Commons passage was the definitive vote stage was because the Bill had started life by being debated and voted by the Lords and then moving to the Commons.
We’ll shortly discover whether the people of Islington are inherently Corbyn voters or Labour voters. If there are any significant numbers of the former the vote will be split.
@christineburns I suspect he will get huge numbers campaigning for him. Owen Jones and We Deserve Better will be out in force.
Meanwhile Starmer is attempting to distance himself from the upcoming Diane Abbott NEC decision. As if...
19 years ago today Stephen Whittle and I had a day out at Buckingham Palace having medals pinned on us by the now-King for services to trans people. Afterwards my daughter and I had afternoon tea with my MP, Sir Gerald Kaufman in the Commons tea room. I’ve always thought Stephen really suits formal attire. Hard to reconcile the state’s performance of respect for trans people then with what the Tories have done in the last 6-7 years.