UK farmers lose £800m after heat and drought cause one of worst harvests on record

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/04/record-heat-drought-2025-cost-uk-arable-farmers-estimated-800m-climate-crisis-grain-harvest

Spring barley is harvested. The ECIU said the evidence suggests climate impacts were driving issues of profitability in the arable sector. Photograph: Diane Randell/Alamy

Many now concerned about ability to make living in fast-changing climate after one of worst grain harvests recorded

Record heat and drought cost Britain’s arable farmers more than £800m in lost production in 2025 in one of the worst harvests recorded, analysis has estimated.

Three of the five worst harvests on record have now occurred since 2020, leaving some farmers asking whether the growing impacts of the climate crisis are making it too financially risky to sow their crops. Farmers are already facing heavy financial pressure as the costs of fertilisers and other inputs have risen faster than prices.

This year Britain had the hottest and driest spring on record, and the hottest summer, with drought conditions widespread. As a result, the production of the five staple arable crops – wheat, oats, spring and winter barley, and oilseed rape – fell by 20% compared with the 10-year average, according to the analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU). The harvest in England was the second-worst in records going back to 1984.

Supercharged by global heating, extreme rainfall in the winters of 2019-20 and 2023-24 also led to very poor harvests, as farmers were unable to access waterlogged and flooded fields to drill their crops.

“This has been another torrid year for many farmers in the UK, with the pendulum swinging from too wet to too hot and dry,” said Tom Lancaster at the ECIU. “British farmers have once again been left counting the costs of climate change, with four-fifths now concerned about their ability to make a living due to the fast-changing climate.”

Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/04/record-heat-drought-2025-cost-uk-arable-farmers-estimated-800m-climate-crisis-grain-harvest

Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Continue ReadingUK farmers lose £800m after heat and drought cause one of worst harvests on record

Farage turns on broadcasters over racism allegations as number of claims hits 28

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/dec/04/farage-turns-on-broadcasters-racism-allegations-bbc

Nigel Farage gave an angry performance at a press conference in London. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Reform leader suggests he would boycott BBC, saying he has had letter from Dulwich pupils defending him

Nigel Farage has turned on broadcasters for questioning him about his alleged teenage racism and antisemitism as the number of school contemporaries who recalled such behaviour to the Guardian reached 28.

In an angry performance at a press conference in London, the Reform leader suggested he would boycott the BBC and said ITV had its own case to answer, as he repeatedly shouted “Bernard Manning”.

Manning, a comedian from Manchester who died in 2007, was a regular face on British television in the 1970s but he drifted from the public eye after claims that his material was racist and misogynistic.

The intemperate performance by Farage, whose party has slipped in the national polls in recent weeks, came as a further five school contemporaries came forward to the Guardian with allegations that they had witnessed deeply offensive racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/dec/04/farage-turns-on-broadcasters-racism-allegations-bbc

dizzy: Is Farage’s current flavour of argument that there were other blatant racists and misogynists at that time so that it’s fine?

He’s said that he wants an apology “for everything”. I can try, might take a few goes.

I’m so sorry that everyone is not as perfect as you Nigel. You’ve obviously been taught all your life that you’re so special and it’s so unfortunate that there are so many inferior people and races affecting your absolutely perfect being and experience. I’m so sorry that you’re so obviously always in distress, I can see you shouting it at every opportunity.

… I’ll have to work on it.

Nigel Farage blames the Muzzies.
Nigel Farage blames the Muzzies.
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Continue ReadingFarage turns on broadcasters over racism allegations as number of claims hits 28

Reform council leader accused of racism after alleged remarks about Sadiq Khan

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/dec/03/reform-council-leader-ian-cooper-accused-racism-alleged-remarks-sadiq-khan

Ian Cooper, the leader of Staffordshire county council. He is also said to have attacked David Lammy in a social media post. Photograph: GaryRobertsphotography/Alamy

Ian Cooper allegedly called Khan ‘narcissistic Pakistani’ and made comments about lawyer Shola Mos-Shogbamimu

A Reform UK council leader has been accused of racism after allegedly describing Sadiq Khan as a “narcissistic Pakistani” and saying a black British lawyer should have “F’d off back to Nigeria”.

Ian Cooper, the leader of Staffordshire county council, is also said to have attacked the justice secretary, David Lammy, in a social media post that said: “No foreign national or first generation migrant should be allowed to sit in parliament.”

In another post, Cooper allegedly claimed migrants were “intent on colonising the UK, destroying all that has gone before”.

Nigel Farage’s party said it was undertaking an “urgent internal investigation over Councillor Cooper’s non-disclosure of social media accounts”.

Two other Reform UK politicians were suspended last month over offensive messages.

Laura Anne Jones, the sole Reform UK member of the Senedd, used a racial slur in a discussion about the potential threat of China utilising TikTok for espionage.

In Lancashire, the councillor Tom Pickup was suspended for calling Keir Starmer a “dicktaker” in a post to a WhatsApp group where members allegedly called for “mass Islam genocide”.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/dec/03/reform-council-leader-ian-cooper-accused-racism-alleged-remarks-sadiq-khan

Climate science denier Nigel Farage explains that it's simple to blame asylum-seekers or Muslims for everything.
Climate science denier Nigel Farage explains that it’s simple to blame asylum-seekers or Muslims for everything.
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Keir starmer warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog.
Keir “dicktaker” Starmer warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog.

Revealed: The Online Activity of Staffordshire Council Leader Ian Cooper

Continue ReadingReform council leader accused of racism after alleged remarks about Sadiq Khan

UK using more wood to make electricity than ever, Drax figures show

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/03/uk-using-more-wood-to-make-electricity-than-ever-drax-figures-show

Biomass provided almost a fifth of the UK’s electricity for the first time during one morning in September when renewable energy resources were particularly low. Photograph: Lee Smith/Reuters

Giant biomass plant reveals burning of wood pellets made 9% of UK’s electricity in July, its largest ever monthly share

Britain’s reliance on burning wood to generate electricity has reached record highs, even as the government moves to curb the controversial use of biomass power.

The latest figures supplied by the owner of the huge Drax biomass plant in North Yorkshire have revealed that power generated from burning biomass wood pellets provided 9% of the UK’s electricity in July, its largest ever monthly share.

Weeks later, biomass provided almost a fifth (17%) of the UK’s electricity for the first time during one morning in September when renewable energy resources were particularly low.

Britain’s record reliance on biomass generation has reached new heights as the government set out its plans to dramatically reduce the controversial energy source under a new subsidy agreement with the FTSE 250 owner of the Drax power plant.

Under the deal, Drax will continue to earn more than £1m a day from energy bills in exchange for burning wood pellets at its power plant. However, it will only be supported to run just over a quarter of the time, down sharply from almost two-thirds of the time currently.

When the deal was agreed in February, the energy minister, Michael Shanks, said the company’s subsidies had been cut because it “simply did not deliver a good enough deal for billpayers and enabled Drax to make unacceptably large profits”.

Drax has also faced a backlash from green groups amid criticism of the company’s claims that it sources wood only from “well‐managed, sustainable forests” to manufacture the pellets burned at its power plant.

Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/03/uk-using-more-wood-to-make-electricity-than-ever-drax-figures-show

Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Continue ReadingUK using more wood to make electricity than ever, Drax figures show