Workers at Legendary Bay Area Sex Shop File for Union Election

Written by Kevin TruongPublished Dec. 30, 2023 • 

Workers at seven Good Vibrations stores in the Bay Area have filed for a union election. | Source:San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images

Workers at Good Vibrations, the body-positive sex shop founded in San Francisco nearly a half-century ago, have filed for a union election with labor regulators.

The election would see whether around 40 workers at seven Bay Area Good Vibrations locations spanning San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Palo Alto and Santa Cruz want to join UFCW Local 5, a union that also represents workers at grocery stores and cannabis dispensaries.

Good Vibrations—often known as Good Vibes—has its roots in San Francisco where it was founded in 1977 by sex educator Joani Blank. Blank was inspired by her work on research with women who had difficulty achieving orgasm and the store became a hub for sexual education and a retail outlet for sex toys.

Good Vibrations is also known for its collection of antique vibrators, currently on display at the company's location at 1620 Polk St. in San Francisco.

The company went through several transitions from a worker-owned cooperative to a for-profit corporation that was eventually purchased by Barnaby Ltd.

Sam Pollack, an employee at the Palo Alto location, said that the union push was sparked in part by a Covid outbreak that was "sorely mismanaged" and led to multiple people getting sick and losing their jobs.

That incident catalyzed into a larger fight for better wages, better job security and better maintenance for the stores, Pollack said.

Good Vibrations management can voluntarily recognize the union, which would then go into contract bargaining. But Pollack said if that does not happen, workers are also prepared to push forward with an election that would take place in February.

The company's union drive is part of a larger wave of organized labor participation,—some observers dubbed the "hot labor summer"—including at major corporations like Starbucks and Amazon. That was paired with strikes in 2023 by major labor unions, including the United Auto Workers and SAG-AFTRA, which protects workers in the radio, television and film industries.

All told, the Cornell Labor Action Tracker, estimates that around 300,000 workers have caused work stoppages over the year.

Labor organizing in the adult industry is relatively rare compared to industries like manufacturing, but there have been a few recent developments, including dancers in Los Angeles becoming the first unionized strippers in the country in May.

"There can be some stigma and social sanctions around the type of work that we do, that poses as a barrier to organizing because it feels like you almost have to be extra-covert," Pollack said.

In 2016, workers at Babeland, another Barnaby-owned sex shop, successfully organized into a union. Barnaby also owns two locations in the Boston area, which was subject to a weeklong work stoppage by employees during the pandemic due to health and safety concerns.

The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Jim Araby, strategic campaigns director for UFCW Local 5, positioned the Good Vibrations union drive as part of a new generation of increasingly class-conscious workers.

"Whether it's cannabis or adult retail or coffee shops or fast food workers, this generation of workers particularly in the Bay Area saying the economic picture looks bleak and the only solution is labor," Araby said.

"In Good Vibes' case, it's not about selling toys and pleasure products, it's about giving an education to people about being more sex-positive," he added.

Rebroadcast: The Eichmann tapes and the comforting myth of the 'banality of evil'

47:31
Resume

February 02, 2023

Stefano Kotsonis
Meghna Chakrabarti
Adolf Eichmann stands in his bullet-proof glass cage in Israel's Supreme Court.

This rebroadcast originally aired on July 15, 2022.
WBUR is a nonprofit news organization. Our coverage relies on your financial support. If you value articles like the one you're reading right now, give today.

In 1961, Adolf Eichmann, architect of the Holocaust, was tried in Israel.

Writer Hannah Arendt attended the trial.

In Eichmann, she saw a passive, mindless bureaucrat. The banality of evil.

A line that has endured for decades as the explanation for why anyone could participate in the murder of millions.

However, newly discovered tapes from 1957 show Eichmann's evil wasn't banal at all.

Today, On Point: The Eichmann tapes and challenging the comforting myth of the banality of evil.

Guests

Yariv Mozer, Israeli filmmaker. He created, directed and wrote the documentary The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes. The documentary will be available on American TV later this year. (@yarivmozer)

Bettina Stangneth, philosopher and historian. Author of Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer.
Also Featured

Alan Rosenthal, British-Israeli documentary producer. He was assistant director and vision mixer for the international broadcast of the Eichmann trial in Israel in 1961.
Transcript: The Eichmann tapes and the nature of evil

MEGHNA CHAKRABARTI: On April 11th, 1961, Adolf Eichmann stepped into a glass defendant's box and stood trial in Jerusalem. The trial was broadcast on television, with simultaneous translation from Hebrew and German into multiple languages, including English. The proceedings commenced. Presiding Judge Moshe Landau began reading the 15 counts in the indictment against Eichmann.

MOSHE LANDAU: The accused, together with others, during the period 1939 to 1945, caused the killing of millions of Jews. In his capacity as the person responsible for the execution of the Nazi plan, for the physical extermination of the Jews, known as the final solution of the Jewish problem.

CHAKRABARTI: Adolf Eichmann was a Nazi. He was the architect of the Holocaust. Reading the indictment, Judge Landau named the locations of the Nazis greatest horrors. The camps that carried out Eichmann's orders.

LANDAU: Auschwitz. Millions of Jews were exterminated in this camp from 1941 until the end of January 1945, in gas chambers and in crematoria. And by shooting and hanging. The accused directed the commanders of that camp to use the gas known as Zyklon B. And in 1942 and 1944, the accused also secured the supply of a quantity of gas for the extermination of the Jews.


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CHAKRABARTI: The Adolf Eichmann who stood in the box seemed a passive, even pathetic figure. Thick tortoiseshell glasses, balding. His body, like his hair, receding into a dark, boxy, oversize suit. Even the chief investigating officer at the trial, a Holocaust survivor himself, said that upon first laying eyes on Eichmann, he couldn't believe that, quote, 'This nerd controlled millions of Jews, their lives and their deaths.'

But at trial, Adolf Eichmann refused to accept responsibility for even one of the 6 million lives taken by the Nazis.

CHIEF INVESTIGATING OFFICER: Do you admit the first count brought against you?

EICHMANN: In the spirit of the indictment, I am not guilty.

CHAKRABARTI: Reporters from around the world came to cover the Eichmann trial. Among them, Hannah Arendt, the famed writer and political philosopher, had been exiled from Europe as a young Jewish girl in World War II. Decades later, she went to Jerusalem to cover Eichmann's trial for the New Yorker. She watched Eichmann for weeks, heard his claims about being nothing more than a little bureaucrat following the rules of the Nazi state, dutifully enacting the orders of his Nazi commanders.

'Evil comes from a failure to think,' Arendt later wrote. 'A phenomenon which stared one in the face at the trial. Eichmann was not Iago and not Macbeth,' she noted. 'Except for an extraordinary diligence in looking out for his personal advancement, he had no motives at all. He merely, to put the matter colloquially, never realized what he was doing. It was sheer thoughtlessness.' End quote. This, Arendt, concluded, was the banality of evil.

This is On Point. I'm Meghna Chakrabarti. 60 years later, the banality of evil has been so oft repeated, it's been reduced to cliché. Just yesterday, a guest on this show used the phrase when trying to explain why so many Republican operatives quickly abandoned their principles in support of the authoritarian slide that led to the Capitol insurrection. So the banality of evil has become a comforting myth we tell ourselves.

Arendt's idea that evil comes from a failure to think is a popular and powerful way to comprehend how anyone could willingly participate in the unthinkable. But in the case of Adolf Eichmann, we now know that Hannah Arendt was wrong. Because Eichmann said so himself.

This is Adolf Eichmann, his actual voice, speaking in recordings made in Argentina in 1957, four years before he went on trial in Jerusalem. And in the recordings, he says, I regret nothing.

EICHMANN: Every fiber in me resists that we did something wrong. I must tell you honestly, had we killed 10.3 million Jews, then I would be satisfied and say, good, we have exterminated an enemy … that is the truth. Why should I deny it?

Eichmann's evil is not a failure to think. Eichmann's evil is the product of deliberate thinking that made him proud to orchestrate a genocide. So it may be time for us to drop our belief in the banality of evil.

Now, the existence of the 1957 Eichmann tapes has been known for some time, but hardly anyone has heard them until now. Those clips you just heard are from a new documentary called The Devil's Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes. And it's director Yariv Mosher joins us now. Yariv, welcome to On Point.

YARIV MOSHER: Thank you, Meghna. It's a big honor to participate in this show. Thank you very much.

CHAKRABARTI: Well, I watched the documentary several times and it left me chilled, every single time. I wonder for you, what was your first response or first reaction when you heard the Eichmann tapes for the first time?

MOSHER: First of all, to think, to hear that such a thing exists, that a Nazi allowed himself to talk so freely about what he did to take responsibility, to brag about what he did during the Holocaust. This was mind blowing. Because all the Nazis, after the war, during the Nuremberg trials, for example, they didn't take responsibility. They all said we had to fulfill orders, like Eichmann did in the trial in Jerusalem in 1961. He did the same thing. So to think that there is one Nazi who allowed himself, while being in hiding and feeling protected, this was the thing that drove me so passionately to look for those tapes.

And when hearing them for the first time, it was a very moving experience. But, you know, moreover, I was looking to hear in those tapes, to feel the authenticity of the sound. So I looked for those sounds that gave me the feeling that this is happening. Because we knew that it's happening in the living room. They were drinking wine, lighting cigarettes. The daughter of the journalist was singing from the other room. Hearing those sounds in those tapes gave me the feeling that what I'm hearing is the true thing. And this was very powerful.

CHAKRABARTI: Yes. So that leads us to the next obvious question, which is these recordings, the Eichmann tapes were made in 1957, as we noted. And it wasn't until 1960 that Mossad abducted Eichmann from Argentina, and took him to Israel for trial. But how is it that three years earlier, Adolf Eichmann is sitting in a home in Buenos Aires and making these tapes? Who made them?

MOSHER: Well, this journalist, this Dutch Nazi journalist named Willem Sassen, convinced Eichmann to talk. Because he said, Well, one day you want your story to be known. You want a book to be published, a biography. No one knew about what Eichmann did. In fact, even Sassen himself and the colleagues, all other Nazi sympathizers who joined them in this living room, didn't really believe the stories of the Holocaust. They thought that these are all Jewish propaganda. They still believed in Hitler ... and they couldn't really believe the stories about the scale of the Holocaust.

So they wanted, in the beginning, that Eichmann will say, yes, none of this is true. But on the contrary, Eichmann was sitting there and was looking to get some credit of what will be, for him, his life achievement, the killing of so many Jews. So he denied those thoughts and said, yes, we did it. We did kill so many Jews. And he talked freely about what he did. And in a way, he was looking to get, you know, recognition for what he did in the war, which is horrifying.

CHAKRABARTI: Well, I want to play another moment from the Eichmann tapes that's in your documentary. So this is where Eichmann is sitting again in someone's living room describing how his job was, quote, the physical extermination of the Jews. And people in the room are stunned. And Sassen asks him to clarify, and Eichmann does. And here's that moment.

EICHMANN: I didn’t even care about the Jews that I deported to Auschwitz. I didn’t care if they were alive or already dead. There was an order from the Reichsfuhrer that said Jews who were fit to work were sent to work. Jews who were unfit to work had to be sent to the Final Solution. Period.

SASSEN: And with that you clearly and openly meant physical extermination?

EICHMANN: If that’s what I said, then yes, for sure.

CHAKRABARTI: We really have about 30 seconds before our first break. But in that moment, the tapes reveal that the men in the room themselves were stunned at the truth of what Eichmann was saying. And they actually tried to stop the recording, right?

MOSHER: Yes, because it didn't follow their expectations. They were sure that this is Jewish propaganda and Eichmann is saying the truth. And they were shocked, like us.

CHAKRABARTI: Well, today we are talking about the Eichmann tapes, the previously unheard 1957 recordings of the architect of the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann. And the recordings are shared widely and publicly for the first time in the new documentary, The Devil's Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes.

This program aired on February 2, 2023.

Related:The Doctor Who Helped Israeli Spies Catch Eichmann But Refused Recognition For It

The Man Who Sedated Eichmann : Rough Translation

Historian Anne Applebaum connects Hannah Arendt to the state of democracy today

Stefano Kotsonis Senior Producer, On Point
Stefano Kotsonis is a senior producer for WBUR's On Point.

Meghna Chakrabarti Host, On Point
Meghna Chakrabarti is the host of On Point.

Eichmann In Jerusalem A Report On The Banality Of Evil ...

Internet Archive

https://archive.org › details › eichmann-in-jerusalem-a...

May 9, 2020 — REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION. EICHMANN in Jerusalem. A Report on the Banality of Evil. by. Hannah Arendt. Originally published in 1963.

Pizza Hut under fire for laying off delivery drivers amid minimum wage increase


Salam Bustanji

Published December 27th, 2023 -

Pizza Hut’s delivery driver layoffs sparked outrage over minimum wage hike.

 (Brandon Bell/ AFP)

Highlights

Pizza Hut slashes 2,000 delivery jobs in California ahead of $20 minimum wage increase.


Pizza Hut, one of the largest pizza chains in the US, is facing criticism from its employees and customers after announcing that it will lay off all its delivery drivers in California, effective from February 16, 2024.

The move comes one month before a new law that will raise the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour goes into effect in the state.

According to Southern PacPizza, LLC, the company that operates Pizza Hut franchises in Central California, Southern Oregon and the Reno-Tahoe area, the decision to eliminate the delivery driver position was made to save costs and remain competitive in the market. The company said it will partner with DoorDash, a third-party delivery service, to fulfill its delivery orders.

However, the affected employees, who currently earn $15.50 per hour, are not satisfied with the company’s explanation. Marvin Lopez Rangel, a Pizza Hut delivery driver for almost five years, said he felt betrayed and disrespected by the company that he had been loyal to. He said he learned of the layoffs six days before Christmas, and was given an unemployment packet and no severance pay.

“They make billions of dollars easily in profits, and for them not to want to pay their workers a living wage and just to fire them across the board is really… disrespectful to say the least,” Lopez Rangel said.

Lopez Rangel also expressed concern for his fellow workers, especially those with families and children, who will lose their income and potentially their only source of livelihood. He said he hoped that Pizza Hut would reconsider its decision and put people before profits.

“I hope Pizza Hut sees this and comes to their senses and says, ‘Hey, you know what? We’re going to put people before the profits,’” he said.

The layoffs will affect about 2,000 delivery drivers in California, according to a spokesperson for Southern PacPizza, LLC. The company said it will offer some of the drivers the opportunity to work as in-store employees, but did not specify how many or what the pay rate would be.

The minimum wage increase for fast food workers in California was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September 2023, as part of a broader effort to address income inequality and poverty in the state. The law will gradually raise the minimum wage from $14 to $20 per hour by 2026, starting with a $1 increase in April 2024. The law will apply to fast food establishments with 30 or more locations nationwide.


Supporters of the law argue that it will improve the living standards and working conditions of fast food workers, who are often subjected to low pay, long hours, and poor benefits. They also claim that it will boost the economy by increasing consumer spending and reducing reliance on public assistance.

Opponents of the law, however, contend that it will hurt small businesses and lead to higher prices, reduced hours, and job losses for fast food workers. They also warn that it will create a competitive disadvantage for California businesses, as other states have lower minimum wage rates.


Pizza Hut is not the only fast food chain that has faced backlash for its response to the minimum wage increase. In November 2023, McDonald’s announced that it will close 300 locations in California by the end of 2024, citing the impact of the wage hike on its profitability. The company said it will focus on expanding its digital and delivery capabilities, as well as remodeling its existing restaurants.

The minimum wage debate is likely to continue as more states and cities across the US consider raising their wage floors. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, 32 states and the District of Columbia have minimum wage rates higher than the federal level of $7.25 per hour, as of January 2024. The highest state minimum wage is $16.69 per hour in Washington, followed by $16.32 per hour in California.

South Korea's capital records heaviest single-day snowfall for 40 years

Published: 31 Dec 2023 - 12:26 pm

Visitors wearing traditional hanbok dress walk in the snow at Gyeongbokgung palace in central Seoul on December 30, 2023. 

(Photos by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)

Seoul, South Korea: The South Korean capital, Seoul, received the biggest single-day snowfall recorded in December for more than 40 years on Saturday but there have been no reports of any weather-related deaths or injuries.



The country's weather agency said Sunday that 12.2 centimeters (4.8 inches) of snow fell on Seoul the previous day, the heaviest since 1981.

The Korea Meteorological Administration said a heavy snow advisory was issued for Seoul's entire area on Saturday before it was lifted later in the day. It said other parts of South Korea also received snow or rain on Saturday.



South Korea's safety agency said that Saturday's snow in Seoul and other areas caused traffic congestion, but no snowfall-related deaths or injuries have been reported.

‘Beginning of the end’ for EU in current form as hard-Right parties surge

James Crisp
Sun, 31 December 2023 

EU stars falling

Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen, Giorgia Meloni and Viktor Orban will lead their hard-Right parties to victory in next year’s European parliament elections, polls have predicted.

Their parties are expected to be the largest in the Netherlands, France, Italy and Hungary after the EU-wide vote in June, which is seen as a battle to end Brussels overreach into national sovereignty.

Nationalist parties from Poland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Slovakia and Cyprus are also expected to return the most, or equal most, MEPs to Brussels and Strasbourg.


More than a third of all MEPs are predicted to be at the very least critical of the EU in a European parliament that has long been dominated by pro-EU groups – up from around 25 per cent a decade ago, excluding the UK.

Within that group, hard-Right parties, firmly opposed to Brussels and often anti-migration, are predicted to make gains of up to 25 per cent of MEPs, compared to just 11 per cent a decade ago.

Nigel Farage led UKIP and the Brexit Party to victories in European parliament elections in 2014, a breakthrough year for eurosceptic parties, and 2019.


“UKIP and the Brexit parties were ahead of their time. The populist surge that we are going to see in the European elections next spring will mark the beginning of the end of the EU in its current centralised form,” said Mr Farage.

“Gosh, I could have led a big group!,” he joked, referring to the pan-EU alliances formed by like-minded parties in the parliament.

Viktor Orban chose Judit Varga, his former minister of Justice, to take the fight to Brussels after clashing with the EU over the rule of law and migration.

Ms Varga said she will fight the campaign to show European voters that there is an alternative, and to battle for a conservative majority in the parliament next year.

“What I’m fighting is the hypocrisy of the EU, the double standards of the EU. And it’s not against, but it’s for the European future,” she added.

“A new Europe is possible,” said Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister of Italy, who leads a pan-EU alliance of hard-Right parties in the European parliament after Mr Wilders won an unexpected Dutch general election victory in November.

Soft or virulently eurosceptic parties will be the largest, or joint largest, in 10 of the 27 EU member states, according to national polling analysed by Europe Elects.

Half of all MEPs returned from France, Italy, Cyprus and Hungary are expected to be from a eurosceptic party.

There will still be a large majority of pro-EU MEPs. However, the increase in hard-Right MEPs could have a real impact on EU legislation, especially if they vote with the influential and establishment centre-Right.

MEPs have the power to amend bills in negotiations with EU governments across the majority of European laws.

The hard-Right parties are likely to join one of two eurosceptic groups. If they band together to form political groups, they qualify for more EU funding and speaking time in the parliament.

The expected winners include Poland’s Law and Justice, which was ousted by the pro-EU Donald Tusk after eight years in power following elections in October.

While it was the single-largest party, it did not have enough support for a majority, but is set to win the European elections.

Belgium’s Vlaams Belang, which is kept from national power by a coalition of establishment parties, is set to win in the EU’s own backyard.

So is the Sweden Democrats, which is propping up a Right-wing coalition in Stockholm, which has adopted anti-migrant policies in return for its support.

The other expected winners include Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, Viktor Orban’s Fidesz and Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party.

Mr Wilders is still attempting to form a coalition government but Ms Meloni and Mr Orban are already prime ministers, which grants them access to European Council summits.

Heads of state and government in the council give political direction to the European Commission and will decide on the next leaders of the major Brussels institutions after the June election.

Slovakia’s Robert Fico, a pro-Russian Left-wing eurosceptic nationalist, bolstered the hard-Right in the influential council after winning elections earlier this year.

Hard-Right parties are predicted to make big gains in a number of national elections across Europe next year.

There are elections in Austria, Lithuania, Croatia, Romania, Portugal and Belgium in 2024.

In 2023, the average proportion of national parliaments filled with hard-Right parties hit its highest level since 2010 at around 14.3 per cent. Based on current polling, this will be exceeded in 2024.

In Austria, the hard-Right Freedom Party has been leading the polls for months. A five-poll average currently has the pro-Russian party at 31 per cent.

In Belgium, Vlaams Belang is currently expected to see its seats increase by five to a record 24, making it the largest in the chamber for deputies, even if it is unlikely to be part of a future coalition.

In Portugal, Chega is currently polling at more than twice its vote share in the previous election at 16.4 per cent. It is expected to remain the third-largest party but narrow the gap on establishment parties.

The Alliance for the Union of Romanians is polling at 18 per cent – twice its 2020 vote share.

“Clearly the result of the recent Dutch elections should be a warning for the EU,” said Elizabeth Kuiper, associate director at the European Policy Centre think tank in Brussels.

“If more populist parties gain momentum there is a risk that EU countries will become more inward-looking, and positions will shift due to changes in government.

“Clearly the mobilisation of voters expressing political discontent needs to be addressed at the EU level in the years to come.”

She added that Brussels would have to prove it could solve social problems, including a fair transition to net zero, to prevent more populist victories.

“Populist parties will present themselves as the saviours of the welfare state and turn their back on the EU,” said Ms Kuiper.

Beneath Britain’s streets, an energy revolution is quietly taking place


Matt Oliver
Sat, 30 December 2023 

Vattenfall's operations project manager Jason Lee says the heat pump is like an giant, industrial-sized radiator - Lee Thomas

Perched on the side of a floating harbour inside a large, wood-clad shed, a gigantic heat pump – the biggest one in Britain – is drawing water from the river and using it to provide heating to surrounding buildings.

It was built by Bristol City Council but taken over recently by Swedish state energy giant Vattenfall, which is now expanding the system across the city.

“The heat pump is working hard today,” says Jason Lee, the operations project manager, as we step into the large room where the device is housed.


At the plant, a maximum of 153 litres per second is being abstracted from the river. On the day we visit, the water temperature is about eight degrees Celsius.

The heat pump then uses the water to warm a refrigerant chemical with a very low boiling point (in this case ammonia), which turns into gas and is then tightly compressed.

This in turn raises the temperature, with the gas then used to heat pipes that carry separate water in a circuit around the local district.

After the heat pump has worked its magic, the water originally abstracted is returned to the river about three to four degrees colder than before.

So long as the water temperature is around 7 degrees or more, the machine can achieve a “coefficient” of about three, says Lee. This means every kilowatt of electricity put into the heat pump generates about three kilowatts of heat energy in return.

This system, with the help of a huge water tank, then pumps water around the network’s pipes, delivering it to nearby buildings at a minimum of 65 degrees.

“It is like a giant, industrial-sized radiator,” says Lee.

Customers already include a school, a health clinic, student accommodation, a BT office and a neighbouring block of apartments.

At the moment, the Bristol network is powered by the heat pump, a biomass boiler and natural gas. But under the city’s plans to go greener, there are hopes that the gas could be replaced by more heat pumps, renewables or heat energy from nearby data centres and waste incineration sites.

Vattenfall has also set its sights on other cities, including Edinburgh, Glasgow and London. It is also in talks with Dundee and Stirling, with a target to be in five to eight cities by 2030.

The Swedish firm has long operated such heat networks in Western Europe but is now one of several companies vying to dominate the nascent UK market, which is tiny by comparison.

Just 2pc of heat here comes from heat networks, compared to 50pc in Vattenfall’s native Sweden.

But with the UK Government hoping to gradually switch households away from natural gas heating under plans to reach “net zero” carbon emissions, that is likely to change.

A strategy published by ministers envisages that around 18pc of building heat will eventually come from district networks like the one in Bristol.

These have the potential to be an “efficient, cost-effective and flexible” solution for greener heating, according to the International Energy Agency, providing the energy they run on is clean.

Importantly, heat networks may also be the answer for people who cannot get a heat pump, the main alternative to gas boilers being pushed by the Government.

A typical air source heat pump will still set a homeowner back by about £14,000 (before a government grant of £7,500) and some homes may not be suitable for them, says Jenny Curtis, managing director of Vattenfall Heat UK.

“The narrative when we talk about the decarbonisation of heat tends to boil down to gas boilers versus heat pumps, but we’re really missing a huge chunk of the story,” she says.

“We need the right technology, in the right places, at the right price. It’s going to be a mixed picture and district heating is a huge part of the solution.”

Vattenfall can trace its heat network roots back to the 1890s, when one of its subsidiaries first started operating in Hamburg, Germany.

Today its networks serve more than two million homes and businesses across Europe, in cities such as Amsterdam and Berlin.

In the UK, the Government’s heat and buildings strategy suggests heat networks will make the most difference in built-up areas such as cities.

But others believe the technology has wider potential and are pushing for it to even be considered as a direct replacement for gas heating in suburbs and rural villages.

One of these is Truro-based Kensa Group, which builds district heating networks powered by ground source heat pumps. Earlier this year, the company – which makes heat pumps in the UK – received £70m in investment from Legal & General Capital and Octopus Energy.

It is using the money to finance the construction of heat networks itself, with L&G then owning the assets.

So far, the company has built heat networks for several social housing schemes, including one recently in Thurrock. But it has also been trialling a heat network in the Cornish village of Stithians, which it hopes could become a model for others across the country.

This draws heat from the earth via 42 boreholes, each about 100 metres deep. Villagers were offered free installation of the new heating system in their homes in exchange for paying Kensa a monthly standing charge.

The picturesque village of Stithians in Cornwall is trialling a ground source heat pump network - Jo Shreeve

Tamsin Lishman, Kensa’s chief executive, says the approach means households still have a “heating box in a cupboard”, similar to their gas boiler.

“We see massive potential for this to replace the gas grid,” she explains. “They work everywhere, but we see them as particularly suitable for medium-density housing, by which I mean classic terraced streets.”

Kensa’s investor, L&G, also believes the technology is scalable and is looking to partner with the company to become a major owner of heat networks in the UK.

“They’ve delivered it to social housing, retrofitted blocks of flats, new build development sites and a village, so it’s very exciting that it can have such a beneficial impact for society,” says John Bromley, managing director of clean energy investments at L&G Capital.

“But also, on our end it’s actually a sensible investment that makes good returns.”

Yet there are still questions about how heat networks will work in practice, including how consumers will be protected from the risk of unfair prices.

The Heat Trust, a non-profit consumer champion, warns heat networks are de-facto monopolies, with customers unable to change suppliers.

Most are also owned by landlords who outsource their operations to specialist companies, which can lead to a lack of transparency about how fees are calculated.

Perhaps most crucially, heat networks are not covered by the energy price cap, which proved disastrous for some consumers during the 2021 energy crisis.

According to the Heat Trust, some residents reliant on heat networks faced 700pc bill increases as landlords simply passed on the cost increases they were facing when buying energy on the wholesale market.

The Government is currently holding a consultation on how to regulate heat networks and protect consumers in the future, with Ofgem handed responsibility under the Energy Act.

A government spokesman says the act gives Ofgem “the power to intervene on unfair prices for heat network customers”, while the Secretary of State now has powers to cap prices should they become “significantly higher compared to other heating systems”.

Despite this, regulating the many thousands of heat networks scattered across the country poses an “unprecedented challenge”, the Heat Trust warns.

“It will be crucial to demonstrate that Ofgem has an appetite for enforcement activity,” the trust says.

Improving the efficiency of networks, which can lose 30pc-40pc of their heat typically, will also be crucial to prevent consumers from paying the price for poor standards.

Meanwhile, separate changes to the planning system will soon require councils to sort different areas into “heating zones”, denoting which types of heating should be prioritised.

Vattenfall is hoping this will make things easier as it pushes to expand, with its flagship project in Bristol poised to grow from just two zones to seven in the next three years.

That presents opportunities but also big challenges, admits Vattenfall’s Curtis.

“All the pieces of the puzzle are coming together,” she adds. “The challenge we’re going to have is how to quickly ramp up the supply chain.

“But it’s coming, it’s big and it’s exciting.”

Britain's Big Ben marks 100 years of New Year 'bongs'

Helen ROWE
Sat, 30 December 2023 

Big Ben underwent a five-year restoration programme which largely silenced its famous 'bongs' (Tolga Akmen)

London's Big Ben on Sunday marks the 100th anniversary of its "bongs" to ring in the New Year being broadcast live across the world.

Ever since New Year's Eve 1923 when BBC engineer A.G. Dryland clambered onto a roof opposite the British parliament to record the strikes, live transmission has become an annual tradition.

The unmistakable sound of the "nation's timepiece" has long occupied a special place in national life.

The bongs are heard twice daily -- at 6pm and midnight and three times on Sunday -- on BBC radio, and at the start of the nightly News at Ten on commercial channel ITV.

Such is their importance that even during the recently-ended five-year restoration programme when they were largely silenced, important exceptions were made.

As well as New Year, Big Ben also continued to mark Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday when the nation remembers its war dead.

Big Ben also rang out to mark Britain's departure from the European Union in 2021 and the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022

After a week of testing, normal service finally resumed last November.

While the rest of London is enjoying New Year's Eve, clock mechanic Andrew Strangeway will be at the top of the 96-metre (315-foot) Elizabeth Tower.

The tower houses the clock and its five bells, including the largest one from which Big Ben takes its nickname.

- 'Fractions of a second' -

Along with the two other members of the in-house timekeeping team, the 37-year-old will be making last minute checks to make sure the clock will be "within fractions of a second of being correct."

Although the chances of a mishap on the big night are tiny, Strangeway said the clock did suffer a disaster during the 1970s when it stopped due to metal fatigue.

"I think the chances of anything going seriously wrong are small. Our main worry on things like New Year is -- is it going to go off and is it going to be on time," he said.

Completed in 1859, the structure was known as the Clock Tower before being renamed the Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to honour the late queen's Diamond Jubilee.

In the years before the renovation, parliament's timekeepers would benchmark the Great Clock's time against the telephone speaking clock.

Now, it is calibrated by GPS via Britain's National Physical Laboratory.

But the method to adjust the clock's timing mechanism remains old-fashioned: old pennies are added or removed from weights attached to two giant coiled springs, to make or lose a second.

"It's a fantastic job," Strangeway told AFP, adding that even when he was out and about in London he would frequently look for Big Ben and think "yes it's still running".

He said he was very excited that he would be "right next to the bells... at that moment when everyone is looking at that clock for the start of the New Year".

har/gv

How to become a spy – MI5 agents share career secrets in effort to boost recruitment

Sean Rayment
Sat, 30 December 2023 

Most recruits come from ordinary backgrounds, having held down jobs in unrelated industries

Britain’s spy chiefs have taken the unprecedented step of releasing personal details about spies as part of a recruitment campaign.

The spy agency hopes to demonstrate that most of its recruits come from ordinary backgrounds and often had other jobs in completely unrelated industries before joining up as a spy.

The move is a far cry from when agents came from top public schools and were secretly recruited from Oxford and Cambridge universities or the armed forces’ officer corps.


MI5 is also offering new recruits and existing staff the opportunity of working from home or on a part-time basis in the hope of retaining more staff.

MI5 employs around 5,000 people across the UK with the majority being based at the Security Service’s HQ in Millbank, Central London.

The Thameside building in London's Millbank where MI5 is based - HORACIO VILLALOBOS/EPA

But in recent years, the organisation has faced severe competition for personnel from the private security sector which offers significantly higher wages.

As part of MI5’s recruitment campaign, it has highlighted the careers of several spies identified only by their first names on the organisation’s Instagram account.

In one case a woman called “Steph” reveals that she had hoped to swim in the Rio Olympic Games in 2016.

She said: “Growing up, I never thought I’d end up being a spy – I was more focused on fulfilling an Olympic dream. I always loved being in water and after Mum signed me up to the local swimming club, I only had one thing in mind – to swim in the Olympics.

“Life became a routine of 5am starts and then back to the pool after school for more training. But it started to pay off: my times got faster and faster and with each new personal best I climbed up the rankings.

“Before long I was competing in the nationals and by then my eyes were firmly focused on a place at Rio in 2016. Having the chance to represent my country felt like a huge honour and I really thought it was within my reach”.

But Steph goes on to reveal that her dream never materialised and she had to step back from competitive swimming, in what she described as a “swift and crushing end”.

The view which MI5 staff see as they enter their headquarters - INSTAGRAM

But she added: “Life continued on. I completed college, then university but I struggled to know what to do next. One day I saw an advert for an admin assistant role at MI5. I knew nothing about the organisation other than it had a building across the river from MI6 – but thought I would give it a go and here I am.

“I’ve had a great career so far and working on our Instagram account has been fantastic. I can honestly say I love it at MI5. There’s a wide range of career options and for my next role I’ll probably look to go back to doing something operational. I may not have swum at the Olympics but MI5 has given me the chance to represent my country every day.”

Another recent recruit highlighted is a former travel agent and member of an airline cabin crew called Reuben, who said he decided to join MI5 after seeing a terrorist attack unfold on TV.

He added: “When I left university, I worked in the travel industry helping people book trips to incredible, dream-like places. I longed to be in their position and explore the world instead of just talking about it so I joined an international airline as a member of a long-haul cabin crew. I absolutely loved it.”
TV series Spooks

“It was on one of these trips that I woke up one morning, flicked on the TV news and saw there had been a terrorist attack back in the UK. I felt sick and a long way from home. I knew that if there was any way I could help I should, and I started my MI5 application as soon as I arrived back home.

“The little I knew about MI5 was based on the TV series Spooks where people single-handedly saved London by getting into scrapes. The reality is quite different, but what I do recognise is the quiet satisfaction of making an unseen difference.

“I’m an investigator so I run operations into terrorist and state threats, working with our partners to identify and disrupt those threats.

“Before I joined, I didn’t appreciate the importance of ‘necessity and proportionality’, which you don’t see on TV. Making sure our actions are necessary to protect national security and proportionate to the threats we investigate is critical to how we function as an organisation. “When we’re faced with difficult decisions, this makes me feel completely comfortable about working here.”

The final case study reveals the story behind Amber’s recruitment. The female agent handler reveals that when growing up she had two passions – watching spy movies and skateboarding and often imagined that she might one day become a spy.

Ken McCallum, the MI5 director general, has pioneered a more open approach - PA

She said: “I’d rush home to watch M.I. High and Kim Possible, before grabbing my skateboard to whizz around the neighbourhood, letting my imagination run wild with adventures about fending off bad guys and saving the day.

“Those dreams never left me but the idea they could become reality didn’t once cross my mind. After college, I had a couple of temp jobs but wasn’t sure what path to take for a career.

“One day I saw an MI5 job advertised in the local newspaper. Looking back, I remember working up the courage to apply, thinking it wasn’t for me as MI5 was bound to be a serious place where people lived and breathed work and had no time for a life outside of the office. The mistaken idea that I might need to give up skateboarding almost stopped me applying but the girl who wanted to help save the day wasn’t going to be put off that easily.

“I joined as an admin assistant and now I work supporting agent handlers out and about in the UK. Every day is busy and I never know what to expect. I’ve met people from all walks of life and lots of them aren’t what I thought MI5 would be like. There isn’t one MI5 ‘profile’, and I’ve even found other skateboarders here.”
Unprecedented

Colonel Phil Ingram, a former Army Intelligence Officer, who worked closely with MI5 and MI6 during his career, described the disclosure by MI5 as both unprecedented and exciting.

He said: “The latest MI5 recruiting programme is another example of how much effort they are putting in to demystify the service and show how they need people from all walks of life and backgrounds. This level of openness is completely unprecedented and very exciting, and would have been scoffed at only a few years ago.

“However, it is good for the service and for potential recruits and seems to be part of a more open approach being taken by the head of MI5, Ken McCallum.

“MI5 has cleverly taken bits and pieces of the careers of some of its staff, without identifying them, to demonstrate to potential recruits that many of their spies come from very ordinary backgrounds which should prove attractive to anyone considering a career as a spy.”

Russian ‘egg king’ survives assassination attempt amid anger over soaring prices


James Kilner
Sun, 31 December 2023 

Gennady Shiryaev (centre) was ambushed by a gunman who fired two shots at his BMW

A Russian egg magnate has survived an assassination attempt two days after the authorities started investigating him for alleged price fixing.

The attack on Gennady Shiryaev has fed into growing hysteria in Russia at the rising price of eggs, which have become so expensive that they are now being gifted as Christmas presents, and forced the Kremlin to promise to bring down prices.

Mr Shiryaev was driving his 4x4 BMW near his egg factory on Dec 27 in the central Russian region of Voronezh when he was ambushed by a gunman who fired two shots. Both shots missed Mr Shiryaev.

Police have not yet given a motive for the attack although the Mash Telegram news channel said that he was attacked by “locals who were dissatisfied with the increase in prices” of his products.

Mr Shiryaev owns the Tretyakovskaya poultry farm. Two days before his attempted murder, the authorities opened a case against him and two other egg producers for increasing the price of eggs.

Eggs in Russia have risen by more than 50 per cent in price over the past three months, angering ordinary Russians who regard them as a staple food product.
Unnerved Kremlin

The price rises have also unnerved the Kremlin less than three months before a presidential election that Vladimir Putin wants to use as a public display of support for his war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has been forced to issue statements denying egg shortages and put into action its emergency plans to buy tonnes of eggs from abroad and waive import taxes to suppress prices. It has also ordered its FSB security services to arrest anybody suspected of hoarding eggs.

Analysts have said that high energy prices and Western sanctions have made rearing hens and producing eggs expensive in Russia.

Dozens of videos of people queuing at dawn to buy cheap eggs from vans have been uploaded onto social media and in the Vologda region, a deputy in the regional parliament for the ruling United Russia party photographed himself giving cartons of eggs to his staff as presents for the traditional Orthodox New Year festivities.