Shock Jock

Back early in June I wrote:

More and more, I am starting to suspect that I personally know someone who is better informed on any specific hot button issue than any member of the dreary commentariat.

I will start gathering these exemplars together over the months and years into my own new Kitchen Cabinet.

Old school friend, Kevin T is now added as the third member (after Rod and Emma) of the roster. We were out on one of our occasional catch ups on Tuesday evening. After a long and distinguished career, very much of which was spent in telecoms in Asia, he was able gently to correct me and steer me in a more wholesome direction whenever I started ranting, about the OneWeb satellite system or the PRC/Taiwan stand off, by the deceptively simple expedient of knowing far more about, and having spent more time thinking about, the issues than me.

I may have to confront the possibility that I am gradually morphing into Alex Jones, the  swivel-eyed,  alt-right conspiracy theorist. I need my consigliere's, my viziers', and my grey eminences' hand holding. That's Rod, Emma and Kevin so far. God help them. God help me. God help us all.

OneWeb (Let's get together and feel alright)

Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy

Published 26 July 2022 

OneWeb, a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation of which the UK government is a minority shareholder, has today signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Eutelsat Communications to merge the 2 companies, with the objective of creating a single, powerful global player in connectivity.

Eutelsat will add its 36-strong fleet of Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellites to OneWeb’s LEO constellation, with 428 satellites already in orbit, to generate combined revenues of €1.2 billion and address an even wider range of customer requirements.

The merger is positive news for UK taxpayers: having made a $500 million investment in OneWeb 2 years ago .....

This is not positive news it is a fiasco, as I wrote at the time of the investment (passim). What I have written about it since is here.

A fact at random: OneWeb’s LEO constellation, currently has 428 satellites;  it is intended to operate as a rival for Elon Musk’s company Starlink. The Telegraph says Starlink has already deployed more than 4,400 satellites

I am too tired to be frightened

The Crown Estate published its annual results a couple of days ago, might as well have put them on a bonfire in the garden for all they attention they attracted.

Capital value: The value of the Marine portfolio increased by 22% to £5.0 billion, driven largely by offshore wind, in particular leasing Round 4.

I wrote about this twice in February 2021 (by yer, and over by yer). The Queen owns, and can dispose of as she sees fit, all the rights to offshore power generation in UK territorial waters. Tony Blair's government ceded this to the Crown in 2004. And nobody except me seems to think it was outrageous! It is not as if all the North Sea oil was hers, it is a precedent set comparatively recently for all it sounds medieval. The value of this "gesture" to Her Majesty increased by a billion quid last year. (OK strictly 0.9 billion but you get the point.) Where are the headlines? 

Before I get back down off my soapbox, let's raise the small matter, once more, of the Government's insane half a billion pound investment in the OneWeb satellite constellation (74 employees at the time the money was spunked up). I have been banging on about this for two years now. They launched their satellites from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Oops, what with Russian sanctions, Russian retaliation 'n all. Chalk another one up to Dominic Cummings, strategic genius.

A moiety of that mass of moan to come.

 I hope that none of the twelve million quid the Duke of York is reportedly paying his accuser is coming from an oligarch. If so, a rethink may be in order. Could the Queen's Sovereign Grant contribute I wonder? I wrote last year (Icons passim) that it was £85.9 million in 2020-21 but has now been boosted by £220m per year. A modest 256% increase. It never ceases to amaze me how this sort of thing gets nodded through, then forgotten by everyone except me and the recipients.

While I'm in Cassandra mode, what about OneWeb? Russia holds OneWeb rocket launch hostage, issues conditional demands.

I said that the Government pumping about half a billion quid of ours into OneWeb was madness on:

• TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 2020
• SUNDAY, JULY 05, 2020
• SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2020

A smoking gun

I have got form questioning the Government's OneWeb aquisition (Icons passim).

It has emerged now that Sam Beckett, the acting permanent secretary at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy raised serious concerns about the purchase.

Herewith the correspondence on the Ministerial direction for the purchase of OneWeb that will cover the redoubtable Ms Beckett in glory sometime in the future when it is bugger all use to anyone.

She was sidelined about a week ago (see this). I wonder why? What an extraordinary coincidence.

While I will continue to stick my nose into the government's business, class is class and I am very impressed by this revelation:

Emily Maitlis has revealed that she received a “text of support” from Dominic Cummings following her Newsnight monologue.

The presenter divided audiences in May after introducing an episode of the political programme with a speech claiming that Cummings had “broken the rules”, after he drove from London to County Durham at the height of lockdown.

Sending a private message of support to someone who is being pilloried for attacking ......you, is one for the ages.

Marek Ziebart

This won't work. Really. It's a waste of £0.5B of public funds. @RishiSunak - please get in touch, and I'll explain why. https://t.co/pGjuDgAnfp

— Marek Ziebart (@MarekZiebart) June 26, 2020

The OneWeb fiasco. Watch this space. I am going to buy Dominic Cummings a geometry set for his birthday.

OneWeb

The OneWeb satellite constellation (formerly WorldVu) was a planned initial 650-satellite constellation that was in the process of being built out in 2019–2020, with a goal to provide global satellite Internet broadband services to people everywhere and was previously aiming to provide global services starting in 2021. The constellation was being deployed by OneWeb, formerly known as WorldVu Satellites and headquartered in London, United Kingdom with offices in California, Florida, Virginia, Dubai and Singapore.

OneWeb declared bankruptcy in late March 2020, and has laid off most of their employees (reducing its workforce from 531 employees down to 74) but is maintaining the satellite operations center for the 68 satellites already in orbit while the court determines disposition of the OneWeb assets.

Our government now intends to pay £500m for 20% of it to mitigate the UK’s loss of access to the EU’s Galileo satellite navigation system.

I will continue to follow this with interest as it disappears from the front pages as I find it utterly incomprehensible.

This is the same government that brought us the ongoing track and trace app debacle remember.