Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Of hell and handcarts

We're domed.

And Ambrose has spoken (written, actually). It would appear (to our complete lack of surprise) that the Irish have been well and truly shafted. But, writes Ambrose:
It is not for a British newspaper to suggest which course to take. Both outcomes are ghastly, but as one Irish reader wrote to me: if Eamon De Valera could defy world opinion in 1945 by sending condolences to Germany for the death of the Fuhrer, today’s leaders need not worry too much about scandalizing those who made them swallow Lisbon. Compliance is traumatic. Default is traumatic. What the Irish have before them is a political choice about what they wish to be as a people, and a nation.
This is fighting talk, on top of this, which he wrote earlier.

However, I suspect that the only difference between us and the Irish is one of timing. Would they accept British members in the IRA?

COMMENT: IRISH THREAD

Lost in space

Rajendra wants to send mirrors into space. A better idea might be to send the old pornographer into space himself, permanently (joined by Louise Gray, of course). The hot air saved would bring the temperature down a degree or too, especially if they should be joined by the lost soul who wrote this tripe:
An effective climate regime can only be built on by (i) designing principles of fair allocation of the available carbon space and (ii) agreeing on an appropriate effort sharing formula. The inequitable access to the atmosphere becomes self evident in the fact that average emissions per human year for Annex I Parties in the past has been 13.97 tCO2e and that of Non-annex I Parties is only 1.98 tCO2e. Evidently Annex I Parties have not only used their entitled carbon budgets and exhausted all their entitlements from the future but have also used that have been entitled to the Non-annex I Parties. Implicitly, in a completely fair world and on account of historic responsibility of Annex 1, the Annex 1 need to immediately turn negative emitters. However, given that all Parties will need some time to adjust their economies and hence will need some carbon space to enable such adjustment, irrespective of the fact that they have already utilized it, agreement on entitlements for the future on the basis of available carbon space is essential.
A more tortured piece of prose it would be hard to imagine, but someone, somewhere did actually write it. And it will come as no surprise to learn that this is part of an advert for a TERI side event at Can'tcun, written by Manish Shrivastava, Centre For Global Environment Research, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi. May God have mercy on its soul, as it goes on to write:
In this context the TERI side-event will discuss TERI’s proposal on how to operationalize the carbon budget approach. Realizing future entitlements into actions, under different scenarios of per capita equity based carbon budget, requires the pragmatic interplay of national and international responses. To enable this, a rethinking of policies, instruments and institutions is essential for an effective global climate regime. The side event will deliberate upon the relevance of, and challenges in operationalizing the carbon budget approach in relation to the limitations of domestic financial capabilities of India to remain within the available carbon budget for the next four decades. It will also discuss the significance of the link between the "historical responsibility" and required net transfer of financial resources from developed countries in achieving the 2 degree target.
Don't forget that we the taxpayers are kindly donating £10 million to this institute, to deliver this kind of tosh. I am sure we are all very grateful to our masters for supporting such a worthy enterprise.

COMMENT THREAD

Completely mad


If ever there was an insane concept, it is the Nissan leaf, which needed a subsidy of £5,000 to make it just twice as expensive as a conventional, better-performing equivalent. So what do they do? They vote it European Car of the Year, with 257 votes from the 58 judges across 23 European countries.

There is something terminally sick about a group of people who can do something like this. Somehow, one is not surprised to find that the jury is comprised of motoring journalists. A sharp-eyed reader, however, notes that the registration ends in NBG. One would like to think that this was not accidental.

That the car gets the award, however, suggests a darker agenda.  Have they been bought off?

COMMENT THREAD

Monday, November 29, 2010

What is going on?


Looking to do a round-up of the Irish situation, as promised last night, to be blunt, I don't think I really know what is going on, or what the next steps are going to be.

However, we do get the Daily Mail twittering about markets being "braced for another nail-biting session", with hopes that the "£72 billion bailout for Ireland" will calm share, bond and currency markets and stop the crisis spreading to other eurozone members including Portugal and Spain.

Next, we discover that what is singularly missing from all this are a few minor details – like the details of the financial package that was supposedly agreed over the weekend. And there's the rub. Nobody really knows what is going on – which makes much of the comment little more than extruded verbal material.

One thing is fairly clear though. If you take a population of five million and a debt of €100 billion (including interest), you are looking at every man, woman and child owing €20,000 ... each, just to pay back the EU/IMF "bailout". It would be cheaper to hand in the keys and leave the country.

COMMENT: IRISH THREAD

Poleaxed?

You know it makes sense.

COMMENT THREAD

China bubble


I have been saying for some time that the Chinese economy is a basket case. With a highly insecure political system to boot, it is only a matter of time before it crashes and burns. And now, it seems, I have company.

Mind you, I would say the same of India. I do not believe the hype about that country. It will be dragged down by its innate inefficiencies and most particularly by the corruption of its ruling elites.

COMMENT THREAD

Cravenly conformist?

"Far from being 'feral beasts', to use Tony Blair's phrase, the British media are overly respectful of authority. Newspapers and broadcasters tend to be suspicious of those who do not play the game ... ".

So writes John Kampfner in The Independent about Assange and the latest Wikileaks coup.

I would not have used the words "overly respectful" though, as that does not get close to the phenomenon. A better phrase might be "cravenly conformist", but even that does not really capture the essence of the beast. The closest I get is here with the discovery that:
News reporting is not a matter of discovering and publishing facts. Rather it is a process of gathering accounts from a very limited number of approved sources, and stitching them together to provide a defensible narrative. Any relationship with actual events, much less the truth, is entirely coincidental - and usually accidental.
Once you understand that, everything falls into place.

COMMENT THREAD

Threat inflation


First, we had "climate change". Then we got "dangerous climate change". And now we have "extremely dangerous climate change", all on the basis of two-year-old recycled hype. They've lost it.

This is hardly surprising though. You cannot expect logic (or consistency) from warmists – their brains are not wired that way. Hence an interesting comment from Powerline blog about the New York Times and its treatment of the Wikileaks releases compared with the Climategate releases.

The money quote is that their statements on the two issues are "logically irreconcilable", which just about sums up the whole warmist creed. It really has been our greatest mistake - treating these people like responsible adults, capable of rational thought, instead of people suffering from a collective delusion.

Then you get this sort of thing:
Some of the world's largest oil, mining, car and gas corporations will make hundreds of millions of dollars from a UN-backed forest protection scheme, according to a new report from the Friends of the Earth International.

The group's new report ... is the first major assessment of the several hundred, large-scale Redd (Reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation) pilot schemes. It shows that banks, airlines, charitable foundations, carbon traders, conservation groups, gas companies and palm plantation companies have also scrambled into forestry protection.
All of which, of course, means that it is a money-making racket, which is what we've been saying for ages, with WWF one of the biggest potential beneficiaries. If they're not deluded, they're thieves. Take your pick.

What they don't realise is that, when presented with the latest Louise Gray fantasy, the reaction of most people is a mixture of amused contempt and amazement of the credulity of a once-respected newspaper.

But when you get these mental midgets telling us that "global warming is now such a serious threat to mankind that climate change experts are calling for Second World War-style rationing in rich countries to bring down carbon emissions," derision is the only sensible response.

COMMENT THREAD

I missed this one

But Autonomous Mind didn't. That's the beauty of the blogosphere (the intelligent bit of it).

Anyhow, it's about that Ofgem investigation into energy company "profiteering". One is deeply suspicious of Ofgem, and rightly so when we see that, on Friday, Energy UK, the industry group representing the big suppliers, hit back at suggestions the utilities are profiteering. It blamed the numerous green taxes imposed by the Government for increasing consumer bills at a faster rate than wholesale prices are rising.

"We have nothing to hide and believe in transparency in this complex marketplace," said Christine McGourty, director of Energy UK. The full story is here. Autonomous Mind takes it further.

We are – as you might have guessed – being seriously ripped off ... but not as much as the Irish. I'll look at that later today.  Cries of "rape" are being heard. Even (or especially) the experts are stunned.

COMMENT THREAD

Sunday, November 28, 2010

It's cold out there


You don't have to say any more. The mercury at Llysdinam near Llandrindod Wells plunged to minus 17.3C – the principality’s lowest ever temperature for November and the UK's chilliest for the month since 1985. That temperature, incidentally, is just a fraction above the optimum for a domestic freezer.

Yet still they prattle about global warming ... or anything else that avoids getting to grips with the reality that we've been held hostage to a scare which is costing us billions. It won't go away, because it costs real money, takes lives and gives excessive power to those who should have none. The status quo is not an option.

COMMENT THREAD

Brilliant!

Just brilliant!

COMMENT THREAD

A tale of two Chindamos


Two "takes" on the same problem - this one from Alasdair Palmer and this one from Christopher Booker.  Which one would you go for? And Booker is back on the case with stolen kids as well – and no help from a Tory minister. Why am I not surprised? Did I tell him he was wasting his time seeing him? Do bears do things in woods?

Then there is the case of the black days for the Carbon [dioxide] industry. Not so much Cancun as Can'tcun. But that won't stop them trying. As the climate scare dies, the sound of whistling in the dark grows ever louder, Booker writes. Failing that, there is always this - which offers useful and imaginative things to do with a tickling stick. I'd sooner it was a telegraph pole, but the idea is right. You can't have everything in this world.

COMMENT THREAD

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Parish news (not)

You will get little of this from our terminally parochial media. An estimated 50,000 are expected to turn up, although that information may already be out of date.

There would be more, but the trouble is that the march is being organised by the Irish TUC, to an agenda that many would not support. Many of the marchers will be public sector employees, seeking to keep public spending up. Thus, they are as much part of the problem as are the politicians against whom they are demonstrating.

This notwithstanding, the British media is not going to waste time and effort reporting on protesting Paddies. It has far more important things to deal with.


UPDATE: It looks as if more than 100,000 showed - despite overnight snow storms and freezing temperatures. Huge crowds have gathered in O'Connell Street "to demonstrate against the cuts aimed at driving down Ireland's colossal national debt," says The Guardian.

COMMENT: IRISH THREAD

Entirely in character

In a sort of extended "let them eat cake" moment, the Daily Mail has slime Huhne ready to live it up at the taxpayers' expense, set to enjoy the facilities of the £240-a-night Moon Palace Golf and Spa Resort in Cancun for the United Nations summit.

Further, it is not just his carcase we will be funding, but the whole delegation of 45 British officials who will have a choice of 14 buffet and a la carte restaurants and 12 bars. They can even strengthen the Coalition over a round of golf on a course designed by Jack Nicklaus, says The Mail.

This sort of story, of course, is typical Mail, calculated to invoke fury in the breast of Middle England – and that is precisely what it does. But that does not mean the story does not stand up on its own merits in pointing out the hypocrisy of our loathsome masters.

We had similar stories come out of Copenhagen, with its luxury limousines and private jets, so we should know to expect nothing different, but it pays to be reminded of the nature of the slime which is telling us how much we must sacrifice to save the planet.

The old joke about rising up and slaughtering them, therefore, is losing its appeal – except it is not a joke. For Huhne read Marie Antoinette – the roles are interchangeable. As we gaze through the window at the layer of global warming covering the landscape, it is our earnest wish that they should share the same fate.

COMMENT THREAD

A real opposition

You know that the MSM have totally lost it when they are lauding that loser John Major – who is now arguing that the Cleggeron coalition should continue after the next election.

WfW is suitably disgusted, but perhaps Major has a point. The not-the-Tory-Party and the Lib-Dims should combine permanently, but they should go further and take in the Labour Party as well. There is nothing between them of any significance.

Then, possibly, we would have the political space to develop a real opposition party, with a manifesto that includes getting out of the EU. And I suspect it would not remain in opposition very long.

COMMENT THREAD

Friday, November 26, 2010

Ourselves alone


The final tally of votes cast in the Donegal South West by-election showed Sinn Féin Senator Pearse Doherty with a significant lead - the man who would burn bondholders. The Belfast Telegraph early in the afternoon thought it was all but in the bag, and it was not wrong.

Fianna Fail conceded defeat after Doherty clinched almost 40 percent of first tally votes for the seat vacated by MEP Pat The Cope Gallagher. Doherty said the message for Taoiseach Brian Cowen from the people of Donegal South West was "get out of office".

Reuters then confirmed that it was over. Doherty says he is headed to Dublin to vote against the government's budget on December 7 and try to force an election. "I will try and bring down this government and make sure all of the parties get to go to the people," he adds. This is sort of like Labour winning Witney. Sort of ... don't get too excited.

What is doubly fascinating though is that even the traditional opposition seems to have been stuffed. Fine Gael and Labour have polled below expectations. "Analysts" are telling us not to read too much into it - a remote "former" Fianna Fail stronghold near the border with the north where Sinn Féin's nationalist politics might have more appeal than elsewhere. After all, one might say, Sinn Fein has been doing so well of late.

As to the broader crisis ... I do like the sound of the death rattle in the morning, when even (or especially) sterling does a wobbly and the Huns are getting restless - Ambrose has spoken. Mind you, this one you could not make up. By the way, have you heard the new song? Sung to the tune of "Irish eyes", the first line is: As Irish banks get downgraded ....

COMMENT: IRISH THREAD

Taking us for fools - again

The EU Commission has unveiled its new budget proposals - sticking to a 2.9 percent increase as demanded by EU ministers. But the commission has also added a "contingency fund" of up to €3.5 billion to be spent in the event of "unforeseen circumstances" – a sum which does not figure in the slated annual increase.

This means that the headline figure to be approved remains at 2.9 percent above last year, while the actual sum spent by the end of the year will be close (or even above) the six percent increase demanded by MEPs. As an exercise in having it both ways, this is quite creative, as long as we the people don't mind being taken for fools.

COMMENT THREAD

Portugal next


"I can tell you that it's absolutely false, completely false," says José Manuel Barroso, flatly denying that a financial aid plan is in the works for Portugal. That's Portugal domed then. Bruno does an update, telling us that the euro is sliding "as Portugal bailout pressure builds".

It struck me the other day that, not only do the eursoslime and warmists share an agenda, they very often share the same language – the same assertive, unpleasant demeanour that brooks no debate and refuses to accept that there is any valid alternative point of view.

The warmists have "the science is settled" but the euroslime had the doctrine of inevitability – it was going to happen, whether you liked it or not ... it was the only game in town, etc., etc. Now, both factions are stuffed, the latter finding that the only inevitability is their impending demise.

Meanwhile, as the FTSE dives into the red, the race to collective suicide goes on. These people really are tired of living.

Still, there is always the expert view to keep us entertained. Kathleen Brooks, research director with foreign exchange service Forex, says it is was unclear where the crisis would spread. She adds: "Whereas the Greek crisis and the start of the Irish crisis were concerned with individual sovereigns and their problems, the current chapter of Europe's sovereign woes has turned into a periphery-wide issue where no one is safe."

You don't say!

UPDATE: And now that's Spain buggered as well.

COMMENT: IRISH THREAD

Talking the usual garbage


" ... while the UK is currently experiencing a cold snap and last year had the harshest winter for 30 years, the scientists said the evidence for man-made global warming had grown even stronger in the past year." Thus does Vicky Pope of the Met Office say that for global warming it was important to look at the global picture - which last year saw many parts of the world experience very warm temperatures even while the UK was gripped by snow and ice.

And she said: "We are starting to see changes in the climate even in the UK which we can link to global warming. We're seeing more heatwaves and seeing fewer of these cold winters."

The year 1940 saw the start of the "little cooling". That year and the subsequent period was marked by dreadful winters and, in some areas, fierce heatwaves (see above, column on the left - click to expand). On 20 July 1940, the Daily Express had reported that 160 Americans had died in two days because of the heat - as opposed to the 168 who had died in two weeks of air raids in Britain. "Global warming worse than Hitler, shock!" writes the Louise Gray of 1940?

Pope and the rest of the warmists see what they want to see – and fix the "evidence" accordingly. They do so because it is in their financial interests and because they are supported by institutions which stand to profit or extend their power, or both, by exploiting scares. The print and broadcast media will continue to promulgate such tosh because they are in the business of filling space and time with material from "approved" sources. They are a waste of both space and time.

It would thus be better if Johann Hari heeded his own words. He writes:
Why are the world's governments bothering? Why are they jetting to Cancun next week to discuss what to do now about global warming? The vogue has passed. The fad has faded. Global warming is yesterday's apocalypse.
He thinks he is being ironic. But, even if unwittingly, he tells the truth. How interesting it is that the only way a warmist can tell the truth is by accident.

COMMENT THREAD

Toasted Cowen

With Cowen holding on for grim death, Bruno is predicting a blood bath for Fianna Fail in the Donegal south west by-election. Perhaps this is the the way forward.

And the "colleagues" don't need any more money, honest guv.

COMMENT: IRISH THREAD

The Lean machine

It is a totally reliable guide. When a climate summit is in the offing, the bullshit index goes off the scale. This time, it is the turn of Geoffrey Lean, who gets hammered in the comments.

His newspaper surely must have realised by now that Lean is detested by the readership, does not represent their values and is a liability to the paper. Yet, as with Louise Gray, they persevere, ignoring their readers. To that extent, they are like the politicians they serve – having completely lost touch with the real world and oblivious to the sentiment of their own constituencies.

That this should be happening with politicians is understandable, but less so with newspapers, which are reliant on their commercial base. Why they should be so keen to commit suicide is difficult to explain. However, continuing to employ the Lean machine it as clear a statement as you are going to get that the paper does not give a toss about what its readers think.

I think we owe it to the newspaper to react accordingly.

COMMENT THREAD

Thursday, November 25, 2010

The hottest year


We only said it a few hours ago. And now they've gone and done it. That didn't take long.

COMMENT THREAD

Join the crusade


The Daily Express tells is that it is the first national newspaper actively to campaign for Britain's withdrawal from the EU. To that effect, it it mounting a crusade and asking the public to join it.

We are very pleased to see this, and hope that the newspaper of Beaverbrook prevails on this important issue. However, there is a small but important niggle. Getting out of the EU is not solely an Express campaign and the newspaper doesn't own it. In fact, it is very much a Jonny-come-lately.

The problem is – and this is not a small problem – is that we've seen this all before. The Sun, for instance, is notorious for waving the anti-EU banner when it suits it, then dropping the issue when it gets bored, or changes its political alliances.

Thus, if this newspaper tries (as it seems to be doing) to impose a proprietary stamp on the campaign (excluding the likes of UKIP and this website), then the campaign will wither on the vine. It will fail to attract support; the paper will get bored and move on, as they do so often.

We would, therefore, very much like to see the "crusade" continue, but The Express must recognise that it is joining us, not the other way around. We need a team player that will reach out and work with the broader "out" community, such that it is. The last thing we need is another solo player which has caught new religion and thinks it can run the show.

COMMENT THREAD

A day of reckoning?

It is almost exactly three years ago that the Chindamo case blew up, big time, and we wrote a piece headed deferring the day of reckoning.

With Cameron playing the immigration card and promising "to do such things ... ", we pointed out that The Boy (he had not by then acquired his euroslime label) was playing games – as always.

This strategy, we ventured, might "hold the line for the moment, as a gullible and uncritical media fail to press him on precisely what that means in numerical terms, compared with the massively larger influx of legal migration under the umbrella of EU law."

But, we also said, "the fact is that, as long as Cameron buys into the EU, he is as powerless as Brown and all the rest of his acolytes." All Cameron was doing was deferring the day of reckoning. And, we said, reckoning there will come.

Well, it is here after a fashion, although the message is massively diluted by the dire Christopher Hope and Richard Edwards telling us that this case will "raise fresh questions about the monitoring of offenders released back into the community".

That, of course, is the least of the problems, so why is it given top billing? And, although there is reference to the Human Rights Act, which Cameron pledged to deal with, there is not a single word about EU law – which actually drives this issue. The Human Rights Act is secondary.

The Telegraph, however, is not on its own. The Sun report is just as dire, addressing much the same points, again without reference to the EU. In fact, not one of the media reports we have seen mentions the EU.

All of this demonstrates that there are no lengths to which the clever-dicks will go to avoid mentioning the elephant in the room, doubly necessary to conceal Euroslime Dave's curious inaction on the whole area of deporting EU criminals back to their home countries.

But, as the people are not being fully acquainted with the issues, it is unsurprising that they remain ill-informed. That, is sometimes seems, is the true role of the media ... to keep the populous ill-informed.

COMMENT THREAD

Climate?


Of course, this is just weather - and its just started to snow here in Bradford. This is the third consecutive winter where we have had snowfall before Christmas and we're fresh out of riot shields. We'll have to use the central heating.

Despite that, it is only a matter of time before some fool (many fools) tell us that it is the warmest year since Noah built his ark, warning that we are going to fry unless we pay zillion of dollars into the kitty for Mercedes dealers and development corporations such as Oxfam (and up yours LFF - see below).



And we can rely on the likes of Louise Gray faithfully to record their exudations, while our fatuous, time-wasting excuse for a prime minister prattles about wellbeing.


Yet, we do ask how many bad winters in a row do you have to have before it ceases to be just weather and becomes climate?

COMMENT THREAD

Two little words

Foxtrot Oscar.

This man is even more stupid than we imagined.

COMMENT THREAD

What do you say?

"The Met, which was criticised for its use of kettling during last year's G20 protests, provided portable toilets and water for the contained protesters, who kept themselves warm by making fires with seized police riot shields" ... as one does.

(From The Independent, on yesterday's demonstrations.)

COMMENT THREAD

Now can we shoot them?


As they award themselves a pay rise, we see demonstrated exactly how a government behaves when restraints are missing. MEPs will see their salaries rise from £81,401 to £84,412 while van Rompuy takes home almost £12,000 extra. Baroness Ashton sees her pay increase by more than £11,000 to almost £325,000.

The pay rises come as a result of the EU commission taking a case to the ECJ, seeking (successfully) to set aside a veto imposed by the Council of Ministers on increased salaries. Commission officials are included in the settlement, as indeed are ECJ judges, who now get back pay to July 2009 and interest.

And when their carcases litter the streets of Brussels and elsewhere, slaughtered by populations which have finally had enough, the verdict will be the worst case of collective suicide in EU history. These people have lost the will to live.

COMMENT THREAD

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Take to the streets



I am asking that the Irish people unite, as our forefathers did, and take to the streets at 11am Saturday 27th from Wood Quay Dublin, to voice our anger and concern over the actions of our politicians and what is happening to Ireland.

COMMENT: IRISH THREAD

The stoods are revolting


... again. Gove says, according to The Guardian, that violent activists should be denied "oxygen of publicity" – as opposed to pols, of course, who could just be denied oxygen.

COMMENT THREAD

Name calling


The strain of keeping up with the twists and turns of the euro must be getting to the poor little chap – that and being a crook. But it takes different people in different ways and to M. Le president it comes in the form of sounding off at journalists, calling them a bunch of "paedophiles".

Apparently, this came during a furious off-the-record exchange at the Nato summit in Lisbon last week, after a journalist had asked him a question about the latest developments in the "Karachigate" affair: allegations that the cancellation of commissions on a French submarine contract led to a bomb attack in Karachi in May 2002 in which 11 French engineers and four Pakistanis died.

Sarkozy is reported to have launched into a tirade about press ethics and the use of unnamed sources. "You say ridiculous things. You check nothing," he said to the journalist who had asked the question. "I have nothing against you but it seems that you are a paedophile. I am personally convinced of that fact. I have spoken to the security services but I won't tell you which ones. I have seen someone but it was just a verbal exchange. But now I am personally convinced that you are a paedophile."

After a stunned silence, we are told that journalists at the briefing at which the insult was delivered then moved on to other subjects. Before he left, Sarkozy is reported to have said to the journalists: "So long paedophiles, see you tomorrow."

Sarkozy, of course, is part French and part Hungarian, which perhaps excused his outburst ... that and being a crook, but what price UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom who has neither of the first two excuses?

This has not stopped him indulging in equally oafish behaviour, calling the altogether unspeakable Socialist MEP Martin Schulz an "undemocratic fascist" in the EU parliament. Bloom, apparently, did so in an exchange after he had interrupted Schulz, calling out the infamous Nazi slogan, "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer". Thus did he demonstrate that, when it comes to subtlety and wit, you can always rely on Bloom.

Predictably, this behaviour has got him thrown out. England Expects tells the whole story - two turds together, really. Nevertheless, this should give Bloom all the time in the world to discuss with Sarkozy the merits of stuffing the press corps with paedophiles. We thought that applied mainly to Belgian politicians, but since Belgium hasn't had a government for six months, presumably they've taken on additional jobs for something to do.

With the political classes upping the ante in this way, though, we're very soon going to run out of insults. Next it will have to be "fascist paedophiles", I suppose. But where do you go after that?

COMMENT THREAD

Severe climate warning


The whole concept would be a joke, if it wasn't for the fact that it had rich and powerful backers – like the WWF - with their hands out for even more of our money. As it is though, one can tell simply from the increasingly strident nature of the "warnings" that there is a climate summit coming up, and the money-grabbers are making their pitch.

What speaks volumes though is that the "warning" comes from UNEP, one the sponsoring agencies of the IPCC, and not the IPCC itself. This might suggest a certain loss of confidence in the star performers, leaving little Rajendra out on the margins while the shine is put on the begging bowl.

The irony is that in the real world, there is a severe weather warning in the offing. There is snow in Aberdeen and other Scottish locales, and the white stuff is moving south.


Furthermore, we have a number of severe economic warnings in place. But the warmists do not live in the real world. Even as the global economy collapses around them, and the snow settles in Seattle, they will continue to bleat about their "dangerous climate change" and wait for the cash to pour in.

Our task is to make it a very long wait.

COMMENT THREAD

Burn, baby, burn!


We've waited a long time for this. Ambrose tells us that Spain and Portugal are "under fire" as bond spreads hit record, which means that borrowing costs for Portugal and Spain have surged to danger levels. And the driver of this is fear, fear that Europe's leaders are losing political control of the Irish crisis and have yet to agree on a coherent plan to tackle the eurozone's deeper debt woes.

Well, the colleagues wanted it. They got it. This is the crisis they have all been waiting for, the one when - in theory - they were supposed to come out the other side with a full-blown "government of Europe", armed with a complete suite of economic powers.

It could yet happen – never rule out the Devil's miracle. Lucifer has his powers. But the smart money is on collapse, even if it could still take longer than most expect. The core construct of a single currency, without economic governance, a unified budget, the controls and the sanctions, plus the fiscal transfers and all the other apparatus, could never work.

The only real chance they ever had was that the member states would agree permanently to cede sovereignty and create that economic government, before the system got out of control. It is now too late. The only option now is to crash and burn. Today the flag, tomorrow "Europe".

COMMENT: IRISH THREAD

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

This is not good


There are many things we could do without in this world, and another Korean War is one of them.

COMMENT THREAD

Only doing her job


With Louise Gray doing her usual job as a conduit for WWF press releases in The Daily Telegraph, there are two changes. Firstly, there is a thumbnail picture of the woman. Secondly, the comments are open.

I have appended a few appropriate questions. It will be interesting to see how long the freedom-loving Telegraph lets them stand. After all, we cannot allow anything to get between Louise and her beloved WWF, for whom she so obviously works.

In this piece, though, she manages to combine the two pet hates of "climate change" and the European Union, which, typically, she manages to call "Europe". And despite the crisis of the euro and the probability that the whole construct is about to collapse, all this dismal little tart can witter on about is climate change targets.

It is, of course, this type of stupidity that is making the Telegraph a laughing stock and driving away readers in their droves. A once proud newspaper really needs to reflect on whether its role in life is to be the house organ for the WWF, and whether it can afford to retain people like Gray.

COMMENT THREAD

Hold tight!

I was working hammer and tongs on the Battle of Britain project most of yesterday, which meant that my eye was definitely off the ball. Mind you, I was not so far behind as to have missed this - the Independent's "take" on the Irish situation.

Some of our forum comments, I think, are more informative and some specialist sites have far more than you will get in the MSM. But the trouble is that, in this fast-moving situation, we are moving into unknown territory. This is one episode where the word "unprecedented" is no longer hyperbole.

We are now definitely looking at the prospect of the failure of the euro, and if that does go, the EU will not be far behind. But the result is not going to be pleasant. If this goes the way it looks as if it is headed, we are in for a seriously rough ride. Hold tight!

COMMENTS: IRISH THREAD

Monday, November 22, 2010

The beginnings of fear


Something has been achieved. Writes Bruno Waterfield:
Irish ministers are so concerned over protests that austerity plans to cut chauffeur driven cars and police outriders have been shelved to protect the government amid heightened post-EU bail-out security.
The scum shall inherit the earth ... but the profit shall be made by the manufacturers of bullet-proof limousines.

However, the pols may get little opportunity to use them. The latest is that Ireland's government is on the brink of collapse. The Green party, a junior partner in the current Irish coalition, called for a General Election. The prospect of an election is likely to undo the short-lived stability the markets demonstrated on this morning, we are told.

Oh dear. What a shame.

COMMENT THREAD

Gone missing

Dellers had a good piece in The Daily Express recently, although it has now gone missing. This might have had something to do with a communication to the newspaper from the odious Edward Acton, Vice-Chancellor of the University of East Anglia.

Acton seems to think that Dellers is not entitled to claim that CRU workers are "mired in such incompetence, skulduggery and deceit that you couldn't trust a word they said" and might have written to the newspaper in terms not dissimilar to this, to the effect that he:
... would expect the Express to retract or correct the impression that has been given. The article should either be amended or taken down from your website and I would request that a retraction or correction is published in a prominent place in the paper and on the website as soon as possible.
The gutless Express rushed to comply, instead of telling Acton to get stuffed, taking a leaf from the PCC and asserting that this was simply a matter of opinion. For instance, if I wanted to say that George Monbiot is a congenital idiot, with balls the size of peas and a brain the same size, that is perfectly acceptable. It is only my opinion. So it is with Dellers and the CRU.

For those who wish to catch up on the Dellers opinion, it is replicated here.

COMMENT THREAD

It's not what you think


I had to do a double-take when I saw this headline. But the BNP in this instance is the Balochistan National Party.

The article does not make it clear who the Balochi leader saw, but it is interesting that he went to the EU to air his grievances. If we had even the slightest grip on what was going on there, he would have an open invite to London, as settlement of the Balochi problem – if it is solvable – is one of the keys to resolving the Afghan issue.

It is a measure of our retreat from global affairs, however, that the meeting is in Brussels, where the real power resides ... and that almost no one will notice.

COMMENT THREAD

Global frigging warming


Mother nature is doing her best for us, and even The Daily Telegraph is exhibiting a sense of humour getting Louse Gray to write their piece.

All we need now is to switch off the heating of all the MPs who still believe in global warming and we might start seeing some sense – impossible though that might seem.  Better still, strip them naked, couple them up in a chain gang and have them paraded round Parliament Square, chanting "global warming is nigh", until they drop from hypothermia or exhaustion, whichever comes sooner.

Meanwhile, the Met Office is defending its performance over the Cornwall floods. Its chief meteorologist, Ewen McCallum, rounds on critics saying that, "People have to understand that not every forecast will be absolutely correct. If we got it right every time we'd be God."

Perhaps he should have a word with his climate change colleagues, who clearly do believe they are God, not admitting to any error whatsoever, claiming a degree of infallibility of which even the Pope would be jealous.

COMMENT THREAD

Another win for prohibition


Heroin shortage in UK is "putting lives at risk" laments that trashy newspaper known as The Guardian, noting that the Afghan poppy harvest has been blighted by fungus and that dealers are adulterating supply to maintain profits.

The supply shortage was always going to cause problems in the UK, although one wonders what happened to the surplus stash the Taliban is supposed to have been salting away for a rainy day.

But the bizarre thing is that it is not uncommon to read glowing accounts of coalition troops seizing and destroying heroin in Afghanistan and now we have The Guardian weeping in its cups about a shortage of heroin which is now killing people.

Then, the same paper has Peter Preston telling us that "It's braver to quit Afghanistan now," arguing that if the date for withdrawal from Afghanistan is fixed at the end of 2014 then our soldiers may be dying for nothing.

But clearly, they are not dying for nothing. Taking all that heroin off the market, they are contributing to a dynamic that ensures that lots of addicts in the UK are suffering dangerous adverse reactions, with many of them dying.

Some might argue that there are few better uses for public funds. And clearly, you don't get to kill a load of addicts unless you are prepared to lose some of your own. And surely the death of a few teenage soldiers is a cheap price to pay to keep the drugs prevention industry going, especially as it is the taxpayer who then has to pick up the tab.

On the other hand, it could be argued that if you legalised the use of heroin, many of the health problems – which are related mainly to adulterated product and/or dirty needles – disappear, while a legitimate market takes out the profit element that supports groups such as the Taliban.

The interesting thing is that such an option is not even on the agenda. Our masters, it seems, would actually prefer to have people dying at both ends of the chain – one lot as they try to stop the product being produced and the other lot because they can't get enough of the product, all at considerable cost to the public purse.

As it stands, therefore, it would seem that we are going absolutely nowhere with our current drugs policy, making this yet another win for prohibition. But, as they say, you know it doesn't make sense.

COMMENT THREAD

Sunday, November 21, 2010

And then we kill them

"The full extent of the police and criminal prosecution powers that the European Union has over British citizens can be revealed today," writes Mary Ellen Synon.

This is the result of a Mail on Sunday investigation, which has "uncovered an alarming array of new EU controls over justice and home affairs for which no one has voted, and most are unknown to the public."

Of course, the reason why most are "unknown to the public" is because the media rarely talk about them and, when they do, "no one seems to care". More specifically, no one in parliament seems to care for, as we wrote when that plaintive statement was made, in legislative terms, "the parliament has collectively lost the will to live".

Parliament is no longer really interested in its primary functions, we wrote, and has turned in on itself, to the extent that its internal, petty politicking has assumed an overweening importance, to the exclusion of everything else.

That was over two years ago, when Philip Johnston was railing against the creation of "a powerful new EU interior department, called the Standing Committee on Internal Security (COSI)." He had devoted some space to then home secretary Jacqui Smith's failure to mention it.

But then, as now, this was our old friend the Hague programme, about which we were sounding the alarm in 2004. But, if you had then asked the average British political blogger or MSM political correspondent about it, they would have thought you were referring to young William's last television appearance.

But since then, more than enough has been written about it for those who wanted to know about to keep themselves informed, not least the European Union - Tenth Report of 15 March 2005. And therein lies another part of the problem.

This does go back all the way to 2004, when we saw the European Council reaffirm the priority it attached to "the development of area of freedom, security and justice", claiming, as always, that it was "responding to a central concern of the peoples of the States brought together in the Union". Despite our concerns, nothing happened then and, six years later, as the Mail on Sunday raises the alarm (and not for the first time), precisely nothing will happen now.

Therefore, the  real problem is that, unless the issue can gain political traction, and there is a felling that this is an issue that can get resolved, there is and will be nothing to drive it forward. People, and the media – in the short-term, at least - will take a lead from the politicians. And if the politicians do nothing, the issue dies.

But that is the short-term. As Booker reveals in his column today, more and more we see the "authorities" working to their own agendas, which have nothing to do with the principles of justice or good administration.

When it also dawns – as it eventually will – that the authorities are also working for an alien power (not "foreign" - but alien), as is increasingly the case with the police through the Hague Programme, then the last vestiges of consent will break down. The divide between "us" and "them" will become a permanent breach. And then we start killing them.

This is not a warning, nor a threat, nor a prediction, nor indeed an instruction. It is simply an observation. When the compact between the people and their rulers breaks down, the result is always the most extreme form of violence.

In Britain, however, having been tolerably well administered for several centuries, we have become slow to turn to serious violence. Thus, our rulers have got lazy and complacent and they think they can continue along the route they have taken. They can't. The worm will turn eventually. When it does, people will die. That now is the only certainty.

COMMENT THREAD

Barking bloody mad


But he can always get an audience, even if he has to go to India to get it. Having run out of credibility in his own country, presumably he thinks he will get a better reception in the home of Rajendra Pachauri.

COMMENT THREAD

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Hague hopes

William Hague has raised doubts about the future of the euro, saying it was impossible to know whether the currency would collapse. However, he said he "hoped" that the euro would survive, but added: "Who knows?"

So, the Wondrous Willie hopes the euro will survive, does he? And why would that be?

Meanwhile, Tory ego Edward Leigh has warned: "The British people want to be assured at a time when very painful cuts are being made here that good money is not being thrown after bad in driving the Irish further into the sclerotic arms of the euro which caused the problems in the first place."

Excuse me? What "painful cuts"?

COMMENT THREAD

Tories is Euroslime


The Register is having great fun with former defence minister, Lord Gilbert, who has described the A400M military transport plane as a "Euro-wanking make-work project" in the written Parliamentary record. The Peer further goes on to say that he regards the decision on the A400M as the most bone-stupid in the 40 years that I have been at one end or other of this building (parliament). It is an absolutely idiotic decision.

With the price spiralling, it is actually working out at nearly twice the price of the more capable C-17, the last known figure being about £130 million compared with about £70 million each for the acquisition of the C-17.

All of this raises questions as to why this expensive white elephant was not cancelled during the strategic defence review. Lord Gilbert thinks he has the answer – it is pandering to the French who want the aircraft so that "Europe" is not dependent on the United States for military transport.

This, of course, is part of the story – except that it does not hold up. So many components and systems will be US-sourced that the aircraft could not fly without active US co-operation.

Nor is it a make-work scheme of any great value. If Gilbert had done his homework, he would have known that, when we bought the C-130J in 1994, Lockheed placed 100 percent offset contracts with UK companies, and we are major contractors in the global programme, getting about 10 percent of the value of every C-130J sold. We get far more from this than we will ever get from the A-400M.

The real reason, of course, is entirely political – the pursuit of European defence integration, in this case the European Air Transport Command, the proto-EU Air Force to rank alongside the EU Navy.

And this has been known all along by the Conservatives, which bought into what was then the Future Large Aircraft (FLA), announced by euroslime defence minister Malcolm Rifkind on 16 December 1994. And that is why the UK will not cancel its A-400M order, no matter what it costs. The Tories, since the very beginning, under Ted Heath, have been leaders of the pack in promoting European defence integration, and are the most enthusiastic proponents of it. And the FLA is a keystone project.

This is not going to change under Euroslime Dave's watch. He is truly the Heir to Heath. Along with promoting the European Carrier Group, he will be right behind the UK's entry into the European Transport Command.

Fatally, though, this is the elephant-in-the-room that the media does not talk about – not even The Register. Thus, rather like Charlton Heston as Detective Thorn in that epic film, who famously declares, "Soylent Green is people!", we need someone to shout out loud, "Tories is Euroslime".

They are selling out our Armed Forces from under our noses, and no one seems to give a damn.

COMMENT THREAD

What have I missed?


The Government will publish its latest excess winter mortality statistics for England and Wales, covering the bitterly cold winter of 2009/2010, on Tuesday 23 November - this helpful piece of information supplied to you courtesy of Friends of the Earth.

They are urging the Government to ensuring all UK homes are made energy efficient, and thus avoid unaffordable fuel bills and high carbon [dioxide] emissions, the latter being necessary to avoid ... er ... global warning.

So, let's get this straight.

Friends of the Earth, who have been leading the way in demanding increased energy costs, in order to reduce energy usage and thus carbon dioxide emissions, in order to prevent global warming. And now they want improved insulation to prevent people dying of cold because they can't afford the increased energy costs needed to prevent global warming and are at risk of dying because of the bitterly cold winters we are now having.

We're all in favour of increasing insulation where possible and thereby reducing heating costs, but do I detect a certain amount of inconsistency in the Friends of the Earth position?

COMMENT THREAD

Friday, November 19, 2010

EUconomics

HERE ... if it was funny, this would be hilarious. As it is, just weep.

COMMENT THREAD

Just like the rest


The extraordinary editorial in The Irish Times yesterday asks "whether this is what the men of 1916 died for: a bailout from the German chancellor with a few shillings of sympathy from the British chancellor on the side."

"There is the shame of it all," it says. "Having obtained our political independence from Britain to be the masters of our own affairs, we have now surrendered our sovereignty to the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. Their representatives ride into Merrion Street today."

But its one of their commenters, Bryan O'Donoghue, who reminds the newspaper that it has been consistent cheer-leader for the project. Not least, we ourselves can recall, it was a voluble supporter of the Lisbon treaty. Thus asks O'Donoghue: "Has this paper once openly opposed a European integration step, no matter how undemocratic or how much power it concentrates in the hands of the EU3?"

"Why," he then asks, "now turn around a[nd] criticise the power that has been handed to Europe due to successive treaties, unions and economic arrangements, that the IT, is a principal supporter of?"

Much the same we see in no less than three self-serving articles in The Daily Telegraph stable, starting with a dire contribution from Peter Oborne whose intellect declines by the day as he surrenders to the herd mentality of his own newsroom and editors.

It is not that he is innately stupid – he is not. But there is the bovine stupidity of the herd, to which it is almost impossible not to succumb, if one seeks to run with it. The "insider" sacrifices their own freedom of thought for the comfort of herd approval and support.

So it is with Hannan, who offers this, a witty little contribution from a man who will be everything a eurosceptic could possibly want, short of actually being a eurosceptic.

But the prize goes to the leader, written by some anonymous hack, glad, strident words from a newspaper which is full to the brim with eurosceptic sentiment but which, when the chips are down, supports our membership of the European Union, and runs with the idea that Cameron is a eurosceptic.

Not one of these can see the lesson from the experience – that the malign institutions of the European Union spell the death the nation state and, the longer we are in the Union, the more damage it will do. None of these timorous wee beasties can bring themselves to countenance breaking away from the larger herd.

Would then, that Oborne could put a mirror to the words that grace his piece as a headline: "Heseltine, Mandelson, Clarke ... they all owe Britain an apology". Eurosceptics were mocked for warning that the euro would be a disaster – but they saved us from a terrible fate ... ", he writes.

But we are still mocked, by the likes of him and his vapid, stupid little mates in the newspaper and the Conservative Party which they support. This, never forget, is the party which employs eursoslime Clarke and still reveres traitor Heseltine, and which ignores our warnings that the European Union and not just the euro is the disaster. This is the Party of Euroslime Dave.

Until this paper, and then the Conservative Party, do the decent thing, and take our warnings seriously, they are just like the rest, only more so for their hypocrisy and faux euroscepticism – objects of contempt and pity.

COMMENT THREAD