Libertas, having launched its UK campaign a few days ago, has run into a spot of bother. As my co-editor mentioned, three UKIPers had beaten the party to the draw and registered the name with the Electoral Commission. They did this over a month ago, taking, as they say, the "as" out of Libertas.Thursday, March 12, 2009
Just go away …
Polar bears will not survive without action to tackle climate change and save their rapidly disappearing Arctic habitat, conservationists have warned – so says The Daily Telegraph website today.
Now read your own newspaper: "The polar bear is being used to spur the world to take drastic action against climate change. Facts derail this call to arms. This is the climate change scare writ small.
In the 1960s, there were probably 5,000 polar bears around the globe. Forty years later - thanks largely to a reduction in hunting - the World Conservation Union (IUCN) counts five-times that many.
The world's 25,000 polar bears live in 20 distinct populations. Two populations are growing. Most are stable. Just two are waning.
The declining populations are in areas that have gotten colder over the past 50 years. The habitats of the two thriving groups have actually become warmer."
COMMENT THREADWooops ...
Hilariously, the desperate (but not that desperate) Ganley crew has offered them £2,000 for the complete thing. The noble UKIPers have so far declined, saying they are not interested in the money. Should Ganley add a few noughts, or should he be looking for a different name?
COMMENT THREADA hundred days …
The troubled Airbus A400Mproject remains, er … troubled.
Yesterday, the Daily Mailwas warning that the a customers' revolt could lead to the whole project being cancelled, with a break-point approaching on 1 April when the contract can be terminated in the event of non-delivery.
At this time, the only thing Airbus military has actually delivered is 28 colour photographs of the machine - all computer generated, for want of the real thing, which still has not left the ground.
The Times was also suggesting that the MoD would walk away from the project, and was looking at "alternative options".
However, after talks between the seven countries that ordered the aircraft on the sidelines of an EU defence ministers' meeting in Prague today,Reuters reports that customers have given the project a 100-day reprieve. They have thus agreed to postpone any decision on cancellation for three months from 1 April, during which period, "no state would take a decision without consulting the others".
With deliveries to the RAF possibly delayed until 2016, it is hard to see that 100 days will make that much of a difference, so it will be interesting to see what Airbus will do to make the UK change its mind about walking away.
The prospect had the Lord Pearson asking today in the Lords whether there was "any hope that the CargoLifter programme, the A400M, is thankfully slipping from postponement to cancellation", only for government spokesman Lord Davies of Oldham studiously to avoid answering the question and move on to another topic.
The government, however, is rapidly running out of options. With the bulk of the UK tactical transport fleet set to be grounded by 2012, it needs rapidly to look for alternatives, the most likely being the C-130J Hercules. In contrast with the euroweenies, Lockheed Martin have happily announcedthey have so far taken 257 orders and delivered 171, the euro-score being 180 ordered – none delivered.
Such is the popularity of the C-130J that the manufacturers are to increase the production rate from 12 aircraft a year in 2008 to approximately double by 2010. Lockheed Martin also says it is currently "in detailed discussions" with several countries about further orders. But, even with the increased rate of production, there is a backlog of 86 aircraft, which means that new orders cannot be accepted until well into 2012.
The government had better get its skates on, or it will be reduced to posting colour photographs of supplies to troops ... by overland mail.
COMMENT THREADLet them eat carbon …
As a child being taught history – in the days when they did such things – the French Revolution always seemed unutterably cruel. It was so hard to fathom why those horrible people arrested those nice, kind aristocrats and killed them in such a horrible manner on the guillotine.
On the other hand, readers will recall how our beneficent, kindly heir to the throne was recently regaling us from far distant Chile with the importance of global warming, sternly telling us that it must be tackled before global poverty.
Interestingly, this stern injunction is somewhat at odds with the Prince's own lifestyle, illustrated above. This is the interior of the private jet in which he and his entourage flew to Chile, an aircraft which boast a satellite phone, printer, fax and laptop sockets and "luxury VIP leather seats" with personal DVD players.
According to the Daily Mail, the cost of the trip is expected to exceed £300,000 and produce over 322 tons of carbon. God knows how many poverty stricken peasants that would have fed but, with our kindly Prince on the case, the obvious answer for them is, "Let them eat carbon".
However, at least Charles has solved one problem. He thinks we have reached a defining moment. We have. We can now easily understand why the Frenchies topped their aristos.
COMMENT THREAD
Thursday, 12 March 2009
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