When means now - by Richard... Tuesday, September 01, 2009 eu referendum.blogspot.com

When means now - by Richard... Tuesday, September 01, 2009          eu referendum.blogspot.com

As another two British soldiers die in Afghanistan – yet another two torn apart by an IED - bringing the grand total to 210 – the coalition powers are now paying the price for grossly over-selling the Afghan presidential election.

Thus does The Times report today that "West faces losing battle over Afghan poll fraud", retailing an admission from "Western and Afghan officials" that that widespread and systematic fraud during the elections has tarnished the legitimacy of any future government and undermined the Nato campaign.

More on Defence of the Realm.

Permalink

This is a tricky problem - by Helen...

Yes, yes, I shall be writing about the Second World War and the various versions of its beginning that are around (hint: the Russian President seems to think it was all the Poles' fault) but in the meantime, here is a posting about problems between Sweden and Israel. Enjoy.

Permalink

Germany calling - by Richard...

With a message for our Irish friends.

A simple request ... vote "no" to Lisbon. Just do it!

COMMENT THREAD

Permalink

Behind the curve - by Richard...

The front page lead in The Daily Telegraph raises the spectre of massive electricity power cuts, a subject Booker and I have been addressing for some time.

However, the author of the Telegraphpiece – none other than Andrew Porter,political editor - plus the copious references to the shadow energy and climate change secretary, gives the game away. This is a "silly season" filler placed by the wonks in the Conservative Party HQ as a means of getting an easy publicity splash for an otherwise invisible shadow cabinet.

Needless to say, in full rah-rah mode, Tory Boy blog gives the issue full-frontal treatment, although the alarmist tone is somewhat deflated by one comment which notes that, apart from the Bridgenorth and Hatfield coal-fired power stations (3GW), there are several planned capacity enhancements at Barking Reach, Immingham, Damhead Creek, Kings Lynn and Sutton Bridge which will make up most of the shortfall. 

Those many of us who have followed the energy market closely would tend to agree. Behind the scenes, in an unheralded and generally unnoticed shift in policy, there has been a dash for gas, with the very rapid building of extra capacity.

In theory, these new CCGT stations will provide back-up for the increasing number of windmills that we are supposed to be building. But since the renewable programme is never going to get off the ground, these gas stations will become the core of our primary generation capacity.

This, as we remarked back in June, is likely to be sufficient to ward off any prospect of power cuts, the issue having moved from one of shortage to one of cost. With a heavy reliance on gas, there will be times when supplies are tight and we will have to be buying off the spot market at inflated prices. We may avoid the cuts, therefore, but there will be a very high price to pay.

Using gas to produce electricity is in fact a waste of resource. This product is best suited for supplying domestic heating and cooking and to use it for a purpose for which there are other, better energy sources – such as coal and nuclear – amounts to criminal dereliction.

That is where there battle lines should now lie, with an urgent need to abandon the fatuous attempts at building more and more windmills – a policy which the Tories support – and an emergency drive to build rapidly new nuclear power stations.

However, with the Tories behind the curve, as always, expending their ingenuity in attracting "off-peak" headlines rather than producing off-peak electricity, it is unlikely that we are anywhere closer to developing a rational energy policy. But at least the Tories can congratulate themselves on achieving some cheap publicity, even if we would rather have cheap electricity.

COMMENT THREAD

Permalink

Progress of a kind - by Richard...

It is ironic that, on the 70th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland, we should be reviewing an article in Der Spiegel which catalogues a tale of woe concerning the dire state of the German military in Afghanistan. How the mighty have fallen, one might observe.

In a dreadfully familiar litany, we hear that "German Troops Bemoan 'Critical' Deficits in Training and Equipment", with "damning reports" emerging from the forces in Afghanistan, claiming that cooperation with civilian agencies is abysmal, equipment is lacking and training is insufficient. 

More on Defence of the Realm.

Permalink

We face certain defeat - by Richard... Monday, August 31, 2009

You have to give the Chief of the Defence Staff some credit – his sense of timing is immaculate. No sooner does he go live on the MoD website telling us that "the UK strategy in Afghanistan is the right one," up pops General Stanley McChrystal to tells us that the coalition strategy in Afghanistan is failing.

Interestingly, Michael Yon has just published a new post. We'll review it later today. But what immediately leaps from his post is this statement:

The Pentagon and MoD as a whole cannot be trusted because they are the average of their parts. There are individual officers and NCOs among the US and UK who have always been blunt and honest with me. Among the higher ranking, Petraeus and Mellinger come to mind, but for day-to-day realities this is where it's at. Out here. Nothing coming from Kabul, London, or Washington should be trusted.

You don't have to go all the way out to Afghanistan to find that out. We worked that out all for ourselves. But you can now see why Yon was kicked out of Sangin.

UPDATE: Yon's post reviewed here.

More on Defence of the Realm.