More things which may have been overlooked - - -
Christina
=================================================
“Green” ? How “Green” ?
At least half the 36 UK officials and ministers travelling to the climate change talks in Copenhagen are going by air rather than by rail. The Liberal Democrats said the arrangements showed up Labour's hypocrisy on green issues.
The Government said officials had meetings that limited their travel options next month. (Mail 25/11/09)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Two items of new government policy
==Domestic violence lessons planned [Ooh! What will they teach-cs]
==Brown's pledge to flood victims [It’s called “waterboarding in the torture industry -cs]
[BBC Online headlines 25/11/09]
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
On his Coulisses de Bruxelles blog, Jean Quatremer says [regarding posts in the new EU Commission] “The justice and home affairs and enlargement posts will go to Bulgaria and Slovakia [Bulgaria - Justice ? He must be joking -cs] (Open Europe press summary 26/11/09)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
[Who needs Dignitas?]
One of Labour's great triumphs with the National Health Service is that people now go into hospital to die rather than to be cured. It seems to render the whole debate about assisted suicide utterly pointless. Who needs a Dignitas clinic when you can check into a hospital in Basildon and be relatively certain to be taken out in a box?
(Simon Heffer Telegraph 28/11/09)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Mild winter ahead thanks to El Nino [note no “quote” marks!]
Britain will have a mild winter the Met Office said yesterday.
Despite the predictions of a “barbecue summer” [and providing many of the erroneous temperatures for the Global Warming scam-cs] not being fulfilled earlier this year , the forecasters said there was a 50% chance of a mild winter. [Er, excuse me - then that could and should read ‘there was an equal chance of a cold or a mild winter” -cs]
(Telegraph 28/11/09)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dubai: don't count on a happy ending
Does Dubai amount to no more than another aftershock from a banking crisis which is now largely behind us, or does it signal the beginnings of a new financial earthquake?
After a weekend of fevered speculation, opinion in the City has gravitated strongly towards the former verdict, but few are taking money on it. I certainly wouldn't put any faith in the reassurances of the British Prime Minister, whose judgment on these matters is increasingly dictated by wishful thinking. The possibility of Dubai's desert storm turning into something much nastier is still very real. If Gordon Brown is called upon to save the world for a second time (don't laugh), he won't have the money
(Jeremy Warner in Telegraph 1/12/09)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Le Figaro reports that the new team of EU Commissioners will appear in front of the European Parliament between 11 and 19 January for a 3-hour hearing each. [Let’s see - - that’s 7 working days of 8 hours = that’s 2 hours and 4 minutes each! -cs] (via Open Europe 1/12/09)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Fiscal fantasies
Requiring budget deficit reductions by law lacks credibility and economic sense
Wolfgang Pauli, the physicist, remarked of a student’s paper: “That’s not right. It’s not even wrong.” Alistair Darling’s proposal to make annual reductions in the budget deficit legally binding is that sort of idea. It has no economic merit but a transparent political rationale: to win for the Government a credibility in fiscal management that it has lost.
(Times leading article 3/12/09)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
SPALTON'S THEOREM
Inspired by the proceedings of Earth Day 1970, I offer the following
==Nutcases become respected, public, scientific authorities in proportion
to the amount of taxpayers' money given to them by politicians.
Corollary
Politicians support the conclusions of scientific authorities
proportionately to the amount of taxpayers' money they have given them
to play with. If they didn't, they would look stupid.
QED (Edward Spalton 3/12/09)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Climate corner
“Borrow to the hilt to stop global warming”, says Lord Stern [we have already! -cs]
‘The Sunday Telegraph has learned that Prof Phil Jones, who led the unit [CRU at the heart of the faked figures-cs] and who stood aside after the leak, has received more than £13 million for his ‘research’.
(Sunday Telegraph 6/12/09)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Signal Failures
On the day that East Coast took over from the franchise defaulting National Express Group , transport secretary, Lord Adonis, made a celebratory journey to York and back using scheduled trains. But how confident was he that after 12 years of Labour oversight, the railway wouldn’t embarrass him? Er - -, just to make sure, an empty train followed Adonis a few minutes later in both directions.
(Dr B.Ching, Private Eye 1250 10/12/09 )
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: "Because of the economic recession, a 30 percent cut [in CO2 emissions] is much more like a 20 percent cut. The costs and burdens are much more akin to what a 20 percent cut would have been a short while ago." [So black IS white after all! Wow! -cs]
(quoted by Open Europe” 8/12/09)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Cheering hotel name
SIR – Moments of national celebration, such as the monarch’s coronation or jubilee, are often commemorated in the names of British hotels and inns.
With this tradition in mind, I am most impressed by the foresight shown by the owners of the “Brown Leaves Country Hotel”, on the A59, north of Blackburn.
Christopher Wood, York (Telegraph 9/12/09)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
How many Border Agency bosses have died in action, Mr Woolas?
By David Hughes
Even our mild-mannered Chancellor finds it hard to disguise his distaste for bankers. - - - - - - - - - What a contrast with the the Government’s approach to the bonuses being ladled out to public sector employees – the taxpayer coughed up £128 million in 2007/08 for the purpose. These civil servants receive handsome salaries and lavish pension entitlements – and are then given cash bonuses for doing their job properly. Why? At least bankers’ bonuses tend to be based on adding value to their business. In defending this system, the immigration minister Phil Woolas this morning came up with this ludicrous outburst in which he claimed that UK Border Agency officials were “putting their lives on the line” and therefore the £295,000 in bonuses that 29 of them are trousering is warranted. Even by Woolas’s admittedly high standards of spouting nonsense, this takes some beating. I haven’t heard of a single fatality among front line officers of the UK Border Agency, let alone among the desk jockeys who are actually being paid the bonuses. For Woolas to equate them with British service personnel serving on the front line in Afghanistan is cheap, tasteless and stupid. (Telegraph 9/12/09)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
And finally...
"The truth may be out there. But now we'll never know. The Defence Ministry is closing its UFO department to save money. Even ET can't escape the recession." - (The Sun Says 4/12/09)
Posts
