Linkage - by Richard... Saturday, June 05, 2010

Linkage - by Richard... Saturday, June 05, 2010

Viscount Monckton seems to be taking some flak but also has an ally and a friend in Delingpole. 

The controversy over the man has been ramped up by Moonbat, who champions a put-down byProfessor John Abraham who in turn relies, in part, on the WWF to demolish said Monckton – no contest.

Interestingly, Monckton has recently accepted the position of UKIP deputy leader, which makes him a swivel-eyed loony on two counts – according to his many detractors. That, though, ties in two closely allied issues – climate scepticism and EU scepticism, which is where we have been for some time.

How far this formal linkage will prove beneficial is difficult to say but, at least, the cross-fertilisation may prove entertaining. And if it winds up Moonbat, that has to be all good. 

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PHIIGS? - by Richard... Friday, June 04, 2010

Despite the low-key treatment in the British media, the euro crisis has not gone away. In fact, it just got worse with the single currency dropping below $1.20 for the first time in more than four years. It fell to $1.1994 in late European trading before edging back up to $1.2006. That was its lowest level since March 2006.

As significant was the situation in Hungary, where the currency, bonds and stock market "reeled" today as the new government tried to reassure investors that it was not about to slide into a Greek-type crisis. 

It had not been helped by Lajos Kosa, deputy chairman of the governing Fidesz party, who had said on Thursday that the country was facing a Greece-like financial meltdown. Former Fidesz finance minister Mihaly Varga added to the disarray with a warning that the deficit could reach 7-7.5 percent of GDP, about twice as much as planned for 2010 by the previous government.

The new government was sworn in last Saturday after winning a landslide in April's elections. But its talk about a massively revised budget gap was eerily similar to the situation in Greece. There, the 2009 deficit went from a planned 3.7 of GDP to 13.6 percent of GDP by year's end and led to the financial crisis, which saw Greece get a €110 million rescue package to save it from bankruptcy

Unsurprisingly, international markets reacted quickly to the parallels drawn, although some experts are dismissing the panic, stating that Hungary's short-term debt amounts to a mere 2.4 percent of GDP, which is easily manageable.

Nevertheless, pundits who have got used to referring to Europe's financial crisis by reference to the acronym "PIIGS" are now having to consider whether Hungary should be admitted to the bad debt club. In that case, presumably, the club becomes "PHIIGS". At what point, though, do the acronyms become dangerously unstable and we move into panic mode?

EURO CRISIS THREAD

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A question of attitude - by Richard...

Technology may be about to resolve the problem of volcanic ash, thus rescuing the hard-pressed airline industry – which is as it always has been. This is through the use of a system called AVOID(Airborne Volcanic Object Identifier and Detector), which has been around for some time, but has never previously got off the ground – so to speak.

The equipment – in essence, modified infra-red detectors which can pick up volcanic dust clouds, relying on their IR absorbency characteristics – is to be trialled by easyJet, which has put £1 million into a research pot in the hope that its use will minimise future disruption from volcanic ash.

These data provided by the kit will, in theory, enable pilots to detect ash clouds up to 62 miles (100 kilometres) ahead of and at altitudes between 5,000 and 50,000 ft, allowing pilots to make adjustments to flight paths if needed. Data can also be transmitted to a ground station, allowing real-time plots of ash-clouds to be built up, reducing the reliance on Met Office predictions.

The technology had yet to be fully validated for commercial use, much less approved by safety regulators, but the attempt by easyJet to find a solution makes for a interesting contrast with the Civil Aviation Authority, which is actually charged with the job of ensuring the safety of UK airspace.

Its chief executive, Andrew Haines, commends easyJet for investing in the trial and "welcomes the fact that airlines are considering innovations such as this". Haines adds that the CAA will "do all we can to facilitate them," perhaps in the knowledge that a successful trial will get his useless organisation off the hook.

In fact, Haines still seems to be more interested in defending the CCA and its decisions to close sections of UK airspace. We could have "wet a finger and taken a punt with the weather" or sought proper solutions, he says, once again relying on the canard that: "There was no information from aircraft manufacturers about what was a safe level of ash." 

"Until we could get a clear assessment, we were absolutely justified in taking the actions we took," the man claims. "Otherwise it would have been a case of keeping our fingers crossed and I don't think anyone would have thanked us for that."

Even more extraordinarily, as recorded by The Guardian, Haines has the nerve to accuse the industry of "buck-passing" by attempting to blame regulators for the ash shutdowns.

Thus, his welcome for this easyJet initiative is actually couched in terms the industry catching up, with Haines saying: "I very much hope that this is a sign that the industry is ready to play its part in finding a fundamental solution ... rather than pretending that the problem does not exist."

And there you have the classic divergence in attitude. The industry, which has to keep the show on the road in order to make money, gets on with finding solutions to problems, while the regulator concentrates on covering its own arse and bitching that the industry has not been doing enough.

For that, incidentally, Deirdre Hutton, the part-time chair of the CAA, gets paid £130,000 per annum for a two-day week. Nice work if you can get it.

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The final straw? - by Richard...

Several newspapers note that the Cumbria killer Derrick Bird (pictured) may have been in trouble with the tax authorities and feared being made bankrupt by them. There is thus speculation as to whether this was the final straw which triggered his lethal rampage in which 12 people ended up dead.

Certainly, there is good evidence that being on the receiving end of the implacable ministrations of the authorities is indeed enough to trigger a violent response.

If that was the case here, as my newsagent remarked yesterday before even this was known, it was a pity Bird expended his energies on largely innocent people. It was a shame, he said, that he had not put his anger to more productive use and run amok in the Inland Revenue offices or the local town hall.

With a bill for £1,210.33 sitting on my desk – the latest peremptory demand from Bradford Council for its Council Tax – I would quite endorse the choice of the latter target, where the idea of contributing to the £182,000 annual salary (plus pension, perks, etc) of a useless chief executive is not at all appealing.

If it was the contact with officialdom which triggered Bird's rampage, I can quite understand. Reaching into the depths of my own soul, I can touch a portion of my psyche which reserves the blackest hatred for the insouciance of mindless officials, calling themselves the "Department of Customer Services", who would have me committed to jail for failure to yield to their extortion.

And extortion this is. Unlike any other debt, failure to pay this one results in an automatic prison sentence. It makes a total mockery of the idea that we are free men. We are out on license, on payment of an annual fee to the authorities – failing payment of which the forces of the State are despatched to root you out, with unrestrained violence, to arrest you and commit you to jail. 

Yet steal as much and you are unlikely to be treated as harshly. If you are an MP you can steal £40,000 and still be called "honourable", while you keep your job which you gained under false pretences.

Fortunately for these mindless, faceless officials, we are civilised people – we do not (yet) come for them and slaughter them in their beds, even when we should. And when a creature like Bird finally snaps – if that is what happened – usually the wrong people get killed. 

But, that will not always be the case. There are people who have the effrontery to call themselves "consumer services" as they steal our money. For that alone they should be slaughtered. Societies, as well as people, have their breaking points. Ours cannot be far away.

RANDOM SHOOTING THREAD

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Israeli "attack" - by Richard...

Actual footage taken by the peace-loving activists as they welcome the Zionist aggressors aboard the Mavi Marmara.

PROVOCATION THREAD

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That amazing "own goal" - by Richard...

In the not too distant future, when the Cleggeron administration crashes and burns, one of the key stresses that will have brought it down will be the totally unforced error made by David Cameron in adopting the previous government's Afghan policy and thus locking himself in to an unwinnable war.

Quite how politically crass this move really is can be seen from two similar articles, one in The Daily Telegraph and the other in The Guardian. The theme is identified by the headline from the latter, which tells us: "Afghan police failings fuelling Taliban recruitment, say UK army chiefs," painting "a devastating picture of the corrupt and ill-disciplined local police force." 

What one has to appreciate is that the role of the Afghan police is absolutely pivotal to the success or otherwise of the current strategy. Not unless or until the police are able to take the load can we – according to the agreed doctrine – even think about withdrawal. But, not only do we have the British Army cast serious doubts about whether the force is at all capable, this comes on the back of the complaints by the US Forces in the New York Times earlier this week.

Then there is another piece, this one in the Washington Post, with a US commentary which notes: "Afghanistan Police: Still Corrupt After All These Years." The WAPO narrative runs as follows:

"The hardest nut for us to crack is to build faith in the institution of the police," said Haight, the regional commander. During home searches for weapons or insurgents, he said, Afghan police often "shake down the house like criminals." In terms of training and morale, he said, the police are about five years behind the army. "We have to show them what right behavior is, to secure the people instead of being corrupt and victimizing them," he said.

This in turn elicits the comment: "It's not unreasonable to wonder why, if the culture hasn't been amenable to change after years of intensive efforts, why it ever will." But the "killer point" here is the date – 8 March 2009. More than a year ago, exactly the same things were being said that are being aired right now.

In the current Guardian piece, we get Brigadier James Cowan, commander of 11 Brigade stating that the police are "most often cited as why there is a problem and why people joined the Taliban", the problem being compounded by Taliban propaganda. Taliban fighters wore Afghan police uniforms as they stole money and possessions from innocent people at checkpoints.

Afghan security forces appear in many ways to be as much part of the problem as the solution, Cowan says, and his comments are echoed by Lt-Col Roly Walker, commander 1 Bn Grenadier Guards, with an added twist. He says the Taliban exploited grievances to "incite insurrection" but then adds that the Taliban are not the biggest obstacle to success. Rather they are "consequences of much deeper social and political grievances".

And that is very much the case, all of which stacks up to the fact that Cameron has indeed shackled himself to a policy that cannot succeed, no matter how much resource he throws at it or political capital he invests in it. If he is going through the motions, despite having told parliament (and through that the nation) that he would fully support the military, then he has the worst of all possible worlds – a failed policy for which he has accepted full responsibility.

You don't get much more crass than that. Yet, bizarrely, the Tory Boy Blog believes this is an achievement. You can see how the Tories managed to win the election so convincingly. 

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