Whack-a-mole - by Richard... Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Whack-a-mole - by Richard... Wednesday, October 27, 2010

"My point is that when governments go looking for solutions to problems, they frequently end up creating new ones. Biofuels, which cost a bomb, are sending food prices through the roof, and far from benefiting the environment seem to damage it even further, are a case in point."

So says Jeremy Warner. Or, as North Jr says, "without a grounding philosophy, all government is whack-a-mole".

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"The growing toxicity of their attitude" - by Richard...

Heffer, it seems, is tapping into the same mood that we're detecting. The Westminster slime, with their comfortable salaries and pensions, secure behind their concrete barriers and machine-gun toting cops, still haven't got it. But out in the country, there is a mood. You can touch it, feel it, cut it with a knife. It is there and it is growing.

Forget the Kermits. Les Anglais en ont assez.

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Too late - by Richard...

No-win, no-fee deals are to be scrappedunder a radical shake-up of the courts to stop "ambulance-chasing" lawyers from cashing in on frivolous cases.

Justice Secretary Ken Clarke announced yesterday that he will scrap lucrative success fees which allow lawyers to double their bill at the expense of the person or organisation that loses the case.

But it isn't only ambulance chasers. It was also libel chancers, like Rajendra Pachauri, who exploited the system in order toconceal his lies.

The gravy train is running into the buffers now ... too late – and oddly, it will prevent me having a go at Moonbat, unless I can sneak in before the barrier drops. The PCC rules today on Amazongate and I should hear within a day or so. I am not confident, but it will be interesting to see how they rule.

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Sick bag time - by Richard... Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Sad news from France, via AFP is that the Kermits' strike seems to be running out of steam. They can't even run a decent revolution these days. Interesting though, how the banners are in UKIP colours.

The French parliament is expected to pass Sarkozy's unpopular pensions reform bill tomorrow and finance minister Christine Lagarde hails what she says is "a return to reason and dialogue." The union leaders, who have been leading the strikes and street rallies, admit they will now have to change tactics. They will "work to modify the final form of the reform rather than defeat it on the streets." Yeah, right.

As to the sick bag, listen to Marland if your stomach is strong enough - and note the dismissive reference to Christopher Booker. Then you get this sort of thing, where drought is highlighted in the Amazon, ignoring the earlier record rainfall. This is Nazi-style propaganda. But then, censorshipcomes easy to these people.

Denis Cooper, meantime, is amused by the report that Merkel wants a new EU treaty to put the eurozone bailouts on a "legally watertight treaty basis."

The main purpose of a new treaty, he says, would be retrospectively to legitimise bailout schemes which have been set up in flagrant breach of the present treaties. Saying that they need a "watertight" legal basis would be rather like saying that your boat is a bit leaky and needs some caulking when in reality it has capsized and it is now resting upside down on the bottom.

A letter to that effect has gone into The Guardian, but don't hold your breath. Meanwhile, one has to concur with the Independent's view of David Cameron, even if for wholly different reasons ... frame that cartoon in the context of the EU and you've got it in one.

Very much in the techie area, we have Mervyn King , governor at the Bank of England, saying that "Basel III will not prevent another [banking] crisis".

For those of us who believe that Basel II caused the crisis in the first place, this is not hard to believe. But what is sad and dangerous is that we are even allowing that failed component of world government to have another go at destroying the global economy. These people are just as dangerous as the "colleagues" - all the more so for being virtually invisible.

Elsewhere, Moonbat deigns to tell us what "Astroturfing" is. I suspect he's only just found out. "Nothing is real any more. Nothing is as it seems," he complains.

From his description of Astroturfing, though, he could just as easily be talking about the warmist movement. But then, according to Steve Goddard, The Guardian is getting rather worried about foreign influence in the US elections, while conveniently forgetting its own input in the last lot.

And as far as "quotes of the day" go, this one is probably unbeatable. It could describe so many people. In due course, it probably will.

Never let it be said, by the way, that we are solely the purveyor of bad news. According to the BBC, a wind turbine manufacturer which received £10m from the Scottish government to safeguard jobs has gone bust. The Danish company Skykon, which took over the Vestas wind turbine factory in Kintyre last year, has announced it is suspending payments to its creditors.

A total of 120 people are employed at the site just outside Campbeltown. In a statement Skykon said the company was in a very "cash-strapped situation." The Scottish government's financial backing was intended to safeguard 100 jobs at the factory and create 300 more. But, when the company actually names itself, Sky Kon, why is anyone surprised. But you have to love the slogan ... "part of the solution". Indeed.

Part of that solution also is the Danish firm Vestas, the world's largest wind turbine manufacturer. It is to axe 3,000 jobs and shut some plants to adjust to weaker demand. The heart bleeds.

Do not laugh too loudly though. This website argues that certain types of climate scepticism are "crimes against humanity". It also asks whether US companies are guilty of a new kind of vicious crime against humanity that the world has yet to classify.

The author is Donald A Brown, from PennState – home of Michael Mann. And there is more here as Hansen warms to the theme (pictured above). The heads of oil and coal companies who knowingly delayed action on curbing greenhouse gas emissions were committing a crime. "These CEOs, these captains of industry," said Hansen during a briefing on Capitol Hill, "in my opinion, if they don't change their tactics they're guilty of crimes against humanity and nature."

Returning to Donald A Brown one notes his comment tha: " ... the longer one waits to take action, the more difficultt it is to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of climate change (sic) at safe levels." A correspondent reminds me that to become an "Associate" Professor you need no PhD or brains as the Associate could be the Professor's mistress, secretary, student, cleaning lady or his dog.

That reminds our correspondent of our secret wish in the company he worked for - to use the fast growing species of lawyers for toxicology testing rather than rats and rabbits. Who could disagree with that?

With all that, if you are short of something to read, there is always Mary Ellen Synon on the EU and its latest interference in our "justice" system. If you are short of time, I would recommend Mary Ellen Synon. Failing that, there is always Mary Ellen Synon. And yes, all three links are the same asthis one to Mary Ellen Synon.

And some final thoughts before I get back to the Battle of Britain, where it is Day 109. The cotton crop in China is under threat after a spate of cold weather, and parts of Britain have suffered theircoldest October night for 17 years. Says the article: "Britain has experienced some of its coldest temperatures in recent years. January 2010 was the coldest for 23 years after much of the country was engulfed in snow." The pic is Lake Derwent Water.

Funny how we "suffer" cold and "enjoy" warmth. So global warming is bad because ... ?

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The rubbish weapon - by Richard...

To admit to anything other than savage delight at the incontinence of the Kermits would make me a liar – not that one has anything against the breed. But as long as we are locked into the EU, with their government able to influence and direct ours, we wish them nothing but harm. If the situation was different and we were independent nations, my attitude would be very different.

But what is fascinating about the turmoil – apart from the huge costs of the strikes, at €400m (£355m) each day – is the use of the rubbish weapon. Workers – or non-workers, to be more accurate - are blocking waste incinerators as a tactic to maximise pressure on the government.

Thus, almost 9,000 tons of rotting piles of rubbish are becoming a health hazard in Marseilles, which has been hit hard on land and at sea. Striking dockers at France's largest port are also intermittently blocking ships trying to unload fuel and, although that part of the protest appears to be weakening, the rubbish strike is holding.

Non-workers at a Paris waste incineration plant, in their fifth day of a strike, were catching up with colleagues who have let rubbish pile up in Marseilles, France's second-largest city, giving the capital a more than usually intense bouquet. It now smells like its government.

pp

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That, it seems, is what is behind the rubbish crisis in Naples - as the video explains. Local politicians and other rent-seekers, have been using the issue as a weapon with which to attack Berlusconi and embarrass him – caring little for the local environment or the needs of the much put-upon people.

None of these problems could arise, however, if systems were kept on a small scale and maintained locally. It is the gigantism, encouraged by the EU and its legislation, which is the root of the problem. But an even bigger problem is that people for too long have relied on others to take charge of their affairs. It is time they – all of us – took back control.

Come the revolution, though, one of the key targets becomes pretty obvious. Prevent the refuse collection fleet from operating and civilisation as we know it very quickly grinds to a halt.