Nothing is true - by Richard... Monday, November 15, 2010

Nothing is true - by Richard... Monday, November 15, 2010

... until it has been denied by a minister. And it certainly looksto be true that Ireland's financial ordeal is far from over.

But it seems that it is going to cost us a fortune, thus adding very little to our happiness index. By my reckoning, if the population of Eire id about five million, that works out as a gift of £2,000 from the British taxpayer to every man, woman and child in the Emerald Isle.

As the talk generally is of Ireland needing a £70 billion bail-out, this works out at £14,000 per Irish head, which is an awful lot of debt for one very small country to cover – somewhat underlining the scale of the mess their politicians have created.

Meanwhile, we are told, the EU is spending £850million of taxpayers' money constructing a new HQ for translators and lawyers. The building in Luxembourg will house support staff for the EU Commission and Parliament - who are based in Brussels and Strasbourg.
Due to be completed by 2016, the 3.1 million sq ft building will add to the almost 25million sq ft EU officials already occupy in the three cities.

The contrast, one with the other points up what we are having to deal with – public profligacy and incompetence, with the taxpayers having to pick up the tab. There is fast coming the time when we are going to have to rise up and slaughter them. We are truly domed.

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Unfair to satirists - by Richard...

Every time this man opens his mouth, another thousand satirists bite the dust – unable to compete in an environment where real life is more bizarre than you could hope to invent.

But if Euroslime Dave really wants to know what would make us happy – which I seriously doubt – he would have to do just one small thing. It is a three-letter word. Foxtrot Oscar is another clue, to something that you cannot be polite about, or even begin to address rationally.

Speaking at the Google Zeitgeist Europe conference, this barking fool says: "Wellbeing can't be measured by money or traded in markets. It's about the beauty of our surroundings, the quality of our culture and, above all, the strength of our relationships. Improving our society's sense of wellbeing is, I believe, the central political challenge of our times."

One is staggered, however, to learn that almost 30 MPs have signed an EDM calling for the move, arguing that ''promoting happiness and well-being is a legitimate and important goal of government''.

What these little muppets don't seem to realise is that the greatest single contribution they could make to our wellbeing is to cease to exist. Failing that, a good start if they tried to avoid going out of their ways to piss us off with such gay abandon.

But that it just a start. The truth is that, like a three-headed dog with rabies, any politician dipping into this pond is beyond redemption. We are domed.

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Linkage - by Richard... Sunday, November 14, 2010

Booker actually writes two pieces today in his column, the one on climate change and the other dismissing Euroslime Dave's attempt to lecture the Chinese on democracy. The two issues, ostensibly different, are in fact very closely linked. In a properly functioning democracy, there is no way that the worst and most expensive aspects of the climate change scare could have been implemented, and it is only by ignoring their democratic duties that the MPs can permit their continuation.

Interestingly, even the lame and the stupid are beginning to get a little rattled, as they realise that driving your grannies and Aunt Mabels into fuel poverty and then hypothermia simply to satisfy the ambitions of the ghastly Huhne is not exactly a winning strategy.

But then, climate change and energy are issues where ToryBoyDiary has taken the coward's way, keeping schtum about them because they are contentious and require both drive and commitment to fight the cause. And if there is one thing the modern ToryBoy doesn't have, it is commitment – at least to anything that might require principles. Principles are divisive and might cause "splits" in the party.

However, now that Euroslime Dave has declared his hand on the EU, turning out to be a one-nation Heathite who would happily sell us to the highest bidder, we are not going to get excited about a few Tories who have finally seen the light and are getting worked up about Dave's Europe Bill.

As in the manner of all Tories, they will be full of good intentions. But when the chips are down, they will indulge in the political equivalent of coitus interuptus, getting terribly excited only then to pull out at the very last moment. As long as I have known them, that's what Tories always do. They will always let you down.

Now is the time, of course, when MPs could take on the government and make some serious demands, as the electoral arithmetic is with them. There will be few better opportunities to address the insanity and expense of the Climate Change Act, and demand real changes.

But this is not going to happen. As Booker says, MPs seem oblivious to the world around them. It comes as no surprise – but it is a touchstone issue against which we can measure their good faith and competence. For as long as that Act is in place, its serves as a marker to remind us of who our enemies are. They have "MP" after their names, they take our money under false pretences and they work in an institution which is laughably called a parliament.

To restore their own credibility - and regain the respect that should be their due - they know what they have to do. And the opportunity will not be around forever. Sooner or later, the price of indifference has to be paid.

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Climategate a year on - by Richard...

The terrifying thing is, it doesn't feel a bit like a year since the issue broke cover. But The Observermarks the passage of time, and so does Booker. You might notice subtle differences in how they approach the issues. On this, Remembrance Sunday, I'll have a look at both articles, and much more, later today.

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The answer is "yes" - by Richard... Saturday, November 13, 2010

The question, of course, is "can they be that stupid?" – the "they" being politicians and in this particular case Alex Salmond. I've met Salmond several times, and watched him work. He's a smart cookie, and an extremely skilful operator. You don't get to his position and stay there without being both. But, on the matter of energy policy, he is being ineffably stupid.

That is the great paradox in human affairs. Highly intelligent and clever people are also capable of an incredible level of stupidity. The reason is the system and environment in which they work. If these people thought they were doing stupid things, they would stop.

What the system does is block the feedback loop, depriving them of signals that tell them they are being stupid, or diluting their effect. That is how generals are able to send thousands of men to their deaths, and then repeat the experience. No one is able to stand up to them, face-to-face, and tell them they are being stupid. The ones that are able do not have the access or authority.

That was the interesting thing most recently about the Spectator dinner, with Dannatt present. You had all the Spectator nobs gushing over the "great man", who was at times talking utter tosh. Yet they lapped it up. To call the man out over what any one of us would easily recognise as blind stupidity is akin to farting in church. In that environment of quasi-religious reverence, such heresy is not permitted.

That is how these people get away with it, surrounded as they are by fawning courtiers. And there is no point in hoping sense will prevail – that these people will suddenly see the error of their ways and make things better. They will not. We have to depose them.

In a democracy, this is done through the electoral system. When that no longer works, people effect change by different means. Salmond should be grateful that there still remains the residue of a democracy. When the lights go out, he may find that that is not enough to protect him.

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Running to the wire - by Richard...

Negotiations on the budget between the EU parliament and the Council in the conciliation committee are running to the wire - with both sides indulging in grandstanding.

The deadline is the end of business on Monday, this being the end of the 21-day period allowed under the amended Treaties for the committee to reach an agreement. However, that should not be taken as read – there is always the option of "stopping the clock", which is no problem for a collective that makes the rules up as it goes along.

Even then, if agreement is not reached, the EU reverts to last year's budget levels, with a month-by-month allocation, while the Commission submits a new budget proposal and the process starts all over again. But neither an agreement now nor later rules out votes for additional money through supplementary budgets.

As with anything to do with the EU, therefore, it ain't over until it's over, and even then you have to count the silver to make sure it's all there.

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Go figure - get angry - by Richard... Friday, November 12, 2010

With its genius for public relations, British Gas is to increase gas prices this winter. Yet, there is an international gas glut and pressure on prices is downwards. Despite that, the company has the nerve to blame "rising wholesale prices", as well as "environmental investment, and infrastructure costs." Experts warn that households face an "extremely bleak winter" as a result of the price increases.

Adam Scorer, a director at the Government-funded watchdog Consumer Focus, says: "Consumers will be dismayed by this news. Winter is going to seem that much colder and budgets are going to be that much tighter after this announcement."

Scorer adds: "British Gas and other suppliers respond to forward energy prices, and that will be their argument that price rises are needed. However, wholesale prices are around half of their peak in 2008 and yet in the same period customers prices were cut by less than 10 percent. Consumers will feel that suppliers didn't make cuts when conditions allowed it, but are covering their profit margins as wholesale prices nudge up."

This, of course, is not the half of it. There are all the additional costs and taxes that are being thrown in. That is the real reason why our bills are going up. Bulk energy costs are actually going down ... so go figure - and get angry.

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Hypocrites of the world unite - by Richard...

You have your leader.