All deals are off - by Richard... Saturday, December 11, 2010

All deals are off - by Richard... Saturday, December 11, 2010

Very much as anticipated, the climate summit at Cancun in Mexico is not going well for the Greenies. The Wall Street Journal does a tolerably good job of reporting what is happening, telling us that the fate of the Kyoto Protocol climate treaty "appeared uncertain". The treaty on the issue has "stalled" amid a stalemate among the US, China, Japan and other nations.

This is reflected in The Guardian, which tells us that "Deadlock over Kyoto means Cancún talks have little to show after two weeks". It adds that: "Cancún climate talks turning into a never-ending global talking shop, say many of the ministers involved". A later report tells us that a $100 billion Jungle Bunny Bribe has been agreed - otherwise known as the "Green Climate Fund" - to be paid over by 2020. No doubt a goodly proportion will be be passed to the Mercedes dealers of the developing world to keep the ruling élites and their NGO pals in the comfort they most certainly do not deserve.

That, it seems, is about the only definitive agreement to emerge from the talks. Even then the idea of the fund is not new - that was agreed in principle at Copenhagen. Only the name of the fund seems to be newly minted, while everything else of substance seems to be on hold until the next summit. There is even a set-back for REDD, in that this has been firmly decoupled from carbon trading.

Around the edges, we also see that carbon capture has taken a hit, while investors are being forced to rethink renewable energy, all of which makes a complete nonsense of any British attempts to reduce CO2 emissions.

By any rational analysis, the global warming scare should be dead in the water – especially after the weather of last week – but we are not dealing with rationality here. The quasi religious aspects of this scare – and the opportunities afforded for creating new taxes and business opportunities – will continue to drive it, long after it should be dead and buried. Thus we find DECC and others working on a scheme to stitch us up with yet more costs on yet another half-baked scheme.

Interestingly, this mess is one of the things getting to Autonomous Mind. Like many of us, he sees that the rules of the game have changed. When our political élites have so lost touch with reality, where the future of our democracy, sovereignty and liberty is threatened and peaceful protest continues to have no effect, direct action is justified. What is good enough for the Greenies and the students must become grist to our mills.

The Daily Telegraph, meanwhile, huffs and puffs about the right to be angry being "no excuse for violence", forgetting of course that the state is also a perpetrator of violence. Its excuse is that it is upholding the rule of law, but when the administration lacks legitimacy, that excuse is increasingly thin. Thus, while "being angry" may not justify violence, state indifference to the basic precepts of democracy is a different matter.

Ripping us off for increasingly large amounts of money to feed their global warming obsession is as near as it gets to a total breakdown of consent and while the current focus - of both the government and the media - is on the students and "yoof", they ain't seen nothing yet. They may be learning a few hard lessons about politics (above) but there is also a different kind of smouldering anger waiting to erupt. The clever-dick commentators may yet find they are looking in the wrong direction - as they so often do.

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Why are they asking him? - by Richard... Friday, December 10, 2010

"David Cameron called upon to stop climate change talks becoming a 'zombie conference'" – headlines The Daily Telegraph, over the immortal copy of Louise Gray.

In the article itself, the dreadful Huhne is being cited by the fair Louise, saying that the "knife-edge" talks in Mexico are in danger of becoming a "car crash" if countries cannot compromise. And she wants a zombie to move in and prevent that happening?

COMMENT: GLOBAL WARMING THREAD

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Vintage Dellers - by Richard...

"Think of Dave as the secret love child of Mussolini and Ted Heath and you'll begin to understand what a heap of trouble this country is in".

He just gets better - even if I don't completely agree with him. And how boring would that be?

Somehow, I don't think Churchill would have been too upset at "Leninist scuzzballs" urinating on his statue. On the occasion of his first visit to the Rhine in 1945, the great man was seen to do precisely the same thing.

COMMENT: VIOLENCE THREAD

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No monopoly of violence - by Richard...

One would like to think that those who attempted to trash Charlie's car last night were protesting against his green idiocy. We can all dream, but that one would be more of a fantasy. Several things do emerge from the incident, however – not least that so unprepared was the Prince that he had to be warned to wind up his window to stop attackers throwing things inside the car.

The man is probably so detached from reality that he probably thinks he shares the popularity of his grandma. One thing is for sure, being a Greenie hasn't done him any favours.

One also notes that there are questions being asked about the "intelligence" of the police in allowing the royal car down such a vulnerable route, although it has to be said that only politicians could be asking whether the police have any intelligence. The rest of us already know the answer.

As for the stoods ... they may or may not have been responsible for attempting to trash the royals, but in return they have been so royally screwed that they don't even begin to understand how badly.

Not least of the problems for so many is the destruction of the polytechnics and the conversion of so many well-founded technical and vocational courses into ersatz degree courses, which now attract tuition fees. The previous structures, flawed though they were, were far better than are available now, the current situation thus conforming with the standard public service paradigm – less for more (money).

What is interesting though is that some students are getting a real education out of all this – one for which there are no direct tuition fees. That lesson, of course, is that violence always pays. That is how you get the attention of the ruling élite. To say otherwise is to believe the establishment lie for, in the final analysis, the state relies on violence to get its way (try not paying your Council Tax and you'll find out for yourself).

Despite Scotland Yard condemning the "outrageous and increasing levels of violence", therefore (they would, wouldn't they), it is occasionally useful to remind those in power that they do not hold the monopoly of violence. If that means giving the heir to the throne and his wife a bit of a fright, that also is no bad thing.

Soon enough though, we are going to have to show the stoods how to do the big picture as well. Yesterday looks to have been amateurs' night out.