They can't cope with it - by Richard... Thursday, April 21, 2011

They can't cope with it - by Richard... Thursday, April 21, 2011

With the proposed increase in the EU budget very much in evidence, it is interesting to see the typical Tory tribalist response. Instead of accepting that this is classic EU territory, endorsed by that nice Mr Scumeron, we have Tim Montgomerie trying to paint this in party political colours, claiming that "because the last Labour government signed away our veto on budgetary matters, it's possible we won't be able to stop all of the increase".

Well, that goes back to the Nice Treaty, adopted in December 2000, but it is part of the main EU treaty -namely Article 314 - that the Conservatives have now adopted. No Parliament can bind another, we are told, so if the Tories don't like it, they can always change it. If they haven't sought to do that, there is no point in blaming Labour.

But it has got so bad now that the Tories can't even survive without telling themselves little boogy tales to boost their morale. They simply can't cope with the idea that, when it comes to promoting the march of European political integration, the Conservatives are in the premier league. It was Ted Heath, a Tory (theoretically), who took us in (after the ground-breaking by Macmillan), it was the darling Thatcher who led the "yes" campaign for the Tories in the 1975 referendum, and it was she that agreed the Single European Act. 

Then, of course, it was little Johnny Major, Thatcher's protégé, who negotiated the Maastricht Treaty (aka Treaty of the European Union) – and wrecked the Conservative Party getting it through the Commons. Now the heir to Heath, the fabulous Mr Scumeron, refuses us a referendum on the Lisbon treaty and gives us AV instead. But the little Tory tribalists ignore all that. When they get things they don't like, they blame Labour.

Hilariously, as The Boiling Frog points out, the Tory Home piece is accompanied by a splat showing light bulbs (pictured) presumably to demonstrate "bright ideas" in a forthcoming Tory conference. However they look suspiciously like the traditional incandescent light bulbs, which are banned by ... the EU. The irony appears to be lost on them, says TBF.

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It guessed - by Richard...

Sometimes, you could almost believe Google is human (click pic to enlarge).

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Blowing our minds - by Richard...

With this happening, we're possibly going to have to rethink our rhetoric on electricity generation. The story is that around 100 workers have been looking down the nose at redundancy as Teesside Power Station (pictured) drastically scales back production "in the wake of cheap energy imports".

We are talking here of a 1,875 megawatt (MW) plant - the largest combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) station in Europe – which supplies up to three percent of the entire power needs of England, Scotland and Wales. However, capacity was cut to just 45MW from 1 April - effectively signalling a partial mothballing of the plant.

The owner, International Power, which owns and runs the facility is saying that this is a temporary reduction that will result in operating cost savings. It is, they say, "reflective of the weak market conditions in the UK". The plant will still be able to ramp up production if the market improves but, for the moment, it says, "demand for home-grown electricity has been hit by cheaper foreign imports". 

The imports, one assumes, are from the Kermits – which would be hugely entertaining. To have us shut down a gas plant to buy nuclear from France is such an irony.

However, on the other hand, coal has taken such a beating over the winter that the eleven coal- and oil-fired power plants covered by the EU's large combustion plant directive in the UK hit more than half their quota of hours by the end of February,.

The plants have run for a total of 97,218 hours between January 2008 and February 2011, equivalent to 51.17 percent of their quota. The programme still has nearly five years to run but LCPD forces eight UK coal-fired units to close after 20,000 hours and three oil-fired plants to close after 10,000 hours of operation, or by December 31, 2015, whichever comes first. At this rate, the entire estate could be closing down up to two years early.

We may have a short-term glut in hand – but the near future looks distinctly shaky. Crunch time could well come by 2013. And little Scumeron could be in the driving seat, having to face the music. We can then all share his pain!

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Suicide by bomb disposal - by Richard...

We should not be sending nice little girlies down blind alleys to clear bombs. It doesn't matter how good you are ... keep trying to defuse IEDs long enough and you die. There is, of course, a safe and effective way of doing it. That's what we should be doing. Anything else is not bravery. It's not clever, and it's certainly not anything to be proud about. It's suicide.

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No shit Sherlock ... 2 - by Richard... Wednesday, April 20, 2011

What would we do without the MSM?

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Nice friends - by Richard...

Mr Cameron should be so proud that he's intervened in such a decisive and wholehearted fashion. These are people we really do want to get alongside.

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And they expected any different? - by Richard...

David Cameron's calls for EU spending restraint have been "dramatically snubbed" today, with the EU Commission proposing a 4.9 percent increase in the EU budget for next year. This is expected to cost to the British taxpayer about £680 million, on top of the £11.54 billion we currently pay, potentially bringing our annual EU membership fee well above £12 billion.

The EU, Bruno tells us has opted for "investing" in areas that contribute to economic growth and development. The EU budget is an anti-crisis package, says an unnamed official. 

But, as we explained last year, there is very little The Boy can do about it. He can huff and he can puff, but he can't blow their increasingly expensive "house" down. The pressure is all in one direction and while he can tinker at the margins, he is not going to be able to contain the EU's ambitions.

Basically, he is going to be hung out to dry – except, of course, that we are having to pay the bills. We could tell our pretend prime minister that we've had enough of this, and we want out. But the man isn't listening and, even if he was, has not the slightest intention of doing anything about it.

All that leaves us to consider the only real option – to abandon the metaphors and do the thing for real. Above is a picture I prepared earlier, to give you the general idea. But until our wuzzies stop worrying about football managers, and take their politics more seriously, Cameron knows he's pretty safe. He may huff and puff, but then so do we.

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Holy Carp! - by Richard...

I agree with Nick Pravda. Best forum comment of the day - so far.

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No shit Sherlock! - by Richard...

Published in the print edition of the Failygraph, but not on-line where her Gruaniad treehugger friends might see it, is a story written by Louise "Enola" Gray headed: "Wind farms 'mean bigger bills'". And this we needed to pay money for?

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Incoherence comes from - by Richard...

... the top, writes Bruce Anderson in the Baby Failygraph. Read on, if you must, and you will find these immortal words:

But many voters are neither strong nor self-assured. They often feel insecure, and angry about the mess which the country is in. People like that could identify with Mrs Thatcher, because they thought that she understood them. They do not believe that Mr Cameron does. He has won a lot of cautious respect, and deservedly so. He is good at appearing prime ministerial, and it is not just appearance. Even so, he has still to win the voters' confidence.

I actually made the mistake of buying the Failygraph today. It looked the best of a sorry bunch on the newsagent's stand. And it was a mistake. I think I have just bought my last newspaper. The news I can get off the web and comment I can get from an increasing number of high quality blogs.

The likes of Anderson, and the many others, are talking to the "bubble". They do not have anything to say that I want to read.

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