Monday, 30 May 2011

Heatwave? Yeah, right! - by Richard... Monday, May 30, 2011

That's what they've been telling us, and now we get from The Independent, the classic British bank holiday. A combination of travel chaos and indifferent weather has ensured that, for many, this one has been even more disappointing than most. Across the country, cloud cover and cool temperatures made for a gloomy weekend.

And they're still telling us that the world is coming to an end.

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It's happening - by Richard...


Tens of thousands of people have flooded central Athens on the fifth day of protests against government austerity policies. This is a spontaneous protest inspired by Spanish demonstrators, with estimates of up to 100,000 people assembled in the Greek capital's central Syntagma Square, responding to calls on social networking sites for gatherings across Europe to demand "real democracy".

Below the parliament building, protesters held a placard claiming "poverty is the greatest abuse" while others beat empty pots, chanting "thieves", pointing at the parliament building. "I'm here to say that I've had enough. It's not right to have to pay for politicians' mistakes," said teacher Vivi Villa, 34.

The sentiment here, in common with the Spanish protestors, is decidedly anti-politician, in general – all politicians, on a non-partisan basis. We are seeing here a reflection of exactly the sentiment growing in this country, the polarisation between "us" and "them". Politics are being redefined and history is being made. There is no knowing where it will end.


When that history comes to be written, however, there will be a small footnote on the behaviour of the British media. Locked in its own infantile preoccupations, the world as we know it is falling apart, and if it has noticed, it has so far not bothered to report it. Heaven help those who rely on the MSM for their news.

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Crisis! Panic! Disaster! - by Richard... Sunday, May 29, 2011

Greenhouse gas emissions increased by a record amount last year. We now have the highest carbon output in history. Hopes of holding global warming to "safe levels" are all but out of reach.

This is according to unpublished estimates from the International Energy Agency, and the "shock rise" means the goal of preventing a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius – which scientists say is the threshold for potentially "dangerous climate change" – is likely to be just "a nice Utopia".

It also shows the most serious global recession for 80 years has had only a minimal effect on emissions. Last year, a record 30.6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide poured into the atmosphere, mainly from burning fossil fuel. That was – a rise of 1.6Gt on 2009, according to estimates from the IEA.

Fatih Birol, chief economist of the IEA, says. "I am very worried. This is the worst news on emissions." Birol tells The Guardian, "It is becoming extremely challenging to remain below 2 degrees. The prospect is getting bleaker. That is what the numbers say".

Professor Lord Stern of the London School of Economics, the author of the influential Stern Report into the economics of climate change for the Treasury in 2006, warned that if the pattern continued, the results would be dire.

"These figures indicate that [emissions] are now close to being back on a 'business as usual' path. This could mean around a 50 percent chance of a rise in global average temperature of more than 4C by 2100", he says.

So .... are all the countries in the world going to sign up to emergency measures to cut emissions? Er ... France, Russia, Japan and Canada have told the G8 they would not join a second round of carbon cuts under the Kyoto Protocol at United Nations talks this year and the US has reiterated it would remain outside the treaty.


Meanwhile, Damian Carrington wants the world economy be re-engineered. In all probability the man is as stupid as he looks. But he is likely to get his wish. Only it isn't going to be for the reason he wants, and he is not going to like the result.

We're domed ... domed, I tells you, utterly domed!

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Not PIIGS but Pigs - by Richard...



Gratuitous violence from the Spanish police. The protests are not going to stay "cuddly" for very long at this rate.

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The darkness gathers - by Richard...

If you talk to the serious men – not the stupid, empty politicians and their mediaclaque, they will tell you of their concerns ... and you can see it in their eyes. They know full well that the collapse of a currency is a life-changing event and, for many, will become a life-ending one.

Now, those concerns are beginning to leak to the surface – nothing that any intelligent observer could not have worked out for themselves, and the thrust of much of what we have been saying. When the collapse comes, this is not going to be contained.

Letting the cat out of the bag, however, is the German popular daily Bild, which has got hold of a CIA report warning that the tough austerity measures and the dire situation in Greece could escalate and even lead to a military coup.

This in repeated in the Turkish press and you can bet your sweet life that Ankara is monitoring the situation very closely. A military junta on its doorstep, perhaps looking for foreign adventures to keep minds off domestic troubles, is not what is wanted at this juncture.

The point is, though, that there is no sensible person who now expects the Greek government to avoid default. Most certainly, the rest of the PIIGS will follow, and the knock-on effects will be catastrophic. Furthermore, it is by no means certain that the contagion will stop there. Spain is almost as vulnerable, and the history of military control more recent.

The situation is almost has the feel of the spring days of 1939, as the storm clouds gathered over Europe. By the winter to come, one might expect the political shape of Europe to have been completely remodelled, the effects of which no one can foretell.


Currently, therefore, Twitter, footballers and X-Factor slebs should not be top of the agenda – but it is perhaps indicative of the intensity of the storm to come that the British media, instinctively, is adopting the ostrich pose. It did it before WWII and, as the darkness gathers, it is doing so again.

On the bright side, it may take several years – even a decade – for the instability to spread to the UK, giving us time to adjust. The problem is, though, that there is no sign of a Churchill waiting in the wings, ready to lead to nation to the sunlit uplands (not that he ever did). But there is not even the prospect of a "finest hour" for us with lightweight fools such as Cameron in the driving seat. With him it may be our darkest hour. But how dark – and how fast it will arrive - no one yet knows.

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Politics of the nursery - by Richard...


The revelation that the idiot Cameron bases his aid policy on having listened to Bob Geldolf on "Live Aid", when he was an 18-year-old, is staggering in its implications. Because a fatuous teenager listened to an etiolated pop star spouting gibberish, the British people now have to find £8.5 billion this year, rising to £12.5 billion by 2014.

But the fantastic stupidity of this comes home when we read via Booker that, despite the latest tax rises, the £10 billion the government had to borrow last month was the highest ever April figure on record.

Our revised borrowing figure for last year was just below £140 billion, which means that the government has been spending nearly £3 billion a week more than its income – and, despite those famous "cuts", its spending continues to rise.

It's good to know, writes Booker, that it only takes us 22 days to borrow the £8.5 billion we hand out each year in international aid, enabling that crass idiot who is pretending to be a prime minister to boast that we are the most generous country in the world.

But, if you think about it, here we are, borrowing money we don't have and can't afford, to give away to people who will most certainly misuse it, only for us then to have to borrow more money to pay the interest on the money we have borrowed, because we cannot afford to repay it.

Would someone like to suggest that, if we had an annual referendum on the budget, this one would be approved? But since Dave is in power, and has his armoured cars, his men in blue uniforms and machine guns, his gated community and armed guards, he can afford to ignore the unwashed masses who are forced to pay his bills.

And yes, it is the politics of the nursery – but it is backed by brutal force. Try not giving Dave his money and see how far you get.

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The gentle art of revolution - by Richard...

The Mail on Sunday is telling us that "motorists have been fined a staggering £5 million for driving down a quiet residential street which has been dubbed 'Britain’s most baffling road'".

More than 41,000 drivers have been hit with penalties, the report goes on, after a council erected nine signs that confuse everyone who enters the road, and a CCTV camera. Most confusing is the rule that bans motorists from driving one way down the street in the morning and then from going in the opposite direction in the afternoon.

But we are not talking about any old "council" – this is the Peoples' Republic of Camden, one of the few local authority areas which voted in favour of AV. And thus, also, we are not talking about "motorists" – but the conformist wuzzies of Camden.

Elsewhere, in my little urban village, a decision was made some time ago to make our market square – which had become the overspill area for the local pub - into a strict no parking area. Transgressors would be clamped and charged a king's ransom for release.

In the first week of the scheme, the clampers pounced ... and triumphantly claimed their first victim. Whereupon, the entire pub turned out ... together with the pub across the road, and the one a little further down the road, and the one a bit further down from there, until the happy drinkers from some eleven pubs were attending the scene.

From amongst the many, a van appeared and, from the cavernous rear appeared a petrol-driven grinder ... the sort of thing one keeps for such contingencies. Only a very few minutes later, the victim was free and the broken clamp was being paraded through the crowd in a scene reminiscent of the fall of Bagdad.

At this point, the clampers rather unwisely decided to put in an appearance ... whereupon the now merry crowd decided that their van would look much more artistic if it was upside down. Shortly thereafter, we had the entertaining sight of two clampers departing at high speed ... never to be seen again.

Now, I am not suggesting that the residents of Camden should resort to equipment such as grinders. Aerosol spray paints, thermite and burning tyres would do just as well. Alternatively, there could be a peaceable way of doing things. At the annual budget referendum, the voters could reject the budget – and keep rejecting it until there was an undertaking that the officials would be brought under control.
You see, Referism isn't about money. It is really about power and control. There is an age-old sanction applied by harassed parents over their errant offspring. They stop the pocket money. When councils start taking the micky, you have a choice. You burn down the town halls, or you develop a system of reasserting control ... which enables you to stop their money until they come into line.

The big problem we all have here is belief. For centuries, we have been told we need leaders and governments to tell us what to do. We don't. For sure, we need governments, but the deal is we tell them what to do. But there is no point in looking to the wuzzies of Camden, or Notting Hill, for a lead. No revolution or meaningful political movement ever started in the capital.

We build our strength and then we march on London, grinders at the ready, and show the metro-wimps what to do.

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Blogroll hopping - by Richard...

Hopping blogrolls is quite an entertaining and useful pastime. You open up one blog at random, read the top post, then go to the blogroll and pick another blog at random. Here is a list for starters – pick any one and go on a journey of discovery:
A few bloggers haven't quite understood the idea of the blogosphere, and have very limited or poor blogrolls, or they are poorly positioned. A surprising number have "Uncle Tom" entries, featuring links to MSM blogs that are never going to reciprocate.

That is one thing Iain Dale did get right – his instincts were not all bad. His motto was: "you link to me, and I'll link to you". I take it a little further. No blogroll, no link. Incidentally, if anyone has linked to EURef, and I haven't reciprocated, I apologise. Let me know and I'll remedy the omission.

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Posted by Britannia Radio at 06:16