Monday, 11 July 2011

Past neglect - by Richard... Monday, July 11, 2011


After a run of detailed pieces on energy, in September 2008 we wrote a long article about the need for a coherent energy policy from the Conservatives – to the stunning silence of the chatterati, the media and the political classes. And now, almost three years down the line, we have them all piling onto the bandwaggon, too little, too late.

This is where true failure lies. By late 2009, it was very evident that we were heading of a train wreck on energy policy – which could only result in long-term shortages and increased prices. But there was no action.

One reason was that those in the politico-media bubble only think in the short-term – insofar as they can ever be accused of thinking. Another was (and is) that they are reactive, responding to events rather than pre-empting problems and heading them off at the pass.

But by far the greater problem is the sheep-like mentality. None of the want to be too far out on their own. They huddle together, massaging the same stories, the same issues and the same thoughts. And three years ago, "energy" wasn't on the group running list.

Thus, when we needed action those years ago, there was none. The political parties were allowed to go into a general election without energy policy being a high-profile issue. Yet, incredibly, the same dire, mindless nexus could prattle about climate change, the effects of which might be apparent is twenty, fifty or hundred years – or some time never.

And that is the biggest problem of them all. Faced with real, serious problems, the chatterati prefer to side-step reality, and indulge in fantasy and trivia, relying all the time on group-think to see them through.

Now we are paying the price – and we will continue to pay, as the media and the politicians obsess about "self". Even now they fail seriously to address issues which will have too many in early graves, as the combination of fuel poverty and cold weather cut down the impoverished elderly.

Thus, much of the damage caused by the politico-media nexus arises not from what they do now, but what they should have been doing years ago and didn't. As always though, this is far too complex an argument, which few critics will address. There is no longer an institutional memory to tell them they were wrong.

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Double bubble - by Richard...

Nick Clegg says in The Independent that the "pillars of the establishment are tumbling", not perhaps understanding that, as deputy prime minister, he is one of those "pillars".

Amazingly, instead of looking for the nearest bunker and hiding in it, Clegg tells The Independent that he believes the NOTW "crisis" offers an opportunity to clean up Britain's "rotten establishment". "The anger people feel", he says, "is almost palpable. The question is how we harness that sense of outrage to build something better for the future".

This is a man who really doesn't get it. He is so unreal that only one trapped in a fantasy life could exhibit such a delicious lack of self-awareness. He can see what is going on around him, but finds it impossible to apply his own observations to himself.

An almost exact mental equivalent would be a concentration camp guard condemning his colleagues for being part of a brutal regime. The lack of connection is that absolute, for a man who has to be driven around in a £300,000 armoured limousine to ensure his safety.

Clegg is trapped in a bubble of his own making, within the larger media-politico bubble – a double bubble, so to speak. From that, there is no escape. He will go to his grave transfixed by the very ignorance that he has on display today.

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Carbon dictator - by Richard...


A prime minister went to an election promising no carbon tax and is now imposing one. The Guardian has a report on this Australian charade, reproduced in part here with a few amendments and unauthorised additions:

The Australian government has unveiled foisted on its people one of the world's most ambitiousinsane schemes to tackle climate change destroy its economy, a plan to tax carbon dioxide emissions from the country's worst polluters most productive industries.

After a bruising political battle to win support for crush opposition to the measure, the prime minister, Julia Gillard, said on Sunday that from July next year, 500 companies would pay $23 (£15) a ton for their carbon emissions in the largest emissions trading scheme episode of collective suicide outside Europe.

The government predicts that by 2029 the plan will lead to a reduction in emissions equivalent to taking 45 million cars off the road. The government will fix the tax for three years, before moving to a market-set price in 2015.

"It's time to get on with this; we are going to get this done", said Gillard. "If we're going to commit suicide, 'tis better it's done quickly".

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Back to unreality - by Richard...

Well, it was fun while it lasted ...







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Back in the real world - by Richard...

If we had any grown-ups left in the British media, this Die Welt story would be on the front pages. Amplified by Zerohedge, all we get from the likes of the Failygraphis a report that top European Union officials will meet in Brussels today to discuss the growing eurozone debt crisis "amid fears that Italy could be the next country to be affected".

Look at the front pages of all the main British papers, though, and there is no doubt what they all think is the most important event. This preoccupation with "self" – media discussing media – is a sign of loss of maturity. The MSM is regressing to childhood, eulogising over the end of low grade garbage while the world collapses around it.

They are going to wake up one day and find all their businesses are down the pan, as the economy takes a dive and global currencies crash and burn. Then, they will find they have a lot of growing up to do, at which point it could be too damn late. We really cannot afford this level of self-indulgence.

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Rise of the mega blogs? - by Richard... Sunday, July 10, 2011


It is a given that a strong, healthy media is vital to the proper functioning of a democracy. It is also a given that we no longer have a functioning democracy in this country and, as each hour passes, it becomes more and more evident that we have a media that is far from healthy.

The article to which we have linked (headline illustrated) relates to the Sun and the News of the World, and I can certainly attest to the veracity of the claim about stories being invented, from my own personal experience – with senior journalists in The Sun knowingly publishing stories that were not true.

But the malaise does not extend solely to open falsehood. As we have so often remarked, the distortions arise as much from what is not published, and the framing of the stories that are. Add to that the deskilling of much of the media operation, and the increasing reliance on copy and paste journalism, and we have an industry on its deathbed.

The link on framing, however, relates to a book by Stephen D Cooper, called Watchdog – Bloggers as the Fifth Estate, and it was he who sharpened up the idea that the most powerful force keeping the media honest was the political blogosphere.

This is undoubtedly the case in the United States, but for many reasons, the blogosphere in the UK has been less effective – not least because of the emergence of the corporate blog, or "clog", matched by a determination of the media and the political claque to freeze out the independents.

Now, it seems, we are supposed to be under even greater threat from the so-called mega-blogs, according to a new recruit to one of the same, a man by the name of Ed Staite.

With a name like that, one wonder is he is real, but he describes himself as "an international communications consultant specialising in reputation management, training and crisis communications", who has been a "media, policy and communications adviser to the Conservative Party" and describes himself as a "media junkie, news obsessive and keen sportsman".

Looking at the list of "bloggers" recruited to the two extant "mega blogs", one sees corporates, media and politicians well represented, but no one so far that could truly be described as an independent blogger. The voice of the "ordinary man" is being drowned out.

The great problem for the independents is that their greatest strength is also their greatest weakness – their very independence. The corporate drones, pols and other dross that infests Huff 'n' Dale will readily allow themselves to be marshalled and corralled. And they do not need an editorial line imposed. Being largely bubble-dwellers, they tend to think and write the same.

On the other hand, organising the independents makes herding cats look like a gentle stroll, while the one recent attempt seems to be going nowhere. The great British public seems happy to be led, rushing to the corporates, and feeding in their comments, needing little encouragement to ignore the independent blogs.

Perhaps the truth is that in Britain, there is no room for an independent sector. The British people, far from being independent-minded, and freedom-loving, actually tend to be servile, compliant, easily led, gullible, and easily pleased. After all, while we had in the NOTW and Sun two newspapers that made up stories, we also had the two most popular, with the highest circulations. Crap obviously sells.

Perhaps 'ed state has got it right, and Huff 'n' Dale are the future. Above all else, getting down to their level, in order to be really popular, is something most of us independents will find it near impossible to achieve.

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A dose of unreality - by Richard...

On this, the seventy-first anniversary of the official (rather than actual) start of the Battle of Britain, Mrs EUReferendum and I are going to get away from it all and spend the day at a local War Weekend celebration.

To mark once again the anniversary of the events in 1940, I have posted here a facsimile of the front page of The Daily Express for 10 July 1940. This comes in full-size format, converted from the PDF into a large JPEG. If you click the pic, (and then click again when the pic comes up, if on Chrome) you'll get it full size on your screen and you can read the whole thing. The definition will stand further enlargement on your browser if you need it.

I'll take advice on this (through the forum and e-mail), but if there is enough interest (I do not want to bore readers with my own obsession), I'll post the whole newspaper edition for the day (six pages) in readable format on the Battle of Britain blog later today. Let me know what you think.

UPDATE: All six pages are up on Days of Glory. You might want to look at this as well.

Posted by Britannia Radio at 19:27