Climate change: and the snows kept coming
Saturday 23 March 2013
That is the problem with this district. Most of the residential roads are privately-owed (known as "unadopted"), which means they are unpaved, and unserviced. We never see a gritter or plough and never get help with snow clearance.
Thus, while the main road seems open (just - but down to one lane), it is almost impossible to reach it. As for public transport, who knows? Information normally is unreliable. Thus, while I was due in London today for a conference with Campaign for Independent Britain, I have abandoned any idea of attending.
But the fact that I should be writing of such matters on 23 March is utterly bizarre. Last year at this time, we were in the throes of a drought, and the temperature on this day peaked at 21ºC in part of the region. Today, in this area, it will struggle to reach zero, with the wind-chill dragging it down to a bitter minus seven.
And last year, the warmists were in full spate about their precious climate change, despite the fact that their predictions had been for cool wet winters and hot dry summers. In fact, we got a long dry winter, running into a dry spring, with a glorious few weeks of warmth which then settled down to a long, cold and excessively wet summer.
That dragged on into a wet autumn and early winter, then turning to snow, more snow and even more snow. Although it never lasts, it has been frequent. This is our eighth separate episode of snow this season. And it would be a brave warmist who stood up and started preaching about climate change. People are heartily sick of the cold. It seems forever since we last had a prolonged spell of good weather.
Still though, the local council spends about £300,000 a year on the salaries of climate change officials. Send them here with shovels in their hands, and they might be some use. Send them to preach, and we would happily lynch them. Instead, the council will be here shortly with its hands out for our money, and we must pay them or go to jail - all so that we can keep these climate change officials paid.
So, we are heartily sick of our council as well - not that they give a tinker's cuss. They take our money whether we like it or not, while we freeze. But who dare call it climate change? Not their climate officers, for sure. They really would be lynched.
COMMENT THREAD Richard North 23/03/2013 |
Eurocrash: a war of nerves
Friday 22 March 2013
In an unprecedented move, Handelsblatt is running a live blog as its lead item, dedicated to the Cyprus crisis. The fate of the country, it says, is "on a knife edge", the rescue a "war of nerves". It's like a poker game, says the paper. At the table: Cyprus, the euro countries, the ECB and Russia. But in the end it's probably not about who wins, but who loses.
The eurogroup has made it clear that it will not accept Nicosia's "Plan B", and its so-called "solidarity fund". The Cypriot parliament has adjourned, and a government spokesman has said, "the next few hours will decide the fate of Cyprus".
If nothing changes, says FDP Bundestag member Frank Schäffler, "the unification of Europe will be destroyed". He is right in the sense that the "colleagues" have far more to lose than Cyprus. This is a huge game of "chicken". Who will swerve first?
Die Welt thinks Cyprus will be first. It looks more and more as if it will slide into national bankruptcy, it says. For the eurozone, the consequences would probably be controlled. On the island, however, chaos would erupt within days.
But I think the paper is being a little optimistic. There are over a million people on the island - three times the population of Iceland. The EU is not going to be able to walk away from economic chaos, and continue as before, business as usual. Banking - as we all know - relies on trust, and reputation. But so does government. The reputational risk to the EU is as great as any physical effects, and the prospect on the second-largest economy on earth being unable to solve the problems of a small island nation is one that will have massive ramifications. Die Welt says that Cyprus, after bankruptcy, would have no other choice than to print its own money. The departure from the eurozone would be sealed. But the country would have to formally announce its withdrawal from the EU, because leaving the euro is not in the European Treaties. The damage that would cause to the psyche of the EU would be incalculable. However, the trauma dopes cut both ways. Even if the EU takes a trouncing, Cyprus can still get hurt. And, if Berliner Zeitung reads the runes correctly, the Cypriot government is not getting it all its own way. It has been accused of a devious strategy, playing Moscow and Brussels off against each other. But now, says the paper, the strategy has failed. Russia does not want to play the saviour, and the euro partners resent the game playing. With their "irresponsible act", says BZ, the government in Nicosia has not strengthened its bargaining position. "This is perhaps the only good thing about the disaster of the last few days". But this seems to be far from the only "irresponsible act". From the Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten emerges the news that as much as €4.5 billion was withdrawn from Cypriot banks and taken out of the country in the week before the announcement of the compulsory levy. Overall, since the beginning of the year, €20 billion has been "invested abroad". In Germany, they are applauding the belated move by the ECB to impose massive restrictions on the movement of capital from Cyprus. "After the stupidest economic decision recently to levy a tax on all Cypriot savers, says Gustav Horn, Director of the Institute of Macroeconomic Research, "the financial system is once again on the brink". For that reason, the temporary introduction of capital controls is a "well-justified emergency measure", he says. And the emergency continues. At the end of the day, a dramatic day by some accounts, there is no a solution, but there is another package on the table. The compulsory levy is back, with a high rate - as much as 15 percent on balances of more than €100,000 euros. And with that, the Cyprus crisis lives to see the next day. COMMENT: CYPRUS COMBINED THREAD Richard North 22/03/2013 |
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