Climate change: a rare and exciting event
Tuesday 26 March 2013
 This is all good stuff, but it might have carried a little more conviction if the Great Littlejohn had kept an eye on the blogs. He might then have discovered it appearing on this blog on 27 December 2009. 
Littlejohn might also have noted that the quote was picked up by Watts up with that two days later, and has since becoming a standard part of the armoury in the war against the warmists. It first appeared in the Booker column in February 2010.
But then, we mustn't grumble. For the Mail actually to catch up with what is going on outside its own tiny little bubble is also a rare and exciting event. We should all applaud the speed with which it has come to the party … only three years late. That has to be better than never. Do we expect a new revelation on Hammond by, say, July 2016? By the way, we've got another fall of global warming this morning. And while there is a humorous side to the warmists' stupidity, the damage they do is incalculable. Talk to Scottish farmers about the need to tackle global warming – and see how long you live. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 26/03/2013 |
Eurocrash: Cyprus details yet to emerge
Tuesday 26 March 2013
 The one thing that I come away with, though, is that there are huge gaps in the accounts. We are thus very far from knowing the truth of what has been going on, and the full text of whatever deal has actually been made. The publicly accessible information is to the rest what the tip is to an iceberg. Of very great interest though is the account of the Sunday night negotiations offered by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which has it that Herman van Rompuy was the lead negotiator on the night. In fact – or so we are told – the entire negotiation session was at the instigation of van Rompuy, who decided to intervene after consultations with Merkel and Hollande. And how interesting it is to see the Franco-German motor in action again. Apparently, the eurogroup meeting earlier in the week had been so brutal that, after ten hours of battering, finance minister Michalis Sarris had been so exhausted that he could not continue. Thus it was left for the Council president to work directly with Cypriot president Anastasiadis and cut a deal. The fascination of this development is that the negotiations have largely been seen through the filter of national players, with the Germans cast in a prominent role. It is often forgotten that the EU also fields its own players, and has its own agenda, subtly different from the member states. In the event, it was van Rompuy who carried the day, with agreement being reached by two am Monday morning, actually very early for a crisis in Brussels. None of that, though, helps us understand what is really going on. On the face of it, the deal reached should have the Russians up in arms – those who hadn't already moved their money – and the people of Cyprus rioting in the streets. Furthermore, because of the risk of contagion, we should be seeing some action in Spain and Italy to guard against bank runs. Perhaps it is too early to expect a response, with people either in shock or looking to find the missing detail that would make sense of the deal. No that the banks are to stay closed until Thursday, it may take until then before the reaction sets in. And at that point, we may well find out how well trained and organised the Cypriot riot police are. But one should also remember that this is an island which is extremely adept at guerrilla warfare. No one in their right mind messes with the natives – as the EU may yet learn. COMMENT: CYPRUS COMBINED THREAD Richard North 26/03/2013 |
Horsemeat fraud: is someone taking the pig?
Monday 25 March 2013
 They have, however, been somewhat disconcerted by reports that 11 of 70 beef samples tested have shown positive for pork. In seven out of the eleven samples, the level was in excess of seven percent. Food minister Mette Gjerskov is "outraged", saying that when there is more than one percent pork in beef, it is not carelessness with mincers and using the same knives that industry often claims. It is cheating and cheating, because there is a financial gain from using pork in the more expensive beef. The minister is now exploring options for tighter controls, looking at whether testing can be carried out, and whether it is best to sample it before it ends up on the cold counter. Whatever else, the minister concedes that there is a need to strengthen surveillance. One wonders though whether there is more to this than meets the eye (so to speak). There is a small price differential between pigmeat and beef, but not anything like as great as between horsemeat and beef. Adulterating beef with small amounts of pork is hardly going to make anyone going to make anyone rich, and seems hardly worth the risk. Denmark, however, is the land of those cartoons, and where there is considerable antipathy towards the flood of Muslim immigrants. Could it be therefore, that the adulteration is driven not by the prospect of financial gain, but for other reasons. Muslims are prohibited from eating pork, which they regard as "unclean" (including those people who don't use toilet paper) , and spiking their food with pork could be regarded as making a statement. And not a few people believe that this is precisely what is happening. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 25/03/2013 |
Climate change: move over Viner
Monday 25 March 2013
 The thing about warmists, though, is they never give up. Back in January 2010, after one of the coldest winters in 30 years, we got John Hammond, a meteorologist at the UK Met Office, telling us: "Winters like this are likely to become less of a feature as we head through the 21st century". "Colder winters". He said, "become less likely because overall the background warming will reduce the severity of them, certainly for our part of the world". And now, in the grip of the coldest March for fifty years, with global warming thick on the ground, the fool Beddington, the government's outgoing chief scientist, is telling us that the effects of climate change on the weather were already being felt in the UK. "In a sense we have moved from the idea of global warming to the idea of climate change … temperatures are increasing but the thing that is going to happen is that we are going to see much more variability in our weather', he says, then adding, "I think you only have to look at the last few years to see how that is actually starting to manifest itself even in the UK". Looking out the window at the snow drifts, we can indeed see how this "climate change" is manifesting itself. But we expect no relief from the idiots the government insists on appointing as it chief scientific advisors. Beddington's successor is Sir Mark Walport, former director of the Wellcome Trust, and a medically trained immunologist. This great sage is already imbued with warmism, telling us in 2009 that, "Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is not only essential to help tackle climate change, it is also an important way to improve public health". This is also the man who, in July 2011 was adding to his voice to the complaints that the BBC was giving "too much weight to fringe views on issues such as climate change". So, as we shiver through the unseasonable weather, hardly daring to venture out into the biting easterly wind, these fools prattle and prance with the quasi-religious mantras. You will get nothing sensible from Walport. He is pure establishment. But then that is the joy of being a warmist – you can keep repeating the same old, same old, never having to admit you are wrong. And the idiots in government will always give you a nice cushy job. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 25/03/2013 |
UK politics: "I have never been a huge fan of Cameron"
Monday 25 March 2013
Obviously, the way to get on in life is to brown-nose The Leader on his way up, and then forget everything you said when he is on his way down.
 The above is Tim Montgomerie on 6 December 2009, the fourth anniversary of David Cameron becoming the leader of the Conservative Party. And now, little Timmy has fallen out of love. Today, he says …  How times change when you've got a nice safe job behind that Murdoch paywall. Unfortunately, there is always the internet to remind you of your past. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 25/03/2013 |
Eurocrash: Cyprus – now or never?
Monday 25 March 2013
 Meanwhile, Chicken Little is screeching round the courtyard in Brussels, with frenetic talk of the island nation being the first to leave the eurozone. But that, the "colleagues" could never allow to happen, and nor can they risk bringing down the entire European banking system for a paltry €10 billion – not even a rounding error in terms of the wider European economy. And that is why Cypriot president, Nicos Anastasiades, has a much stronger hand to play than many commentators allow. Potentially, the "colleagues" have much more to lose than he does. However, before we get to the end play, and an outcome that is to an extent pre-ordained, we must go through the theatre which so characterises EU politics. Everything is for show with the posturing entirely for public consumption, while the real negotiations proceed apace, behind closed doors. For the moment, though, there is no resolution. They game must be played out to the bitter end, for the final compromise that will see Cyprus remain in the eurozone, with another glorious fudge in place. That is the one certainty in a sea of uncertainty. The rest, as they say, is detail.
UPDATE:
And hey! Waddayaknow? We're "back from the brink". An "11th-hour deal" has been agreed. This boilerplate comes from The Independent but any of the dead tree media could suffice. It's a "tough deal" of course, but the drama's done. The dogs bark and the caravan moves on.
COMMENT: CYPRUS COMBINED THREAD Richard North 25/03/2013 |
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