Horsemeat fraud: a huge system failure
Wednesday 10 April 2013
 The suspect meat was supplied by Wiljo Import en Export BV and Vleesgroothandel Willy Selten and, in total, 132 companies in the Netherlands and some 370 more around Europe are affected by the discovery. The find was made as part of EU-wide tests to trace horse DNA in processed beef foods and to detect a veterinary drug used on horses. Inspectors examining the records of the Dutch trading companies found that the origin of the supplied meat was unclear. As a result it was not possible to confirm whether slaughterhouses had respected procedures. The recall covers meat dating back to 1 January 2011 up until 15 February this year, but what is not being said is that such a large quantity of meat placed, undetected, on the market, the provenance of which is unknown – and was only discovered as a result of special measures adopted after earlier discoveries - represents a massive failure of the EU mandated regulatory system. And as for the Netherlands, where the failure has been detected, the food control system has been inspected on many occasions by the EU's Food and Veterinary Office (FVO), most recently inSeptember 2011, when such issues as "traceability" requirements were examined and passed muster. That the temporary "fix" is now picking up the system defects – at last – should not be allowed to obscure that fact that the system as devised, mandated and approved by the EU failed to do the job, and it has taken national agencies to pick up the pieces. Such points have been made before on this blog, but it remains the case that the EU is given a free ride by the legacy media, its failures unremarked and unrecorded. The omissions don't change the reality though. Whatever the EU turns its hand to is usually a disaster, sooner or later. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 10/04/2013 |
Climate change: and yet …
Wednesday 10 April 2013
 Conditions in North America have also been good, with several resorts in the USA and Canada extending their season until early summer. One resort reports that it has been a "stellar ski season" and is enjoying "practically perfect conditions for early April". And yet, the loss-making Guardian has 75 sports champions warning of warmer winters "in latest effort by environmental campaigners to urge president to act on climate". More and more, we see that the warmists are not of this world (as if they ever were), viz the latest effluvia from the Met Office. Why does anyone listen to these people … or the Guardian for that matter? COMMENT: SKI-TASTROPHE THREAD Richard North 10/04/2013 |
Climate change: ski-tastrophe deferred
Wednesday 10 April 2013
 Ski centres at Glenshee, The Lecht, Cairngorms, Nevis Range, and Glencoe have benefited from wintry weather, and Ski-Scotland is saying that this season could be one of the best snow sports seasons in Scotland in recent years. 
The BBC, of course, has been making a special "thing" about Scottish skiing and climate change, reporting in June 1999 that the industry was to be used by the UK Government as one of a range of official climate "pointers" in the battle against global warming.
And then there's the money. In June 2000, the state broadcaster was dutifully reporting that "snowfall levels have dropped over the years", telling us that a team of university scientists has been awarded a £10,000 grant to study snow in Scotland.
The money was to be used by researchers at Stirling University to examine the effects of climate change in Scotland on skiing and other industries. The previous year, the team, from the university's department of environmental science, had warned the skiing industry faced a bleak future because climatic changes would leave lower snowfall levels on "nursery slopes". 
In December 2003, the BBC happily retailed a UN environment programme (UNEP) report which warned that many ski resorts faced economic hardship as a result of climate change, noting also the happy coincidence that one ski resort in Scotland, Glencoe, where snow had never been very reliable, had just announced that it is suffering financial difficulties.
A year later, in February 2004, with almost palpable glee, the BBC was reporting that two of Scotland's best known ski centres were being put on the market after losing £1 million in two years. Staff at Glencoe and Glenshee had been told that this would be their last season under the present management.
Just so that there could be no confusion as to the cause, the BBC noted that the Economistmagazine had issued a warning over the future of skiing in Scotland due to warmer winters and dwindling profits. Snow for skiing is becoming scarce due to climate change, the BBC announced. 
Yet another report caught the attention of the BBC in October 2004, this one from the Energy Saving Trust. Offering a litany of woes attributable to climate change, it warned that UK cod and chips, spring daffodils and Scottish ski resorts could be no more by 2050 if nothing was done to fight global warming.
In December 2006, the BBC was revelling in the unusually warm autumn, which had kept snow away from the ski slopes, and by June 2007 was celebrating "wrecked ski seasons" and asking for readers' photos and comments to "help us to create a climate change calendar".
While you can't blame every twist and turn on global warming, said the BBC, only a handful of scientists now doubt that we're seeing a long-term trend and that humans are responsible for Earth's increased atmospheric temperatures. These days we're more likely to get rain than snow. Cairngorm Mountain said they have just had their worst-ever ski season. 
Then, come 15 January 2010, disaster struck. "Too much snow closes ski centre" wailed the BBC.
The CairnGorm Mountain ski centre in the Highlands had been closed for the day after a two-day blizzard had blocked access roads with about 15ft of snow. Further up the mountain the drifting had buried the funicular railway track in about ten places, and the tunnel mouth.  And now we see so much snow that the ski centres are making a profit and the seasons have never been better. I suppose that warmists can always rely on their predictions having a fifty-year life span, and we're only fifteen years in. But along the way, the BBC has been quick to attribute warm winters to global warming. By their own measure, therefore, we should be approaching a new ice age – not that the BBC will ever admit to that. But they did tell us that the Cairngorms would be taken as an indicator of climate change, and the picture above was taken on Monday. We should take them at their word. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 10/04/2013 |
EU politics: Germans support the euro?
Tuesday 9 April 2013
 According to the poll, carried out by the Forsa Institute, 69 percent of Germans are in favour of keeping the new money. Only 27 percent want to return to the D-Mark. Yet in 2012, half of all Germans surveyed wanted to ditch the euro. The results mean, of course, that there is a significant minority opposed to the continuation of the single currency, and there could be some relationship between the 27 percent who are opposed, and the 24 percent who would support the AFD, which has as its main policy platform the ditching of the euro. However, such polls are notoriously unreliable, and it is an odd thing that results can often reflect the biases of the groups commissioning the polls. The context of the questioning is crucial, but also the method of sampling and the sample structure are amongst those things that can affect the result. Here also, the Forsa Institute is not without controversy, and any results from this organisation might well be suspect. But, even if everything is above board, there is a very different dynamic to polls when there is no immediate prospect of change. Thus, since dumping the euro is not on the mainstream political agenda in Germany, and there is no likelihood in the near future of the question being put, people might be expected to respond differently from a situation where their choices might take effect. What the current poll also fails to do is show how firm the sentiment is, or how it relates to political preferences. For instance, while FDP supporters seem to show a high level of support for the euro in this poll (83 percent), some 46 percent also professed to supporting the AFD – the highest level of any political party. With a highly volatile financial situation though, and a general election in the offing, it is not unreasonable to posit that sentiment could change very rapidly, and more so if the AFD gets organised and succeeds in the election. Thus, while the Forsa poll is of some interest, it doesn't really tell us very much. Euro support within Germany is not yet a key issue. What happens of the periphery, in Cyprus and Portugal, for instance, is more important for the moment. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 09/04/2013 |
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
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