If I may use a Bullingdon-type expression, I never much fancied the cut of the jib of Chris Huhne when he was Secretary of State for Environment and Climate Change (remember that.) Too much about himself, too fond of the media positioning.
I don’t know Ed Davey, his successor, but I wish all power to his elbow and his voice in standing up for the environment against George Osborne, and winning the argument about the need for the government to show a lead on climate change. ‘Greenest government ever’ was what David Cameron promised to lead when he was sledging round the Arctic with a few brand-contaminating huskies. Since when …. Er …..
The Chancellor has had a rough few months, for which he deserves no sympathy as the political pain was entirely self-inflicted in that it was caused by a Budget that managed to combine economic incompetence with political and strategic ineptitude. But it means that in the ‘what if Dave falls under a bus’ race – one on which a growing number of Tory MPs seem rather frighteningly keen to see – he has fallen somewhat behind, and allowed twin clowns Boris Johnson and Michael Gove to move ahead.
His main objective – getting the deficit under control within a Parliament – is in tatters, so he needs something else to regenerate a bit of support among his fractious colleagues. Getting on the wrong side of the environmental debate – I.e the right side politically, as in right wing – would appear to be his issue of choice.
I’m sure there are people out there who care deeply about George Osborne’s political future. They are however outnumbered by people who care about the future of the planet. Which is why we have to hope Mr Davey wins the latest battle within the coalition.
The planet will be fine. It’s us that are f—ed.
I do not know the truth about man-made climate change.
But I do know that globalists are using it to promote global governance.
Meanwhile, Mr Osborne and other finance ministers are of more importance.
I must have warned at least 50 times that neoliberalism and Hayekian austerity would lead to disaster in Europe.
IMF, EU, ECB, OECD etc thought they knew better.
Spain has a borrowing cost of 7.62% now.
Greece will exit euro.
Italy will collapse.
Osborne will miss the borrowing and growth targets.
Out of wreckage a United States of Europe will be created. This federation will be undemocratic and socialist.
It will be lead by technocrats. I have been told that a retired general with business connections will be made head of it.
Not a good day for Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks.
And the Illuminati ritual known as Olympics will start soon. What we will really have is a showcase for the future police state.
All the familiar Campbell traits are present in this blog. The strangely selectice class hatred (didn’t Blair attend Fettes?)…the presentation of hyperbole as fact … And of course the inference that he and he alone is some sort of master of political strategy.
Campbell’s constant digging out of both Boris and M.Gove also reminds me of a comment once made by his then master Neil Kinnock when he was being barracked by Conservatives…”They attack us because they are scared of us”. As in most things, Kinnock was wrong about this, but it maybe explains Campbell’s obvious anxities ?
If I recollect, it was in February that you coined the term “Spelmened” in relation to Dave’s dithering re flogging forestry, syphoning off the family silver and using colleagues as commodities.
Seems Dave is as undecisive as the weather.
Two swallows do not make a summer – let’s ensure Cameron and Clegg do not make a second term.
Green shmeen. So funny to see the contradictions. Labour are supposed to be the party of the workers. Thats why I’ve always considered myself a labour man, even if I disagreed with many other stupid things done by Kinnock, Blair etc. But if they are no longer going to be the party of the workers, then what is left?
On the environment, can someone please tell me why we should stop pissing into the ocean so that others can do it it more?! Why would we want to make energy expensive here – if that meant less burning of fossil fuels that would be one thing. It doesn’t – it means less burning of fossil fuels here, but the fuels will be burnt in China or wherever instead, so we have no impact on the environment we will just have less jobs here.
Also – we all backed the miners in the 80s. But was that because we backed the miners, or simply had an ideological crusade against the Tories. I backed the miners (though not Scargill) and there were capitalist ways to keep the mines open and keep jobs. We could still resurrect mining – but where are all the lefties and labour people now? Campaigning for green energy thats where! Whilst Australia, Russia, Poland are happily mining the coal that we could be mining, now that its valuable again.
So don’t talk bollocks about energy mate.
Alastair, no matter how much you try to spin it, these Tories will not go away.
Ok Osborne has made a hash of the economy, but as I keep saying and will never stop saying, while Ed Balls is still around and considered credible, Osborne will stay too, his economic rap sheet is much lighter than Balls. Don’t get me wrong, I would recommend both parties get shot of both, but they won’t, and electorates have short memories.
Balls challenged for the leadership for gods sake! He should have known, like his Tory predecessors Keith Joseph, Enoch Powell, Norman Tebbit and John Redwood, that he just has the sort of face and demeanour that is unelectable.
Johnson is much more clever and principled than Cameron, but yes he has this “buffoon” problem.
You will never be able to portray Gove as a fool though, he is clearly a very strong contender and is getting stuck into a group that the majority of voters want someone to get stuck into.
Are you seriously suggesting that Boris could be a Prime Minister ??
The Tories need to listen to the back bencher’s who are saying “lets have another election and get a government with a majority”.Osborne and Cameron know it would be political suicide.They would not do it in order to keep their own backsides where they are .Most definitely not in the interest of what the country needs !!
The next election will not be about who’s face fits where!.It will be about getting rid of this self centred coalition
GO, I don’t think, has the imagination, nor scientific sense of any sort, to grasp the weather in the World is actually changing. Perhaps he can’t be arsed about it, or thinks cynically it is inevitable. I sadly do think the latter at times, and getting to think more so, in that man is too out of control to do anything much about it, and that there is too many of us on Planet Earth anyway.
However, there is a chance vast cabon capture setups mankind could be built in the near future, and other tricks, to stablise weather changing effects. But even more however, there is a tipping point of no return, which is approaching fast, which is the latest scare story making the eco-environmental rounds in the last couple of years. As with everything man does that becomes hysterical, it is all confusion, and hard to know which is kosher evidence.
For instance, Greenland’s melting ice through July story from the last day making the media rounds, link here,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18978483
Greenland summer weather has seriously changed in the last ten years. It is becoming more habitable these days – a place to invest in land, speculatively, it has been said in the last few years, by some.
Well, nudge-nudge, wink-wink, knew this would happen,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18982453
Who is calling who’s bluff here, ey? We are knowledgeable what you torys are like, after the BA saga during Blair and Brown, you sorts. AND miners.
George Osborne has been criticised for a lot of silly political stuff that really doesn’t matter much, ie granny tax etc etc. I suggest people forget about all that, and concentrate on the one important thing that is his job that he has now blatantly got wrong: the economy.
Terrible growth figures today. Now, there are times when low growth, or even mild recessions, or even deep recessions can be acceptable. Various American leaders have had recessions out of sheer necessity – if you have high inflation, or a bubble, then you need to raise interest rates and have a short, sharp recession, to get rid of the inflation, or to pop the bubble. The sooner you pop a bubble the less damage it will do, ie if we had a small recession in 2005 we would have avoided the much bigger one later. Reagan did it in the 1980s, short sharp recession to cure inflation, then had 10 years of tremendous growth.
Osborne has no such excuse, he has popped no bubbles rather he has kept the last one inflated just as Labour did, and encouraged the next one, whilst watching inflation shoot up. He has carried on Brownite policies and is now achieving Brownite results. Hopefully, he should receive the same electoral punishment for this.
Good article in telegraph about this:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/thomaspascoe/100019118/the-gdp-number-is-awful-and-its-the-product-of-the-governments-amateur-policies-not-the-euro-crisis/
We had the opposite of austerity for at least the 6 years preceeding the crash. Then we had the crash. After that, in the UK and most Euro countries, there has been no austerity. If Ed Balls and Ed Miliband ran Greece for a year, in whatever manner they saw fit, and Greece was still in trouble after a year, would that mean the 2 Eds were morons? No it would mean that once you have allowed yourself into a debt crisis – its difficult to get out.
I do agree with you on the United States of Europe, the undemocratic, technocratic, socialist state of the future.
And I agree about climate change, I also don’t know the truth, though I think its probably real, but it is very convenient for those who want global governance.
oh jezzuz, Alasatair, put your twitter account down now, it is half an hour to the Olympics. And you do known what i can arrange to be done for you, that whicker stick young laded put in place bum botherer? And mam says I can watch, camereraphone alsoed allowed. And now, you not will be wanting that bro, will you? SO UPDATE COMMENTS HERE!
sends me spare he does.
funny how this works for me suddenly : ))) Ach , I was born the day before yesterday, bro.
But still funny.
Wimmin ask understanding,
as I fall, on my feet I am.
Not enough they say,
jesus christ, what more can i say.
You don’t love me enough,
oh jesus christ almighty.
She has come out with the ace,
that I can’t save the planet.
Give me some slack love, I only work on the underground, driving a train, how the hell am I going to change the world from there, love?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqh40789nkk
Japan, if i can find it again,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNf4v9kZo1U
think that is it, with new music.
I am suggesting that I personally believe that Boris is much more clever and principled than Cameron, so given a choice between those two, I’d rather have Johnson for Prime Minister.
Johnson would have a political problem though because his enemies would portray him as a buffoon, and that narrative would stick with the public.
A lot of the Tory thinkers, blogosphere and twitterati seem to take the idea of a Johnson leadership very seriously. He’d be the opposite end of the scale from John Major or Iain Duncan Smith.
He wouldn’t be my first choice, but he is better than Cameron and would be better than Osborne too.
If we were to believe the Euro data on growth for a second, then growth is still possible.
Now I don’t know if that is the result of various Govts policies, but the Tories, having been given fragile but real growth, potentially partly because of Darling’s policies, decided to put the frighteners on the whole of the UK and in doing this for political reasons (it seems to me) managed to have a larger effect than any economic policy “decisions” made to date, ie. created a depression.
I amongst many have lost our jobs, and even though financially, I am fairly secure, my spending has dropped like a stone. I really don’t know when my next pay packet might come in. Goodness knows what the average Joe with credit card debt and mortgages are doing with their money at present. But if figures are to be believed, spending is not a priority.Now, part of their strategy was to try and make Labour unelectable and to allow them a clear road to make bigger policy decisions such as the NHS unopposed. This has failed, have a look at the YouGov data over the last year. Today, Labour had a 10 point leadI don’t know if someone else could have done a better job of Governing, but I doubt anyone could have done a worse job
ONE – NIL!
And here we are at the second event of this already superbe Olympics, after the ladies have shown the way, as they do, and now we get down to the really serious sports in this four annual event, between the best athletes that is planet can possibly produce, so here we are, a stunning episode that will live in future Olympic history, the final of the starring contest,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWgg20IqibM
playing games, you must surely know, we have the same enemy, if things turn nasty, say no more, wink-wink.
More tea Vicar?
?
that was a story about strike call off originally, I know, I double checked when i posted it.
See, beeb fun and games, so see through. I am on BIG watch now beeb, you have asked for it.
Been going on about countries coming to visit us, to this mount olumpus, so might as well post some hardcore Germany, been saving it, but I think tonight will do. Another youtubby friend sent it to me, from Germany, obviously – wouldn’t have been able to find brilliant stuff like this on my own, without international excellent help,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XN3dEEdXoc
Es ist brillant, nicht wahr?
Sorry to hear you lost your job. I’ve been there a good few times now, and the company I work for now has struggled to keep its head above water ever since 2008, and could go under at any time, so I am susceptible to the same thing.
Your last two views are common, and encouraged by the political and economic establishment to some degree, those whom it suits to market a certain brand of economics.
Ie they worry about “confidence”, which is what you suggest is the problem the Tories have caused, and is now what Ed Balls has started to blame rather than austerity, as the data now clearly show that america has had more austerity than us, and more growth. You also worry about “spending” which goes along with the standard government/keynesian ideology.
There are other opinions. A brilliant economist called Nicholas Nassim Taleb who wrote the book “Black Swans” predicted the financial crisis and made a fortune from it. You can do this by “shorting” stocks or companies that have artificial or bubble growth, knowing that they will face a certain collapse in value, for example housing and those linked to housing in 2008, or currencies of heavily indebted countries. But the important thing is – you can’t short a strong country or a strong company. If you tried to short Switzerland or BMW you’d get your fingers burned, because with strong fundamentals they are resilient to confidence. If there is confidence great they’ll do better, if there is not, no problem they will still do well from their strong base. There was a famous case of people getting burned when trying to short Porsche. So Gordon Brown was a moron for banning short selling. Short selling sorts the wheat from the chaff, and to have a healthy economy we want to do this.
Second of al spending. This is the keynesian viewpoint. There is another. There is a view that says we should cut spending! And it is a very obvious one! You made the wise decision to save money so that you can weather the storm at the moment. Even Keynes believed that a country should do the same. You also made the wise decision that this is not the time to spend. For a country Keynes disagreed but Austrian school economics believes we shouldn’t spend, we should save. This will be a painful adjustment, but instead of selling each other lattes we can sell goods and services abroad, that will pull us out of recession and create the jobs that you and I will need.
oh dear – Senegal are good at chopping trees down, it looks. Team GB(/NI?) are black and blue after that game. Seen a couple of red cards already, but none in that game. Puzzling. I know there is a tradition of clumbsyness, so maybe the ref gave them the benefit of the doubt, but still strange.
May officiating conspiracy theories across borders now start, the next couple of weeks will be full of them. Watched a programme last night on such goings ons at the 1908 Londres Olympics, and things don’t change. Anyway, I am a Welsh rugger supporter, and know it certainly hasn’t changed… : )
….and furthermore, if non-English players don’t know the words to God Save Our Queen, maybe it is time for a new UK national anthem, ey?
Think it is about time.
And Daily Wail made a big fuss of it this morning in their edition of future bog paper. They simply do not get it, do they?
If they got rid of that racist fifth verse from it, peoples other than “english” might be happier, Anyway, we need a new UK national anthem – the old one is creaking in old time norman-type history that needs resolving. Daily Snail link here,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2179523/London-2012-Olympics-Fury-Welsh-Scots-snub-National-Anthem.html
Those disgusted from Tunbridge Wells jurnos really do know how to wind up us unwashed natives from the provinces of “their” lands, don’t they? It is almost racist, or is it 100% racist?
…furthermore, for those ignorant, the fifth verse goes as thus,
Lord, grant that Marshal Wade,
May, by thy mighty aid,
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush and like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush,
God save the King/Queen.
Race relations board, anyone? I think so. Not Olympic spirit at all. They can draw the wool over some peoples eyes, but not all, especially these days.
So, in conclusion, we desperatly need a fucking new national anthem. How about this one, as a suggestion?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziJoep1cDlY
What do you think, Daily Snail, ey?
I am looking forward to the DM tomorrow morning through my letter box, after what I have just said, I KNOW they watch, by this marvellous young kiddie who delivers it to us, part time fireman, mid twenties, got a girlfriend, but not yet married, so he might be looking for something different, english horsey ladies. Got his phone number, if anyone is interested, fathers and mothers? You can not go wrong with this lad, as a son in law, he’d keep your daughter happy, oh yes.
Start at hundred quid, don’t be shy, he is for sale as a son-in-law, do I hear one fifty? one twenty then….
The problem with climate change is we can’t afford to get it wrong. Isn’t it therefore best to err on the side of caution? I agree that it’s all debatable – climate changes whatever we human insects do to the planet – but even the slightest possibility that we might be having an adverse effect should motivate us to make some corrections, and the sooner the better.
The Miners’ Strike was about politics, not about environment. The ruling group in the Conservative Party wanted revenge for defeats inflicted on their government by the NUM in 1972 and 1974. They also knew that jettisoning a valuable natural resource and spending megabucks of taxpayers’ money on policing was a price worth paying for unleashing capitalism from the chains of organised labour. And it worked, and they and their supporters were the beneficiaries. Pity it led us via BIg Bang and bonfires of controls to New Labour (Thatcher’s greatest success) and where we are now.
Johnson needs nobody to portray him as a buffoon. He is a buffoon! Read some of the crap he writes and try to take him seriously.
Youtube is amazing to get out there and find different music, me sending suggestion to people, them sending some back, and so it goes on. been doing it for years, since it is my type of “scene”. Facebook? – only good enough for the unimaginative.
Was sent this track a few weeks ago, come to think of it, was thinking of posting it, maybe now might be the right time, if I can find it in my vast music favorites. Tell you what, it is in my list on my youtube homesite, here goes,
found eventually, took half an hour out of my life,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmgY-iH3wRM
Well, if your not into analogue synths, you may not get it, operational amplifiers oscillating.
Bloke if from Brasil/Brazil, believe it or not.
First bumped into him years ago posting Kraftwerk tracks – they are big into Kraftwek there, I have found, many, many years ago. World education, see.
Remember Tomorrow’s World? Raymond Baxter and all that then? Here is what Walter/Wendy Carlos started, on a moog, moon shot op amps off shoot to music, produced technology,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usl_TvIFtG0
Funny how things turn out, man on the moon and things.
Two versions, of Queen Mary’s funeral, quite different, you may agree,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tpJyKswO4w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeoJzSq7S00
Approached from different ends, you might agree. I can do a fair version myself on my joanna downstairs, when I am not honky-tonking on it. : )
BLIMEY! this bloke has come along, four years ago this when I spoke to him last when he was about seventeen,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQDVyBGxQ5c
now this now today,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p0SoDsFA4s
Only decided to look him up just now what he was up to, and he has come along nicely, as I thought he would.
98% of the times I communicate with others on youtubby anon, I find it works better that way, helps not being sent messages from people you used to know, prying how you doing these days.
That is why I avoid Facelessbook, can’t be putting up with that. I want to move forward, and see things moving forward. Backwards looking is downwards, at most times, especially if it has nothing to offer to see what could be in front, if you get what I mean.
Have a knowledge of past, around, and I am not saying to be selective historically, have a full book, with all the chapters that you can find, of past, for reference, and share.
sorry Alastair, to may sound like a right head fuck at times, old royals used to die early in old days when they used to drink from warm lead filled pewter jugs, especially in the winter, and had mercury filled spanish gold around their necks, and that white lead filled white paste they shoved on their face. It sent them first nuts and then to an early grave too, but how Lizzy one lasted so long shows her strength. Queen Mary two tried to be like her, but bloody failed.
Brit history see, as not ever read.