Turns out you can't Defy Gravity

The science fiction series "Defying Gravity" that the BBC kept moving around the schedule to kill the audience off has been canned.

I watched the last episode a few days ago on watch again.

It everything that the current output from the BBC - Paradox and, yes Dr Who, is not.

Maybe the audience for smart thought provoking sci-fi doesn't exist any more. Which would explain the BBC's Paradox.

I have no idea what I'll be watching in the new year, as everything else is just junk.

I'll miss the characters and the story. Reading around on the internet it seems the US carriers were never fully committed and seemed to behave in a way that would guarantee its getting canned.


Update: If you were addicted to this also and want to know how this was going to pan out see Channel 131's inside track here. Looks like it would have been a great series. There is also some information on why the series may have failed.

Black swans for 2010

I see that many other bloggers are doing their predictions for next year. I thought I'd add a few, of the high impact, but expected low probability type for next year.

1. The Liberal Democrats will split back into a Liberal half ( southern England) and a social democrat half ( with New Labour defectors ).
2. A key US politician will be found to have been working in the interests of a foreign and antagonistic power/movement.
3. The BBC will be split up and disbanded ( ok this is wishful thinking on my part ).
4. The European Union will replace a national government as the legal authority in at least one member state.
5. China will start export restrictions on key technology and materials to the west until Taiwan is "returned".
6. A major issue relating to the solar system / local galaxy will turn out to have been the driver behind governments interests in global warming. This secret will have been known about and suspected for 10 years, but have been confirmed by recent re-tasking of the two extra-solar system voyager and the Cassini space mission at Saturn.
7. Tony Blair will have major heart surgery in the US, but have to stay there after a European arrest warrant is issued for war crimes.
   

There you go those are my tin foil hat predictions. Not that I think they are likely - but I do think they are left field and high impact ( which are just the sort of things making preparations for makes sense for opportunists ).

Labour betrayal of our young people

Yesterday evening Man in a Shed had a very agreeable few hours chatting to some friends who are both employers of recent science graduates.

They made the same complaints about new science graduates:

1. They often did not understand the basics, despite having glowing qualifications that said they did.
2. They were almost unable to take criticism or boredom ( a staple part of most new jobs at the bottom of a company )
3. All of them took at least 6 months to become useful, at a considerable burden to the staff around them.

Some of these criticisms have their roots in Labour education, education, education children schools and families policies.

Specifically:

1. The lack of real challenge and the experience of failure as well as success.
2. The over use of praise and prizes for all - the impact of Labour's grade inflation ( which is now an established fact with everyone except Ed Balls ).
3. Poor structure of knowledge. Science is no longer taught systematically from a historical perspective, but from the confused mishmash a relevant issues that make a radio one public information campaign look rigorous.

Into this abject failure rides the Department of Business Innovation and Skills with its advice to parents to show tough love to their recently unemployed but graduated offspring.

Its exactly what Labour failed to do for them over the previous 12 years by destroying education standards, turning education into entertainments and punishing teachers who just took control of their classes and made people learn things ( not pupil directed learning enough - showing engagement - to much talk from the front etc ), and encouraging large numbers of unsuitable people to go to University who have been doubly robbed of the skilled future they could other wise have had and raising expectations to a level that can only be dashed in the future.

Having created the mess - Labour would like parents to sort it out, indeed it can't be long before they blame those "evil middle class parents" for the whole thing. ( See this advice here ).

Such is life under the rule of the princes of lies and spin.

Confessions of a shopaholic

Every so often Man in a Shed gets outnumbered by the females in his life, and is unable to watch science fiction movies under the excuse that they actually are just Pride and Prejudice, set in space.

Christmas has been one of those occasions.

So I was completed to watch "Confessions of a shopaholic". But to my great surprise its a highly moral movie. The urge to spend to make yourself happy is explored along with the lies and hurt that those who are captured by any form of compulsion hand out to their nearest and dearest.

The analogy I was think about was the great British electorate - that keeps authorising Labour to run up the nations debts ( though the most recent and far reaching transactions have never been presented to a vote ). People get the short term high of more "public spending" on "vital services".

But the public hasn't admitted to its addiction on something for free. That's why the bash a banker scheme by Labour impressed the voters so much in the PBR - everyone thinks someone else should pay and the hits of more spending should come for free. Until that adiction and self deception is named and admitted to no progress can be made.

But just like the film ( plot spoiler alert ) the debt collector is closing in. This debt collector is not just going to ruin the party but humiliate the nation and destroy its future. All because voters have insisted we spend over our means, and the evil credit card companies/Labour have enticed them on.

Let no one fool you - the return to financial honesty and integrity is going to hurt and destroy reputations.

But in the end TINA's back (There is no alternative - for those under 35 ), and how strict she is going to be will depend on how long the denial and credit card debt keeps rolling.

David Cameron and George Osborne need to get the public to accept its part in the current crisis. The public has been a spendingfornothingholic and needs to own up to itself, the denial has to stop. Gordon Brown may be the evil supplier of credit and factilitator of debt, but we won't make progress until the public addiction to something for nothing is named and renounced.

PS Read this to sober up for the new year. Also the Heff on the lies that saw in a decade of debt.

PPS I really am going to try to take things easy over the next few days.

Update:

See also

And Insane spendaholics are mortgaging our future by Camilla Cavendish in the Times in March 2009. I think spendaholics has it about right.

God bless you merry gentlemen

And Ladies of course ...
Let me wish you a happy Christmas and a good rest. Because your going to need it for the New Year.

Man in a Shed will be under some pressure not to keep stairing at his computer over the next few days - though might manage the odd tweet. Normal service will be resumed in the new year. ( Usual proviso on acts of left wing lunacy requiring immediate denouement applies - we would all have a quiet and happy Christmas if Polly Toynbee, John Prescott and Harriet Harman would just shut up for once. )

The cancer that is strangling our industrial sector

The economists are worried, especially the left wing ones ( which is oddly rather a lot of them ).

The Bank of England's plan to devalue the pound and become competitive again to steal a march on our Eurozone competitors hasn't produced the goods. The minutes of the BoE's Monetary Policy committee show that they are worried about the refusal of our balance of payments to improve.

Its not working.

And worse the economy in general is still in recession as this weeks figures from the ONS show.

People are starting to ask if we relied on the Financial Sector too much and if it doesn't distort our economy. The article in the First post by Neil Clark follows that idea. But the article has the usual left wing bias as of course blaming Thatcher, though it does recognise that manufacturing has dropped fastest of all under Labour since 1997.

I think there's some truth here. Especially in the war for talent. Rewards in the city have so massively outstripped those of industry that many of our brightest minds now wear pin stripe suits rather than hard hats or lab coats.

But the real cancer in our society is the state. The likes of Prof Blanchflower declare loudly that the state sector has saved the economy this recession - seemingly oblivious to who absurd the very idea is.

But the real war for talent has happened in the progressively sovietising Labour heart lands in the North and Celtic fringes where the state is not just the largest employer, but by far the best a highest paying employer in areas of very low costs.

The state sucks up all the talent in these areas, chocking of private industry. And then to compound the issue the state distorts markets in ham fisted ways supposedly to promote growth, but often killing of the very areas they are trying to promote.

In a broader sense the state has changed from a benign tumour to a malignant cancer that is starving the patient to death.

This is why professor Blanchflower is wrong, he is just feeding the monster, when what is needed is the surgeon's knife. Only then will our economy restore the flow of resources to our manufacturing and industrial sectors.

And yes its going to hurt.

The dark matter in UK politics

Man in a Shed used to be a seasoned observer of company politics - since I'm in a one man company these days it no longer really applies.

I used to reckon that any major decision could be explained or at least understood in terms of the forces acting on management. If you had an action that seemed odd, it generally meant you didn't have as good an understanding of the forces in play as you thought you did, and it was usually a good excuse for some further investigation.

In a similar astronomers and cosmologists believe they can see the impact on the universe of far more matter than they can see, inferring its existence by the gravitational pull they infer.

The same sort of dark matter exists in our politics, that can be inferred by its effect, but can't be directly seen.

It is clear that the Man Made Global Warming hypothesis (aka ManBearPig ) is in deep deep trouble. Ministers must receive this advice privately, in this country and in others, yet they play along. Indeed they appear to be using the excuse to achieve other objectives, such as world regulation and control. The one thing they don't do is order the sort of reviews and systematic professional exposition of the evidence and theories that are based on it that might create confidence, or disprove the hypothesis. Instead they demand blind faith, run campaigns to influence us ( which when tax payer funded in the light of a clearly unproven and debatable hypothesis is a direct subversion of our democracy ). Clearly they aren't motivated by a search for the truth - they already have their agenda, which they aren't sharing but using AGW as a fig leaf for.

Even the Queen has been known to warn against "dark forces".

Supposed democratic states sign up to the sort of behind the scenes negotiation of the citizen's interests that is very anti-democratic and with some highly undemocratic partners. Indeed these partners almost wield more influence than our over promoted student politicians do.

Why was Tony Blair flying into Copenhagen in a private jet anyway. Who benefits, indeed who paid ?

Suddenly we see a European state set up - in direct opposition to referendums on the subject and with promises from Labour being shamelessly broken. The BBC starts using the term EU citizen in places in reports.

Apparently between 70-90% of our laws come from Brussels and yet this is never acknowledged by our main political parties.

We see the effects of things in our politics that are hard to explain just in terms of our official political parties, their statements and pronouncements and their memberships. This is the evidence for dark, and as yet unexplained, force in our politics.

Its a matter of fact that certain movements on the left have always had a hidden agenda, but perhaps this is more wide spread.

In the world of the narrative, focus group tested sound bite and triangulation - combined with restricted access to the MSM ( only currently bypassed by the internet - but for how much longer ? ) can an informed democracy really exist ?

In my darker moments these things worry me.

Light blogging

Off to Edinburgh for a day today - a Wedding believe it or not - so blogging will be light.

Lets see if the Scots demand my passport this time ;-) .

The betrayal in Copenhagen

Its really getting to be a mess in Copenhagen.

The protesters outside are having like the marxist thugs many of the undoubtedly are.

The highly paid protesters in the jamboree ( NGO types etc mostly working with money politicians have bunged them to help manipulate the minds of the democracies represented there ).

The low capability ministers such as Miliband Jnr and Brown who go round posing and trying to pretend they have some great insight into the process.

The meetings organisers who can't even make up their minds who running the show.

The scroungers ( read self styled third world ) who think they've found a new seem of free money gullible democracies will just send them.

They are all making the whole exercise one no one will ever want to repeat.

And of course the science is very much in question - despite the millions spend on propaganda and what we now know to be lies about "The science being settled".

The whole thing is a farce and would be laughable if only we could be sure it won't end up with Gordon Brown promising billions upon billions just for a few seconds of headlines on the evening news.

I think the whole thing is bordering on criminal. Many of the people involved in the fiasco know it for what it is. They destroy wealth and capability to do good by their own selfish and narrow minded wish to see their aims achieved at any price ( to someone else of course ).

The new Chinook's are just combat replacements

The UK is losing about 2 Chinooks a year at the moment.

It has just ordered 22 over 10 years. ( Note they will turn up when the US is willing to defer the ones its ordered from Boeing. )

That's loss replacement rate - and doesn't even cover the general wear and tear.

This from Gordon Brown who cut the UK helicopter budget by £1.4 billion when he thought no one would notice.

So folks is just spin again and re-announcements.

But it makes great cover for the desperate cuts to defence spending Brown is having to rush out to save a run on the bond markets.

PS Odd the BBC doesn't pick this up ( just kidding - of course its not odd at all after all the BBC is institutionally left wing )

The Hangover

There are times when I wish the radio was more like a telephone. This morning when a left wing ( perhaps closet Marxist ? ) economist was on radio 4's today program talking about how great Gordon Brown destroying the country's future for the next few decades with debt was one of them.

He suggested more and more taxes to pay for the parasitic sector of the economy ( like his job for example ).

Gordon Brown's greatest political trick has been to persuade the public that public debt doesn't matter.

Only in Ireland, Greece and Latvia as well as Iceland they know better. If that man I heard this morning tried that 100% copper bottomed bullshit in those countries he would run the risk of being lynched on the street.

But not in still in denial Britain.

I guess Brown thinks the suffering for his hate of the English people by destroying their wealth ( 4th to 7th in the world since Labour took over and dropping very fast indeed ) will be blamed on the Conservatives.

His policy is pure evil, and our hangover from the Labour government will be very real and very painful.

Its time people started to realise that that's the key characteristic of the Labour party also. They will never admit to their plan or its consequences. They will lie, deceive, dodge and spin from the truth at every opportunity. They're useless marxist co travellers in academia will appear on radio to spread the untruth of socialism and marxism, and laugh as misery and poverty close in on the English people.

These people are as much our enemies as Al Qaeda is, and they are doing far more damage. It time we recognised them for what they are.

PS Notice the dark arts from Labour today who want emergency arbitrary defence cuts to have the headlines "more helicopters for Afghanistan". The BBC is pushing this line as you might expect from such a left wing organisation.

Note they say 20 more helicopters over 20 years. My guess is that will hardly replace combat and wear and tare. @Parlez_me_nTory reminds us this morning on twitter that Gordon cuts the helicopter budget by £1.4bn .

Further: We need a hash tag on twitter for the UK national debt / deficiet issue.How about #UKDebt or #UKNatDebt ?

Doesn't Brown have a job to do ?

Why do we pay Gordon Brown anything at all ?

He's hardly ever doing anything except campaigning for hiomself and his Labour fellow spongers.

He's just spent two days trying to make sure David Cameron wasn't the last UK politician to visit Afghanisan before Christmas.

Today he's been answering questions over the internet on a very heavily censured ( in a style that makes East Germany look like it was an open democracy ) internet chat.

Soon we are told us he's keen to be the "first leader" to Copenhagen. ( All the other leaders have jobs to do you understand. )

Whatever he does there you just know it will cost us a fortune, and will be with the sole aim to abuse UK government power for the electral advantage of the grubby Labour party.

Labour are the most shameless, useless government this country has ever known lead by the most selfish, gutless and desperate prime minister we have ever had in living memory.

I can't wait for the general election to throw this old man out. He has done the most damage any signle man has ever done to our country.

What is the MOD responsibility to the political careers of politicians ?

I only ask as I spent a while yesterday looking over the No 10 pictures of Gordon's desperate visit to copy Cameron in Afghanistan yesterday, and to out do him by being very very brave a sleeping there. I was looking for the usual school photo antics that the lads tend to get up to when Gordon visits these days, but no signs this time on those photos - that I saw.

I was looking for a repeat of the 'cyclops' tank exercise in Iraq that Dizzy picked up on.

Now there are rumours that a Selly Oak style refusal to be civil amongst military personnel has been suppressed.

Should the MOD be involved in such political spin ?

Lets see what comes out in the media over the next 24 hrs.

PS I really hate the way Labour PM's act like they are head of state with the armed forces.

Lies, its all been lies

Its now beyond doubt that the new Labour project has been one long series of lies facilitated by their hired guns of spin and in the media and freed of any inhibitions caused by any basic morality. ( Is it really worth the time listing them all ? Blair and Iraq, and Brown and the PBR where he claims to have not disagreed with Darling and the Treasury will do in passing. )

The truth is now a stranger to British Socialism.

But since they are mostly Godless and have chosen to proceed with their aims by deceit and stealth rather than open debate we can hardly be surprised.

I'm not sure democracy can function without morality, and I'm fairly sure morality is impossible without the potential for judgement that can't be escaped.

Labour seem to be attempting to prove this point.

Somebody should plan to restore justice to our nation and put Blair and Brown on trial for some of the major distortions and abuses of their power and sacred trust they have made during their time in office. If you think pretending to tax bank bonuses would be popular - try that.

Its the Axe or Tax - the choice in 2010

I'm sure all parties will spin the choice at the next election better than this, but it ultimately comes down to the axe vs the tax.

Labour are appearing to go for mostly tax. That national insurance hike, although painful, is just the first swallow of spring. There are far more to come. Labour are now wholly owned by the Unions - which means the public sector Unions, and they will only be appeased as more of the nations activities are moved from the productive sector to the public sector.

Tax has traditionally been a toxic issue in British politics. No one can openly increase income tax unless they are taxing other people than the voters - like the very rich ( but that doesn't bring in money, just votes from your base ).

George Osborne had it right when he mentioned ring fencing a black hole ( best line of the pbr debate by the way ). But the Conservatives, my party, have questions to answer here also.

It should be noted that the ring fences both parties ( sorry Lib Dems, Nats etc you just don't add up to much of a prospect of future UK govt ) have fence posts that look very movable to me.

Alistair Darling was being tortured by Evan Davis on radio 4's Today this morning, and one of the many insightful lines of questioning put forward was a request to define what front-line education means ( as its the ring fenced bit ).

Perhaps it doesn't include teaching assistants ? Or schooling after 16 ? Or schools in low priority areas ( ie in Labours term Tory voting areas ).

I can see these guarantees (from all sides) morphing into a woolly guarantees of outcome, not of method of delivery ( IE hospitals can be closed, teachers, nurses, civil servants etc made redundant ).

The words on ring fencing will mean as much as the guarantee on a referendum on the EU Constitution that Gordon Brown and the Labour party promises and then reneged on once in office.

So in the end its tax more or spend less.

In the short term it almost certainly means tax more, as spending less takes time to organise and to pay for.

But can a structural deficit be paid for with just more tax ? Even Labour admit this is not possible in the long term - though they do look like giving it a good go as they only hint at doing something about it.

Labour are trying the new rouse of waiting for the recovery - but of course the debt that's building up may strangle it at birth.

The Irish have no choice, thanks to being in the Euro and having handed over their monetary sovereignty to the ECB ( who helped create their problem with interest rates that were inappropriate for Ireland in the first place ). In Ireland the axe has been used, and used again.

In the Baltic states, and specifically Latvia the same has happened. Greece is going to face a really ugly 6-12 months ahead. They can't duck the issues much longer.

And neither can we.

The public's view on this will determine the next general election.

I don't think swing voters will be that keen on eternal tax rises which Labour will be in effect proposing, and once this sinks in the polls will swing again towards the Conservatives.

Labour have perhaps shored up the heartland vote a little at the expense of the marginals. This shows they feared an Italian or Canadian style wipe out most of all.

Labour's enemy

Will Labour put party and ideology before country ?

The rumours are that the Brown inspired pre Budget Report ( free publicity for the governing party - as you know how much he likes to reannounce stuff ) will essentially be for the benefit of one Gordon Brown.

Labour accuse Conservatives of being for the few ( which is vastly hypocritical and untrue as Labour are the vampires who perpetuate misery and poverty to keep their election numbers good ).Gord

But today we may be able to say Labour is for the One.

Gordon Brown - surely the most expensive man in UK history.

Just think of the thousands and tens of thousands of pound better of we would all be without him.

Update The Speccie is promising to update its debt counter after the Brownies come out this afternoon.

Update: The answer would appear to be NO - Labour have decided to carry on wrecking the country - which will probably mean printing more money as who will lend us money with these insane policies ?

Oh look Solar activity had been increasing since 1850 - just like the temperature .... odd that.

The spin is being produced as the meteorologist answer their political paymasters insistence on some sort of statement to support the Warmist faith, shaken in the light of actual facts from the CRU leak.

So we have some contorted statement about the last decade being the warmist since 1850 and 2009 being the fifth warmest year ( boy I must have been really unlucky with where I spent my Summer, because the rest of you were being roasted ).

Now no doubt the picture is more complicated than this, it must be or these graphs would just be game over for the warmists - but do you ever see anyone on the MSM trying to explain the Sun's effect on climate, except interns of the minute impact of reflected heat from the minor contribution to the green house effect that CO₂ makes ( yes is really is very small - the Warmist religion is based on the assumption of the implicit instability of the Earth's climate which is supposed to amplify the effect of a change in CO₂ concentration - but not presumably solar flux ).

None of this proves anything - it really doesn't. But it does raise a whole heap of questions that I think as citizens and taxpayers we have a right to demand an open debate and explanation of - rather than the Marxist approach of the green movement and the left.

PS More Sunspots = warmer sun . ¹⁰Be refers to cosmic radiation ( lower when sun activity high - hey the scales reversed on the graph you know ! Though there is some debate about this - the complaint being the correlation with temperature - but if that's linked to the Sun then it all fits. Anyway people appear to be arguing about this. )

Oh look - the Sun just started putting out more heat, and we feel warmer. I wonder if there's a connection ?

Update: Some of these ideas are also reported in the Daily Telegraph 9Dec09 here.

Also the lecture hear explores the relation between solar activity and climate. Worth a look

Gordon Brown has moved the UK from 4th biggest economy to 7th and declining

The left wing domination of our MSM has meant that almost nobody has asked questions of Gordon Brown until recently, and then very few about the real economy.

The UK is dying under Labour.

Labour only spends and demands more resources. They may spin about efficiency and reviews etc - but the state has become a cancer taking more and more of the life blood of the nation.

The nation is now anaemic - and may soon collapse.

Now some on the left have wanted this sort of destruction and destitution all along to allow for the totalitarianism they have hankered after but have been too scared to mention openly since the fall of the Berlin wall.

But the facts are we are in sharp decline - and through his very real mistakes Gordon Brown has destroyed our economy.

It gets worse because he's destroying of diplomatic influence also. The UK is now looked at as a basket case by the US and ignored. The EU is just waiting for the English Patients to weaken enough to savagely devour its last sovereignty. I would call the man and party that brough this about traitors.

The UK will just not survivce 5 more years of this. Our enemies are chearing Gordon Brown and his Labour marxist friends on as they bring England to her knees and deliver her to her enemies.

The feet of clay of the man made global warming argument: Thought for the day version

Daniel 2:31-40 (New International Version)

31 "You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.


Footnote: I'm not suggesting this passage of prophecy from the book of Daniel is a prophecy about climate gate, but rather than the foundations of the scientific consensus are made of clay.There are far too many vested interests for there not to be an announcement shortly that the data has been looked at and is all ok ( my prediction would be before the end of the Copenhagen summit - but remember when the scientists at the Met Office were first asked to do this ( and before Ed Miliband and co lent on them ) they said it would take three years to redo.

PS You will never ever hear this analogy on Radio 4 thought for the day ....

Update: Read and try to follow Willis Eschenbach @ WUWT as he tries to follow the Darwin Airport (Australia) temperature records. It'll provide great ammunition for dealing with your Warmist brainwashed friends - and ignorant like Ed Miliband.

Gordon resorts to bulling and is clearly wrong on the science

Gordon Brown is trying to add his own special style of magic to the #climategate scandal.

He's claiming that those who ask questions and demand evidence ( in the old pre-1997 parlance called scientists - now called Climate Change Deniers ) are flat earthers and anti-science.

He's wrong. Even the IPCC says he's wrong as they say the CRU leak is a serious issue and requires a thorough review.

The UK Met Office is getting ready to release and rework the original data, and denied rumours (remember this current govt denies everything and causally lies as other draw breath ) suggest Labour government ministers have tried to stop the scientific activity in case it provides evidence to other scientists.

Brown just shows the staggering depth of his own personal ignorance with the rant recorded in today's Daily Telegraph. He calls those who demand to see the evidence and working as "flat earthers". He's a very stupid man indeed.

What this shows is the spectacular level of ignorance of scientific method and principles in the higher levels of the Labour party and civil service and something will need to be done about the latter.

Get this into your head Brown:

"The Science is not settled" - and the CRU leak, Yamal tree scandal and hockey stick IPCC scandal show this.

Labour's hypocrisy on Redcar

So today we have government minister making the usual hysterical non-science warmist religious statements about global warming. ( See Miliband jnr on saying the science won't affect Copenhagen - well he says the CRU leak won't, but he probably too stupid to realise he means the former).

Then they say they are sorry a major industry which their carbon policy is actively trying to export from the UK is closing. ( Yes I know they'll claim this isn't the case - but the Chinese and Indian are only playing along with their reduce carbon intensity [ ie we are willing to pretend and use words your gullible electorate / media thinks mean CO₂ levels dropping - in exchange for you handing over all your industry and technology ] )

Still the UK CO₂ emissions will drop now the Corus Redcar plant closes and that's supposed to be good news according to Labour right ?

How state funded climate hysteria works

One of the lest commented on items from the UEA CRU file leaks was a government document that gives "the line" on how to run your Climate change propaganda. Its called "The Rules of the Game" - a title that betrays more that it perhaps intends to.

Remember there are public funded "neutral" civil servants producing this stuff. Here's how they suggest a Warmist organisation or individual proceed:

1. Challenging habits of climate change communication Don’t rely on concern about children’s future or human survival instincts Recent surveys show that people without children may care more about climate change than those with children. “Fight or flight” human survival instincts have a time limit measured in minutes – they are of little use for a change in climate measured in years. Don’t create fear without agency. Fear can create apathy if individuals have no ‘agency’ to act upon the threat. Use fear with great caution. Don’t attack or criticise home or family. It is unproductive to attack that which people hold dear. 2. Forget the climate change detractors Those who deny climate change science are irritating, but unimportant. The argument is not about if we should deal with climate change, but how we should deal with climate change. 3. There is no ‘rational man’ The evidence discredits the ‘rational man’ theory – we rarely weigh objectively the value of different decisions and then take the clear self-interested choice. 4. Information can’t work alone Providing information is not wrong; relying on information alone to change attitudes is wrong. Remember also that messages about saving money are important, but not that important. ...... 16. Create a trusted, credible, recognised voice on climate change We need trusted organisations and individuals that the media can call upon to explain the implications of climate change to the UK public. 17. Use emotions and visuals Another classic marketing rule: changing behaviour by disseminating information doesn’t always work, but emotions and visuals usually do.

What the document contains is effectively a marketing brief for how to change peoples views without them being aware they are being persuaded. It marks out the issues to avoid and where people are vulnerable to the use of emotive images and supposedly independent experts.

But this propaganda effort goes further and is interpreted by each subsequent layer of government. Take for example the "Climate Change Communication Strategy" West Sussex Case study by the Department of Communities and local government and funded by the EU.

It repeats "The Rules", but goes on to give examples.

Seasonality Climate change issues are most likely to be raised in people’s minds at times of extreme weather – winter storms/floods - summer droughts/ water shortages – hurricanes/ heat waves/etc. It is important to be in a position to exploit these times to maximum benefit. Recommendation: Identify and promote 4 seasonal events in 2007/8. July – Water Festival October – 20 years since the “big storm” Jan – Floods and sea front flooding March – Spring Watch Events for 2008/9 could also include Sussex Day. Pre-prepare press releases that put climate change perspective on extreme weather events to enable quick response times

Well now you know. That annoying person who pops up every time the rain rains too much or the sun shines too long has been primed and waiting for their chance to use the disaster / drought / gale to brain wash you with the governments scientifically accepted and beyond all question truth.

But of course there even more sinister stuff in there, for example using children:

"Moving out of the Toilets" is an annual event for all secondary school councils in West Sussex. It is popular with students as a way to meet and learn from the experiences of young people from all over the county. The idea is to help move school council members away from issues like the state of the toilets, and towards more decision making and real results. The conference held in December 2005 was based around the topic of climate change. The event was a successful engagement project that changed attitudes of young people attending a schools’ conference on climate change. Using unconventional language and mediums familiar to the audience, enabled participants to become more confident in discussing a wide range of environmental topics. (“Big Brother” style diary room).

It even turns up in schools as I reported a few weeks ago.

How is all this propaganda justified ? Because they say "The Science is settled". And they have been told to keep saying it until they are blue in the face.

And then there is the approach to brain washing the children, see this photo (left) from a secondary school wall I took this year. Just look at the UK's science museum on the subject as it tries to imply that Man made climate change has been proven here.

But the science isn't settled, not at all. So what this amounts to is state funded political propaganda and it must stop.

The Healey Sanction

Somebodies being lined up in the cross hairs of the current Labour spin machine.

If you have or earn money your ears might be burning.

Shortly your pips might be squeaking.

Labour need a lot of money and somebody to blame for the desperate financial hole Gordon Brown has dug the country into over 12 years ( from a position of extremely good health I should add ).

The Labour spin machine thinks its found a way to last another 5 years, and as a spending junkie doesn't care about the consequences. Its going to hit and blame the rich.

Two birds with one stone. Mobilises and enthuses their core supporters, which have been hemorrhaging to the BNP, UKIP and Lib Dems, and it allows for the most nakedly political Prime Minister ever to again put his selfish interests before those of the country he is too cowardly to serve by trying to wrong foot the hated Tories into having to defend his former best friends the bankers ( just think back to cash for peerages, the knighthoods and reviews Brown used to get his former city chums to do in exchange for his dismantling effective regulation and oversight with his tripartite dogs breakfast.

The country must burn to share in Labour's defeat. All must be punished. Children's futures sold into debt slavery just so that Balls and Brown can have a few more minutes trying to impose socialism and all its mystery by stealth.

The spirit and spite and deranged false logic of Dennis Healey lives.

Labour are probably about to do it again. The budget review on Weds will give us a hint.

Labour are using the bankers as a smoke screen to escape their responsibilities

Its good politics bashing bankers. Its probably even a reasonable thing to d, since they are now trading on sovereign guarantees actual and implied.

But its not responsible.

Its not sincere either, as Labour control half of the banks and have the ability to enforce their edicts if the chose. But that would mean taking responsibility for the outcome and they are very keen on avoiding any of that.

Unfortunately its a side show in the economic sense of the spectacular disaster Labour have prepared for us all. We are broke, very broke. Its just we don't realise it yet, and they are keen that we don't before the next election.

So a good staged fight against Gordon Brown's until very recently best friends that he destroyed effective regulation to support is just what the Labour spin doctor ordered.

But its killing the country.

And here's the thing, many Labour MP and supporters must be smart enough to know that's true also. But they reckon they will do better personally in power than queuing up at Job Centre-plus's with their former constituents wondering where all the Diversity Officer non-jobs on £70k+ went.

In my view it socially and morally unacceptable to be a member of a party that betrays its people so blatantly and with such callous self interest.

Peter Lilley on climategate - as not seen on the BBC

H/T To play political.

I note that Peter Lilley is a very unusual person - a scientist who's a politician. We need more like him.

Note Conservative home is catching up on the grass roots backlash against the green fascism of AGW.

PS Fancy having to get this from Russia today and not the BBC ! ( Since Peter Lilley is clearly well qualified to understand the science and politics it would seem odd we don't see him on our TV more - odd that is unless you take into account the inbuilt BBC Bias ).

Update: Now the comedian's are getting on the act - you know its serious.

No 1 Lib Dem blogger ditches the Lib Dems

Its tempting to make partisan hay here, but having read Charlotte Gore's post on this I think she's challenging us all about our relations with our parties ( for those of us who have them).

She deserves a careful read.

I hope it works out well for her. I'm sure she will receive many invites from other parties, but if I was her I'd stay independent for a while. Commentating on the general election battle and then calling your opinion about 2 days out could be a great way to run for the next few months.

The election campaign will start after Christmas - when the voters will start paying attention

There have been some wild polls and wild events over the last few months.

But I have a feeling that the none political public ( aka the voters ) will discount almost everything before 1Jan10 as background noise.

The real election campaign needs to start then. It may seem tempting to wheel out popular policies and initiatives right now - in answer to some of the provocation from Balls or a supposedly independent Family think tank - butour powder should remain dry. The enemy is trying to force us to show our hand, but we should wait.

After the New Year hang over people will start to think about the next year and the next five years and we should make our main moves then to out gun, out think out argue, and yes out spend Labour.