Climate Heresy: The new certainty

Climate Heresy: The new certainty

A new post over at my Climate Heresy blog (which I've been ignoring a bit too much recently).

Flat footed lobbying

Each protected area of the public services has its own approach at screaming when its gold plated hand outs are threatened.

For example the RAF will always threaten to disband the Red Arrows. Because its the best saving ? Well it might be for all I know - but that's not the reason. Its because they know its the cut the public will object to the most and if they can stop the rot cuts there then they can save everything else without having to change or justify it.

So we have Si Flat Foot Orde claiming that, wait for it, bobbies on the beat will disappear if anyone is insane enough to ask the police to perform better. He knows its almost the key political issue and the one that will get the headlines and complaints from the public.

The problem for Sir Flat Foot is that some forces have already started improving their efficiency and they happen to be some of the best rated and respected forces int he country. He'd better hope no journalists do any research or else he's going to look - well like a flat footed plot. ( Hint to journo's - Surrey ).

The changing terms of the debate now Labour have been defeated

Two key areas of the political debate look like they are on the move not that Labour have been removed from office - at last !

1) Debt.
Its no longer "the credit crisis" or the BBC approved Labour not at fault "downturn". The attempt by the left to say its "all the banks fault" is ongoing. But there is a realisation that Debt is the problem and that we in the west have been using it to steal from our children for at least the last decade.

Take a look at the articles in this weeks Economist that has a special report on debt ( private and public ).

A long time ago I called this as a debt crisis, but the left wing media has been desperate to stop that happening as they know where this will lead - to a change in the default ever increasing state controlled spending.

Now we have all much of the developed world taking the Conservatives approach ( you remember the one Gordon Brown used to ridicule us about at the dispatch box as being only followed by the Tories in the whole wide world ). Even the Lib Dems have finally understood the situation ( or at least those Lib Dems who have seen the books ).

2) Afghanistan.
Again this blog has been highly sceptical about the ongoing military activity in Afghanistan and more recently has come out against it. The move into Helmand was shown to be anything but the bloodless policing operation Labour sold to us.

Questions about the war have been asked for a long time. I can remember reading an Economist article about the impact of foreign military presence on the Pashtun population at least 4 years ago ( found it here - economist subscription required I'm afraid ). But its been too much trouble for the Labour to admit its potential errors, especially with the sunken cost of blood and treasure. Instead they have tried to hide behind the uniform with things like "Armed forces day" to make it hard to criticise the deployment.

The armed forces have issues warning about almost eternal deployments that its quite clear would never be politically viable - but our then Labour masters didn't want to deal with the short term consequences of admitting this. ( Easier to just let the cortèges drive through Wotten Basset every day. )

But again many Conservative leaning commentators are now questioning the war ( and calling it a war ), including the interesting character of the new MP Rory Stewart.

The current Conservative govt appears to be preparing the ground for a withdrawal, or at least a withdrawal of most of our military. The UK military and diplomatic commitment to Afghanistan has the momentum of a super tanker, but the signs are that the order to change course has been given and the rudder is now over, even if it will take time to see the results.


Both these issues are major departures from Labour's policy and key issues for our country. And these change in the balance of the debates are very much welcomed by this blogger.

The economic argument is as important to the long term as fiscal action now is.

Some times Conservative commentators pull their punches. They've learnt to do this as their opponents have used their former strengths against them.

See: "Wanting to cut", "enjoying cutting" - etc coming out of the Labour party / broadcast by the BBC just now.

So an attempt is made to triangulate and some times obscure. And worse they fail to deflect and counter the lies, smears and misdirections of the left.

Currently the left is setting up the "double dip" as the test of failure ( ref almost any BBC broadcast recently ). But the odds are the momentum for this sort of thing has already been set and international events will play big in this also - so it really isn't that much of a determining test.

The left continue to argue for debt, more debt - using the argument that economic growth will reduce it latter and here' the really spurious part that the time to pay it back is when the private sector is doing well !

What shows this argument to be false is how they behaved when the private sector last seemed to be doing well - they ran a structural deficit and argued that anyone who wanted to slow the rate of growth of spending was heartless and wanted to sack nurses / doctors / destroy "front line services" and drown kittens.

Its quite clear that Labour would be politically incapable of reigning back spending during the good times, as its been their main strategy to hold and secure power for themselves.

There really is no alternative - and Conservative commentators need to nail this message home.

The likes of the disgusting Ed Balls will try to rewrite history with his spin and reliance on the ignorance of others as he did last night on Question Time trying to group the 1930's and 1980's together. He needs to be taken on directly and forcefully. His bullying debating style needs to be rebuffed - and his gaming tactics of always interrupting other people need to be outed as the thuggish bullying they represent.

The temptation for team Cameron is going to be to try to deflect the arguments about fairness and cuts rather than addressing the central arguments and winning the case. If we are unable to convince the public that the current disaster was made in the good times by Labour then we are doomed to repeat the whole thing in about 15 years time.

We must win the long term argument and well as the short term battles.

Labour's strategy

Despite the chaotic nature of Her Majesty's loyal opposition right now a clear strategy seems to be emerging and its this:

Get the Lib Dems.

Alistair Darling called them flaky and thoughts they unlikely to be be able to hold together in the coalition with the cuts that have to be implemented. ( Many of which he should have announced before the election it should be remembered ).

Various other Labour party talking heads target the Lib Dems specifically.

They know it won't work in the short term - the Lib Dem leadership has committed too much political capital to the current coalition project and needs the voting reform referendum and other policy objectives as pay back - but the party is another matter.

In much of the country the Lib Dem's is a left wing party for the middle classes, and those people were banking on never having to balance the books or face up to reality ( that's why they joined the Lib Dems in the first place ).

They are now being wound up by Labour waiting for the time when they can find an honourable excuse to stab their leadership in the back.

And whose to say this won't pay off ?

PS You can tell this is official Labour party strategy by the agenda set by the BBC on their current news programs - which almost always asks the questions Labour want it too and has very very many close personal links with the Labour party.

Time to govern, time to choose

"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly."

"To govern is to choose."

George Osborne and the coalition need to take both bits of advice into account today.

Its going to hurt and it needs to be swift. All of Europe has now ditched Labour's insane debt apocalypse plan ( and is grateful not to have Gordon Brown lecturing them from the Kirkcaldy telephone directory on it at international meetings ) - only the self interest of selfish Labour party careerist leadership candidates defy reality any further.

Yes it will hurt - but Labour are to blame - but they will never accept responsibility. Which just adds wilful deceit to their other crimes against our nation.

I'm away around the time the emergency budget is read out. And I'm one of the people who has real things to lose in it all - but they were lost by Labour and George now has to choose and act quickly.

Note on the 80's for leftie revisionsts

Getting a bit fed up of the selective historical memories of the left over the 80's.

What they never accept is:

1) After the last Labour Govt in 79 the UK was a basket case.
2) Much of the left and the Unions were devoted to destroying what was still working.
3) Margaret Thatcher saved the country from ruin, the Soviet Union, the unions, aggressive Argentine fascist dictators and grabbed a large amount of our cash back from the EEC EC EU.

On 3) yes eggs got broken - but they had to be. The sort of insane industrial policy that Labour seem to have just discovered again just lead to wealth being destroyed and Britain falling yet further behind the rest of the world. The case for this was so obvious that by 1997 even Labour accepted that much of what Mrs T did was right, and made no attempt to reverse it.

There was no alternative.

And you Guardian reading, BBC supporting tax wasting leftie Luddites - TINA's back !

Where the money goes....

OK its a bit of a cope out for a blog today - I've been trying to write something on the Deepwater Horizon business, but it just doesn't sound right yet. H/T to the TPA etc

Bloody Sunday

So the Saville inquiry is in, and the innocence of those who were shot and the failure of those who did the shooting and gave the orders is proclaimed.

I hope this will allow the relatives of the dead a bit more peace.

But the politics of the whole thing looks insane. You have to wonder what went through Tony Blair's tiny mind when he agreed to it.

There were mistakes by many people during the years of the troubles. Some make through incompetence or lack of experience, some through fear and panic. There was far more cold premeditated pure evil dreamed up slowly and coldly in men's minds and carried out in contradiction of morality and as an affront to man and God.

It seems to me that the second type of event are the more troubling, but that Bloody Sunday belongs to the first ( unless the inquiry is wrong in its conclusions ).

But to have a future we must be willing to forgive and not let our lives be ruled or perhaps enslaved by the past.

Perhaps a truth a reconciliation commission type exercise to let men and women unburden their dark secrets before they carry them to the grave and to judgement would be a good idea. With immunity from prosecution in this world and hope of redemption in the next.

Unfortunately it is more likely we will settle on the course of blowing on the embers of the past with the prosecution of men who's lives have already mostly past, because its just too much trouble to do it any other way.

What was Tony thinking ?

Update: I see Shaun Woodward ( ex Northern Ireland minister is also calling for a truth commission ).

Also a summary of other reactions to this issue from blog's over at EU Referendum here.

The BBC needs to introduce Prof David Blanchflower fully

The BBC continually allows Prof David Blanchflower to appear as a a neutral technical expert, ignoring his close links with trade unions and the left. The latest outing for this trick was on #R4Today ( PS it should be noted that a Professor at a US University is a lower ranking than its UK equivalent, more equivalent to lecturer. )

Its time he was introduced as a left leaning economics commentator, rather than the magic choice of words that is clearly BBC policy of being on the Bank of England's monetary policy committee.

This is the sort of slight of hand that gets the BBC its reputation for political bias.

Real UK interests betrayed by the US Obama administration yet again !

The anti-British Obama administration has found another way to stab its loyal friend in the back.

This time its calling for talks over the sovereignty of the Falklands with the aggressive Argentine regime.

Read it here....

This is another reason we need to be out of Afghanistan - there's no credit to be gained from an administration that is rabidly ant--British and there are real defence concerns that they clearly won't help us with.

Maybe a new US administration will restore the Atlantic alliance, but we can't rely on it.

The breakdown of the normal rule of law in the US

Its possible that after the appalling incident in the Gulf of Mexico with the Deepwater Horizon and the loss of life and follow on environmental incident that BP has done more than almost any other oil company would do.

They haven't hid away. They haven't tried to blame other companies involved, who are instead hiding behind BP. Their chief executive is now based in the US trying to ensure that the company is fully focused on mitigating and stopping the sub sea blowout. They have said straight away that they won't seek protection from costs that they are entitled to after laws following the Exxon Valdez were enforced.

None of this has bought any credit at all with the anti-British Obama.

At first it looked like he was trying to avoid blame for the rather obvious US govt failings on safety regulation and enforcement. Later it seemed he was nursing his grudge against the British Empire from his Father. But now with the dividend issue you have to start wondering if the real target isn't BP itself. The US govt might make pension funds desperate for income willing to sell BP shares at a low price to a US company. The US may be trying the sort of sovereign thuggery that is normally associated with a certain country east of Poland.

Or perhaps a punch up with the UK Govt. is his long term aim.

Either way its no way for a supposed friendly nation who we have spent much money and lives supporting over the last few years to behave.

Lets remember its not just Obama - the Democrat party could step in to stop this, but they haven't.

The normal rules of commerce and equality before the law appear to just be fair-weather principles in the US.

It is perhaps time to review who it is in the world we can really rely on.

The Afghan stabalisation war has stopped being in Britain's interests, if it ever was

It was right and proper that after the Taliban harboured Al Qaeda that the US and their friends and allies should inflict fast retribution and justice. Job done.

But what has followed has been much more ill defined and has rapidly been getting out of hand. The main argument seems to be to stay there to support our alliance with the US.

But as recent events in the Falklands and the Gulf of Mexico have shown the US has no intention of reciprocating.

General Sir David Richards says the Army must not be cut and money must be spent on the ongoing Afghan war - but I have another idea - cut the war, then you can cut the army. ( And also put those old RAF transport planes out of everyone's misery. )

Its time to face up to reality of being a island race, who can't really rely on the US and rebuild our blue water navy with air cover to go on top and pursue our national interests ( like defending the Falklands, their sheep & penguins and their large oil reserves ).

Its time to leave President Obama and his anti-British bigotry to it and bring our forces home. It will also save us a large amount of money and stop our young men and women being crippled for life in the numbers they are at present and allow us to pursue our national interests.

There I've said it. I've been hoping for a better rational for what's being going on in Afghanistan, but none has been forthcoming and I'm concluding that no one really knows what they're doing, except they can't admit to needing to come out after all the lost treasure and life.

The Left handle their reality problems by just lying about the past

There are a series of left wing politicians in the media busy trying to re-write history.

They range from the in-coalition ( just for now ) Nick Clegg who tries to mislead the public that the public sector was cut by the Conservatives in the 1980's ( when in fact public sector spending increased ). To Denis MacShameless MacShane (R4 Today before 8am ) who repeats the Labour lie of the moment that the public sector saved us from the banks problem - neglecting to mention the structural deficit that existed before then or that Labour financed its boom years by taxing an economy as it piled on debt, which they then had to transfer to the public sector.

We had Alistair Darling trying to get away with saying the crisis was caused by saving the world banks on Monday lunch time, but Martha Kearney wouldn't let him get away with it. He then tried to change to Labour smear No2 saying the Tories had agreed with everything before hand - neglecting the Labour lie used against the Conservtaives in 2005 about our plans to reduce the rate of increase in public spending meaning that every teacher doctor and nurse would get sacked.

We get the same sort of approach from that Trotskyite on Newsnight as he tries to convince those who don't know better that times are only bad during Conservative governments.

This is the key way Labour tries to deal with the damning report of history on its times in government - just lie and distort. The problem is that these smears and distortions aren't met by a rapid rebuttal at the point they are made.

This is in part facilitated by the BBC's change to not always having an opposing view in interviews which they introduced after their government came to power in 1997.

Whilst being in government is great - we need to make sure that Labour aren't allowed to lie their way out of their responsibility for the debt disaster they have left us with.

Blame Labour

So its time to pay for all the borrowing and the failure to run a balanced economy.

Labour and the BBC will go on and on about cuts, but its Labour's fault for letting the gangrene on debt get such a grip on our country. The surgery that's now necessary is all their fault.

Obama should remember the Ocean Odyssey

The most anti-British US President in living memory is busy trying to hide regulatory and government failures behind hatred of BP.

The US would do well to remember Piper Alpha (US company Occidental ) and more importantly US company Arco's responsibility for the Ocean Odyssey. ( Especially look at the photo's which I'm not copying here due to potential copyright issues. )

Read details of the Ocean Odyssey which occurred as it was drilling a deep high temperature high pressure well in the North Sea here ( and see the pictures ).

Events in the US Gulf are unfortunate, and there will be enough blame for everyone, but I can't shake the idea that if Exxon had been responsible for the blowout the US govt would be taking a very different line right now.

They need to remember that despite the failures of US companies in the North Sea the UK govt continued to treat all companies fairly.

Token Harriet's plan for oppression and mediocrity

So here we start to see Harriet "I'm a token woman" Harman's keeping out of the Labour leadership contest.

She wants to be King maker ( or is it Queen maker - perhaps its should be Eunuch maker given her current plans ).

Harriet wants he plan to oppress people based on the genes made into Labour party policy, and will hope it will become government policy so we will all be oppressed by the law.

The world must be as Harriet insists or else she'll scream and scream and scream till she's sick.

So Harriet says half of Labour shadow cabinet must have a specific genetic make up - regardless of talent and achievements. And Harriet is making plain she can deliver the XX chromosome brigade to back it up - and perhaps chose the next Labour leader.

Will any of the ex-public school / Oxbridge XY candidates feel betraying the freedom of the country is worth while for their personal gain with Harriet the Token's endorsement ? After all we are told gene's are selfish.

Update: The answer to the last question appears to be that little creep Ed Miliband.

A reminder about Evil

[ Contains spoiler about last series of Ashes to Ashes ]

I missed out on commenting on the end of the Ashes to Ashes series on BBC TV a few weeks ago, but I'd like to say I thought it was a brave and engaging ending.

One of the services it provided us was the depiction of Evil in the form of DCI Jim Keats.

DCI Keats seems plausible, although plenty of hints are left that all is not right. But the best part is he tells lies, diabolical ones. He denies the truth straight to peoples faces with the intent of deceiving them and ultimately damning them.

And in that he is a reminder of how evil works.

We've seen a lot of people who are willing to trade with this sort of Evil on our TV screens, especially on the news recently. People willing to lie as a strategic or tactical decision.

Its good to be reminded, if only in fiction, that such people can exist and you really can't just trust what some people ( or self proclaimed "peace activists" or government officials) say.

Being used

I'm away on a short break Just back from a short break, so haven't been able to say much about events in the Eastern Mediterranean. But I've listened to the radio before I left and seen updates here and there, and quite honestly I've been horrified.

But not in the same way the BBC, or much of the media has been.

My horror has been at how easy we are to use these days. This convoy to Gaza was always a direct provocation, and born of a very simple strategy to isolate Israel by destroying any remaining support for the country in Europe and the implicit support in parts of the Arab and Turkish world.

Imagine it has been a Royal Navy boarding party being clubbed and attacked by a vessel it was boarding - how would we really have hoped they would react ? ( Well after the HMS Cornwall humiliation perhaps we know. ) Remember and Israeli service person who is delivered into the hands of Hamas can give up on their life - so getting taken prisoner is just not an option.

Should the Israeli forces have intercepted the convoy in international waters ? I don't know what international law says here, so won't comment beyond saying some element of surprise could be expected to reduce the tension in any boarding, but surprise was clearly not achieved.

Was it a well planned operation - we its seems hardly likely as the outcome was a PR disaster.

But it seems Most likely that it wasn't one carried out with the intent of causing harm, which can be seen by the way the trouble was clearly started by the blockade runners who were the first to deploy deadly levels of violence. Its corroborated by the fact that this sequence of events would so obviously play badly for Israel that they would never have planned it.

The real horror for Israel should be how few friends they have left, so that even when they are stitched up like this - the near beating to death of Israeli soldiers is played as a crime of aggression ( no questions asked - at least not loudly enough to be heard) by the world media.

Here is their real problem - with the settlements on the west bank and treatment of Palestinians in Jerusalem they have used up the good will in the world towards them so that they no longer get a fair hearing in the court of European and maybe even American opinion.

The people who were on that convoy were being used by some very nasty forces for evil in our world. But what should worry Israel is how well its worked, and what should worry the rest of us is how easy its been to use us.