January 6, 2009
Capitalism is Dead Says God
Cardinal says credit crisis has killed capitalism - Telegraph
Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, 76, made the astonishing claim at a lavish fund-raising dinner at Claridges which secured pledges of hundreds of thousands of pounds for the catholic church.
The Cardinal, dressed in his full clerical regalia, said in a speech at the black tie dinner that he had worried whether the dinner should go ahead because of the troubled economic times.
The four course dinner, with a champagne reception, had been provided free of charge by Derek Quinlan, the property developer, who owns Claridges who is worth an estimated £60 million.
Sir Rocco Forte, the hotelier and prominent Roman Catholic, was in charge of the decoration. He decked out the ballroom in red flowers and red lights to match the Cardinal's clerical outfit.
But The Cardinal went on to say that in 1989, with the collapse of the Berlin wall, that "communism had died". In 2008, he said, " capitalism had died".
It seems to me that if he believes capitalism is dead he was enjoying a pretty good evening feasting on its rotting corpse like a vulture. Maybe picturing him entering a house with a red light over its door would be more edifying than that.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:49 AM
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Happy 1953
Ever since it was sent new to my Mum this 1953 calendar, featuring the church where she was baptised and married, has hung from the key to her bureau, even though she has been dead for a few years it still hangs there. I'm pleased to note it is correct this year proving yet again that if you hang on long enough to something it comes in useful in the end.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:34 AM
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Vote Early
Best Medical/Health Issues Blog - The 2008 Weblog Awards Vote for Junkfood Science - once a day for a week from now.
Best Science Blog - The 2008 Weblog Awards Vote for Watts Up with That or Climate Audit - hard choice, I think as the new comer and to avoid splitting the vote the former probably.
There are about three thousand other categories - Iain or Guy in UK blog etc but don't miss voting for The Reference Frame in the European bunch.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:30 AM
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Couldn't even run a knocking shop
End of a load of government bull - Scotsman.com News
For more than 100 years, the state has maintained a mighty herd of top-quality bulls in the Highlands...There are 119 bulls still there now, on two farms in Inverness-shire.....Crofters usually form small groups to hire bulls. It costs £500, plus travel expenses, for each bull hire, which works out at an average of £1,100 per hire.
According to the Scottish Government, it costs £3,000 per hire to maintain the bulls – a loss of between £1,900 and £2,500 per bull hire. No-one was willing to say exactly what the government's losses are on the scheme, but, with just 120 bull hires last year, the subsidy to the crofters was about £250,000...
If you want private progeny you can always go the delightfully named Semen World website and order a straw of the stuff...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:18 AM
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January 5, 2009
Official Go Back to Work After Christmas Day
Gordon Brown's Version:
Mine as I'm off out into the dark with snow on the ground...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:24 AM
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January 4, 2009
EU Hacking Your PC
Police set to step up hacking of home PCs - Times Online
THE Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people’s personal computers without a warrant.
Under the Brussels edict, police across the EU have been given the green light to expand the implementation of a rarely used power involving warrantless intrusive surveillance of private property. The strategy will allow French, German and other EU forces to ask British officers to hack into someone’s UK computer and pass over any material gleaned.
The authorities could break into a suspect’s home or office and insert a “key-logging” device into an individual’s computer. This would collect and, if necessary, transmit details of all the suspect’s keystrokes. Police might also send an e-mail to a suspect’s computer. The message would include an attachment that contained a virus or “malware”. If the attachment was opened, the remote search facility would be covertly activated. Alternatively, police could park outside a suspect’s home and hack into his or her hard drive using the wireless network.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:57 AM
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Carbon Offset Company - Not Delivering on Promises - Official
EU denounces socialite’s carbon offset project - Times Online
A PIONEERING climate change project in Africa run by Robin Birley, the socialite stepbrother of Zac Goldsmith, has been accused by the European commission, its main donor, of making unsubstantiated claims about its environmental impact.
The project has received more than £1m in public grants and money from celebrities in the music and film business. They include Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones and Brad Pitt, the actor.
The project attempts to offset an individual’s carbon footprint by paying poor farmers in Mozambique to plant trees...
The commission’s criticism comes amid increased concern about the worth of these fashionable but largely unregulated carbon offset schemes. Critics say it is almost impossible to guarantee that the trees will survive the length of time needed to offset any significant carbon emissions. ...The commission also warned that the money flowing into the Gorongosa area had attracted hundreds of poor farmers who were now cutting down trees,...[Envirotrade] are selling products that are not delivering what was promised and the public needs to know.”
Posted by The Englishman at 7:56 AM
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Labour Money Laundering through Sub-Prime Charity
Charity made illegal donations to Labour - Times Online
A CHARITY that has had more than £840,000 of loans quietly written off by a government fund has made two unlawful donations to the Labour party.
Catz Club, which runs after-school clubs for children, paid £30,000 to attend two Labour fundraising events at Wembley stadium. Charity law bans the use of charitable funds to bank-roll political parties.
“Taxpayers’ money has been recycled into the coffers of the Labour party through a children’s charity,” said Nick Hurd, shadow charities minister.
Not this Catz Club - this one, I hope...
Posted by The Englishman at 7:50 AM
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Change4Life - Junk Food Science
Junkfood Science: The new word for 2009: bansturbation - as ever an excellent and essential read.
(One minor inaccuracy Sandy kindly credits me with coining the word bansturbation - I think it was Worstall, but I may be wrong ...)
Posted by The Englishman at 7:39 AM
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January 3, 2009
Ban food from being tasty
THE woman given the job of promoting McDonald's has revealed the secret of the fast-food chain's success – salt and fat.
...fat and salt makes food taste good. There is no point taking all the fat and salt out of your food because people won't like it and they will eat with someone else.
Fife-based nutritionist Carina Norris said : "Ideally, we would like people to start weaning themselves off these tastes and on to healthier options."
"But failing that, it would be great if restaurants and manufacturers did their own bit by taking salt and fat out of foods."
Ms Norris added: "The problem from a business point of view is that no-one wants to be the first one to take fat and salt out of their foods and make them less tasty. People would go somewhere else."
Tam Fry, chairman of the Child Growth Foundation, said: "It is true that humans do require some level of fat, salt and sugar in their diet....
...but we don't want you to enjoy your food, or anyone to profit from selling you food you want to eat, eat lettuce, damn you, eat only lettuce....
Posted by The Englishman at 12:03 AM
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January 2, 2009
Change4Life logo
Government looks for 'lifestyle revolution' in £275m anti-obesity drive |guardian.co.uk
The Department of Health's Change4Life campaign includes £75m of government marketing over three years and a pledge of £200m in services and marketing support from a 33-strong coalition of companies.
It aims to prevent the forecast that by 2050 up to 90% of today's children will be overweight or obese.
"Change4Life has a critical ambition. We are trying to create a lifestyle revolution on a huge scale, something which no government has attempted before," said public health minister Prawn Dimarolo.
I'm glad to see they have got the logo sorted out....
Posted by The Englishman at 11:40 PM
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Ban Ban Ban....
Fatty foods could be banned to halt obesity rises - Telegraph
Ben Bradshaw, the Health Minister, promised that the Government would not shy away from bringing in new rules to force food companies to play a part in changing the country's eating habits. Limits could be imposed on the amount of fat and salt in certain products.
He said: "We have already made progress on things like labelling and fat and salt content working with the industry. But ... if this three-year campaign does not succeed, we don't rule out regulating in future."
Tam Fry, a National Obesity Forum board member, told the BBC that greater regulation of the food industry was needed to tackle rising obesity.
He said: "What we fear is that the industry is very willing to give £200 million to the campaign as a way of deflecting the Government's interest in regulation.
He actually doesn't want the voluntary measures to work, he is all excited by the prospect of some mutual bansturbation with Ben Bradshaw....
Posted by The Englishman at 8:21 PM
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I think Mr Remittance Man has been at the vodka judging by this comment just left here....
Hello!
I burning in one stingy stingy village, in Stavropol Territory. Dont skilled in as there in greater cities, and at us in all sketch, ergo is felt and to buy really difficultly something, except for kerosene and matches, and with space for really by no means :( Here so I masterpiece in the next secondary village as the tractor manager + in suspension excavator manoeuvrer (at us one tractor and one dredge, a facilities secondary, ergo I with all manage), conformably and problems with machines I should explain all. And here recently, the caterpillar has in disadlawful on a dredge, all our masters pull someone's leg told, that to adrighteous is not a subject. And with inform ons at us by no means, and furthermore with bones in some measures for a dredge. I to the heads, they pull someone's leg told, a quay of lolly we shall admit defeat out on surplus icipation and where to overcharge search itself, the column is your problems. And me that? exertion to mislay it would not be worthy, began to search, and here lawful the daughter has arrived with the guy, and it at it there a computer is (on it I by the way now and I take down) and here it to me has advised to buy lanky in some measure in the Internet work. But in one way I to these do not confidence in all the Internet to magnates, whether and furthermore if what to support (Spam Site link here) :( me impel, satisfy, it is compelling to hand over the Internet-inform ons or there is stock- what produce, who can desire influence, where it is preferably to buy? completely much I predisposition to informed entertain impartial responses/advice so to say humble people, the anyway consumers, as I.
Don't ask me what it means, I'm not a suspension excavator master....
Posted by The Englishman at 7:58 PM
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Friday Night is Music Night (God's God Edition)
As Clapton says:
"The blues played a crucial role in the birth of rock and roll. It had a particularly dramatic effect in post-war England, as merchant seaman returned home with this exotic music from the United States. Like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and countless other British rock musicians, Eric Clapton was enthralled with the American blues records that he heard on the BBC. In the grooves of the vinyl discs, he recognized kindred spirits. These artists expressed the same sense of heartache and loss which Eric often felt in his own life. Although he listened to a wide variety of blues records, it was Johnson who made the strongest impression on him. Clapton once declared; "Robert Johnson to me is the most important blues musician who ever lived." Judging by this unabashed admiration, it is therefore hardly surprising that Clapton chose to record "Crossroads", as well as several other songs by Johnson. Despite the obvious differences between these two individuals, they seem to be cut from the same ragged cloth. So decades after the bluesman's death, Clapton still carries on his legacy. His own music now exudes the same raw passion and commitment which once flowed out from Johnson's haunting guitar."
Posted by The Englishman at 5:02 PM
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Scholar vs. Spin
Restore trust by ending privileged access to official data, says statistics watchdog - Times Online
Britain’s statistics watchdog has called for an end to the culture of spin.
Trust in government data would be restored only by letting ministers have it at the same time that it was released to Parliament, the media and the public, Sir Michael Scholar, the chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, said.
Having broken bread with Sir Michael and enjoyed his hospitality on a couple of occasions (as an alumni of the college he runs)I am confident his formidable intelligence and strength of character will prevail in this battle of wills. It also helps he has right on his side.
UPDATE - what make this blog so rewarding to me are your comments and the fact that my mistake in Latin has been noted is wonderful and appreciated (My first draft was about being "one of the alumni..." and as I always try to trim as much verbiage as possible I decided that "one of the" was unnecessary and could be replaced with "an", but I failed to change alumni to the singular.) Mr Chalk will be setting a detention for me later.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:36 AM
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Faitrade News
The Press Association: Queen's decision to sell Fairtrade food on royal Sandringham estate welcomed
Palestinians to Sell First Fair Trade Product
The glimmers of an economic revival for Palestinians will grow early next year with the launch of their first fair trade product. Fair trade olive oil will hit the shops in 2009
With the help of dedicated volunteers from around Pembrokeshire, Wales has become the world’s first Fairtrade nation.
Parminder Bahra has written a couple of Fairtrade articles in the Times this morning, which seem to have been and gone from The Times website, maybe just a technical hitch (I'll check later) or it maybe because he rips into the charity for living of its margin and fees and that some workers have yet to see any benefit...
Tea workers still waiting to reap Fairtrade benefits - Times Online
Supermarkets seeking to promote their ethical buying policies proclaim that their produce is Fairtrade, and customers buy such goods in the belief that they are doing their bit for workers in the developing world.
However, an investigation by The Times suggests that workers on plantations that supply Fairtrade tea are not seeing their lives improve as they should. ...
Some workers suspect that the scheme is being used to make estates appear socially responsible as demand increases in the West for Fairtrade-labelled goods. ...Fairtrade estates can also supplement their output by buying from noncertified plantations, although they cannot then sell such produce as Fairtrade. For example, Eastern Produce Kenya, a Fairtrade-certified trader, regularly buys noncertified tea from the Kaprachoge estate, where conditions are far from those stipulated for certification.
Fairtrade inspections are announced in advance. “The estate owners can tell the workers not to be critical. It is a harsh system – [the workers] are deeply afraid of the owners because they can lose their job.”
The Fairtrade Foundation ...was unhappy with inspections being conducted by independent organisations and it tried to influence the outcomes of these inspections, Paola Ghillani, ..a former board member said.
“The Fairtrade Foundation at that time, and maybe now, has got too much at stake. They were living from funding, but also from licence fees [they received] each time they gave the label to a licensee. The inspection and certification system is not independent enough.”
You may remember that the The ASI revealed "a number of inconvenient truths about Fairtrade" sometime ago.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:33 AM
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Improving choice by bans
School ban will keep junk food 400 metres from pupils - Times Online
Clyde Loakes, (Lab), Leader, Waltham Forest Council, said: “We have too many fast-food outlets in this borough and we've had enough. We don't want to tell people how to live their lives - but at the moment residents simply don't have enough choice because of the amount of fast-food takeaways.”
Posted by The Englishman at 7:49 AM
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January 1, 2009
2008 Statpron
321,161 Visits
234,100 Absolute Unique Visitors
419,187 Pageviews
According to Google analytics - and why this number is wrong...
And which of my pithy insights into the madness of modern politics, the unfolding story of the real science of climate change or the customs and mores of Englishmen was the most popular post....?
Posted by The Englishman at 7:56 AM
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Reasons to be Cheerful
Welcome to 2009 - Darwin Year
2009 sees the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work, ‘On the Origin of Species’
Contemplate a tangled bank,
clothed with many plants of many kinds,
with birds singing on the bushes,
with various insects flitting about,
and
with worms crawling through the damp earth:
these elaborately constructed forms
have all been produced by laws
acting around us.
Thus, the war of nature,
from famine and death,
the production of higher animals
directly follows.
There is grandeur in this view of life:
whilst the planet has gone
cycling on according to
the fixed law of gravity,
from so simple a beginning
endless forms most beautiful and
most wonderful have been
and are being
evolved.
- Charles Darwin
Of course Darwin wasn't the only important liberator born on 12th February 1809, there was some American Illinois Lawyer who we will also be bored of by the years end, but he is the most important because he freed our minds from medieval superstition which still has its deadly hold over vast swarths of humanity.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:41 AM
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December 31, 2008
Lean and Hungry
Too much thinking 'can make you fat' - Telegraph
but the bard sayeth; "Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much : such men are dangerous."
I would tend to trust the Swan over modern researchers were it not obvious that the leading lights of our generation are the stick thin models and actors who though they are desperate to bray their opinions to an eager audience quite obviously are incapable of rubbing two thoughts together in their shrivelled craniums.
Posted by The Englishman at 11:32 PM
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The Biggest Ponzi Scheme Ever
Adults could be forced to take out private insurance to cover nursing home costs - Telegraph
Every adult could be forced to take out private insurance to cover the cost of their care in old age under plans being considered by the Government.
Excuse me, I think I have already paid. I'm sure my last payslip had a large deduction for NI which was sold to me as insurance for when I fell on hard times. So you want me to pay twice, I wonder why..
Posted by The Englishman at 11:27 PM
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Après Blair le déluge
'Operation Credit Crunch' to round up every burglar in London - Telegraph
Sir Paul Stephenson, acting Commissioner, has ordered officers to pursue every outstanding warrant for known, wanted or suspected burglars. It has led to almost 600 arrests since mid-November.
Operation Spotlight has rounded up 593 suspects wanted on warrants for burglary in six weeks - at more than double the usual rate for that offence. Of those, 250 were charged with burglary and a further 200 face prosecution for other criminal offences.
In a further move to improve public confidence, Sir Paul ordered a police officer to be assigned to every reported burglary in the capital and a forensics team to visit the victim's home within four hours.
And why is this new, why wasn't this standard procedure, what did ex-boss Blair think was more important for the police to be doing than nabbing burglars and investigating crimes.....don't bother answering I think we all know....
Posted by The Englishman at 11:25 PM
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As a row of tents.
Back from a bracing walk across frozen fields to a mug of Camp made with steaming hot milk and a large tot of Navy Rum in it. Sheer bliss. It must be the seaman in me....
Steady as she goes, Number One....
Posted by The Englishman at 3:58 PM
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And the forecast is chilly
Media & Web Public Release 31 Dec 2008
Jan 2009: Serious winter weather for UK.
Cold with very cold and bitter spells. Major snow deluges and disruption. Some windy spells with local floods in parts. Milder end to month.
Long range forecast for World Temperatures 2009
Piers Corbyn, astrophysicist of WeatherAction long-range forecasters issued his forecast for World temperatures 2009 which directly contradicts the Met office & World Meteorological Organisation's forecasts and challenges the Met Office to a bet.
"Our researches show the recent general world cooling will continue and contrary to the claims of Global Warming and related models there will no significant El Nino or associated warming effects in 2009.
"The Met Office's recent forecast that the world in 2009 will be in the warmest 5 on record will fail, instead 2009 is
likely to be similar to or colder than 2008. All their recent climate forecasts have failed and this one will too. It is high time that politicians recognised reality so I challenge the Met Office to a bet that their forecast will fail and world temperatures 2009 will be cooler than the 'top 5'.
"It should be noted that the Met office prognoses of world temperatures have consistently failed and their long range forecasts only mislead the public and serve the political, business and taxation intentions of the
Global Warming and Climate Change Lobby.
Posted by The Englishman at 1:00 PM
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New Year's Eve Reflections
2008 - what a shitty year, the triumph of statism in the financial world, the unrelenting advance of the EU, the continued repression by the Carbonistas, Gordon Brown, The Messiah being elected in the US, St Tony and bloodshed in the Levant, troops in the hot sandy places for no sensible reason, Gordon Brown again, and David Cameron, the bloody Olympics, Boris being castrated so he could win, I can't think of a good word to say about the year except that we are still here in reasonable health and so are most of our friends.
Let's hope for a better 2009. Enjoy the rest of the year, and the extra second...
Posted by The Englishman at 7:37 AM
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Next Year - 1984
Private firm to run communications super database - Telegraph
Plans for a private company to run a super database containing the identities and location of every person in Britain are being considered by the Government.
Under the new system, which will be outlined in the new year in a consultation paper on the interception modernisation programme, one or a number of organisations would proactively collect all communications data, including from broadband phone calls and chatrooms, instead of such information being retrieved at the behest of police or intelligence agencies.
The potential cost of such a database has been estimated to reach £12bn, but the consultation paper includes an option to put it out to private tender in a bid to cut costs.
They will be able to track my movements as I travel round the ropemakers of this isle buying up all the hempen lengths I can as I believe there will be a shortage soon.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:33 AM
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Brown Declares Victory - Gongs All Round
Anger over knighthood given to Treasury chief, Nick Macpherson - Times Online
The Treasury’s top official, who was at the helm during the boom before the credit crunch, has been knighted for his role in dealing with Britain’s deepening financial crisis.
The move, as the pound plunged to a record low against the euro and after another slide in house prices, prompted protests that the honour was premature and self-congratulatory.
Critics said that Nick Macpherson, the Permanent Secretary at the Treasury and on an annual salary of £196,400, had been knighted while it was still too early to claim that the £500 billion banking bailout was a success. Sir Nick, 49, a close ally of the Prime Minister,...
There is also an award for Alastair Clark, a former Bank of England expert in financial stability, who was brought out of retirement to help with Northern Rock....
I note the Times Subs have placed this picture in the adjacent column, no comment needed:
Posted by The Englishman at 7:25 AM
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Cor, What a Scorcher!
EU Referendum: We are supposed to take this seriously?
Next year in the UK is set to be one of the top-five warmest on record, according to the Met Office...Taking a quick reality break, courtesy of Steven Goddard over at Watts up with that?, we are reminded that the Met Office in April last year predicted that the 2008 summer would be "warmer than average" with "rainfall near or above average."...
Funny enough, all Met Office forecasts carry a health warning. We are told that, "Our long-range forecasts are proving useful to a range of people, such as emergency planners and the water industry, in order to help them plan ahead."
They are not, we are cautioned, "forecasts which can be used to plan a summer holiday or inform an outdoor event." But, it seems, they are good enough to predict global warming well into the next Century.
And we are supposed to take this seriously?
The global warming forecasters sound more and more like secondhand car dealers;" I know the wheels don't match, and yes the paint is scratched, and I'm sorry the seat is ripped and the inside smells a bit, but you just wait 'till you've got her out on the open road, Sir, lovely little car. Yes I know we had to jump start her, but that is only the once...."
One summer soon will be a scorcher and then it is game over for the deniers, if it isn't 2009 it may be 2010. It's what weather does. Thank goodness no one remembers 1975 or 1976 because if either of those summers happened now it would be compulsory carbon rationing under Czar Miliband for ever.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:20 AM
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The Global Warming Hoax
Global warming: Reasons why it might not actually exist - Telegraph
2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved, according to the Telegraph's Christopher Booker. Sceptics have long argued that there are other explanations for climate change other than man-made CO2 and here we look at some of the arguments put forward by those who believe that global warming is all a hoax....
A sign of the times that a newspaper is allowing a short understandable article on it but I don't like to call the global warming thesis a hoax. I think the vast majority of believers sincerely believe it, and that a lot of scientists who promote it are simply mistaken in the detail of what they think the science shows; that is the way with science. But they are not hoaxing us. But there are a handful of activists out there who don't care what the truth is, who hide behind the " consensus", to push their political agenda; they aren't hoaxing us with the data, they are simply evil liars.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:09 AM
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December 30, 2008
Why I'm a conservative
A surfeit of festive optimism combined with the kind offer of help from an expert encouraged me to try to update this blog. New content management engine, new version of movabletype, a helpful hand to guide me through. Many hours of fiddling and tweaking and bollocks. The new versions aren't as user friendly as the old. I'm sure they have lots of super new features but I don't need them, the old works pretty well and I know my way around it. I have lost too many hours to trying to understand the new, and my very helpful friend has put even more hours in. I feel ungrateful to him by turning all the new stuff off but it was either that or never blog again. So my New Year's resolution is as always; if it ain't broken don't fix it.
(And when this creaking old system finally turns up its toes well, that will be that.)
Posted by The Englishman at 7:09 PM
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December 29, 2008
Housekeeping
You may notice a very nice man is helping me update the old Castle which involves knocking a few walls about before replastering and applying fresh paint. It won't be finished for a few days. I've got a few Perdix perdix today that I need to wave a stick at so I am off out.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:19 AM
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December 28, 2008
Global Warming - We desperately need a good summer in 2009 to counteract it.
Climate change takes its toll on British countryside - Telegraph
Matthew Oates, the National Trust nature conservation adviser, said; "A cold late spring, a wet summer, with few sunny days, and the long dry autumn has shown how dependent our wildlife is on the weather," he said. "Many species closely associated with the four seasons are having to cope with higher incidents of poor weather as our climate becomes more unpredictable.
"After two very poor years in a row we desperately need a good summer in 2009. Climate change is not some future prediction of what might happen, it's happening now."
Dr Tim Sparks, a climate change specialist at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, said Britain would experience warmer, drier summers and wet, mild winters...
So a dry autumn, cold spring, and wet summer are blamed on climate change which is predicted to produce wet, mild winters and warmer drier summers. No wonder I'm confused.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:00 AM
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Do Nothing Tories Respond by Promising More Regulation
Conservatives plan to unveil tax cuts - Times Online
The Conservatives are poised to propose three new tax cuts to help recession-hit families, savers and pensioners in a bold attempt to shed their “do nothing” image.
Brown has brought Britain to the brink of bankruptcy - By David Cameron
So as we look to the future, it is not Labour's turbo‑capitalism we need, where a blind eye is turned to every corporate excess, nor the Left's unthinking anti-capitalism, but the modern Conservative Party, which believes in responsible capitalism and is not afraid to make it happen.
"Responsible Capitalism" I guess is the magic motto Dave found in his Christmas Cracker and is what he is going to beat us over the head with. How can you disagree with it, aren't you a capitalist, aren't you responsible? It actually means for all Georgie's talk of tax cuts and freedom to spend that they actually believe the man in Whitehall can regulate and direct what choices we can make when we want to buy and sell better than we can.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:47 AM
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Swimming to the North Pole in 2009
Pen Hadow to measure retreating Arctic ice - Times Online
Pen Hadow, the explorer, is to embark on a 700-mile expedition to the North Pole to measure the thickness of the shrinking Arctic icecap.
The information will be used to refine computer models of the impact of climate change...
Hadow will set out in February from the Canadian side of the Arctic. The short days mean much of the trip will be undertaken in darkness in temperatures as low as -50C, while the break-up of the icecap means the team will have to put on immersion suits and swim. Hadow said: “Hitherto our skills and experience have been largely socially redundant, but now we have the chance to deploy them for the benefit of everyone.”
In February/ March there will be about 13 to 14 million square km of ice in the arctic, if you can't find it so you have to swim then you are worse than socially redundant. And if you think a a survey that will cover one millionth? of that area is of any use other than as a agitprop stunt then matron really should make you stick to the basket weaving.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:38 AM
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EU Tube (Money down the)
EU Tube The European Union’s answer to YouTube the internet video sharing phenomenon, has backfired, with audiences shunning many of the clips intended to promote pet subjects in Brussels.
Eighteen months on from the creation of EU Tube many of the videos posted on the website have attracted only a few dozen viewers.
An EU Tube video entitled Controlling the Use of Chemicals in Europe has been watched 56 times. Another film, Better Rights for Temporary Workers, has attracted 70.
EU Tube’s attempts to adopt street language have also misfired, with ventures such as a three-minute “euro-rap”, which urges young viewers “you gotta be a part of” a united Europe.
And few of them seem to be supporters: One visitor, Opaz, writes: “It’s like Nazi Hitler Youth propaganda with aggressive music. Be a part of what? The destruction of our nations, homelands and security so that the rich can own and control us. Overlords of EU go to hell!”
Posted by The Englishman at 6:30 AM
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