To cheer us up

Footsie suffers worst year

London’s leading stocks endured their worst annual falls in at least 24 years, while in Europe and Asia, some markets ended the year by notching up their worst performances since records began.

The FTSE 100 lost 30.9 per cent in 2008, finishing the year at 4,434.17. This was the blue-chip index’s worst annual fall since it was created in 1984 and substantially more than its previous biggest yearly loss of 24.5 per cent in 2002. The FTSE All Share index fell 32.8 per cent over the year, its worst annual fall since losing 55.3 per cent in 1974.

In the rest of Europe, Germany’s Xetra Dax fell 40.3 per cent, its worst annual performance in its 20-year history and the CAC 40 in Paris was down 42.1 per cent. FTSE Eurofirst 300 suffered an annual decline of 44.7 per cent, its worst year since the index was constituted in 1986.

The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo ended the year on Tuesday by recording a 42.1 per cent fall, well above its last biggest annual loss of 38.7 per cent in 1990, while Korea’s Kospi index ended the year with a loss of 40.7 per cent.

In New York, the S&P 500 has already fallen 41 per cent this year, marking its worst run since a drop of 47.1 per cent in 1931 during the Great Depression.

All hail Gordon, I say.

13) Gordon Brown: March 2007

We will not return to the old boom and bust

14) Gordon Brown: December 2006

Boom and bust is a term that applied to the Conservative years and two of the worst recessions in history

15) Gordon Brown: March 2006

I have said before: no return to boom and bust.

16) Gordon Brown: March 2001

We will not return to boom and bust.

17) Gordon Brown: November 2000

Our approach is to reject the old vicious circle of the ’80s–rising debt, higher long-term interest rates, higher debt repayment costs, lower growth, higher unemployment, then enforced cuts in public spending. That was the old boom and bust.

18) Gordon Brown: March 2000

Britain does not want a return to boom and bust.

19) Gordon Brown: November 1999

Indeed, Britain was set to repeat the old, familiar cycle of boom and bust. Since then, we have created and rigorously adhered to a new framework of modern economic management

20) Gordon Brown: November 1998

Britain was set to repeat the boom-bust cycle that led to 15 per cent. interest rates for one whole year in the early 1990s.

21) Gordon Brown: June 1998

rigorous financial discipline that, together with monetary stability, ends once and for all the boom and bust that for 30 years has undermined stability

22) Gordon Brown: May 1998

The Government have put in place policies to deliver that objective and are determined to avoid a return to boom and bust.

23) Gordon Brown: April 1998

We will not return to the stop-go, boom-bust years which we saw under the Conservatives.

24) Gordon Brown: November 1997

I am satisfied that the new monetary policy arrangements will deliver long-term price stability, and prevent a return to the cycle of boom and bust.

25) Gordon Brown: July 1997

Today, the Bank of England has agreed with me that, if we are to prevent the cycle of boom and bust, inflationary pressures in the economy, which the previous Government negligently failed to tackle, must be brought under control

Meanwhile, via iterative bloggisms:

It is true that we had ten years of record growth when I was prime minister. I have, unfortunately, come to the conclusion that it was luck.
- Tony Blair (Cunto di Tutti Cunti), in a lecture to Yale University

Gives me that warm feeling inside…. feels like…. boiling piss.

AJ

Northern Ireland Environment Minister in Rash Outbreak of Sense

This is quite remarkable.

Environment minister Sammy Wilson: I still think man-made climate change is a con

Spending billions on trying to reduce carbon emissions is one giant con that is depriving third world countries of vital funds to tackle famine, HIV and other diseases, Sammy Wilson said.

The DUP minister has been heavily criticised by environmentalists for claiming that ongoing climatic shifts are down to nature and not mankind.

But while acknowledging his views on global warming may not be popular, the East Antrim MP said he was not prepared to be bullied by eco fundamentalists.

“I’ll not be stopped saying what I believe needs to be said about climate change,” he said.

most of the people who shout about climate change have not read one article about it

“I think in 20 years’ time we will look back at this whole climate change debate and ask ourselves how on earth were we ever conned into spending the billions of pounds which are going into this without any kind of rigorous examination of the background, the science, the implications of it all. Because there is now a degree of hysteria about it, fairly unformed hysteria I’ve got to say as well.

“I mean I get it in the Assembly all the time and most of the people who shout about climate change have not read one article about climate change, not read one book about climate change, if you asked them to explain how they believe there’s a connection between CO2 emission and the effects which they claim there’s going to be, if you ask them to explain the thought process or the modelling that is required and the assumptions behind that and how tenuous all the connections are, they wouldn’t have a clue.

“They simply get letters about it from all these lobby groups, it’s popular and therefore they go along with the flow — and that would be ok if there were no implications for it, but the implications are immense.”

He said while people in the western world were facing spiralling fuel bills as a result of efforts to cut CO2, the implications in poorer countries were graver.

“What are the problems that face us either locally and internationally. Are those not the things we should be concentrating on?” he asked.

“HIV, lack of clean water, which kills millions of people in third world countries, lack of education.

“A fraction of the money we are currently spending on climate change could actually eradicate those three problems alone, a fraction of it.

“I think as a society we sometimes need to get some of these things in perspective and when I listen to some of the rubbish that is spoken by some of my colleagues in the Assembly it amuses me at times and other times it angers me.”

Despite his views on CO2, Mr Wilson said he does not intend to backtrack on commitments made by his predecessor at the Department of the Environment, Arlene Foster, to make the Stormont estate carbon neutral.

He said while he wasn’t worried about reducing CO2 output, he said the policy would help to cut fuels bills.

“I don’t couch those actions in terms of reducing Co2 emissions,” he said. “I don’t care about Co2 emissions to be quite truthful because I don’t think it’s all that important but what I do believe is, and perhaps this is where there can be some convergence, as far as using fuel more efficiently that is good for our economy; that makes us more competitive. If we can save in schools hundreds of thousands on fuel that’s more money being put for books or classroom assistants.

“So yes there are things we can do. If you want to express it terms of carbon neutral, I just express it terms of making the place more efficient, less wasteful and hopefully that will release money to do the proper things that we should be doing.”

Good man.

AJ

Don’t let the lentils grind you down

Keep this Global Warming, My Arse ready reckoner at your fingertips.

AJ

Re-visit: The Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change 2008

Lest we forget:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/10/nipcc_manhattan_declaration/

Manhattan Declaration demands abandonment of emissions reduction efforts

A group of dissident scientists and climate researchers has affirmed that there is no convincing evidence that CO₂ emissions from modern industrial activity cause climate change, and has called on world leaders to abandon all efforts to reduce emissions “forthwith.” Issued last week at the close of the International Conference on Climate Change in New York, the Manhattan Declaration challenged the notion that a scientific consensus on climate change exists, and claimed that efforts at emissions reduction would diminish prosperity while having no appreciable impact.

The Declaration stems from the work of the Nongovermental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), which one might term the evil twin of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which published a closely-argued report on the subject this month. The report takes the form of a critique of the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report, which last year helped win the organisation a joint Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

And on the link:

Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change

“Global warming” is not a global crisis

We, the scientists and researchers in climate and related fields, economists, policymakers, and business leaders, assembled at Times Square, New York City, participating in the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change,

Resolving that scientific questions should be evaluated solely by the scientific method;

Affirming that global climate has always changed and always will, independent of the actions of humans, and that carbon dioxide (CO2) is not a pollutant but rather a necessity for all life;

Recognising that the causes and extent of recently observed climatic change are the subject of intense debates in the climate science community and that oft-repeated assertions of a supposed ‘consensus’ among climate experts are false;

Affirming that attempts by governments to legislate costly regulations on industry and individual citizens to encourage CO2 emission reduction will slow development while having no appreciable impact on the future trajectory of global climate change. Such policies will markedly diminish future prosperity and so reduce the ability of societies to adapt to inevitable climate change, thereby increasing, not decreasing, human suffering;

Noting that warmer weather is generally less harmful to life on Earth than colder:

Hereby declare:

That current plans to restrict anthropogenic CO2 emissions are a dangerous misallocation of intellectual capital and resources that should be dedicated to solving humanity’s real and serious problems.

That there is no convincing evidence that CO2 emissions from modern industrial activity has in the past, is now, or will in the future cause catastrophic climate change.

That attempts by governments to inflict taxes and costly regulations on industry and individual citizens with the aim of reducing emissions of CO2 will pointlessly curtail the prosperity of the West and progress of developing nations without affecting climate.

That adaptation as needed is massively more cost-effective than any attempted mitigation and that a focus on such mitigation will divert the attention and resources of governments away from addressing the real problems of their peoples.

That human-caused climate change is not a global crisis.

Now, therefore, we recommend –

That world leaders reject the views expressed by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as popular, but misguided works such as “An Inconvenient Truth.”

That all taxes, regulations, and other interventions intended to reduce emissions of CO2 be abandoned forthwith.

Agreed at New York, 4 March 2008

And if anyone is looking for candidates for Man of the Year (yes it includes women, you bickering harridans)…. see the list of signatories, <—- there.

I wasn’t blogging when this emerged (cos den I woznt a saddoo like youz) but I had been reading the discussions on Pistonheads.com, involving a remarkably knowledgeable and resourceful chap calling himself TurboBloke. If you want to see a fine AGW argument between a scientist and a true believer (in this case, a character called Ludo), look him up. Let me Google that for you.

AJ

Retro H/T to EUReferendum. Hail, Sir.

Gordon loves austerity…

Because he’s a miserable cunt, and in 2009 he will finally succeed in making us all as miserable as him.

And now he’s going to lecture us. Yes – fucking LECTURE us about the edifying potential of a depression recession.

The recession is a test of character the British people must pass, Gordon Brown is set to say.

In next week’s New Year message, the prime minister is expected to urge the public to “display the same spirit” as their predecessors did in World War II.

He will also describe US president-elect Barack Obama as a “catalyst” for tackling global issues.

And Mr Brown will demand that the public work together in an effort to build a “better tomorrow”.

…

He is expected to proclaim that Britain is not “broken” but the “best country in the world” and say: “I believe the British people will show those who talk them down exactly what they are made of in 2009 – as we build tomorrow today.”

Only if you call an election you communist fuckbag.

Just breath-taking. And just to show you he’s really got the measure of the British people, and the times we are in (to say nothing of the science):

Climate change

Returning to his focus on the problem of climate change, Mr Brown will describe Mr Obama as a leading light in the fight against it.

Mr Brown will say: “I believe we can do it – and because we can, we must.

“The stakes are too great with our planet in peril for us to do anything less.

“I look forward to working with President-elect Obama in creating a transatlantic, and then a global coalition for change.”

I really do wonder what the skies are like on his planet?

AJ

H/T DK

Update: Courtesy of Mr Eugenides who undertakes the grim sacrifice of reading the Mirror for us:

“When things are going well people call me Gordon.
“When things are going badly they call me Mr Brown.
“At the moment they are calling me Gordon.”

Things are going well? Oh gooooooooooood.

Most Annoying Things of the Year

1. Lists

AJ

It’s cold – but the warming, my arse, will be back in ‘09

Well it’s winter, innit? And and and Gaia has the flu. Tellygraph says:

New Year’s Eve revellers face freezing conditions colder than in Iceland, but 2009 is likely to be the one of the warmest on record, forecasters say.

Aye – we’ll see. I just wanted to capture this one prediction for 2009.

The country is on course to experience its coldest December in more than 10 years as chilling winds blow in from Eastern Europe.

Those out celebrating the New Year are being warned to wrap up warm and take care on icy pavements as temperatures plunge to 24.8F (-4 C).

No shit – it was -4C here last night when I went out for rent boys and WD40 at tea-time.

Parts of Britain will be significantly colder than Reykjavik, the Icelandic capital, and as cold as Raufarhöfn, its northernmost village, which sits on the edge of the Arctic circle.

The Icelanders have taken to burning their money, since that’s all that it’s good for now, hence raising their temperature. If they’d been persuaded to invest in images of Gordon Brown, they could have opened a new Mediterranean resort. Still, too late now.

But don’t worry, Al Gore will get us all back on-message real soon now. Meanwhile, I want to slap the stupid muppet at the Tellygraph who wrote (and subbed) this piece:

But long range forecasts suggest that next year will be among the warmest.

The average global temperature is expected to be more than 32.7F (0.4C) above the long term average, making next year warmer than this year and the hottest since 2005, researchers from the Met Office and the University of East Anglia said.

Professor Phil Jones, the director of the climate research unit at the University of East Anglia, said: “The fact that 2009, like 2008, will not break records does not mean that global warming has gone away.

“What matters is the underlying rate of warming – the period 2001-2007, with an average of 57.99F (14.44C), was 32.38F (0.21C) warmer than corresponding values for the period 1991-2000.”

Now look, you pillocks. 0 degrees Centigrade does indeed equal 32 degrees Fahrenheit – as an absolute measure of temperature. Not as a relative measure.

A variation over the years of 0.4C DOES NOT EQUATE TO 32.7F variation. It equates to 0.7F variation.

But I’m sure some cock-gargler in the comments section of Booker’s next column on AGW will cite this clearly absurd ’statistic’.

OMGZ Do those who don’t beleeve in Global Warming (PBUH) understand that the world has WARMED by 37.2 degrees Fahrenheit?????? [Daisy Goodwin's Daughter]

Scientifically and mathematically incompetent morons. I can only hope that Professor Warming’s quote was massaged by the Tellygraphers to include an incorrect Fahrenheit conversion, or we are all truly fucked as a nation species. And not from bleeding global warming either.

AJ

You shouldn’t laugh.

There’s not even a but. You just shouldn’t laugh.

Some days though, you know you’re a total shit because you have left this story open in a tab on Firefox and every time you pass it, you laugh out loud.

And how can you not?

Four-year-old died after father dropped TV on her head

Emily’s father, Robert Hughes, a design engineer, installed the television in the first-floor living room then carried the old “heavy, deep, bulky” widescreen downstairs into the children’s play area.

Emily liked to take the Nintendo DS she shared with her siblings to a quiet place to play it alone, Liverpool Coroner’s Court heard.

But unbeknown to her father as he struggled downstairs, she was lying on her stomach at the foot of the stairs.

In a report by North Wales Police, officers said Mr Hughes accidentally bumped into her, dropping the television and pinning her head down.

It said: “Mr Hughes stubbed his foot on the child and fell forward with the large television unit.

“He completely lost balance, fell and tried to push the TV away from the child realising she was there but it landed on her head, pinning her.

It’s just awful, but it is funny. There are all sorts of questions. Was the TV okay? What about the DS? How are they enjoying the new TV? What sort did they get?

I’m truly sorry, but I laughed when I saw this just like I howled with shameful mirth when I saw 9/11 on BBC World in the minutes after it happened.

AJ

Apt names(!)

A couple of them have cropped up today.

The chap arrested in Scotland for locking a woman in the boot of her car for 10 days is called Justice Ngema. Do you suppose he’s an actual judge? I thought not.

The Conservatives today fielded their home affairs spokesman James Brokenshire, to respond to new home office figures on knife fatalities.

I confidently expect LibDems’ Eve Middlemarch to appear on the news later, next to Labour’s Liar O’Cuntyface.

AJ

Dubai dishes out more Tough Tittie

It constantly surprises me that Dubai is a destination of choice for Brits. There are plenty of web resources out there for the curious. A while back, the entertaining columnist Satnav Sangria summed it up for me in The Times, when he said:

I don’t travel very well and there are many more places that I would rather die than visit. And, for many years, the city that has topped this list has been Dubai.

Not too long ago, there was the couple who got locked up for being pissed and shagging on a beach. Whether they ‘dunnit’ is immaterial here.

Now, there we are told that British woman Marnie Pearce faces jail for adultery in Dubai.

A British woman is facing jail in Dubai after being convicted of adultery. Marnie Pearce, 40, insists that she is innocent but fears she will lose custody of her two young sons if she goes to prison.

She was found guilty of adultery by a Dubai court and given a six-month jail sentence on November 27 after being accused of cheating on her Egyptian husband, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Ms Pearce, who is originally from Bracknell, Berkshire, is now on bail while she appeals against the conviction.

She told the newspaper: “I have been going through hell for nine months and I just want to get my children out. I am so scared that if I go to jail I will never see them again.

Diddums.

“I am desperate for the British Embassy to help me but I feel no one is listening to me.”

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “We can confirm that she has been involved in an ongoing court case in Dubai. We are in touch with her and are providing consular assistance.

“We can confirm she has been accused and found guilty of adultery.”

So, this woman is married to an Egyptian and living in Dubai. She’s going to prison for adultery. Again, whether she ‘dunnit’ is neither here nor there. This is Dubai. The cheeky fucking cow is begging the UK government for assistance. Aye, fucking right.

Burn the witch!

AJ

Fatal Stabbings Don’t Rise under new Rules

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will today stress that while numbers of fatal stabbings have risen to an all time record, the streets are safer than they ever were and fewer people are dying.

In a similar move to that which saw violent attacks not increase, when an accounting change meant each combatant was counted rather than each incident, the home secretary will reiterate that each plunging of the knife into a victim is now counted toward the figures.

Home Office spokeswoman Harriet Overbite explained:

While fatal woundings have increased from 176 in 1997 to 2,898 in 2007-8, it is important to understand that the 1997 measure is of the number of people who died as a result of knife wounds. The 2007-8 figure is a measure of fatal wounds, with each victim averaging 9 fatal wounds in 2007-8, down from 11 in 1997.

The most important thing is reducing these numbers and we have a target of reducing the number of stabbings by 25% to 2173 over the next 5 years.

If that can be achieved by each fatality sustaining fewer injuries, then we will have succeeded.

The Institute for Policy Studies have proposed knife fighting classes for all 13-15 year olds. Prof. James Dolan said:

If we can train these young people to kill with a single lunge, we can reduce stabbings 10-fold while still killing off as many chavs and fuzzies. The Home Office hit their target and the Daily Mail hits theirs. Everyone’s a winner.

The truth is stranger than the fiction. Never forget that.

AJ

ROFLCopper

This goon has been getting a lot of coverage recently.

Yes – it’s PC Tony Stamp from The Bill.

He leads the Scotland Yard Anti-Tourism squad and was responsible for the raid on Damian Green’s office.

The True Blue Daily Mail decided to look into him and his dealings. It turns out that his wife runs a wedding car service from their house. Some bloggists took it one step further and found the advert, on which is Officer Stamp’s address. Lol. Genius. All sorts of questions ensued about propriety.

Because of this press intrusion (to say nothing of the head of Anti-Tourism’s home address being on the Internet), he took the decision to move his family out of their home. I can’t blame him for that and I’d be pissed off too. He suspected the Tories were behind it because he is/was leading the investigation into Damian Green.

So, he publicly accused the Tories of being bullying and corrupt. I mean – LOL. Well you should know, fatty. Anyway, he thought better of his comments reconsidered the ramifications for his career, and after issuing a half-assed apology, he finally came out with a full apology.

Anyway, the Daily Mail have got it in for him now, and have been doing some more digging.

Top terror chief’s car hire firm is operating without a licence

Britain’s top anti-terror police chief faces more embarrassing questions over a luxury car hire business run from his home which appears to be operating illegally and is being investigated by the local council.

The business, run by the wife of Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, the officer who sanctioned the highly controversial raid on the House of Commons office of Tory MP Damian Green, could face prosecution and a fine of up to £3,000.

Oopsie!

The business, Aphrodite Wedding Services, also appears to have broken the law on two more counts – failing to obtain a private-hire licence for its vehicles and to register its drivers.

To get an operator’s licence, drivers must be checked by the Criminal Records Bureau – so there is no way of guaranteeing those employed by Aphrodite have been vetted.

Steve Wright, chairman of industry body the Licensed Private Hire Car Association, said: ‘Private-hire vehicles on executive trips gain access to high-security venues. This has serious implications in view of the terrorist threat.’

He added: ‘If this business has no licence, it should not be trading. I would have expected a senior police officer, of all people, to be aware of this.’

Me too, Steve Wright.

In a further embarrassment to Mr Quick, it has emerged that while in his previous post as Chief Constable of Surrey, his force and the local Tandridge District Council produced a 36-page booklet explaining the rules affecting private car hire firms.  

One paragraph states: ‘No person shall operate any vehicle as a private-hire vehicle in Tandridge without having a current operator’s licence.’

After a change to the Road Safety Act in April this year – aimed at closing a loophole that let some operators circumvent the rules – the only firms allowed to operate without a licence are those dealing exclusively with weddings and funerals. 

Aphrodite offers a wide range of services, including executive trips and days out to destinations such as Kew Gardens and stately homes.

…

Last night Mrs Quick said that in early 2007 she had sought ‘detailed advice’ from the council.

‘Due to the nature of the business I was not required to obtain a licence,’ she said.

So, to sum up, a big cheese plod from Scotland Yard, and his wife, have been caught out by the creeping legislation of this government, in its pursuit of universal criminalisation. This is to say nothing of the stupidity, hypocrisy and greed of Tony Stamp and his wife. That they circumvented the CRB checks for their drivers is priceless.

The whole melange is so lovely, you just couldn’t Littlejohn it up.

H/T Ambush Predator

AJ

Global Warming, My Arse #556653 Update

Via the previous item where I linked to Ambush Predator, I noticed that she links to the following. The bit in bold is possibly the funniest, or saddest, thing I have ever read:

http://landedunderclass.wordpress.com/2008/12/28/irate-adolescents/

The comments field to this piece in the Telegraph, by Christopher Booker, is somewhat indicative.

Booker roundly condemns the global-warming racket:

…hundreds of proper scientists, including many of the world’s most eminent climate experts, have been rallying to pour scorn on that “consensus” which was only a politically engineered artefact, based on ever more blatantly manipulated data and computer models programmed to produce no more than convenient fictions.

in which the majority of commenters seem to support him. What is interesting is the remarks made by those who do not:

I beleve in GLOBAL WARMING to those who say the world is colder dont understand you are FOOLS… It’s so cold everywhere because the earth has a fever and is going through the chills, just like people do when they have a fever. The earth is hot and trying to cool herself off by making winter storms. [David]

OK, so if Global Warming doesn’t exist, can someone please tell me why the ice caps are melting? Thanks! [jbbishop]

anyone that don’t believe in the emergency of global warming is a fool and should be cast in a plasma furnace. [Climate Change Myth]

yea global warming is a phalacy in your mind. your obvious ignorance is clear by way of not understanding by your continually saying we should be having warm weather in the winter. [darwin]

Mr Brooker is a serial denier of climate change – numerous articles in this newspaper and others…You really must do better Mr Brooker or your paymasters may employ somebody else. [DixieDean]

In among all of this, analysis:

In reading these comments I can’t help but notice that the GW believers seem to be illiterate as well as angry at the world. Irate adolescents should not be making decisions for the rest of us. [Robin]

Quite.

Note the universal use, by the warmists, of the term ‘believe’.

AJ

Spoilt middle class child complaints

Some wittering woman in the Sunday Times yesterday, moaned about her know-it-all lentilist 17 year old daughter.

It’s a look I am familiar with as I have a 17-year-old daughter who has been a vegan since the age of 12 in a family of carnivores, a child who likes to turn the water off to save the planet while you are brushing your teeth. Her idea of a good Saturday afternoon is not browsing the rails of Top-shop but protesting against the building of Siena airport. She thinks my generation has been incredibly selfish in the way it has squandered the world’s resources: “The polar bears are dying, Mum, and it’s all your fault.” For Christmas she asked for notebooks made from recycled rubber tyres and membership of the Green party.

What an atrocious little cow. This is what happens when middle-class liberals mollycoddle their precious brats.

I’ll leave a fuller commentary to Ambush Predator.

AJ

New Year’s Resolutions

I’m sure everyone will be thinking about these soon. For example, it’ll seem like a good idea to give up booze for a while, having drunk enough over Xmas to sink the labour party, were it not that planks of wood float.

I’m no quitter, but when I give something up, it stays upgiven. That’s why for me, new year is a time for reflection. I reflect on what it used to be like to make resolutions, only to see them poleaxed by the second week of January and utterly fogotten by the fourth.

All that ended in 2003, when I resolved to give up making new years resolutions. I still get the odd temptation, but only on social occasions. My name is Al. [Hi Al]. It’s been five years since my last resolution. [Applauds]

Vauxhall Viva la Resolution!!!

AJ

Global Warming, My Arse #556653

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/article5409222.ece

Wrap up – Met Office warns of Siberian blast and freezing weather

It’s time to get out the thermal underwear and thickest pullovers – Britain is set for shockingly cold weather for at least the next couple of weeks.

After a glorious Christmas, with not a hint of a snowflake, temperatures have been slipping steadily downwards, with minus 11C (12F) recorded in Aviemore, in the Highlands, on Saturday night.

The plunge into a Siberian blast of cold will worsen in the coming week as raw easterlies freeze the country. “This coming week, maximum daytime temperatures will be between 2C (36F) and 4C (39F) but temperatures at night could be well below zero for many places,” said Stephen Holman, forecaster at the Met Office.

The freezing conditions are being swept down from a strong high-pressure system anchored close to Scandinavia. Like a boulder firmly stuck in a river, this anticyclone is refusing to budge and sending our usual wet and windy winter weather on a wide detour, a system known as a blocking weather pattern.

…

How bad could this winter sink? The weather maps are a chilling reminder of some our most savage winters, such as the notorious 1962-63 winter, the coldest for 180 years. This was when the sea froze around the coast of southeast England and crops were dug out of frozen ground with pneumatic drills and blizzards paralysed the nation.

…

— The winter of 1647-48 was probably the coldest since daily temperature records began to be kept in the 17th century. John Evelyn, the diarist, records a journey by coach and horses from the City of London to Lambeth along the frozen Thames

— In London, where the most extensive records were kept, snow fell for 39 consecutive days in the winter of 1739-40

— Much of Britain was under snow from December to March, 1962-63

— In February 1947 snow fell on the British Isles on all but two days of the month, with more snow and gales in March, and drifts 3m (9ft) deep in the Chilterns

— Severe flooding followed the thaw of 1947 as the frozen ground was unable to absorb the water

Elsewhere, Booker’s declaration of the defeat of the Church of Global Warming seems premature.

2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved

Looking back over my columns of the past 12 months, one of their major themes was neatly encapsulated by two recent items from The Daily Telegraph.

By Christopher Booker

The first, on May 21, headed “Climate change threat to Alpine ski resorts” , reported that the entire Alpine “winter sports industry” could soon “grind to a halt for lack of snow”. The second, on December 19, headed “The Alps have best snow conditions in a generation” , reported that this winter’s Alpine snowfalls “look set to beat all records by New Year’s Day”.

Easily one of the most important stories of 2008 has been all the evidence suggesting that this may be looked back on as the year when there was a turning point in the great worldwide panic over man-made global warming. Just when politicians in Europe and America have been adopting the most costly and damaging measures politicians have ever proposed, to combat this supposed menace, the tide has turned in three significant respects.

First, all over the world, temperatures have been dropping in a way wholly unpredicted by all those computer models which have been used as the main drivers of the scare. Last winter, as temperatures plummeted, many parts of the world had snowfalls on a scale not seen for decades. This winter, with the whole of Canada and half the US under snow, looks likely to be even worse. After several years flatlining, global temperatures have dropped sharply enough to cancel out much of their net rise in the 20th century.

Ever shriller and more frantic has become the insistence of the warmists, cheered on by their army of media groupies such as the BBC, that the last 10 years have been the “hottest in history” and that the North Pole would soon be ice-free – as the poles remain defiantly icebound and those polar bears fail to drown. All those hysterical predictions that we are seeing more droughts and hurricanes than ever before have infuriatingly failed to materialise.

Even the more cautious scientific acolytes of the official orthodoxy now admit that, thanks to “natural factors” such as ocean currents, temperatures have failed to rise as predicted (although they plaintively assure us that this cooling effect is merely “masking the underlying warming trend”, and that the temperature rise will resume worse than ever by the middle of the next decade).

Secondly, 2008 was the year when any pretence that there was a “scientific consensus” in favour of man-made global warming collapsed. At long last, as in the Manhattan Declaration last March, hundreds of proper scientists, including many of the world’s most eminent climate experts, have been rallying to pour scorn on that “consensus” which was only a politically engineered artefact, based on ever more blatantly manipulated data and computer models programmed to produce no more than convenient fictions.

Thirdly, as banks collapsed and the global economy plunged into its worst recession for decades, harsh reality at last began to break in on those self-deluding dreams which have for so long possessed almost every politician in the western world. As we saw in this month’s Poznan conference, when 10,000 politicians, officials and “environmentalists” gathered to plan next year’s “son of Kyoto” treaty in Copenhagen, panicking politicians are waking up to the fact that the world can no longer afford all those quixotic schemes for “combating climate change” with which they were so happy to indulge themselves in more comfortable times.

Suddenly it has become rather less appealing that we should divert trillions of dollars, pounds and euros into the fantasy that we could reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 80 per cent. All those grandiose projects for “emissions trading”, “carbon capture”, building tens of thousands more useless wind turbines, switching vast areas of farmland from producing food to “biofuels”, are being exposed as no more than enormously damaging and futile gestures, costing astronomic sums we no longer possess.

As 2009 dawns, it is time we in Britain faced up to the genuine crisis now fast approaching from the fact that – unless we get on very soon with building enough proper power stations to fill our looming “energy gap” – within a few years our lights will go out and what remains of our economy will judder to a halt. After years of infantile displacement activity, it is high time our politicians – along with those of the EU and President Obama’s US – were brought back with a mighty jolt into contact with the real world.

AJ

Lights out Update

Some unencouraging news from The Times:

Coal power station closures could see Britain forced to start turning out the lights from 2013

A TENTH of the UK’s power plants could be forced to close by the spring of 2013 – two-and-a-half years ahead of schedule, new research shows.

The revelation will stoke fresh concern that the government has not done enough to head off a looming energy generation gap that could lead to blackouts across the country.

Under an EU directive, companies operating old coal and oil-fired plants were given the option to spend hundreds of millions of pounds to upgrade them to comply with tougher pollution standards.

Those that “opted out” of the programme – nine plants representing about 15% of UK power supply – were given 20,000 hours to operate, starting from January last year through to the end of 2015. Based on research from the energy-consultancy group Utilyx, several of these plants have been running at historically high rates that would put them out of commission much sooner than originally thought.

The coal-fired plants at Kingsnorth in Kent, owned by Eon, Scottish Power’s Cockenzie plant, RWE-owned Npower’s stations at Tilbury and Didcot, and Scottish & Southern’s Ferrybridge plant will all be decommissioned by the spring of 2013 if current patterns continue. The stations generate some 7.6GW of electricity – 10% of the UK’s total capacity.

The first of them, Scottish Power’s 1.2GW plant at Cockenzie, which generates enough power for 1m homes, will close as early as September 2010 based on current rates. The research was based on analysis of running patterns at the plants from January 1 this year to the end of October.

“It is likely that a significant proportion of the UK’s opted-out coal plant will close earlier than 2015, with the impact felt around 2013,” said Kevin Akhurst, managing director of generation at Npower.

H/T EUReferendum

AJ

Very Useful Viewing

Thanks to Patrick at the UKLP blog for pointing this out. Basically, a chap called Chris Martenson has put together a free video lecture (I hesitate to call it this, but that’s what it is) on the issues we face in the next 20 years, regarding the economy, the environment and the energy supply.

As Patrick says:

The individual chapters have been available at Martenson’s website for some time, but the entire presentation has now also been neatly packaged into a freely downloadable DVD format. You can grab the official PAL torrent from either Mininova or The Pirate Bay*.

It’s worth bearing in mind that much of the material in the presentation was produced prior to the current financial maelstrom, so you have an opportunity to judge whether Martenson was on the money in his predictions or not (hint: he was/is).

Although there will always be some points of contention in something presenting as much information as the Crash Course, such minor errors are far outweighed in significance by the strength of the overall thrust of Martenson’s main themes and arguments. Another possible criticism that could be levelled at Martenson is his optimistic approach: others have cogently argued that the issues which he highlights have now passed the point of being capable of amelioration. However, you can’t deal with a problem without first recognising why it exists, and explaining why is the key strength of this presentation.

If I’ve managed to make the Crash Course sound worthy or boring, it isn’t. It’s three hours of quality brain food, and easy to watch. To give you a flavour of the whole thing I’m embedding just one of the chapters below. If you want to understand why things are the way they are, and what the next few decades are likely to look like, then do yourself a huge favour a watch the whole thing.

I watched it and I was impressed, but suspicious – it all seemed too hermetic. So naturally, I went looking for alternative viewpoints, which I found:

http://www.strike-the-root.com/82/davies/davies7.html

My antennae twitched early in my first view of the Course, to suggest that Dr. Martenson might be some kind of Malthusian–for right there in the second segment he portrays the dramatic growth in human population as some kind of a problem, not as an object of wonder and celebration. Having watched it all twice now, I’m fairly sure he is one. But that is not a sound reason to dismiss his findings; the mere fact that every prophet of doom from Jeremiah to Al Gore has so far been dead wrong does not mean that Martenson is wrong. If they are to be dismissed, that should happen because his reasoning is wrong, not because we may find his conclusions unwelcome. And since he is a very, very bright person who presents his findings brilliantly, that is no trivial task. 

…

The three acute problems identified in the Crash Course are real and challenging, but all three are significantly overstated as above; so, therefore, is the resulting “perfect storm” that they will combine to produce. Meanwhile, a fourth acute problem is that we have allowed all others to be addressed not by risk-taking innovators with a personal stake in the outcome, but by politicians with enormous power but no such personal stake at all, who have led this country and the world into one major disaster after another. The “market”, which served early Americans so well even when restricted, has very largely been supplanted by a non-market, political apparatus called “government.” That critical, fourth problem towers above the others in importance, yet receives no explicit mention at all.  

The final, eagerly anticipated 22nd segment (numbered 20) appeared while I was writing this review, under the title “What Should I Do?” and some measure of the importance of the “Crash Course” is that it was watched more than 50,000 times in the first 24 hours. I anticipated it might suggest battening down the hatches, or else taking political action; I doubted that it would propose working to remove that great, fourth obstacle so that the other three have some hope of being solved, and unfortunately I was right. No such advice is offered.  

In fact, Dr. Martenson gives his very fine version of the first–to batten down the hatches. It suggests what action individuals can and should take to protect ourselves from the hard times to come, having systematically analyzed our own assessments of risks and impacts, and is very well worth watching. He is right; self-preservation must be the first priority. Earlier in the Course, he hints that we may have to live much more simply; and that he is “living proof” that a lower standard of life need not mean a lower quality of life, something Thoreau might applaud. Some here may endorse that; I for one do not. I have not yet given up on the expectation of continuing vast (and perhaps exponential!) growth in prosperity, health and happiness for all of mankind, not by a long shot; the only serious obstacle is government itself, and the means to remove that is already in place.  

So it’s really too bad that he did not bring it all together and conclude that all the dangers that face us were either created or exacerbated by government and that therefore government has to go. Had he done so, I’d have suggested he join TOLFA so as to help that job get done–by an exponentially growing number of individuals acting without any collective organization at all, with close to zero cost, and inside the very 20-year period he says will be so different from all before.

And here:

http://mediacondom.com/?p=457

The first thing that you need to know, is that the videos are very good.  I really enjoy realistic statistics about why the economy is coming to an end; versus the ‘end is nye’ stuff that Alex Jones seems to put out at the drop of a hat.

Chris gives you almost nothing but facts and stats.  According to him, the only opinion contained in the course comes near the end; which is his own.  As it is obvious that facts are used to SERVE opinions, I won’t point out that these facts are in line with his real thoughts on economics.

…

One such area Chris goes into is population (see above also;) which he feels will continue to increase; despite the rate of growth of food supplies.  This, of course, completely discounts technological leaps such as genetic modification, general changes in agriculture, and population reductions due to living circumstances.

By living cirucmstances, I mean that people tend to have fewer kids, as their lives get better.  Why?  It is just a little bit better to have a house instead of an apartment and one less kid in most cultures over time.  Or just see this.

Also Chris, don’t forget that more than 50% of Japan is expected to be old and dying by 2025; that not only means a huge loss of population (which Japan is importing Brazilians to deal with, believe it or not) -but it also means a huge number of asset acquirements by the inheritors of those dying people.

It means that there are fewer people, more wealth, and a wave of new workers at the bottom; pushing the top up a little higher due to wealth gaps.

Population, like everything, is not necessarily exponential.  Rather, it has peaks and falls; and should be considered in moderation.  Just as a stock or economic movement can ‘bubble,’ burst, drop, and then stabilize, so too can populations; or movements of any kind.  It is more than organic economics, it is natural law.

…

And, I think you are beginning to see how a statistic can appear to be cut and dry; but actually rolls misleading data into it’s conclusion (as Chris points out in our presidents.)  A statistic can also, however, leave OUT data; thus creating a half-truth, as opposed to an embellished one.

Such as Chris leaving out the number of people dying in his population statistics.

My last big issue with the course comes towards the end of the course itself; in that Chris feels that the future is locked up in hording and neighbors helping one another to survive; and reminds us of the Great Depression as an example of this behavior in people; and of course, is promoting it.

Hoarding is a simple myth to dispel.  You may do so with savings and foodstuffs; but if people hoard too much or too often, the economy comes to a stand still as there are no monetary exchanges; and thus limited economic activity.  This was one of the arguments used to remove the U.S. from the gold standard.

Of course, naturally, (and philosophically) there is only a gain in trade between people; as opposed to simply

‘helping’ them.  Giving away bread for anything that isn’t better or short-term more beneficial (caloricically) than the bread, will surely starve you and your family.

Why do this?  Because you ’should’ help.  Sorry, but greed is what rules the day during any ‘crash.’  If anything, I’d be more worried about my neighbor taking from me when he DOESN’T have plenty (obviously) than if he is just doing okay.

Remember the gangs of raiders during the great depression, the gas-siphoning during the 1970’s, and acts of cannibalism by Japanese soldiers during World War 2?  These aren’t in the video series.

Frankly, there never WAS a fuzzy time of great betterment during times of suffering; beyond what day to day trading could be done through those in the most direct (and trustworthy) contact to one another.

In the event of a crisis, I, am for me, followed by my family.  And, in terms of value hierarchy, I may choose my family over myself should I feel that I cannot live without them; something that Ayn Rand correctly identified in her writings.

Greed DOES have a structure and presence; even under the most moral of circumstances.  Those that attempt to circumvent natural law; are forever victims to it’s realities.

In conclusion, Chris Martenson’s video series ‘Crash Course’ is suffering from a bit of dogma in it’s execution.

…

The series, overall, is very informative.  And, as long as someone that is new to the data bothers to research other opinions not just statistically, but philosophically, they will find Chris to be one of many viewpoints; and a helpful stepping stone to a broader view of economic theory in modern times.

I strongly recommend the Crash Course series; just don’t accept everything the series (or me, or anyone) says, without doing your own research.

Well worth a viewing, anyway.

AJ

Smokers of the world unite. And cough.

Dick Puddlecote has a rather excellent blog of ‘leave me alone to live my life, you interfering clowns’ variety and I highly recommend it. Even if he does appear to lack the swear-gene.

Here’s a particularly splendid breakdown of the nonsense lies peddled by ASH in the smoking wars:

Unfortunately, this week is seeing a right kick in the teeth for ASH and their ilk. Lies are being exposed quite ruthlessly. First we had the revelation a couple of days ago that the smoking ban in England had actually reversed a long trend and managed to increase smoker prevelance. Today, ASH have been beaten by an even bigger stick as it was revealed that the Scottish smoking ban, allied with a banning of the sale of packs of 10, and the raising of the age for buying cigarettes has resulted in a 5% increase in young adults smoking in Scotland.

The number of young people smoking in Scotland has returned to a level last seen nearly 10 years ago, according to a report by health officials.

The survey revealed nearly a third of people between 16-24 are smokers.

In 2004 the number of young smokers in Scotland had fallen to just 25% but by 2007 that figure was 31%.

Note the dates. Smoking cessation initiatives have been an abject failure and have massively increased smoker prevalence in the 16-25 age group. So what does Shona Robertson suggest to halt this slide? Yep, you guessed it. More of the same failed policy.

Click through to see all of the following smoking ban ‘myths’ comprehensively destroyed proven true:

Myth: It will be bad for pubs
Myth: It will be bad for bingo
Myth: There will be large scale non-compliance
Myth: There will be heavy handed enforcement with undercover officers and covert filming
Myth: Working men’s clubs and shisha bars will close
Myth: People won’t really quit
Myth: Smoking is a victimless crime/ Claims about the health impact are flawed
Myth: House fires will increase as people will stay at home to smoke
Myth: There will be an increase in exposure of secondhand smoke in the home, affecting children
Myth: The public do not want a smoking ban or any further tobacco control measures

Glory be.

AJ

Andy Burnham: All your internets are belong to us

In the tellygraph, this hilarious and plankitundinal ignoramus declares his intention to monitor, rate and censor the whole (English speaking) Internet.

Oh noes!

Internet sites could be given ‘cinema-style age ratings’, Culture Secretary says

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Andy Burnham says he believes that new standards of decency need to be applied to the web. He is planning to negotiate with Barack Obama’s incoming American administration to draw up new international rules for English language websites.

The Cabinet minister describes the internet as “quite a dangerous place” and says he wants internet-service providers (ISPs) to offer parents “child-safe” web services.

Giving film-style ratings to individual websites is one of the options being considered, he confirms. When asked directly whether age ratings could be introduced, Mr Burnham replies: “Yes, that would be an option. This is an area that is really now coming into full focus.”

ISPs, such as BT, Tiscali, AOL or Sky could also be forced to offer internet services where the only websites accessible are those deemed suitable for children.

Mr Burnham also uses the interview to indicate that he will allocate money raised from the BBC’s commercial activities to fund other public-service broadcasting such as Channel Four. He effectively rules out sharing the BBC licence fee between broadcasters as others have recommended.

His plans to rein in the internet, and censor some websites, are likely to trigger a major row with online advocates who ferociously guard the freedom of the world wide web.

However, Mr Burnham said: “If you look back at the people who created the internet they talked very deliberately about creating a space that Governments couldn’t reach. I think we are having to revisit that stuff seriously now. It’s true across the board in terms of content, harmful content, and copyright. Libel is [also] an emerging issue.

“There is content that should just not be available to be viewed. That is my view. Absolutely categorical. This is not a campaign against free speech, far from it; it is simply there is a wider public interest at stake when it involves harm to other people. We have got to get better at defining where the public interest lies and being clear about it.”

Mr Burnham reveals that he is currently considering a range of new safeguards. Initially, as with copyright violations, these could be policed by internet providers. However, new laws may be threatened if the initial approach is not successful.

“I think there is definitely a case for clearer standards online,” he said. “More ability for parents to understand if their child is on a site, what standards it is operating to. What are the protections that are in place?”

Who is this fucking poofter? He’s a hot-button pressing motherfucker with that ‘Thinkofthechildren’ button he’s got, isn’t he?

I won’t be the only bloggist to mention this story – in fact the libel aspect of it has already come up – so I won’t bother with the whole taking apart of this monolith to mongitude. But there’s one truly brilliant quote in here:

Mr Burnham said: “If you look back at the people who created the internet they talked very deliberately about creating a space that Governments couldn’t reach.”

The Internet that was created by the US Department of Defence (DARPA)? And leading US universities? And UK educational establishments that were all UK government funded? And JANET? And CERN in Europe? You complete cock-gargler.

I shall just ask a couple of questions:

1) Haven’t you heard of parental control software, you berk?

2) The whole English speaking intermernet? ROFL

3) Since there are plenty of non-English speaking sites with indecent images that require no translation, what is he protecting children us all from? Well, logically, it must be the written word. Seditious text.

4) Labour have a Culture Secretary????? That’s priceless.

Meantime, the tellygraph also has a response in it’s OpEd section.

AJ