Global Warming -v- Climate Change

I am not a “warmist”, but then nor am I a sceptic. My comments are made on the back of reports I have read, some only half-remembered, but these are my views, not in the least scientific!

I have read a lot over the last couple of years and it strikes me that when anyone announces that global warming is accelerating it makes headlines, especially on the BBC (radio, TV and website).

However, when someone proclaims that overall mean temperatures have not risen since 1998 or whenever, this is consigned to a small link on the website and is not broadcast.

To me, this looks like biased reporting in favour of those who are pushing for action to prevent global warming.

I read somewhere that polar bears were declining “because of global warming”, then a report from one of the foremost experts on polar bear populations stating that one polar bear community was declining, two were increasing and the rest were stable – don’t quote these figures, I am typing from memory as the article has been lost.

So, who do I believe? None of them.

Yes, I believe we are ruining the planet. We are using non-renewable resources far too quickly. We are cutting down the “lungs” of the planet, the forests, which affects carbon dioxide absorption, which in turn may – and I say may – affect weather, which, as far as I can see, is not a good thing.

But, this almost hysterical screaming from some warmists is turning me away from the argument for global warming.

Another problem is that our (the UK’s) present government is pushing the argument for global warming and frankly, after suffering 12years of their rule, I don’t believe anything they say, especially as they are trying to tax us out of existence on the back of the argument.

Yes, I believe that the climate is changing. We have had a run of poor summers in the UK. But climate change happens; it is cyclic. It is not so long ago that Europe was covered in a thick sheet of ice. And before that, it had a sub-tropical climate.

Now we are told the climate is not following the predictions of the computer models. Why not? are the computer models faulty? Or were they just created to reflect what the warmists wanted them to?

Dr. Two Jags

It beggars belief! John Prescott, the biggest mangler of the English language ever to set foot in Parliament, is to be appointed as guest professor at Xiamen University in China, where he will give lectures on climate change – this from a man who ran two Jaguar cars when he was a minister.

And, just how will he get to China to deliver his lectures? I would assume that he will use an aricraft, those that the greenies will have us believe are akin to the Devil’s own work.

Of course, the other problem is that that there will be simultaneous translation so that the students actually understand what he is talking about. That will be a first. No one in the UK has yet managed that one.

Good luck, Chinese students.

Gordon Brown “has many, many talents”

After his resignation from the cabinet, James Purnell stated that he had lost faith in Gordon Brown as leader six months ago, and had been considering resigning since December (2008).

However, Home Secetary Alan Johnson sprang to the PM’s defence stating that Brown was the “best man for the job”.

He further stated that Mr. Brown had many, many talents and it was a tragedy that voters did not se them.

Well, here’s a suggestion for Mr. Johnson. If Gordon Brown has many, many talents (and as a voter, I have to confess that I can’t see them), how about pointing them out to us, the voters?

I would guess that he would be hard-pressed.

Making Whitehall More Efficient

It has been announced ahead of Wednesday’s fudge it budget that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling will be making a saving of £15,000,000,000 over the next couple of years, by making Whitehall more efficient.

Presumably, this means cutting back on the number of civil servants presently “employed” by the various Government departments, something that the general public has been calling for for years.

But, if the civil service is trimmed, this would presumably mean sacking a lot of workers, rather than just shunting them around from one department to another, as has been done in the past.

So, these workers will expect redundancy pay. And they will expect unemployment benefit.

Lord Digby Jones said of the Civil Service, ”Frankly the job could be done with half as many, it could be more productive, more efficient, it could deliver a lot more value for money for the taxpayer. I was amazed, quite frankly, at how many people deserved the sack and yet that was the one threat that they never ever worked under, because it doesn’t exist.”

This week’s budget is going to have to be a corker. It has to take the pressure off the Prime Minister, after weeks of criticism from many quarters regarding sleaze, corruption, police brutality, MPs’ expenses, opinion poll ratings, etc.

Uncle Bob Mugabe must be looking over his shoulder, wondering who that is just behind him in the race for sleaze-ball of the century!

But then, does it really matter what Darling says? After June 2010, there will probably be a new government in power, who, with a bit of luck, may have some ideas about how to run this country.

And pigs might fly.

Where is this Country Going?

After allegations of misuse of expenses allowances, the arrest and eventual release of an opposition legislator (because there was no case to answer), smear campaigns against opposition leaders, we now hear that there is an allegation of ballot box rigging, where a ballot box has been found, tampered with and with the ballot papers inside it torn up.

Where is all this? Zimbabwe? South America? Somewhere in Asia?

Nope, the UK.

A Day To Remember

Tuesday 20 January 2009

The day that the Internet slowed to its slowest, the day that the Google Blog service was not available, the day that Twitter was so busy, it couldn’t cope …

I am guessing that all this is caused by an awful lot of people using the Internet an awful lot more because of the Inauguration of Barak Obama.

Oh well, I suppose Pres. Obama cannot be blamed.  However, I do think that, with his country in an economic mess, together with the rest of the world, he could have cut back a little on the celebrations.

I wonder how much this presidential election has cost in total?

I hope it proves to have been worth it.

Printing more money

The UK Government is about to abolish a 164 year-old law that obliges the Bank of England to inform the Government (and thereby, the people of England) how much money it is printing.

This means that the B of E will be able to print money without constraint, a road that Germany went down just before WW2, and more recently, Mugabe has used to prop up his regime. In both cases, the economy was ruined.

Is the UK about to join pre-war Germany and Zimbabwe – it certainly looks like it.

What is laughable is that  Gordon Brown puts forward a Bill to hide the printing of money and simultaneously calls for greater transparency amongst the banks.

Hypocrite!

A Revolt by the BBC?

Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw that my favourite film was being screened on BBC2 ~ V for Vendetta.

I wonder if our High Chancellor watched it?
I wonder if he read the message?
I wonder if he felt just a little uneasy?

I hope so.

More Family Silver Sold Off

So the Government has sold off the last controlling interest in our nuclear industry to the Yanks.

I heard this on our local radio this morning (the AWE is within our county), so looked it up on the national press websites. It took a long time, but eventually, I found an also-ran headline on the BBC.

Here is the full story – well as full as the BBC wants to report, anyway.

What are the Government going to sell next to try and fil the big financial hole they have dug themselves into?

What next … ?

The British economy is on the verge of collapse, the pound is so weak it is in a oxygen tent, [ "A weak currency is the sign of a weak economy, which is the sign of a weak government." ~ Gordon Brown when he was in opposition, in 1995], Jack Straw’s new Justice Department spends £131m on an office re-fit, Transport has just wasted £81m on a worthless IT system, worthless not least because it spouts out information in German! It was supposed to save the taxpayer £54m – whoops!

What else could go wrong? Well the Chancellor of the Exchequer has just announced will emphasise new efficiency savings he intends to achieve in Whitehall budgets, worth at least £5 billion a year from 2010 onwards.

Officials are drawing up plans for a sale of government assets including the Met Office, the Ordnance Survey and thousands of acres of Forestry Commission land.

The chancellor will say that the public sector will have to take the strain of getting government borrowing back down by cutting spending growth below the 1.8% a year currently in the plans for the medium term.

Judging the Government on their present performance, how much is this going to cost us, the taxpayers?