Peter Gruner , the Editor of the Islington Tribune ,called me today , to discuss the outrageous misuse of funds by Islington’s Liberal Council. They have spent about £3,000,000 ,of tax payer`s money on high profile Green projects. I seem to have become a sort of reliable rent-a-gob and I delivered my usual splenetic spluttering .
This one will run and run ,and we can see why Chris Huhne Lib Dem Enviroment Spokesman, without having seen the programme, wrote to Channel 4 executives ,advising them in the gravest terms to reconsider their decision to broadcast the C4 Doccumentary.It has blown their cover ( DT ).
Islington`s projects include a Windmill ,and the associations with Don Quixote are about right. The Coucil begun to believe everything they read and especially about themselves. On the left the temptation to straddle the world stage from a Passport to Pimlico bureaucrats desk is always irresistible
I am not a denier , as Croydonian puts it , I am a sceptic. There is , in my view ,good reasons for taking sensible measures and erring on the side of caution .On the other hand there is a good deal of the Y2K baloney about it. For Islington to imagine that they have to unilaterally lead the world, raises the spectre of the lunatic Margaret Hodge declaring us a Nuclear Free zone in the midst of her disaster strewn tenancy . That was in the days of Old Loony Labour and we thought they were gone .back it seems by another route. They are raising the Green Flag over The Town Hall
Ellee was earlier on telling us the effect of the regulation and taxation on all small companies and worse still….“ …environmental projects have been singled out for the brunt of the the HMRC new regulation. It states that any kind of partnership of investors (especially in environmental expenditure) would only get tax relief on £25,000, even if they needed to risk £250,000“.
In fact all companies are in desperate difficulties with the cyclones if red tape we try to fend from our eyes every day . Costs on small Brokers, in which I work ,are reckoned to require an additional £100,000 to comply with FSA regulations brought in primarily as a result of the unrelated endowment problem. Health and Safety and ever increasing requirements are putting small companies out of business.
Big Companies are rubbing their hands with glee.I have seen in my own industry. They get good publicity and they get to move out of the really free market into quasi monopolistic conditions created by New Labour.
So we have inefficient companies over charging and protected from competition . They are run according over-arching government set designs for the minutiae of production .
Its back door re-nationalisation or at least corporatism and once again the red flag has been replaced by the Green one.
BUT : I am concerned that the Intergovernmental Panel on climate change redrafted its report once it had left the scientists hands to tone down the possibilities of “ Positive feedback. A critique of the Report now argues that the references were removed in a systematic fashion. We should it forget that there are vested interests on the side of the deniers as well and what happened with this report look highly suspicious.
( New Scientist)
CONCLUSION: My conclusion is that lies have been told to further careers , raise taxes and establish control . This has forever devalued whatever sound points there may have been.
That does not mean there is nothing to worry about and we cannot think that the denial side has uniquely clean hands .
25 comments:
Again on localism, if local councils were able to practice what they preached, people would soon vote them out for wasting and taxing.
Interesting that all those CNDLabour types are now in the government which is pushing New Trident through, possibly ahead of time!
Sorry I meant practise.
I should really start practising what I preach...!
N, I can see how much certain vested interests have to gain from man-made global warming being accepted as fact _ and govts.s too _ all those extra taxes! But I wonder how much of it may just be a publicly acceptable narrative to tackle the problems of energy security? Blair and Brown can hardly come out and say:
"Putin is turning into another Stalin _ and (now that nearly everyone has gas central heating) if he turns off the gas taps, hundreds of thousands of Brits may die of hypothermia." They can hardly say either: "We are sick to death of propping up odious middle eastern regimes all to secure our oil supply and thereby funding the house of Sauud to convert the whole of the Islamic world to their anti-human and dangerous form of Wahabite Islam, a clear and present threat _ and would like to be able to say 'sod your oil'." Far easier to take all the public policy measures under the guise of combating global public warming....
Actually, DA, I think the energy security and anti-middle-east-oil arguments are much more persuasive!
Interesting point David Allen. A case for nuclear power stations surely ? I dread to think what such a tactic would do for the prospect of reopening our coal seams too.
DA, you are close to the mark here. Several highly unlikely recent 'green' converts (continental utilities, to be precise) are latching onto both issues (environmental, and security of supply) to argue that energy market liberalisation be thrown into reverse. Just restore their old monopoly powers and they promise to solve both problems. (And yes, Kev, they are lobbying hard to keep their nucs going + build more.)
It is utterly spurious, of course. There is an excellent market mechanism to address CO2 emissions (the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, IF properly run, = auctioning allowances not giving them away). And security of supply is enhanced by greater market liquidity / flexibility / liberalisation.
Coupled with diversifying the sources of supply, of course, which is happening pretty much as rapidly as possible. Which doesn't mean that Russia won't command good prices in the market - it will, but so will any producer of valuable commodities.
Interestingly, as I pointed out on CU last week, the Observer carried an article saying that Centrica is roaming the globe looking for new sources of gas, but (so the article said) is being warned off Iran and Russia by HMG. Joined-up govt?
cameron is not going to get my vote if he thinks taxing my holidays is a way to make me happy.
Idiotic policy from the Tories; worse as you point out it only encourages the socialists who have adopted a green flag to do evern worse damage.
Ed Labour have always been quite bellicose. Theyvwerer anti Eu until it became a way of importing Socialism. the words national and Socilaism are not unknown to eachother ...( Godwin`s theory)
Kev I think david has a very good point indeed there . Ruthy , bad hair , Lea agrees with you David . I doubt the ability of the government to organise a world wide fraud but agree that green taxes are a good idea to get us off fossil fuels for security reasons if nothing else
It is utterly spurious, of course. There is an excellent market mechanism to address CO2 emissions (the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, IF properly run, = auctioning allowances not giving them away). And security of supply is enhanced by greater market liquidity / flexibility / liberalisation.
A resounding "maybe" to that Nick. If you look at my next post I have questioned the detial of markets in CO2 offsetting and the EU system will never work( IMHO).
Nonetheless I agree that this is the right way to go
CU- It does not tax your ( first) holiday and apparently the taxes are going ot be given back with your transferable married man`s alowance. OK its a bit wibbly wobbly but it makes sense on the face of it...doesn`t it ..
I `m somewhat loathe to disagree with you I must say but I think so
Ed BTW for obvious reasons I take a very lenient view of spelling .... I can spell but I cannot type.
You will be pleased to know that that is me done for this week on serious stuf. A few gags but otherwise and I am off to other peoples sites....
Peter Gruner's name sounds familiar, I wonder if we met in a previous life, perhaps you can ask him if my name rings any bells next time you speak, whether he has ever had a Cambridge connection. I would like to read the report when it is published and see what this money has been spent on, perhaps you can post the link.
I remember Peter Gruner now, I rang him up a few times when he was the London Evening Standard environment correspondant, but I never had much joy with him, always promises that came to nothing.
Newmania,
Don't you think Blair and Brown have been a tad ... er ... overrated ? Not in the same league as Putin however nasty the man may be.
As regards CO2 - China is the likely to be the worst culprit, building coal power stations prolifically. Yet here we are with our cheap credit buying up their goods with ghusto.
Credit - the surest way to ensure people consume far more than they've earned. That includes petrol and household gas too. Massively destructive for the environment in all ways.
What do Blair/Brown/Cameron intend to do about it ?
... and does all this mean that British coal will never be used ?
ellee - always promises that come to nothing? That's men for you!
Sexist.
Kev you have such original ideas that I am never quite sure where ti vcome from . I cannot seriously think that we are going to abandon credit which is the basis of bankin and thefore the Western World
How ineresting Ellee , he is doimg agreat job of bringing the Tribune to life and seems nice enough.
Bit of a lush but ok so far
Phillipa ..maybe you haven`t met the right men ?
I don't know where my ideas come from either. Perhaps it's working in "meat world" that does it. Or maybe it's the medication.
Peter Gruner is probably establishment now, hence the change, it happens to some.
probably establishment now, hence the change, it happens to some.
Not me . I `ve tried and I can`t. Seriously .
Now Elee I know you`ve been banned in China but I wouldn`t get carried away.This sneering at the establishment ,is that going to go down well with the movers and shakers of Cambridge ?
PS not against credit, just against CHEAP credit. I believe it exists precisely because it fits Blair/Brown's economic model - these guys are truly schizophrenic in what they say and what they do.
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