Does Gordon Brown WANT chaos this week?

This is something I posted at Old Holborn's place.

_____________

Gordon Brown desires nothing more than chaos because he believes it makes him indispensible. So he causes chaos and then pretends to try to fix it but doesn't really try because it's the chaos, not the fixing, that he loves.

Old Holborn may be paranoid but that does not mean, etc...

This is basic stuff in any revol-yooshenry handbook. It was why Lenin fomented war as the ideal (quickest) precursor for seizing power. In the early days of the British Communist Party it was fundamental that street level cadres sought out grievances (poor housing etc.) and used promises to fix them to secure a popular mandate.

The Communists were never going to be popular in Britain because the British had lost their taste for revolution before the Socialist dream was born, but it remains a core socialist tradition, and still thrives in Scottish Labour politics which, tragically for us, now dominate the government of Britain.

There is farce in the innate incompetence of socialists to conduct the business of government (cf. Gordon Brown) because their creed is essentially that of those denied power but desiring it: the complainer, the powerless, the vengeful, the ‘class warrior’ (‘it’s all HIS fault’), the rioter. Socialists want power because someone else has it, not because they want to use it for good, or are more capable than others of doing so. The true socialist mentality will be visible on the streets this week (alongside the well-meaning). Ruiners.

The farce of the socialists’ incompetence when in power is balanced by the tragedy which inevitably follows their acquisition of it (cf. Gordon Brown and all Labour PMs passim). OH says that Brown doesn’t try to fix the problem but I think perhaps he does, if only up to a point, because he is sufficiently vain to believe that he can and he would be unable to resist any opportunity to prove to himself and the disbelieving world that he is superior to his rivals because he is right about everything. Omniscient if not impotent, and the latter only because he is held back by irritations like the constitution (and yes, we do have one, hence his lust for 'constitutional reforms'). This, of course, is the worst possible outcome: a half-hearted, half-cocked attempt at actual governance by a deluded and vain incompetent.

As to this week, a breakdown of civil order would be a disaster for anyone wanting this risibly vain and incompetent man and his evil government thrown out. Was it OH who said this?

If we don't riot, Labour will be destroyed at the next election. If we riot, there won't be one'.

Never a truer word.

For all our sakes, keep calm and carry on. It's just a matter of time before we are rid of them, perhaps for a generation.

We must hope.

Earth Hour 2009

The Prodicus ménage will marking tonight's global self-flagellation with its own observances between 8.30 and 9.30 pm London time, Saturday 28 March 2009.

For one hour, Prodicus will become a Warmist by doing his damnedest to warm the planet. Our target is to get the earth's surface temperature up by one quattuordecillionth of a degree Fahrenheit. Fahrenheit for the sake of tradition and the target because the word itself pleases me. And there is no such thing as a fucking gazillion. Peasants.

All windows will be opened and the central heating will be turned up to maximum as will the temperature of the constant hot water supply. There is a heated debate this morning about whether or not to turn on the immersion heater as well. I am in favour but Mrs Prodicus thinks that would be a little OTT.

There are three electric ovens in the kitchen and all will be roasting away merrily in advance of the feast with which the household will mark the end of Earth Hour. All four burners on the gas hob will be in use to the same end.

There is a radio in every room without a TV set or computer, and all will be blaring out whatever is on Radio 3. That includes the bathroom and the lavatory.

Two of the three TV sets are capable of playing DVDs. Anyone in the main main living room will be entertained by the Gabrieli Consort's Music for San Rocco. Anyone wishing to see Fred Astaire's masterpiece, Swing Time, should repair to the second bedroom. The third TV will be switched to Fox News but guests are free to change channels to any but those operated by the BBC or Channel 4.

The garden floodlights will be switched on at the commencement of Earth Hour and a trumpet-playing nephew will alert the district with a specially-composed fanfare which he has dedicated to Al Gore under the working title of Fanfare for a Global Con Artist. The lights will remain on throughout Earth Hour as will the light in the front porch. (The trumpet will be confiscated at the end of the fanfare.)

If the weather is clement, all present in the house will be provided with battery-operated torches and asked to go outside for a celebratory mass smoke-in. Cigarettes and cigars will be provided by your host.

At the end of Earth Hour, all audiovisual equipment will be silenced as the company assembles in the dining room for (refrigerated) champagne and civilised conversation, probably about how the world has been taken over by the fucking lunatics and thank God one knows some sane people. We shall then share a fine Watermelon Memorial Repast of which the highlight will be Prodicus's famous watermelon sorbet. The feast will end with port and cigarettes for the gentlemen and malt whisky and cigars for the ladies. Or ad lib. The evening's proceedings will end with a fireworks display (fireworks imported from China) around a bonfire of all those old copies of Radio Times we recently discovered in the attic topped off with an effigy of Michael Meacher, just for laughs.

If you're down this way, do pop in, but kindly bring something we can plug into the mains, preferably with a built-in light of some sort.

Hendry: Linear growth is over. Cyclical is back.

And it'll be a 30 year cycle. That means it will take us 30 years to climb out of the investment pit.

Oh - and he's buying tobacco and defence... to defend his capital.

But he admits that not even he is always right. Only almost always.

Inform (FAIL). Educate (FAIL). Entertain (FAIL).

The 'public service' broadcasters could not deal with the Daniel Hannan speech in terms of the man or his arguments, for a number of reasons.

• Hannan is a likeable, well-liked and fluent Conservative. Who could have known that such a thing existed?
• He is outside the ProgCon, to put it mildly and so impossible to embroil in Wark-ish tangential 'debate' on non-issues. Unreliable in the studio.
• He is well-informed and his strong suit is substance. He takes questions at face value and answers them as they are put. See above.
• He is relaxed and does not take offence easily, and has a dry, self-deprecating sense of humour. Impossible to bait. Even Paxo would have a job being rude to him and even if he could, Hannan would not bite so that Paxo would end up smiling at him. Must not happen - Hannan is a right wing Tory.
• He relies on his arguments for votes, not on any kind of circus and is outstandingly successful in so doing. Does TV have any interviewers up to dealing with political substance at his level?

Them: Daniel Hannan would not make good television in traditional television's own terms. He does not conform to their categories in political or performance terms.

Us: He makes excellent television in the audience's terms - self-evidently and to the mystified amazement of classical television makers.

Unlike Internet news media (blogs/independents) and print newspapers except the Guardian, UK television and radio is an hermetically-sealed and narrow-minded world. Their take on the Hannan event was neither Hannan himself nor his attack on Brown, but their own surprise at the Hannan event. They classified the story under 'Internet' rather than as popular (yes, popular) politics.

This week, the broadcasters and especially the BBC have demonstrated, far more effectively than their critics' most extravagant assertions, their incomprehension of their audience, of politics and current affairs, and - most of all - of their own decay, obsolescence and historic failure.

Andrew Neil, one of the world's most experience and most political editors, was the first to show the Hannan clip (part of it, and not even the most sensational part) on mainstream TV, on a programme watched only by politics nerds. In that forum, that editor asked, 'Who is Hannan? Who has ever heard of him?'

Hannan's attack in a major international forum on a half-dead Prime Minister, contemporaneously breaking all records for a political Internet TV clip, was no more than an aside in a discussion between the UK's most popular political anger-blogger and an alarmingly weird and unphotogenic newcomer to blogging who hates the first man but aches to emulate him in gaining popular following for a widely-disregarded Labour effort.

Channel 4 News handled Hannan the same way, even mysteriously bringing in the same unpleasant freak to oppose Hannan himself, which he conspicuously failed to do, to the irritation of the news anchor who told him, as Andrew Neil had done earlier, to shut up.

Here's a thing. Why these invitations for Draper, on two publicly funded TV channels? He annoys the presenters and only ever parrots off-topic and untruthful speak-your-weight partisan abuse. Are the ProgCon producers trying to draw some sort of equivalence between the intelligent, serious, articulate and successful Hannan (Oxford First) and the thick, ridiculous, inarticulate and failed Draper (expelled-from-shrink-college)?

BBC Radio covered Hannan in the same way, briefly and once only, as a mystifying 'You Tube phenomenon', rather than as political news.

So what do we learn from all this?

1. That TV, and the BBC in particular, has lost the plot in political news coverage.
2. That they are now so inward-looking and derelict that they cannot see how the British Prime Minister being torn apart in the European Parliament is political news.
3. That they have no comprehension whatever of the reasons for the worldwide popularity of the Hannan news clip. I said 'news clip'.
4. That they are totally perplexed by the Internet and have vastly underestimated (a) the extent to which, as a news medium, it has overtaken them, and (b) the rate at which their own irrelevance is increasing.
5. That they have, for no ascertainable reason, categorised Derek Draper as a credible political voice and an authority on blogging.

Sorry, chaps. There is no hope for you. None. You have dug your own grave and you have dug it deep.

Can I stop paying for you now?

Dear Stanislav,

Will you please for fuck's sake stop sodding about with your URL/host/blog/website?

Power to the Plumbers, oh yes. Up against the wall with the Ruiner and all his incestuous (I hesistate to use the technical terminology of your esteemed profession) brethren, by all means.

However, one more Cannot Find The Page incident and I shall have to seek alternative plumbing (and advertising - love it!) services, innit. Serious. Not make up.

Thank you most kindly.

Regards,

Prodicus of Ceos

Fleet Street has better things to do

... than follow Gordon Brown about as he traipses around the world's airports trying not to look confused while one national leader after another - not to mention his own central bank governor and finance minister - rubbishes his Master Plan for the World Economy.

Downing Street has been miffed to discover that most of Fleet Street's finest have chosen not to cover the Prime Minister's 'Save the World' vanity tour. Instead the hacks paying £5,000 to be on the PM's jet are mostly - with due respect to them - from the second division. Patrick Wintour, George Pascoe Watson and Philip Webster - political editors of the Guardian and the Times respectively - have all stayed in London, leaving their deputies to cover the trip. Nick Robinson, the BBC political editor, has flown with the PM, but Adam Boulton of Sky News has stayed in Washington.

Source

Meanwhile, back home, that same central bank governor has historic and completely unprecedented private talks with the Head of State while the Prime Minister is out of the country, plus an unscheduled private meeting with the finance minister.

To add a bit of hilarity, an MEP by the name of Who He? makes headlines at Brown's expense on all the world's media except the BBC while, over in South America where the Saviour currently finds himself, Pele apparently can't spare him five minutes.

Only the (also very confused and, we now see, naive and easily-led) Former One is accompanying Snotty along 'the road to Hell' (copyright the government of the Czech Republic and all governments).

The tosser's tosser

I feel a bit better now, thanks. After the throwing up, I took some bicarb and then a small Scotch to steady the nerves.

But, fuck me sideways, it'll be a long day in hell before I watch another Derek Draper interview. He is unbelievably sick-making, to look at, to listen to... and as for the dilute diarrhoea dribbling from his mouth...

I may throw up again at the memory of it.

Draper is, without any competition whatsoever, the most repellent advocate for a political party since Joseph Goebbels fronted the Hitler for Fuhrer campaign. Which obviously Goebbels was good at, as Draper is not good at, oh, anything much, let alone evoking affection for any organisation suicidal enough to permit the ridiculous oaf to presume to speak for it.

But, oh, fuck me up down and sideways with a cactus. When one thinks of advocates of the Labour Party down the years... Shaw, Wells, Kingsley Martin, Anthony Howard, Paul Johnson (before Damascus)... My God. Draper.

How can anyone - anyone - with the interests of the Labour Party at heart permit the oily, mendacious, delusional and utterly repulsive arse Draper to appear on behalf of their party?

What on earth has the Labour Party done to deserve a drearily delusional wannabe dictator like Draper as its public face?

Oh. Well, yes, all right, I got a bit carried away there.

Oh - and Fawkes should suppress the urge to be on the telly. The medium doesn't suit him nor he it.

Good blog, Guido, but you ain't pretty and you ain't quick enough for TV. Resist the urge, man. And think about working out a bit, maybe.

Shocking

No, not the troughing of Dawn 'Two London Homes' Butler MP (Lab.). One no longer expects propriety from the average MP and especially not from any member of this government of all the arseholes.

Not her utter failure to perform the essential minimum task of a government whip, to wit., to ensure that government MPs turn up and vote and so prevent government business being lost to Opposition votes. Hahahahaha.

Miss Whiplash (Failed) and hero. Picture taken from here without permission.

Hold on. Why am I laughing? I'm paying this bloody woman's salary. Still, every cloud... she's so bleeding useless that she fails and embarrasses this horrible Labour 'government'. Excellent! Keep it up, Dawn. You are worth paying for, after all. May you wreck some of Brown's best-laid plans every week that your God-forsaken party remains in office.

But - bloody incredible, eh? An incompetent like Butler being a member of an actual, real-world government? I mean, any government? Even a Labour government?

But no, none of the above is particularly shocking. Unlike her illiteracy.

And there's more.

Dawn Butler MP said “Yesterday I was proud to launch Bernie's list* and deliver my speech baton of hope inspired by President Obama’s Hope 08 campaign and the Jamaican relay team to a rammed (sic) parliamentary room.

“Meeting Obama was an inspirational moment. And I am so humbled that I can quote what he said about me ‘that having met me he understands why I am only one of two black women in parliament (sic).

This stalwart of of Leninspart's Black Wimmin Cohort is a multiculti Labour politician par excellence: ill-educated, vain, dishonest, on the make, a dyed-in-the-wool, half-arsed leftie vastly over-promoted because of her, um, background and connections. Busy, though, I'll give you that. No doubt her supporters would describe her as a 'fantastic constituency MP'. But I ask myself what, outside Labour-racial politics, could she possibly do?

Butler will stand in the new seat of Brent Central at the next general election, up against popular LibDem Sarah Teather. She must be praying that the anyone-but-Labour vote fails to turn out for Teather, lest even her (projected) majority of 19 per cent be in jeopardy. Still, no doubt the Sisterhood will ensure that she has a nice comfy quango or two lined up before The Day. Trevor's probably getting them ready even as I type. What with Gordon being on the skids, and all.

Hat tip to Iain Dale for the Miss Whiplash (Failed) laugh and to Mark Pack for revealing just how well-qualified Miss Butler is to be a Labour Minister. But shouldn't she be in the education department?

* yet another blacks-only outfit. I think I may start the Prodicus List, for literate whites only, and see how Dawn likes them onions. But what am I saying? That would be racist, no?

Quote of the day

People say that capitalism is based on greed, which must be restrained. No it isn't. It's built on self-interest – which is perfectly natural to us all, and beneficial to our community. Dr Eamonn Butler, Adam Smith Institute

Leftie gets it right

Leg-iron has turned over the stone that is the New Statesman and, beneath it, has found much hilarity from a really incredible little leftie who writes from Washington. She thinks Gordon Brown is magnificent (no, seriously...), that Labour has brought Britain into the 21st century triumphantly (no, wait, it gets better...) and has an enviable record, one it can be proud of.

Well, yes, exactly. But she got this right, without intending to:

Inevitably, rewarding providers for success will transform health care into a supply-driven system at the expense of the taxpayer.

Quite. Our NHS problem in a nutshell, sweetie.

Er, sorry about that

Had to pop off for a bit. Apologies to my regular reader for failing to make my excuses before leaving.

I must say, it was easing to the soul to be unaware of the doings of the Ruiner (copyright Stanislav) for ten days or so, communing with trees and mountains instead of venting the righteous anger in my soul.

But - dammit - the mad bastard Brown has survived my absence and is still carrying on his Great Work of Ruination.

Taking a quick look around the sphere last night, my breast swelled with a huge pride in my fellow bloggers who, as always, brought the good news from Aix to Ghent (no, that was me, yesterday... I am getting confused) where Pravda (of course) failed.

Heartfelt thanks to Guido and all who have posted this so widely. Not that one would be aware of such deliciousness were one reliant solely on Pravda for information. And thanks and appreciation to Dan Hannan for speaking up for, erm, me.

Pravda is still failing to give me information this morning, instead expending half a lifetime on the superannuated wannabe-revolutionary and - God help us - Vazoline fan, Jesse Jackson, currently infesting this benighted kingdom with his presence at your expense and mine. His nuggets of... something or other (i nearly mis-spoke myself and said wisdom)... are apparently germane to the BBC's mission to inculcate in the British people the correct 'values' in matters of political elections and positive discrimination as well as making us face up to our responsibility for internecine murder in black ghettos. (I have never ventured into a black ghetto but apparently - or maybe that should be therefore - I am as guilty as anyone. Fuck. Off.) It was stomach-churning hearing Jackson brown-nosing (Cut that out. Ed.) the appalling Vaz although it was most amusing hearing Evan Davies trying to keep a straight face and last out the slot as the predictable old pinko (is that right?) agitator droned on. And on. And on...

Last night when I arrived back I turned on the PM programme in the hope of hearing some news. Instead, I was was treated to an unusually long interview with a gentleman called Ishmael who has both 'learning difficulties' and strong views on how those who share his disability should be treated. It was, er , what's the word... illuminating. A real privilege, and I mean that most sincerely. And about three times as long as it needed to be. But what a bit of luck! It blocked about fifteen minutes of current affairs air-time which otherwise the BBC might have had to fill with, oh, you know. Current affairs.

Bastards.

But that Mervyn King! Didn't he do well! And perfect timing, eh? Just when Gordon was having to endure this:

Yeah, well. You know how it is. You can't have too much of a good thing. And you have to admit that speech was a very good thing.

Now, I wonder what all my favourite bloggers have been up to while my back was turned? I fear this may take a while...

One day, my child, all this will be yours

The Brown Inheritance:

What he will leave behind is a dysfunctional state, stripped of sovereignty, up to its eyeballs in so much debt that not even our children's children will be free from the burden.
The misguided promotion of multiculturalism and open borders that marked the first and second phases of Labour's administration will continue to undermine social cohesion.
Children in comprehensives will be handed debased certificates of success, while falling further behind pupils in grammar and independent schools.
An unfunded pension system that is, in effect, an inverted pyramid of unaffordability will buckle and crack.

Read it and weep. And rage. And swear to ruin the evil, mad bastard in return. And never, ever, to vote Labour again.

But beware. Did you see the hate in the faces of the hard left in the QT audience last night? Our future is as ugly as they are.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Especially if your name is Cameron. What is coming will make the battles fought and won by the great Thatcher seem like children at play.

Tell your grandchildren the story of The Brown Inheritance. And tell them to tell it to their own grandchildren. And on and on, unto the Nth generation.

Never again.

Dear Stanislav,

Barred? What did I do?

I can't hide it from you - I am gutted. Highlight of my day, finding a post at your place.

I've even got your Saga of the Ruin linked and highlighted in my permanent side bar. An important document like that should be in the British Library, I reckon. Sigh. Guess I ought to take it down now.

But don't get me wrong. I'm glad for you that the plumbing business and the new advertising agency are making you so rich and famous that you no longer need admirers like me. Or all the people I have introduced to your work.

Still, your gaff, your rules.

Thanks for the larfs, anyway. Nice while it lasted.

All the best,

Your admirer,

Prodicus of Ceos.

Sandwich of the Day

First, the undercarriage:

Well there was the Basel II standards, which when combined with mark-to-market accounting and the fact that everyone was using the same, regulator-approved models, basically ensured that in a financial crisis, all banks' assets would collapse together (because no-one would be in a position to buy them), preventing a market recovery and guaranteeing widespread contagion.

Next, the beef. It's over there.

Then, the top dressing:

If this crisis is a demonstration of the failure of anything, it certainly is not "deregulation". Indeed I argue that this crisis is a failure of big-state, deficit financed economics. It is a failure of tightly-regulated quasi-state oligopolies who operate as an undiversified government guaranteed cartel. It is a failure of economies which are nearly half state-run. If the people were not taxed so much, savings ratios would be higher. People would have reserves to fall back on, and would not have need of 125% negative-amortisation mortgages.

And finally, some horse-radish:

For mark my words, the Labour party and the Democrats in the USA and the EU leviathan are not interested in you, dear voter. They see this as an opportunity to increase the scale, power and reach of the state into your lives. The system failed; their prescription: more of the system.

Well done, Jackart.

Horseshit

Alan Johnson MP just said (QT) that when Labour came to office in 1997 one in three children lived in poverty.

Who said, 'You couldn't make it up'?

You bloody could. Johnson just did. One in three, in Britain?

What are these fucking socialists on?

More to the point, why on earth did I turn QT on in the first place?

He mis-spoke. Surely.

I may be the UN's least enthusiastic fan but even I was brought up short on reading this:

Yesterday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called the United States a “deadbeat” donor to the world body. The White House called these words “unfortunate” and at least rightfully acknowledged the “the contribution that the American taxpayer makes.”

However, these words are much more than “unfortunate.” Let’s start with our donor status. The United States puts up 22% of the operating budget of the United Nations. Compared to other well populated nations with large economies, this is an outstanding number. China barely tops 2%, Brazil is just over 1% and Russia and India barely register as donors at all. Considering our secondary role as the official host country to the United Nations headquarters and any expenses that status costs, it is insulting when the United States is referred to as a “deadbeat” by the UN Secretary-General.

From here.

Deadbeat? Don't you know, Mr Ban? Call yourself a diplomat?

Gift-horse, mouth... not a good move.

Allow me to introduce you

Want to know what a Luddite looks like?

Here's one.

A professor in U.Columbia's School of Journalism, Ari Goldman finds that his Faculty is revamping its courses to suit the new age. Ari thinks all this digital media lark is “an experimentation in gadgetry.”

If you say so, Prof. And good luck leading the fight-back.

Vox pop

Gent on the New York Street, hearing that Madoff is going to jail for life:

Yeah. I hope he gets in with a real nice crowd.

Class.

Regarding this convicted felon...

... who was released earlier today when his appeal was allowed by the Court of Appeal despite one of the judges saying that

'in the court's view, the sentencing judge had had "no option but to impose a custodial sentence".

Now I am not a lawyer, and I am very confused. The Appeal Court says that the trial judge had no alternative and promptly overturns his judgement. How does that work? Well, let us dig deeper.

Lord Ahmed's barrister, Jeremy Baker QC, had argued the jail sentence could "irreparably and permanently" damage Lord Ahmed's ability to carry out community work in the future.

Ah! Yes, I see. Of course. All quite clear now. His Lordship is a Muslim community worker!

So... that means... being a Muslim community worker means that British courts will make exceptional arrangements for you in the event of your being convicted of a crime? You don't have to serve a custodial sentence to which a judge feels there is no alternative?

One law for Muslim community workers and another for everyone who is not, ah, a Muslim community worker?

Or what? He'll call up his army of 10,000 of his prison visitors co-religionists to see justice done by their community worker?

Is that how it works? It is? Right. At least that's clear.

I have some more questions.

Have Attorney General Scotland (corrected) and Justice Minister Straw:

(i) regretfully declined to comment on individual cases or

(ii) said this is a matter for the Courts and not government or

(iii) already made the government's position perfectly clear or

(iv) suggested that we draw a line under the matter and move on?

I just need to know how the government wants me to think about this matter. Where I stand. That sort of thing. You know.

One can't be too careful. I wouldn't want to break the law by speaking out of turn. I could end up in court. Full majesty of the law and all that. Awesome.

BBC launching 3rd party embedded video

Info here.

It will be interesting to see how generous they are with their clips. And which clips.

One law for them...

Another for the peasants. The G20 will be a smoking venue.

I guess the One is having a hard time kicking the weed and made it a condition of his attendance. Talk about a lame reason to threaten not to turn up...

Still, he's got to spent quality time with Gordon Brown. God, yes - let the poor bastard have a fag.

There's something else. We know Obama is no Anglophile. A temporary amendment of a very stupid law may at least give him some relief from the incessant droning and boasting he's going to have to endure at the hands of his host. You know, the Man who Saved The World from a crisis which he repeats ad nauseam started in America.

Even the fake charity, ASH, would admit that a bit of fag smoke is less harmful to health than having the President of the United States, driven to drugs by Gordon Brown but denied even the mercy of a cigarette, storming out and declaring war on us.

And they say this is about 'science'

Q: What do these people have in common? Associate Professor of Resource and Environmental Geology, University of Oslo Professor of Physics and Director Emeritus, University of Alaska Delaware State Climatologist Associate Professor of Climatology, University of Delaware Associate Professor, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden Member of United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Consulting Climatologist, Australasian Climate Research Professor of Geology, University of Ottawa Professor of Chemistry, Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine Former US Senator Hon. Harrison Schmitt, Ph.D Assistant Director, Programs & Science & Technology Policy, US Department of the Interior Associate Professor of Atmospheric Sciences in the Soil, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Department, University of Missouri, Columbia Professor, Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University Research Professor of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia Fellow in Environmental Studies, Pacific Research Institute Professor Emeritus of Meteorology and Oceanography, The Florida State University Professor of Physics, University of Hartford Full Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Applied Mathematics, The University of Western Ontario Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University Emeritus Professor of Geology, Western Washington University Chief Energy Economist and Head of the Center for Energy Economics, Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas, Austin Professor of Meteorology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor of Physics in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics, University of Rochester Research Professor, James Cook University

A: They are contributors to the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change in New York which, mysteriously, has not been reported by the BBC.

This conference is not to be confused with the concurrent Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen from which the BBC has broadcast daily bulletins. The list of plenary speakers at this conference is headed by the new masters of the universe, the IPCC chairman who shared Al Gore's Nobel Prize, and Nicholas Stern.

Oh, yes, without doubt Copenhagen is a convention of the Great and the Good. So the BBC is there in force. Not just its science people - its news team. This is important news.

The 800 luminaries of the New York conference, on the other hand, are not presided over by the Gore-ists. They are not part of 'the consensus' which the Socialist International, the BBC and Al Gore want you to believe in, in order that they may frighten you into ceding control of your liberty to them.

Therefore you are not permitted to know anything of their opinions, discussions or findings. The BBC is not there.

But never mind all that. Back to what the Righteous permit you to hear. I mean, what they insist on telling you.

Yesterday, the BBC gave us an almost unintelligible 'report' from the 'approved' meeting in Copenhagen. The gist was almost totally obscured by the sheer density of qualifiers taken from the BBC Environment Handbook entitled Cover your arse, the licence-fee-paying bastard deniers are making notes. The torrent of ifs, mights, coulds, perhapses and every other variant in Roget was hilarious. Once you stripped them out, only about 20 seconds of air time remained.

The point was made though. In a crowded news schedule, packed with some of the gravest news in living memory, with a world depression coming upon us, the printing of money, mass murder in Northern Ireland and Germany, mass unemployment and the political myths of the European Union stressed to buggery, the BBC found time for a non-item about non-news about a piece of non-science because it's on their alarmist agenda. Job done.

And the message? Well, apparently, the inhabitants of Indonesia, Bangladesh, Holland and even Manhattan itself (!) are all doomed to die by drowning or else they will be on the march to sanctuary in the Rockies and the Alps because sea levels are going to rise by, oh, anything from 10 cm to 100 cm in the next 90 years. Depending on a lot of things we can't predict. According to 'models'. Most models. Some models. Possibly.

I mean, it's terrifying.

The [UK] Environment Agency official in charge of coastal protection, David Kemp, said that even small rises in sea level could be overwhelming. We could be looking at devastation. "It looks very benign today but the North Sea can turn into a very ferocious beast."

Do pop over to the website of the main annual biggie among BBC-approved climate conferences, Copenhagen 2009. The main image - the main image - on the index page is this one:

Very scientific. It's alongside the headline of an article by the ubiquitous Stern: Climate change deniers are "flat-earthers".

In conclusion, I refer you to the headline of this post.

Quote of the week

And this week's coconut goes to... J P Floru, writing at CentreRight:

Is it a deep-rooted hate of gainful employment in the private sector which fuels this madness*? Surely it’s not Labour’s intent to create grateful welfare dependent voter banks?

* Causally connected with but separate from the insanity of the universally hated megalomaniac known as Jock 'The Snot' McBastard who, in 1997, was appointed Controller General of Britain (Internal Affairs) by the Treaty of Granita and who, at the time of writing, retains his iron grip on Britain's windpipe (revolt pending).

1012

The British government has 1012 separate websites.

No, it's not your eyes.

Get the story from the Croydonian.

Budget 09: The Ruiner's massive tax cuts to buy our votes

Gordon Brown is absolutely criminal, if Fraser Nelson is right.

The fucking bastard is about to attempt to buy the forthcoming general election with my fucking money and send the IOU to Cameron.

Utter, utter, criminal, socialist, anti-democrat, fucking bastard dictator.

There is nothing, nothing that this Machiavellian cunt (not a word I am accustomed to use) will not do to avoid the verdict he so richly, oh so richly deserves.

He has never faced us. Never. And he will not, without his filthy hands clutching wads of cheap money, printed for the purpose of stuffing the mouths of the electorate at a most terrible time, when our only hope is to get rid of him and install someone honest, honourable - and completely sane - in his place.

READ THIS ARTICLE.

You think you have that right, as the electors? The right to throw him out in a general election?

Not any more you don't. Not since Gordon 'Hitler Did It Precisely This Way' Brown arrived from the fucking Hell that is the stinking, pustulent, endemic corruption of Glasgow Labour Party politics in which this self-serving, half-insane abortion of a human being was pupped.

I hope the treacherous, megalomaniac fucker falls down dead in a ditch full of slimy dog shit before he can take an even firmer grip on power, or persuade his friends to wreck more of my nation - that's England, since you ask - and my pension by, for instance, forcing solid English banks to swallow foetid, septic Scottish banks run by - oh, guess who? - his friends, for the benefit of - oh, guess whom? - his friends.

Corruption of the highest order.

And now dictatorship in the making.

Brown should be impeached. If Cameron doesn't start swinging that baseball bat around his head when the Budget is presented, then we really are completely and utterly fucked.

Angry? Me? You can bet your arse I am angry.

My history has been trashed. My culture has been trashed. Liberty and justice in my country have been trashed. Sound money has been trashed. My nation's independence has been trashed. My nation's defences have been trashed. Education has been trashed. Uncontrolled numbers of foreigners who hate this country and us have been deliberately imported to dilute and divide our population so that our national unity and integrity have been trashed. Honest politics have been trashed. My life's work, my life savings, my security in my old age have all been trashed, trashed.

After a lifetime of conscientious citizenship, hard work, independence and thrift, I am reduced to impotent anger and the probability of dependence on the fucking state. A state I barely recognise as my home, now. It is cold, strange, and run by aliens: Gordon Brown and his cohorts are not even from the same sodding planet as my family.

And all this has been wrought by this uncaring, blind and heartless fucker, Brown, in the service of his own vanity and his warped conviction that he is superior to everyone around him, and of his mania for the rapid social engineering which will entrench him and his comrades in power.

He has impoverished me and he is destroying my country, even as I watch.

And still this destroyer, this Ruiner, who has destroyed everything I have held dear all my life and replaced it with this bloody wasteland which he, the insane fucker, thinks is immeasurably better than what went before, has the balls to lie to me, again and again and again.

And now, now he insists, against my raging powerlessness, that he remain in power over me.

It is intolerable.

NO. NO. NO. Please, oh dear God - NO!

Will we ever be rid of this grotesque tumour on our lives, our body politic, our freedom?

Do not be bought off. Do not sell your soul to this evil man. Chuck him into the gutter of political history. As soon as possible.

Couldn't help noticing

That the statement from Royal Bank of Scotland today was 'glad' that their new lending would benefit, erm, Scotland.

Gee, thanks. Nice to know why Jock McSnot is taxing me to buggery, slashing the life-savings of my pension pot to next to nothing and mortgaging me for the rest of my life. I could not be more pleased for, erm, Scotland.

What's that rancid smell? Oh, yes. It's the stink of rotten Scottish Labour politics.

Who will rid me of this corrupt Scots git? And his rotten Scottish banks.

Dear people of the United States,

Thank you very much for the thoughtful gift which, on your behalf, your President gave us in the person of our Prime Minister.

We really appreciate the DVDs. We have not had the time to pop down to the shops lately, what with fighting beside you in two wars and what have you. Life is so short these days, isn't it? Not as short for most of us, thank heaven, as it was for the British boys and girls killed in their youthful prime, out there in the deserts and the mountains, fighting alongside your own kids. Yes, time is precious all right, so it was really thoughtful of you to save us that trip to Blockbusters. There's nothing like an afternoon in the sofa, watching such familiar old movies, don't you find? You know them especially well when you've seen them so many times before. Like pulling on old socks. Very... comforting.

We hope you like the priceless historic objects which the USA specialists in our diplomatic service carefully chose for us to give you in exchange, through the person of your President. We are particularly pleased to be able to give you the hand-made pen-holder carved from the wood of an 18th century anti-slavery ship which was arresting slave ships in the Atlantic even before you declared Independence from our country and long before slavery was abolished in the United States! We thought that was a neat touch for President Obama, personally. Then there is the Royal Charter of Commission of her sister ship, from which your President's desk was carved. It's very warming to know that your President actually works at that priceless desk every day. Maybe he can put the Charter on the wall, nearby.

But only if there's space for it, of course. There seems to be a problem with space in the White House. Your new President has returned to us the bust of Winston Churchill we gave you earlier. The son of a great American lady, Churchill is repeatedly elected the greatest ever Englishman by popular acclaim. To us, the bust symbolised the close relationship between our two countries.

We are a bit mystified, to tell you the truth, as to why your President decided to return the bust to us. (There was no note with it.) We can only assume that the White House is just too cluttered. Also, if your museums are like ours - full of stuff! - we would quite understand that you can't find room for every important artwork given to you by the high representatives of friendly nations. Even the broom cupboards in the Smithsonian must be bursting, so something's gotta give, as you fellows say over there! Seriously, we would understand that. Absolutely.

We want to reassure you about that business of admitting our Prime Minister through the White House trade entrance instead of the ceremonial front door. You really must not concern yourselves about that. Nor about the shambolic, curtailed press call in the Oval Office replacing the press conference which was customary under the sort of passé diplomatic protocol in place before the Age of Change. Nor about your President not having time to have lunch with the Prime Minister. All that ridiculous old-time courtesy is quite unnecessary nowadays.

Unfortunately, though, your Head of State may feel the full weight of protocol when - or should we say, if - he is welcomed to London next month. We will do our best to talk our Head of State, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, out of it, but she is an elderly lady, not a thrusting young "Personification of Change!" so perhaps you ought to assume that she will insist on giving your President all that silly old red carpet treatment, guards of honour, military salutes and so on. Tsk! I think one would be wasting one's breath if one tried to explain to Her Majesty that the people of the United States no longer 'do' diplomatic niceties. By the way, the Palace staff are doing their best with HM's High Five training but frankly it's a bit of a struggle.

The hearts of the British people go out to your new President. We can see clearly that he and his team are having a simply terrible time getting to grips with such an enormous job. One wonders how on earth such an ill-starred man as your former President (God bless him!) managed it all.

One can only sympathise with how bemused your new President must feel, having been rocketed from simple, home-town ghetto organisation and the hurly-burly of little old Illinois to the Presidency of the United States! After only the the briefest time on Capitol Hill, the poor man has hardly had time to get to know DC, let alone to understand the proper conduct of international relations. Obviously he'll learn a lot 'on the job'. At least, let's all hope so! 'Most powerful man in the world', don't you know!

Thank you, once again, for the marvellous box-set of old Hollywood movies. Such a gift really shows us here in the United Kingdom what the true heart of America is all about.

Until we meet again, in a foxhole or a MASH operating room in the hills of Afghanistan, with very best wishes from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,

Your friends and faithful allies,

The British People.

PS: Please tell your President that there is no need for him to bring more gifts when he comes to London. He has already done more than enough in that regard.

Sheer class

Nicked from Mullins's book by Dale and re-nicked by me:

Clare Short and Mo Mowlam were attending upon the Queen when Clare's pager started vibrating. Clare surreptitiously checked the message. Whereupon her Majesty looked up and inquired, 'Someone important?'

'Government lying again' shock!

British jobs for, er, Malian workers.

Would be immigrants to the EU are being helped to find jobs by the EU through their offices in Mali.

Caroline Flint lies when she says there are no EU 'job centres' in non-EU countries. There are. They just don't call them 'job centres'.

Dizzy is on to her. In a manner of speaking. He has better taste, I'm sure...

"Tell me you're making money on equities" - Hendry

TV clip at CNBC.

Here's the gist.

The stock market is still an unsafe place for investors as quantitative easing, by which central banks boost the supply of money attempting to kick-start economies, is unlikely to work, Hugh Hendry, Chief Investment Officer at Eclectica, told CNBC.

Hendry also disagreed with Warren Buffett's view, recently expressed to CNBC, that inflation is likely to be as bad if not worse than in the 1970s.

"I've honestly never known a time of near-universal conviction that we have to worry about inflation today," Hendry told "Squawk Box Europe."

"For quantitative easing there's no successful precedent. It has never, ever succeeded," he added.

Powerless to persuade but empowered to control

Stanislav has put his finger on it. He's off to wash his finger even as I type.

Gordon Brown is 'an eternal, blethering student.

That is why he is so irritating. Well, one of the reasons. He belongs to the species Narcolepticus adnauseam, genus Right Onanicus.

I knew them well when I was a student. In debates, they would rise from their seats to shout at anyone who disagreed with them. They refused to believe that they could be mistaken as they waved aloft the book they were currently reading, its author (probably American, probably from Berkeley) having torn the scales from their eyes. Recently. They were going to transform Life, the universe and everything. Only a fool or a villain would oppose their vision.

Their truth was superior to mine because it was self-evidently absolute, although they ruled out the concept of absolutes. Their opinions were superior 'values' (Scot. 'vahl-yews') whereas mine were dismissed as 'value judgements', ipso facto worthless. They would re-make the rules of debate and even philosophy itself in their own image.

Years later, they're still trying, having learned nothing. They are still blind to real life and still impervious to logic. Still vehement. Still superior (of course) and, above all, still right.

Back then, if argument would not persuade me, they would shout. If shouting would not convince me, they would wave placards. If their placards would not cow me, they would march and shout and wave placards. They'd show me and my 'kind'. They were united and could never be defeated.

The point is, they were right and I was wrong and... what was my stupid fucking question again? No, to hell with it, I could piss off. They were going to be the masters now.

In time, they grew too old to wave placards so they inevitably followed the time-honoured path carved by the young Communists whose set texts they had read, without necessarily calling themselves Communists - although some were.

In the good old days of lavish grants to 'student leaders on sabbatical' it was amazing how long some of them retained 'student' status - to age 29 and 30 in some cases. Eventually they were chucked out of the universities, a Desmond or a Thora not sufficing as a pass to the groves of academe, and moved seamlessly into the politics of controlling the people they could not persuade. Trade unions, local councils, quangos, Parliament and finally quangos again. The Lords, too, if their friends were in power when their time was up or their electors got wise and threw the buggers out.

One of them has now risen to the rank of Prime Minister. One or two of his Cabinet I used to know quite well, having engaged them in close-quarter combat when they were enthusiastic placard-wavers in the student politics of London. They have matured more than Gordon Brown - and they are wilier.

But now we have Prime Minister Brown, who grew older but never grew up. Still a student politician at heart. Still shouting and throwing things. He even looks all wrong in a suit.

Yes, you can take the man out of student politics but you cannot take student politics out of the man.

Written with all due respect to any student politician reading this. You do not have to follow that path. You can do better. If you are blessed, time will mature you as it does not mature all. I usually avoid giving advice but I will pass on one thing I was told a long time ago: try to see the world before you decide to rule it.

Elf and safety. No, really.

Seriously.

Mock at your peril, if you're going to Iceland.

Drapery News: late bulletin

I read this earlier and I just can't stop laughing. Best bit is that his Twitter page has been suspended because of 'strange activity'.

Noooooooooooooooooooo...

I'll take that as a No, then

Over at Coffee House:

.. the [ Cabinet Office White Paper ] accepts that the recession is going to mean a smaller and more focused government.

“Just as a strong government is required to steer the economy through the global recession, it is also the case that a responsive state should withdraw from areas in which it is no longer needed... Now more than ever government must prioritise its interventions... We know that it is the effectiveness not the size of government that counts.”

Ah. Jolly good.

And then Brown goes and spoils it. The stupid sod just can't help himself.

Nick Bosanquet of Reform asked Gordon Brown directly whether the Government would plan for falling public spending in light of the recession.

"No," the Prime Minister replied, with a smile.

So tell me, Prime Minister, if you are going to reduce the size of the government, how the fuck do you justify thieving the same amount of tax for it as when you ran a bigger government?

But, do you know I think I have the answer to that? Let me have a go, anyway.

You're going to hive off a lot of stuff into what you will call 'the private sector' even though it won't be, or if it is, it'll be your pals like Goodwin and Myners and all those ex-Ministers now on the boards of profit-making concerns up and down the country, and into the 'third' sector... yes, all those fake charities... and you'll spend my taxes with them.

Ta-daaaah! Smaller government! Just like that!

But - oh, look. Who'd have thort it? A bigger quangocracy and, spookily, funded by the same level of government theft from the ever-compliant peasants as before. (Savour that thought while you can, Gordon. Ain't going to happen.)

I'm right, aren't I, you thieving but not awfully clever bastard? You still don't realise that we are on to your stealth tricks. You are just about the only human being left on the planet who believes what you say. And even you, in the depth of your delusions, must mutter to yourself, occasionally, 'I may be a liar but at least the fools still believe me. Don't they, Ed? Ed? Hello? Nurse!'

The interesting question is, if you're not even going to try or pretend to save some of our money - yes, ours, not yours - why are you bothering with any of this? Could it be that with elections coming up you thought that now might be a good time for another one of your meaningless gestures? Well, why not? Go ahead. You really are a card, Gordon. Look at me larfing.

And don't you fucking smile at me like that. It's horrible.

They cannot be serious

Apparently, the Labour Party is going to put up candidates in the elections to the City of London Corporation - the governing body in Britain's financial district. You might want a minute to let that sink in.

For my American reader, imagine an area of one square mile around Wall Street having its own elections to its own local government complete with Lord Mayor (much grander than the mere 'Mayor' of the vastly bigger 'London'), Mansion House, its own police force, local laws, etc., within the bounds of but separate from the governance of Manhattan. or in our case, Greater London, over which Mayor Boris reigns like a glorious latter-day Pericles. (Yes, the newt-fancier bit the dust.)

Banks - no, not just bankers... banks - and other corporations within the 'Square Mile' have votes and have had for nine hundred years - and they vastly outnumber residents.

Lost it. Labour really have lost it. It must be some sort of deathbed hysteria. Delusions due to oxygen starvation, or something. They really shouldn't be allowed near sharp objects.

Not quite what the doctor ordered

Click on the links at the bottom of this post by Dr Crippen.

You get to a NSFW-ish picture of a BBC-beloved doctor (allegedly) with whom Crippen's already furious, and who upset him more than a little when he appeared on the BBC's electric wireless today.

Boy, is the good Doc angry. I wouldn’t want to cross him.

Hilarious.

Here's one for you, Gordon

Experience has value when people learn from their mistakes.

He might have had an 'only' in there, I feel. And for you, Prime Minister, it gets worse:

The moment when decisions are made to justify past failures is the signal that fresh leadership is required. Mr. Brown's rhetoric is building the case for his removal, a kind of prolonged exit interview with voters. He might do worse than reflect on why the tribunes of the people cornered him on his flight to Washington.

The Boy Economist

I've just read a longish piece which I can only liken to a surgical dissection.

Cadaver: the political corpse of James Gordon Brown, boy economist.

Anatomist: The Fat Bigot.

A fine piece.

Dear Lord,

When the Conservatives get into government, please inspire David Cameron to make John Redwood Financial Secretary to the Treasury. (I know Chancellor is out of the question although I confess I still dream of the joyous day...)

Let him be in charge of the 'independent' Bank of England and the FSA and whatever other agencies are required to restore sanity to this country's banking system. If it means the 'colleagues' across the Channel having to withstand a little more directness of speech than they are accustomed to, that would be a bonus, although I don't want to use up my points asking for non-essentials.

If you could see your way, etc., Lord, I promise to be good for ever and ever.

Your respectfully,

Prodicus of Ceos.

The 'independent' Bank of England isn't. They're lying. STILL lying.

The mighty Redwood, on what these days laughingly passes for debate in the House of Commons:

There was still no mention of printing money, and all attempts to ask about that were blocked with the surprising answer that this was a matter for the “independent” Bank of England. Funny that. I distinctly remember them asking permission of the Chancellor.

See what I mean?

OFF!

Gordon Brown is on the wireless, doing a phone-in, live. For an hour.

I've turned him off. Sorry, but there it is.

PMQs is as far as I am prepared to go. You may call me a coward and a wimp but I simply cannot envisage hearing that man talking at me for an hour, posturing and lying and expecting to be believed.

I claim medical exemption from political duty on this occasion. High blood pressure. I'll be right there when it's time to man the barricades and get shot at by Miss Jacqboots's nice constables. But not this.

I hope Pravda's dragon-ladies will allow some really abusive calls to get through. But they won't because Gordon's hard men will be standing over them with baseball bats.

Whatever happens, I'll catch up with it later, hereabouts, without having to risk my sanity and my cardio-vascular system.

If you're listening, poor you.

___________________________________________

Update

I knew that was a good decision.

Well he was very close to a blow up today on Radio 4!

He was very confrontational to the interview and the callers! Got to be worth -x%.

He actually says “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, AND IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND……WE’LL NEVER SOLVE IT, WE’LL NEVER SOLVE IT”

The boy done good. For the Conservatives. Roll on the GE campaign. The very prospect makes the mouth water...

I must make a point of not listening to him again. Maybe we'll get a few more poll points.

See? I am doing my bit.

Gordon humiliated by Paddy O'Bama

(Embed disabled at YouTube.)

In case you don't want to go there, it's a song called There's no-one as Irish as Barack Obama. A fun idea but it does go on a bit. Like It's a Small World After All in DisneyWorld, once you've been subjected to it (argh...) your brain can never shake off the infestation.

Cranmer, whose anti-RC acid intrudes unpleasantly and too readily on an otherwise illuminating and very worthwhile Christian/conservative blog (still, nobody's perfect) makes an interesting point today.

Northern Ireland's politicians and former terrorist commanders are in the USA to celebrate St Patrick's Day, which is in fact a week in America, but then they do everything bigger over there. Their apples, for instance, are much bigger than ours. On the other hand, we grow our apples to fit our mouths. Harr harr.

Today brings yet another slap in the face for Gordon Brown. How simply frightful! How humiliating! How delightful! And have you noticed how often they come around, these days, lightening our recessionary gloom?

Gordon brown entered the White House through a side entrance and was granted a half-hour chat with the President followed by a working lunch. There was no press conference and the British delegation was limited in numbers.

Mr McGuinness will walk in through the front door of the White House and be given the full red carpet treatment. It is a de facto State Visit with full retinue and a joint press conference. There shall be two hours of talks and a lavish gala reception at which Mr McGuinness shall be a guest of honour, seated on the top table.

Begorrah, ye'd need a heart o' stone not to laugh, so y'would.