Go Figure

I don't usually 'do' politics here, but I must say this caught my eye.

Only a few hours ago I was watching BBC lunch news with much gush on the 400k jobs in 'green' industries, and then I read this....

Miliband promises more green jobs but Vestas wind turbine plant is closing

Now there may be all sorts of nuances behind the optimism of one and the facts of the other, but something is really struggling to add up here.

And another nail in the coffin of Ministerial 'R&R' rhetoric vs. reality? And another reason to wonder just what some of our media actually does these days bar churning out press releases from Whitehall.

I was going to say we deserve more honesty from our pols, but really that is a boat that has sailed, been holed, sunk and is now at the bottom of the Marinas Trench.

Daily Politics - Green shoots and wind turbines -

Telegraph - NEW - Miliband's brilliant plan to combat climate change: 'We'll export unicorns to China' - using the pejoratives, I'd say the 'denier'/'warmist' ratio here is about 20:1 (on the Guardian it is reversed - go figure. I'd say Mr. Delingpole and Monbiot could be hired to remake the 'When Two Tribes Go To War' FrankieGTH video), so there is no point joining in. And again, verifiable facts are thin on the ground, so we are in the realms of conviction and hyperbole. But I was interested in the claimed job loss stat in Spain. Just as matter cannot be created or destroyed, it is often the case that a job in one area results with a loss in another. And this government seems very poor at thinking in... well, just thinking.

Sometimes I wished I still lived in London

My age would surely not be a reason to reject my job app for this or this

And I think I am well qualified to give sensible advice.

I like enviROI:)

Though, I suspect some may not like my use of it.

Boris Johnson to slash London environmental team in half

'...a major shake-up that calls into question the commitment to the environment of the mayor'

By whom? Until we see the enviROI of what gets DONE with the money that makes a difference, rather than talked about endlessly between vast overlapping quango empires with vast comms budgets, I will hold any critique or allusions to 'others' making them until they do.

I am a champion for green initiatives leading the charge, but they need to be tangibles that make my kids' futures better, not box-ticking, target-meeting, non-job-creating, multi-million £ 'awareness'-raising, bonus-feeding, lobbyist-pleasing, lipsmacking, ace-tasting... er.. you get my drift:)

But if any lost are making a real contribution, then questions need to be asked, and answered.

ps: I'm guessing that leaked docos are OK, at least for today? (A Guardian journo was on the Jeremy Vine show yesterday saying it wasn't on, and was allowed to allude to the 'whisleblower' being a Tory mole. Which does kinda smack of those plethora of standards that crank my eyebrow.)

Addendum 1:

What's the saying? 'Careful what you wish for... predict... create?

Interesting, but sad, is how this has progressed.

First thing to note is that, other than a few possible observers, beyond the author (and who knows who they post as?) it is a singles' game.

No matter.

I think, on balance, I was at fault. I was rather sweeping in my critique. But then in mitigation I was irritated by a political/media agenda which, in my view, was already producing some slopping reporting.

But in being flip, I may well have conjured up a vision of a red rag to a public-sectorphilic person with a sore head.

That's where my mea culpa ends.

This person was/is on a very high horse and, despite my attempts, decided to stay upon it. Maybe even rear up more. I was in no mood for too much by way of conciliation.

However, as this was swerving into nasty places I have decided to leave, exit stage...right (wing?), followed, I hope not too far, by the bear.

I obviously think this person to be wrong, unfair and aggressive.

Mainly it's the journalist's fault. Dripping with agenda, they came out with a half story and I objected, maybe swinging too far the other way to show how some others may view matters. But I clearly stated that it was this lack of clarity that prevented objective conclusions so far.

Hence it could be a purging pol looking to save a quick buck on a weak voter sector (currently), or it could be some trimming of fat in crunchier times. Having a degree does not guarantee pay and indeed a job for life for a lot of us.

I am satisfied I did my best, fought the corner for enviROI and, coincidentally managed to work in my concerns of the medium and the messengers.

The Guardian can be a fine reporting organ. But it is read by a small minority, and one which seems too often to think 'others' are beneath them, and contempt.

That is a poor way to bring the majority of the UK population onside, especially as articulated by this representative. I think they have given environmental debate a worse name as a consequence.

Addendum 2 -

Hard to leave such things alone, but I think best to move the debate of the pages of the Guardian, noting that they seem to have about two more readers to me.

There has been a reply, which is more friendly at least, and even more balanced, but perhaps as dangerous. Where the previous poster was 'how dare you have another view', this was more 'Why can't we all be friends... and leave the original post as it was'.

Any reader of this blog will know I am an advocate of doing over talking, but sorry, these two options still leave a result that won't wash... at least with me: doing nothing.

Unlike the latest poster, when I look at my two lovely sons, I feel happy, happy happy, and then angry, and then all the more determined to fight for making their futures as good as they can be.

And that means being pragmatic. Divorcing budgets from actions is the naive mantra of the hopeless idealist. Even foot-stamping, cross ones.

I have never said do nothing. I DO things all the time. I simply advocate that what gets done, with all the money that can and will be allocated to do it, goes to tangibles that make a difference.

Take insulation. I have lost count of the number of bodies - with offices and staff and comms budgets and conference passes - that there are to get it into my dear old Mum's cottage. She doesn't need it, because I did it an age ago. But has she... or I... heard from any one of these overlapping numpties, at least in terms that make sense and create engagement. For every £20, subsidised roll, there is a horde of officers and forms and checks and assessments. All overlapping.

I have been wrong, I am often wrong and I will be wrong. And I am more than willing to be told I am, set things straight and work on the positives of correction and promotion.

But I will not be bullied to silence by those who have a nice little number, or seduced by those who think 'green is always good, no matter what the cost'. Especially when it is with my family's money, more often than not to fund them for what they want, rather than what is actually needed.

End of.

In the soup

An interesting set of 'servings' in this morning's news.

I was already unclear as to why our national broadcaster was devoting prime news time to the wife of a foreign country doing some photo op work in a soup kitchen, when it soon became clear as she had obviously just served the Plane Stupid protester who then lobbed the First Lady's dollop over Business Secretary Peter (I fear his ennoblement was a step too far for me to see any substance to the honours system any more, not that I did much before) Mandelson.

However, not that he is my favourite pol, I will concede that he conducted himself pretty well afterwards, I must say.

Which brings me to the protest, and its effect. The successful 'attack' on a high profile figure (what were the security up to... or not? Maybe they'd outsourced it to Pakistan?) will have the desired result to many, namely extensive publicity. However, my immediate reaction was sympathy for Mr. Mandelson, and that takes some doing. He claimed she stated no point during her action, but I'm pretty sure I heard her mouth off quite a lot, so who knows?* And in any case the scrum who interviewed her soon after left us in no doubt that it was about the 3rd Heathrow runway. Not a bad point with a climate conference held as soon as Gordon Brown has just landed back from one of his crucial overseas jaunts.

We also were treated a lot to the hundreds of thousands of green jobs (I still am trying to equate meeting environmental aims and targets with all the rhetoric about growing economies to satisfy growing, more aspirational populations).

My ears pricked up when Mr. Mandelson was asked about the car industry in this regard, as a few things didn't quite compute, and sadly the 'reporter' (some bozo holding a mike and script) failed to press him.

First up was that I think I heard he thought cars were the major CO2 emitters in the world. Not too sure that's true.

Second was in answer to why there are notions of propping up car makers such as Vauxhall if cars are not the best thing. Ignoring the 'costs' of making new ones and simply trying not to travel so much as options, the reply was that they have plans for an electric one on the drawing board.

I have to come back to what I bang on about so often in this regard. Electric cars do emit CO2. They emit it being made, and in the generation of the energy to run them; the exhaust pipe is just in another place.

Without sensible clean generation and distribution of 'leccy in place FIRST, I can't see how they match up on any enviROI level. So my box-ticking, target meeting, subsidy-collecting, lobbyist-satisfying antennae are aquiver.

Reuters - "Green New Deal" to help fix economy

Addendum -

BBC - Mandelson custard attack probed

BBC - Degree honour Clarkson hit by pie - Different event; different reporting?

*Addendum 2 -

Indy - Why I threw green custard over the Business Secretary - from the horse's mouth, as it were. I didn't even know you could get green custard.

Guardian - This is not youthful rebellion. We see the catastrophe ahead

Times - Why I custard-pied Jeremy Clarkson - Not getting the best reaction, it seems

Jobs for the boys, and girls

Green growth is the path to economic recovery

An interesting essay, as are some of the comments in reply.