Word from above

Let the free market fight climate change

'There is potential merit in much that is advocated here. However, as a country-dweller of modest means I can only hope that whichever administration finds itself tasked with resolving what is a very complex long term problem, it can find itself able to do so from more than the perspective of a London C (for centric) - zone urban elite who can afford to indulge in symbolic practices. Or, worse, have mates in high places who don't see cutting back as the way to adequately dispose of their salaries.

At the end of the day, if we accept that a reduction of emissions is the prime objective, and an increase in efficiencies a valid route to this, the only acceptable routes are via establishing genuine enviROIs. It's one thing to practice, or impose, some green 'measure' even if there is a financial cost, quite another if it does not even end up helping the planet either.

Hence my doubts on current carbcon trading proposals, which seem more focused on allowing things (and commissions for 'handling') to continue than any reductions at commercial or personal levels for those who can afford to pay.

While I have no problem with the notion of wealth creation ('Where there's muck...' 'n all), I really would advocate that in looking to the future it may help to realise that money... isn't everything.'

One's gob is smacked

I know a headline like 'Major global blue-chip will say anything to flog tat' is not exactly news, but this left me... almost... speechless:

New Zealand schoolgirls find there's no C in Ribena

Just how low will they stoop?

And heaven forfend one affects the legal process at any stage.

Mail - The schoolgirls who cost Ribena £80k for its vitamin fib

No news is...

Is there no end to my ignorance?

You don't need to understand the news. You are not meant to. It is merely one of a few ways to fill space and generate ratings, especially if you work for the BBC, as that is how you can get measured accurately enough to bail for the even bigger money.

I have a complaint in process at present for them taking a solicited comment, deleting the beginning and ending and re-presenting the middle chunk to say the total opposite of what I meant, to suit their agenda.

They will of course have a 'thorough review' and in two weeks I'll be told they care a lot so now be a good boy and buzz off.

This time, I think I may not be so inclined to do so.

From a Horse's Mouth. About policies from 'tother end

I would have pitched in. Not really worth it. It would be tilling already very overworked soil.

A Stalinist solution

Now let's see what she and her paper DO about it

Because I doubt we'll ever get a mention.

Dear Ms. Stephenson,

I could not agree more with what you wrote on Thursday about yet another climate change conference. At least it was in London. I just heard on the politics show yesterday some Lib Dem luvvie justifying a jolly to Brazil because she had her people ask some people to pay some people to whack a fir in the firmament. Or so she thought they had... maybe.

There is a vast industry involved in saving this earth. And it is growing daily. Trouble is, the majority are engaged in the age old profession of being 'all marf and no trarzers'. This green elite, sadly many located with the London C-entric zone, and spanning politicians, activists and some media, have spun a very nice little earner out of spinning.... in one place.

What a waste of space they all are. And yes, the same people pontificate to the same people again and again. And as part of what I do, I am cursed to read it all... again and again. I feel I should, in case there may be a nugget of gold in all the slurry that can be turned into a shiny piece of inspiration.

The eco-blosphere is alive with debate, but sadly its the big-oil denier vs. eco-fascist kind, so even those from the day-to-day world who may try and dip in get very burned in the flames and retire immediately.

There are those trying to make a difference, and do with style, grace and humour which, I am hoping, will win out over agenda, target, personal interest and greed. To be cliched myself, I think it is the British way, and what folk will engage with. Fines, nannying, guilt-trips and scaremongering are so.... last resort of the feeble self-appointed opportunitsa.

No sense

I just have one question to this:

Consumers in the dark over 'greenest' gadgets

In the name of all that is green and profitable to promote, why are they not making it the easiest thing in the world to make the best eco-decisions?

A new source of free, but doubtless still taxable, energy

Ministers suspend solar panel grants

As it is obvious they think the sun will shine from there no matter what they do, I'd suggest photovoltaics in every Ministerial chair seat.

I love to say I 'told you so', so...

... well, D'uh: Biofuel demand makes food expensive

In the spirit of shared citizen journalism, another forward from Dave of Solarventi, with whom I must move in and between us we may just manage 'A' life.

I suspect I read more e-news than even him, and what worries me is how I see those in politics and business squaring up behind this industry, and I don't think green is the colour they are looking for on the bottom line.

To try and spin it more positively, an Taiwanese guy once eat a Volkswagen. But he may have needed the iron.... glass, rubber...

H2 Oh... yeah!

I am again grateful to Dave of Solarventi for this encouraging notion on Hydrogen.

This is a fuel I have some significant faith in, IF it can be produced to a reasonable enviROI.

There is also the small matter of reduction. As water, in the form of vapour, is still a greenhouse gas, I don't want to find we substitute one man-made exhaust pollutant for another, no matter how seemingly benign it may be.

Walking the walk so others can talk

Today is a very interesting day to be reading this:

Parents who park near schools may be fined

Every school day, rain or shine (barring monsoons), I walk the boys to school. I do it because we are relatively near, it gives us a chance to chat... and I enjoy the exercise. Where possible, and time permitting, I also meet them at the end of the school day to stroll back.

But today, despite clement weather, we are going by car.

Why? Because they are going on trip, and I am afraid I don't see how to get them, much earlier, to school to meet the coach along with a suitcase and ruscksack apiece.

It's not practical. Just as it is not practical for some others to do it daily. And the BBC blonde and bouffant (and reporter - I just heard him tell us what his cabby said en route to the story!) seemed to feel it would not be for them. While it is for our kids. As to safety, kids are to be 'trained'. And doubtless there is a nice little extra group who can be hired to act as councilors to those who have suffered a loss those another group has be tasked to 'encourage':

Parents could face fines...

Powers come into force...

...all councils will have to collect information...

...every authority will have to develop school "travel plans" to meet tough targets...

The theory is sound. Typically the practices is being managed cack-handedly with breath-taking hypocrisy and a stunning simplistic dismissal of the dangers posed by kids being forced onto busy roads. As I wrote to the BBC just now:

Interesting that the presenters today on kids' cycling did not feel the piece they carried applied to them in any way.

I just loved the reporter mentioning his cabbie's views en route to the story. Irony anyone?

I know it's probably 'just not practical', but if we are to trot out official propaganda (in some papers backed, it seems, by fines!) it should be shown for the latest half-considered nonsense it is.

How can something be deemed OK to apply for kids daily but not media workers? More media churn with no analysis or real critique.

BBC - Cycling tests return to schools

'Children are taught the kind of observation, road positioning and defensive driving tactics that new motorists learn.' - Without the ton of metal to protect them if it all goes pear shaped.

Work with me on this

Please read the following (It mirrors what I heard on the TV this morning):

Sailors admitted incursion - Iran

Royal Navy personnel seized at gunpoint by Iran in the Gulf have admitted being in the country's waters, an Iranian general has claimed.

At what point did it really become clear to you that our armed forces may have done nothing and admitted nothing wrong, and in fact the whole story is based on pure speculation provided by a questionable source?

British Backstabbing Craven News

Well at least 2 others liked the Budget.

Politics Show West Midlands

Caught the tail-end of the piece with the Lab Enviro Minister and the Lib Dem MP (no Tory? Maybe that was explained earlier).

Pathetic. The former vainly trying to keep his seat in the face of gesture politics ('My ministerial car is a Prius', indeed). The latter trying to do the same whilst trying to explain away, much less justify using whose money to buy-off a trip to Brazil on a jolly.

I hope the voters should them the contempt they deserve. Not for wishing to address environmental issues. But for trying to do it so hamfistedly and in such hypocritical ways.

Why I cannot respect most UK institutions.

Following the kidnapping of 15 British service personnel by a hostile and erratic foreign power, what we are treated to from, and in, way too many quarters?

A minor royal in a night club.

Sad.

Possibly not too good for the planet, either.

Changing a bulb is risky at BBC

Maybe, in mitigation, and in light of the BBC's climate concerns, we are talking low energy, long life bulbs?

As Bono's people said to my people...

A conflict of interest?

Having lived and worked (albeit a long while ago) in the States, I was struck how much more important journalistic standards were held to be there, by both protagonists and their audiences.

I tend to agree that it is a bit of a storm in a tea-cup in many ways, but does highlight that what we are served these days is all to often not what matters, but what gets cooked up between a small, privileged cabal of media elite chums who exist merely to serve each other's, or their paying client's interests.

As you say, we can make our own minds up. Maybe that is why so many turn to blogs, in the hope of accessing real news not concocted between a PR agency and 'corespondents' who are addicted to the celebrity access and lifestyle they gain by being compliant in their 'reporting'.

Do Tel

Wogan's World

To mutilate Voltaire, 'I may not like the way you choose to say it... but by heck you are right!'

As one committed to DOING SOMETHING POSITIVE and INCENTIVE-BASED with a little reuse website whatever is practical to reduce unnecessary waste simply because it makes financial sense, I despair of the ill-considered measures in the name of green that have been rushed out by inept aspiring 'managers of our minds'.

ADDENDUM:

By way of a more tangible point-to-ponder, your motorist friend will of course get hammered for driving a few miles into town (unless he already lives within the London C- for centric - zone) and then stopping the engine for the day.

Should he invest in a hybrid, however, he can of course test his endurance driving around emitting away all day long. Of course, should he need to drive in from outside our fair capital, he will spend most of the journey lugging along a heavy battery. Such cars are also not so hot at pulling out stumps.

Gesture politics, often supported by rich, urban, blinkered, liberal activists and media luvvies are making efforts to make the planet better for our kids a lot harder, with all their green elite posturing.

Oh, the irony.

Well, it is a skill, if not a virtue.

I long for high office without low comedy

'...should we not be just a bit bothered that one of the most important things that the Prime Minister's office has to report is that the nation's leader is a good comic actor?'

But you cannot, at least, resist reporting on it, too.

Am I ...concerned with what today's media demands, and rewards?

Yes.

The Emperor's 2p

2p won't buy Brown a ticket to No 10

I don't get it.

This seemingly hailed, at least initially, 'masterstroke of political theatre', that left all and sundry gasping, was almost immediately seen for what it was and is now confirmed to be a hollow sham just a few days on.

In my line of work you keep in work by promising with professional caution, and then delighting with even better delivery. Dazzling with smoke and mirrors is bad enough when there is no substance, but is a major backfire when it turns out to be a botched attempt to conceal a failing patch-job on already straining band-aids.

This has served to do nothing but dismay, and further hold up today's political process as a piece of theatre dispensed for and only savoured by those players and favoured critics allowed within the venue, and either dismissed or despised by those outside in the real world.

Recycling is all the rage

At least I can do it with my posts, too

I want a year off paying any taxes

I was listening to a BBC Budget follow-up... and the 'performances' I heard, from both sides of the table (we pay the BBC salary bill, too), support your notion.

To be fair, much can be laid at the door of the facile demands of soundbite media, where interviewers get constrained and now savvy politicians can use the ridiculous timeslots to say nothing, not answer or duck and run to best advantage.

Dismissing the talentless robots put forward by the Conservatives and Liberals. I think I could have drummed up more coherent counter-argument from my kids' playground. There was such fertile ground for opposition to shine and show government failings and where they would make a difference. Sadly, rehashing outdated (things can change in minutes and you need to move fast to react) spin-meister training may seem like good micro-management, but doesn't do much beyond making them seem like only being worried about being on-script.

But Mr. Brown....

He was allowed to waffle out facts ... over and over and over again... that neither answered the questions nor excused the positions the country finds itself in.

This... government has had a long time more to do what it said it wished to do. Not only has it either not done it, but in many cases has changed its tune to suit.

In fact the only real achievement, supported by Mr. Brown's own testimony, has been to pour money into black holes, and/or employ legions more people to help gobble this money up to little or no result.

As just one example, to a challenge that most people, including Doctors, find the NHS to be in a dire state despite the multi-billions lavished upon it, we were treated to a time-consuming rumbled drone of figures and excuses about 'modernisation'.

And whoever thought up the nonsense of consuming precious challenge time with 'listener questions' should be shot. One, isolated, cock-up is legitimately and reasonably dismissed as not something he has heard about, but write in and it will be dealt with. When.. in another ten years?

At least Mr. Brown's red to green deep nostril investigations showed a commitment at least to recycling.

That's my 2p worth anyway.

Just what we needed

The world's poshest farm shop

The planet can now breathe easier.

Even though most farm shops hereabouts are usually on the farm, though to be fair they don't provide too many yoga mats. I'd drive to London to get mine but unlike the clientele above, would probably need a C-charge sticker for my 4x4, if I could afford one.

Are JCB's exempt?