Articles referred to in April 2010

Thought police muscle up in Britain

(28 April 10) “......Britain appears to be evolving into the first modern soft totalitarian state. As a sometime teacher of political science and international law, I do not use the term totalitarian loosely. There are no concentration camps or gulags but there are thought police with unprecedented powers to dictate ways of thinking and sniff out heresy, and there can be harsh punishments for dissent. Nikolai Bukharin claimed one of the Bolshevik Revolution's principal tasks was "to alter people's actual psychology". Britain is not Bolshevik, but a campaign to alter people's psychology and create a new Homo britannicus is under way without even a fig leaf of disguise. The Government is pushing ahead with legislation that will criminalise politically incorrect jokes, with a maximum punishment of up to seven years' prison....The Government is pushing ahead with legislation that will criminalise politically incorrect jokes, with a maximum punishment of up to seven years' prison.....Countryside Restoration Trust chairman and columnist Robin Page said at a rally against the Government's anti-hunting laws in Gloucestershire in 2002: "If you are a black vegetarian Muslim asylum-seeking one-legged lesbian lorry driver, I want the same rights as you." Page was arrested, and after four months he received a letter saying no charges would be pressed, but that: "If further evidence comes to our attention whereby your involvement is implicated, we will seek to initiate proceedings." It took him five years to clear his name....” Thought police muscle up in Britain , Hal G. P. Colebatch, The Australian “.....In September 2006, a 14-year-old schoolgirl, Codie Stott, asked a teacher if she could sit with another group to do a science project as all the girls with her spoke only Urdu. The teacher's first response, according to Stott, was to scream at her: "It's racist, you're going to get done by the police!" Upset and terrified, the schoolgirl went outside to calm down. The teacher called the police and a few days later, presumably after officialdom had thought the matter over, she was arrested and taken to a police station, where she was fingerprinted and photographed..... There have been innumerable cases in recent months of people in schools, hospitals and other institutions losing their jobs because of various religious scruples, often, as in the East Germany of yore, not shouted fanatically from the rooftops but betrayed in private conversations and reported to authorities. The crime of one nurse was to offer to pray for a patient, who did not complain but merely mentioned the matter to another nurse. A primary school receptionist, Jennie Cain, whose five-year-old daughter was told off for talking about Jesus in class, faces the sack for seeking support from her church. A private email from her to other members of the church asking for prayers fell into the hands of school authorities.... Permissiveness as well as draconianism can be deployed to destroy socially accepted norms and values. The Royal Navy, for instance, has installed a satanist chapel in a warship to accommodate the proclivities of a satanist crew member.... This campaign seems to come from unelected or quasi-governmental bodies controlling various institutions, which are more or less unanswerable to electors, more than it does directly from the Government, although the Government helps drive it and condones it in a fudged and deniable manner.....”.

A note from Professor David Flint. Yet another myth about our Flag... 

(28 April 10)“.....Just one of many myths pushed by the Flag changers is that our Flag is too similar to that of our sister ANZAC Realm, New Zealand. There are three significant differences. Just go to the excellent website created by Nick Hobson DFC AFC,  Australian Republic Unplugged .   Click on Flags and when the menu comes down, click on  The ANZAC Flags.
The three differences between our two Flags will be explained and illustrated. As for being confused, I have always thought how confusing all those tricolour and multi stripe flags are, and also, just how plain they are. Hobson now offers  everyone - including all of those  flag changers - the opportunity to  test how distinctive other nations' flags are. On the same page just click on Flag Tests . There are three tests. Each shows six or seven flags. You have to name each flag. Then you click on the Answers icon. It's easy and its fun. It's also embarrassing for the Flag changers. They have been well and truly exposed with their ridiculous myth that the Australian Flag is not distinctive. Incidentally, I would be astounded if anyone knows all nineteen flags......” 

 

“ Now what does this remind you of ..."

(26 April 10) .....The evidence is now very strong that the panic about volcanic ash over Britain which closed British airspace for five days, caused a £1.3 billion airline shutdown and left 150,000 Britons stranded was completely unfounded. The Mail on Sunday reports that the information on which the British Meteorological Office based its assertion that Britain was shrouded by a dangerous layer of ash was mainly derived not from satellite observations of where ash was visible but from theoretical models, so showed the entire region that might be affected by minute concentrations of ash dispersed by weather systems. Across most of this, the ash was so thin as to be invisible. ‘Scientific' assertions based upon theoretical computer models which produce merely speculation based on ‘might' and ‘if' , and which actually runs totally contrary to evidence-based, demonstrable reality? Ring any bells?

Clue: another ‘scientific' claim which originated in the Met Office about a catastrophic development in the atmosphere....”.

A bureaucratic child of our times

(24 April 10) “......When I was given my first management role with a newspaper in my late twenties, the editor said, ''I don't expect you to work long but I expect you to work smart.'' We worked long anyway but his point was good, and he was a leader in the classic alpha male mould. He was fearless, his style was blunt, his directions clear. Work became exhilarating under his command, and paradoxically liberating. He was not impressed by the appearance of busy-ness but only in results - fresh ideas which became stories and pictures in print. He poked fun at phoniness and PowerPoint presentations and encouraged us to take risks, and thumb our noses at authority, whether inside or outside the building. He resisted attempts by management to drag him away from the core business of putting out a daily newspaper, and deputised process-minded underlings to such menial chores as attending marketing meetings. He would bellow and throw advertising people out of his office in a burlesque display designed to assert the primacy of editorial...When the former Victorian police commissioner, Christine Nixon, 56, admitted in the bushfire royal commission this month that she was getting her hair cut, meeting with her biographer and having dinner at a restaurant with friends on Black Saturday last year, she was enveloped in a warm group hug....We seem to be impressed by leaders skilled at looking confident and brazen through catastrophe, as incredible amounts of money are wasted, their core business disintegrates and, sometimes, people die. What was most telling about Nixon's testimony to the royal commission were the mundane details of her performance that day and how she perceived her role. She was the No.1 person in the state with operational responsibility, yet she didn't know what to do.....” A bureaucratic child of our times , Miranda Devine. Sydney Morning Herald “.....When she dropped into the State Emergency Response Co-ordination Centre about 3pm on Black Saturday, February 7, after meeting in her office with her biographer, she seemed to just float around, lost, not asking for a briefing, observing that people seemed ''very busy''.......The paralysis in the co-ordination centre on Black Saturday, as revealed in the commission testimony, is a textbook demonstration of what managerialism or bureaumania does to organisations. It causes everyone to lose sight of their core aim, which is to run an emergency response system that warns people a fire is on its way, or a police force that protects good people from bad people, or a land management system that doesn't allow fuel to build up to lethal levels in the bush. As police commissioner Nixon became the posterchild for bloated bureaucracies everywhere......And the media adored her. She was progressive! She took part in the gay and lesbian pride march! She was a woman! She was consultative! She relaxed uniform standards! She recruited women and minorities! She answered emails, had lots of meetings and set up myriad committees. She was the nana feminist, who humbled the most masculine, testosterone charged militaristic symbol of the patriarchy itself. She was perfectly chosen and trained to spend her days being busy doing her job, whatever that was. Busy, busy, busy. The truth is her defenders are right, she can hardly be blamed. Christine Nixon is the perfect leader for our age.....”

ABN Amro, Germany's IKB Were Victims Of Goldman Fraud – SEC

(17 April 10) “....Two big European banks lost almost $1 billion after Goldman Sachs Group (GS) fraudulently misled them into buying a collateralized debt obligation that turned toxic within months, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Friday. The two institutions, ABN Amro from the Netherlands and Germany's IKB (IKB.XE), were later involved in some of the largest government bailouts in the European financial sector. The SEC charged Goldman with securities fraud Friday, alleging the investment bank didn't tell investors that hedge-fund firm Paulson & Co. was involved in structuring a collateralized debt obligation, or CDO, known as Abacus 2007-AC1. Goldman also didn't disclose that Paulson was betting against the CDO, the regulator claimed... Had ABN Amro and IKB known about these things, they probably wouldn't have invested in the CDO, the SEC said....” ABN Amro, Germany's IKB Were Victims Of Goldman Fraud – SEC , Wall Street Journal  “..... For the Abacus CDO deal, ABN Amro and IKB were the suckers, according to the SEC's suit. The deal closed in late April 2007 and IKB, a commercial bank based in Duesseldorf, bought $150 million worth of notes, the regulator said. Within months, the notes were "nearly worthless," and IKB had lost almost all of its investment. Most of this $150 million was ultimately paid to Paulson & Co. in a series of transactions between Goldman and the hedge-fund firm, the SEC explained in its suit.... In late 2007, ABN Amro was acquired by a group of banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). The CDS contracts were unwound in August 2007, through a payment of $841 million from Royal Bank of Scotland to Goldman. Most of this money was subsequently paid by Goldman to Paulson & Co., the SEC said. Royal Bank of Scotland was one of the hardest-hit banks during 2008's credit crisis, so much so that the U.K. government was forced to eventually become majority owner of the bank late that year. To date, RBS has received 45.5 billion pounds from British taxpayers.....”

Goldman Sachs

(17 April 10) You're going to be reading and hearing at lot about Goldman Sachs in the next few days. Headlines like    SEC accuses Goldman Sachs of civil fraud and Goldman Sachs accused of fraud by US regulator SEC

With all of this in mind I have reposted below a couple of pieces from August 2009

(1 Aug 2009) Max Keiser- Goldman Sachs are scum

(7 Aug 2009) Goldman Sachs = Neo-Slavery = Government  THIS IS MUST WATCH!!!! CRONY CAPITALISM LIKE YOU'VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE

Tenacious G

Inside Goldman Sachs, America's most successful, cynical, envied, despised, and (in its view, anyway) misunderstood engine of capitalism.

(1 Aug 2009) “......Ever since the bank crossed paths with U.S. taxpayers, getting saved with at least $10 billion in government aid last year and then parlaying that into $5.1 billion in profits in 2009 (so far), the firm has been seen as the ugly essence of capitalism at its most cynical—by Washington, by the public, by the financial press, even by some of its clients.....A recent Rolling Stone article called Goldman “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity” and accused it of rigging every major market bubble since the Great Depression..... Before the market crashed, Goldman Sachs was betting 28 times its underlying capital. After the events of the fall, it bet half that: $14 for every dollar it had on hand. But that was still more than its nearest competitor, Morgan Stanley, was willing to gamble.... There is no evidence that Goldman was directly gambling with taxpayer money. But it seems clear that none of this would have been possible without government intervention—without the AIG bailout, the TARP money, the FDIC bonds, the fact that without Lehman Brothers it had one less competitor in the field...... This doesn't sit right with some. “Much of their recent profits seemed to be derived from ‘trading,' which typically means gambling—not lending,” says Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize–winning economist who teaches at Columbia University. “It is lending which is required if our economy is to be revived; it was gambling that got our financial system into trouble.” Even Goldman alumni were struck by the company's shameless posture in ramping up the leverage again so soon after the government bailouts. “It's a statement of arrogance,” says one former executive. “What they're saying by keeping leverage high is, ‘We're smarter than anybody else.....” Tenacious G , New York Magazine “..... There's been a lot of head-scratching of late about how it is that Goldman does what it does, namely make more money than anyone else... if a big investor wants to buy into, say, the energy market, Goldman Sachs, by virtue of its knowledge of what other big investors are trading and what its corporate energy clients are doing (on Goldman's own advice), can offer a highly accurate view of what's likely to happen with the energy market. It can also do damned well on its own energy trades—in fact, before the market crashed, the firm made vast profits on “proprietary trading,” bets made on its own balance sheets.....Basically, it is legal card-counting, which most clients accept as a necessary evil to deal with the company with the most information.”...Goldman Sachs sold subprime-mortgage investments to its clients for years, but then in 2006 began trading against subprime on its own balance sheet without informing its clients, a hedge that ultimately let it profit when the real-estate market cratered.... Earlier this month, Goldman had an ex-employee arrested for allegedly stealing computer codes that could be used, as the prosecutor noted, “to manipulate markets in unfair ways.” Some hedge-fund traders and financial bloggers have speculated that Goldman itself could have been using the codes for the same purpose..... If Goldman's database knows nearly every trade that is about to be made, sophisticated computer codes could, theoretically, instantly execute fail-safe trades on Goldman's behalf milliseconds beforehand. This, some are insisting, is where the company is manipulating the markets and making hundreds of millions of dollars a day.....”

Maurice Newman is dead right about the ABC

Even Tony Jones admits that Lateline has its own view on man-made global warming, reveals John Styles

(17 April 10) “......Almost two years ago, ABC1 presenter Tony Jones told Crikey publisher Eric Beecher and a Melbourne audience that between 2001 and 2008 the members of the Lateline team made up their minds about the science of climate change. The sceptics, they'd decided, were wrong. Jones prefaced the admission by saying he was in favour of scepticism. But not, apparently, about climate change. On 6 April 2008, Jones said: ‘From around the year 2001 on Lateline, we began interviewing everybody we could about this subject; and we interviewed all the main scientific sceptics. And gradually, over a period of time, we resolved in our own minds that the sceptics had it wrong and the vast majority of scientists disagreed with their position.....Jones's claim that Lateline had interviewed all the main sceptical scientists was puzzling. Presumably, by the term ‘interview' he was referring to those long, one-on-one conversations like the nine he has had with Gaia fan and true believer Tim Flannery. But a dip into the Lateline transcript archive in search of one-on-one interviews with sceptical scientists conducted between 2001 and April 2008 returned just one — with Russian economic adviser Andrey Illarionov.  Sure, Lateline included a few sceptical climate scientists in some packaged reports. But in-depth, information-seeking chats of the Flannery kind have been scarce. Not so rare were interviews with climate change believers. A trawl through the archive netted more than 20 one-on-one interviews in the same period with experts on the true-believer side of the debate. It is a scandalous scorecard: believers 20+, heretics 1...” Maurice Newman is dead right about the ABC , John Styles, Spectator “.....Last year, The Australian pointed to another example of how the Lateline team just can't seem to grasp the fact that there are two sides to a story. When climate change minister Penny Wong appeared on the program to try to explain the Rudd government's emissions trading scheme, the newspaper editorialised: ‘The first question Jones asked, as well as the following four, concerned how many renewable energy jobs the ETS would create. Not how many jobs the ETS will cost as export industries lose business to companies based in countries where they do not pay to pollute. Not the overall economic impact of a scheme that miners say will lead to workers being sacked. Jones is interested in jobs in the future, not people in the present.' Bear all this in mind when you recall Maurice Newman's recent speech to the corporation's senior staff. The public, the ABC chairman said, should not perceive any ‘ABC view' on an issue. He pointed to the coverage of climate change as an example of ‘group-think' that was intolerant of contrary views . ‘Should there be a view that the ABC was sheltering particular beliefs from scrutiny, or failing to question a consensus,' Newman said, ‘I would consider it to be a dangerous perception that could lead to the public's trust in us being undermined.....”'

Re-posted from June 2009 Gallipoli: Second Front in The History Wars

“...The gauntlet has been thrown down, and the next phase of the Left's ideological onslaught on Australian society and its history is under way. The intelligentsia would no doubt like to be as successful in imposing its view of the Anzac tradition on Australian society as it has been in promulgating its fabrication of the history of indigenous Australians and requiring students at every level of education, from day care to university, to make unquestioning obeisance to a politically correct, contrived mythology....”

(8 June 09) “......As 2014 approaches there will be a resurgence, intensification and expansion of the already vigorous debates about the war as historians, intellectuals, ideologues, politicians, veterans' organisations, community groups and laypersons continue to come to grips with the meaning of this titanic struggle; exploring it in terms of its origins, battles, strategies, tactics, and consequences; while addressing political ideologies, wartime cultures, battlefield experiences, memories, gender and race, national identities, the fates of empires, and the future of civilisation... Floundering, and looking for an explanation that doesn't require it to examine its own basic assumptions, the Left has concluded that the principal reason for the resurgence of the Anzac spirit is the alleged militarism and nationalism of the Howard government....The views of Mark McKenna, Associate Professor of History at the University of Sydney are also typical of the intelligentsia's position..... Such passages reveal why the Left fails to connect with the Anzac legend and why it sees it as such a threat: according to the Left's peculiar ideology and dissociated mind-set, all these qualities of patriotism, allegiance, faith, freedom, prosperity, nationalism, pride and achievement are suspect, or invalid, or even pernicious. Consequently, it devalues and even despises any cultural tradition—like Anzac—that gives expression to them.....” Gallipoli: Second Front in The History Wars , Mervyn F. Bendle, Quadrant “......Confronted by the survey's findings that young people present at the Gallipoli ceremony overwhelmingly saw their pilgrimage in terms of respect, national pride, gratitude, remembrance, sadness, sacrifice, affirmation, love, reconciliation, and connection with their Australian forebears, (Joan) Beaumont objected. No, she insisted, these were merely values into which these young people had been socialised at school. In the ensuing discussion I suggested that one should not so readily dismiss what appeared to be deeply held attitudes and that these were extremely valuable results that should be addressed; Beaumont reaffirmed her view and other academics supported her. For them, it appeared, these results reveal merely shallow, ersatz values inculcated by the state, with no genuine emotional or psychological roots.ect, or invalid, or even pernicious. Consequently, it devalues and even despises any cultural tradition—like Anzac—that gives expression to them...The attack on the Anzac legend is not restricted to Gallipoli but increasingly encompasses the Second World War. Consequently, an excellent example of contemporary revisionism was provided by Peter Stanley's high-profile and relentless opposition in 2002 to the popular belief that Australia faced the threat of Japanese invasion in 1942..... The attack by the intelligentsia on the Anzac tradition is both explicit and co-ordinated. Consequently, what clearly aspires to be a manifesto was widely promulgated just prior to Anzac Day this year..... the Anzac legend is far too precious to be left to the mercy of these ideologues. The centennial of the outbreak of the Great War approaches: it may soon be time for those who value the sacrifices of their forebears, the national identity of their country, and all that its people have achieved, to follow the Anzac spirit in the battle of ideas, and go over the top....”

This Culture War Cuts To The Core

(7 April 10) “.....A funny thing happened in the nation's capital recently. ACT Supreme Court judge Richard Refshauge ordered the release of Gim Em Moh, a convicted criminal, after finding that the sentencing magistrate had failed to treat Moh with the "inherent dignity" he deserved as a human being under the ACT Human Rights Act..... Moh pleaded guilty to using fake credit cards and a fake driver's licence to buy electronic goods. In sentencing Moh, a Malaysian national, to six months' jail, magistrate Grant Lalor said that Moh "was turned loose to burgle the stores of Canberra with false credit cards" and "turned loose to rape and pillage the stores of Canberra". Refshauge ordered Moh's release, claiming that sentencing obligations had not been met, and chastised the magistrate for his "exaggerated and extreme language". The judge said "anyone deprived of liberty must be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person". What was Lalor thinking when he said a fraudster and thief had behaved like a fraudster and thief?.... the real joke is on Refshauge. By treating colourful language as a breach of Moh's rights, the judge has unwittingly delivered a useful sermon, not on the inherent dignity of human beings but on the inherent folly of a human rights act. Refshauge has demonstrated the irresistible seduction that happens when judges are given the chance to impose their personal preferences using a list of ambiguously worded "human rights"... This Culture War Cuts To The Core, Janet Albrechtsen. The Australian. “.....Community views? They don't get a look in when a judge is charged with defining what "inherent dignity" means when a criminal is being sentenced.And here is the essential defect in a human rights act. At its core, it is anti-democratic, requiring unelected judges to answer a wide range of social and political questions once left to parliament. Previously, the Left relied on specific pieces of discrimination legislation to impose its "rights" agenda. A charter of rights is a more ambitious project. It empowers an elite cadre of unelected charter recruits to impose a broader ideological agenda that would have no hope of success under normal democratic processes.... As Margaret Kelly wrote on this page a few weeks ago, this is a "legal Trojan horse": unnamed bureaucrats behind closed doors will decide on highly contested human rights....Every chapter in the culture wars has its own orthodoxy. The orthodoxy surrounding a human rights act says empowering unelected judges and backroom bureaucrats to make fundamental social and political determinations is a benign process aimed at improving our human rights culture... Culture wars don't get more core than this one.......”

More proof that Canada is slipping over the edge ,

(3 April 10) “….From Mark Steyn we learn that the Palestine House in Toronto is hosting Abd al-Bari Atwan, editor of the London newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi. Atwan is, in Steyn's words, "a celebrity eliminationist" who declared on TV that "if the Iranian missiles strike Israel, by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight."…. I'm not one of those who wants the government to prosecute hate speech. But I thought Canada, which launched proceedings against Steyn for "Ïslamphobic" utterances, had laws against this sort of thing…..” More proof that Canada is slipping over the edge , “…… It turns out that, far from prosecuting the Jew haters at the Palestine House, the Canadian government is subsidizing them. This means, among other things, that the appearnce of the jihadist Atwan is effectively being underwritten by Canadian taxpayers. Given Canada's approach to Steyn's speech and to the speech of jihadists, I wonder not so much whether Canada will survive as a free society but whether it deserves to…..”

"If Guam Gets Too Overpopulated It Might Tip Over"

Don't laugh this is seriously serious

(2 April 10) In a hearing in the House of Representatives, concerning the number of U. S. Forces on the Island of Guam, a "distinguished" House Member actually said -- "If Guam Gets Too Overpopulated It Might Tip Over" This man serves on the House Armed Service Committee - sleep well America .  You have to ask yourself - How do people like this get elected to public office? Perhaps those casting the votes are equally as stupid...

New EU Gestapo spies on Britons

(2 April 10) “......Millions of Britons face being snooped on by a new European intelligence agency which has been handed frightening powers to pry into our lives. Europol can access personal information on anyone – including their political opinions and sexual preferences.... The vagueness of the Hague-based force's remit sparked furious protests yesterday with critics warning that the EU snoopers threaten our right to free speech. It is understood the agency will concentrate on anyone thought “xenophobic” or likely to commit a crime involving the environment, computers or motor vehicles. This could include covert monitoring of people who deny the existence of climate change or speak out on controversial issues. .. James Welch, legal director of campaign group Liberty, said: “We have huge concerns that Europol appears to have been given powers to hold very sensitive information and to investigate matters that aren't even crimes in this country. Any extension of police powers at any level needs to be properly debated and scrutinised.”... .. Until January 1, Europol was a police office funded by various states to help tackle international organised crime......” New EU Gestapo spies on Britons , Mary Reunolds. Express.co.uk “...... But it has been reborn as the official criminal intelligence-gathering arm of the EU and Brussels has vastly increased its powers.. ... Campaigners last night expressed concern over the vague list of “serious crimes” which the agency can help investigate, which include racism and xenophobia, environmental crime and corruption. Among personal details that can be gathered and stored are “behavioural data” including “lifestyle and routine; movements; places frequented”, tax position and profiles of DNA and voice. Where relevant, Europol will also be able to keep data on a person's “political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs or trade union membership and data concerning health or sex life”.....if Brussels adopts a hard-line stance on climate change, it's conceivable that someone who broadcasts their scepticism of climate change may be accused of committing an environmental crime because they have undermined the EU's efforts to save mankind.” Timothy Kirkhope, Conservative leader in the European Parliament, said: “Europol's new mandate has significantly expanded its powers.  “There is a real chance that the vague mandate will enable it to gradually extend its areas of intervention even further.” The Home Office insisted the changes were in Britain's interests......”

James Lovelock on the value of sceptics and why Copenhagen was doomed

James Lovelock is the Godfather of the “Mother Earth” Gaia movement. He is to Gaia what Gore is to Climate Change...So through that prism his views are instructive and sobering to say the least

(2 April 10)  “......I remember when the Americans sent up a satellite to measure ozone and it started saying that a hole was developing over the South Pole. But the damn fool scientists were so mad on the models that they said the satellite must have a fault. We tend to now get carried away by our giant computer models. But they're not complete models. They're based more or less entirely on geophysics. They don't take into account the climate of the oceans to any great extent, or the responses of the living stuff on the planet. So I don't see how they can accurately predict the climate. It's not the computational power that we lack today, but the ability to take what we know and convert it into a form the computers will understand. I think we've got too high an opinion of ourselves.... If you make a model, after a while you get suckered into it. You begin to forget that it's a model and think of it as the real world. You really start to believe it..... If you look back on climate history it sometimes took anything up to 1,000 years before a change in one of the variables kicked in and had an effect. And during those 1,000 years the temperature could have gone in the other direction to what you thought it should have done. What right have the scientists with their models to say that in 2100 the temperature will have risen by 5C?..... James Lovelock on the value of sceptics and why Copenhagen was doomed The Guardian “.....There are plenty of incidences where something turns on the heat, but temperatures actually go down perversely, before eventually going up. A cold winter may mean nothing, as could 10 cold winters in a row. The great climate science centres around the world are more than well aware how weak their science is. If you talk to them privately they're scared stiff of the fact that they don't really know what the clouds and the aerosols are doing. They could be absolutely running the show. We haven't got the physics worked out yet. One of the chiefs once said to me that he agreed that they should include the biology in their models, but he said they hadn't got the physics right yet and it would be five years before they do. So why on earth are the politicians spending a fortune of our money when we can least afford it on doing things to prevent events 50 years from now? They've employed scientists to tell them what they want to hear...... I don't know enough about carbon trading, but I suspect that it is basically a scam. The whole thing is not very sensible. We have this crazy idea that we are setting an example to the world. What we're doing is trying to make money out of the world by selling them renewable gadgetry and green ideas. It might be worthy from the national interest, but it is moonshine if you think what the Chinese and Indians are doing in terms of emissions.....”.

For other interesting features be sure to visit March 2010