Here comes the Sun!

Yes, 5.30 this morning saw the beginning of the northern hemisphere winter solstice. We have  turned the corner of the year, and are on the road to summer. There will be icy patches to contend with yet, but who cares - we're on the way!

EU to be restructured

Stand by for a Sell-out

David Cameron, according to the dailies, is off to Paris to discuss the EU's problems with Sarkozy. Stripped of the journalese, I suspect that he is being called into the presence like Papandreou and Berlusconi before him, to be told that he must either knuckle under or step down. Knowing Cameron, he will probably cave in. I hope I'm wrong, but past experience isn't encouraging.

On another subject entirely, this morning has seen the first frost of the season. The factory roofs opposite my window are white over. Oo-er!

What Did I Tell You?

Absolutely no comment (see earlier blog).

Guess what?

And what's the betting it leads to more wind turbines?

Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?

President Obama proposes to spend $480,000,000,000 to create jobs and to stimulate the US economy.
This is the classic Keynesian strategy which failed spectacularly in the UK in the early Seventies. Obviously, it will increase America's already massive debt.
But how did the US come to be in this depressed state in the first place?
I suspect a major factor is the way the West has been exporting jobs to low-wage economies over the last twenty years. It has created a powerful economy in places like China while leaving millions without work in the lands where the jobs originated. We need only look at the computer sector, in which  US know-how has created a new industrial revolution. Yet not a single computer is manufactured in the United States.
So why is no-one pointing the finger of blame? Why the silence?
I suspect because this is one of those occasions when both Right- and Left-wing politicians are muzzled by their respective ideologies. For the Right, the export of jobs is in line with libertarian economic theory:the move makes goods cheaper in the home country, while creating wealth in the poorer countries. Any unemployment caused will be temporary, until the market pulls workers into new jobs. Meanwhile, of course, welfare softens the impact.
Why is the left so silent? Because the only obvious alternative is some form of nationalism, with controls over imports and exports. And the left do not like nationalism (or for that matter nations).
So America, at least in the short term, will continue to subsidise non-jobs, while exporting real ones.
Something's gotta give.

Sympathy for the Devil

Since writing yesterday's piece on the capital punishment debate, another element of the problem has occurred to me. It strikes me that the popular media, of necessity, must be biased in favour of killers - or, more specifically, against the victims.
This is because that the details of most killings - the enormities committed on the bodies of the victims, the agonies of the victim's loved ones - are simply too horrible to be reported in detail, while details of the personality and background of the killer are protected by law.
Thus, it is easier for the uninvolved to sympathise with the malefactor, whose predicament - as he awaits judgement, they can understand (or delude themselves that they can understand).
I can see no way of avoiding this in a decent society - but I do feel we should bear it in mind.

Evaluating the Death Penalty

Richard Ingrams, in his blog for The Independent, wonders how many innocent people would have been executed if capital punishment had not been abolished. It is a valid point, but not a balanced one. To evaluate the issue fairly, we need to know how many innocent people would have been murdered if capital punishment had been retained.
Statistics are helpful. According to the Home Office, between 1965 and 1998 71 people were murdered by people who had been released after serving 'life sentences'. That number alone probably dwarfs the number  of people wrongly found guilty; what we cannot know, however, is how many people were deterred from committing murder by the presence of the death penalty.
The question, pace Mr Ingrams, is still very much open.

Did Old Moore see it coming?

I only ask because the Almanac page for August does actually forecast riots with a racial element. Mind you, in view of the amount of tosh in the Almanac he's bound to have a few lucky hits.

Help! My bank is run by idiots

I have just received my monthly statement from the co-operative bank. Enclosed with it is the above booklet. It explains how they will be increasingly lending on 'environmental' issues from £400 to £1bn.
They are also campaigning to keep tar sands out of Europe. In addition , they are working in conjunction with WWF.
Woe is me; since I no longer work, I am not attractive to any other bank, so probably can't change to a more sensible bank.  What can I do? Feeling very frustrated.

A 32-year old mum, Emma Mitchell, has been ejected from a council office for trying to breast feed her baby. The reason? The office is 'multicultural', and the sight of junior getting his lunch is offensive to Muslims. Do you think that the council would ban the wearing of the hijab for a similar reason?
No, me neither.

I now seems fairly certain that Greece will default from the Euro. It is also becoming obvious that Italy is in a pretty rocky state too. And the Republic of Ireland is simmering quietly. How soon before someone begins to describe this continent-wide collapse as 'The European Spring'?

Throwing Granny to the Wolves

The News of the World was the one newspaper which my mother refused to have in the house, because of the high smut content which was its stock in trade (in those days it was  known familiarly as the Dick and Dagger).  Now it is is being sacrificed in order to save the wider interests of the Murdoch Empire.

Will  it work? I suspect not. There is the little matter of police bribery to be investigated. there are numerous civil suits pending. There is the damage to Cameron (he is personally involved with most of the News International players). There is the distant possibility of a Proceeds of Crime action. Could this be Cameron's Profumo moment? we shall see.

I was about to say say something sceptical about Piers Corbyn's volcano/earthquake prediction, but I am holding my breath while Mt Hekla decides whether or not to make an exhibition of itself.

Lib Dems=Lib Deads?

More storm clouds on the horizon for Mr Clegg. The Lib Dems have just lost their deposit in the Inverclyde by-election with only 2% of the vote (627 people supported them).

Here's a joke you may have heard already, but what the hell:

A man rings the Liberal Democrat HQ.

Man: Hello. I'd like to buy a copy of the Lib Dem manifesto.
LD:   Sorry, we've sold out.
Man: I know that, but I'd still like to buy a copy.

Do You Want to Rephrase That?

Now here's what you call truth in advertising. The poster above, on which the local branch of the Varsity advertises its pub grub, is looking a mite ill-advised in view of this news item about the same pub in the Wolverhampton Express and Star this week:

Bosses of a Wolverhampton city centre bar have been told to pay more than £8,000 after admitting “appalling” standards of hygiene.
The kitchens of The Varsity, in Stafford Street, were found to be filthy, a court was told.
Donna Richards, prosecuting on behalf of Wolverhampton City Council, said  there was a “significant accumulation of grease and food debris on the floor” during the inspection in November last year.
Buckinghamshire-based Barracuda Bars Co Ltd, which runs the venue, admitted two counts of failing to comply with food hygiene regulations at Wolverhampton Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
The company was fined £7,000 for the two offences, ordered to pay £1,045.49 in costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

More doomsaying from Piers Corbyn

Yes, it's another quake warning from Piers Corbyn. Tune your seismographs and stand by!

Indiana Clegg and the Ballot of Doom.

Blimey! Council elections and a referendum on the same day. I voted earlier.As there was no UKIP candidate, and as I was not prepared to vote either Labour  or Green, I voted Tory rather than waste the vote.
It doesn't seem as though my enthusiasm for democracy is widely shared. The ladies at the polling desk told me I was only the fifth voter to show up in the first four hours. It will be interesting to see how the results pan out. The political system seems to be becoming increasingly volatile. The Tories are allegedly planning an autumn election with a view to dumping the LibDems. Among the LibDems, Chris 'Windmill' Huene is allegedly plotting to bring down Clegg.  Labour, as ever, is split from top to bottom; and the BNP is apparently dead on its feet due to cash problems.
The next election, whenever it comes, will be very interesting.

R.I.P. Yvette Vickers

She was the golden girl of fifties 'B' movies, bringing a ray of sunshine to stinkers like Attack of the 50ft Woman and Attack of the Giant Leeches. She was also one of the early Playboy centerfolds (above).
  She was in her eighties, and had apparently been dead for some considerable time when her body was discovered.How sad.


Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
Nor the furious winter's rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

Osama Bin Laden - A New Face in Hell

Well, they finally got him. The Americans swooped without (for once) informing their Pakistani 'allies' in advance. Result: he was not forewarned. He went the way he would have wanted: using his wife as a human shield.
   Councillor Salim Mulla, chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, appealed to all Muslim communities to avoid any backlash.
He clearly knows more about the Muslim community than the rest of us  do.

Shakespeare's Birthday - Hurrah!

I hereby declare this to be the first British Literature Day, celebrating the vast literary legacy these islands have bequeathed to the world, meaning not only the creations  of the bard, but such characters as:

Peter Rabbit, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes,  Biggles, Harry Potter, Jane Eyre, Becky Sharp, Sweeney Todd,
Just William. Tristram Shandy, Evelyn Hope, Robinson Crusoe, Long John Silver, Oliver Twist, Doctor Syn, Raffles, Alan Quartermain, Jeeves and Wooster, Sexton Blake, Hercule Poirot, Mr Polly, Sadie Thompson, James Bond, Flashman, Cathy and Heathcliff,  George Smiley, Lucky Jim, Mr Pooter, Fu Manchu....
Complete the list yourself - if you can!

And as for that non existent buffoon St George (blows raspberry).

Buddy, Can You Spare a Dwarf?

Recession extends its unwelcome tendrils into many strange places. Now apparently even dwarfs have priced themselves out of the shrinking market.
  The Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, will no longer be hiring midget actors for this years pantomime
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Says executive producer Jonathan Kiley: "Dwarfs are very, very expensive". Instead, children, fitted with rubber masks, will be used.
   Is anybody safe in the current climate?

A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of nationalism. All but dead twenty years ago, nationalism, which used to be the reserve of racist cranks, is now a rising force in euro politics. Its latest manifestation is the success of the True Finns party. What has caused this resurgence? I believe it is a reaction to the European Union project. Paradoxically, a scheme which originated after World War II to destroy European nationalism, has had precisely the opposite effect.

Manson Joins the Warmies

Look out, Climate change deniers! Step aside, Al Gore! Famed psychopath Charles Manson has gone green! According to Fox News:

Tell it like it is, Charlie!

Repeal the Climate Change Act!

A campaign is underway to repeal the 2008 Climate Change Act. You may be forgiven for not knowing about it; media coverage has been scanty. I only discovered it thanks to a Greenpeace Guardian article bemoaning the fact that the government appears to be classifying environmental laws as 'red tape'.
The article mentioned the campaign (which began in March) in passing.
 Their site contains a short, pithy explanation of why the carbon panic is balderdash. It also reminds us that the carbon act will cost the UK £734 billion pounds (the national debt is already £900 billion pounds).
If you care about rationality, and the economic survival of the nation, add your signature NOW.

Bring on the Micropub

So Punch Taverns is to dump 2,200 of its pubs. It says that there is 'no future in the traditional drinks led pub'. Well, not the way Punch runs them, there isn't. Looking back on my youth, when there seemed to be a pub every thirty feet or so, the one thing most of them had in common was their size; few of them were much larger than the average living room. And the beer was normally cheap enough to please the customers and make a profit for the licensee. So  I think that, for the British boozer, the battle cry has to be 'Back to the Future'. Make 'em smaller, cheaper, and offering a shorter range of products. Have pubs specialising in lager, pubs specialising in wine, and so on.
  Slowly, the change is already coming. In my own home town of Wolverhampton we have one pub in a back alley which the owner built himself out of breeze blocks. It is tiny, but always packed.
  A few weeks ago there was an excellent article on the subject in The Mail. Read it and ponder.

Goodbye, Kakapo

Millions of dollars have been spent in New Zealand saving the Kakapo, a flightless, burrowing, nocturnal parrot. Now an Australian professor has caused upset by suggesting that the creature's extinction is unavoidable, as its population has dwindled to a level where any chance event could wipe it out. What is interesting is the response to the Prof's opinion. Those in charge of conservation seem to take it for granted that extinction is a) unnatural b) disastrous and c) harmful to humanity.
 There is nothing more natural than extinction; it is the driving force behind evolution. Species, like individuals, are mortal. Most of the animals we treasure today exist because the species that were their rivals have died out. The Kakapo contributes nothing to nature that cannot be duplicated by other, more vigorous life forms. Let it go gently.

According to the Mail, a third of job vacancies are being filled by over 65s. This, says the mail, is because they cannot afford to retire, or to manage on their pensions. Fair enough; but what is the motivation for the companies who hire them? Surely younger people would be be more energetic, and have years more usefulness ahead of them.
 Can it be that the older people are more literate and numerate than the young? I wouldn't be surprised.

New Scientist wimps out

A radical departure from the greener-than-thou New Scientist magazine. It reports on a new paper by Alex Kleidon of the Max Planck Institute which states that, in order to gain the equivalent energy from wind and wave that we do from fossil fuels, we would have to deplete the atmosphere of energy to the extent that usable portion would decrease steadily- a kind of 'diminishing returns'. Moreover, the amount of free energy converted into waste heat would create a atmospheric warming equivalent to doubling atmospheric CO2. So far, so scientific, but apparently the biomass has been hitting the fan at the NS offices, for today the title of the article has been changed, and - but read the new version for yourself:

So now we must all sit back while various panic-stricken greenies try to refute the reasoning or (more likely) smear the author. Watch this space.

March for the Alternative - the counter-argument

What can't speak, can't lie. The clipping above shows why we need cuts.
Incidentally, my predictions in advance of the TUC rally last weekend were as much wrong as right - no-one got killed. Otherwise, the destructive mayhem was much the same as usual. The police haven't been accused of brutality - instead, they have been accused of not being brutal enough. My memories of public demonstrations span four decades, and nothing seems ever to have changed.

Predictions (2) March for the Alternative

These are my own predictions for 'March for the Alternative' protest against government cuts being held in London today.

1. Lots of shop windows will be broken.
2. Hundreds of people will be 'kettled' by police, and will announce their intention to sue.
3. Papers the following day will tell of violence being caused by 'a minority of troublemakers'.
4. The police will be accused of provoking violence.
5. Someone in The Guardian will speak of a 'police riot'.
6. At least one person will die under mysterious circumstances.
7. Government policies will not be amended in the slightest.

For once, I hope all of my predictions will be wrong!

Predictions (1): Was Corbyn Right?

A few days ago (March 22) I blogged about Piers Corbyn's prediction of another earthquake following the Japanese disaster. Well, now we have one; this time in northern Myanmar (alias Burma). This one measured around 6 on the Richter scale, and is so far known to have killed seventy people and injured hundreds.
So, was Corbyn right? Or is it merely coincidence?

Twilight of the Arabs

I have just read an excellent article in The Spectator's by Matthew Parris.  It is titled "The Arab world deserves our pity, not our fear", and it points out that behind the hate-filled rhetoric of Al Qaeda
and Co. lies a culture in terminal decline.
Which brings me to the current protests and insurrections flaring across the Middle East. I'm afraid that I don't buy the 'Arab Spring' argument that they represent a mass movement towards democracy. Against corruption, incompetence and unemployment, yes. But democracy is still an alien concept in the Islamic world.
I have a theory about the current upheavals, which is that they represent the second act of a massive, unplanned cultural experiment. The first act of that experiment was the mass emigration - for the first time in history - of Muslims into the non-Muslim world. There can now be few Muslims - whether they be situated in the Middle East or elsewhere - who do not know of friends or relatives who live in what is vaguely know as 'the West', and who are simply better off, and safer, than they. It is that which is making them look critically at their own living standards.
As for the bombing of Libya, I'm agin' it. You can't bomb order into chaos, as we should have learned by now.

R.I.P. Liz Taylor

Well, she finally bowed out.She may never have been the world's greatest actress, but my God, what a life! She was a one-woman soap opera for two generations.
Amazingly, I have managed to dig out a caricature of her which I pasted into one of the scrapbooks I used to keep when I was doing an arts foundation thirty years ago, and which shows her wearing the heads of her past loves as jewelry. It is by an artist called Charles Griffen. I am happy to share it with you.

UK Uncut protest

Here are a few protesters in town on behalf of the UK Uncut campaign. This aims to contrast tax avoidance with government cuts. The idea is to blockade shops belonging to those who, in the opinion of the campaigners, don't pay enough tax.
The arithmetic doesn't add up; the country's debt runs into trillions. The millions which the 'evaders' are supposedly hanging on to doesn't come near to balancing the books. Secondly, the fact that there is a moral justification for many of the cuts is not being addressed. Finally. and most importantly, tax avoidance (as opposed to evasion) is perfectly legal, and I suspect most people who are in a position to avoid paying excessive tax do so. In a country which made heroes of of fictional petty crooks like Arthur Daley and the Trotter Brothers, this campaign is a non-starter.

Corbyn predicts more doom

Piers Corbyn has issued another earthquake/extreme weather warning. See here.

UPDATE: Geologist Jim Berkland echoes warning, claims the  United States Pacific North-West likely epicentre.

Take That, St. Pat

The Chinese have announced that the St Patrick's Day march in Shanghai has been cancelled. The reason, apparently, is that the authorities are concerned that the mass assembly of people may be used as a cover for the sort of anti-authority riots we have been watching in the Middle East.
Good for them! It's high time we banned this booze-soaked bore in England. If it weren't for the marketing department  of  the Guinness brewery the whole thing would have sunk without trace years ago, except among the Irish community. As an Englishman, It is my birthright to get drunk as a skunk on any day of the year, not just one accepted as a safety valve by the Irish Catholic church. Anyway, this is a protestant country; we don't do saints. Which is why, incidentally, we don't celebrate St George's Day.
 That's Patrick, above. Note the snakes, to which the old lad is pointing. They are symbolic of Patrick, as the cross keys are symbolic of St Peter. That is because, according to legend, St Pat drove all the snakes out of Ireland. ( in reality, they were driven out by the last ice age). That is also why you will find similar posters of Patrick all over Haiti. Voodoo devotees use them to symbolise their serpent god, Damballah.
Not many people know that, as Michael Caine used to say.

Tsunami horror

With estimates of the number of dead rising steadily, it is beginning to appear that the Japanese tsunami could turn out to be the greatest natural disaster in human history. Newsreel photographs of that wall of water and debris grinding inexorably across the landscape should remind us of our relative impotence in the face of nature's convulsions. Hopefully the world will unite to succour Japan in its hour of need.

There will be huge economic consequences. The financial damage to earth's already weakened economies will be incalculable. Ships full of goods have gone missing. Factories have had to be closed down. Five nuclear reactors have been damaged; there is danger of meltdown. The insurance payouts will run into billions.

And there may be more to come. Astrophysicist Piers Corbyn, whose long range weather forecasts now consistently out-perform those of the Met Office, had predicted - in advance of the present disaster - that the world would suffer major quakes and geological events for the next two years. Mr Corbyn's thesis is that weather on the Sun is the main determinant of what happens on Earth. The sunspot cycles have been abnormally low for a couple of years now, and the current quake was preceded by a coronal ejection of record size, hurling billions of tons of matter in our direction.
Let's hope that, for once, he is wrong.

Jerusalem Olympics 2012

Iran is threatening to boycott the 2012 Olympics on the grounds that its (in)famous 'collapsing outhouse' logo is racist, and incorporates the letters of 'Zion' . Well, I at once dashed to my Photoshop CS to see if the logo could, indeed, be rearranged to read 'Zion'.  The result is above.
So, what can we deduce? We have, it seems to me. three options:
1. The IOC is in the pocket of the Jewish World Conspiracy.
2. The Iranians are afraid that some, if not all, of their athletes will claim asylum in London.
3. President Ahmadinejad is as crazy as a shithouse rat.

NOTE: Options 2 and 3 are by no means mutually exclusive.

Global Warming Begins to Grip

Here's a computer composite of several satellite photographs taken over the last few days. They show the remarkable extent of snow cover over the northern hemisphere. Obviously we shall be told that this is weather, not climate - but that distinction will become meaningless if the cold winters which we have been experiencing over the last few years become the norm. Climate is simply average  temperature  - and if temperatures stay low, they become climate.

Tattoos

Just read, in the course of an article, that the NHS spends £40,000,000 per year removing unwanted tattoos.
Why? What has this to do with the nation's health?
If people can find the money to have them done, surely they can find the money to have them undone.
There's no reason for the state to get involved.

Cheap Booze Britain?

To begin with, here's something you may have missed on the Guido Fawkes blog a couple of days ago.
Right now the anti-alcohol lobby are stampeding again, demanding higher prices for booze. Perhaps with this in mind, Guido has posted the following useful graph comparing British booze tax to those in the rest of Europe.

No extra comment needed.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

But hang on - isn't it the 21st of January?
Well, yes. But fact is that ever since Christmas I've been in a sort of 'slough of despond', not wanting to blog or, for that matter, do anything else. I've been lying in bed for half the day like a human compost heap.Now, as the days begin to grow appreciably longer and lighter, I feel the sap rising again. Expect more stuff shortly.