Christopher Booker’s scientific credentials
Rejoice, people! Whatever you may’ve read, however many chilling predictions you may have heard, however frequently Al Gore might haunt your dreams, telling you that the world will end in a torrent of fire because YOU don’t use energy-saving lightbulbs, I can promise that all those fears are unfounded. For as people across the world glance at 2009 with such foreboding and dread, Christopher Booker has made the jolly discovery that instead of getting much, much worse, climate change doesn’t actually exist all!
Now, I understand that there’s a great deal of misinformation out there in BlogLand, and since I’m not a scientist (well, neither is he, but he sure seems to know a lot more than ‘real scientists’), I have to make sure that all my sources are of the highest calibre. So I did whatever any forensic time-deprived blogger would do, and checked him out on Wikipedia. Without further ado, and just to show how seriously you should take his scientific acumen, here are some of Booker’s greatest hits:
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The tactical case for supporting Greens at Euros
The next big electoral test in this country is the Euro-elections, next June. I’m the lead Green Party candidate for Eastern Region, one of our two top target Regions (the other being NorthWest) for the Euro-elections.
So what?, some of you may ask. “What has all this got to do with me? What do I, as a Socialist / Labour supporter / LibDem / independent care about the Green Party’s performance next June?”
The answer lies bang in the centre of the ‘remit’ of Liberal Conspiracy: because of the electoral system that the Euro-elections are fought under, and because of the arithmetic.
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We’re burning up
This report (PDF) by ten of the world’s leading climate scientists (very briefly discussed here) has been causing a fair amount of worried hand-wringing on the environmental blogs, partly because of the very stark predictions it makes, but also because it renders the task of constructing an effective climate change policy more difficult than ever.
As I wrote earlier, the magic number used by climate scientists is 350 parts per million (ppm); that’s the maximum amount of carbon our planet can handle before the damaging effects of climate change take effect. At the moment, we’re at around 385, and that number is increasing by about 2 ppm every year.
As Bradford Plumer explains, until recently, climatologists have believed that stabilising the amount of carbon at around 450 ppm was the most realistic target for world governments to aim for, and if there was a concerted global effort to cut emissions 80% by 2050, then there’d be a good chance of us achieving that. We would still inevitably experience the damage of climate change, such as changes in weather patterns and rising sea levels, but it would at least avoid something far, far worse.
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John McCain makes a simple case for nuclear energy
It’s probably unfair to expect high-flown rhetoric and complex ideas from a presidential candidate’s speech. They’re designed to get the candidate’s ideas and policies across to potential voters in the most simple and shortest way.
That said, you can take the simplicity too far. Take John McCain criticising Barack Obama’s stance on nuclear power…
You know, the other night in a debate I said his eloquence is admirable but pay attention to his words […] We talked about nuclear power. Well, it has to be safe, environment, blah blah blah. […] Nuclear power is safe. We ought to do it now.
Pay attention to Obama’s words, says McCain. What about McCain’s words? Blah, blah, blah? Is that an ‘admirable eloquence’? Sure, the arguments around nuclear power and safety can be complex. They often need to be simplified so that people who aren’t nuclear scientist can understand then, but blah, blah, blah? Do the workers cleaning up at Hanford, the most radioactive place in America regard nuclear safety as blah, blah, blah, do you think? John McCain is 72, as if we needed reminding, not 7.
And ‘nuclear power is safe’, says McCain. Really? If it’s so safe why is McCain on the record as saying he would not want nuclear waste being transported through his home state of Arizona? Is it safe or is it not, Senator? If it’s as safe as you say, let’s see you call for nuclear waste to be trucked through Arizona. Let’s have a straight answer and make it a little less simple than blah, blah, blah. We’re intelligent enough to understand.
(Originally published at Nuclear Reaction.)
Transport and environmental policy: pathetic and doomed whoever wins the next election
It costs me about £25–30 in petrol to drive the 55 miles from my home in Hackney to Brighton, and the same 55 back again. First Capital Connect is asking north of £90 for a return ticket for our family this weekend, starting from London Bridge. So if there’s a traffic jam on the northbound M23 this Sunday evening (inevitable), you can blame me.
If I lived in Florence, a family return trip of similar length to Livorno (birthplace of the PCI, home of the cacciucco) comes to about €33. From Brussels, a weekend rail trip to Bruges, 90km away, would cost us just over €49. A slightly longer journey in France, from Lyon to Chambery and back, comes to €59. continue reading… »
Should Gordon Brown ‘capitulate’ over Windfall tax?
James Graham says that if Gordon Brown “capitulates” to Compass over their campaign for a Windfall Tax, then he “looks weaker than ever”. Now, I’m still not convinced by the economic or moral arguments against a Windfall tax – I think its a good idea. It’s quite easy for Nick Clegg to say that while energy prices have shot sky-high the companies should do something, but what exactly should they do and what if they don’t listen? Saying that is the easy part.
But I have a different quibble. I think its foolish to buy the tabloid line that if a minister reacts to outside pressure then he / she is weak. Its rubbish. Do we want ministers to be flexible or not? If we do then we should celibrate when a government accepts it made a mistake or has not reacted adequately to worsening economic conditions. It’s the mainstream media that turns such decisions into sensationalist ‘u-turns’ or ‘capitulation’ or ‘looking weak’. I think the left and liberals should challenge such immature language if we want ministers to be more responsive to grassroots pressure.
Lastly, David Semple is spot-on regarding this issue.
The true Tory colours come out
Around the blogosphere and in the press, a number of British right-wing commentators (notably Peter Hitchens and Iain Dale) have already come out in support of McCain’s VP pick Sarah Palin.
It is good to see these Tories lining up in support of her. It makes pretty clear just how skin-deep the Cameron ‘revolution’ has been.
Let’s remind ourselves of some of what Palin stands for:
* Palin opposes abortion even in the case of rape or incest. She believes, that is to say, in (for example) the right of a father who rapes his under-age daughter legally to ensure that his daughter bears his grandchild. Yes: Palin believes that rapists and incestuous predators have the right to see their babies sired, as long as they succeed in forcing conception. (Her 17 year-old unmarried daughter Bristol is pregnant); Palin would insist on the law forcing Bristol to take the baby to term, whoever its father was, whatever the circumstances of the conception.)
* Palin doesn’t believe in evolution, and thinks creationism should be taught in state schools.
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Can the Greens avoid factional fighting?
The Green Party leadership elections managed some media coverage last week:
A major row is currently brewing which is threatening to split the Green Party in two. For the first time in their history, the Greens are about to launch a leadership contest involving two candidates, the MEP Caroline Lucas (pictured) and the actor Ashley Gunstock, best known for his role as PC Frank in the long-running ITV show The Bill.
In the lead-up to the contest, the party’s operational wing, the Standing Orders Committee, took the unusual decision to publish the contact details of 7,000 members to help candidates lobby for votes. The move has caused uproar in the party, which prides itself on its defence of civil liberties. More than 100 party members have signed an angry letter of protest, questioning the legality of the decision under the Data Protection Act.
This isn’t an issue because no-one proposed to publish members’ details – and no-one asked for them. The members quoted in opposition deliberately distort the debate which did take place.
So whence the Indy column?
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France’s nuclear July: leaks, incompetence, leaks, cover-ups, leaks, spin and leaks
With EDF and British energy doing the will-they-won’t-they and France looking to put itself at the centre of the so-called ‘Nuclear Renaissance’ across the world, it’s worth taking a look at just what’s being going on inside France’s own nuclear industry recently. All is not well.
The latest troubles for the Tricastin nuclear power plant in southern France began in early July when a solution containing unprocessed uranium was allowed to leak into two rivers. Areva, the company running the plant, said that although 30,000 litres had been spilled, ‘only’ 18,000 litres had reached the Gaffiere and Lauzon rivers. That’s a strange use of the word ‘only’, isn’t it?
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Compass v Progress – who will win?
Neal Lawson’s recent article, offering suggestions on how New Labour could rebuild its election winning coalition, has attracted some predictable flak. Here’s Labour councillor Luke Akehurst:
What’s striking about the policy reactions to Glasgow East, such as the statement yesterday from Compass, is that many of them are just recitations of the writers’ pet hates, not attempts to address voters’ actual concerns. Voters are angry about the credit crunch, knife crime, unaffordable housing, fuel prices and fuel tax, and food prices. The Labour left are talking about hostility to ID cards, Trident, 42 day detention and public services reform and PFI, issues where the public support the Government or just don’t care.
And here’s Tim at TOK:
Some people will never learn. While the UK Labour Party is indisputably stuffed at the moment and most definitely needs to address its utter lack of direction and message, it is beyond my comprehension why so many progressives over here want to model a new electoral strategy based on the Labour Party of 1983, rather than the Labour Party of 1997.
You could characterise this as the ‘Compass versus Progress‘ debate.
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Does Obama want a nuclear free world?
Perhaps the most striking passage in Barack Obama’s Berlin speech was the prominence he gave to his call for the goal of a world without nuclear weapons.
This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. The two superpowers that faced each other across the wall of this city came too close too often to destroying all we have built and all that we love. With that wall gone, we need not stand idly by and watch the further spread of the deadly atom. It is time to secure all loose nuclear materials; to stop the spread of nuclear weapons; and to reduce the arsenals from another era. This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons.
This will sound radical to American and to European ears, perhaps especially in Britain.
I can not imagine a British Labour party leader giving the issue a similar level of prominence in a major campaign speech.
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New Labour’s path to power is shattered
The Glasgow East byelection result is another nail in the coffin of New Labour. Across the country, the electorate are crying out for change, they want a government that can help improve their lives.
But a politics that is rooted in the 1990s has simply run out of answers. In response, the government once again claim they are listening, but things still seem unlikely to change; despite political wipe-out now staring Labour in the face.
If Labour politicians refuse to protect people from the economic forces that are harming their lives it’s no wonder people are turning to other political parties.
This awful defeat vindicates what Compass has been saying for three years – that the coalition that brought Labour to power in 1997 has been shattered. Between 1997 and 2005, the party lost 4 million voters – and this time we saw a further pulling-away of the working-class vote that New Labour has always ill-advisedly taken for granted.
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Where will the Greens go from here?
For years, the Green Party operated on a system of collective leadership. Up until 1991 it had 6 co-principal speakers. Since then it’s had two. That’s led to certain groups labelling the Greens as political amateurs – with good hearts, but no idea of what to do.
But last summer the party voted by a margin of 73% to elect a single leader. The Yes campaign argued that a leader was necessary for the party to ever achieve its full potential. The bulk of the party agreed – and so this September the Greens will have their first leadership elections.
The story so far
The first nomination came in last Monday. Caroline Lucas (pictured), at present an MEP and a principal speaker, launched a campaign focused on radical politics delivered with a professional punch. Her website summed up the message:
On climate change, scientists tell us that the next 10 years will be critical in terms of whether we have any chance of avoiding the worst of climate chaos. It is still the case that only the Green Party has both the radical policies, and the political commitment, that are so desperately needed to ensure that we do.
And on social justice, we face a country more unequal than it has been for decades. Only the Green Party has coherent alternatives to government policies that are privatising public services, increasing inequalities, and leading to greater violence and exclusion.
Lucas wants the party to provide discontented liberals and lefties with a credible home. Recent events and policies clearly show the party to be of that liberal-left; where else could a party that challenged David Davis as too authoritarian sit? The energy is clearly there, and Caroline Lucas says she’ll provide the professional quality to bring that vision to the voter.
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Ken Livingstone’s 30 year itch
Ken Livingstone has effectively begun a four year campaign to be London’s next Mayor, having turned himself into a one-man unofficial scrutiny committee of the new Johnson regime. He says that he will confirm his decision to run once Labour opens the nomination process in 2010 (though he has shown before that this might not be his only possible route to City Hall).
It is not difficult to see why running again appeals to Ken. It offers not the prospect of avenging his defeat to Boris Johnson and being back in office for the 2012 Olympics too. Were Livingstone to win the Mayoralty again, it would demonstrate political stamina and bounce-backability which might well be unparalleled in democratic politics.
But there’s the rub for Labour. Livingstone may now have his sights set on outlasting both Thatcherism and New Labour. But will the party want to run a candidate in 2012 who would not just be re-fighting the election of four years before, but who first held the leadership of the Greater London Council more than three full decades before?
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A Bit Eclectic Today…
SnapsThoughts has a photo essay on the fraughtness of union links with Labour. Each image is accompanied by some thought-provoking words. Highly recommended.
Douglas has news of a sexist Tory. In other news, bears are Catholic and the pope poos in the woods.
Spirit of 1976 discovers his inner Clarkson and feels DIRTY.
Sexual Intelligence Blog reports on John McCain’s reluctance to discuss sexual matters. Not in front of the children, dear.
Jonathan Calder is rather cross about curfews, and people who hail them as a success before they even start.
Lee Griffin has some praise for the home secretary’s plans on knife crime.
Feminist SF covers the finale of the most recent series of Doctor Who.
That’s all folks. Tips to the usual address, and I’ll see you Sunday.
And I’d Have Gotten Away With It Too, If It Hadn’t Have Been For Those Darn Bloggers…
A short one today, I’m afraid, since I was up until stupid o’clock last night and am knackered
Purple Cthulhu and prominent Brussels-ite Nick Whyte both report on the sneaky Tories being sneaky and urge you to write to your Euro MP before they introduce a Euro Law which could take your internets away. Andrew Ducker has already written, as have many others.
UK Polling Report has realised that young people can’t remember living under the Tories and thus are less likely to be prejudiced against them. In other news, the sky is blue and the Pope shits in the woods.
Jonathan Calder praises the Sunday Times for praising Lib Dem Economic Expertise.
Septicisle approves of an article in the Daily Fail shock!
Smashboredom examines the G8 in group blog Powerswitch.
And The Prydonian Academy has an end of series poll for Doctor Who.
From Total Politics to Total Burnout
Is there a blog we should be reading, or a post that you think we should link to? Email us your tips to tips@liberalconspiracy.org
Iain Dale’s Total Politics site has launched, and revealed its editorial team. It’s actually quite interesting, and appears to be very well funded too… Why no, these grapes are sweet and tasty, why’d you ask? (Hat tip, Mark Pack at LDV). Oddly they don’t appear to have linked to us from their political blogs directory, but then, as a top ten political blog we’re hard to miss, and the blog directory is so badly-constructed, it’s possible they have linked to us and I just haven’t found the link
Andrew Rilstone writes about how a writer’s writings are distinct from and yet linked to the writer as a person and that person’s political views. Brilliant post (and not just because he says The Shadow Over Innsmouth is better than The Call of Cthulhu), but does contain rude words: proceed with caution.
PC Bloggs turns her ever-acerbic eye onto government in the latest of her occasional series on 21st Century Policing. If I could make PC Bloggs a Home Office advisor…
Political Betting are wondering if the Labour Party will lose their deposit in Henley.
Lynne Featherstone is a big blubbing girly – and this entry is so lovely it turned me into one too. Get your tissues out, and I won’t tell anyone that you needed them.
BluJay posts in the cheerfully-named So Very Doomed group blog about the difficulties that we in the developed world will have obtaining food if things don’t change drastically and soon.
Slightly Warped posts pictures of a fire in a cave in Uzbekistan that’s been burning for 5 years (so far) and is known as the Door to Hell. (Hat tip: Neil Gaiman)
Casting the Net: Firefox, Vibrators, and the Police
Tomorrow is Download Day. I’ve been using the Firefox3 beta for some time now, and I’m very impressed with it. If you’re using IE and fancy giving it a shot, you may as well do it tomorrow and be part of a world record attempt. Click the button for the link:
Lynne Featherstone talks about the difficulties of relying on the NHS to provide you with independent movement.
Spirit of 1976 has suddenly discovered an urge to try Khat – why? Because the Tories want to ban it.
The Times has a fascinating article on the history of Vibrators, and how the humble Personal Massager reflects the changing attitude of society to women.
Smash Boredom has a convincing argument that Robert Mugabe is right about something.
PC Bloggs has a very affecting tale of police resources spread too thin. I can’t recommend her blog enough.
And finally, Feminist SF reviews the weekend’s episode of Doctor Who in a rather weary manner.
How to save Labour: cut our bills
The real problem with Labour is right, more than anything, is the perception that we’re being bled dry by various different outlets of our hard earned cash.
If Gordon Brown is to have any hope of a fightback, the best place to start is with our energy prices, a subject that the government clearly feel is a priority given the announcements made on the 30th of May. Don’t be fooled though, if you’re hoping for a cure to the ever booming gas and electricity prices then you’ll be sorely disappointed by this latest official announcement.
All in all the plans seem to do as much as the idea of the big six energy companies investing a further £225million over 3 years in to social tariffs, a scheme that if you take British Gas’s profits (which is from my perspective a good average of the other companies) would mean merely 2-3% of their annual profits being “reinvested” in to helping the poorest customers afford their rising energy bills.
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I don’t care what motorists think
I will be the first to admit, I don’t drive a car. I use trains more than any other form of transport except walking. Buses come a very distant third. Perhaps this makes me totally biased in respect of the concept of congestion charges but I am.
When the opposition to congestion charges reads like a poor man’s Daily Mail, I don’t see any reason to care what motorists think. If this is genuinely a cross-section of what motorists think then frankly they’re too stupid to be allowed an opinion never mind suffrage.
If readers are wondering why this subject and why now, it’s because Graham Stringer has declared that if we go through with congestion charges, we’ll torpedo our chances of election in Manchester by alienating voters in marginal seats. Evidently the notion of getting his parliamentary P45 doesn’t appeal to Stringer.
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You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or rss feeds.
» Why don’t MPs pay back tuition fees instead of increasing ours?
» Obama is right to slam BP – and why capitalists should too
» Why does Phillip Blond see civil cohesion as a security issue?
» So what if the Labour candidates went to Oxbridge?
» Last night’s Labour hustings: will it get interesting or turn to torture?
» It’s now down to Ken to win London for Labour
» The Labour people need
» Blog Nation: what would you like to see discussed?
» The Labour leadership’s token contender.. and it’s not Diane Abbott
» In defence of these fraternal nominations
» Is this the end for the socialist left?
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