Friday
Jul012011
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Huhne mangles economics
Jul 1, 2011 Economics Energy: costs Huhne Stern Tim Worstall is quite magnificently rude about Chris Huhne's grasp of economics and his (ahem) forgetfulness about what Lord Stern actually said in his report.
Reader Comments (19)
Tim's site seem to be down. I hope that's a coincidence!
Site seems down at the moment.
Working now
Must have been the Green power on Tim's site -- the sun came up and now all is fine, until this afternoon's rain that is. Perhaps the wind will blow hard enough for the turbine.
I didn't see Tim as being terribly rude at all - colourful, perhaps, but if the bloke in the street, or down at the Conservative Club, for that matter, realised the facts that Tim has laid out their terminology would be a jolly sight more colourful than Tim!
For some reason, Huhne, like many current politicians, hasn't quite got the hang of the reality thing yet.
Dunno why I used the word 'yet' - more in hope than expectation, I suspect, as I am a natural optimist, or I was until I started critically watching the political scene.
Mr. Huhne will be quite miffed by Tim's accusation that he ditched his principles. He is no cynical politician; he's a True Believer. With the mad light of evangelical zeal in his eyes, Huhne is beyond rational thought.
Did Huhne write any of that based on advice and reports from Greenpeace?
I just had a phone call from some poor chap trying to sell renewable energy solutions, and he knew nothing about where the feed-in tariffs ultimately came from, knew nothing about the bill surcharges we're all suffering, knew nothing about the sources of rare earths required for windmills, knew nothing about the pollution caused by PV manufacture, knew nothing about the Camerons and cronies raking in money extracted without consent from the general population, including my 91-year old mum, and basically knew very little about what he was selling.
I enlightened him a bit, I hope.
There was a bit in the Daily Mail (the actual paper rather than the online version...put it down to me going to the shop here in Cyprus before I got to the pub!) by one of their columnists and I type exactly what he wrote..
"Takings from "green taxes" - purportedly to deal with tackling climate change - now exceeds £40 billion more than our defence budget. We must be very green if we believe it's being spent on the environment. Some wonder why a "Conservative" prime minister presides over this huge tax scam but what else can David Cameron do, having launched his leadership on "2006" with the "hugging - a - husky" PR stunt in Norway?" End of quote.
.....Put it down to Red Label and I hope Bish allows me this one but I would suggest "Grow a pair".
Anyway, hopefully the police will have the "Huhne" tapes today! Speeding-gate?
I find it so depressing that our future is in the hands of Huhne, Barker and Hendry. I thought things couldn't get worse than Miliband and co, so what did we do to deserve this trio of ******s.
Not sure about Tim being rude, he is being positively restrained compared to the 300+ comments in the article by Huhne in the DT (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/8608441/How-clean-energy-can-drive-economic-growth.html)!!
I think Huhne will genuinely be shocked to find that the article ghosted for him in the DT is so poor, economically, scientifically, and socially. I cannot find ONE comment in favour of what he has to say.
TW spot-on and on excellent form:
What is it with renewables? Why does everyone start getting all swivel-eyed and mad?
Have they all been got at by the renewables industry? Could that be it? Shills?? ;-)
BBD, I dont' know why they go all swivel-eyed and mad, or why they are in such positions of power.
Maybe if their "power" only came from reneables, when available, and rationed due to high cost, their eyes and focus might improve
BBD
They've certainly been got at by somebody, and as the Bishop has pointed out more than once nobody, but nobody, except the greenies and the energy companies are allowed into the august presence.
Which to my mind means that the civil servants are the ones that have really been got at because they are the gatekeepers and unless you have a minister who is aware of what is going on round him and is prepared to make a stand, he will get to hear what Sir Humphrey wants him to hear which also, in this case, is pretty much what Sir Humphrey thinks he wants to hear.
Win, win!
"I just had a phone call from some poor chap trying to sell renewable energy solutions, and...basically knew very little about what he was selling. I enlightened him a bit, I hope." --steveta_uk
I hope so too, Steve. A noble deed on your part, akin to reading scripture to a prostitute on the street corner, and possibly just as effective.
"Mr. Huhne will be quite miffed by Tim's accusation that he ditched his principles. He is no cynical politician; he's a True Believer. With the mad light of evangelical zeal in his eyes, Huhne is beyond rational thought." --Brent Hargreaves
Quite so. True Believers (of whatever ilk) judge themselves by their intentions, never by their actions nor the outcome thereof. They go about with a constant inward smirk of self-approval, indifferent to the chaos, suffering, and death that follow in their wake.
Many of the people visiting this site will be attuned to these issues already (see below) and it is good to see the MSM beginning to wake up to what is going on ............... at least to some extent.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/8612846/Farmers-enouraged-to-cash-in-on-the-scramble-for-wind.html
And this "Onshore wind as a percentage was 1.9 per cent of all electricity in 2010, down from 2.0 per cent in 2009. This represents a six per cent fall in the amount of energy generated from onshore wind compared to last year. A DECC spokesman blamed the weather but insisted the UK is on track to meet targets, in large part thanks to a massive increase in the amount of energy generated by offshore wind."
From this link - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8608272/Drop-in-electricity-from-onshore-wind.html