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« DECC in chaos | Main | Shell shuns shale »
Friday
May032013

Quote of the day

Seen on Twitter:

I love the smell of napalm - sorry I mean council “climate change” officers clearing their desks - in the morning

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References (3)

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    provides a realistic look at the topic. perception, It is nice to see articles that are informative helpful in nature.
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    funny video )
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    Response: www.clatto.org
    Thanks very much for your distinct website;this is the stuff that keeps me on track through the day. Ive been searching around for this site after I heard about them from a buddy and was pleased when I was able to find it after searching for long time. Being a avid ...

Reader Comments (32)

I do hope UKIP brings some common sense to the councils they are elected to. That way the electoral swing will continue.
Also, I look forward to the day that people start erasing titles such as Climate Officer from their CVs to avoid stigma.

May 3, 2013 at 11:59 AM | Unregistered CommenterSteve Jones

One can hope I suppose.

May 3, 2013 at 12:03 PM | Unregistered CommenterGeckko

It will never happen simply for the fact that the councils receive their direction from Westminster and have about as much control over local legislation as Parliament has over national legislation.

Mailman

May 3, 2013 at 1:24 PM | Unregistered CommenterMailman

Mailman
Not quite true.
LAs have a fair amount of discretion about what posts they create and how they interpret national legislation as it applies to their area. Which is why you find the ministers responsible for local government complaining about council profligacy and waste to the extent they do (and have done for 30 years or more!).
What has happened in the last few decades is that there has been a sort of unholy alliance (inspired by which side is hard to say) between local government officers and councillors who have gone down the PC route with all the additional burden on the council tax payer that that implies.
I'm not a great UKIP fan but I think their presence in some councils might concentrate minds on the whole question of value for money, of which the employment of "climate change officers" and all the other minority outreach sinecurists*, not to mention the exorbitantly inflated salaries and allowances, are typical examples.
Unlike the MSM, the local press will pay attention to divisions in their local councils. It's good copy.

* My spellchecker doesn't like 'sinecurists' so perhaps I've just invented a new word. Anyway, you all know what I mean.

May 3, 2013 at 1:43 PM | Registered CommenterMike Jackson

I've been out of the UK for a while. Tell me that you are joking? "Council Climate Change Officers"?

May 3, 2013 at 2:11 PM | Unregistered CommenterJimmy Haigh.

When the Queensland State government was swept out of power last year, the Premier's boyfriend was the head of the Climate Change Directorate (or whatever it was called). He had been given one of those cast-iron contracts just recently which meant he would have to be paid out a massive amount if he was sacked.

Heh, heh. The incoming Premier kept him on - and his job was to dismantle every wasteful and pointless program in his area. He resigned, getting just the normal entitlements, soon afterwards.

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

May 3, 2013 at 2:17 PM | Registered Commenterjohanna

There is a long way to go before sanity returns. In the Littlejohn column in today's Daily Mail there is a story about Sheffield's Labour-run council having decided to force most of the city's ice-cream vans off the streets. They have decided to ban all ice-cream vans over 5 years old in order to restrict CO2 emissions and thereby reduce Sheffield's "carbon footprint."

Some of the ice-cream van owners in Sheffield have said they might be driven out of business by the council's decision. I don't know if there are any polar bears living in Sheffield - the council's "diversity" staff could presumably provide an estimate - but if there are any then Labour will get their votes in the next local elections!

May 3, 2013 at 2:21 PM | Unregistered CommenterRoy

Mike Jackson - Not a new word, I'm afraid. Your instincts are better than your spellchecker's dictionary.

May 3, 2013 at 2:35 PM | Registered CommenterHaroldW

@jimmy they are called carbon officers where I work

May 3, 2013 at 2:40 PM | Unregistered CommenterHalo

#UKIPCouncils? Hmm, so far there aren't any.
And in my ward, Lab took over from Con, largely thanks to a 15% vote for UKIP.

May 3, 2013 at 2:49 PM | Registered CommenterPaul Matthews

@johanna
I live in Victoria and I missed that bit of information. BUT I LOVE IT!
Especially that he missed his big payout.

May 3, 2013 at 2:49 PM | Unregistered CommenterLevelGaze

It looks like Julian Flood (who posted here a few days ago) got one of the two seats in Haverhill, standing for UKIP. Congratulations are in order!

Close run thing:

GOWER, Anne Conservative 1269 22.48
FLOOD, Julian UK Independence Party 1098 19.45
BYRNE, Maureen Labour 1082 19.16
RICHARDSON, Karen Conservative 1082 19.16
HANLON, Pat Labour 876 15.52
GRAHAM, Mick Liberal Democrat 239 4.23

May 3, 2013 at 2:51 PM | Unregistered Commenterstun

2oo5 councillors in Torridge in Devon are now UKIP. It was nearly 3oo5.

May 3, 2013 at 3:24 PM | Registered CommenterPhillip Bratby

I know it's early days, but is there any info on how much of the shift to UKIP came from which of the other parties?

May 3, 2013 at 3:35 PM | Registered Commenterjohanna

@ graphicconception

I'm not back yet - and no plans to return either!

May 3, 2013 at 3:42 PM | Unregistered CommenterJimmy Haigh.

@Jimmy: 'Climate Change Officers'? You need to read Littlejohn in today's Daily Mail:

"With an impeccable sense of timing before the Bank Holiday, Sheffield’s Labour-run council has decided to force most of the city’s ice cream vans off the streets.
Under tough new rules to restrict emissions, vehicles over five years old must be scrapped. That accounts for 90 per cent of the ice cream vans in Sheffield.
Rosita Hunt, of the 138-year-old family firm Granelli’s, said the cost of replacing the vans could be prohibitive for many ice cream sellers.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2318548/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-Proof-good-deed-goes-unpunished.html#ixzz2SF0zoljn
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook"

May 3, 2013 at 3:49 PM | Unregistered CommenterSnotrocket

Mostly from Tories and Lib Dems: (from BBC website):

Councils Change Seats Change
Conservative 16 -9 864 -229
Labour 1 1 345 196
Liberal Democrat 0 0 268 -82
Independent 0 0 98 25
United Kingdom Independence Party 0 0 98 92
Green Party 0 0 16 1
Residents Association 0 0 10 0
Liberal 0 0 2 1
Vacant 0 0 1 0
British National Party 0 0 0 -3
English Democrats 0 0 0 0
Idle Toad Party 0 0 0 -1
Independent Community and Health Concern 0 0 0 0
Mebyon Kernow 0 0 0 0
No Overall Control 13 8 N/A N/A

May 3, 2013 at 3:51 PM | Unregistered Commenterstun

Johanna:

Please clone your new state premier and send copies over to us – what a posting, dismantling every wasteful and pointless programmes! Brilliant! And, as LevelGaze said, he also missed his big payout! Priceless!

UKIP are not just getting disaffected Tories, the other two are losing out, too; Labour’s strength(?) has long been the vote of the intellectually-challenged (“Me Dad voted Labour, me Grandad voted Labour, so I'm gonna vote Labour” Subtext: “I’m too stupid a sheep to be bothered about questioning the lorry-loads of meat leaving that beautiful Utopia of the abattoir”). The Limp-Dums are losing out the most, though.

May 3, 2013 at 4:30 PM | Unregistered CommenterRadical Rodent

LevelGaze and Rodent - as I have just grumpily said in Unthreaded, we have been too gullible for too long. These people steal millions while some of us quibble about semantics.

Looking forward to hearing updates on UKIP results.

May 3, 2013 at 4:49 PM | Registered Commenterjohanna

Snotrocket.

I decided to get out as soon as I could after the lunatics took over the asylum. They are still in charge.

May 4, 2013 at 5:09 AM | Unregistered CommenterJimmy Haigh.

Our Premier (Newman) in Queensland is a real mensch ! The local MSM rag and the vanquished socialist 'Lieborites' have smeared him non-stop since the broom of the electorate swept them under the proverbial bus. The State Opposition (Labor) doesn't have enough MPs to fill a Toyota Tarago people carrier !!

He has held his nerve, cleaned out the public service, and instigated inquiries into all of the 'Liebor' largesse of the previous socialist government. The economic damage done by the socialists is unbelievable but the people are now being reliably informed of the facts ... hidden for so many years ... of the financial damage that those cretins did. Google "Queensland Health payroll enquiry" to read about the $1.2billion black hole, one amongst many enormous projects undertaken and trashed through politically expedience.

Premier Newman is also not shy to kick his MPs out for not doing the right thing.

May 4, 2013 at 6:04 AM | Unregistered CommenterStreetcred

David Davis in the Telegraph this morning, commenting on their "disaster."
No mention of energy policy. And he says they have to listen to ordinary voters!
Idiots!

May 4, 2013 at 8:14 AM | Unregistered CommenterAllan M

Heartening to see the UKIP gains.
I wonder what the results would have been with a credible leader and some coherent policies?

But don't forget the abysmal turn out, almost everywhere.

I'm afraid even UKIP haven't reached to huge majority of citizens who still seem far more interested in the antics of nonebrities and louts kicking pigs' bladders.

Meanwhile, the juggernaut rolls serenely on, flattening everything in its path.

Maybe, just maybe, UKIP Councillors might be able to query or delay the odd wind farm application. Possibly they might give Cameron and Clegg a brief frisson of anxiety. But there seems zero prospect of any genuine policy turn round in my lifetime. Or even a move closer to the German position of spouting greenie nonsense whilst building coal power stations.

Sorry to rain on the parade.

May 4, 2013 at 9:14 AM | Unregistered Commentermartin brumby

I do hope UKIP brings some common sense to the councils they are elected to. That way the electoral swing will continue.
Also, I look forward to the day that people start erasing titles such as Climate Officer from their CVs to avoid stigma.

May 3, 2013 at 11:59 AM | Unregistered CommenterSteve Jones

I doubt they will but I hope for your sakes he does. Farage needs to start now working through his strategy and objectives, finding professional help to define the strategy, organisation and tactics to put together a budget that works and makes sense. He needs his policies to be well thought out and understood by all the party. He needs a filtering method for all his members, database of their details etc. So much to do and absolutely no time in which to do it. Will he succeed, NO. Sadly.

May 4, 2013 at 9:23 AM | Unregistered CommenterStephen Richards

One person I cant stand Yasmin Alibi Brown.She was on Ian Dale LBC radio show and she said UKIP success in the local elections was akin to the rise of the Nazis in Germany in the 30s.

Well Yas bit like universities burning Climate Skeptic books I suppose.[snip]

May 4, 2013 at 10:35 AM | Unregistered Commenterjamspid

martin brumby

nonebrities
Excellent!

jamspid
Has anyone ever seen Jasmin Alibai Brown and Polly Toynbee in the same place at the same time?
I think we should be told.

May 4, 2013 at 11:09 AM | Registered CommenterMike Jackson

Ive read in the Guardian about some guy called Ian Breach .He was a big Enviromental reporter for the BBC The Guardian and The New Statesman.He was going in the 70s and 80s and he started all the scare about Windscale Sellafield Nuclear plant.

Other thing he was a Humanist Church Minister .Thats the whole Richard Dawkins making Atheism into just another bandwagon jumping happy clappy Religon argument.

So this Ian Breach wrote about the dangers of Nuclear Power and doubtless Climate Change and the anti hippy modern industrial world generally ironically died from Lung Cancer.Question is did he or his parents smoke.

May 4, 2013 at 11:20 AM | Unregistered Commenterjamspid

Radical Rodent:

"Labour’s strength(?) has long been the vote of the intellectually-challenged". That might once have been true but no longer. Labour has become the party of the public sector workers (who, I concede, might indeed be lacking in intellectual rigour). The 'project' of Blair/Brown was to extend the tentacles of the state so that their paymasters could feather their nests.

May 4, 2013 at 3:20 PM | Unregistered CommenterRon

graphicconception
Having lived in Derby City for 30 years that seems pretty tame compared to previous goings on.

David Bookbinder made life interesting, a contemporary of Derek Hatton but less well known. His attempts to play politics with people's services did Labour no favours in the county., despite that Margaret Beckett can count on 40%+ in any election.

May 4, 2013 at 7:06 PM | Unregistered CommenterSandyS

Nigel Farage speaking on bbc about getting rid of Climate Change Officers. Beautiful! see at 1:07

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22412008

May 4, 2013 at 9:16 PM | Unregistered Commentermickey

Alas, the outraged deputy,
Skeptic of the climatty,
Neglects, ungaily, reputy.
=============

May 4, 2013 at 10:44 PM | Unregistered Commenterkim

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