Bishop Hill Happy Mr Farage
Feb 14, 2015 Climate: Parliament UKIP There will be much happiness in UKIP circles today, with the announcement that Messrs Cameron, Miliband and Clegg are to sign a joint declaration on climate change, a move which has been brokered by green NGOs.
The prime minister, deputy prime minister and leader of the opposition have all clashed over green issues, but the joint declaration states: “Climate change is one of the most serious threats facing the world today. It is not just a threat to the environment, but also to our national and global security, to poverty eradication and economic prosperity.”
“Acting on climate change is also an opportunity for the UK to grow a stronger economy, which is more efficient and more resilient to the risks ahead,” the joint statement says. “It is in our national interest to act and ensure others act with us.” A senior UK military commander has warned previously that climate change poses as grave a threat to the UK’s security and economic resilience as terrorism.
A better way of making their parties look as if they are completely out of touch and/or working to NGOs' agendas is hard to imagine. That said, one of the pledges they make is to do away with coal-fired electricity generation. This may actually mean that the underlying message is "frack baby, frack".
Reader Comments (164)
They think that being a member of the lemming class is brave and showing great leadership. sigh Idiots all of them but Harribin, No, he is something else.
Of couse despite all the important stuff, expect a torrent of warmist propaganda from the usual sources. They're setting a lot of store on Paris 2015. Maybe it will be overkill?
We truly live in interesting times.
TinyCO2
We see it already. Oblarny flying around the world making useless deals, the EU and their partenaires issueing new trully crappy papers every week, the BBC trying to inject CC into every emission.
Paris is their last chance and they know it. They have been trying to indoctrinate the world since the autumn of last year and, as you rightly say, will do so right up to and including Paris.
Ganggreen dream of a rainbow coalition. A bit of everything, provided there is no blue/purple tinge.
In reality, this would be a vomit coagulation. An acidic mess, destined never to congeal, with hues of orange and red, with undigestable red and green gristle, capable of corroding to destruction, any fabric it comes into contact with, including of course, it's own.
In the meantime - the government is still giving £5000 of OUR money to anyone buying an electric car - which in reality means they are powered by coal....
I wonder who they think they are kidding?
We already know that China, India, and, err, most of the rest of the world are going to do nothing beyond pay lip service. Quite right too, even ignoring that the ever-predicted apocalypse is receding into the far distance. Which means that it is very much against the national interest to "act", even if they believe the climate model mumbo jumbo and the resulting priestly encyclicals.
They must surely know this. So what is the explanation? Just as no US President can get elected if he says he is an atheist, perhaps they have just concluded that there exists a fraction of floating voters that can be swept up with this approach. They don't want to be caught out. The major parties are signalling that it is not going to be a major battle ground in the election. A bit like Northern Ireland in UK mainland politics.
Meanwhile, I recommend going long on gas importers.
They are Putin`s useful idiots.
At the level of devious political calculation, that is in the world of Lynton Crosby (the Australian retained by the Conservatives to run their election campaign), it may rest on the belief that this will hurt Labour more than the Conservatives, especially in the North where UKIP now has a second string to its bow alongside immigration/the EU. Anyway it was an offer that Miliband could not refuse. Whether this calculation is correct or not is another matter.
michael hart, actors on a political stage love the glare of publicity, and it is never their fault when the lights go out, and they are left speechless, miming in the dark. Meanwhile the audience will applaud anyone with a torch.
Sherlock that £5,000 sounds like an underestimate if you factor in the full costs of all subsidies and reduced taxes. Then you have to add in costs of unused charging stations etc.
"And remember that the government is still giving £5000 of OUR money to
anyonetoffs already rich enough to afford an electric car"Absolute proof that there is no cure for idiocy.
As soon as I could afford it, I left the UK. Best move I ever made.
Martyn 12.28 Ref horses heads. In the sleaze of political deals, you can not be sure even after the cold reality of the morning after, who exactly made the deal, about sharing a bed, with whom, or even why. But it probably seemed mutually beneficial at the time.
At least a horse's head can't talk.
Abc (Feb 14, 2015 at 11:30 AM):
Well put. And the escape route is clear from the joint declaration itself. Three extracts [My emphases]:
Post Lima and especially last week's talks in Geneva, it is already obvious that others will not "act with us", that Paris will not be "a success" and that whatever is signed will be neither "strong" nor "legally binding".Robin Guenier, clearly the easiest way to sabotage the Paris "conference" would be a strike by French Air Traffic Control. Even Greenpeace wouldn't get there.
With green groups so opposed to air travel, Air Traffic Controllers have a lot to lose .....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRNYqsMIbg0
I see a clinic full of cynics
Who want to twist the peoples’ wrist
They’re watching every move we make
We’re all included on the list
The lunatics have taken over the asylum
The lunatics have taken over the asylum
No nuclear the cowboy told us
And who am i to disagree
’cause when the madman flips the switch
The nuclear will go for me
The lunatics have taken over the asylum
The lunatics have taken over the asylum
I’ve seen the faces of starvation
But i just can not see the points
’cause there’s so much food here today
That no one wants to take away
The lunatics have taken over the asylum
The lunatics have taken over the asylum
The lunatics have taken over the asylum, take away my right to choose
The lunatics have taken over the asylum, take away my point of view
The lunatics have taken over the asylum
The lunatics have taken over the asylum, take away my dignity,
Take these things away from me
The lunatics have taken over the asylum
The lunatics have taken over the asylum, take away my family,
Take away the right to speak
The lunatics have taken over the asylum take away my point of view,
Take away my right to choose
I can understand Clegg agreeing with anyone about anything as long as it may gain some influence in the next government . But why Cam moron and Moribund would agree on anything is beyond reason unless perhaps a coalition of the two main parties is an option they are really considering.
maybe going over old ground but I'm still completely staggered by climate hysteria.
Less than 1C temp rise in 160 years - well within natural variation.
No definitive 'proof' that human CO2 is driving excessive warming.
Oodles of evidence breaking the connection between temps and CO2.
No significant positive feedbacks.
The Pause.
Almost total model failure.
And on and on.
Yet our 'leaders' tell us with a straight face that this is the gravest threat in human history. Quite absurd.
So what is the backstory to this "pledge"?
Whose initiative was it and who managed it to signature and press release?
http://www.green-alliance.org.uk/index.php
http://www.green-alliance.org.uk/support.php
http://www.green-alliance.org.uk/resources/Annual_Review_2013.pdf
Have I got this right - a one million pound turnover charity with this staff:
http://www.green-alliance.org.uk/staff.php
and these premises?:
http://www.green-alliance.org.uk/contact.php
@ not banned yet.
Rather a lot of 'Head of', 'Senior advisor', 'Chief' this that and the other etc on that site. Nothing more than CV builders, those titles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS8LA-5fmrs&feature=player_detailpage
ring any bells?
Tax and spend more, and borrow even more, has always been a short term fix, as demonstrated by Greece, Italy and UK Labour to name but a few, with inflation and chaos the consequence. The currency formed by the EU was supposed to stop this. It hasn't worked, as EUROphile politicians love a popular short term fix, much like a drug addict.
The UK Bank of England Governor, is now concerned by deflation, resulting from the collapse in oil prices, caused by US fracking. If EU countries were to support fracking in their own countries, they could keep the revenues, taxes and jobs, AND have some deflationary pressure to offset their inflationary political policies.
France and Germany can both see trouble brewing from their green policies.
Bob Ward won'tt know who to smear, and will have to seek further instructions from his paymasters, even if their A level grades only equated to PPE (that's Pish Pour EgoNumbKnicks)
Whatever the backhistory (nby), it's surely obvious that Cameron had little choice but to join Miliband and Clegg. Even if he had private doubts, the alternative would be to open a new, unnecessary and hugely controversial front (imagine the howls of rage from the Guardian and the BBC) at this stage of the election campaign. In any case, as I point out above, there's a clear escape route: it must be clear by now, even to Tory leaders, that others are not going to "act with us" in Paris.
Presumably Harrabin thinks this is an 'impartial' way to refer to the CCA.
@Not bannedYet - Hideously White- everyone of them look middle class and white. Theres one Columbian, a Spanish and a Dutch.
Surely they fail to have the correct number of BMEs for a right on org. Dont tell me all their BMEs are the cleaners !
That's in London which is supposed to be 40% non-white
2011 census rates UK popn at 86% white, London at 60% (that's skewed towards school age, so working age is a lower proportion)
Why did Cameron sign the pledge?
I am sure his wife was very happy
And he did not have to risk being photographed with RED roses on Valentines Day.
@Robin @ Jack The Australian gov got elected with a mandate to scrap their Climate Change act.
So it is possible to win an election if you are against the green loonies.
The diff between US/Can/Aus is that in their right wing parties the soft left (or green corrupt) don't have control like they do the British Conservative party. Wonder if there will an election backlash again due to the BBC's campaigning against UKIP.
I think I will start a new political party: the "Keeping the Lights On Party", surely a vote winner
stewgreen, the Aus PM only just survived a no-confidence vote. The Aussie media were vocal in their support of no-confidence.
The menace of the green blob continues. They envisage a final countdown in Paris. I would hope for a knockout blow, with green blob collaborators smeared by the exposure of their own distorted vision
Just look at NoTricksZone today and see how Germany has screwed up its power generation. That will us shortly and if no coal stations are built it will be 'lights out, baby, lights out'. Our stupid political idiots (I prefer that term to political elite, it is more appropriate) will never go for fracking. The NGOs won't let them!
Jake Haye: To be a leader one has to have evidence that someone is willing to follow - whereas we know no important (in terms of carbon energy consumption) nation will follow us on this path.
As soon as I could afford it, I left the UK. Best move I ever made.
Feb 14, 2015 at 2:35 PM | Unregistered CommenterJimmy Haigh
Jimmy
I hope for you that you are in Aus
France and Germany can both see trouble brewing from their green policies.
Golf Charlie
As we say in france : Hollande est nul. He couldn't see a train coming at 3 metres. There is no way on this earth that any french poli will vote for fracking. If anyone thinks otherwise they will be joining millibrain, camarooned and cleggy in the asylum.
There are billions being taken in tax from this scam and every org in the world is on it. Look at the UN. "It's not about saving ecology it's about killing capitalism." It's money and huge sums in their pockets.
Jake Haye: To be a leader one has to have evidence that someone is willing to follow - whereas we know no important (in terms of carbon energy consumption) nation will follow us on this path.
Feb 14, 2015 at 6:24 PM | Unregistered CommenterMike Spilligan
To be a leader you just have to be the first over the cliff. To be a good leader one has to have evidence that someone is willing to follow
Why do they think that what the UK does will have any influence on India and China?
Or to put it another way...
What use is a PPE degree if it doesn't teach you that the Empire is gone?
There's a reference to this post at Breitbart.
MCourtney, what of use has ever been taught in PPE, let alone learnt?
The dominance of PPE amongst the political classes, becomes self explanatory. Anywhere else, PPE is recognised for what it says about the holder.
As soon as I could afford it, I left the UK. Best move I ever made.
Feb 14, 2015 at 2:35 PM | Jimmy Haigh
Not sure why I hung around so long without any good excuse for not walking out. Institutionalised?
If it wasn't for the family we have here, and our deep affection for the English countryside, even though we don't live in it any more, we'd be off somewhere less demented.
Stephen Richards
A whole lot of dim lemmings?
I think a good way of establishing peoples true green credentials, would be to ask people in supermarket check out queues, whilst noting the contents of their trolley.
Clearly anyone with disposable nappies in their trolley has made their own assessment of time, money and convenience versus the alleged environmental damage, but this does not prevent them from saying otherwise.
The green blob do not wish to antagonise their target voters, by making them feel guilty about not washing nappies.
There must be demand for generating power by incinerating disposable nappies, just provided it is not near any green blobby houses.
All political candidates should be asked about their views on the dirty disposable nappy mountain. And stand by it.
It might at least liven the election up if it becomes the last red rag for someone on the the Con backbenches to defect to UKIP now.
Stephen Richards, the French took a rather more realistic approach to nuclear power stations, perhaps due to not having an oil qualifying north sea coast.
Lack of oil led to Herr Diesel inventing an engine, designed to run on coal dust, though liquid oil has proven rather more viable.
Coal fields on the French/German borders changed hands in the peace of 1870 and 1918, and soviet oil fields were of great interest during WW2. Ukraine still has good mineral reserves.
The French and British are currently cushioned by French nuclear capacity, and the economies have not suffered as badly. The Germans have loads of coal, but political correctness prevents its exploitation.
I am not sure that the Germans tolerance will survive power cuts very long. But their tolerance is likely to be tested before that of the French and British.
My guess is that the German government is very well aware of the looming problem, and that no end of German efficiency can make power come out of a socket, if there is none in the grid.
How is the view from France?!
Ah, the troika that begat STOR, the dirtiest polluting form of CO2 producing power generation we have so far embraced. Why foist STOR upon our green and pleasant land? To save the standing of our precious elite. Simply if the lights go out, they are out, so under no circumstances must this be allowed to happen, to hell with pollution, sod global warming, burn the oil!
The real rub, you are paying for STOR and the amount you pay will increase to keep pace with our expanding "renewable" fleet. All to keep our political elite from being held responsible for the outcome of their naive, incompetent, ideological policies
Old King Coal was a merry old soul, and a merry old soul was he
He called for gas pipe, and he called for Bowland
And he called for Fiddlers' Ferry
Cold Green goal is a deadly holed role, and a deadly holed role has she
She called for windmills and she called for no nukes
And she called for her fiddlers three
Every fiddler he had a fiddle
And a very fine fiddle had he
Windfarm rent, price fix bent
And monster green subsidy
It is still possible to make us poorer so they are going for it.
Meanwhile, those nations that may (or not) talk the talk but either way don't "climate the climate", still allow their citizens to create wealth and, consequently, still allow them to improve their quality of live and that of others.
My wife and I spent almost a decade working in the UK. We fell in love with the country and were keen to stay on and enjoy our retirement. But the politicians of every stripe there seemed to be in the thrall of Green idiocy re CO2, so we rather regretfully returned to NZ where the Green lunatics are at least kept in check.
As almost four years have rolled on since our return, we know, when we read this blog, that we made the right decision.
The NZ economy is doing better than most others (way ahead of the UK) and we can live well and in a warmer climate and not be forced to make choices such as 'heat or eat'..
The position of the Cons Labs and LibDems is outwardly the same as in the run up to the Climate Change Act 2008, that is, one of starry-eyed unanimity and righteous certainty. However, there is behind it now a weary acceptance that support for the Act and the ritual nod towards matters green, has now become a chore in the light of the evidence of the paucity of the 'science' behind manmade climate change. There is too a sensitivity about the costs involved of supporting the Act, and a nervousness that the all important truth about the cost-effectiveness ratio is getting closer to public revelation.
The Act is reputed to cost £18bn a year for the next 40 years, or £720bn. The effectiveness, with the UK at less than 2% of world CO2, and a supposed 2C per century, gives a cost/effectiveness of £90trillion per C of eliminated global warming for the UK's contribution. Assuming of course that there really is a problem.
You can be assured that the only party with a commitment to repealing the CC Act 2008 will not let this slip quietly into the background noise of the election.
Brute, apparently the Swiss also do nice watches and clocks, not just making money, by not taking sides during war and peace.
Alexander K:
But then, your warmer climate is surely an artefact of temperature database adjustment by kiwi science. /s