The European Renewable Energy Council is taxpayer-funded

By scrubber | Published: June 20, 2011

In my blog yesterday I referred to a posting by Christopher Booker and included a quote from it which in turn included the following:

    “It was based solely on a paper co-authored last year by an employee of Greenpeace International and something called the European Renewable Energy Council. This Brussels-based body, heavily funded by the EU, lobbies the European Commission on behalf of all the main renewable industries, such as wind and solar. “

I was intrigued by this organisation the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and started doing some digging. Well, what a filthy, stinking mess!
Read more...»

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Posted in Climate Change, Corruption, European Union, Quangoes, Taxation, Taxpayers' Money | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

IPCC caught out again

By scrubber | Published: June 19, 2011

The current furore surrounding the IPCC’s latest report on the potential of renewable energy has been extensively covered in the MSM and on the blogosphere. The interesting part is the almost universally uncritical reporting in the MSM, and the virtually total opposite on the blogosphere. The reason for the latter is simple:

As James Delingpole observes, the article turns out to have been lead-authored by an activist from Greenpeace and based not on solid science but a wish-fulfilment fantasy scenario devised by Greenpeace.

Here’s what Christopher Booker has to say today:

    “What only came to light when the full report was published last week was the peculiar source of this extraordinarily ambitious claim. It was based solely on a paper co-authored last year by an employee of Greenpeace International and something called the European Renewable Energy Council. This Brussels-based body, heavily funded by the EU, lobbies the European Commission on behalf of all the main renewable industries, such as wind and solar. The chief author of the Greenpeace paper, Sven Teske, was also a lead author on Chapter 10 of the IPCC report, which means that the report’s headline message came from a full-time environmental activist, supported by a lobby group representing those industries that stand most to benefit financially from its findings.”

Read more...»

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Posted in Climate Change, Corruption, Ministerial incompetence, Political Stupidity, Taxation, Waste | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Redefining the word stupid

By scrubber | Published: June 8, 2011

Nuff said…

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Posted in Humanity, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Quentin Letts does Ben Gummer over…

By scrubber | Published: June 5, 2011

Pinched from Quentin Letts’ column in the Daily Mail online yesterday:

Ben Gummer, Tory MP for Ipswich, has a small majority. Could yet shrink, too.

Just before half-term, he made a speech in the Commons that supported Ken Clarke’s liberal views on prison sentences.

Baby Gummer, 33 going on 12, is son of John Gummer.

I’m sure it was only pressure of time that caused him not to note in his speech that he is patron of the Longford Trust, a campaigning outfit whose supporters include Right-wing pin-ups Lady Antonia Fraser, Denis Healey, Jon Snow, Lady Scotland, Clive Stafford Smith and the queen bee of them all, the Supreme Court’s answer to Polly Toynbee, Lady Hale.

Oh dear.

To be fair to Ben, the Longford Trust is a good organisation; its strap-line is “Second chances for ex-offenders through education”, which most right-thinking people would support. Also, Ben is on record as being in favour of prison reform, which is not at all the same thing as being soft on crime and criminals. In the interests of balance (but let’s not let that spoil a good bit of gossip, eh Quentin?) the full list of patrons of the Longford Trust is as follows. I don’t think Anne Widdecome counts as a bleeding-heart pinko liberal!

David Astor CBE, Nat Billington, Lord Blair, Gyles Brandreth, Ivan Fallon, Lady Antonia Fraser, Damian Fraser, Orlando Fraser, Roger Graef, Valerie Grove, Benedict Gummer MP, Lady Hale, Josephine Hart, Lord Healey, Judith Kazantzis, Miranda Kazantzis, Mary Kenny, Sir Peter Lloyd, Jenny Mackilligin, Andrew McCooey, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Nigel Newton, Cristina Odone, Sir Anthony O’Reilly, Sir Michael Pakenham, Thomas Pakenham, Lord Ramsbotham, Baroness Scotland QC, Ketan Sheth, Peter Soros, Sir James Spooner, Clive Stafford Smith, the Revd Peter Timms, Bob Turney, Marina Warner and Ann Widdecombe.

That said, quite a few of that lot are exactly that!

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Posted in Broken Britain | Tagged , | Leave a comment

10 more reasons Socialism can’t and will never work.

By scrubber | Published: June 3, 2011

William John Henry Boetcker.

Who? Born in Hamburg in 1873, he migrated to America as a young adult, becoming a Presbyterian minister soon after his arrival.

Wikipedia says that he “is perhaps best remembered for his authorship of a pamphlet entitled The Ten Cannots. Originally published in 1916…”. Personally, I would argue that most people, certainly outside of the US, have never even heard of him, much less remember him for anything at all. This situation is a real shame, for his Ten Cannots should be on every wall in every office occupied by a politician.

    You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
    You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
    You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
    You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
    You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
    You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
    You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
    You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
    You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
    And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

Quite.

Remove the “cannot” from the above and replace it with “can”, and you have a manual for Socialism, because as far as I can see, that’s exactly what Socialism is all about.

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Posted in Broken Britain, Ministerial incompetence, Nanny State, New Labour, Political Stupidity | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Socialism encapsulated

By scrubber | Published: May 26, 2011

Here is a picture (thanks to Old Holborn for posting it) which shows clearly why Socialism doesn’t, and will never, work. As Margaret Thatcher once said: “The trouble with Socialists is that eventually they run out of other people’s money”.

state

Click the picture to enlarge it, which is well worth doing, but try not to be too shocked at spending levels.

FFS, Wales and Northern Ireland, which have devolved governments, have government spending at almost SEVENTY PERCENT of GDP. WTF?

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Posted in Broken Britain, Economy, Ministerial incompetence, Nanny State, New Labour, Taxpayers' Money, Waste | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Clegg does a back-flip

By scrubber | Published: May 26, 2011

What’s the adjective we’re looking for here? Pragmatic? Realistic? Or maybe it’s “opportunistic”. Or even all three with “mendacious” thrown in for good luck.

Nah, let’s just stick with “lying, two-faced git”. A politician in other words.

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Posted in Nick Clegg | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Marta Andreasen calls for the resignation of Nigel Farage

By scrubber | Published: May 12, 2011

Well, as alluded to in my earlier post, there have been mutterings and whisperings about Nigel Farage’s performance as UKIP leader for some time now. I’m astonished to discover that Marta Andreasen, UKIP MEP and former EU accountant (readers may remember she was dismissed for alleging fraud by the EU) has today issued a press release/open letter calling for his resignation. Despite declaring, truthfully I think, that she is not interested in the role herself, I cannot imagine that she has just decided to do this without having garnered support beforehand. The rumblings are gathering in volume…

To save you going to her site, here it is:

    Open Letter: Why I am calling for Nigel’s resignation

    Many in the party have argued for years that to be able to get out of the EU we need to have a presence at national and local level in addition to the one we have at European level.
    Read more...»

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Posted in Nigel Farage, UKIP | Tagged | 1 Comment

Nigel Farage and the Star-spangled Banner

By scrubber | Published: May 12, 2011

I’ve read a lot of criticism of Nigel Farage lately, specifically about his abilities as leader of UKIP. He is, it is oft-alleged, holding the party back, and treating it as a personal fiefdom. That may, or may not, be true, but you can’t help admiring the way he sticks it up those Socialist totalitarians in the EU Parliament… Enjoy:

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Posted in European Parliament, Nigel Farage, UKIP | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Simon Heffer sacked by the Telegraph

By scrubber | Published: May 12, 2011

Well, Call Me Dave will be happy, but I don’t understand it. Sure, he said it how it is, and was consistently critical of Dave, whom he clearly thought a vacuous twat (rightly in my opinion), but then anyone who couldn’t manage to get an overall majority after 13 years of the worst government in living memory deserves that.

Instead, we are left with that awful, dreadful, leftie-airhead Mary Bloody Riddell… Who’s next? Booker?

Still, as I recall, the current Editor is a friend of the Blairs, and can’t stand Cameron. So who’s left to stand our corner? The Daily Mail? Dear God…

No wonder I stopped buying the DT years ago, and now only skim it online occasionally. I do value their blogs though, especially Daniel Hannan, Norman Tebbit and James Delingpole. Luckily, they have all have a well-known online presence, which is therefore a Plan B, and their blogs can live anywhere.

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Posted in David Cameron | Tagged , | 2 Comments