Mirador del Rio

Punkscience was here this weekend. He thought it was one of the most amazing places he's ever seen!

UK government accountability, and lack thereof

Tom Bower has written an excellent little polemic.

The question is: How do you hold MPs to account for their actions?

Supposedly their peers (i.e. other MPs, not Peers) are meant to do so but in the obvious absence of justice from this party the only real solution is some sort of independent body, preferably of Judges, with powers to strip MPs of their titles in the face of their regular misconduct.

George Monbiot, poker of sleeping dragons

On a topical theme George has slagged laissez-faireism in the UK economy and has shat all over some moron called Matt Ridley. As usual, the businesses and vested interests are all on one side going "free us from the tyranny of regulation and we will create utopia!" whilst all informed, rational, sane people are on the other side going "well, no. Actually, you won't. What you'll do is create an opaque system of an epically corrupt nature where money is diverted away from societally rewarding endpoints and into the pockets of the already mega-rich".

You see kids, that's the point of legislation. You can't trust vested interests to govern themselves. Its like giving children the keys to the sweet shop and telling each of them to make sure that the others don't steal any sweets. Sooner or later their immature minds achieve the transcendant state of cooperating for their net good whilst presenting a united front of innocence whenever the shopkeeper returns to find half his stock missing.

As George alludes to, even where you have legislation vested interests work to subvert attempts to enforce its reasonable rules and limits by creating truly opaque accounting systems that are so complex they are effectively inscrutable to legislators. Behind this screen all sorts of dodgy business can be carried out at a subtle level- but that subtle level is surely better than the outrageous self-interest that would predominate in the absence of any legislation whatsoever!

I am a Social Justice Crusader . . . .

Find out what type of liberal you are with this handy online quiz.

I'm really more of a Direct Social Democrat but the book's American and they're a bit backward about their politics compared to us Europeans.

I overheard the owner of a stall in the continental market that was in Plymouth the other day protesting that some woman had objected to the suggestion that the UK was part of a continent. The stallholder was saying, in a disbelieving tone, "I did say to her that we're part of Europe whether she likes it or not but she kept saying that she didn't think we had anything in common with them lot".

Sigh!

Some people are so fucking pig-ignorant that I just want to beat them around the head with a stick.

we are all fucked . . . .

. . . . and its all fault of Blair, Bush, Clinton, Major and all the other politicans who have ignored the twin threats of climate change and peak oil for the last 20 years.

Bastards.

freedom of information - just as long as you don't want it any time soon

The delaying tactics of Whitehall threaten to return us to the days of Lack of Freedom of Information.

the inhumanity of economics

This is new to me and I find it simply appalling.

I am reminded of the closing comments in Adam Curtis's documenatry series, The Trap. At the end of the second program Curtis's narration concludes with the observation that the game theory/free market model is now undergoing interrogation by economists who suspect a more irrational model of behaviour is appropriate and useful. In fact, in formal experiments the only people who behaved exactly according to the mathematical models created by game theory are economists themselves, and psychopaths.

The document I first linked to suggests that these two groups of people might actually be one.

US fantasies

A passage from this article:

". . . the Americans maintained that withdrawing the [British] coalition presence from Basra, Iraq's second city, would pave the way for Iranian agents to move in. They claimed to have definite intelligence that elements of the al-Quds force were poised to infiltrate across the border from Iran when the British left. The British assessment did not support this scenario, holding that nationalism among the Shia population would supersede any affinity they felt with Shia Iran and that withdrawing from the palace would lessen violence."

Clearly the US weren't sharing their intelligence with the British forces. I think this is because their intelligence was bullshit and the British would have realised this and blown the whistle on their propaganda war against Iran.

beautiful music

I'd just like to say that Hybrid's track "just for today" is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard.

It is very complementary to their earlier appearance on the classic Beatman mix "nowsound exposure", which everyone should get drunk and listen to.

Blair's ignorance

"He asked very smart questions, though I did think that someone who was prime minister for so long should already have known these facts."

So much for Blair's alleged impressive degree of insight into the Palestinian apartheid.

we are all fucked

Honestly, does anyone really think our government has the spuds to generate a global accord to achieve this.

We really are fucked.

saving the marine environment

‘...the great and long iron of the wondrychoun [trawl] runs so heavily over the ground when fishing that it destroys the flowers of the land below the water there...’

-Commons petition to the King of England, 1376
cited in Auster et al, 1996

I don't think I've linked to this before so I'll whack it up here now (its 8mb so beware dial-up losers). Its the RCEP's report on the sustainability of our marine fisheries and the impact on overfishing on the rest of the ecosystem. Its a subject close to my heart and one I profess to understand with a degree of insight, being a marine biologist after all.

Another good source of information is The End of The Line, a book written by Charles Clover, which I'm sure I've mentioned before but I can't seem to find.

Johann on Inheritance Tax

He's one of my favourite polemicists:

"Strangely, the right-wingers who complain that the benefits system creates a “moral hazard” by giving people “money for nothing” see no moral hazard in doing exactly the same thing with the rich, with far larger sums."

I'm disappointed that he didn't assault the methodology of taxation. I'm an advocate of progressive taxation and I think any arbitrary figure over which you start paying a fixed percentage is stupid. I believe there should be a threshold but I think that it should start around £100,000 at a paltry level (say, 0.1%) and increase thereafter to 25% at £1,000,000 and 49% for anything over £10,000,000. I will tell him so.

Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism

I just finished George Monbiot's Captive State and bought this book to move on to. I reckon its gonna rock.

What you tink, blood?

Sharon Beder seems like a bit of a champion eco-warrior. There was another book of hers that I was really drawn to as well but, hey! I'm trying to get a frickin' PhD here! I can't afford every work of literary genius out there!

welcome to PRICKWASH ! !

First there was whitewash, then greenwash and now I wish to coin a new term: prickwash.

The New Party

I just encountered this bunch through a reference in this article. Judging by the actions of their party member I instantly assumed they would be a shower of capitalist fundamentalist fuckwits. I was right.

Any party which explicitly advocates a minimum of taxes, global free trade, integrity and moral purpose, personal responsibility and economic prosperity is out to advance the corporate line at every turn at the expense of the less well off.

Wankers.

The moron at the centre of the article was campaigning to have An inconvenient Truth banned from being shown in schools by "Arguing that the film's promotion of partisan political views was "irremediable" and that it contained scientific inaccuracies and "sentimental mush"". Well, I agree that the film contains sentimental mush, but scientific inaccuracies? I don't think so. And what does the moron in question know about it? Well, he's a lorry driver so all those scientists out there working for the IPCC better sit up and take notice because there's a new authority in town!!!


Anyway, the point I want to raise is that the judge in the case ruled that the moron had substantially won his case as distribution of the film breached sections 406 and 407 of the 1996 Education Act. These sections ban the political indoctrination of schoolchildren and require political views to be presented in a balanced way.

Does anyone see the flaw in this???

A high court judge has branded climate change as a political view.

ships more polluting than aeroplanes??

Apparently.

US hypocrisy

"In most of the world, few can fail to see the cynicism. Washington rewards allies and clients that ignore the NPT rules entirely, while threatening war against Iran, which is not known to have violated the NPT, despite extreme provocation: The United States has occupied two of Iran’s neighbours and openly sought to overthrow the Iranian regime since it broke free of US control in 1979."

Nice one Noam.

how to buy a UK general election- by Michael Ashcroft

Johann Hari informs us about this interesting little development on the UK plutocratic scene. If anyone was ever in any doubt that capitalist fundamentalists are in charge of running this country, just read how this guy-who is obviously finding even Nu Labour's incredibly corporate-friendly government inadequate when it comes to feathering his tax exempt nest- goes about buying votes.

Johann slates geo-engineering

And doesn't he do it well.

more choice excerpts from Captive State by George Monbiot

here we go:

Our own department of trade and industry had the following to say:

"Environmental regulations can cause an excessive increase in the cost [of supplying services] and become in themselves barriers to trade'.

-DTI, 1999 - Liberalising trade in Services: A consultative document on the 'GATS 2000' negotiations in the world trade organisation and forthcoming bilateral negotiations

Another DTI paper suggested that companies should face only voluntary codes for protecting the environment, and then only when it suits 'their own business reasons'.
DTI, 1999 - International investment: The next steps



Yes, that's our government actually advocating the elimination of legislation protecting the public from corporate attempts to avoid the costs of pollution. Well done Tony & Gordon ! ! !

You fuckers!

Britons' disposable income plummets

"We are working harder, but we are not getting any wealthier. We are just running to stand still." is how one commentator put it. That analogy of the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland has been used for so many different things that I relish each and every new application of it. So apt, the image of running at full pelt on a treadmill carrying you backwards just to remain stationary upon a spot on the ground.

Anyway, enough of my pretentious twoddle. The point is that, although economics remains a well-researched field with ample past records to guide those in charge of our current economy, they still can't get it right.

All Blacks forced out of World Cup after ref misses forward pass

Yes, the Blacks were the better team and should have won the day but that pass was clearly forward and yet 3 pairs of eyes missed it. The French commentator was grossly offensive by denying the obvious during the post-match analysis. Video replays and a even a computer model clearly showed the ball went forwards out of Michalak's hands by 2 yards to Jauzion, allowing him to power over. Wiff was distraught and sulked all evening. Still, a French-English semi in Paris is going to be fucking awesome!

domination of government advisory panels by industry representatives and other vested parties

I'm reading George Monbiot's Captive State. Its excellently researched and its message is clear and well presented. Here's a piece from his chapter on the subject heading:

"Until the day before he became Minister for Science and Technology, another sub-committee, called the Food Chain Group, was, as I mentioned in Chapter 8, chaired by Lord Sainsbury. His report, published like all the others by the government's Department of Trade and Industry, expressed the hope that in the future 'the precautionary principle is abandoned'".

Nice. The chapter is full of examples of supposed bastions of public interest either voicing the corporate line or actually advocating the reduction, removal or reversal of legislation protecting the public in order to ease the burden of responsibility on the corporation or corporations in question. Call me idealistic but I was under the impression that government was there to protect the public against exploitation; not to fund, facilitate and defend such exploitation in the name of some overarching capitalist principle which generates wealth for a minority at the expense of the majority. Corporations already have ample scope to turn empty, sociopathic gestures into good publicity and increased revenue. Some might consider a little too much, even.

Another example:

"The Retail and Consumer Services Foresight Panel, chaired by Sir John Banham, the head of Tarmac, warns of the 'potentially dire' impact of growing concerns about the environment. The consequences of these concerns, such as 'increasing difficulty in carrying out green field developments coupled with attempts to restrict traffic and reduce congestion', would result, inexplicably, in 'fewer women . . . working', 'cuts in state pensions' and a collapse in living standards."

Hmmmmmmmmm, and why is this disaster capitalism model being financed and promoted with our taxes again??

There's so much more in the book- you have to read it!

More:

"While openness has long informed the ethics of science, corporations demand confidentiality. Information that the companies find uncomfortable can be withheld, even when it arises from projects half-funded by the government: The LINK programme, for example, grants discretion over whether or not to publish results to the corporate partners. The free flow of ideas is further impeded by the need to secure corporate intellectual property."

WTF??

No, really! What the fuck?

more jesus-freaks with direct access to the White House

No wonder the US is in such a state. Half the population are insane (they voted for Bush, 'nuff said). Anyhow this is good for a few, dark laughs.

"Two of the three nights in my apartment I have been attacked by a hair raising spirit of fear," she writes, noting the sublet contained a Harry Potter book; "at this time I am associating it with witchcraft"

Beirut's tragic politics

Robert Fisk has written a poignant piece on the deadly political game Beirut is sinking into, without any concern from the Western world who continue to manipulate the country's factions for there own geopolitical ends.

This is awesome ! !

Another way to harness intermittent renewable resources such as wind power and store it efficiently and vconveniently to cope with base load.