Archive for the ‘UK’ Category
January 27, 2014
The beginning of the end of “green” profligacy? Perhaps – but the EU is still dominated by earnest, self-righteous, politically correct, fanatical, “green” fantasists.
Nevertheless it is a change of political climate in the right direction – from angry, hot alarmism to a healthy, cold scepticism.
Lobby groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are not pleased. And that itself is a good sign. After all – as the great sage John Gummer has pointed out – such groups have been infiltrated and taken over by the Trotskyites.
The inanity of those who would connect weather with global warming is stupefying. I don’t call it “climate change” since if change could include “global cooling” all the warmists would be left without any faith and be out of a job.
- ‘We must not demonise coal’ – German environment minister
- UK: Climate scepticism blamed as Owen Paterson slashes spending on global warming
- UK: David Cameron pledges to rip up green regulations
Germany:
Germany’s environment minister, Barbara Hendricks, says coal-fired power is important to the country’s economic security and should not be subject to extreme negativity.
In a separate development, Ms Hendricks told Power Engineering International that a court decision, which found the forced shutdown of the Biblis nuclear power plant to be illegal, would not have any impact on Germany’s plans to wind down its nuclear power industry. Speaking to Frankfurter Rundschau, Ms Hendricks said that while the energy transition’s dependence on coal power was ‘undesirable’, it was necessary for the country’s stability, particularly as “we can no longer expect gas to flexibly complement eco-energy.”
“Gas is unprofitable while coal is booming. We must not demonize coal. We still need to transition to a guarantee security of supply.”
She added that ‘rectivating’ the energiewende meant tacking the undesirable development of coal’s eminence. However this, she said, is to be a long term goal governed by market mechanisms/ETS. ETS, which would have to be reactivated.
In her view backloading of 900 million ETS-certificates is to be a first step even if it is not enough. “The two billion CO2 allowances, which are too much on the European market, must be permanently removed. The 900 million ETS certificates, for which the EU has recently decided on an interim basis, are not enough. We will aggressively fight in the EU for a functioning CO2 trading system.”
UK:
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) will spend just £17.2m on domestic “climate change initiatives” this financial year, a 41 per cent decline on the previous 12 months, according to its response to a freedom of information request. ….
The dramatic cut in domestic climate change spending comes in Mr Paterson’s first full-year as Environment Secretary – he took up the post in September 2012 . The spending now represents just 0.7 per cent of the department’s total budget for the year, down from 1.2 per cent last year.
Defra is in charge of preparing, or adapting, Britain for global warming, while the Department for Energy and Climate Change is responsible for mitigating the risks. …. One source who worked with the Environment Secretary said: “Adapting to climate change in itself is not a priority for Owen Paterson. He doesn’t believe that floods have anything to do with climate change, so he calls the biggest aspect of adaptation ‘flood management’. When you talk to him, you don’t use words like ‘adaptation’ – instead you talk about the economic impacts and opportunities and present it as a market solution.”
UK:
David Cameron will on Monday boast of tearing up 80,000 pages of environmental protections and building guidelines as part of a new push to build more houses and cut costs for businesses.
In a speech to small firms, the prime minister will claim that he is leading the first government in decades to have slashed more needless regulation than it introduced.
Tags:climate change, climate policy, climate scepticism, Coal, gas, global cooling, global warming
Posted in Alarmism, Climate, Energy, Europe, Germany, UK | Comments Off on Heavyweights in Europe backing away from “green” follies
January 12, 2014
When the Tata Group acquired Jaguar Land Rover from Ford Motors in 2008 there were many voices in the UK which were highly sceptical. Shareholders in India were concerned that group debt would be too high. They were scared that managing JLR from India could be too big a mouthful and would jeopardise the growth of Tata Motors and its core business in India. In the UK there were fears that the British automotive tradition and history would be threatened.
But five years on, this acquisition has been a resounding success. So much so that it is JLR and its growth which is now providing the bulk of the revenue (72%) and the profit (88%) for Tata Motors and which has more than compensated for the Indian operations which are stagnating in the current downturn.
It is JLR which is now truly the jewel in the Tata Motors crown.
The all-aluminum F-TYPE Coupe range will deliver, in production form, the uncompromised design vision of the Jaguar C-X16 concept, and will complement the existing F-TYPE Convertible, winner of the 2013 ‘World Car Design of the Year’ award.
Bloomberg:
Jaguar Land Rover, the luxury-vehicle division of India’s Tata Motors Ltd. (TTMT), reported record global sales last year, driven by growth in the Asia Pacific and China region.
Jaguar Land Rover’s total worldwide sales rose 19 percent last year to 425,006 vehicles, according to an e-mailed statement. Jaguar brand sales jumped 42% to 76,668 vehicles, the most since 2005, while Land Rover increased 15% for an annual record of 348,338 vehicles, the company said.
Jaguar Land Rover, which Mumbai-based Tata Motors bought from Ford Motor Co. in 2008 for $2.5 billion, accounted for 72 percent of group revenue and 88 percent of operating profit for the year ended March 31. In the quarter ended in September, Tata Motors posted profit that beat analyst estimates as rising Jaguar Land Rover sales outweighed a loss at the parent company’s Indian business. ……
…. Sales in Asia Pacific and the China region jumped 30 percent during 2013, North America rose 21 percent, the U.K. grew 14 percent, Europe 6 percent and other overseas markets increased 23 percent, according to the statement.
Under Tata, Jaguar and Land Rover have targeted emerging markets such as China and Russia for growth. In 2013, Jaguar Land Rover had record sales in 38 markets, including Russia, Brazil, Korea and Canada.
The sales growth in 2013 was driven by Jaguar’s F-Type convertible and Land Rover’s Range Rover and Range Rover Evoque models, it said. The F-Type began shipping in May.
It was “a great year in which we have seen some incredibly exciting new models launched to customers across the world,” Andy Goss, Jaguar Land Rover Group sales operations director, said in the statement. “The Range Rover Sport, F-Type, new engines and drivetrains, and a number of 14 Model Year enhancements to our existing lineup have seen Jaguar Land Rover continue to build strong sales momentum in every global region.”
Tags:Jaguar, JLR, JLR acquisition, Land Rover, Tata Motors
Posted in Automobiles, Business, Engineering, India, UK | Comments Off on Jaguar Land Rover now the jewel in the Tata Motors crown
January 12, 2014
The shale boom (gas and oil) in the US has changed the energy landscape not only in the US but also in the export of cheap oil and now even coal from the US.
us petroleum production boom
But so far only the US has seen significant production of gas and oil from shale. In Europe the Green lobby is desperately trying to stop the advent of fracking even though their misguided policies have – so far – only led to an increased use of coal and an increased price of electricity to the consumer. But the UK, Poland and other countries have huge reserves of shale and the exploitation of these reserves is both necessary and inevitable. Russia, China, South America and India also have shale reserves which will – in time – be recovered. Russia is going slow with fracking because they have large amounts of natural gas to be sold first to recover the investment in their gas pipelines to Western Europe. China is forging steadily ahead and will soon produce shale gas in earnest. India has not even finished mapping its reserves. Both China and India have some technology transfer to be achieved. Japan is spending real development money to be able eventually to use under-sea methane hydrates since they have no shale.
Fox Business: Russia is estimated to have the largest shale oil reserves of 75 billion barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration. The U.S. is No. 2 with 58 billion barrels, followed at a distance by China, Argentina and Libya.
China is believed to have 1,115 trillion cubic feet of recoverable shale gas. The EIA estimates that Argentina has 802 trillion cubic feet, while the U.S. is fourth at 665 trillion. Algeria likely has the third-largest shale gas reserves.
While the U.S. energy industry has roared ahead, shale reserves overseas face several development hurdles such as a lack of drilling resources, land ownership issues and government regulations.
In Europe, the UK will probably lead the way – even though the “politically correct” opposition in Europe will continue to live in their dream worlds. The French oil majors – stopped in their own country by Francois Hollande – are moving in.
BBC: French oil and gas company Total is to invest in the UK’s shale gas industry, it is to be announced on Monday. Total will be the first of the so-called “oil majors” to invest in shale gas in the UK, the BBC has confirmed. The British Geological Survey estimates there may be 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas present in the north of England.
…. Total is to spend tens of millions of pounds buying substantial stakes in firms with drilling licences in the north of England, where other large energy firms such as Centrica and Gaz de France have already invested.
It comes as the government is expected to introduce more incentives to encourage local authorities to allow drilling for shale gas …… Under the measures, local authorities would keep all income from business rates paid by companies drilling for shale gas, instead of giving it to the UK treasury.
In December, a report commissioned by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), said more than half of the UK could be suitable for fracking.
In his analysis, Joe Lynam writes:
That Total is now getting involved in the UK shale gas industry is not insignificant. The oil majors (BP, Shell, Total, Exxon, and Chevron) waited in the wings for five years in the US while smaller exploration companies drilled for shale gas.
When it became clear there were major commercial flows in America, then the majors piled in. Now it looks like the majors are getting interested in Britain at a very early stage – thanks in no small part to the confident reserve estimates from the British Geological Survey and the open arms of the UK government. The large energy players bring deep pockets and serious expertise with them and will be able to extract, sell and distribute any found gas quicker than smaller companies.
The advantage for the consumer could also be mouth watering – US energy costs are now a third of those in Europe. If Britain can extract 10% of the estimated reserves it could supply the entire country for almost 50 years.
UK Shale Regions
Related Posts.
Tags:Age of Gas, fracking, gas glut, Shale gas, shale oil, Total
Posted in Energy, Gas, Oil, Politics, UK | Comments Off on Total to enter fracking in the UK
December 1, 2013
Compassion is something disappearing from the UK – from both sides of the political divide. Common sense has little part to play when it comes to the behaviour of officialdom.
Two stories from the UK caught my attention this morning. One, in the right-leaning Telegraph, reports on how Social Services in Essex, with the support of an acquiescent – but apparently rather dim – Judge, not only took a baby away from an Italian woman – but took it away before birth and ordered a caesarean section just so that they could get access to the child!! Ripping children from a mother’s womb in the UK of the 21st century! Not just a Nanny state but a Nanny State in Jackboots. (It has been some 30 years since I lived in the UK but I was amazed on a visit earlier this year at the extent to which the Nanny state does permeate ordinary life. The “do-gooding” Health and Safety blanket thrown across the entire country to stifle the population is particularly ludicrous – and ineffective).
The second story is in the very left-leaning Guardian and is about the Jackboots worn by the Home Secretary Theresa May and the whip she wields when it comes to the deportation of unwanted asylum seekers. But – and not for the first time – she does not seem particularly skillful in wielding her whip. She might have found that transferring the asylum seeker to a hospital run by the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust more “effective” than a botched £100,000 charter flight which didn’t go anywhere.
So, one story in a right-leaning paper about the arrogant excesses of a left indoctrinated Social Services and a second story in a left-leaning paper about the arrogant excesses of a right-wing politician trying desperately hard to be populist. The one illustrates the oppression by the “do-gooding left” which always “knows best”. And the second illustrates the oppression by those in power trying to perpetuate their position. And – as far as I could see – neither paper chooses to give much prominence to the excesses of their own kind!
The Telegraph: ‘Operate on this mother so that we can take her baby’
A mother was given a caesarean section while unconscious – then social services put her baby into care.
Last summer a pregnant Italian mother flew to England for a two-week Ryanair training course at Stansted. Staying at an airport hotel, she had something of a panic attack when she couldn’t find the passports for her two daughters, who were with her mother back in Italy. She called the police, who arrived at her room when she was on the phone to her mother. The police asked to speak to the grandmother, who explained that her daughter was probably over-excited because she suffered from a “bipolar” condition and hadn’t been taking her medication to calm her down.
The police told the mother that they were taking her to hospital to “make sure that the baby was OK”. On arrival, she was startled to see that it was a psychiatric hospital, and said she wanted to go back to her hotel. She was restrained by orderlies, sectioned under the Mental Health Act and told that she must stay in the hospital. …… a High Court judge, Mr Justice Mostyn, had given the social workers permission to arrange for the child to be delivered.
The Guardian: Private plane carrying ‘near to death’ asylum seeker forced back to UK.
Home Office officials were refusing to comment on Saturday evening on an apparently botched effort to deport a seriously ill man from Britain by private plane. A jet chartered by the government was forced to return to the UK with Nigerian Ifa Muaza and immigration officials still on board, after a 20-hour flight that saw the plane prevented from entering Nigerian airspace. It diverted to Malta, where an angry dispute broke out with the authorities over the plane’s right to use its airstrip.
The aircraft then had to return to Britain, landing at Luton, where Muaza, a failed asylum seeker who was said last week to have been near death after a 100-day hunger strike, was taken off by stretcher and returned to Harmondsworth detention centre near Heathrow. The flight is estimated to have cost the Home Office £95,000- £110,000. Muaza was the only detainee on board, according to sources. …..
Tags:Britain, Essex Social Services, Home Office, Justice Mostyn, Muaza, Nanny State, Theresa May, UK
Posted in Behaviour, Politics, UK | Comments Off on Compassion – and common sense – in short supply with the UK authorities
November 1, 2013
We are in a global cooling cycle and this may be a:
- a regular c. 30 year warming/cooling cycle influenced heavily by the multi-decadal ocean cycles, or
- another Little Ice Age – dominated by the solar sunspot cycles – with the current Landscheidt Minimum comparable to the Dalton or the Maunder Minimum, or
- the ending of this interglacial with a gradual return to glacial condition.
If anything can ensure that we are in for another Ice Age it must be this rather inane statement by the UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Baroness Verma) when answering a question in the House of Lords:
All of the climate models and policy-relevant pathways of future greenhouse gas and aerosol emissions considered in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) recent Fifth Assessment Report show a long-term global increase in temperature during the 21st century is expected. In all cases, the warming from increasing greenhouse gases significantly exceeds any cooling from atmospheric aerosols. Other effects such as solar changes and volcanic activity are likely to have only a minor impact over this timescale.
With regard to future glaciation the timescales are very long. Changes in the Earth’s orbit are considered to have driven the glacial cycles that have occurred every 100,000 years approximately, during the past one million years. The British Antarctic Survey has advised that the Earth is about halfway through the current interglacial period and the onset of the next glaciation is not expected for around 10,000 years at least. Although a future extensive glaciation would have huge geopolitical consequences, the transition into such a state would be slow, allowing for adaptation over many generations.
The slow changes in the Earth’s orbit are not, however, expected to cause any net global cooling over the next several centuries, which will be dominated by a warming global climate due to greenhouse gas emissions.
Baroness Verma’s faith in the IPCC and her religious adherence to global warming orthodoxy is touching. But the only thing we can be absolutely certain about is that the UK Government and Baroness Verma have surely got it wrong. In fact, the propensity of Baroness Verma to get (all) things wrong would suggest that glaciation has already started.
Tags:Baroness Verma, Dalton minimum, interglacials, Landscheidt Minimum, Little Ice Age, Maunder Minimum
Posted in Alarmism, Climate, UK | 1 Comment »
October 28, 2013
Well the St. Jude’s storm came and it is going. It will be gone in about 3 hours.
Some people apparently noticed it.
There has been more disruption by precautionary measures than by the storm itself. “Precautionary” measures have included cancellation of trains and planes and buses. Some consumers had their electricity turned off in areas where damage was possible. It was going to be the greatest storm since 1987!
The reality is just sinking in. Leaves have been blown down. They have been blowing about chaotically. Waves have crashed on to land in several coastal areas. They could be seen reaching the shore in Brighton. In the worst hit areas some twigs were violently torn of the trees and blown several feet away. Flags flapped ominously outside Broadcasting House where the intrepid BBC Radio reporter braved the storm of the century. The wind was clearly audible. It may not have been raining but our reporter could only see a very few patches of blue sky.
The Met Office spokesman is on air just now explaining – defending – the alarmism. He admitted that this was not a hurricane but they never said it was going to be one. And in any event, even if the storm would pass the UK within about 3 hours it could cause great damage in Denmark and the Netherlands and northern Germany!
Ripples in a tea-cup. A listener has just complained that he does not really need the mighty BBC news machine to inform him that flags can flap in the wind.
This comment from a Guardian reader just about sums it up:
flaviaforbes
Looking outside my bedroom window here in Birmingham I can hardly believe the scale of the destruction. At least 5 wet, shattered, leaves, are lying haphazardly across my back garden, creating a biblical scene of leaf-chaos. At the front of the house, last nights gale has wrenched a Lidl plastic bag and a Twix wrapper from their usual resting places in the gutter, and they now lie, a full four feet away, against my door step. And dont get me started on the rain! There’s enough water on the windscreen of my car to necessitate me using the wipers at least once to clear it.
Its a sobering reminder what nature is capable of. Thank God we were warned.
Tags:Alarmism, Flavia Forbes, Great Storm of 1987, Met Office, St. Jude's storm, stormy weather
Posted in Alarmism, UK, Weather | Comments Off on UK maintains a stiff upper lip as the great St. Jude’s storm drizzles past
October 7, 2013
Eugenics is here even if nobody wants to acknowledge it for fear of being equated with the Nazis. Artificial selection and deselection rather than natural selection will eventually come to dominate the future evolution of humans. In India the abortion of female foetuses is sometimes an extension of female infanticide caused by the fear of the cost of female children and by the social status accorded by a male child. Sex selection by deselecting foetuses of unwanted genders is not just a feature of the developing world. Even in the UK, sex selection by abortion is legal.
The Telegraph:
Doctors have been informed that they can carry out sex-selective abortions in certain circumstances, the Director of Public Prosecutions has disclosed.
The British Medical Association (BMA) updated its guidance in the wake of an investigation by the Telegraph to advise doctors that “there may be circumstances, in which termination of pregnancy on grounds of fetal sex would be lawful”.
The disclosure is expected to spark fury among dozens of MPs who have criticised the medical establishment for seeking to redefine abortion laws.
Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, today publishes a detailed memorandum explaining the controversial decision by the Crown Prosecution Service not to prosecute two doctors who agreed to arrange illegal abortions based on the sex of an unborn baby.
Mr Starmer warns that current guidance for doctors needs to be urgently updated amid widespread concern over practices in clinics which do not appear to fall foul of the letter of the law.
The two doctors at the centre of the controversy were exposed by the Telegraph after being secretly filmed offering to abort baby girls, even though this is widely thought to be illegal.
The CPS decided it would not be in “the public interest” to prosecute the two doctors.
It has today emerged that in guidance published after The Daily Telegraph carried out the investigation, the BMA issued guidance for doctors.
It stated: “It is normally unethical to terminate a pregnancy on the grounds of fetal sex alone.”
However, it then continues: “The pregnant woman’s views about the effect of the sex of the fetus on her situation and on her existing children should nevertheless be carefully considered.”
“In some circumstances doctors may come to the conclusion that the effects are so severe as to provide legal and ethical justification for a termination,” concludes the guidance.
…
Letter from DPP
“…… The law does not, in terms, expressly prohibit gender-specific abortions; rather it prohibits any abortion carried out without two medical practitioners having formed a view, in good faith, that the health risks of continuing with a pregnancy outweigh those of termination. …..
….. The discretion afforded to doctors under the current law in assessing the risk to the mental or physical health of a patient is wide and, having consulted an experienced consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, it appears that there is no generally accepted approach among the medical profession.”
Tags:Abortion, Artificial selection, Crown Prosecution Service, Director of Public Prosecutions, Eugenics, Natural selection, Sex-selective abortion
Posted in Behaviour, Ethics, Evolution, Medicine, UK | 2 Comments »
October 2, 2013
UK politics is always interesting. This I find amusing and great fun. Especially since it is a fight between two parties neither of whom commands my very great respect.
The Daily Mail’s coverage of Ed Miliband’s father and his Marxism as that of a man who hated Britain is getting much coverage in the UK’s press and radio. The BBC radio news coverage – which I generally have on in the background – spent many minutes on the subject. I am just listening to “Red” Ken Livingstone defending both the Milibands but he is a little incoherent. He admitted that Miliband Jr. must have got his values from his father. But Pater Miliband, it seems, must be excused his Marxist views because he was just an academic. Ken doesn’t like the Daily Mail at all – since they once offered his former wife £10,000 for her story – which they would write. But even he was not very scathing about the Mail’s coverage!!
Ed Miliband has already earned the title of “Red” Miliband after his play last week threatening to regulate energy prices. He is also known to be an ardent supporter of regulation of the press. This is not of course full-blown Marxism but such plays are not inconsistent with being a budding Marxist. He cannot repudiate being labelled “Red” since he is courting the left wing of the Trade Unions but he would prefer not to have the word as a title. ( Red Arthur Scargill and Red Ken being examples to avoid). But he is now caught in a tough place. His every defence of his father – which is politically necessary to demonstrate his family values – takes him closer to being labelled a Marxist.
Red Miliband’s lurch to the Left is a rejection of Blairism and New Labour – and that is probably to his electoral advantage. Not on grounds of ideology but for the contempt that Blair now arouses. But if he is seen to be returning to Harold Wilson’s “bend with the wind” brand of socialism it will not be to his advantage. And if he is seen to be a closet Marxist then he could blow his chances at the next election.
There are some opinions that the whole circus is to Red Miliband’s advantage. I am not so sure. It seems to me that he is now caught between being labelled “Red” or being labelled a Marxist and neither is good for his electoral chances.
Even more amusing is that even the Labour press (the Mirror and to some extent the Guardian and the BBC) are rather full of support for Ed Miliband but rather muted in their criticism of the Daily Mail. They don’t like Miliband’s views on Press Regulation.
Tags:Daily Mail, Ed Miliband, Labour, Marxism, Ralph Milliband, Red Miliband
Posted in Behaviour, Politics, UK | Comments Off on Miliband caught between a Red and a Marxist place
September 26, 2013
Last Sunday’s election results were an unmitigated disaster for the FDP in Germany. Historically – and going back to 1949 – it was unprecedented. They have no seats in the Bundestag for the first time. Sharing power in government has not helped them.
(All charts from Wikipedia)
FDP seats won
FDP vote percentage
There is a parallel to be drawn with the UK though the German proportional representation system has generally been kinder to the FDP than the UK “first past the post” system has been to the Liberal Democrats. But when times are bad the PR system of Germany is also more ruthless. The FDP dropped from an all- time high of 14.6% of the vote in 2009 to 4.8% last Sunday. The Lib-Dems were at 23% in 2010 and are currently at 10%.
Votes and seats won by the Lib-Dems
Today’s modern Lib-Dem party is not quite the Liberal party of old. In my youth I read about the great days of the Liberal party of Gladstone and Lloyd George (and even the young Winston Churchill). I thought quite highly of Jo Grimond and David Steele. But the merger of the Liberals – proposed by David Steele – with the break-away Social Democrats from the right of the Labour party in 1988 has created a strange animal which has no true identity of its own. Like the ancient chimera with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a snake the Lib-Dems today try to combine mutually repellent ideologies and produce rather confused, fascistic do-gooders. With figures like Nick Clegg, Chris Huhne (now disgraced), Vince Cable and Ed Davey in their ranks they are enjoying their moment in the sun but are suffering from the twin fantasies that the tail wags the dog and that they know best what is good for others.
That their time in government supporting the Tories will be to their electoral detriment in the next general election seems very likely. Whether they will be wiped out like the FDP is unlikely in the British system but a comprehensive collapse is not inconceivable. Like the FDP which participated in a government dominated by Angela Merkel, the Lib-Dems are propping up but are totally dominated by Cameron’s conservatives.
Like the FDP, the Lib-Dems now run the risk of forcing their normally middle-of-the-road base towards the left or the right. Like in the FDP, their traditional supporters in academia and the education system and the welfare services are going to move leftwards as the Lib-Dems give in to the Tories (with student tuition fees for example and for Helath Service cuts). The Lib-Dems have been the “green” face of this government but Cameron has been quite adept at using them for cover (as Angela Merkel has also done with the FDP). The disastrous cost of the renewable energy policies in Germany and the UK are seen as being more the fault of the Greens/FDP in Germany and of the Lib-Dems in Britain. Their ususal support among the environmental “do-gooders” is likely to shift leftwards for the moderates and greenwards for the more extreme. The traditional support from small shop keepers and small businesses is likely to shift rightwards. The NSA scandal has hit the civil liberties image of the FDP as being a colluding party within the ruling government and so also for the Lib-Dems. The support of The Guardian for the Lib-Dems can be compared to that of Die Zeit and Der Tagesspiegel for the FDP.
The general election in the UK is due in May 2015 (Scotland independence referendum intervening in 2014) and this gives the Lib-Dems 18 months to demonstrate that they have an agenda of their own. But this requires them to repudiate much of what they have agreed to while in government and will lead to a level of schizophrenia.
My guess is that the Lib-Dems will be reduced to less than the 10% they are currently polling at (from the 23% they had in the 2010 election). Philipp Rösler has just resigned as the FDP chairman. Nick Clegg will need to do the same in 2015 – though one could argue that the Lib-Dems might do better if they got rid of him before the election. They could do with a leader who is not as light-weight as Clegg or tainted as being Cameron’s poodle (but who?).
They will probably slip behind UKIP who are also at about the same 10% level but seem to be imploding. 2015 then will be a straight Tory-Labour fight. Neither Cameron or Milliband are particularly impressive as leaders. And so it will be a battle to see who is better at losing. And Milliband may be the more prone to losing an election.
Tags:FDP, FDP Lib-Dem parallels, General Election 2015, Germany, Lib-Dem, Liberal, Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, UK
Posted in Behaviour, Politics, UK | Comments Off on Will the UK Lib-Dems go the way of the German FDP?
September 1, 2013
A few weeks ago the Observer’s political correspondent Andrew Rawnsley was apparently caught plagiarising an article in the Economist by Jeremy Cliffe:
The revelations about Rawnsley came 2 weeks ago from Guido Fawkes on his blog (run by Paul Staines and is probably the most read right-of-centre political blog in the UK):
Rawnsley’s column went missing for a few weeks but I see that he has returned today. His absence could have been vacation or a spot of “gardening leave” as a slap on the wrist for his “cut and paste” activities. But I can find no reference or acknowledgement or apology for his apparently quite blatant plagiarism.
The article today is a rather topical piece about Cameron and his lost vote in the House of Commons. This only happened 3 days ago so the article is probably mostly his own work. He expounds on the thesis that Cameron’s loss was his own and not a loss for the country!
But the basis for his thesis is odd and seems to be fundamentally unsound.
Why on earth would a political commentator in the “democracy” that is the UK think that a vote taken in a duly elected Parliament could ever be a loss for the country? Unless he believes that Parliament’s normal role is just to rubber stamp all decisions made by the sitting Government.
Tags:Andrew Rawnsley, Economist, Guido Fawkes, Observer, Plagiarism
Posted in Behaviour, Ethics, Media, Politics, UK | Comments Off on No acknowledgement or apology for plagiarism from Rawnsley
The k2p blog 