Ows' olive offering...

I'm not sure how much I'll be posting over the next few weeks so please accept this card from Owsblog. Click on the image (...and then the door!) to receive the card. Design by Jacquie Lawson: easily "the classiest e-cards on the Web". [Link]

"Each card we make takes anything from a few weeks to several months to complete. Many of the elements of the animation are actually painted by hand (using real paint, brushes and paper!) because the textures and colours achieved that way are so much more attractive than the electronic equivalent. These paintings are then scanned into electronic form, and the laborious process of animation starts. Finally, the music is created to accent or complement the animation."

Ominous omnipotence...

Baroness Ashton of Upholland, the EU's new High Representative for Foreign Affairs, is "racing against time to establish a pan-European diplomatic service before David Cameron can clip its wings." This should be a message to all Ukippers to desist from weakening a prospective Conservative win at the coming General Election. Carl Bildt, the Swedish Foreign Minister has said,

"Since the Lisbon treaty came into force, relations between member states were no longer considered "foreign policy" but were now "domestic policy"

[FFS!!!] Therefore any EU leader has no need of his/her diplomats/ministers beside them at EU summits. Bildt said this defending the situation whereby (shock, horror, surprised...NOT!) the foreign minister of each country was banned from attending the EU summit in Brussels; a dozen of the 27 foreign ministers objected to this: errm...you mean they weren't aware they would be replaced by Baroness Ashton (or whomever) at the European summit in Brussels? You mean they weren't aware that it was henceforth...

"...futile for member states to think they could still act unilaterally."

Do you, like me, find that ominous and sinister? Downright scary? [The Times]

P.S. That last quote was from the previous EU foreign policy supremo, Spanish career diplomat Javier Solano. I tend to agree with David Cronin re Solano: his (Solano's) own description of his approach to diplomacy was "Make no enemies and never ask a question to which you do not know or like the answer." Or in other words be "grey", be all things to all men and be nothing at the same time: or, take the money and go with the flow, be damp wallpaper, or, as Cronin says: "'Make no enemies' is another way of saying 'have no principles'" [Link] That's not so bad - and apologies for the change of tack - but some think Solano was the Antichrist (which would make Ashton the new one)! Mind you, reading the following link, the closing paragraphs open up a whole new possible career for Tony Blair as one smooth end times operator.

Olive oil Oakeshott...

An olive oil economy...no, not what may happen because of global warming but what Liberal Democrat Matthew Oakeshott called the UK economy earlier today as our debt and our credibility "heads southwards" [Daily Politics] (plus Ken Clarke on good "straight up and honest" form). Elsewhere David Cameron hammers yesterday's piss-take by Darling.

"I think the Labour Party should be haunted for a decade by what we saw yesterday in terms of irresponsibility, basic deceit and complete lack of moral principle"

Update: 11th Dec 9am (GMT): now things become a little clearer. The piss-take I mentioned above was Brown's idea (and Balls).

"Alistair Darling wanted to impose a VAT rise above 17.5% in his pre-budget report to raise extra revenue but was persuaded by Gordon Brown to opt for an increase in national insurance instead"

And the "tax on jobs" charge levelled at Darling by George Osborne is relevant not only because it could cause job losses but also because only working people pay National Insurance (NI). Increased NI would usually hit middle and even low income earners harder than "the rich". Conversely, everyone pays VAT and would usually hit those with most money to spend i.e. the rich - although I could be wrong. Blimey, it must be bad, even the BBC are headlining it. [Link]

Olympiakos outing opportunity...

---

[Edit: 'dead' image/video removed] Could it be Mission Impossible as Arsenal FC manager Arsene Wenger lines up ten teenagers in the squad of 18 players to face Olympiakos in the last group-stage game of the Chamions League. Arsenal have already qualified top of their table so for them tonight is a stroll but the other interesting thing is that lining up for Arsenal will be Tom Cruise. [Guardian]

"For me, there is only one Tom Cruise and he is the one who plays for Arsenal Football Club."

Olympiakos outing opportunity...

Could it be Mission Impossible as Arsenal FC manager Arsene Wenger lines up ten teenagers in the squad of 18 players to face Olympiakos in the last group-stage game of the Chamions League. Arsenal have already qualified top of their table so for them tonight is a stroll but the other interesting thing is that lining up for Arsenal will be Tom Cruise. [Guardian]

"For me, there is only one Tom Cruise and he is the one who plays for Arsenal Football Club."

Outing obfuscation...

"Obfuscation is the concealment of intended meaning in communication, making communication confusing, intentionally ambiguous, and more difficult to interpret." (from Wiki)

Today is Plain English Day! The Plain English Campaign has, since 1979, "been campaigning against gobbledygook, jargon and misleading public information." If you're within half an hour of The Brewery (London EC1Y 4SD) then get on down to the 30th Plain English Campaign Annual Awards 2009 (starts at midday UK time). Not to give too much away but as of today Mandy has another award!

I touched on a similar subject last week when discussing the Overarching outcomes of outsourced output about the need to 'ditch the jargon that is the daily fare of all public bodies so they can "communicate effectively with local people"' ...[Link].

Update: their Grammar Quiz has just left my ego a bit deflated!

Obvious outcome of overallocation...

Overallocation of carbon emission permits. Whilst the 20,000 delegates (How many???!!!), descend on Copenhagen, "1,200 limousines have flooded into the Danish capital (forget about public transport)" [Link] !! Naturally, there is an underlying motivation for some: many will benefit greatly from ETS (no I do not mean enfermedades de transmisión sexual (ETS, in English STDs although there is plenty of "free sex" on offer) but I refer to the EU's "carbon credits" given under the European emissions trading scheme (EU ETS).

"...the ETS has been turned into a system for generating free subsidies."

A system under which Britain's richest resident, the Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, is set to benefit from a £1bn windfall in "carbon credits". The same Lakshmi Mittal that is a major donor to the labour Party, the same man, let's not forget, that the Government helped to clinch a £70 million "soft" loan, funded by taxpayers, to allow him to buy Romania's Sidex steelworks.

Well his company stands to gain immensely but only after threatening to relocate if made to pay for carbon certificates (like a carbon tax) and "Following intense lobbying and claims that the scheme would harm business, the cap on emissions was set too high and too many permits were issued"... Details emerged after inquries by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) "Exposing the power of corporate lobbying in the EU". Also from The revelations of an analysis by Anna Pearson and Sandbag. (a PDF of their 'ETS SOS' is HERE). Anyway, they are not alone and others support the criticisms of carbon trading: Professor Jim Hansen (Director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies..yes, the same one who said the Copenhagen summit was a farce) who also prefers alternatives e.g. a direct tax on carbon. He said:

"The corporates see emissions trading as a huge opportunity to boost profits."

Update: 3:45pm. Oh the Irony...Copenhagen climate summit apparently in disarray as developing countries react furiously to leaked draft agreement.

OpenGeoscience...

Yippee...free stuff! Use OpenGeoscience: a free service from the British Geological Survey (BGS) where you can view maps, download photographs and other information. The material is free-of-charge for non-commercial private study, research and educational activities. There are various sections: Data, Maps, Reports and especially pictures. The one below could be from one of my holidays as a child...that could be me...

...except it was taken about 77 years before I was there and I was there for the last time about 36 years ago...and, among the various and impressive rock formations, I'm not sure if this one is still there! (by which I also mean I don't know if it was there when I was...if you get my drift...)

Ongoing occlusion...

Update 2: a wide variety of weather can be found along an occluded front (or occlusion), with thunderstorms possible... Storms ahead! An update to yesterday's Organised oration over from this morning's Times Online: "Met Office to re-examine 160 years of climate data"...after admitting that public confidence in the science on man-made global warming has been shattered. The UK's Met Office database is one of three main sources of temperature data analysis on which the UN's climate change science body relies on.

"The Government is attempting to stop the Met Office from carrying out the re-examination, arguing that it would be seized upon by climate change sceptics."

Is it just me, or do they seem to be using "sceptic" - amongst other things - as an insult now?

Obrogating old orthodoxy...

Interesting couple of posts from Iain Martin last night on his Wall Street Journal blog - with some good points from Andrew Lilico of Europe Economics - musing about what would have happened if UK banks hadn't been bailed out by Brown and Co. and that "the new consensus" is that the UK "would now be in the Great Depression II" if they hadn't.

"But many of the same people who trumpet this as the new orthodoxy were equally fervent believers in the old orthodoxy (which was that there would be no need for a new orthodoxy because most economic problems had apparently been solved)."

Indeed! Iain then refers to the newest National Audit Office: "Maintaining financial stability across the United Kingdom’s banking system" [Link] where it was interesting to read that the UK Treasury expects to have spent £107 million on advisers by April 2010. Now we presume - and indeed the NAO expect - that the taxpayer will get most of this money back but it does surprise me that "Two sets of financial advisers – from Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank respectively - who were each appointed on retainers of £200,000 a month for a year" (not including success bonuses). Ah well, if they save the country from The Brownstuff I suppose it would be worth it.

Anyway, the point that IM picks up on is the authorities were aware, in 2005, that "the existing legislative framework would not be sufficient in a crisis."

"That's the famous tripartite framework that was introduced with much fanfare in 1997, by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer"

FFS! And let's not forget either, that they were warned as far back as 1997, in an ocular oration.

Overpaying overseers...

From Conservative Home: By TPA Policy Analyst John O'Connell.

In our recent report with the Institute of Directors we advocated a public sector pay freeze as one of key measures to tackle the fiscal crisis. Politicians from all parties followed suit during the Conference season. But in particular we were told that executive pay in the public sector had to be reined in. The squeeze had to start at the top.

Read the rest [Link].

Also out today, the TPA's annual Public Sector Rich List 2009 [PDF] How is it possible that:

• There are 8 people in the public sector who earn more than £1 million a year, compared with 4 people last year.
• There are 35 people in the public sector earning above £500,000 a year compared with 21 last year.
• There are 120 people earning above £250,000 a year compared with 88 last year.

Also, much as I despise Gordon Brown, he is the 324th highest paid person in the public sector. Surely some mistake...

Organised oration over...

Not green Brown (see update) and nil Al. It seems Al Gore, the man who two years ago collected a Nobel peace prize, has cancelled his scheduled lecture due in Copenhagen next week. You could feel this was a follow-on from last month when he was booed by a crowd of 200 protesters in Palm Beach [Palm Beach Post]. It has been suggested that billing him as "President of the planet" (oh purrleeeze...) could have been one reason for that episode; one sign read: "Gore's Favorite Green Product? Your money in his pocket". Brilliant. I guess he was really shaken when confronted by more - quite serious - protesters at a book signing in Chicago this week (links to YouTube). I can't think WHY he has cancelled? Anyone know...?

Update: Now the shit [Brownstuff] is really going to hit the fan: Gordon Brown has come out and said,

"With only days to go before Copenhagen we mustn't be distracted by the behind-the-times, anti-science, flat-earth climate sceptics,"... ..."We know the science. We know what we must do. We must now act and close the 5bn-tonne gap. That will seal the deal."

From The Guardian, my emphasis. Unbelievable. Who gives him these lines? He KNOWS half the country is sceptical. His scorched earth policy and the treasury printing presses will have managed to put off tax rises before the next General Election, and now, as I've long suspected, he's making sure he deosn't win it! He also seems to have missed the obvious point that if we "know the science" why is there so much money being invested into trying to "prove" it? Surely, if what he is saying is true [snigger] it's proven?

Well we know what he thought of the "green" issue before: earlier this year we were told by Jonathon Porritt the Government's chief environmental adviser via an interview with The Independent newspaper that Gordon Brown doesn't [didn't?] "see the environment as important and spent years as Chancellor preventing British domestic action on climate change".

"...during his time at the Treasury Mr Brown did not "get" climate change and saw the environment as "middle class stuff".

Porritt claims that the environment is no more important to Brown than when he was Chancellor".[Link] (the interview was back in July).

On occupation...

From today...1st December 2009:

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND
Gordon BROWN, Prime Minister
David MILIBAND, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

WHO, having exchanged their full powers, found in good and due form, HAVE AGREED AS FOLLOWS:
AMENDMENTS TO THE TREATY ON EUROPEAN UNION AND TO THE TREATY ESTABLISHING THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY

PDF: [The Treaty of Lisbon]

A dispatch from an occupied country... [EU Referendum Blog] (the blog writers, when they started the Eurosceptic blog, knew it was probably going to have to be renamed when the UK had been given it's referendum on the EU...ahem)

"From today, as the Lisbon treaty comes into force, we are no longer masters in our own house. Our prime minister, as a member of the European Council, is obligated under this new treaty to promote the aims and objectives of the European Union, over and above those of the UK, and is bound by the rules of the Union."

From today, as the Lisbon treaty comes into force, we are no longer masters in our own house. Our prime minister, as a member of the European Council, is obligated under this new treaty to promote the aims and objectives of the European Union, over and above those of the UK, and is bound by the rules of the Union.

But everything is different. We are a satellite state of the Greater European Empire, ruled by a supreme government in Brussels. And things will stay different until we have regained our freedom. Until then, as I remarked before, we owe this government neither loyalty nor obedience. It is not our government. It is theirs. It is our enemy."

And from here?...who knows.

Update (well, back dating really) Did you enjoy your last day yesterday? From Constantly Furious (link through image)...

"Last day? Of what? Last day for a lot of things. Lots of things that really matter. Or should really matter. Ancient laws, concepts, paradigms, ways of living that have, over centuries, become part of our lives."

And even more incredible - and sinister - news if it's not a hoax (!!), just read Raedwald's post today.