Obtruding on our offsprings' obligations...

Ed Miliband, the UK's Climate Change Secretary (does that title make you laugh or cry?) has had his wrist slapped by the Advertising Standards Authority. Two ads released by the government that used nursery rhymes to raise awareness of climate change have been banned. This banning sounds reasonable as they are clearly designed to scare influence children - not a new tactic in the 'climate wars' - however, the watchdog cleared complaints against a commercial shown on TV last autumn and showing a young girl being read a nightmarish bedtime story by her father about a world blighted by climate change, (drowning dog etc...see first link of this blogpost for the video on BBC), which to me was far worse than the two ads.

Clearly governments, after failing to convince their current taxpayers (but still green-taxing and eco-controlling them), are playing the long game and trying to get future generations to carry the torch: I foresee a group of demonstrating youngsters becoming extreme, morphing - as has happened so often in the past - into terrorist groups. Or another possible future: remember Climate Cops (no, not Green Police, that's something else, albeit related!): no doubt some such system will prevail, with an 'edicto de fe' following the denunciation, then an examination by calificadores, who would determine if there was heresy involved, followed by detention of the accused...

Update: I like CF's dodgy salesman take on this:

The offending adverts had presented predications as fact, made exaggerated claims, distorted the evidence and - cheap trick - had tried to instil fear in their audience.

Then the person ultimately responsible for these adverts was wheeled on. He was as evasive as you'd expect a person in that position to be...

And he's not actually selling us anything in the traditional sense - we've got no fucking choice. He's just advertising why he's helped himself to our money, after the event. We paid for the adverts, and we'll pay for whatever Climate Change-related bollocks Ed wants us to.

Osborne out?...

Between meetings I have just listened to the 11 minute video of David Cameron at Lewisham College. It wasn't given a particularly easy ride: there is some heckling but essentially he is received politely and he handles it well. The reason I'm posting (as the enjoyable Wintour and Watt blog at the Guardian, Conservative Home and Iain Dale have made enough comment if you're interested) is that when questioned about experience and having a good team behind him he mentions only Ken Clarke and William Hague...nothing sinister but it struck me as odd and nobody seems to have picked up on it.

P.S. A couple of well versed questioners re Thatcher, the recession and unemployment; if this were New Labour they would be scurrying around investigating who asked what and why to smear and "reveal" the plant.

Opting out...

I've mentioned this before but no harm in reiterating things: I seriously think that the stampede* of MPs stepping down is an intentional effort to thwart the Conservative gains in the marginals: Labour MP Laura Moffatt is quitting in UK's most marginal seat leaving just weeks to find a new candidate before the general election....but I think this is a ploy to enable Labour voters and waiverers (probably far more of those) to give the new entrant a chance rather than 'punish' the incumbent.

* See epolitix list HERE: 93 Labour MPs quitting so far (all other parties add up to 52)

Other opposition on offensive...

What a week Nick Clegg is having...as Blairesque as you can be at being all things to all men. Cometh the hour cometh the best chance the Lib Dems ever had?...what, again?

"I recognise now something I did not at the time: that [Margaret Thatcher's] victory over a vested interest, the trade unions, was immensely significant. I don’t want to be churlish: that was an immensely important visceral battle for how Britain is governed."

"What I find so striking is that the spirit — dare I say it — of the battle against the dominance of one vested interest, the trade unions, is exactly the same spirit we need now."

"David Cameron and George Osborne are stoking up fears in the markets, actively trying to destabilise the pound and reduce the Government's ability to borrow... "It's like a protection racket: vote for us or our friends in the City will lay waste to your economy, your savings and your job."

"There is nothing positive in the Conservatives' election strategy..."It's a strategy that is completely negative and without hope, and it's becoming increasingly obvious that people aren't going to fall for it."

"I mean this is a man who seems to repel most people who worked closest with him in his own party. I know Gordon has persuaded himself that this recession has nothing to do with him. It is the biggest sleight of hand in modern British politics. Talk about living in denial. It's almost delusional."

"Am I going to soften my language and views that Gordon Brown is personally responsible for a lot of the economical anxiety and heartache in this country? No."

"This election is part of a big transition from rigid 20th century duopoly, to something different. We don't know what that is, but it's already different, that's the point."

Certainly he is right about the great Margaret and of course he is right about delusional Brown; he could even be right about the big transition but one thing is for sure: this week he has been playing both right and left!

Options on obvious obnubilation...

I like Iain Martin's A and B options on 'no new tax rises', which begs the question of how many are already in the pipeline but hidden? So, no new tax rises, no Labour cuts (just growth and investment remember?) no worries about the growing cost of 'entirely unfunded, public sector pension schemes, no worries about the massive debt interest burden, (hat-tip Burning our Money) the true increase of which the Treasury 'refused to divulge' - even when formally requested to do so by the Treasury Select Committee, and plans to cut the entire deficit in half in four years from 2011, reducing its structural portion by two-thirds, which is what Darling told the UK about in February; and which Crash Gordon reiterated this week saying that for "the first time in British history, the government has made a tough legally binding commitment to reduce the deficit"...

"This contract says we will more than halve the deficit over four years, and we will also reduce the size of the structural deficit by two-thirds over the same period."

This is simply unbelievable* - literally i.e. methinks it must be more lies - and I await with interest to hear the budget.

Update: Saturday 13th: *Thanks to Fraser Nelson at The Spectator for explaining this Brown lie confidence trick.

"Two years ago, he forecast no deficit at all by 2014. Now he's projecting one of 5 percent of GDP - simply mammoth - and still makes out that this is something to be proud of... ...[see] chart showing that even Italy (a G7 member) will have wiped out its deficit by the time Britain will - under Brown - have halved it.

You'd be amazed how many journalists, even financial journalists, don't know the difference between the two. [debt and deficit] The BBC news routinely mixes the two up. Where there is financial illiteracy, Brown sees a chance to mislead the voters."

Out of order III...

"How liberal are our MPs?" Stephen Tall, a co-editor of Liberal Democrat Voice (a/the leading independent website for Lib Dems) writing about a new part of the website in today's Guardian, and the ranking of MPs' anti-authoritarian credentials. They "identified 10 key votes from the 2005-10 Parliament" and from that info ranked all MPs according to how liberal/authoritarian their record was: marked out of 100 the higher the score means they are more authoritarian and vice versa (i.e. zero is super Liberal)

It is quite a surprise....but then again not really, when you think how New Labour work...I'm sure most of those 341 Labour MP's that come in the 343 highest spots (before we reach the first Conservative!) would have voted another way had they been allowed to. This is odd...and interesting although with some flaws: presumably if they missed the vote they become more liberal (i.e. new Conservative Chloe Smith on zero) and, after all, it's really hard to believe Nick Clegg is less liberal than John Redwood. :-)

Left: Barcelona snow 1962, photo credit: BERT (El Periodico)
Right: Barcelona snow 2010, photo credit: Àlex Garcia (La Vanguardia)

Una nevada histórica. More evidence of global warming: yesterday saw the most intense snow strom in Barcelona since 1962.

Well, I've been away for a week - missed the polls narrowing, the death of Michael Foot etc...- and catching up on the news; I'm ALREADY fed up with the desperate Labour spin and especially the cheek and unbelievably hypocrisy shown by Harpie and Mandy in the Ashcroft saga. Especially galling when the name 'Mandelson' is now almost a byword for lying, sleaze and spin.

So, some eye candy will suffice! My coochy woochy woo, Penelope Cruz, was nominated for best supporting actress but didn't win (it was a tough group won by Mo'Nique in the film Precious). The image on the left is one still of her in Guido's cabaretesque 'dream' scene from the film Nine (click for video)

Full Oscars coverage HERE(BBC)