Monthly Archives: March 2009

Adaptation, not mitigation, is the fairest way to address climate change effects

The poor must use every form of leverage they can find to get the support they need to survive climate change. Control of land is key.  By Daniel Taghioff, India.
Foolish people have argued that there is a choice between preventing the worst effects of climate change and adapting to unavoidable changes, despite compelling evidence, such as [...]

Devalued Prime Minister of a devalued country – that Daniel Hannon speech

Conservative MEP Daniel Hannon thrashed UK Prime Minister and saviour of the world’s banks (but not the Dunfermline Building Society) Gordon Brown in a speech on 26 March in the European Parliament, which over 1,700,000 people have viewed so far. Brown can be seen smirking and taking notes as the tidy Tory details a list [...]

The Man from Del Monte, he talk bollocks!

   Lula da Silva says this problem was caused by white men with blue eyes. That lets both of us off the hook

 
Several Latin American leaders have reported the same disturbing hallucination. A rumpled fat man with a very large head, dressed in a cheap suit and badly-knotted tie turns up unannounced and tries to get [...]

New UK street sign unveiled ahead of G20 Summit

An observant friend sent me this innovative sign of our troubled times, photographed on the streets of Norwich. The media, government and police have virtually ensured that there will be trouble on the streets of London next week with threats of dire insurrection, but subtle irony, like that which is displayed here by the anonymous authors [...]

What Michael Portillo saw in Basra

. . . highlights the tragedy of a wasteful adventure which cost the lives of soldiers, civilians and insurgents, and ended in unnecessary and undeserved ignominy for the British Army
“Our departure from Iraq ends a dismal period in our military history” writes Michael Portillo, former (Conservative) UK Defence Secretary, in this week’s excellent edition of [...]

The Great Satan turns Jolly Green Giant – don't knock it!

According to Slashdot.org, ‘the nuts and bolts of news for nerds’ – to which I confess I’m addicted, US companies waste at least $2.8 billion per year on leaving unattended PCs switched on. A US government report also claims that idling PCs are responsible for an extraordinary 20 million tons of CO2 emissions, equivalent to [...]

Iraq is a failed state. Here's why . . .

“You guys want to be men? Why don’t you go down there and beat some people’s asses. You’re supposed to be Iraqi police but you’re too scared to do your jobs” . . . . . ”Get into a gunfight, and I guarantee you’ll fuck some people up . . . . .
Having returned from a [...]

An intelligent call to action on climate change from the UK Environment Agency

At a recent Royal Society of the Arts (RSA) lecture on Feb 19, 2009, Environment Agency Chairman (Lord) Chris Smith delivered a measured analysis of ‘the seriousness of the economic and environmental challenges that we currently face - and the recognition that the economic turmoil we are going through is an opportunity to change as well [...]

Mandelson spends £500 per week on flowers for his office

According to The Sun (so it must be true), the fragrant ‘Lord’ Peter Mandelson, Business Minister of the sinking ship of state formerly known as UK Plc. spends £500.00 of taxpayers’ money per week (£25,000 per year) on flowers for his office. If so, he is only following in the footsteps of another old Tony [...]

Torture scandal reveals a fatal flaw in the UK-US 'Special relationship'.

“British policy fails because we behave too much like an ineffective old Jeeves, even when Bertie Wooster has gone berserk.” By Timothy Garton Ash.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, responded to my article about possible British complicity in the torture of Binyam Mohamed (Thus passim) with a reader’s letter in the Guardian, disputing its accuracy. It [...]