What price a free press?

I'm normally not one to regurgitate Private Eye's work, but a piece in today's Eye puts the view of the Johnston Press as a bastion of local press freedom in doubt.

Milton Keynes Citizen journalist Sally Murrer was charged with soliciting and receiving leaks from one Mark Kearney, the ex police officer at the centre of the Sadiq Khan bugging scandal.

Murrer faces a lengthy and expensive battle against the charges, which are under laws designed to protect the Police from whistleblowers and those who report their stories. No problem, you would think. It's normal for newspapers to support their journalists through such trials, especially when fighting what is such an unjust law. But not so. According the the Eye, the Johnston Press, the owners of Milton Keynes Citizen, has failed to fund Murrer's defence - instead offering an interest-free loan to pay her legal costs.

Local reporters in South Tyneside now know how far their employers will go to protect them, as Johnston Press, as well as owning the Milton Keynes Citizen, also owns the Shields Gazette.

Sir Arthur C Clarke, 1917-2008

It's tempting to say goodbye to Arthur C Clarke, but given the volume of work he has produced, he'll be around for a long time yet.

I grew up reading science fiction and works by writers like Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert and Arthur C Clarke featured heavily, and I remember in my youth buying secondhand yellow-paged paperbacks from jumble sales and second hand bookshops. I still have many of them today and have now in my collection two Arthur C Clarke first editions.

He wrote smart, inventive and sometimes darkly funny short stories, as well as huge epic novels. They were always human, not focussing too much on fantastic technology - the story and characters coming first. Clarke's HAL, the artificial intelligence super computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey driven to psychosis by clumsy programming, is probably the most famous of those characters and despite 'his' homicidal tendencies, the most sympathetic. The 1968 movie, directed by Stanley Kubrick and written in a parallel collaboration with Clarke, is still considered by many to be the best sci-fi movie ever.

In a science fiction field now much dominated by dark dystopian futures, like Asimov, Clarke's view of the future was filled with a bright optimism typical of many sci fi writers of the post war period.

Despite his interest in science, he also poked around in the occult and supernatural, UFOs and other strange phenomena. However, he also maintained a healthy scepticism about religion, combined with a comic wit.

"I would defend the liberty of consenting adult creationists to practice whatever intellectual perversions they like in the privacy of their own homes; but it is also necessary to protect the young and innocent."
Arthur C. Clarke, 1984.

Arthur C Clarke - a writer of monolithic proportions.

The dirty truth

I was thinking about coal a while back, sparked by an article in the Shields Gazette (one of several over the last year) where local geologist Paul Younger was trying to sex up coal energy extraction. I never posted my blog on it, but was reminded about it today when I read George Mobiot's article. So here it is...

In carbon emissions terms, energy from coal is about as bad as you can get. It's dirty and kicks up a lot of other nasty things you wouldn't want your kids to breathe. Environmentally, extracting it is mostly disastrous. Despite efficiency improvements, even the new proposed coal energy plants will spew more CO2 than their predecessors.

I admit that I used to be warm to the concept of replacing 'King Coal' with 'Clean Coal', the latter being the burning of coal using a technological fix to extract the CO2 from the coal, either before or during burning, and bury the CO2 in exhausted oil or coal seams.

Commonly known as 'carbon capture and storage', it promises an opportunity for the UK to use it's hundreds of years worth of coal resources without a carbon hit. It seemed like a sensible way to bridge any coming 'energy gap' whilst renewable energy technologies matured, and guarantee a level of national energy security that gas or nuclear can't provide. A true energy magic bullet.

I've changed my mind. Carbon capture is industry-government groupthink bollocks.

Sequestration technology is still very much in it's infancy, and unproven as a mass commercial solution. Viable large scale capture technology may not be about for decades, and probably too late to have any benign effect on emissions. In May last year Alistair Darling conceded that commercial carbon capture technologies “might never become available”. Even if such technology does become available, there is no guarantee that such storage will be safe and wouldn't just place an unfair burden of responsibility on future generations. In these terms, carbon capture and storage fits a similar risk and sustainability space as nuclear power.

Essentially, the process will require digging up the carbon, burning it to release energy and create CO2, and then capture the CO2 and bury the carbon again - whilst ensuring that the capture and storage process uses considerably less energy than you produced from the burning.

Another more immediate problem with carbon capture is that government and energy companies will throw shit loads of money into research. Money which could be used to develop renewable power.

Instead of creating an environment to encourage the growth in renewable infrastructure that we need, through tools such as carbon price controls to make renewable energy more attractive, our government is hell-bent on coal extraction and burning.

In my past preference for capture, I had assumed that any coal dug up would be used in British power stations. However, in the cold cash reality of a globalised market the coal would go to the highest bidder - wherever they may be in the world. The economic powerhouse that China is becoming could buy all the coal it could afford, pushing up coal prices which would no doubt impact on domestic UK energy supply. We can already see China's hunger for uranium accelerating uranium prices. So much for the energy security argument.

Meanwhile the British countryside is scarred with opencast mines.

The carbon locked the rocks has already been captured and stored. It seems that the best way to reduce fossil fuel emissions is by leaving the fossil fuels in the ground in the first place.

The way to go forward is zero carbon. Large scale investment in any fossil based generation is a waste and a danger.

Evolution of an agenda

Well, Archbish Williams is at it again. He's decided to pit his huge Mekon-sized intellect against evolution. And came out of it looking like a complete fuckster. His learned opinion on evolution is:

"It's a limited theory about certain limited phenomena which is very plausible as far as it goes but it's not a complete philosophy."

Wow. He's managed to stuff so much bollocks in one sentence. I mean, how the very fabric of reality doesn't fall in on itself with such a high bollocky mass is remarkable.

Evolution: "It's a limited theory...." Backed by mountains of scientific evidence, so presumably not as limited as the "god did it" theory.

"...which is very plausible as far as it goes..." What kind of woolly nonsense is this for an intellectual, if only to play the doubt card? This argument is along the lines that global warming deniers or flat-earthers would use: "It sounds plausible, but..."

"...but it's not a complete philosophy". No shit sherlock - it's science.

You know, it's so obvious it's pathetically easy to knock his argument. So what's he really saying?

Hidden in the measured language lies zealotry with an agenda.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think science should only be the preserve of the high priests of science (ouch, I'm going to get it for that one). Too many people are becoming too disassociated from science as it is. Similarly, examination of religious belief isn't the preserve of the high priests of faith. The difference between the two is that science is built upon evidence and reason, and faith is supported by, well, faith.

Okay, Williams isn't a stupid bloke, so this has got to be a little more than a Southern baptist style attack on natural selection. The whole evolution whinge is is more likely another Williams-brand straw man. It's not really about evolution, as much as his Sharia law nonsense wasn't really about Sharia law. This issue is about science as whole, and the high priests of faith want to take science down a couple of pegs, by casting doubt of a key scientific theory not on it's evidence base, but on it's 'philosophy'. What folks like Williams really mean by 'philosophy' is a religious moral code.

The thing is, science doesn't have a religious moral code, and that's what zealots like Williams can't accept.

Williams' comments were prompted in part by the debate over the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill which is going through Parliament (and partly to do some Dawkins-bashing). Similar to his last agenda piece on law, he wants the religious elite to be given the power to judge and influence scientific advancements through moral guidelines, based upon his giant religious brain. Here's what he says:

"The problem is with our own inability as a society to know what to do with discoveries of science."

"Man playing God is not a problem about science. It's a problem about our decisions about the results of science and we shouldn't be so much afraid of science as we should about our own inability to have a clear moral perspective on these matters."

"We haven't as a society got a sufficiently clear notion of what constitutes a human organism. My own view is that an embryo is a human organism but that requires some argument, which isn't something that can be settled simply by science alone."

We can ignore his casual bandying of terms like 'human organism' - they're just distractions. He's saying we should be afraid of 'our' (by which he means normal plebs) inability to make the right moral choice, presumably at least according to his moral code. In a nutshell - too much science and not enough god. Also note Williams doesn't use the term 'ethics'.

He's clear - 'moral perspective' is what he wants - and his particular religious moral perspective.

Fortunately though, science is done in a laboratory, not in a pulpit.

There are ethical issues raised in the Bill, and in the application of science. But they shouldn't be dominated by a subjective moral code which relies on belief in a deity.

Six degrees

This is a trailer for the National Geographic documentary Six Degrees Could Change the World, based upon Mark Lynas' 2007 book Six Degrees. The show aired back in February on National Geographic and hopefully it will be re-aired. Whilst it (and the book) is based upon model-based predictions, it's sobering stuff, and timely given the EU's concerns over mass immigration driven by climate change. It breaks down the changes we face for each degree of planetary heating from 2 degrees to 6 degrees.

The IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report raised the worst case scenario for projected warming by 2100 from 5.8 degrees to 6 degrees - unless we do something to significantly reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we pump out.

Two Degrees is the limit we should try to stay under. Over that, the likelihood of serious negative impacts increases.

Welcome to Gattaca

Gary Pugh, the director of forensic sciences at Scotland Yard and DNA spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers ACPO, wants to start screening children for criminal traits at a young age. Pugh said:

"If we have a primary means of identifying people before they offend, then in the long-term the benefits of targeting younger people are extremely large... the younger the better."

Further, he wants all primary school age children on a DNA database. Such an activity would be in effect the cataloguing of every future generation.

This is wrong for so many reasons. Science fiction meets Nazi social Darwinism meets 21st Century phrenology.

If we ever needed a reason to send the ACPO members on a winter holiday to Snowdon this is it. Then again, if we had a mechanism to screen for dickheads, we could have spotted Pugh earlier and given him help.

Straw man's straw man

In what looks like a shot over the bows in the election battle for Fellgate & Hedworth, the independents who are part of the Independent Alliance grouping are attempting to derail other candidates planning to stand in the ward as independents in the coming election by implying they will be puppets of Labour councillor Paul Waggott.

Their Winter 07/08 campaign leaflet says:

"IT’S EMERGED that the last remaining Labour Councillor, Paul Waggott in a last ditch attempt to cling onto his seat may be behind a plot to stand another ‘independent’ in May’s local Elections, which clearly stinks of desperation.

Remember the one and only true INDEPENDENT candidate for Hedworth, Fellgate & Calf Close endorsed by current Independent Councillors Steve Harrison and George Waddle is GERALDINE WHITE."

This means that any independent other than the candidate 'endorsed' by Waddle and Harrison has effectively been smeared as a Labour straw man before the nomination papers are even signed. This is without even considering the sheer arrogance of the Waddle and Harrison politburo in assuming the role of arbiters of who is or isn't 'independent'.

Without any evidence, these claims are pure dirty tricks spin.

This 'clearly stinks' of cynical electioneering and makes them no better than the Labour party they supposedly despise.

Do 'left' and 'right' have any meaning?

In yesterday's Guardian, both Toynbee and Monbiot attack the econo-tards and corporate whores who make up the Labour government, selling us out to help the stinking rich, well, get richer. Quite timely given that Alistair Darling will be presenting his budget today.

Over on Curly's blog recently Labour councillor Iain Malcolm rated the Labour party as 'centre-left'. Given that not even Thatcher sold off the NHS (and the post offices), perhaps 'centre-left' has bizarrely shifted to the right of Thatcherism.

Free speech 2 : Jeebus 0

March 5th proved a fruitful day for human rights and freedom of speech. First, the House of Lords threw out a petition to appeal brought by religious zealots Christian Voice, who had tried to prosecute the BBC for screening Jerry Springer - The Opera. The appeal was rejected on the grounds that the case did "not raise an arguable point of law of general public importance". Simply put, the law in this case was an ass and irrelevant in a modern liberal society.

Then, in another small victory for reason and common sense, the House of Lords voted 148 to 87 to accept an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill that will abolish the common law of blasphemy and blasphemous libel.

However, in a society where religious fundamentalists are never far away, there remains the risk of scary new laws to allow the faith lobby to try and stifle free speech.

Choices

I'm furious. In fact I'm livid - in disbelief at a council which studiously follows stupid and arbitrary bureaucratic rules. Logic and common sense have been abandoned.

I'm angry at a government to which 'parental choice' is fiction.

Bitter about a schools building programme which has caused a reduction in school places to a point where schools are so 'heavily oversubscribed' that people can't send their children to their school of choice.

Anyway, you get the message - I'm pissed off.

My son has been denied a place at our secondary school of choice - because we live outside the school's catchment area.

However, we live less than 400m from the school. That's about a 6-8 minute walk. That's also despite the fact that my son is leaving a primary school that is further away than our secondary school of choice and the primary school is a feeder to that secondary school. My son's best friend manages to be in the catchment area despite living over a kilometre away from the school.

The school he has been allocated, the second 'choice' on the application, is three times the distance and requires the crossing of a dual carriageway. So much for the safe routes to school concept.

It's concerning that dogmatic adherence to policy comes before an objective risk assessment of child safety.

The almost religious devotion to arbitrary lines on a map is council bureaucracy at it's most Kafkaesque. What is the point of making choices on an application form if they are just going to be ignored anyway?

Choice? Don't make me laugh.

How independent is independent?

A great post from punkscience, discussing the sinister use of allegedly 'independent' organisations to propagate the opinions of whoever is paying the cheque. This technique isn't limited to corporate 'think-tanks' or 'independent analysts' - the state isn't afraid to use a bit of the old 'independent' subterfuge to mislead the public too.

It reminded me of how our local education bodies on Tyneside were marshalled to produce a teaching resource website called 'xingthetyne' to promote the second Tyne Tunnel project. The creators of the website, South Tyneside and North Tyneside Education Business Partnerships, (along with the education departments of North and South Tyneside prostituting themselves to the cause) claimed it was to encourage student participation in democracy and citizenship. But all of the information on the website came exclusively from the tunnel sponsors, and naturally represented their views. Despite the objections to the tunnel, none of the opposition viewpoints were represented in the material.

One question was 'Why do we need a second tunnel?', instead of analysing if there was a 'need' for a new tunnel. A clear case of teaching children what to think instead of how to think. I wonder if the genius who wrote this beauty is now spending their time compiling consultation questionnaires for South Tyneside Council.

What was meant to be an independent educational resource was little more than a marketing tool to sell roads to kids and perpetuate the 'car is king' culture, and received some enthusiastic support from Labour leader Councillor Paul Waggott.

The 'xingthetyne' site now seems to have disappeared into the internet ether, apparently no longer needed now the mission to get permission to build the tunnel has been successful.

I'm now expecting the local waste partnership to sponsor a new educational resource "How incinerators are great and getting cancer from the shit they spew out isn't too bad actually."

Suffer little children

So faith schools are not only religiously divisive and teach mumbo-jumbo as science, it also looks like they are doing their best to reinforce class barriers.

Back to the drawing board

An interesting and thought-provoking article at the excellent The Lazy Environmentalist - AC or DC for our future renewable electricity distribution? This kind of infrastructure needs governments to get talking to each other and some serious investment applied. Given government's political cowardice over combating climate change I'm not confident that our lot are up to the challenge.

Tremors on Tyneside

Bloody hell! Just before 1.05am I was woken by the house shaking. Not a short burst like a strong gust of wind or what you sometimes feel when they used to blast at Marsden Quarry. A consistent shaking lasting for about 10-15 seconds - long and strong enough to wake me. The radiators rattled on the walls and when I stood up the whole movement was quite disorienting. I can imagine the terror a full blown earthquake must instil.

Now Sky News are reporting tremors felt across central and southern England - Bedfordshire, Norfolk and Leicestershire.

They can add Tyneside to that too.

Saying the wrong sorry

South Shields MP and Foreign Secretary has said sorry. Not for failing to stop the USA's 'Extraordinary Rendition' flights (otherwise known as kidnapping) landing on UK soil. He apologised to MPs for previous statements which suggested UK territory was not being used in such a manner. But now he has admitted that the island of Deigo Garcia has been used for such activity. Then again, it's not the first time that Diego Garcia has been used for dodgy military actions.

Sadly Diego Garcia is no stranger to crimes against humanity and people forcibly removed from their homes. Diego Garcia is the main island of the group of islands known as the Chagos, from which the inhabitants were ejected by the British government in the 1960's and 70s under a dirty deal to provide the United States with a military base in the Indian Ocean. The people were dumped in the slums of Mauritius. After such brutalisation, many committed suicide, turned to addictions, prostitution or crime.

If these had been white Falkland Islanders, there would be outrage. Gordon Brown refuses to talk to Mugabe after the expulsion of white Zimbabwean farmers, yet Brown refuses to acknowledge the plight of the exiled Chagos islanders.

The High Court has repeatedly ruled the expulsion illegal. Blair's and then Brown's government ignored the rulings, hiding behind "royal prerogative" - essentially a decree by the Prime Minister in the name of the Queen. Only a couple of days ago the government forced an appeal into the Lords on the grounds of "problems for how we run the whole of our relationships with other overseas territories". Essentially they are saying the rule of Law should not apply to the government when it comes to abusing British citizens in overseas territories - human rights only apply when the government says so.

The exiled Chagossians have been ignored and blocked by successive Foreign Secretaries and governments. It is a stain on our national conscience, and blunts our international moral credibility. Miliband's apology has been misplaced. It's about time the British Government said sorry to the Chagossians and took them home.

Ornery frog

Normally we have plenty of frogs around the area in which I live. In the late spring and summer you can hear them in the field at the back of my house at night. We don't normally see them until about Easter, but this tough cookie is the first we've seen this year, despite the recent cold snap.

How many deaths is a flight worth?

Yet again, George Monbiot produces a thought-provoking analysis. Today he discussed the freaky way in which economics is used to justify behaviours we wouldn't, as normally morally concious beings, objectively consider as good.

Economics, as envisaged by it's father Adam Smith, should be used as a tool to make existence better for humanity. But instead of a tool, it's used as a weapon, and in the case of Heathrow cited by Monbiot used to hammer through developments which may not just directly damage a minority, but contribute to the erosion of the general well-being of us all.

The 'economic benefits' argument is often used to justify anything from the second Tyne Tunnel to a new runway at Heathrow. There are similarities. Both projects promise (doubtful) 'economic benefits'. Both projects are driven by a Labour government for the benefit of a minority. But both projects also promise significant environmental degradation, and guide us towards a future we should be carefully edging away from - rather than running for the cliff edge at full tilt.

Projected economic benefits are often wholly subjective and dependant on a wide range of wildly optimistic scenarios and unmeasurable factors. But now the economic benefit argument is being twisted further in a sick accounting - a deadly ledger to tot up the value put upon lives of the poor in other countries.

Some (who sometimes falsely call themselves libertarians) cry that this is our 'right'. We pay for the 'right' to consume with our economic success and superiority, blind or uncaring that it comes at a price that is often paid by others. Those rights are allegedly inalienable - irrespective of the damage done to others. Anything that challenges those perceived rights, like laws, taxes or regulations, are derided as interventionist, dictatorial or that lazy old cliché, 'nanny state'. This is mistaking true human rights for an excuse to do whatever the hell we want; free from society, government and civil responsibility and displacing any kernel of guilt with the excuse that "it's my right".

Like a disease, this behaviour has it's own defence mechanisms - even daring to suggest that these attitudes form a core of the anti-social behaviour which haunts our society attracts contemptuous charges of being sanctimonious.

Decisions based upon economic factors will always have a place; after all, economics is still just a tool. But we should all worry when lives are measured in pounds and dollars and our rights in reckless behaviour.

In an ideal world the true rights of everyone - rich and poor - would be balanced through democracy and expressed with the currency of human rights. The need for this balance is acute and will become more so with the effects of a heating planet. Unfortunately in the feudal corporate/consumer system we currently inhabit the shallow 'rights' enjoyed by the affluent will be paid with the lives of the poor.

The most dangerous man in England

No, not Rowan Williams, but Charles Darwin.

Dangerous. That's how one critic described Darwin after his book On the Origin of the Species was published, which vies for the title of probably the most important book ever written.

Darwin's revolutionary idea of natural selection is beautiful in it's simplicity yet it explains life's remarkable diversity and complexity, and has become the guiding principle of biology. Not only that, as an explanation of the origins of life outside the mythic constructs of religion, his work became a beacon of reason.



Charles Darwin, 12th February 1809, to 19th April 1882

The Devil told him to say it

Looking over the net and the media over the past couple of days, some commentators have given Rowan Williams a hefty dose of the benefit of the doubt, variously crediting his comments as being 'naive', incorrectly interpreted, or overblown, and have criticised those comments in response as 'knee-jerk'.

In summary: A kind of slightly batty but benign intellectual cleric, who has been a victim of muddled PR judgement and has been unfairly criticised by detractors who aren't intelligent enough to understand what he was really saying.

It's attractive, but that kind of delusional and revisionist nonsense won't wash.

Williams may have made an idiotic misjudgement of the PR consequences of his words, which could see him out of a job by Easter - but he's an idiot with an agenda.

Williams is an intellectual who measures every single word he writes and says. He's been criticised for citing Sharia law in example, but it's really just a straw man. It's easy to be drawn into arguments over Sharia but it's just a sideshow; this issue isn't just about laws based on clerical interpretation. It's much more fundamental than that - it's about weakening British law to defer to religious sensitivities.

Don't believe me? Then take it from Rowan Williams himself. He said that the Muslim community shouldn't be "faced with the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty". Remember, he's using 'Muslims' as a code. Williams is really talking about the right, under law, for some to follow their own moral code (or whatever passes for one) and be judged by it.

He didn't say it just once though, he reiterated that:

"What we don't want either, is I think, a stand-off, where the law squares up to people's religious consciences."

...and then again:

"But I think it is a misunderstanding to suppose that means people don't have other affiliations, other loyalties which shape and dictate how they behave in society and that the law needs to take some account of that."

He referred to this concept THREE times. That's no misjudgement or coincidence. It's a clear and specific agenda.

It can't be a coincidence that Williams makes these remarks whilst the Catholic church is under pressure to recognise gay rights and the Anglican Church and various other Christian groups not just fight the loss of the blasphemy laws but call for new ones.

Williams' supporters claim in defence that we already have laws which respect religious culture. True. We have laws which permit the mutilation of children's genitals and laws that allow normal animal welfare rules to be bypassed - all for religion. It's a morally subjective and dangerous argument to follow. Just because British law has been already twisted to the tune of religion it doesn't make it right.

This isn't some call for equal rights or cohesion as some of Williams' apologists are claiming - it's a call for different rights, based upon a legally enshrined expectation of respect for religions as philosophical and moral equals (at least in general relativistic terms) to secular laws.

The so-called 'moderates' who have come out to defend Williams have revealed their secret fundamentalist desire to theocratise our legal system, turning justice into some medieval freak show.

Religious laws and courts, whether it be by Sharia, Beth Din or Inquisition are tainted by the religious-cultural bias and agenda of those who would judge others and make a mockery of equality, democracy, liberty and reason.

A truly equitable and cohesive society is best served by one secular legal system which is shared by all participants and which protects everyone. Equally.

Cloistered bubbleheaded fool

Go Pat go!

Rowan Williams - religious loon

Punkscience beat me to it. Rowan Williams is an idiot. Sharia law has no place in a rational society.

If people want to follow a set of philosophical rules that's fine, as long as they don't force those rules on anyone, or demand that those rules require respect, recognition and protection, and the application of those rules doesn't hurt anyone.

The problem with religion based systems like Sharia is that those living in religious communities will be pressured to adhere to the laws and accept 'legal' decisions, even when there is no rational reason to do so other than community peer pressure and diktat from religious authority.

Laws based on the interpretation of ancient myth and rely on the authority of religious zealots have no place in the 21st Century. Considering the influence of Wahabi Imams in British Islamic society - an extreme and fundamentalist view of Islam which has gone a significant way in the radicalisation of modern Muslim doctrine - putting laws into the hands of these medieval nutters is dangerous and divisive.

We should be reducing the influence of religion, not increasing it.

News from Sunderland

From South Tyneside Friends of the Earth, and with the kind permission of Dan Alliband of BAN Waste, a report on another council revolt, but this time in Sunderland - and how the opposition left the meeting in disgust at the Labour council's undemocratic ploy to keep the Waste Strategy secret:

"About 30 people were on the public gallery at Sunderland Civic on Wednesday evening of 30th January when the council proposed to eject public and press to allow councillors to look at the ‘Business Case’ for the Joint Waste Management Partnership."

Note - despite several Freedom of Information requests, the Business Case has been withheld from the public.

"Sunderland council's argument was based on the argument that it was in the public’s interest as council tax payers to not disclose budget figures for whatever they were planning, because the private bidders would then know what to bid up to. The independents and conservatives put up a case against this to support ‘freedom of information’ and that it was not in the public’s interest for the discussion to be private. Why should people be denied access to all other information about the plans (e.g. locations and treatments etc).

"There was a vote – and 22 voted against the public being ejected, and 47 voted for, at this point the 22 councillors walked out (the council make up is 57 LAB, 1 LIB, 4 Independents and 13 TORY – so this I think this included all independents & Tories and possibly the Lib, and odd Lab back-bencher!?).

"While the Labour councillors jibed how undemocratic it was that the Tories not wanting to discuss the item while they voted so solidly against Freedom of Information was laughable!

"The mayor adjourned the meeting for 5 minutes while the public were asked to leave, but a handful stayed, including FOE members, and the police were called. The mayor and his labour chums returned to the chamber and declared that the agenda item would have to be deferred to next month.

"The remaining members of the public then left by a side exit to avoid the police who had seemingly arrived at the main reception!"

Real idiots

South Shields discussion forum sanddancers is home to a wide range of characters with a whole spectrum of political tastes which inevitably leads to some lively, sometimes heated discussion.

One member of the forum, a local BNP bigmouth, advised in this thread that Kirklees BNP Councillor Colin Auty will be at the next local BNP meeting on the Wednesday 6th February.

The BNP's own 'lyrical terrorist', Auty is famous for his allegedly crap songs. I've never heard his music, but given that it's popular amongst the BNP knuckledraggers I don't think I'll bother. No doubt Auty would find plenty of business at the meeting of the "one born every minute club".

Recently the BNP has split, with most of the Yorkshire region turning against the leadership of Nick Griffin, and Auty has come out firmly in support of the rebels. So I'm not sure that Auty, as one of the newly dissident BNP members, will now actually turn up for the local stormtroopers - particularly since the North East gruppen have apparently tried to stay "neutral" in the split.

Neutral - it doesn't seem like a word which would be the BNP vocabulary.

If Auty is being welcomed, could it be that he is drumming up support for more groups to join the breakaway 'Real BNP'?

And should that be 'Reál' as in Madrid, or 'Real' as in IRA?

It's a funny old game (2)

It's been a long run in to the local council elections 2008, which started the day after the 2007 elections with recriminations over the rejected ballots. Over the past few weeks the BNP carpet-bombing of the letters page of the Gazette and the Independent Alliance stunts in the council chamber illustrated that things were heating up.

However, election season doesn't really start until we start seeing election leaflets hitting doormats. Well, I got my first one today, from the Labour candidate for the Harton Ward Neil Maxwell. It seems Maxwell is following Rob Dix's successful campaign tactic from last year: "slag off the Progressives".

The leaflet slams the Progressives as "lazy", and accuses them of refusing to support Rob Dix. Perhaps this is an example of the "Punch and Judy politics" that David Potts finds so distasteful.

I've some disagreements with Progressive Jim Capstick, but his work output hasn't been one of them.

I only hope that the Progressives don't stoop to Maxwell's level.

It's a funny old game (1)

Today's performance on The Politics Show by South Tyneside councillor David Potts marks another entry on the ambitious Tory's media CV. Potts was on the show to condemn the planned closure of Boldon C of E Primary school. The fault was clear: "Labour's consultations [over the school closure] have been a sham" he accused, adding that "Labour's view is extremely short-sighted", and the drive to close schools came from national and "from local Labour-led authorities." Take that pesky Labour-led authorities!

Impressive stuff, and truly the voice of a strident opponent of Labour.

Well, perhaps not. Anyone watching today's Politics Show will have thought that this Councillor David Potts, hammer of Labour-led authorities, is a different Councillor David Potts to the one who prostrated himself before South Tyneside's Labour-led council to kiss the boots of Labour council leader Councillor Paul Waggott.

In the council meeting on 1st February, "Coun Potts was first to stand, and praised Coun Waggott's leadership and skill", according to the Gazette. So not only did the Tory publicly massage the Labour leader's ego, Potts was also given the dubious honour of being the first to get some serious brown nose.

To be fair, Potts wasn't alone amongst 'opposition' councillors bigging it up for Waggott: Lib-Dem Joe Abbott and 'independent' councillor George Elsom also piped up in his defence.

But let's not forget that Councillor Potts is a man of honour. "I refuse to be dragged into Punch and Judy politics", he promised, apparently completely unaware that his showpiece support of Coun Waggot is more of an Orwellian affair.

Ryanair. Immoral bastards.

Congratulations to cheapo airline Ryanair. Not only do they cheapen airline tickets they cheapen society with their sordid view of the world.

They're not afraid of controversy and their 'Back to School Fares' advertising campaign is one in a line of intentionally offensive adverts aimed at gaining media inches, using the theory that there's no such thing as bad publicity. But lets be fair to them, the advert fits their target market profile of male readers looking for cheap flights to seedy sex tourism hotspots.

Now it has positioned itself as:

Ryanair - the 'Carry On' airline and the carrier of choice for perverts!

Also, with the refusal to respect the decision of the Advertising Standards Authority's ruling over their 'schoolgirl' ads, Ryanair has helpfully highlighted how powerless and pointless the voluntary code system is, and that industry simply cannot regulate itself or be expected to be socially responsible.

Since they are so vehemently anti censorship, I'm sure that Ryanair will respect my opinion that they are greedy immoral fuckwits who cynically encourage fantasies of child sex to sell plane tickets.

Seriously fucking creepy.

Fire on waste mountain

Last year Councillor Michael Clare, Lead Member Environment, Housing and Transport on South Tyneside Council, declared that no waste incinerator would be built in South Tyneside.

In today's Sunderland Echo, we have a bit of a revelation:

"Secret documents seen by the Echo reveal officials are looking into burning the city's rubbish, along with Gateshead's and South Tyneside's, to create energy in the way power stations generate electricity by burning coal and gas."

Otherwise known as incineration. But not to worry South Tynesiders, Coun Clare is there to protect us. Or perhaps not.

Fiona Brown, project director for the Waste Management Partnership, said:

"... a number of possible sites for the waste treatment facility have been identified in all three council areas, but the partnership could not reveal the locations for "commercial reasons" in case the land had to be bought."

All three council areas.

To be honest we don't really know what's going on. The three councils involved have buttoned up the waste strategy under the cloak of commercial confidentiality. Several Freedom of Information requests have been rejected. Not to protect the commercial interests of the companies involved - but to protect the three councils.

Sunderland council is debating the strategy tomorrow, and council papers issued in advance suggest that the public may be asked to leave the public gallery during the debate.

Local democracy in action.

Escape from Justice

Killer and tyrant General Suharto of Indonesia died in his bed, instead of rotting in a jail cell. Suharto, aided in his campaign to crush his opponents and rip off his country by the UK, US and in some measure, Australia, has evaded justice. But rather than denouncing Suharto, the world's politicians have been gently ambiguous to the point of being kind.

An indication that the change in government in Australia hasn't really changed the its approach to Indonesia was evidenced in Kevin Rudd's sickly euphemistic quote:

"The former president was also a controversial figure in respect of human rights and East Timor, and many have disagreed with his approach."

'Controversial' eh? Is that controversial like Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Pol Pot or controversial like an offside decision? What a simpering fuckwit. Rudd had an opportunity to make a break with the past and say it like it was. He didn't, and joins Hawke and Keating in a role-call of Australian prime ministers licking corrupt Indonesian backside.

He's not alone though, the United States ambassador to Jakarta Cameron Hume continued with the controversy theme, saying, "Though there may be some controversy over his legacy, President Suharto was a historic figure who left a lasting imprint on Indonesia and the region". Given that the US supplied Suharto with a list of people to bump off when he seized power in 1965 and endorsed the brutal 'annexation' of East Timor in 1975 I guess he also refers to the US government's legacy of collusion which left the lasting imprint of the hundreds of thousands of graves of those murdered.

Our own government has been fairly silent on Suharto, other than Miliband sending a message of condolence to the Indonesian government. What did it say? Sorry the murdering bastard is dead? Can we sell you some guns? And this not long after him signing Amnesty International's book marking the 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights. Right on Dave, power to ya!

But Labour's support for Indonesia's oppressive regime is not new - this was the regime for whom Robin Cook sold his principles and integrity - for the price of some Hawk jet bombers. Cook got a great deal; in 1997/98, the UK was the biggest supplier of arms to Indonesia.

I suppose sooner or later evil dictator groupie Margaret Thatcher will announce her sorrow at Suharto's death (assuming someone can prise her dusty soulless bones out of her coffin), and probably dribble some barely coherent revisionist bollocks about how he turned Indonesia's economy round and fought communism. She said it about other evil bastards like Reagan and Pinochet so I think I'm fairly safe. "One of our very best and most valuable friends", she once said of Suharto. Valuable indeed - he bought a shit load of weapons off us to terrorise Indonesia and the countries he invaded.

If there was a hell, there would be a nice long hot poker reserved just for him and his back passage to become acquainted with for eternity. There isn't; instead the mass murderer and thief is being given a hero's funeral and the dubious plaudits of morally vacant politicians the world over.

Holocaust Memorial Day - light a candle

I can't say it better than the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust:

"Nazi ideology was founded on racism, anti-semitism and discrimination, creating a fascist state that rejected human and civil rights. The evils of prejudice, discrimination and intolerance continue to exist in Britain. We have lessons to apply today, as individuals, communities and institutions within our society. Hate crimes and attacks against people because of race or ethnicity; sexuality; disability; or religion continue to take place. HMD acts as a reminder to all of us of our responsibility to protect the civil and human rights of all people in our society and around the world."

And you may ask yourself...

Hateful bastards

It's sad to see actor Heath Ledger die so tragically, but frankly I don't really care about his celebrity - but I can appreciate the work he has done. Let his family and friends celebrate his life and mourn his passing with respect and dignity.

However, it seems that respect and dignity aren't in one Christian group's vocabulary - the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church. The group, infamous for picketing the funerals of US soldiers killed in Iraq, making their point with placards saying things like 'Gods Hates Fags', has decided to protest at US memorial services for Heath Ledger. They have singled him out because of his role as a gay character in the movie Brokeback Mountain, and have proclaimed that Ledger has gone to hell.

These dopey inbred cousin-fuckers don't know when to shut the fuck up. Sooner or later a US citizen's right to free speech they abuse with their hateful tripe will tragically come up against a US citizen's right to carry a gun.

You've been framed

A couple of weeks ago Curly commented on the lamentable attitude of some police officers towards photography in public places. I was reminded of a blog entry on prisonlawinsideout, which I've dug out here. These numbskulls in the video below were poised to arrest someone for a law that doesn't exist. Well, not yet anyway.

Whilst many suspect that our police are developing an "arrest first, decide what for later" philosophy, this video suggests that it's closer to "arrest, who cares what for".

Compass me baby

The Political Compass has hit local blogs and we're all anxious to wear our digitally decided political hearts on our sleeves.

Curly, Bryan and Northern Herald have all had a go. Since the Mindless Sheep Compass website cast me as "you will follow a herd of ambivalent bunnies to places where lemmings fear to tread", I thought, what the heck, give it a go.

I'm still not sure what a libertarian collectivist is though...

Nuclearsaurus rex

If there was any evidence that Sir David King is fast losing his credibility as a scientist and becoming a corporate whore, it's his assertion that greens are "keen to take us back to the 18th or even the 17th century". This is the kind of bollocks you would expect from loony right wingers.

His new book "The Hot Topic" seems to be aimed at the market that is warm to Bjorn Lomborg's pseudo denial philosophy, one in which the solutions are purely a matter of technology, and ignores the kind of societal changes that are needed.

King is a dinosaur, where his rosy 1950s vision of technology and consumption being the only recourse to tackle climate change.

But don't take it from me. PunkScience puts it much more succinctly.

Gooed fun

Adland has long farmed the popular media for advertising inspiration, then rip it off.

Camelot's Christmas advert featuring the house covered in lights synchronised to music will be old hat to anyone who has seen the original version here. Then there was the Virgin credit card's shameless 'homage' to Danny Wallace's Yes Man concept.

Now we have the new campaign for Cadbury's Creme Eggs "Here today, goo tomorrow", featuring kamikaze creme eggs. Any similarity to the hilarious Bunny Suicides concept is purely coincidental.

Probably.

Terror Vision

If anything illustrates how badly thought out the concept and operation of the National DNA Database, it's this article from El Reg. David Mery was arrested on the Tube in London in July 2005 for "suspicious behaviour and public nuisance". His crime, carrying a rucksack and wearing a big jacket. Considering the de Menezes killing, at least Mr Mery lived to tell the tale. After he was released without charge, he has fought to have his DNA details removed from the database. His fight has highlighted the complete lack of controls in the NDNAD, which inevitably means that instead of an objectively managed system we have a mechanism that is in the hands of a subjective powerful few, without adequate or open checks and balances.

His website gives a Kafkaesque account of his arrest and subsequent treatment under the much abused anti-terror laws, and the casual contempt the police have towards citizens and their rights. One man's story, one of many, illustrating our slow slide into a police state - all in the name of the War Against Terror.

Snow day

After a minor family medical panic early this morning I retired to Café Nero on King Street for a chill-out coffee. It had just started snowing (again) and I managed to get this shot. By the time I had finished my Latté the snow had already melted.

Junk fool

I'd hoped not to start the year with a pop at the guardians of high moral fibre and religious doctrine, but this beauty in Sunday's Observer couldn't be missed.

Not content with letting the religious fundies in the developing world hog all the kooky kudos that fanaticalism brings, it seems a few of our home-grown holy men are after the dubious honour of being known as fundamentalist nutters too.

In the past the Roman Catholic Bishop of Lancaster, Patrick O'Donoghue, has challenged both the Trident replacement project and the demonisation of immigrants. On those points I agree with him - they are fair and ethical points to raise.

But now he has authored a report called Fit For Mission which includes descriptions of the measures Catholic schools should introduce to indoctrinate their pupils.

Among his proposals is that crucifixes should be displayed. Pretty much a no-brainer for a Roman Catholic school. You wouldn't expect to go into the MacDonald's Hamburger University without seeing the Golden Arches.

But in a line which will have some African Anglican bishops drooling with medieval appreciation, O'Donoghue stepped into the contraception arena and railed against barrier protection, because of "the deluded theory that the condom can provide adequate protection against Aids".

I wonder if the Bishop could really care less about AIDS, other than as a good 'ole smiting tool for the Big Cahuna as punishment for sex outside marriage, or for chaps engaging in conjoined posterior action. His foremost concern seems to be in ensuring that the young Catholic faithful get it from an early age that they don't do contraception - just abstinence. Pure indoctrination.

As the guide to Fit for Mission says, "All our Primary and Secondary schools should be at the cutting edge of the ‘New Evangelisation’ at every level", and that the "priority of mission must be at the heart of the school ethos". Here's me thinking educashun is wot skools r 4.

If it was just a standard doctrinal issue then it wouldn't be important - in practice most Catholics ignore doctrine on contraception already. Perhaps the Bishop knows that Catholics are drifting from this Papal diktat, so he wants to push his hardline dogma on children to bring the next generations into line. If it's taught in class that condom use is based upon a 'deluded theory', it becomes pure evangelical propaganda - not education.

Hopefully the schools in the Lancaster diocese will ignore this particular direction.

Knowing that children are impressionable and particularly susceptible to repeated messages, the advertising of junk food to children during children's' TV shows has been banned. What about banning the Bishop's junk philosophy from young ears too?

Dangerous dirge

Forget the nuclear ambitions and meddling in Iraq. Forget the taking of hostages and the homophobic bigotry. The Iranian government is planning to commit a crime against humanity, against its own people, a crime so terrible that the others pale into insignificance.

Iran has announced that Irish bore-rock artist Chris De Burgh is to be first 'major' western artist to perform live in Iran since 1979. The singer, responsible for the horror of the dirge Lady in Red is planning to perform a concert in Tehran, backed by an Iranian band.

However, Ireland's own 'lyrical terrorist' may not be able to sing the lyrics of said song, as it includes phrases which may be considered as inappropriate by fundamentalist Muslim clerics, like 'cheek to cheek', and especially sinful words such as 'dance', 'red', 'lady' and 'the'.

Haven't the people of Iran suffered enough? Why give them another reason to hate the West? The world needs to act now to protect the Iranian people from the De Burgh terror.

Unfortunate timing

Page 5 of tonight's Gazette featured an article about a road safety initiative - a safe crossing point for horses in Sunderland Road at Cleadon. It featured horse rider Toni Keighley who, after a road accident in which a horse had to be destroyed, petitioned for a reduction in road speed limits on roads frequented by horse riders. However, next to the article, in the 'Court Round-up' column, a small paragraph told us that:

Toni Keighley, 22, of Whitehall Street, South Shields, was fined £100, with £45 costs, for driving without insurance. Her licence was endorsed with six penalty points for driving without insurance.

It might be a different Toni Keighley of South Shields (or a misprint) but it leaves me to wonder if anyone proof-reads the pages after the mischievous newspaper elves have finished with the page-setting.

Petrol nazis

New fuel protest group Transaction 2007 is planning a series of protests across the country over the price of petrol and diesel fuel. Essentially it's a narrow self interest group which is demanding cheaper fuel, although the Road Hauliers Association has distanced itself from the protest and Transaction 2007.

Whilst the RHA has voiced concerns about protest methods, it still seems an odd position to take when you consider that on the face of it Transaction 2007 and the RHA have some similar objectives.

Although claiming not to be a militant organisation, some of Transaction 2007's vague demands have a slight whiff of the right wing about them, with foreigners coming in for a bit of heat.

The item in the Gazette on Tuesday featured the poster boy of the 2000 and 2005 protests Andrew Spence together with obligatory Union Jack poster, although unusually the Transaction 2007 website doesn't mention the publicity hungry Spence at all. What the Gazette failed to mention (and does so regularly) is that Spence has a past with right-wing groups. He stood in the 2001 general election for UKIP, and for the BNP contested the Leadgate ward in Derwentside in the local elections this year and also was parliamentary candidate in the recent Sedgefield parliamentary by-election.

He left the racist party after a minor fisticulation incident at the party's booze-fest in Derbyshire this summer. Afterwards, Spence stated he parted with the BNP because it's "not the party I thought it was", although he "was proud to be in the party".

The BNP itself has had links to the fuel protests since they began back in 2000. The BNP ran the website fuel-protest.com in support of the 2000 protests and party supporters were encouraged to get involved in both the 2000 and 2005 protests. BNP chums the National Front also got in on the act, intimidating tanker drivers by threatening to set alight bails of hay at blockades.

Why the Gazette fails to mention Spence's former affiliation with the BNP seems odd, as it certainly is newsworthy, especially since he's 'proud' to have been in a party of racists and bigots.

Believe what you are told

The state-appointed guardian of happy thoughts, Trevor Phillips, has issued a diktat from inside the walls of his Ministry of Harmony, which says that the Nativity should performed in schools.

Phillips accused schools not putting on nativity plays of "robbing their children of really being part of what it is to be British". Utter codswallop, and an arrogant presumption that he can dictate what he thinks are British values. Normally, as a Nu-Lab creature, Phillips is nailed to the right-wing cross of politically correctness for his views, but since this is traditional Telegraph reader territory he will be praised by the the Tory religious fundies (and probably the BNP too, 'cos he used the word 'British').

For most people, Christmas has become divorced from religion and has become a cultural rather than religious event. There's no harm in society or in education in recognising the origin of Christmas, and believe it or not, we can all enjoy Christmas without being forced to prostrate ourselves before the Christmas Taliban.

Nativity plays themselves have little moral meaning other than 'believe in this fairy tale' and most parents only enjoy them just because their own little cherub is playing a shepherd or an angel. Personally, I don't think the Nativity is very entertaining either (unless they make a version with Samuel L Jackson and a cool soundtrack).

Religion shouldn't be shoved down children's throats, particularly by state decree, and especially not at the expense of the taxpayer. If parents specifically want their children to participate in the Nativity, then church, not school, should be the place to do it.

God knows the church could do with the bums on seats.

Sick racist filth

...or why you can't roll over and ignore the BNP.

Over on the Lancaster UAF (Unite Against Fascism) blog I read this post. It discusses a thread on a web forum called 'Stormfront'. Essentially Stormfront is a discussion board for white supremecists to get their racist rocks off with each other. It's frequented by many BNP members, including goose-steppers from South Tyneside BNP.

Essentially, the scumfront thread was hung on a story of a Luxembourg woman who had immolated herself, allegedly in protest at receiving what she saw as racist treatment at the hands of government. The woman in question was not white, and later died from her injuries. Whatever the circumstances surrounding her death, it was undeniably tragic.

The scumfront posts in response to the story were disgustingly racist and revelled in the woman's death.

The Lancaster UAF blog repeated several of the posts from the scumfront thread, including a post from someone with the nickname "caer urfa". As anyone from South Shields will know, Caer Urfa was an ancient name given to the settlement that eventually became South Shields. This is caer urfa's comment:

"I think that sort of protest should be encouraged" [followed by a “big grin” emoticon]

This creep, obviously delighted with the grisly death of a non-white person, is without a grain of humanity. caer urfa is apparently from South Shields and linked with South Tyneside BNP. Presumably this is how your average South Tyneside BNP member thinks and it illustrates that there's nothing moderate about these fanatics, and that they still think in the same terms as their Nazi forebears.

It sickens me to think that people vote for these scumbags.

Fascist appeasement

There was a post a while back on The Northern Herald blog, where the blogger discussed South Tyneside BNP posting their lie rag in the Primrose ward. The blogger quite rightly asks - what are the local councillors saying about it? And the answer is - nothing.

A poster called Billy Boy (who also seems to be web stalking Peter Shaw) said "Don't you think that by posting about them, you give thm [sic] more publicity than they deserve?" This argument is like saying 'ignore the BNP and they'll go away'.

Well this brand of appeasement obviously hasn't and doesn't work. They don't go away. The BNP are targeting South Tyneside and are evidently buoyed by the last local election results at Primrose.

If local councillors don't publicly challenge these freaks then the BNP could get even more publicity - by winning a seat.

Carbon copy Tories

In an interesting about turn, the Tories are now pilfering Labour's policies - plans for nuke power and stripping the planning system to allow nuke builds to go ahead without the tiresome interruption of citizens.

Also aping Gordon Brown, David 'Gordon' Cameron made his announcement to the CBI at their annual conference. Dave made the remarkable claim that nuke is needed to combat climate change (erm, like Gordon).

However, the unanswered question is that if nuclear is such a good prospect, why aren't the energy companies getting out their chequebooks to build new ones? There's been no new nuke build for 12 years, and nothing has been stopping anyone from building them. What are they waiting for, if it isn't for some kind of promise of Government bail out?

The real Gordon Brown must be a bit miffed. No matter how hard he's been licking the CBI's boots over the years, Martin Broughton, president of the CBI, clearly nailed his colours to the Tory mast.

It's obvious the CBI is watching the polls and have now decided to back who they think is going to be the winner.

Poor Gordon. I suppose that's a risk of getting into bed with the CBI - sooner or later they're going roll you over.

Free voice

Sometimes courts do make the right decision, and in kicking out religious fundies Christian Voice's action against the BBC for blasphemy the courts have said that at least on stage and broadcast, religion is fair game. And so it should be.

What is ludicrous is that we have blasphemy laws at all. Such laws belong in the middle ages, or the middle east.

There is some irony in the ruling. Although Christian Voice are spitting fury at the decision, it's freedom speech that lets them air their loony values in public, even when they are being intentionally offensive and hateful towards people they don't like.

Glass act

Hilarious comment from the Council about the danger of glass milk bottles in Tuesday's Gazette article about school milk to be supplied in cartons instead of bottles.

The council, essentially backing down to a suppliers wish to be less sustainable (and foist disposal costs onto the council taxpayer), used this gem of spin:

"Cartons are safer and easier to handle, as there is no risk of chipping and breakage."

To prostitute yourself to a corporation's interests using the name of safety must be all in a day's work for a council spokesperson. No wonder the spokesperson didn't want to be named.

I suppose now the council will demand all South Tyneside schools to use only blunt pencils, pointless compasses and set squares without sharp corners.

Cancel Christmas says Ashby

The North East's own Ebenezer Scrooge, Robin Ashby, has branded the Christmas bonus and 4% wage rise awarded to Northern Rock staff as "disgraceful and entirely inappropriate".

It doesn't help that the Guardian describes the rise as 'hefty'. Footballers and corporate directors get 'hefty'. Whilst unexpected, two hundred quid is the least the bank should be giving it's loyal staff for what they're going through.

Ashby whinged that "a discredited management team is rewarding employees for their failure and I'm sure all customers and investors will be furious". So kind-hearted Robin thinks that all Northern Rock staff should be punished for the credit crunch, or for the failure of the board? Is this his Christmas message?

It seems he was quite happy with the management team when it was raking in millions on it's business model of high risk and low costs - and paying rich folk like Ashby healthy dividends.

"Why should employees, who have good pay packages anyway, be rewarded when we lose money?" What a nob, assuming that every employee of NR has a good pay package. The employees are hard working people, working for a company which keeps it's wage bill low and productivity high - performance which contributed to the success of the company.

It's obvious that Robin couldn't give a fuck about the staff who put up with rude and obnoxious customers during the September run. He couldn't care less that they are all worrying whether they will have a job next week, or be bothered if they were all made redundant, or that blow-hards like him are unfairly devaluing Northern Rock staff

Cockweasel. (thanks punkscience)

100%

That's it. That's how much we need to reduce our CO2 emissions to avoid runaway global heating. But think about it - is the de-carbonisation of our economy such a bad idea?

You could question George Monbiot's figures, but in practice when Monbiot does the maths he's usually right, and eventually others follow. He came up with the 80% CO2 cut figure a year ago in his excellent book Heat, and this figure is now accepted as the current minimum cut the UK needs to aim for, and was even mentioned recently by Gordon Brown.

What's Gordon waiting for? Permission from the CBI?

Before the hockey stick...

...there was the curve. It's coincidental that this week sees both the 50th anniversary of the Keeling Curve and the meeting in Bali to discuss the successor to Kyoto. In terms of science meets policy, it represents a kind of long term cause and effect. It's where research into human impact on the atmosphere started, and led to the birth of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The Keeling Curve (actually more of a sawtooth upward slope than a curve) started in 1957 shows rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

Whereas Kyoto has failed to deliver a reduction in CO2 emissions, the Keeling Curve is still here and rising, as stark a reminder as ever.

Religionophobia

Tory MP Mark Pritchard has come out against what he perceives as 'Christianophobia' in society and has called for a debate in Parliament tomorrow. What a waste of time.

He says he wants to "protect the Christian tradition" and "ensuring that the Christian tradition of our nation is recognised." Why?

He bemoans that "Some people seem to want to forget the Christian tradition going back to the first century and its contribution to arts, culture and science." Yep, it's their right to do so. Welcome to the 21st Century.

Over Nativity plays he says they "would be a positive contribution for children. This isn't criticising people of other faiths or of no faith." No, it's indoctrination. Give me the superior A Christmas Carol any day.

Like so many Tories, Pritchard relies on the "Politically Correct Brigade" cliché to hammer home his message. I'm not sure who this pc brigade is, but they're very busy. Do they have a special forces section? Do they give out medals for valour in the face of non-fairtrade coffee?

The subject has no place in Parliament. We're already overburdened by 26 bishops sitting in the House of Lords. If I was at the debate I would remind Pritchard of the recent events in Sudan and the dangers of a legislature under the influence of religion.

Benefit discs found

A man in his sixties has been detained for the disappearance of the two discs lost from HMRC holding information about every child in the UK. The man, described as portly, with a fluffy white beard and ruddy complexion, was originally stopped by officers responding to complaints about a man who had been taunting children that "I see you when you are sleeping, I know when you're awake".

When police searched the man's home at 1 North Pole Gardens, they found the lost discs, as well as a number of elves working illegally in his toy sweatshop.

Although the man didn't make the discs, police said they have evidence he has already checked the data twice, taking particular interest in the records titled "naughty" and "nice".

The Government has not responded to this news, but has pledged to no longer use Donner und Blitzen Couriers Ltd.

Room for vroom

An old friend from the International Standard of Comparative Measurement has returned to measure volume - the Wembley Stadium.

Researchers at Oxford Brookes University have calculated that enough vehicle scrap will be created over the next 25 years to fill 1,000 Wembleys. Nice to see all that Oxford intellect being used productively. However, the Guardian piece covering this news also remarks that this is the same university that gave professional oaf Jeremy Clarkson an honorary degree.

It's not clear in the article, but I presume that the unit of the Wembley has been re-assessed to take account of the size of the new stadium. Given that some folk are still stewing over metrication, I'm not sure how society will adjust to the new standard.

GM genie

Professor Sir David King, the government's pet science monkey, has used his impending retirement from government to bring Genetically Modified food back onto the agenda, aping the GM industry's recent PR gambit - climate change. King, who is also an advocate of nuclear power, played the "it's climate change, stupid" card, arguing that we need GM to ensure there's plenty food for everyone.

He also claimed that "in many ways it is probably safer for you to eat GM products", without producing a shred of evidence to support his argument, only some unsubstantiated blurb about food sensitivities. GM nuts that won't kill those allergic to nut products won't save the world, although it might make a tidy profit for someone.

It's 'probably' not good for a scientist to make such claims without showing the evidence, instead staking his position with a reliance on utopian science. His post-1950s rosy confidence in science being the solution to the world's ills sounds familiar. Perhaps he can remember that old claim about nuclear power - "too cheap to meter".

Don't mistake me - I love science, me. But when someone who should know better gets lost in panacean speculation it's reasonable to expect that people will stop taking him seriously. Which is a pity, because the guy has been (and still is to a certain extent) a real champion for taking urgent action on climate change.

Let's not forget though, there is enough food for everyone, it's just that so many can't afford to buy enough of it. No matter the wonders of tuna-flavoured triffids or fart free beans that GM promises, if you can't afford it you're still going to go hungry. In reality GM foods aren't developed to feed the world, they are developed like any other modern product - to meet a marketing brief and make big fat wodges of dosh. GM development is now racing to get a bite of the biofuels market, so no bellies being filled there either.

The UK government's own farm scale trials into GM have so far proved at best inconclusive, with no benefits to the consumer or the environment over organic food. Industry and government proclaim GM as safe (and as King posits 'probably safer'), but if it really is safe, why isn't the GM industry willing to accept liability if it goes wrong, or pay organic farmers if their crops are contaminated with GM organisms? Why won't they put their money where their yaps are?

I do hope King enjoys his retirement. As is traditional for those retiring from government, perhaps some kindly soul in industry (like GM or nuclear possibly) could give him a nice part-time job or two to keep his hand in.

Flying in the ointment

A couple of days ago the media praised Gordon Brown for his vision for a low carbon economy. He warned of hard choices and the need to achieve severe reductions in CO2 emissions. So if Gordon is so worried about climate change, why did it take him four months to mention it?

Yet on the ground and in the air - it's business as usual. Brown wants to build more roads and runways, effectively encouraging growth in CO2 emissions in the transport sector, and today his low carbon vision crashed further with Ruth Kelly's backing of the expansion of Heathrow airport. In one undemocratic swoop, Kelly has prejudged the outcome of any public inquiry, as at the end of it all it will be her final decision that counts. Like the nuclear consultation, it seems to be in the bag, no doubt helped along by the fact that airport's owner, BAA, will be effectively managing the data going into the consultation.

They will ignore the environment, the climate change, the thousands of people slowly losing their sanity and health due to aircraft noise. The excuse, as ever, is that "it's the economy, stupid." To counter the environmental argument that the plans should be shelved, Kelly said:

"All it will do is shift capacity over the Channel. It will make us feel pure, but with no benefit to the rest of the planet."

This is a piss poor excuse as well as a morally corrupt argument - it's the same argument crack dealers and arms sellers use - if we don't do it, someone else will.

We need to replace the "it's the economy, stupid" with something like "if we don't sort climate change we're all fucked, stupid." I know, it's not as snappy as Clinton's quote, but you get my drift.

Anyway, so instead of trying to engineer mechanisms to start to limit flying, something we need to do to reduce our CO2 emissions, the government is actively encouraging the growth in aviation and increasing the likelihood of disaster. Carbon offsetting, trading or any other fairyland gimmick they can think of to try and avoid actually reducing emissions will not work. There's no magic technological solution around the corner. Reductions must be the aim.

The British Government - the environmental equivalent of crack dealers.

Darling's new northern bail out

In tonight's BBC Look North item on the Tyne Tunnel we witnessed the BBC becoming PR company to the second the Tyne road tunnel. Even the lead-in had a 'dynamic' soundtrack like some crappy company presentation. In this Tunnel-friendly puff piece, brought to us by reporter Damien Lewis, the BBC painted the tunnel as the only possible solution to crossing the Tyne and failed to mention anything about the opposition to the tunnel, the noise and particulate pollution and extra CO2 emissions.

So much for journalistic balance at the BBC.

There was however a startling revelation - that 50% of the money will come from government borrowing. The last press release from the Tunnel chiefs said that the 50 per cent borne by the PTA would be through so-called "Prudential Borrowing", which is a nice way of giving plain and simple borrowing a somehow less offensive appearance. If the new funding arrangement announced by the BBC is true, and not a journalistic error (what's the chances?), this means that the Tunnel may become another beneficiary of Alistair Darling's largesse, and in more ways than one.

When Alistair Darling was Secretary of State for Transport, he gave the go ahead for the tunnel, and in his justification he commented:

"...the Secretary of State is satisfied that the NTC scheme is reasonably capable of attracting the funds necessary to secure its implementation by means of the concession agreement proposed by the TWPTA."

No doubt based upon what the Inspector said in his final report:

"There is an active market for road and crossing PPPs [public private partnerships]. On this basis, and assuming that market conditions remain favourable for this type of project and that contractual negotiations proceed successfully, then the NTC is reasonably capable of attracting the necessary funding."

So the Inspector and Darling both agreed, even falling for the PTA's line that the tunnel would even make so much moolah that the Tunnel could also fund public transport initiatives elsewhere. So now we get to a sticky situation where things are not as rosy - a concessionaire which won't take the full bill, as first presented to the Inspector, and now a chill in the lending markets. Darling gave the go ahead for the tunnel, and if the report is right, he's going to be writing (at least) a £130m cheque for it too.

Toilet humour

A letter from "Alfy Wells" in tonight's Shields Gazette is either a tour-de-force of comic genius, or a cry for help from seriously in need of psychiatric help. "Alfy", in Viz-esque style, imparted his wisdom:

"All the carry on about don't eat this and don't eat that could put you in your grave with worry. I've got a sure way to lose weight. All you do is to swallow two to three laxatives every other day. It's as simple as that. You should see a difference after a few days."

I'm surprised that he didn't throw in 40 fags a day as an extra insurance in shedding those pounds.

It's amazing that this got past the editorial, especially given the Gazette's habit of gutting all context from letters. I look forward to a letter from a concerned doctor admonishing the Gazette for it's irresponsible attitude, allowing any loon to advise readers on how to deal with their problems with habitual medication.

Perhaps we will see more medical advice from "Alfy", possibly even an "Ask Dr Alfy" spot.

Planning is boring

My previous post may have given the impression that there's little point in getting involved in consultations and planning. Despite my cynicism, I think they are an important way to try and influence development.

The Gypsies' Green campaigners would be in with a better chance if they had responded en masse to the South Shields and Town Centre Action Plan, outlining their preferences for the type of development on both the Gypsies' Green site. As it was, the action plan respondents were close to 50-50 between a hotel or recreational facilities for the site. A concerted campaign during that consultation could have clearly earmarked the Gypsies' Green site for public recreational facilities. The site is now designated as 'mixed use'.

Since the consultation fed into the Core Strategy, which forms the backbone of local planning guidance, you've got to find a pretty good reason, and strictly in planning terms, to stop a project which fits the criteria laid down in the Core Strategy.

Unless the Gypsies' Green campaigners can find a killer planning objection, coherently challenge the economic benefit claims or gain an unassailable level of public support that worries councillors, the development is likely to go ahead. However, Northumbrian Water's concerns about handling the additional sewerage requirements for all the new developments planned in the Action Plan may provide some faint possibilities.

Realistically though, planning is stuffy, boring and filled with terminology seemingly designed to put off the average citizen. Even councillors are put off - few councillors (sitting or prospective) have written responses to any of the Local Development Framework consultations.

It looks like the planning laws are going to be weakened by an increasingly neo-liberal government - taking power away from local people to put in the hands of the developers - so it's more important than ever to watch what's happening in planning terms and shout out if you don't like what you see.

The con-sultation trap

Curly's Corner Shop recently remarked on the waste of time that is the Downing Street e-petition website, and I agree. Most petitions are just a protest on paper, carry little weight and are easy to ignore. Perhaps reasonably so - they only represent the feelings of the core constituency affected by the issue at hand, and those people who could be bothered to put their name to paper and/or wish to show some solidarity with the petitioners' cause. As long as it doesn't take too much of the signatory's time of course.

Some consultations rely on this kind of apathy, and quite often you can tell by the questions asked which way the authors of the consultation want things to go. So it was with the consultation for the South Tyne and Wear Waste Management Partnership strategy. Some campaigners saw the pointed manipulation that was designed into the consultation response questionnaire so instead formed their own responses.

The consultation document asked things like whether ‘obtaining benefit from rubbish by modern treatment facilities’ was a good idea - but didn't state what ‘modern treatment facilities’ people would be supporting. Hence the interpretation of the results to the consultation assumes that respondents would be happy with any ‘modern treatment facilities’ - irrespective of cost - financial or environmental.

Today's meeting of the exclusively Labour cabinet of South Tyneside Council will discuss/rubber stamp the future of the waste strategy, drawing on the interpretation of results of the recent consultation. The review of responses to the consultation holds no surprises for those with some experience of consultations.

But I suppose at least the council appeared to attempt some level of openness.

Now we discover that the councils which are part of the partnership - South Tyneside, Gateshead and Sunderland, are trying to keep us all in the dark about what is really being planned.

Initially, there were nine treatment options to deal with residual waste, but this has recently narrowed to three options:

Mechanical biological treatment (MBT) of waste through aerobic digestion
A combination of mechanical recovery of recyclable materials with a biological treatment to produce a soil conditioner/compost.

Autoclaving
Recovery of recyclable materials, sterilising biological waste and producing a material that can be used as a refuse derived fuel (RDF or secondary incineration).

Energy from Waste with Combined Heat and Power
Recovering recyclable materials before burning the residual waste to generate energy in the form of electricity and/or heat (otherwise known as incineration - and Councillor Capstick's preferred option).

It's assumed that one of these options will be put forward as part of a PFI project.

A reasonable assumption, because in July 2007, DEFRA approved the initial ‘expression of interest’ for a PFI bid for cash to build a mega waste facility somewhere in the South Tyne area. The expression of interest was originally submitted by the Partnership to DEFRA in March 2007.

Remember, this was all before the consultation ended in August. So it would be nice to know what type of treatment infrastructure was in the expression of interest.

Back in September local waste campaign group BAN Waste asked DEFRA what type of waste treatment infrastructure was being proposed as part of the PFI bid. After six weeks of wrangling DEFRA refused to grant a Freedom of Information request, on the grounds that "the councils involved do not wish this type of information to be made public".

Wow. It's worth saying that again.

"the councils involved do not wish this type of information to be made public."

That's right - our councils want to keep us all in the dark about a policy which will affect us and our children for at least the next thirty years.

What are they concealing?

The word of God

From http://www.videosift.com/:


via videosift.com

Playing the odds

US science teacher and youtube contributor wonderingmind42 has demonstrated an intelligent approach to assess the risk of global heating and climate change mitigation - one which I'm unable (yet) to challenge.



It seems too good to be true. At first I thought it was the climate change version of Pascal's Wager, but the more I've examined it the more I've become convinced of the logic of the argument.

True, it's based upon a simple set of parameters, but it works. When you drill down into more detail, applying weightings to the risks based upon the likelihood vs benefits, the position becomes even more convincing.

Even when you add in a third so far unconsidered scenario: climate change is real but not anthropogenic; doing something still provides a better outcome than doing little or nothing.

I'm keeping an open mind though, so I'm open to any sensible suggestions which will break the test or bring a reasonable cause for re-evaluation.

To really take effective action on climate change it must be driven by policy.

When cows fly

Did it jump or was it pushed? Suicide because it was in a bad moo-d?

From the Register:

"A US couple had a lucky escape when a 600lb cow unexpectedly landed on the bonnet of their minivan, unsurprisingly causing "heavy damage".

According to AP, Michigan-based Charles and Linda Everson were visiting the area around Lake Chelan, Washington, to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. On their way back to the hotel near Manson on Sunday, the bovine in question decided to plummet from a 200ft cliff and impact without warning against the vehicle.

Charles Everson admitted he "didn't see the cow falling and didn't know what happened until afterward". He added he'd been reduced to repeating: "I don't believe this. I don't believe this."

Chelan County fire chief Arnold Baker said the pair had missed being killed by a matter of inches. The cow wasn't so lucky, and was quickly "euthanised". "

No more 99's

It's sad to see a local business go, especially one that holds so many good memories for me, but to stoop to the conceit that the smoking ban 'forced' Minchella's to sell up the business at the Nook is just pathetic.

The truth is that Minchella's at the Nook has for a long time deteriorated and had begun to look tired and need of a good makeover. Also, despite the great ice cream, milk shakes and (adequate) coffee, the range of food was boring. Cheese toasties are hardly inspiring, especially considering when successful places like Cafe Nero can serve a range of delicious food along with excellent coffee - all without whingeing about the smoking ban.

Trevor Minchella said, "The smoking ban killed off this cafe." He's wrong. Apathy killed off the cafe. Of course some smokers stopped going into Minchella's, but he failed to bring in new custom, which he acknowledged when he said, "most of my customers were from a generation who frowned at the thought of having to stand outside in the street just to smoke".

The cafe has an air of neglect, most of the time has only a skeleton staff and has also become frequented by some with a vocabulary you don't want your children to hear.

To claim that the smoking ban was responsible for the business failure is disingenuous and just provides ammunition to pro smoking lobby group FOREST.

Without the secret Minchella ice cream formula I think it's unlikely that it can carry on as an ice cream parlour.

But I do hope that some enterprising soul can take the business on and make a success of it as the Nook needs a good coffee shop, although at £325,000 it's likely to be bought by a local property developer and split up.