A nasty look from a nasty man leading a nasty political party

This clip follows the one I blogged here of the Adam Bouton Sky interview with Gordon Brown.

And this one shows a bit more of the Studio reaction from Kay Burley than my original post.


Isn't Gordon Brown an absolute charmer?

The Laffer Curve and why Gordon Brown and David Cameron should pay attention to it

Burning Our Money has the story and very well written it is too. Here is their conclusion and one that I agree with:

"So given that Gordo's new tax is going to make his fiscal black hole even blacker and even deeper, you may be asking why he's going to do it?

You're not? Well, I'm going to tell you anyway.

You see - and brace yourself because this may come as a shock - our leader is an unreconstructed socialist. He not only believes that government is better at spending our money than we are ourselves, he also believes that high incomes for the few are A Bad Thing.

So although this measure will end up costing all of us, and although we'll all have to pay more taxes, and although we'll all be poorer as a result, we will benefit from knowing that the rich have been whacked good and hard. According to the IFS, there are only 350,000 of those bastards, and we all know they've got it coming. Think how much better we'll feel as we pay our own eye-watering taxes.

The thing is though, Mr Cam is not a socialist. If reports are to be believed, he's a Tory. And Tories... well, they're supposed to believe in prosperity and individual effort and enterprise and all that other stuff.

Aren't they?"

"Best placed" economy?

Alex Masterley informs us that:

"The International Monetary Fund has just listed the UK as the country "most susceptible" to having its economic recovery derailed by a lack of credit in its global financial stability report.

The Fund says there aren't enough domestic resources to finance government borrowing and private sector credit, and that funding gap would represent about 15 per cent of national income in the UK during 2009 and 2010, compared with 2.4 per cent in the US and 3 per cent in the eurozone. This year the Bank of England has filled the gap with its £175bn programme of quantitative easing, creating money out of thin air to buy assets, predominantly government bonds.

"In terms of regional vulnerability, the United Kingdom appears most susceptible to credit constraints under our stylised scenario, given its significant reliance on the banking channel and the projected sharp decline in domestic bank balance sheets, as well as substantial public financing needs," says the IMF.

The choice for is either or all of

* more quantitative easing, in which case expect the value of sterling to drop further, making imports and the cost of living more expensive for all,
* drastically less spending by government and the private sector, but mostly current spending by government because that is where the biggest shortfall and hence most of the funding gap arises, which will hit the public sector worst immediately but damage the prospects of UK business through lack of investment and will keep unemployment high; or
* much higher interest rates to attract foreign lenders to put their money into sterling, in which case businesses and homeowners get it in the neck and few new jobs will be created.

Either way you are probably screwed. Sounds like the scrag end of the last Labour government."

I couldn't have put it better mysepf Alex, so I didn't!

Bias included at no extra charge

The BBC have brought back Poll Tracker and very interesting it is too, maybe now they'll also bring back Poll Watch. Anyway the Poll Tracker allows you to choose which pollster's polls to view and the BBC defaults the choice to YouGov. Why YouGov? They are alphabetically the last not the first... Could the reason be that they show the smallest gap between Conservatives and Labour in their latest poll - 13% to ComRes's 16%, ICM's 17%, MORI's 17% and Populus's 14%? Maybe there is an innocent explanation but with the BBC's record somehow I doubt it.

Eduction, eduction, eduction

Is there anything that this Labour government cannot screw up? Take a look at their latest Party Political Broadcast here on the BBC's site. You can either watch it all or skip to 2:31....

"Eductional Maintenance Allowance has helped 2.8 million teenagers"

Well done New Labour, it looks as though your education policies are really having an effect...

China's 60th anniversary

The BBC report that:

"China is staging mass celebrations to mark 60 years since the Communist Party came to power.

Vast lines of tanks, soldiers and missile launchers are being paraded through the capital Beijing.

President Hu Jintao has appeared on the rostrum at Tiananmen Square in a black Mao-style tunic, seen by analysts as a symbol of his control of the military.

He was joined by his predecessor Jiang Zemin, Premier Wen Jiabao and other senior leaders.

After a 60-gun salute, the Chinese flag was formally raised in the centre of the historic square - where revolutionary leader Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949.

The military parade, expected to show previously unseen missile technology, followed a drive-by inspection of the armed forces and a speech by President Hu which lauded China's progress.

The president, speaking from the same spot where Mao Zedong had stood 60 years ago, claimed China had a bright future, had made global economic strides and would unite all cultures and ethnicities within it.

Security forces have been deployed in force across Beijing, ahead of a pageant featuring ordinary citizens, which will also take place in Tiananmen Square.

Some 30,000 people have been invited to watch the events, but others are being encouraged to stay at home and watch it on TV to "avoid complications".

Armed police in body armour have taken up positions at major road junctions in the capital, with snipers spotted on buildings along the parade route on Chang'an Avenue.

Roads have been blocked off, the international airport closed and the subway disrupted.

Many shops and businesses have been closed along the route and a new portrait of Mao Zedong has been installed in Tiananmen Square.

Some reports say the extravaganza will use twice as many fireworks as featured in the opening ceremony to last year's Olympic Games.

National Day is an annual highlight for the Chinese government, but extra effort has been made to mark the 60th anniversary of what China sees as the start of its transformation from an impoverished country into a global contender.

On the eve of the festivities, the country's leaders held a dinner for 4,000 people in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Premier Wen Jiabao praised China's development and said he was looking forward to celebrating "the centenary of New China" in 40 years' time."

Anything missing from this article replete with mentions of Chairman Mao?

How about a mention of the around 50 million people killed by the Chinese regime since 1949? How about a mention of the many millions tortured by the Chinese regime and forced to give up their "intellectual" jobs to work on the land as "workers"? How about a mention of those killed in Tiananmen Square? How about a mention of the human rights abuses that occurred around the Beijing Olympics?

Adolph Hitler's Nazi Germany killed around 7 million people and the regime is rightly abhorred. Stalin's Russia and Mao's China killed many many more and shhhh hardly a word of protest is allowed. Why? Maybe something to do with the backgrounds of a large proportion of the BBC and Labour Party leadership; once a Marxist, always a Marxist?

Rats rejoining the sinking ship

News that Alastair Campbell is to return to the Labour election campaign team and that Tony Blair would campaign for a Brown/Labour general election victory brings up so many thoughts of "rats" and "sinking ships".

In this case it is the Sewer Rat (Campbell) joining the sinking ship first and then the God (botherer) Rat Blair returning to help spread the poison. With Blair and Campbell back to joining Brown Rat (rattus moral compassus) and Black (Arts) Rat Mandelson, the four people most responsible for launching and steering to power the New Labour Project will be back at its helm; how fitting that they should be so as it sinks below the blue tide.

Do you want to bet £50 Gordon?

What do you say Gordon, "of course"; £50 says you won't...

Climate Change the con uncovered

"The scary red line shooting upwards is the one Al Gore, Michael Mann, Keith Briffa and their climate-fear-promotion chums would like you to believe in. The black one, heading downwards, represents scientific reality."

This should be the chart that shows Climate Change to be as factual as leprechauns.

It would seem that much Climate Change "research" has been based on less than accurate or honest science. In a nutshell the same small rigged samples have been used over and over again to produce highly questionable results.

For more detail I recommend:
For a seriously good article that draws together science and much of the history that I have covered previously I recommend James Delingpole in The Telegraph. It is this article that provides the quotation I used under the graph at the top of this blog piece.
For highly technical I recommend Watts Up With This where Steve McIntyre explains the science and statistics.
For a decent but not too technical explanation try The Register

I leave you with the words of Carleton University paleoclimatologist Professor Tim Patterson when he appeared in front of the Commons Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development last year:

"There is no meaningful correlation between CO2 levels and Earth’s temperature over this [geologic] time frame. In fact, when CO2 levels were over ten times higher than they are now, about 450 million years ago, the planet was in the depths of the absolute coldest period in the last half billion years.” Patterson asked the committee, “On the basis of this evidence, how could anyone still believe that the recent relatively small increase in CO2 levels would be the major cause of the past century’s modest warming?"

Prof Patterson concluded his testimony by explaining what his research and "hundreds of other studies" reveal: on all time scales, there is very good correlation between Earth’s temperature and natural celestial phenomena such changes in the brightness of the Sun.

The end of the line for Gordon Brown?

When James Naughtie gives Gordon Brown a relatively hard time in an interview, as he did on the Today programme this morning, it looks that Gordon Brown's time may be up. However this does not mean that the BBC is moving, like The Sun, from supporting Labour to the Conservatives. What it may mean is that the BBC has realised that the best way of keeping the Conservatives out is to have Gordon Brown replaced by a more (could there be a less) congenial and credible Labour leader. When James "When we win the election" Naughtie is anything other than totally supportive, is there any hope for Gordon Brown?

One might almost feel sorry for Gordon Brown were he not a complete and another disaster for this country.

Two final words on the Today interview this morning; first that Gordon Brown just trotted out his favourite lines from previous years, it was like listening to a Gordon Brown tribute act. Second that for once I agree with Gordon Brown, Labour are like "insurgents", seemingly dedicated to the destruction of the UK economy.

The Sun deserts the Labour party

The headlines this morning revolve around the Sun newspaper's decision to drop support for Gordon Brown's Labour rabble and start supporting David Cameron's Conservatives. The announcement is being given much coverage because The Sun newspaper likes to portray itself as the paper that decides elections. In truth The Sun follows the electorate as much as it leads them, Rupert Murdoch always likes to be on the winning side but it does have a role to play in helping to mould the perceptions of its readership. Any newspaper that could convince the working man that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were honest decent men could persuade their readership of almost anything.

Labour are claiming that they don't care about the newspapers. Remember this is the political party that set out to control the media agenda from the mid 1990s and only now are finally losing control. "The Grid" is all but a busted flush, just like its masters - Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell.


In truth this decision has been a long time coming. Post the 2005 election afterglow, The Sun has been moving from supporting Labour to Conservative since late 2007 and I have been reporting this move here. It started with turning against Gordon Brown as the perception of him changed from prudent economic mastermind to wasteful incompetent.
In November 2007 I blogged

"Today it seems as though the Sun newspaper maybe about to turn on Gordon Brown, the hints have been there before but today that point is noticeably closer."

In March 2008 The Sun was still able to report seriously that:

"GORDON Brown today gives Britain his personal guarantee he will save the nation from financial meltdown....“My guarantee to the British people is that we will hold on to stability in these latest tough times."

In May 2008 I reported on a Trevor Kavanagh Sun column that seemed to echo one of my own and I concluded

"I am glad that Rupert Murdoch's tabloid paper is finally turning against Gordon Brown and the Labour party. Maybe the powers that be realise that Labour are a dead duck party. Read the whole article it's not the article that a Labour supporting paper would carry."

In August 2008 I reported The Sun comments that

"Gordon Brown has a reputation for dithering. He has added to it this week. And by doing so he has made David Cameron look like a credible leader."

In February I blogged that The Sun was about to swap sides and that

"today is not a moment too soon for Mr Brown to say sorry to the British people.

And walk out of Downing Street for good." I concluded "If it was indeed "the Sun what won it" in 1992 then I wonder if it will be again in 2009/2010. "

In March I concluded that

"Rupert Murdoch is moving his forces away from New Labour and that is the biggest signal that he has read the mood of the Country and he is moving to align himself with winners not losers. "

In May I wrote

"The Sun newspaper will never be behind the curve if it can help it so today's article entitled "Give Britain an election... now" is a real end of the line for Gordon Brown and the Labour Party."

Later in May I reported on Nick Robinson's claim that

"The Tory leader has struggled to get much attention for his call for a general election to elect a new Parliament to go along with a new Speaker. This, despite the fact that he is working in partnership with the Sun. "

In June I blogged about another Trevor Kavanagh article that included this call

"If you are a jaded but loyal Labour supporter, sitting on your backside is a form of protest, too. But as this newspaper argues today, the best way to get your message home - at least on Europe - is by using your ballot paper and voting Tory."

Finally in June I blogged about The Sun's reporting of the chaos as the heart of the Labour government

"George Pascoe-Watson has really turned on Labour with today's piece:

"LABOUR was in chaos over spending last night after accusing the Tories of planning cuts — only to admit they will have to do the same.

Children’s secretary Ed Balls said Labour would INCREASE spending on schools and hospitals after 2011 by cutting payments to other areas like defence.

But he was slapped down by one of his own Cabinet colleagues — with Deputy Chancellor Liam Byrne saying Mr Balls had no “crystal ball” and was WRONG to make the guarantee.

The amazing clash came as Labour was accused of LYING over its plans. "

Brainwashing?

"Climate change is the biggest threat facing the polar bear. A reduction in sea ice makes access to prey more difficult for polar bears and means many cannot put on enough weight to survive the summer season."

I thought polar bear numbers were increasing...

What if the Twitter 140 character limit was extended to real life?

Thanks to Funktards for the spot.

The funding industry

The BBC are excited to report that:

"Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, the top secret code-breaking hub of World War II, has been awarded nearly £500,000 of lottery funds.

The development money from the Heritage Lottery Fund will help the historic site become a world heritage and educational centre.

It is the first step towards a target of £10m to completely revamp the site. "

That's odd I thought, why would the money come in two tranches; first £500,000 then £10,000,000? Bletchley Park News seems to have the answer:

"The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has given the green light to the Bletchley Park Trust to work up plans to help transform Bletchley Park into a world class heritage and educational centre it was announced today. Development funding of £460,500 was awarded to help progress their plans.
The HLF first-round pass* means that the Bletchley Park Trust can now progress to the second stage of the HLF application process. They have up to two years to submit more detailed plans and apply for approximately £4.1 million of HLF support that they are seeking for their £10 million project.

...

*A first-round pass means the project meets HLF criteria for funding and they believe it has potential to deliver high-quality benefits and value for Lottery money. The application was in competition with other supportable projects, so a first-round pass is an endorsement of outline proposals.

However, a first-round pass does not guarantee the applicant will receive a grant as the second-round application will still be in competition for funding, and no money is set aside at this stage. Having been awarded a first-round pass, the project now has up to two years to submit fully developed proposals to compete for a firm award.
On occasion an applicant with a first-round pass will also be awarded development funding towards the development of their scheme."

Am I right in my reading that the £460,000 is to fund the application for the £10,000,000 of funding? Does it really cost that much to fill in an application form and send a business plan? How much is this funding acquirement industry worth per annum? What percentage of Heritage Lottery Fund money is spent on such funding compared to what is spent on actual projects?

A DNA databse of everyone is a good thing but identifying physical features breach human rights?

You know the arguments advanced in favour of the DNA database so why did Nottinghamshire police refuse "to take the man's distinctive birthmark into account - in case it infringed his human rights"?

The fifty fifth weekly "No shit, Sherlock" award

This week's winner is the former footballer Dwight Yorke who has described his former partner Katie Price/Jordan as 'vain and infuriating'.

"No shit, Sherlock".

Gordon Brown's record

Edward Heathcoat Amory in The Mail points out the truth about "What has Gordon Brown got to show for 12 years in power?". Here's an extract:

"Twelve years ago, Gordon Brown rose, brimming with self-confidence, to deliver his first Budget speech to the Commons as New Labour's Chancellor of the
Exchequer.

Today, as he fights for his political life with a make-or-break speech to the Labour Conference, we look back at what Mr Brown said ... and whether he delivered.

THEN: 'The Chancellor is first and foremost the guardian of the public finances – the people's money ... Public finances must be sustainable over the long term ... I will ensure an historic break from the short-termism and expediency that have characterised the recent fiscal policies of our country.'

NOW: This year Britain will borrow £225billion, and Labour plans to increase the national debt to £1.4trillion by 2013. It has yet to set out proposals for cutting spending.

THEN: 'The objective behind our two-year-long corporate tax review has been to develop a tax system that encourages personal savings.'

NOW: The savings ratio – the percentage of our income that Britons save for the future - fell from often over 10 per cent under the Tories to 2 per cent and lower during the last few years of Labour government as ministers destroyed all the Tory tax incentives for saving.

THEN: 'Many pension funds are in substantial surplus ... so this is the right time to undertake a long-needed reform ... with immediate effect I propose to abolish tax credits paid to pension funds and companies.'

NOW: This reckless pensions tax grab is calculated to have knocked £100billion off
the value of British pensions and contributed to death of the final-salary scheme – in the private sector at least."

Read the whole piece and have it to hand when Gordon Brown gets up to deliver his speech to Conference, full of the usual 'brownies' and unsubstantiated attacks on Conservative policy.

The wise elder statesman - Neil Kinnock

Following Neil Kinnock's interview with James Naughtie this morning explaining so reasonably how wonderful Gordon Brown is, I thought people should be reminded of Neil Kinnock in full intellectual flow some years ago. Do also note how James "If we win the election" Naughtie tries to help him out and gives him a second go at the whole interview before broadcast.

You can hear the interview here.

I wonder if James "If we win the election" Naughtie would take the same line now with David Cameron as he did then with Neil Kinnock?

"...as you said quite rightly, look it's not our problem, we wouldn't be here if we'd been imposing our policies for the last five years, it's up to them."

Bolstering Brown

Take a listen to the 07:44 piece on the Today programme with Neil Kinnock. It was billed as

"One opinion poll has put Labour in third place behind the Liberal Democrats. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is under pressure to make the speech of his life to rally support within the party. Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, who had his own painful tussles with the electorate, discusses how to change the opinion of those who do not warm to a leader."

and was a very soft interview allowing Neil Kinnock free reign to make the most absurd assertions about Gordon Brown's abilities without any real challenge. Gordon Brown was we were told the right man to deal with the Country's economic problems, the fact that Gordon Brown was the man who caused most of them with his stoking of debt in order to engineer an endless boom was ignored. Listening to James Naughtie and Neil Kinnock chat away it was clear that the BBC is in 'bolster Brown' mode and will remain so right up until the Labour party elect a new leader.

I wonder if, on the morning of David Cameron's speech to the Conservative Party conference, the Today programme will have an interview with a Tory grandee who will be given five minutes to explain why David Cameron is best suited to being Prime Minister. I doubt it but even if there was such an interview I wonder whether the Today presenter will be as amenable to the assertions being made as James "If we win the election" Naughtie was today.

An odd choice of emphasis

Take a read of this BBC article and wonder at the way that the Palestinian view is taken as the truth and only the Israeli view questioned.