The Bewilderness

The Green Leninists

As a follow-up to the publication of the Stern report, Ruth Lea, femme fatale of the Centre for Policy Studies, writes in an op-ed about the gaping flaws in the government's moral crusade on climate change. The strongest of these is the international co-operation required to stem carbon emissions. The tone of the government's campaign is to put taxes in place, providing an example for other countries to heed.

I have little doubt that the Government will use the Stern report as a political prop, under the guise of the moral case for saving the planet, for unilaterally raising energy costs. We are promised a climate change Bill, which will enshrine carbon reduction targets, unquestioning enthusiasm for the flawed EU's emissions trading scheme and more green taxes.

Green taxes can be mightily unpopular, as shown by the fuel protests of September 2000, which led to the suspension of the fuel duty escalator. Perhaps the Government feels that, by emphasising the moral case for saving the planet, this will sweeten people's attitudes. I'm not so sure.

Stern's greenwash

The Stern report on climate change is being published and has been seized upon by the government to continue its alarmist campaign for government expansion. Stern lists the usual disasters and argues that humanity must take action now to avoid impoverishment, although it was commissioned for an international audience. In Britain, the main impact is taxation, with the media concentrating on new charges and levies.

As the electorate are already sceptical about further tax increases, the self-appointed prophets are latching onto the paradigm of climate change to justify their onerous theft. Taxes on cars, aviation and other carbon generating activities will weigh more heavily upon the poor and lead to lower living standards now rather than the hypothetical poverty projected for the future.

The Letter from David Miliband, the appointment of the political failure Al Gore and the report by Stern are all designed to provide the intellectual ballast for continued government expansion. These taxes are politically unpalatable and would be rejected by the electorate, if levied without green cover. Therefore, climate change and catastrophism are the reasons for a 'greener than thou' ratchet effect, where politicians use Britain and our money to puff themselves up as a moral example for others.

Since the science and the scenarios are still so uncertain, climate change has been adopted as the vanguard for further taxation and a curb on British consumerism. Using the expansion of the state and taxes, rather than market mechanisms, our politicians will dampen our economic growth, steal our wealth,  and wrap us in their parasitical hairshirt. The only light in this gloom is that the British electorate may reject such alarmism and the example of our political stupidity will lead India and other natiosn to seek technological and free-market solutions that do not curb their march away from poverty.

Diplomats Fitting Iraqi Scuttle

As my previous post showed, the British presence in Basra is being scaled down. However, the Foreign Office and Department for International Development have decided to depart early, leaving a sordid legacy. This has placed the reconstruction efforts in Basra under a cloud. Remember that these efforts were focussed in areas that were not controlled by militias. Now, it appears that more money has been lavished on the British consulate than on reconstruction in the city itself:

The Foreign Office and Dfid operation in southern Iraq has been criticised for the poor handling of economic and political regeneration in the area.

While £14 million has been spent on refurbishing the consulate, including a new portico, hardened roof defences and swimming pool, it has spent just £12.5 million on reconstruction that included repainting a tower in the city.

The palace, which is surrounded by a 30ft blast wall and graced with manicured lawns, is in the same fortified compound as 800 British infantry.

Such luxury within an impoverished city would leave a bitter taste with the locals, providing a tempting target for those who wish to gain support through mortar attacks. Now the FCO and DFID responds with evacuation. No doubt the usual suspects will be promoted, for their diplomatic handling of the locals.

For 'sophisticates' who attack the United States on the grounds that our imperial history allows us to administer the poor locals better, think again. Too many years in the European Union have turned our civil servants into venal incompetents and our politicians into parasites sucking the lens, whilst the Army sees their soldiers and their achievements pissed on.

This is an interesting conjunction: counter-terrorist police are investigating possible electoral fraud in Southwark. Does this mean that one of the individuals under suspicion is linked to a terror plot? The article ends with an unsurprising conclusion:

A report into the investigation, carried out by the Metropolitan Police Authority,was published this week and says electoral fraud is particular-ly common in areas where English is a second language because voters often rely on other people to fill in forms for them.

Thirty investigations and counting...

Two Fronts: Arse About (New Labour saves) Face

The Independent reports that the British Army plans to hand over maysan province to the Iraqi security forces in January 2007 and halve the number of troops serving in Mesopotamia. Part of the strategy for completing this goal is a campaign of reconstruction, building schools and hospitals in Basra. This is part of the 'hearts and minds' brief that has worked for British troops in the past. Such a campaign relies upon defeating the enemy forces, with extreme violence, if necessary:

The decision to tackle the most peaceable areas of Basra first is designed to convince those in areas dominated by insurgents that the rebuilding programme is in their interest. Sources said that the next six months were crucial to the scheme's success.

If the nutters are not tackled and defeated, building schools becomes a short-term scuttle to give the insurgents target practice. By allowing the militias free rein in Basra, the government will point to a few photo-ops, bleat success, and then leave.

It is the hypocrisy with which the limited number of options that I dislike. Now, that the wheels have come off the government's 'two front' deployment, they are open to attack by the cash-starved armed forces, sick to death of being taken for granted. General Guthrie used an interview in The Observer to call the Affghanistan campaign "cuckoo". Whilst he defended Blair's actions, his contempt was aimed at the MOD apparatchiks who blithely waltzed without a consideration of Afghan history or Taleban resistance. When one remembers Reid's saying that not a shot would be fired....

"Anyone who thought this was going to be a picnic in Afghanistan - anyone who had read any history, anyone who knew the Afghans, or had seen the terrain, anyone who had thought about the Taliban resurgence, anyone who understood what was going on across the border in Baluchistan and Waziristan [should have known] - to launch the British army in with the numbers there are, while we're still going on in Iraq is cuckoo," Guthrie said.....

Guthrie said that civil servants and even some in the military were assuming that "Afghanistan and Iraq are something we're going to muddle through for another couple of years and then we'll be able to go back" to a period of relative calm.

"I don't see that happening," he told The Observer. "I think we're in an extremely volatile, dangerous world," he said. "It's no good governments saying we're going to keep out of these things. They don't always have the luxury of choice. The type of crisis is actually quite difficult to forecast. But sure enough, we are going to have crises. There is absolutely no reason to suppose that the world is going to settle down in the foreseeable future. We're not going to be allowed to graze in Elysian fields with the sun on our backs." 

The calls for re-armament are getting stronger. The period of the peace dividend has ended, cashed in by Blair's penchant for a muscular liberal foreign policy. Yet, Guthrie's attack on the Ministry of Defence finds two political targets: the unimpressive John Reid, whose ego is continully punctured by the travails of the Home Office and Des Browne, who reels before the anger of the Armed Forces, no longer able to hold on expenditure and suffers the Treasury's displeasure. 

Portrayal of the Iraqi Conflict as a Young Civil War

One occasionally comes across local websites that provide a picture at complete variance with that represented in the Western press. Given the fog that surrounds the analysis of Iraq, who is to say how accurate such pictures are?  This one is quite unique.

The first assumption of the writer is that Iraq actually entered a stage of civil war three weeks ago. Since the Bush and Blair administrations would never admit that Iraq is in a civil war, questions about how if or when it started will certainly exercise historians. The second is that the civil war is fought between a political axis, unrecognised by the West.

The insurgency in Iraq is portrayed as the struggle between the elites who have accommodated themselves to the invasion, and Sunni or Sadrite militias who view the United States as an occupation force and wish to throw then out. The insurgency is complicated by the participation of foreign jihadists and the subordination of Sunni or Ba'athist Arabism to a fundamentalist ideology. Yet, this website protrays a struggle between Iraqi nationalists (the Sadr brigades, Sunnis, and leftists) against Iranian backed Shias who wish to federalise and partition the country, providing space for Khomeinist influence in the south. The United States is a supporter of the partitionists.

Since all representations serve a political goal, we can view this narrative as an alternative, designed to switch Iraqi concerns away from the United States towards Iran. The United States, despite its presence in the country, is consigned to a subordinate role, whilst the main opponent of a unitary Iraqi state, is now designated as Iran.

In this context, Iran's ability three weeks ago, with US approval, to convince the Iraqi parliament to pass legislation authorizing an autonomous Shia state in southeastern Iraq, modeled after Kurdistan, turned out to be the event that launched all out civil war in Iraq.

Once this Iranian-US partition initiative became law, over the strong objections of Muqtada al-Sadr and his Sunni allies, Muqtada had two choices -- submit to the Iranian occupation forces (e.g. the Badr Brigades) and the US, and go under, or escalate against Iran.

As an Iraqi patriot, Muqtada al-Sadr chose to escalate against Iran, beginning in Amara. Up until now Muqtada as Sadr and the Badr Brigades agreed to share power in Amara. Now power sharing is on the way out, for good.

The conflicts within Iraq are recast in a nationalist mould; the revanchist insurgency re-presented as defenders, against the influence of interlopers who wish to destroy Iraq. The ultimate threats is given as the annexation of south-eastern Iraq and Basra by Iran.

Some of these threats are wildly exaggerated, and it is doubtful that the United States has co-operated with Iran to the extent that the author alleges. Notwithstanding the accusation, a certain level of co-operation will have taken place, in the interests of both parties.

This article is the product of the supporters of a unitary Iraq, and indicates that there is a wish that the religious divide was nullified in defence of an Iraqi 'nation'. Partition and dissolution are invoked as threats to support such a coalition, and Iran is elevated to the prime threat, instead of the United States. 

Is there a civil war? Perhaps. Can Iraqi forces be viewed through the prism of nationalists versus the Kurdish nation and the Shia autonomy. It is one factor within the kaleidoscope of political forces, and as the coalition re-examines its approach, arguments about the structural future of Iraq and the role of Baghdad are coming to the fore.

Anti-Semitism Cancels Europol Jolly

Who wouldn't you allow to participate in a parliamentary delegation to Israel? An MEP linked to far right anti-semitism and holocaust denial. That seems a fairly straightforward rule of thumb. Don't take such figures along as your hosts might get a trifle jumpy.

Welcome to the pomposity of the European Parliament, ther post-democrats who represent us. They decided to include Marine Le Pen in their ranks, and the Israelis thereupon refused to meet any of the delegation. The visit was promptly cancelled for "technical reasons", or, as one offical noted, "rather pointless".

The cancellation was not met with universal acclaim. Some think that a foreign power should not dictate the membership of a parliamentary delegation:

On the other hand, according to the official, there was concern on the parliament's side that a national government should not be allowed to dictate the composition of the group.

Others were miffed that they didn't go, as they thought had a contribution to make, and the Israelis shoudl have been willing to put the Holocaust behind them:

Speaking before Thursday's decision was announced, Irish centre-right MEP Simon Coveney, on the delegation list, told EUobserver that he believed the trip should go ahead.

"I don't think we should be cancelling the event … personally I am going because I am interested [in the issue]."

He added that any members of a parliament delegation have to remember that they are representing the views of the EU assembly and not their own personal view points.

The New "Downtime"

Every time that one sees a national test from soem country, publicising the results of telephone habits or driving skills or a variation on everyday life, one is appalled by the stupidity of some people an wearied by the universality of the phenomena. A case in point: The GMAC survey of drivers was published some time ago. Given their busy lifestyles, many drivers now view driving as "downtime" and catch up on other tasks.

Younger drivers aged 18-24 who are accustomed to always being "plugged in" have the most mentions for every distracting situation while driving:

Eat - 62%

Talk on a cell phone - 71%

Send text messages - 24%

Select songs on an iPod - 20%

Apply makeup - 8%

Change clothes - 8%

Read - 4%

Send e-mails - 1%

I am still nonplussed by how you can drive and read or change clothes. That takes multi-tasking to new heights.

BBC: Bias reveals Slow Suicide

Media Guardian has some further news on the meeting where the 'left-liberal' bias of the BBC was examined and accepted or refuted by various members of its senior staff. Now, the Media Guardian reveals that there is a great deal of dissatisfaction with the BBC from more conservative elements of the population.

Ann Davies said the research showed that many BBC licence fee payers felt "gagged and alone", and that mainstream opinion was being driven underground.

Contributors from Glasgow, Birmingham, Liverpool and London named among their heroes Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn, for telling it like it is, and Jamie Oliver, for making sacrifices to make a difference.

They were concerned about political correctness, "stranger danger", the "death of childhood", lack of respect in society, law and order, local poverty, debt and poor maternity care.

That must have been abhorrent to the assembled dignitaries: some of their viewers preferred Littlejohn or Garry Bushell to Andrew Marr or John Humphreys. Even worse was their unwillingness to distinguish between global and local concerns:

But respondents also felt comfortable saying they did not care about Aids or Africa - highlighting a gap between local and global concerns.

Richard Klein, BBC Commissioning Editor for documentaries, noted that any institution funded by taxpayers' money and supposed to represesent them, was untenable if it did not do so:

"By and large, people who work at the BBC think the same and it's not the way the audience thinks. That's not long-term sustainable," he added.

"We pride ourselves on being 'of the people', and it's pathetic ... Channel 4 tends to laugh at people, the BBC ignores them."

An institution, undermined by technology and bound by views increasingly at variance with the audience it is supposed to serve, may well be committing suicide.

Brown's Foxite Economy

It was clear to some of us from 1997 that the socialists would prove unable to preserve the fiscal and economic triumphs of the Thatcher years. It was like appointing a fox to watch over a chicken coop. Ruth Lea succinctly surveys the damage:

The Chancellor's record is nothing to be proud of. He inherited a golden legacy, and has squandered much of it. One thing is for sure. His successor's inheritance will not be golden. But he will have one thing in common with Mr Brown. He will not be writing a thank-you letter, either.