Is the BBC buying into global-warming denialism?
BBC Online published an article on Friday titled, What happened to global warming?, which has already been picked up by esteemed scientists such as the Drudge Report, the Telegraph’s Damian Thompson and Benedict Brogan. The Spectator won’t be far behind I bet.
The BBC’s Paul Hudson does that classic media trick of pretending there are two equally valid sides to a debate and confusing readers further. In fact it’s so lame that even a lay person such as myself can easily take it apart.
The central thesis to the article is that global temperatures have fallen recently, atmospherically and in the oceans (which absorb most of the heat), therefore the denialists must have a point!
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Widespread call for ‘Citizens Convention’
A letter is published in the Guardian today, calling for a new Citizens’ Convention to debate and push through political change.
Text of the letter
MPs returning to Parliament this week might like to think that the fury they faced earlier in the year due to the expenses scandal is now behind them. Yet the storm was as great as it was because of an underlying sense of alienation that has been developing for years.
Some of the ideas which emerged during the conference season aimed at closing this gulf between the political class and the public have been positive contributions, but none of them amount to the sort of fundamental change which we now desperately need. In particular, while Gordon Brown’s support for holding a referendum on electoral reform is a welcome shift, the promise of a vote on an electoral system hand picked by the Prime Minister will be greeted by much cynicism.
The UK needs an independent citizens’ convention to ensure that such decisions cannot be skewed by political self-interest. It is too late to complete such a convention before the general election, but it could be legislated for and begin its work in a matter of weeks. Its work could then progress regardless of which party goes on to form the next government.
We therefore urge the Prime Minister to ease the passage of the Citizens’ Convention (Accountability and Ethics) Bill through Parliament. By establishing this process Gordon Brown signal a commitment to democratic reform in a way that no amount of manifesto commitments and pledges could achieve.
Signed by,
Peter Facey, Unlock Democracy
Caroline Lucas MEP, Green Party
Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner
Claire Rayner
Tony Robinson
Sunder Katwala, Fabian Society (personal capacity)
Neal Lawson, Compass
Jessica Asato, Progress
Carey Oppenheim, IPPR
Simon Woolley, Operation Black Vote
Pam Giddy, Power2010
Anthony Barnett, Open Democracy
David Babbs, 38 Degrees
Elaine Bagshaw, Liberal Youth
Ron Bailey, Local Works
Jonathan Bartley, Ekklesia
Tamasin Cave, Spinwatch
Peter Emerson, De Borda Institute
Nina Fishman
James Graham, Social Liberal Forum
Alex Hilton, LabourHome
Sunny Hundal, Liberal Conspiracy
David Miller, Spinwatch
Vicky Seddon, Unlock Democracy
Nan Sloane, Centre for Women in Democracy
Alex Smith, LabourList
Graham Smith, Republic
Stephen Tall, Lib Dem Voice
Samuel Tarry, Young Labour
Perry Walker, New Economics Foundation
Stuart Weir, Democratic Audit
Stuart White
Stuart Wilks-Heeg, Democratic Audit
Boris ‘bought off’ by hedge funds
Boris Johnson, who is leading the fight against a European crackdown on City financiers, faced accusations of being “bought off” today, when it emerged that more than half the money donated to his mayoral campaign came from the financial sector including hedge funds and private equity.
Johnson has criticised the EU’s so-called “hedge fund directive,” draft rules published in the spring which would limit debt levels for alternative investment managers, such as hedge funds, and force them to be more transparent.
The London mayor travelled to Brussels last month to make the case in person to EU internal markets commissioner Charlie McCreevy, and raised the issue again in his speech to the Conservative party conference in Manchester last week.
But research by the Party of European Socialists (PES), which is supporting tougher regulation, shows that Johnson received £324,000 from City grandees between September 2007, when he was endorsed as the Conservative party’s candidate, and March 2008 when the mayoral race kicked off. That was more than half of the total £584,701 in donations he received – and 77% of the total campaign spending he was allowed by law.
Investors complain about insufficient corruption
The couple of times I’ve ventured on to LibCon turf to have a rant about international credit rating agencies, I’ve been told I had no idea what I was on about, what with not working in financial markets, and then that I am a nutjob conspiracy theorist who think the world’s controlled by white cat-stroking evil dudes.
To be fair to the second commenter (Giles), it was very funny and he has since softened his line commendably. He now suggests that, while I may not be a total nutjob, I’m wrong to see what the credit rating agencies have been up to as a systematic abuse of power, rather than occasional rank incompetence.
Since those little contretemps, the US House Committee on Oversight and Government reform has been investigating what the credit rating agencies have been getting up to for the last 70-odd years, and has discovered that for the last thirty five years of those they have been tailoring their credit ratings so as to maximize income from the very people whose financial products they are rating. (backstory here)
That is, they have been acting corruptly.
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How David Cameron will help Tracy Towerblocks
Could Polly Toynbee secretly be moonlighting as David Cameron’s speechwriter these days? Or maybe the Conservative Party leader had a quick butcher’s at the latest edition of Socialist Worker prior to mounting the podium in Manchester last week?
I only ask because, as a socialist, I hate having to agree with even one sentence any top Tory ever utters. It makes me feel … dirty, and not in a good way. Trouble is, it was hard to argue against some of the soundbites on offer on Thursday.
Excuse me? Who made the poorest poorer? Who left youth unemployment higher? Who made inequality greater? No, not the wicked Tories … you, Labour: you’re the ones who did this to our society.
Well, up to a point. The Tories are no slouches themselves at making the poorest poorer and presiding over three million long dole queues. Anyone who was around the 1980s will recall that Thatcherism did not exactly work wonders for the UK Gini Coefficient. But yeah, Cameron has New Labour bang to rights. Cheeky little so and so.
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Obama speaks out on gay rights
There’s been a surge in the number of articles slamming Barack Obama for his allegedly disappointing record on progressive causes in recent weeks. Only a few days ago, Mehdi Hasan wrote in the New Statesman that:
The distance between Obama and Bush on a host of policies is not as great as many people might hope or have expected – and it appears to get narrower by the day. [...] It was inevitable that even the slightest sense of continuity in policy, personnel or practice would disappoint, as it has. Obama, however, has gone further, adopting his predecessor’s positions on a wide variety of issues, from the parochially domestic to the grandly geopolitical.
Although such attacks fit in comfortably with the Left’s long history of sado-masochism, they’re also remarkably ingenerous.
When Obama spoke last night at the Human Rights Campaign he reminded us of the abyss between his administration and his predecessor’s.
Remember that only four years ago, George W Bush was publicly stating that “marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society”.
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The Miseducation of Michael Gove
I suppose there’s a difference between the harmless conference season patter shadow education secretary Michael Gove practices now, and the more mundane – but massively consequential – steps he’ll take as Secretary of State.
On arriving at the DCSF, he’ll hopefully be informed that most schools do, in fact, have school uniforms, that classes are often set by ability and that for all the horrid neglect of Winston Churchill in history lessons, kids are at least not being taught that WWII was won single-handedly by a smilin’ Joe Stalin.
Take this list of topics Gove wants kids to be taught in history lessons. All our Greatest Brit hits are on there: the Roman invasion, 1066, the Bill of Rights, the Napoleonic Wars, the Great Reform Act, both world wars (with particular emphasis on the awesomeness of a former Tory PM!) and something rather vaguely called “Modern history to the present”.
Now, there’s nothing at all wrong with having knowledge about these or any other areas of British (or even – gasp! – non-British) history, and it’d come in extremely handy if your son or daughter ever wanted to work in a museum or on Time Team. However, the emphasis here is on what is taught, when it should really be about what is learnt.
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Demos: ‘Tories must pass progressive test’
Think-tank Demos has outlined 12 ‘tests’ that it thinks an incoming Conservative government should pass, “if it is to be judged truly progressive after two years in power”.
The ‘Twelve Tests for 2012′ are:
1. Keep Inheritance Tax
In 2007 George Osborne was credited with reviving Conservative fortunes when he announced that he would lift the threshold for Inheritance Tax liability. Inheritance tax affects only Britain’s richest. It recycles cash through the economy and prevents the entrenchment of enormous privilege. Osborne has already backed away from implementing the pledge – pragmatism intervening – he should now bite the bullet and admit that this policy is not only untenable but regressive.
2. Expand pupil premiums
Conservative policy on education will only be truly progressive if they follow through on their pledge to introduce a premium on school funding for Britain’s most disadvantaged children. If this is not done, and done effectively, then greater freedom and choice could entrench inequalities as more affluent and educated parents succeed in dominating good schools. Early evidence shows that an additional premium of around £2,500 per annum could help to promote more equitable admissions policies from schools and be adequate investment to help poorer children succeed. The Conservative Party must ensure that a premium is built in at the start of any educational reform.
3. Toll all motorways
The Conservative Party must take the climate-change bull by the horns. Toll roads – such as the M6 toll – have been successful at clearing congestion but we still need to discourage multiple car-use on Britain’s motorways. All motorways should be tolled, with the money ring-fenced to be used for environmental investment such as renewable energy. Cars that are ‘smart’ and environmentally friendly would be exempt, as they are under the congestion charge in London.
4. Invest in childcare
For this reason, David Cameron should extend the childcare provision for poor families, from 15 hours a week (from 2010) to 20. Under the Tax Credit childcare support families are currently only able to claim if they work 16 hours a week – and then they are only eligible for 15 hours (from 2010 again). A progressive government should make the correlation between hours worked and childcare provision exact so that poor families are given the same number of hours in childcare as the hours that they work. In doing so he can help to alleviate the pressure on poor families and help to encourage a culture of work amongst parents to counter the devastating legacy of workless families.
5. Lower the voting age to sixteen
Cameron often compares himself to Disraeli and endorses his predecessor’s ‘one nation’ Toryism. Just as Disraeli extended the franchise during his premiership, aware that democracy was being undermined by the voicelessness of sections of the population, so should Cameron. Sixteen year olds can get married, have sex, drive scooters and be taxed – but they can’t vote. The Conservative party should grab the real electoral reform issue and extend the franchise to sixteen year olds.
6. Replace A-levels with the IB
The A-level ‘brand’ has been contaminated. Every year concerns are raised about their value, the quality of assessment and the ‘dumbing down’ of content. Meanwhile, in many elite private schools and for children in countries across the world, students are being given a leg-up over ordinary British sixth-formers in the form of the International Baccalaureate. A progressive Government should extend the International Baccalaureate to all sixth-form students, abolishing A-levels.
7. Pledge support for Turkey’s accession to the EU
The progressive benefits – for Turkey and for the EU – are substantial. Not only would it send a clear message to the Muslim world, that Europe is not anti-Islam, but it would extend the benefits of EU membership to poorer countries. The democratic, human rights and economic reforms that would be necessary for Turkey to join would be transformative for Turkey and for the Turkish people – Cameron should, by 2012, have made his support clear.
8. Publish all public spending online
Cameron’s Conservatives talk excitedly about the potential to use new technologies to engage the public in scrutinizing the work of Government. They must make a commitment to this by providing the information to for powerful citizens to make informed choices.
9. Abolish child benefit for families earning over £50k
In order to be really progressive in an era of austerity the Conservative Party will have to overcome their innate squeamishness about means testing. To be progressive the Conservative Party must end universal benefits, starting with Child Benefit; it is unreasonable to continue paying wealthy people to raise their kids.
10. Capitalise housing benefit
A Conservative government should allow people to capitalise their housing benefit so that they can purchase a stake in their home. At the moment Housing Benefit is dead money for the state. By allowing those who wish to build their way to ownership to use money they are already entitled to, progressive conservatives can help to end the culture of dependency that dominates poor communities.
11. Elect police commissioners
The disconnect between the police service and public control is vast – police forces are not able to respond to the priorities of their communities and people feel that they have no influence on how their police force spend their resources. Communities should, therefore, be able to elect their police commissioners. By 2012 the Conservative government should have reformed police governing structures to make this possible.
12. Abandon marriage tax policy
This policy is aimed at those who are already likely to marry; it does nothing to encourage more social maturity or long-term partnerships in the parts of society where marriage is no longer an aspiration. Secondly, it pre-supposes the benefits of a particular lifestyle choice without articulating why we prefer it. The evidence doesn’t say that married people are better parents, better neighbours or better people.
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via a press release
Tory attempts to protect Kaminski keep failing
Sunny adds: In the Observer today, whitehall editor Toby Helm and foreign secretary David Miliband let rip into the Tories over their EU allies. Wonder how long the Tories will keep defending them.
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This month’s Total Politics magazine has an “exclusive” interview with Polish MEP Michal Kaminski. Mr Kaminski has been offering a lot of ‘exclusive’ interviews lately in order to clear his name. Unfortunately for him these keep raising more questions than they answer.
Writing in the Jewish Chronicle, Martin Bright says, Kaminski’s opinions should ring loud alarm bells. The Fabian’s Sunder Katwala states out that, “not all of Kaminski’s [recent] statements seem to stand up well to scrutiny”, and offers four questions that Kaminiski would do well to clear up if he is to avoid further scrutiny. The former Tory MEP Edward McMillan-Scott has also offered several inconsistencies in what Kaminski has recently said.
Put that aside in this case. Also bat aside the spectacle of Mr Dale letting Kaminski get away with opposing gay adoption without offering any concrete reason other than stating he’s not homophobic but opposes it anyway. Iain Dale has been conspicuously silent on Soho Politico’s investigation on their ally from Lithuania.
Let’s focus instead on the politics of Europe.
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Are all libertarians this childish?
When you were a child, the world revolved around you. All that mattered was your meals and your toys and, if you were lucky, you had a galaxy of benign grown ups to bring them to you.
For the first few years of our life we’re all convinced of this simplistic worldview, until, sometime around the age of four, we start getting to grips with the idea that other people have desires and ambitions that are different to, but just as valid as, our own.
Unless, that is, you’re a libertarian.
Last weekend my work took me to Manchester for the Tory conference. There I spent a slightly worrying hour in the ‘freedom zone‘, a fringe venue where those who felt the Conservative party had become too namby-pamby and left-wing had set up camp.
The theme of the meeting was ‘the bully state’, and the panel included Roger Helmer, the MEP for East Midlands. Mr Helmer made a gallant defence of his rights to get pissed, stuff his face, pollute his lungs, and ruin the atmosphere by driving as fast as he likes in a great gas-guzzling monstrosity. People were sick of being told how to live, he said. The state should butt out.
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» Even by economic standards Hester’s £1m bonus is unworthy
» Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote
» Would raising the tax threshold actually help the poorest?
» To win London, Ken Livingstone has to step outside his comfort zone
» This trade agreement with India will destroy thousands of lives
» UK debt hasn’t hit £1 trillion – mostly because of QE
» The benefits of being a “burden” on society
» Today’s economic figures will simply confirm UK’s “lost decade”
» Have Labour realised the election is more than three years away?
» Violence in the office
» Want a more responsible capitalism? Reform how pensions work
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