We are all anarchists now
The 193 governments that met at Copenhagen were unanimous about one proposition. And it’s a remarkable one – that whereas anarchy is a bad idea within national borders, it’s a good idea across borders.
The anarchist says: “We don’t need government. Private contractual agreements between individuals are sufficient.” No-one at Copenhagen agrees with this when they look within a national boundary. But they all agree with it, when it comes to supra-national matters. They think global government – in the sense of a coercive body standing above national governments – is inferior to agreements between national governments.
The failure to reach a meaningful agreement at Copenhagen, however, throws this view into question.
What I mean is that there are clear reasons why anarchy within borders is thought undesirable. If laws could only be reached by the unanimous agreement of all individuals, the rich and powerful would only consent to be bound by them on terms onerous to the poor.
continue reading… »
Climate change: back to basics
Thanks to the Copenhagen summit and the fall out from the CRU hack the subject of Climate Change here has been the subject of much discussion recently, not least here at LC.
A lot of this has centered on “climategate”, the battle between “deniers” and “believers”, or got bogged down in arguments about hockey sticks, computer models, the medieval warm period etc., but I think it is worth going back to the scientific arguments for AGW from first principles.
Much of this has been touched on before at LC and some of it may seem overly basic – but I believe it is worth going over again because it is important to keep sight of the basic scientific case for AGW and to point out that many of the disccussions I mentioned above have little or no impact on this basic science.
Human CO2 emissions
There has been an increase in the level of several GHGs in the atmosphere, the most significant being CO2 – which has increased from 280ppm to 385ppm. That this is due to human activity, largely the burning of fossil fuels, is not in doubt – CO2 from different sources contains different carbon isotopes and by analysing their relative presence it is possible to determine the source of the excess CO2 in the atmosphere. The notion that such an increase in CO2 levels as a result of the burning of fossil fuels would cause the earth’s climate to warm was first proposed in 1896 by Svante Arrhenius.
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The problem with ‘independent’ MPs
Ezra Klein has an excellent article at the Washington Post on what a hypocritical and mendacious Senator Joe Lieberman is, as he tries to gut healthcare reform.
The administration have bent over backwards to accommodate the two ‘independent’ (meaning conservative) Democratic Senators – Nelson and Liberman – and both aren’t giving an inch.
In contrast the Republicans are toeing a tight line, making sure not one Senator crosses over. The result? Obama is in deep shit. If healthcare reform fails then his administration will be labelled as a failure. And all because of one Senator who doesn’t want to give easy access to abortion (Nelson) and the other because he wants to see Democrats fail (Lieberman).
And that, in many ways, is why I have a problem with agreeing that allowing politicians plenty of independence is a good thing: you end up with an American system that can’t get much done at all unless discipline is imposed.
There’s a point of clarification here. I generally don’t have problems with independent MPs who attack to defend the base, as people like Howard Dean are doing.
I abhor independents who betray the people who turn out to campaign and vote for them and the party that represents a certain set of values.
Index on Censorship mag quarrel over Danish ‘toons
Index on Censorship magazine is mired in controversy again after a refusal by its board to publish the controversial Danish cartoons over an article.
The new edition of the magazine carries an interview with Jytte Klausen, a Danish academic at Brandeis University in the United States, about the decision by her publisher, Yale University Press, not to publish images of the racist caricatures themselves in her book.
Index on Censorship did not publish the cartoons during the original controversy four years ago.
This time its board overruled the editor Jo Glanville and refused to publish any cartoons with the interview.
According to chief executive John Kampfner:
The board met on 27 October. After a detailed discussion, it decided reluctantly to recommend that the images not be published. One member of the board, Kenan Malik, who was unable to attend the board meeting, subsequently took issue with the decision. In response, and in keeping with Index’s commitment to free expression, the chairman, Jonathan Dimbleby, and other trustees agreed to publish the reasons for their decision, and to publish Malik’s dissenting view alongside.
Index on Censorship’s chair Jonathan Dimbleby has put the the decision to overrule the editor down to security concerns.
The board’s main concern was both for individual members of the Index staff and those who worked for the seven other organisations which share our Free Word premises in Farringdon Road, and who would have been equally on the receiving end of any attack aimed at Index.
…
I consulted the Index editor and established that, in her view, publication of the cartoons — though very desirable — was not crucial to an interview which did not focus on the cartoons themselves but on the process by which Yale decided against their publication.Against that background, I consulted every colleague (including those who had not been able to attend the relevant board meeting). With the exception of two board members (one of whom was content to abide by the overwhelming majority view) my colleagues argued strongly against publication.
Writer and broadcaster Kenan Malik has argued against the decision, saying:
The safety of Index’s staff is, of course, hugely important. But where was the threat? Index certainly received none because no one knew that we were going to publish. Nor is there any reason to believe that there would have been danger had the cartoons not been pre-emptively censored.
Islamic scholar Reza Aslan, describing Yale’s original decision as “idiotic”, pointed out that he has “written and lectured extensively about the incident and shown the cartoons without any negative reaction”. And, as Jo Glanville, editor of Index on Censorship, observed in an article in the Guardian earlier this year critical of Random House, pre-emptive censorship often creates a “self-fulfilling prophecy”. In assuming that an “offensive” work will invite violence one both entrenches the idea that the work is offensive and helps create a culture that makes violence more likely.
The actual interview with Jytte Klausen is available to read here.
Index on Censorship has posted all the articles on its website.
Although one could argue that the magazine has a special duty not to shy away from self-censorship, should the decision solely be that of the management?
And is a threat from Muslims likely anyway since not a single British Muslim took part in a violent act over the original controversy?
Revealed: The AGW deniers behind Telegraph’s Hadley Centre smear
On Wednesday, The Telegraph’s in-house global warming denier, James Delingpole, published an article in which it was claimed that climate scientists working at the Hadley Centre for Climate Change, which is based at the headquarters of the Meteorological Office, near Exeter, had ‘probably tampered with Russian climate data’ under the headline:
‘Climategate goes SERIAL: now the Russians confirm that UK climate scientists manipulated data to exaggerate global warming’.
‘The Russians’, it turns out, did nothing of the sort and scientists working at the Hadley Centre are only tangentially related to the so-called ‘Climategate’ story, which relates to the hacking of a web-mail server at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit.
The source of Delingpole’s claims, which were reported uncritically by a number of Russian news agencies, is disclosed in the news release which he quotes in full in the article, before going on to provide links to articles by Steve MacIntyre (Climate Audit) and Jeff Id (posted at TV Weatherman Anthony Watts’ ‘Watts up with that’).
continue reading… »
Man arrested for returning gun goes free
Paul Clarke, the bloke gound guilty of firearms possession last month, will not be going to prison after all.
All the outraged nutjob bloggers and their commenters who went round saying that his conviction and fast-approaching five-year prison term were entirely reflective of Britain under ZanuLiebour will no doubt be blogging and commenting to say how wrong they were to jump to conclusions without first bothering to looks at any of the facts.
Yeah, I’m sure they will.
CCHQ in row with Tory bloggers over access
Tory-supporting bloggers have complained to the Conservative leadership that their failure to gain access to senior party figures is allowing the online Left to steal a march on them, Newstatesman.com has learned.
The private meeting on Tuesday, which took place over a lavish three course meal in the House of Commons including braised wild boar and bread and butter pudding, was hosted by the shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, the party chairman Eric Pickles, David Cameron’s advisor Henry Mcrory and their new media team of Rishi Saha, Sam Coates and Craig Ellder.
Around 30 bloggers were invited to the event, though the “big two” — Iain Dale and Tim Montgomerie — did not attend.
“The bloggers were critical of Tory web strategy, about not getting any support from CCHQ and no access to senior figures,” a source with access to the meeting said
…more at New Statesman blog by James Macintyre
Tory plans for personal tax breaks are regressive
contribution by Thomas Byrne
Recently outlined proposals by Tories to allow women who do not work to transfer their personal tax allowance to their husband are extremely flawed.
I agree with the principle being put forward by Iain Duncan Smith, but the means are wrong. Marriage tax breaks are much more important for the poor, yet this policy benefits the rich. And instead of changing tax boundaries, it’s tinkering with a system of complex allowances.
It is unlikely that people who can’t afford accountants will even know about this, let alone know how to transfer their personal allowance across.
Lets work out the maximum saving. This will be where one partner earns just under £50k and the other doesn’t work. Its £2414.
continue reading… »
UKIP: snowfall = climate change unlikely, party on!
The UK Independence Party is hosting a ‘Climate Change Beach Party’, implying that the snow-fall means climate change isn’t happening.
The event page on Facebook states:
If you are in Norwich today then come along to the UKIP Climate Change Beach Barbecue outside the University of East Anglia’s Climate Change Unit.
A celebration of deep, crisp and even snow, at a time when the Global Warming Lobby would have us believe the days of cold winter weather were over.
Eastern Counties MEP Stuart Agnew has his tractors on standby if the snow makes conditions impassable.
The Global Warming Lobby, of which we are clearly part of, is quivering with fear.
A survey by the Lay Science blog a few months ago found that Up to a Quarter of British MEPs were in denial over climate change
On a related note, Left Foot Forward today publishes: 100 reasons why “vote blue, go green” won’t work
The Daily Express guide to cutting taxes
It is, without doubt, the shock headline of the week.
BENEFITS COST FAMILIES £20 A WEEK
MINISTERS faced fury last night after it was revealed Labour’s welfare benefits bonanza costs the average working household almost £1,000 a year or £20 a week.
The soaring bill to fund Britain’s army of jobless has cost the country more than £28billion for every year under Labour.
This was in the Daily Express, so it must be true and £20 a week –
- fuck me, that’s the price of a meal for a hardworking family of four at the Pizza Hut lunchtime buffet.
So naturally we had to find out just exactly who these thieving bastards are and what’s makes them think they can get away with taking the pizza bread out of the mouths of Britain’s decent hardworking families.
Oh, if only Diana -peace be upon her… oh shit, that’s what the Muslims say, isn’t it? Fuck!!! – were still alive, these bastards wouldn’t stand a chance of getting away with it. continue reading… »
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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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