Multi-hazard event

Met Office warns of 'multi-hazard' weather event this week as Storm Goretti named

Weather forecasters have issued a warning about a 'multi-hazard' event hitting the UK this week. And a new storm has also been named.

The Met Office says the current cold snap will continue before a deep area of low pressure threatens to bring further snow, strong winds and heavy rain to southern parts of the UK from Thursday night. Meteo France has named the low Storm Goretti, as the worst of the wind impacts are expected to be felt across northern France.


Infantilising everything, even the weather, isn't likely to end well. Pseudo-technical language which isn't technical and barely counts as language because it's a language-game fronting an agenda, that doesn't help either.

AI Blog Clicks

 

As some may have noticed from the left-hand panel, AI systems seem to be scanning some of my old blog posts, thereby giving a hefty boost to the apparent reader stats.

I don't know if AI systems find the posts particularly interesting as they don't leave any comments. Probably just as well.

Two Headlines

German media faces political censorship under EU-driven legislation

German newsrooms and tech companies may soon face searches and material seizures without a judicial warrant under a new draft law approved by the federal cabinet.

The news has raised alarm over an EU-driven expansion of state oversight of the media in Germany...

The draft law seeks to transpose EU rules on political advertising into German national law in what has been called a strict and intrusive form.

Legal experts warn it poses a serious threat to freedom of expression, largely because it relies on EU regulations which define “political advertising” broadly and vaguely.

Starmer prepares Brexit 'reset' bill to align UK with EU law

Sir Keir Starmer is preparing a bill which would hand ministers powers to bring the UK into alignment with EU law, as part of an attempt to reduce paperwork and boost growth in Britain.

The bill, which will be brought forward this year as part of the government’s Brexit reset, would give ministers overarching powers to bring the UK in line with EU law in certain areas, such as food standards, animal welfare and pesticide use – a process known as dynamic alignment.

It's not a high bar

Leading AI expert delays timeline for its possible destruction of humanity

A leading artificial intelligence expert has rolled back his timeline for AI doom, saying it will take longer than he initially predicted for AI systems to be able to code autonomously and thus speed their own development toward superintelligence.

Daniel Kokotajlo, a former employee of OpenAI, sparked an energetic debate in April by releasing AI 2027, a scenario that envisions unchecked AI development leading to the creation of a superintelligence, which – after outfoxing world leaders – destroys humanity.


As we've always had to cope with major acts of human destruction, it may not be a high bar for AI to achieve. 

Constant official harassment over environmental issues for example, what level of destruction is this likely to bring? Will AI make it far worse than anything the Greens can achieve alone?

 

My experience as PM

‘My experience as PM is of frustration at a whole bunch of regulations, consultations and ALBs’

After about a year and a half in the country’s top job, Keir Starmer has told a committee of MPs about the biggest operational challenges he has so far encountered

“My experience now as prime minister is of frustration that every time I go to pull a lever there are a whole bunch of regulations, consultations, arm’s-length bodies that mean that the action from pulling the lever to delivery is longer than I think it ought to be, which is among the reasons why I want to cut down on regulation, generally and within government,” he added.


Presumably the EU doesn't count as a conglomeration of "arm's-length bodies". Maybe the length of the arms makes a difference - many kilometres long in the case of the EU.

Labour’s best hope

Burnham 'is Labour’s best hope of keeping Farage out of No10'

Andy Burnham represents Labour’s best hope of keeping Nigel Farage out of No 10, Britain’s leading pollster has warned, as well as asserting that Sir Keir Starmer “doesn’t have the skill set for Downing Street”.

In a scathing assessment, Professor Sir John Curtice accused the prime minister of not having a vision for the country and said he does not believe Sir Keir can “learn to be a politician” in the new year...

To an outsider, this seems rather basic, the idea that a politician should learn to be a politician before becoming a politician. It's almost as if the other Labour politicians didn't notice that this politician has no idea how to do politics before they promoted him to Top Politician. Only then did they find out - must have been quite a surprise.   

Meanwhile we have some alternatives. For example -

Turning to Ms Rayner, who is a popular choice on the left of the party and has been tipped for a cabinet return, he raised questions over whether she could face similar problems to Sir Keir...

“Could Rayner craft a vision? And does she have the skill set for 10 Downing Street? We know Starmer doesn’t, but does she?”


Does Sir John mean this kind of craft?

 

Starmer vows to resist

Starmer vows to resist leadership challenges

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to fight any coup launched against his leadership this year and intends to still be Prime Minister come 2027.

In an interview with the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Sir Keir argued that switching leaders would be a “gift” to Nigel Farage and was against the “national interest”...

At another point he said bringing about political “chaos” by changing leader “would gift Nigel Farage”, the Reform leader whose party has been top in opinion polls since April.


Something Keir Starmer seems unable to grasp is the placing of emphasis. As F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote nearly a century ago, emphasis moulds the confusion of life and this includes the confusion of politics.

My mind, brightened by the lights and the cheerful tumult, suddenly grasped the fact that all achievement was a placing of emphasis — a molding of the confusion of life into form.

F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Bowl (1928)


Instead of using emphasis to mould debates and narratives, Stamer adds to confusion by his reliance on dull clichés and sound bites. He never seems to know where to put the emphasis to mould an interview, debate or even a speech. As if even in his own mind he emphasises the wrong things in the wrong way.