Net Zero Illustrated

 

Old Jabber

‘By Jove! an excellent idea. Here's one of the free and independent electors of G--writes to ask what my views are on the subject of compulsory vaccination. Do pen a reply and I'll sign it.’

‘But what am I to say?’

‘The ghost of Jenner alone knows…’

George Gissing - A Life's Morning (1888)


The first speaker is a wealthy young Conservative MP. A principled man, but willing enough to admit that he has no genuine interest in people below him in the social hierarchy.

Boris forgot coercion and informers

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson dismissed the idea of a sweeping vaccine mandate like the one President Joe Biden announced two weeks ago, adding that Britons are 'great lovers of liberty' in an interview on Tuesday.

Johnson suggested Biden might be better off using 'sweet reason and persuasion' to convince people to get a COVID shot.

Speaking to NBC's Savannah Guthrie in New York City amid the United Nations General Assembly, the UK leader was asked whether Biden's unprecedented order would narrow the gap between Americans' vaccination rate and that of Brits'.

Where do we start? The dishonesty is so brazen, it isn't easy to go beyond a shake of the head but unfortunately he seems to understand the electorate. There was no serious opposition to his coronavirus police state.

Deaf to moral discords

For Christianity, in its essence and origin, was an urgent summons to repent and come out of just such a worldly life as modern liberty and progress hold up as an ideal to the nations. In the Roman empire, as in the promised land of liberalism, each man sought to get and to enjoy as much as he could, and supported a ponderous government neutral as to religion and moral traditions, but favourable to the accumulation of riches; so that a certain enlightenment and cosmopolitanism were made possible, and private passions and tastes could be gratified without encountering persecution or public obloquy, though not without a general relaxation of society and a vulgarising of arts and manners.

That something so self-indulgent and worldly as this ideal of liberalism could have been thought compatible with Christianity, the first initiation into which, in baptism, involves renouncing the world, might well astonish us, had we not been rendered deaf to moral discords by the very din which from our birth they have been making in our ears.

George Santayana - Winds Of Doctrine Studies in Contemporary Opinion (1913)

We certainly have a ponderous government neutral as to religion and moral traditions - and the din is a good deal louder now. The tone is changing too. There are shrill sounds of outrage that things are not going well for the world of indoor fantasy.

Presumably they all cycled to New York

Rich countries must do more to help developing nations cut carbon emissions, Boris Johnson will tell other world leaders at a high-level gathering in New York.

The prime minister will be hosting the meeting on climate change with UN secretary general Antonio Guterres.

It is understood Mr Johnson is likely to focus on coal, cash support, cars and trees, which soak up carbon dioxide.

The prime minister is also expected to discuss global warming with US President Joe Biden in a meeting at the White House in Washington.

Presumably they all cycled to New York...

 

But of course they didn't, they were wafted there in luxury and security via the essential agency of fossil fuels. Oh well - it would be interesting to listen to Boris having a discussion on global warming with Joe Biden. Interesting in a ghoulish sense.

Two Deliveries

1. Placed an Amazon order yesterday for delivery today. This morning our account showed us the times for our delivery slot. The package has just arrived within the delivery slot. The delivery van drove off and seconds later an Amazon email arrived telling us the parcel has been delivered.

2. Placed a medical supplies order yesterday for delivery who knows when because the GP surgery is involved. Off the shelf items but delivery likely to be about three weeks as usual. That's my estimate - they don't have one. There will be no time slot and no email telling me the package has been delivered.

The real problem - why is she there?

Living, and having ever lived, amid idealisms, she was too subjective in her interpretation of phenomena so new to her. 

George Gissing - A Life's Morning (1888)

In Angela Rayner's case that would be phenomena provided by reality such as human reproductive biology. That's certainly one she should have grasped, but apparently not -

Angela Rayner has “doubled down on her support for trans people”, according to the perennial drongos over at journalism parody PinkNews. This afternoon, Ms Rayner — presumably taking a break from her day job as an MP to work within Labour’s burgeoning side-hustle as “Demolition Experts (Red Walls Only)” — retweeted the article with the inane addendum:

Solidarity with my trans brothers and sisters today and always. The Labour Party is absolutely committed to advancing trans rights and updating the GRA to introduce self-declaration for trans people and upholding the Equality Act. Your fight is our fight.

Quite.

To criticise people such as Angela Rayner may be necessary, but the real problem is why she is in a position to warrant it. Should she really have the opportunity to be preposterous in a position where it matters?