Rocks with drawings

9,000-year-old rock sketches proves early humans knew all about dinosaurs

Researchers made an extraordinary discovery of 9,000-year-old rocks with drawings etched into them, positioned next to footprints believed to belong to dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period around 66 million years ago.

The drawings, known as petroglyphs, were found in the agricultural site Serrote do Letreiro in Paraíba, Eastern Brazil.


Okay it's the Indy, so not to be taken too seriously on any subject without checking sources. Those petroglyphs clearly mean something like -

Need bigger spears.

Or

You catch it, I'll cook it.

Not an ultra-rare Grauniad piece though

Vote on assisted dying summons ultra-rare Commons sight: intelligent debate

The emotion on display during five hours of heated discussion speaks to the complexity and importance of the bill itself

This was the Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater’s bill so she got to talk first. Horror stories of people dying agonising deaths – deaths that no one would wish on their worst enemies. Jennie the guide dog snoozed in an aisle. Her dreams untroubled. She knew that when the time comes, her end will be painless and swift. Even if not of her conscious choosing.

Although there are good arguments on both sides, it's not a complex issue, the main point for each side may be stated in a single paragraph. However it is an opportunity to air a cascade of emotional anecdotes and imaginary scenarios. Political actors and comfort-zone media such as the Grauniad love all that. 

The independent Adnan Hussain thought we had already started assisted dying by removing the winter fuel allowance. For the only time in the debate, cries of “shame” were heard.

Of course they cried "shame" - what a spoilsport.

The shock of contemplating a totalitarian Britain

Dr Campbell Campbell-Jack has a timely TCW piece on the decline of free speech in Britain.


Surveillance Britain and the war on free speech

MANY of the great anti-totalitarian novels of our times have been written by British writers and set in the United Kingdom. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World stand out on any list. Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange deserves mention, as do Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey and the graphic novel V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. We can all make our own lists, but the real question is: Why do so many dystopian and anti-totalitarian novels come out of the UK, a liberal democracy?

It is possibly because Britain has been a liberal democracy and the shock of contemplating a totalitarian Britain has greater impact than if the novel was set in one of our continental neighbours who have experienced actual and terrifying totalitarianism. Curbs on free speech and the restriction of public expression of political and social opinions would seem especially horrific if they happened in staid, cosy old Britain; we don’t do that sort of thing here. Or do we?


The whole piece is well worth reading, even if it is a reminder of what we already know, such as this paragraph -  

The last Conservative government set in motion legislation under which universities, colleges and student unions could be sanctioned for failing to protect freedom of speech. A mere fortnight after coming into power and a week before it was due to come into effect the Labour government, without any parliamentary debate, paused this legislation which protected academic freedom. The priorities of the Starmer government are clear.


Say it while you still can seems to be the message. The situation won't improve under Labour, with or without the odious Starmer.

Money For Nothing

 

When more means worse

Bernard Levin once wrote a piece in The Times about the expansion of university education and how more students would lead to lower standards. 

It seemed obvious enough at the time, but even Levin probably didn’t foresee what form a lowering of standards could take. He assumed quite reasonably, that a university degree would have to become easier, with less to learn, fewer complexities to absorb and so on.

Perhaps this is what has happened, yet we have seen another mechanism for lowering standards - frame everything within what we now call woke ideology. Make the right answer into the morally, socially, egalitarian, non-racist right answer. Frame everything within this easily learned political context.

A familiar consequence is that we have ended up with subjects from science to history to English to art encased in a varying but apparently widespread woke framework of climate change, sustainability, equality, decolonisation and identity politics. Everything linked by single, simple egalitarian framework.

This seems to be one of the ways by which Levin’s lower standards are now being achieved, a simplifying narrative framework suited to all subjects in and beyond formal education. It seems to be why an obvious fool such as Ed Miliband feels competent enough to pontificate about climate change. His version is easy to learn, easy to apply, and useful for life beyond the restrictions of veracity.

Not at all horrifying prediction

Warning as scientists make horrifying prediction as 30m people could die of brutal cause

A group of scientists have raised an alarm about how the climate change is going to take lives of 30m people by 2100.

Dr Andrea Pozzer, group leader, said: "In 2000, around 1.6 million people died each year due to extreme temperatures, both cold and heat. By the end of the century, in the most probable scenario, this figure climbs to 10.8 million, roughly a seven-fold increase.

"For air pollution, annual deaths in 2000 were about 4.1 million. By the century's close, this number rises to 19.5 million, a five-fold increase."


Embarrassingly obvious questions -

How many people will check these predictions in 2100?

How many of those who made the prediction will still be in a position to defend them after 76 years?

Embarrassingly obvious responses -

Where do they find these people?

Is it coffee time yet?

When science is irrelevant

A few days ago, Richard Lindzen published an American Mind piece on the political movement we know as climate change.


Manufacturing Consensus on Climate Change

How a political movement invented its own scientific basis.

Modern political movements have not infrequently laid claim to being based in science, from immigration restriction and eugenics (in the U.S. after WWI), to antisemitism and race ideology (in Hitler’s Germany), to Communism and Lysenkoism (under Stalin). Each of these falsely invoked a scientific consensus that convinced highly educated citizens, who were nonetheless ignorant of science, to set aside the anxieties associated with their ignorance. Since all scientists supposedly agreed, there was no need for them to understand the science.

Of course, this version of “the science” is the opposite of science itself. Science is a mode of inquiry rather than a source of authority. However, the success that science achieves has earned it a measure of authority in the public’s mind. This is what politicians frequently envy and exploit.

The climate panic fits into this same pattern and, as in all the preceding cases, science is in fact irrelevant. At best, it is a distraction which has led many of us to focus on the numerous misrepresentations of science entailed in what was purely a political movement.


The whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder that the climate change movement is as Lindzen says, a purely political movement. Those who do not understand the science have no great need to understand it, there are many other clues to the nature of the beast -


Of course, the attraction of power is not the only thing motivating politicians. The ability to award trillions of dollars to reorient our energy sector means that there are recipients of these trillions of dollars. These recipients must share just a few percentage points of these trillions of dollars to support the campaigns of these politicians for many election cycles and guarantee the support of these politicians for the policies associated with the reorientation.

Eyesight dulling weather

Met Office issues urgent 10-hour yellow warning for fog - 'avoid travel'

Drivers are being warned of difficult driving conditions overnight and for rush-hour in the morning (Thursday) as the Met Office issue multiple yellow warnings for fog.

The autumnal weather phenomenon is blanketing vast areas of the country overnight from Belfast to Berkshire, and covering parts of Wales, Northern Ireland and England.

In all yellow warnings for the eyesight dulling weather have been issued for six regions of the UK.


Eyesight dulling weather eh? An urgent warning too. I look back fondly on those long-gone days when urgent wasn't the normal state of affairs. May as well go along with it now urgent means nothing much, although it does seem to mean "I don't want to be fobbed off" when phoning the GP.

The Met Office could push the urgent button a little harder by giving names to this new eyesight dulling phenomenon. It's probably caused by climate change so we urgently need to ban something like open fires in case pensioners don't freeze in winter.

We recently had storm Bert so why not press on urgently, begin with the first letter of the alphabet and call this one Fog Angela?

Get involved with AI says Starmer

Starmer encourages young people to get involved in AI ‘revolution’

The Prime Minister has encouraged young people to get involved with AI, saying the world is in the “foothills of a revolution”.

I wonder if he means this kind of involvement -

The possibilities are endless

EU to focus on ‘decarbonisation’ to become competitive with US, China

The European Union will focus on the “decarbonisation” of its economy in an effort to make itself competitive with the US and China, the bloc’s top civil servant European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said.

“We are roughly as good as the US at creating start-ups. But when it comes to scale-ups, we are doing much worse than our competitors,” she claimed.

“A start-up from California can expand and raise money all across the United States. But a start-up in Europe has to deal with 27 different national barriers. We need to make it easier to grow in Europe.”

Von der Leyen said her decision to appoint a new Commissioner for Start-Ups, Research and Innovation was evidence that the bloc would soon make progress on the issue.

The word 'evidence' in the last quoted sentence has entertainment value all of its own, apart from the overall fantasy. Why not appoint a new Commissioner for Doing Better Than the US and China? That would be evidence of something too.

The possibilities are endless. A new Commissioner for Doing Nothing Proposed by Ursula von der Leyen for example.

Nemesis casts her cold eye on the Great Leap Backwards

Labour poised to water down electric car rules amid crisis in industry

Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, on Tuesday night confirmed a review of the Government’s zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate after warnings from carmakers that the rules were putting the industry’s future at risk.

Mr Reynolds told bosses at an industry dinner on Tuesday that the Government will announce a fast-track consultation on changes to its ZEV mandate, which requires an ever-greater percentage of manufacturers’ sales to be electric over the next six years.

He said: “We are absolutely committed to our manifesto commitment of a 2030 phase-out for new cars powered solely by internal combustion engines. We are not changing our level of ambition for the transition, and there will be no repeat of the uncertainty generated by the previous administration.

“But at the same time, the Transport Secretary and I have heard you loud and clear on the need for support to make this transition a success, and that’s why we will be consulting with you on changes to the same mandate and inviting your views on options for a better way forward.”


And it is probable that Nemesis at that precise moment licked her dry lips. "Fun!" thought Nemesis.

E. F. Benson - Lucia In London (1927)

Hard-wired to believe

Harry Phibbs has a useful CAPX piece on Labour’s latest employment gimmicks.


Labour’s gimmicks won’t get Britain working again

• The cost of sickness payments will soon top £100 billion a year
• After 14 years in opposition, Labour do not have a credible plan to tackle worklessness
• There is no better tonic for poor mental health than satisfying work

With all the technological and medical advances we keep seeing, this should be a glorious era where all barriers to work are demolished. To a modest extent, we have seen this with people continuing to work as they get older. Men in the UK used to retire at 65 – finally eligible for a state pension after decades of physical drudgery. Eligibility for the state pension is now 66 and is due to rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028, and to 68 between 2044 and 2046. It should be raised further and faster to avoid the country going broke. But we also have millions continuing to do work of some kind or another past the official retirement age.


The whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder of Labour's ideological unfitness for government. The party belongs in another age, not this one, and no amount of rhetoric can disguise it.


Labour are hard-wired to believe that a compassionate approach means an ever bigger role for the state with an ever more generous offer of benefits. They don’t really believe in the moral case for personal responsibility. Their instinct is to ‘protect’ people from work and being ‘exploited’ by business. But nothing could be a better tonic for our mental health than the pride of independence, of making a contribution to the needs of others rather than being a supplicant of the bureaucratic leviathan. What better boost to self-esteem and cure for loneliness and depression than the shared endeavour of wealth creation? Of the appreciation of satisfied customers, the teamwork of colleagues and the gratitude of the boss?

Game Over

Chancellor Rachel Reeves promises she will not raise taxes again

The chancellor insists there was no alternative to her policies, but says there will not be another budget like it.

There will be no more tax rises or borrowing for the duration of this government's term, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said.


The personal credibility game is over for Rachel Reeves. She played the game, bungled it, failed to hide her lax standards of veracity and lost. For Rachel Reeves the political credibility game is over.

She may as well sing us some Christmas carols or recite poetry instead of making more promises.

Pool

The other day, Mrs H and I were discussing how common it is to hear that such and such a person has an unpleasant parent, wife, husband or whatever. Not people we know, but people we hear about just outside our social periphery. Ordinary people who are said to be habitually spiteful, mean, oafish, selfish or otherwise unpleasant to know.

Not a huge number of people when compared to the number of people we hear of as opposed to knowing them. People mentioned casually during social chat, slightly beyond the outer reaches of our social world.

It does suggest that the pool of ghastly people who see themselves as MPs or in government bossing other people around – well it may be quite a large pool.

Viewer drought

Humiliation for BBC as viewers of major £45m channel tune in for just 10 seconds

The BBC Scotland channel secured an audience share of just 0.12% of British TV viewers last month, with the average viewer spending just 10 seconds watching.

The standalone BBC Scotland channel has been struggling to attract viewers, with a mere 0.12% of British TV viewers tuning in during October. The average viewer reportedly spent just 10 seconds watching before switching channels, in the latest humiliation to the public broadcaster.


The numbers are here. For example, average daily minutes spent watching BBC News is reported to be 1 min 38 sec. Far too long in my view.

Tough but fair

Starmer rules out re-running general election as petition gathers signatures

Asked about the petition on ITV’s This Morning programme on Monday, Sir Keir said: “Look, I remind myself that very many people didn’t vote Labour at the last election.

“So, what my focus is on is the decisions that I have to make every day.”

He characterised decisions taken so far by his Government as “tough but fair”.

I don't know what the petition count is now, over two million when I last looked as Son and I chuckled over the speed of it. Only a gesture, but a successful one.

It's no good asking Starmer about it though. What matters now is the buzz behind his back, what his whispering colleagues say in the bar and what they think can be done about him as a political liability.

Clive Anderson - Peter Cook Interview

 

Cop29 signs off vast amount of other people's money

Cop29 signs off $300bn climate deal after poorer nations stage walk-out

Cop29 ground out a last-minute compromise deal on Saturday night that offers at least $300 billion (£240 billion) per year by 2035 to help poorer countries confront global warming and allows China’s contributions to remain voluntary.

The sum demanded by the less wealthy nations had been much more following two weeks of negotiations in Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea capital of Baku.


What are the greatest powers among men on this earth? Some will say the pen, or the sword, or love, or what not. Men of the world will say, money and lies; and they will be very nearly right.

Arthur Morrison – The Red Triangle (1903)

Bluesky thinking?

James Dreyfus has an interesting Critic piece on Bluesky, the social media platform.


Bluesky thinking?

The honeymoon phase of the X alternative could be short-lived

“There is a place where the sky is blue and you will find me there.”

Gives you goosebumps, no? Thus spake Jolyon Maugham QC (he/him) announcing his departure flight to Bluesky, the relatively new kid on the social media block. Granted, it’s hardly “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”, but his phrasing does suggest he’s discovered a magical place, replete with unicorns and a floating lake.

He was not alone, it seems. Since the US election, there had been similar mass decrees, all deafeningly trumpeted across X, nee Twitter, from all sorts, with varying reasonings, the most prolific of which involved the words “Fascist”, “Far Right” and, of course, the now obligatory “Nazi”. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and a huge amount of dramatic door-slamming, but a noticeable lack of accounts being deactivated. Which remains curious.


Dreyfus then goes on to give examples of the abuse he received after he created his Bluesky account. The whole piece is well worth reading as another comment on our standards of public debate in the digital arena. Not edifying is my impression as a social media outsider.


The quote that best explains the current situation over there does not, however, belong to the Poet Laureate, Maugham, but to Rob Reiner, director of some truly wonderfully funny movies, who somewhat glumly posited the following missive…

“All the abuse and hate from Twitter has now spewed over to here. There seems no point anymore.”

Not a glowing endorsement of his fellow travellers, is it.

Another poor decision

Justice secretary's assisted dying intervention is explosive - and potentially embarrassing for PM

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood joins former prime minister Gordon Brown in condemning the assisted dying bill ahead of a historic vote on Friday.

With six days to go before Friday's historic Commons showdown on assisted dying, it's the opponents who are turning up the heat.


Another example of Starmer making a poor political decision. Not so much that the assisted dying measure is wrong, but this is an unusual political issue with good arguments on both sides, not one for a Prime Minister in severe political difficulties.

Starmer's political outlook was never suited to this kind of battle anyway. He is neither persuasive nor sufficiently pragmatic and this difficult, two-sided moral problem is way beyond his ideologically obtuse and weirdly amoral political outlook.

As a psychological aside, some arguments about winter fuel payments also raised the spectre of death. Starmer gone by Christmas begins to seem more likely. 

Studies show that watching a beaver eat cabbage lowers stress by 17%

In which case, Keir Starmer might benefit from it.

No wonder he's never around

Starmer and his Justice Secretary represent two of England’s most crime-ridden constituencies

Sir Keir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, are the MPs for two of the constituencies with the highest crime rates in England and Wales, new analysis shows.

Birmingham Ladywood, where Ms Mahmood is the sitting MP, has the second highest number of crimes of any constituency in the past year with 38,111 offences, equivalent to more than 100 a day.

The Holborn and St Pancras constituency of the Prime Minister comes third with 36,090 crimes in the past year, or just under 100 a day.

Virtuous can-kicking

There are a number of plausible drivers for Net Zero and windmills on the hills. From virtue-signalling in politics, media and celebrity gossip, a widespread fondness for bandwagons plus what isn’t far removed from slush funds and racketeering. And a dash of simple stupidity.

An important influence which is often forgotten is the political predilection for kicking the can down the road. Rather than tackle a nuclear future with its many political and regulatory drawbacks, politicians in the developed world use wind, solar and Net Zero as a particularly handy way to kick the nuclear can a very long way down the road.

It’s a powerful political attraction, this virtuous can-kicking. Although there are hints that the end of the road is now worryingly close and the virtue somewhat flaky, it is long enough for the present. Possibly one of the main reasons why virtuous imbecility may prevail for some time yet.

Nope - it was ridicule

Jaguar boss says criticism of new advert is ‘vile hatred and intolerance’

Rawdon Glover, the managing director of Jaguar, said the campaign message had been lost in “a blaze of intolerance”, adding that the carmaker must move away from “traditional automotive stereotypes”.


Unfortunately for Mr Glover, it wasn't intolerance, it was ridicule.


Paul Burke, an advertising copywriter, told The Telegraph this week: “As a piece of creative work it’s rubbish. It’s really cheaply done and there’s no idea in it. It will do enormous damage to a great brand.”

Dismayed

Climate fund proposal dismays developing nations - as COP29 presidency branded 'one of the worst'

Ali Mohamed, speaking on behalf of more than 50 African nations, says a proposed $250bn target is "totally inadequate" and will lead to "unacceptable loss of life in Africa and around the world, and imperils the future of our world".

An eleventh hour proposal from a UN climate summit to channel $250bn to developing nations has fallen far short of the $1.3trn they need to cope with climate change.

Well that is good news. $0 would have been better, but any good news is welcome in the climate game. As the headline suggests, there is more good news in the same article, so well done Azerbaijan -

Mohamed Adow, who runs thinktank Power Shift Africa, said: "This COP presidency is one of the worst in recent memory, overseeing one of the most poorly led and chaotic COP meetings ever.

The Music of George Orwell's 1984

 

Comedian

Banana duct-taped to a wall sells for $6.2m at auction

The controversial art piece, called Comedian, has been bought by a prominent cryptocurrency entrepreneur. After laying out millions, he says he's going to eat the banana.

Now Justin Sun, founder of cryptocurrency platform TRON, has paid $6.2m at an auction for a certificate of authenticity that gives him the authority to duct-tape a banana to a wall and call it "Comedian."

Looks like something intended to tease chimpanzees. Maybe it is. 

Predictable backlash

Labour under pressure to say how many pensioners will die from winter fuel raid

Labour is facing mounting backlash for its failure to assess how many pensioners would die as a result of its winter fuel raid.

Labour’s own analysis during the 2017 election campaign – under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn – found that 4,000 pensioners would lose their lives if the winter fuel allowance were means-tested.

A sound reason for referring to Starmer and Reeves as dolts is that they should have done a basic political impact assessment of predicted deaths versus tax gained. The traditional back of a fag packet assessment would have been more than adequate. 

It should have taken them about a minute because they already knew that any deaths wouldn't be worth it politically. Yet apparently they didn't see that.

We need some of that

From Tony Heller's video description -

My neighbor, Harriet Hageman, thanks Secretary Mayorkas for his testimony.

It's what they do best

As we know and should have known decades ago, what political parties promise before an election usually bears no resemblance to what they do afterwards. Keir Starmer's government is a reminder of this Golden Rule of Politics. 

No tax increases for working people turns out to mean tax increases for working people, as we should have expected. Stopping illegal immigration means nothing much and Net Zero means we should expect zero volts of domestic electricity from our windmills every now and then. When it isn't windy apparently.

In a world run by amoral careerists, the main purpose of political parties turns out to be division. It's the only way they can keep voters guessing. Anyway, divide and rule has been a governing technique within democracies for a long time. Here in the UK we see it in our legislature with an adversarial party façade with party colours and logos in case voters forget to take sides over trivial policy differences.

Diversity is another divide and rule technique in addition to party politics. Some time ago, the main UK political parties merged politically to confuse a divided electorate more consistently. It has been a fairly obvious consequence of more extensive and congenial global involvement among political elites and senior bureaucrats.

National political issues and national voters have been left behind because no political party leader can be nationally effective from within globally framed narratives. Not that they wish to be nationally effective, that would be distinctly démodé within their social circles. So elites continue with the adversarial party façade, party colours and logos and they carry on lying. Not that they do it well, but it's what they do best.

Sharing expertise

Prime Minister launches Global Clean Power Alliance as UK leads the global energy transition

The alliance of countries will work together and share expertise with the goal of meeting the COP28 commitments to triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency...

Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, said:

The UK is already leading the way in the clean power transition – we’ve phased out coal power, lifted the ban on onshore wind and launched GB Energy – but we will not stop there...

Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, said:

Speeding up the global clean energy transition is in Britain’s national interest – it is the route to the jobs of the future, energy security and tackling the climate crisis...

Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, said:

The climate crisis is the greatest challenge the world faces and tackling it is essential for Britain’s national security, energy security and economic growth.

A fine idea, we'll begin by sharing the expertise of Keir Starmer, Ed Miliband and David Lammy. Other countries may object, but we should be extremely generous with their time and expertise on this one. After all, Christmas is coming.

Jaguar goes for broke

A tale of woke woe. Hard to believe Jaguar marketing bods could see this as a good idea, but interesting as another indicator that woke madness may be on the wane. 

No doubt the next insanity is being concocted in some university hothouse.

It's 'absolutely' again

Sir Keir Starmer 'absolutely' confident in chancellor after rows with farmers, pensioners, and employers

Sir Keir faced a grilling on his domestic agenda at a press conference at the G20 in Brazil on the 1,000th day of the Ukraine war.

The prime minister said his government needed to "stabilise the economy" when it came into power and has already "attracted investment that wasn't coming in" during the Tories' 14 years in Downing Street.

Technically, he was learned in the law; actually, so far as life was concerned, absolutely unconscious of that subtle chemistry of things that transcends all written law and makes for the spirit and, beyond that, the inutility of all law, as all wise judges know.

Theodore Dreiser - The Financier (1912)

Ah - so it is a class war

Labour is 'absolutely not' engaged in class war, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer insists

Sir Keir Starmer was asked by Sky News' political editor Beth Rigby if the changes to inheritance tax and putting VAT on private school fees show the new government is looking to wage a "class war" on wealthier people.

The prime minister said he is "absolutely not" taking part in such action.


The problem with being dishonest is that all interpretations remain open. Taking assertions at face value becomes naïve.

Another problem Starmer has is his dedication to process. The internally approved response to such an accusation is to deny it. 

So - tick - he emits the approved response.

Snowy

 

A fairly heavy overnight fall of snow in our bit of Derbyshire. It's a good job we have fields full of super electric solar panels to supply the grid and keep us warm in weather like this. 

We're relying on boring, old-fashioned gas central heating and wood at the moment. And a nice, thick fleece from China, where the solar panels were probably made. The wood comes from this country.

Must stop scanning headlines

Keir Starmer raises 'deterioration' of jailed pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai with Xi Jinping

Sir Keir Starmer raised the “deterioration” of jailed pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai when he met Xi Jinping.

The Prime Minister held talks with the Chinese president at the G20 summit in Brazil, where he also stressed he wants “respectful” relations between the UK and Beijing.


For a fraction of a second, as my eye caught that headline, I briefly registered it as a reference to a jailed pro-democracy activist in the UK - which of course it wasn't. 

Merely a flicker of perception as my eye scanned some headlines, but as they say, a sign of the times. Must stop scanning headlines though, most of them are clickbait.

Surprised by the outcome

Over half of voters were surprised by Trump’s win — including Republicans, new poll reveals

Some 54 percent of people were at least quite surprised by the outcome of the election, with 14 percent of those “very surprised.” A third were not very surprised, and 16 percent not surprised at all.

Andrew Gordon, researcher at Prolific, explained that this surprise correlates to difficulties with polling in a polarized environment.

We must assume that millions of voters thought Kamala Harris was a plausible candidate, the media weren't biased in her favour and the world wasn't laughing at her ignorance, obvious limitations and absurd word salads. 

There's a lesson there, unfortunately it's one we learned a long time ago.

Falling Into Pluto (Simulation)

An interesting simulation of falling into Pluto. To my mind it captures both the eerie remoteness of Pluto and something of the cold, indifferent vastness of the universe. We project our romantic notions across the universe but they aren't reflected back. Beyond our Earthly smear of warmth and moisture there is only physics.

Blimey - he's off again

Focus of G20 trip will be to deliver ‘better future’ for Britain, Starmer says

The Prime Minister said his focus is delivering “a better future” for Britain as he set off for the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In a post on X, Sir Keir Starmer said: “My focus at the G20 summit this week is delivering for the British people.

“More jobs, more prosperity, more security. A better future for our country.”

Old Keir does like to give his carbon footprint a boost, but it's not easy to guess what he means here. 

His words could make some sense if he's planning to ditch Rachel Reivers and appoint someone who understands  “More jobs, more prosperity, more security. A better future for our country.”

A language of our own

I suppose you know how we philosophers talk. We have almost a language of our own. Sometimes I think it is largely nonsense.

Sherwood Anderson - Death in the Woods and Other Stories (1933)


Yet Baruch Spinoza gave us a philosophy which is easily adapted to avoid language where assertions about the real world don't really assert anything - as in any thing. To distil his guide into the modern world, suppose we see ourselves as living in a reality of language and physical things. Map the language to the things and we may be on the right lines, because things includes the behaviour of things.

Play around with the language and forget the things – then we have the potential for all kinds of mischief and twaddle. As Confucius knew and many others did too.


"What a rustic you are, Tsz-lu!" rejoined the Master. "A gentleman would be a little reserved and reticent in matters which he does not understand. If terms be incorrect, language will be incongruous; and if language be incongruous, deeds will be imperfect.”

Analects of Confucius


We have always been familiar with those who play around with language which asserts but doesn’t map accurately to things, such as Scott Fitzgerald’s college slang strung together into an intrinsic whole –


She thought of what she would say to-night at this revel, faintly prestiged already by the sounds of high and low laughter and slippered footsteps, and movements of couples up and down the stairs. She would talk the language she had talked for many years — her line — made up of the current expressions, bits of journalese and college slang strung together into an intrinsic whole, careless, faintly provocative, delicately sentimental.

F. Scott Fitzgerald – May Day (1920)


Or those who mix language with sentimental behaviour which asserts but mainly maps back to the speaker. Edith Wharton’s certain sweet inflections of Mrs Talkett for example –


Allusions to “the Talketts,” picked up now and again at Adele Anthony’s, led him to conjecture an invisible husband in the background; but all he knew of Mrs. Talkett was what she had told him of her “artistic” yearnings, and what he had been able to divine from her empty questioning eyes, from certain sweet inflections when she spoke of her wounded soldiers, and from the precise and finished language with which she clothed her unfinished and imprecise thoughts.

Edith Wharton – A Son at the Front (1923)

It's a philosophy which is too restrictive for many purposes, especially abstractions, generalisations, symbols and so on, but it has its uses when it clarifies why political assertions about the real world are usually twaddle. We may apply it to a quote from an earlier post where a Rachel Reeves' assertion only maps back to Rachel Reeves. 

"Now we are going to deliver growth through investment and reform to create more jobs and more money in people's pockets, get the NHS back on its feet, rebuild Britain and secure our borders in a decade of national renewal," Ms Reeves added.

This assertion doesn't really map to jobs, money, people, pockets or feet, although it is supposed to appear that way via analogy and a vague evasion of practical realities. Yet for many, it is easily recognised as twaddle which is best mapped back to Rachel Reeves as an emitter of twaddle. All she is saying is "I emit twaddle, here is some twaddle I prepared earlier." 

The point to be made is that she is telling us about herself, the world inside her head, not the world outside it. As well as twaddle, it is a narcissist's language.

X leavers

The X exodus - could Bluesky spike spark end of Elon Musk's social media platform?

Even Google appears to trust X less, with one expert telling Sky News the search engine treats X competitor Bluesky as 10 times more important than Elon Musk's platform.

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis, The Guardian newspaper, and even the Clifton Suspension Bridge have joined swathes of people deserting Elon Musk's social media site X.

That a rum gaggle of X leavers. Must have something in common, but I can't see it. Yet losing the Clifton Suspension Bridge must be a blow for Elon Musk, almost enough to make him give up on his dreams of being rich, famous and successful. 

However, the problem with flouncing off is that it can only be done once. Repetitive flouncing doesn't have anywhere near the same effect and retrospectively reduces the effect of Flounce 1.

Bond

Starmer will try to bond with Trump over China concerns

Sir Keir Starmer will seek to bond with Donald Trump over shared concerns about China by hailing the success of a Pacific nuclear submarine deal.


Sir Keir Starmer vows to defend budget decisions 'all day long' as farmers slam 'disrespectful' PM

Farmers argue the inheritance tax changes will mean higher food prices, lower food production and having to sell off land to pay for the tax.

So far there is no good reason to believe that Starmer is capable of bonding with anyone, pensioners and farmers being recent examples. So much so that the idea of bonding with Trump is already somewhat ludicrous. 

Trump may go along with Starmers' inflexible woke globalism but it seems unlikely, unless certain areas suit US interests such as concerns about China. For anything resembling a meeting of minds, Starmer may have to stay in the background and send Lammy...

Oh...

Weinstein on the US political shift

Nothing subtle about it

Rachel Reeves caught 'lying' on her CV as GDP growth takes big hit

The Tories have laid into the Chancellor as online observers say row should be a resignation matter...

Today, just hours after she was dealt a blow by terrible economic growth figures Ms Reeves was caught quietly editing her LinkedIn CV to reflect her true role.

On her social media account, the Halifax-based job has now been subtly edited from “economist” to “retail banking”.


So the jibe, "Rachel from Accounts" isn't too far from the mark. Closer than "economist" anyway. Good grief, what a rabble they are.

Not satisfied

UK growth slows - as chancellor admits she's 'not satisfied'

Reacting to the figures, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: "Improving economic growth is at the heart of everything I am seeking to achieve, which is why I am not satisfied with these numbers.

"At my budget, I took the difficult choices to fix the foundations and stabilise our public finances.

"Now we are going to deliver growth through investment and reform to create more jobs and more money in people's pockets, get the NHS back on its feet, rebuild Britain and secure our borders in a decade of national renewal," Ms Reeves added.

Twaddle. 

Nicked Bags

Burglars steal £500,000 of luxury items from Belgravia boutique in just four minutes

Three masked men stole £500,000 worth of designer clothes and handbags from an upmarket Belgravia store in under four minutes.

CCTV footage shows the trio, who arrived on a motorcycle and e-bike, smashing through the front window of Sellier with concrete, before one enters in a crash helmet.

Sellier said among the haul is six luxury bags worth around £40,000 - four from Chanel, a Hermes Kelly 35 and a Hermes Birkin.


I was thinking about this the other day, how the idea of luxury goods has changed in an age of prosperity and mass production. My slippers are very comfortable and durable, so it isn't easy to see how they could be improved to the dizzy heights of luxury slippers worth stealing.

To take this mystery a little further, Mrs H and I are sitting here in comfort and warmth while I'm typing this before going to make a luxury cup of tea. Maybe I'll even include a luxury biscuit from Tesco which recently delivered our groceries to the door - luxury shopping we might call it.

I don't know what a Hermes Kelly 35 might be but presumably it's a bag which holds a huge amount of stuff - far more than a boring cheap bag from M&S. Possibly not a good guess, but there must be some reason why it's so expensive. 

Maybe that's why the Labour government wants us to be much poorer, so there is a more solid reason for elites not being poor. Does Keir Starmer secretly covet a Hermes Kelly 35? I hope not.

Not an individual of mental adventure

Moving on from the previous post which highlighted a lack of curiosity among COP29 attendees, we have F. Scott Fitzgerald’s idea of mental adventure and those who opt out. It’s a striking aspect of social and online life.


Anthony Patch had ceased to be an individual of mental adventure, of curiosity, and had become an individual of bias and prejudice, with a longing to be emotionally undisturbed.

F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Beautiful and Damned (1922)


It’s a guess, but likely enough that everyone who reads this knows or has known people who are not, in Fitzgerald’s words, an individual of mental adventure.

It’s one of those things which baffles, frustrates, annoys sceptics. Those endless encounters with people who lack the curiosity to climb off dubious, flaky or stupid standpoints. People who refuse to embark on the mental adventure of finding something better.

Finding new insights is an adventure - how can anyone stand back from it? But they do.

The Unbearable Banality of COP29

A short video but very interesting. Not surprising, but from the heart of COP29 it's a comment about the absence of curiosity among all the 'nice' people there. Well worth watching.

A pensions no-brainer.

Reeves to create pension 'mega funds' to invest in infrastructure

Reforms could "unlock £80 billion" of investment, according to Treasury plans, which say fewer but larger funds can get greater returns.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves wants to imitate the way large Canadian and Australian pension schemes work.

She said it marks "the biggest set of reforms to the pensions market in decades" ahead of providing more details in a speech at Mansion House on Thursday evening.

Apparently, figures from the NGA, National Guesswork Authority*, conclusively show greater returns from larger funds. Really it's a no-brainer, pensioners should be delighted, although they should not spend too long dwelling on HS2.

* Pinched from a comment on a Not a lot of people know that post kindly passed on by dearieme here. I have a feeling that the NGA may feature here again.

Labour To Save The Planet

A familiar take on it, but Labour government energy and climate policies are so ludicrously stupid that the message is worth repeating.

I didn’t know such people existed

“I didn’t believe my senses. I didn’t know such people existed. And her friends! Oh the dreadful friends she had — these Fabians!”  Oh, their eugenics. They wanted to examine my private morals, for eugenic reasons.  Oh, you can’t imagine such a state.  Worse than the Spanish Inquisition.  And I stood it for three years. How I stood it,  I don’t know — ”

D.H. Lawrence - The Lost Girl (1920)


Published over a century ago but could have been written today. There is still something of the ghastly, self-righteous, prodnose Fabian about our political class. That’s ‘class’ singular, there are enough similarities to leave it that way.

It isn’t easy to look back on earlier attitudes and impressions, but before the internet I’m fairly sure I didn’t know such people existed in such grasping, supercilious profusion.

An improbably honest Fabian might say –

We Fabians adopt authority and make it ours, so naturally we defer to authority and in so doing we defer to ourselves. We revere authority because we are authority. Admittedly that must make us seem somewhat narcissist in our general outlook, but this too is one of the burdens of authority.

The Evil Within

The Evil within illusions

Do not forget your better thoughts. You are entering scenes of illusion, where there is little charity, and almost no sincerity, where cruel feelings are instilled, the love of flattery and dominion awakened, and all the evil and enchantments of the world beset you.

Sheridan Le Fanu – Willing to Die (1872)


The Evil within ambiguity

 
A sinner stubborn in impenitence, defending herself by a paltry ambiguity that had all the evil of a direct lie.

George Gissing - The Odd Women (1893)


The Evil within logic

 
A certain logic, very supple, very implacable, and very agile, is at the service of evil, and excels in stabbing truth in the dark. These are blows struck by the devil at Providence.

Victor Hugo – The Man Who Laughs (1869)


The Evil within vanity

Mighty pride, with its thousand baleful heads, stirred his wretched heart. Vanity, that powerful agent within us, works us measureless evil.

Victor Hugo – The Man Who Laughs (1869)

Miliband: Trump Doesn't Read My Tweets

 

Slowly silently now the Loon

From Tammly -

Slowly silently now the Loon

Walks the night in his eco shoes
This way and that, he peers and sees
Money on the magic money tree
One by one the PVs catch
The solar beams on the silvery thatch
Crouched in the jobcentre like a log
Waits the prole for a great green job.
From the shadowy wood the Cuckoo calls
Ushering the realm of clouds befalls
A harvest mouse goes scampering by
Squeaks he 'the end of corn is nigh'
And moveless turbines in the country breeze
Whilst pensioners in their houses freeze.

With apologies to Walter De La Mare

Two headlines, one porky pie

Gas boilers face ban in homes within years under new government legislation

The Future Homes Standard, being brought forward by the government, will mean developers must ensure that new-builds are only fitted out with electric heat pumps or non-gas alternatives.


Cop29: Keir Starmer vows 'ambitious' 81 per cent cut to UK emissions but won't be ‘telling people how to live’

The increased UK target, which slashes greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels, is in line with the recommendation of the Climate Change Committee.

But the Prime Minister has said he will not be “telling people how to live their lives” as part of plans to reach the target.

Illustrates Starmer's literal approach to lying. He isn't going to send us a letter telling us how to live our lives. He is going to have laws and regulations drafted which effectively tell us the same thing, step by step. Central heating is just one among many.

Hide and Seek

UK politics latest: Starmer to snub Taliban at Cop29 summit as Labour faces fresh pressure over Trump attacks

Sir Keir Starmer has “no plans” to meet the Taliban at Cop29, Downing Street has confirmed...

A Number 10 spokeswoman said Sir Keir has “no plans to meet with them”, adding that attendance is a “matter for the organisers”.

“It is obviously vital that we approach the talks and the event with [climate action and engagement at the] forefront of our mind.”

Two explanations for Keir Starmer's addiction to flying around the world 

Firstly he's a globalist who sees governing the UK as an anachronism, no longer an important aspect of a UK Prime Minister's role. Meeting the ghastly Taliban might lead to difficult questions from tough women back in the UK, while waving an imaginary magic wand to improve global weather doesn't.

Secondly, above all else he's evasive, someone who sits at a desk avoiding important issues and awkward people who ask awkward questions about awkward items such as people and principles. But now he can fly away from the desk, so he does. 

His father was a toolmaker you know. 

Cabinet Avoidance Syndrome

Starmer risks Trump snub by not visiting him at Mar-a-Lago on way to G20

Sir Keir Starmer is risking a snub to Donald Trump by refusing to visit the President-elect at his Florida mansion on his way to the G20 summit of world leaders next week.

Some world leaders are thought to be planning to meet Trump at his Mar-a-Lago mansion before heading to the G20 summit in Brazil.

Keir Starmer seems to have done little but jet off all over the place ever since the election. He'll lose the use of his legs if he doesn't spend more time on the ground, but it's easy enough to fathom his likely motives. 

Firstly, he probably wants to avoid his cabinet, which is entirely understandable. Anyone who doubts that should take another look at them. 

Secondly he is likely to be interested in an international job after he makes a mess of the UK. Especially attractive for him would be a job with freebies, lots of flying and no cabinet.

A Christmas Wish

 

A variable mixture

Britain’s wind power falls to virtually zero as Miliband prepares to cut reliance on gas

Britain’s wind generation is set to plummet to virtually zero this week as Ed Miliband presses ahead with plans to increase the nation’s reliance on renewable energy.

Much of the UK has seen zero hours of sunshine this month, and the first part of this week will see already-light winds hit fresh lows in many areas, according to Met Office forecasters.


To my father's mind the noisy teachers of revolutionary doctrine were, to speak mildly, a variable mixture of the fool and the scoundrel.

George Eliot - Impressions of Theophrastus Such (1879)

Tiny minds blown

Massive ocean discovered beneath the Earth's crust containing more water than on the surface

It feels like there have been staggering science stories emerging every other day recently, all of which have blown our tiny little minds...

Now, people are only just realising that there’s a massive ocean hidden under the Earth’s crust.

It turns out there’s a huge supply of water 400 miles underground stored in rock known as 'ringwoodite'.

It's not a new idea, it's not an ocean, it is the Independent. 

It is interesting, the initial hype adds nothing, it is the Independent.

They just take the money

Big businesses hit by NI raid should ‘suck it up’, Treasury minister suggests

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury has suggested big businesses hit by the National Insurance (NI) raid should “suck it up”.

Darren Jones, Rachel Reeves’s deputy, said “bigger businesses are more able to burden some of the contributions we need to make to the state”.


Unlike ours, English politics, — one hears it on every hand, — are pure. Ours unfortunately are known to be not so. The difference seems to be that our politicians will do anything for money and the English politicians won’t; they just take the money and won’t do a thing for it.

Stephen Leacock – My Discovery of England (1922)

Agnew v Dickens

One hundred and eighty eight years ago, Charles Dickens published an essay "Sunday Under Three Heads", an attack on Sir Andrew Agnew and his repeated attempts to introduce a strict Sabbath Observance Bill in the House of Commons.

Agnew was Member of Parliament for Wigtownshire, 1830–1837. He stood as a moderate reformer, but soon became deeply attached to the cause of Sabbatarianism, and pressed for the banning of all secular labour on Sunday. For this purpose he introduced no less than four Sabbath Observance Bills in the Commons, none of which passed.[1] It was the third attempt which drew on him the wrath of Charles Dickens, whose essay Sunday Under Three Heads (1836) is very largely a personal attack on Agnew,[2] whom he described as a fanatic, motivated by resentment of the idea that those poorer than himself might have any pleasure in life.

One of Dickens' many criticisms was that the Bill would clamp down on the poor but not the rich, even though Sunday was often the only day of rest available to the poor. A comparison with Net Zero is obvious - the Puritanical suppression of working people for spurious reasons of spurious virtue. 

With one exception, there are perhaps no clauses in the whole bill, so strongly illustrative of its partial operation, and the intention of its framer, as those which relate to travelling on Sunday.  Penalties of ten, twenty, and thirty pounds, are mercilessly imposed upon coach proprietors who shall run their coaches on the Sabbath; one, two, and ten pounds upon those who hire, or let to hire, horses and carriages upon the Lord’s day, but not one syllable about those who have no necessity to hire, because they have carriages and horses of their own; not one word of a penalty on liveried coachmen and footmen.  The whole of the saintly venom is directed against the hired cabriolet, the humble fly, or the rumbling hackney-coach, which enables a man of the poorer class to escape for a few hours from the smoke and dirt, in the midst of which he has been confined throughout the week: while the escutcheoned carriage and the dashing cab, may whirl their wealthy owners to Sunday feasts and private oratorios, setting constables, informers, and penalties, at defiance.  Again, in the description of the places of public resort which it is rendered criminal to attend on Sunday, there are no words comprising a very fashionable promenade.  Public discussions, public debates, public lectures and speeches, are cautiously guarded against; for it is by their means that the people become enlightened enough to deride the last efforts of bigotry and superstition.  There is a stringent provision for punishing the poor man who spends an hour in a news-room, but there is nothing to prevent the rich one from lounging away the day in the Zoological Gardens.

Charles Dickens - Sunday Under Three Heads (1836)

What particularly seemed to rile Dickens was how blatant it all was. As blatant as we see today with rich proponents of Net Zero flying around in private jets. The similarity is difficult to miss.

Yet another bonus

Internet searches for how to move abroad up by more than 1,000% after US election result

US searches for "move to Canada" increased by 1,270% in the 24 hours after the polls closed on the East Coast on Tuesday, according to Google data.

Similar queries about emigrating to Australia surged by 820%, the figures suggest.

Data from the Immigration New Zealand website shows 25,000 new US users accessed the website on 7 November - compared to 1,500 on the same day in previous years.

We may be moderately confident that these searches don't represent a loss for the US, nor a gain for Canada, Australia and New Zealand. If the searchers follow it up of course. If they aren't merely nitwit poseurs.

Shopping

 

Static

This morning found Mrs H and I driving down the A610 in the direction of the M1, on our way to buy a particular Christmas present. There is a wind turbine quite close to the road, which this morning had static blades due to a lack of wind.

Nothing unusual about that, we haven’t had much wind for many days. Overcast, grey and cold weather has been hanging around our bit of Derbyshire for at least a week. Feels like months, but it isn't.

Thousands of drivers must have seen those static blades and it must be a common enough sight elsewhere in the country whenever the wind speed is inadequate to turn the blades. It suggests an interesting question though – does the sight of static wind turbine blades create a widespread perception that these things are not a reliable way to generate electricity?

Anyone can work this weakness out for themselves, we know that, but does the casual and occasionally repeated sight of static wind turbine blades enter the popular perception of them? Some people mention it and some don’t, but does it become a feature automatically recalled whenever the subject is of sustainable energy is raised?

A widespread, lurking mistrust perhaps, much larger than sustainability fans realise. A lurking perception that Ed Miliband and his ilk are not even as trustworthy as those wind turbines. Let us hope so. 

Yes Minister

NHS is drinking in ‘last chance saloon’, says Labour health advisor

Alan Milburn, former secretary of state for health who had success slashing waiting times under Tony Blair, will return in a role as Wes Streeting’s key adviser on reform, making him lead non-executive director of the Department of Health.

He told The Times: “The NHS is in the worst state I’ve ever seen and I’ve been around health policy now for 30 years. I genuinely think it’s drinking in the last-chance saloon.”

“Keir [Starmer] has got religion on public-service reform,” Milburn said.


Why would anyone take these characters seriously when they come with tabloid clichés such as ‘last chance saloon’ or Starmer has 'got religion' on public-service reform. It belittles a serious issue, but I do like this comment -


Alan Bates
I'm not trivialising NHS problems and it does need reform, not more money. But this has been said for decades. They said it in Yes Minister in 1981!

Holy Smoke

Old News and Bones

Lammy dismisses past criticism of Trump as 'old news'

The foreign secretary has dismissed his previous criticism of Donald Trump as "old news" and insisted he would be able to find "common ground" with the president-elect.

When he was a backbench MP in 2018, David Lammy described Trump as a "tyrant" and "a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath"...

Lammy praised his election campaign as "very well run", adding that: "I felt in my bones that there could be a Trump presidency."

Maybe, but his bones aren't very close to the surface are they?

The man is a clown, he came out with this ridiculous drivel as an MP, presumably with the ambition to take his career further than a backbench nuisance. 

Starmer opts for managed decline

Starmer ‘missing opportunity of a lifetime’ by charming EU instead of Trump, warns Rees-Mogg

Sir Keir Starmer is “missing the opportunity of a lifetime” by prioritising relations with the European Union instead of Donald Trump and the US, according to Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.

The Tory former business secretary said the EU is at best in a state of “managed decline” while the US is in the economic ascendancy...

"Under this Labour government, we are destined to a miserable fate of low growth, high tax, extortionate energy prices and debilitating regulation and bureaucracy. With Trump back in office, by realigning with the EU, Starmer is missing the opportunity of a lifetime, of a generation.

The word 'managed' may be a little optimistic, but Rees-Mogg's take on it seems sound, the EU is going nowhere worthwhile. Yes it's still a gravy train for those who benefit from it, but as Rees-Mogg says, backing the EU is opting for managed decline.

A political litmus test which will disappear in the ebb and flow of news and as the US prepares for a Trump presidency. But it's a test to remember as Starmer's government places its bets and our future on yet another lame horse.

The most depressing aspect

Jimmy Kimmel on verge of tears as he calls Trump win 'terrible night'

Kimmel conceded America had voted and "this was the choice we made" - but he wasn't the only TV host to express deep dismay over Mr Trump's return.

In his opening monologue, he said the choice was between a prosecutor and a criminal "and we chose the criminal".

There are lots of stories along these lines, stories of people wallowing in anguish and tears over what from their political standpoint is only likely to be a minor setback. It probably won't affect them other than what is apparently a pressing need to put on a very public display of emotion. 

It is surely not an adult reaction, but it does appear to be restricted to one side of the political divide. Is it an act? In this particular case I don't know, but more generally the anti-Trump emoting does come across as an act, something certain celebrities feel they have to do.

Is it politically healthy? No - obviously not. To my mind it's a depressing aspect of the Trump victory - this glimpse into what appears to be seriously retarded adulthood. Even as an act it's depressing, because we may assume it is widely accepted as authentic.

Javier Milei - When Prices Become Information

Simple enough even for our UK Cabinet, but they still wouldn't get it.

Too Useless

Naturally enough there is already an enormous volume of commentary on Donald Trump winning the US presidential election. Yet assigning motives and influences to millions of voters has too many plausible aspects to be framed tightly enough for articles, interviews and in this case - blog posts.

For example, it was always possible that Kamala Harris was there to lose the election, isolate the Biden era as an aberration of the past and quite possibly make money and build opportunities on a Trump presidency. 

We might back this up by pointing out that the absurdity of the Harris candidacy became too obvious too quickly to have been entirely unforeseen by wealthy Democrat backers. 

If so, perhaps Kamala Harris was too useless and inauthentic to be plausible as a genuine candidate and the political establishment always knew it. Maybe, but this angle is merely one among many, a possible aspect of a complex event with many other viewpoints.

But she was an absurd candidate.

Unburdened By What Has Been

 

It doesn't look very iconic

  

Council signs off on plans to flatten iconic Ellesmere Port youth centre

A landmark youth centre in Ellesmere Port will be flattened to make way for low carbon homes after demolition plans were given the green light.

Cheshire West and Chester Council’s planning department has signed off on an application to bulldoze the The Oasis Centre on Coronation Road to pave the way for a £13m regeneration project.

AI Says -

The term "iconic" typically refers to something or someone that is widely recognized and well-established, often symbolizing a particular quality or idea. It's usually used to describe things that have had a significant and lasting impact on culture or society. For example, iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty are instantly recognizable and hold special meaning beyond their physical presence.

In a broader sense, something iconic often transcends its original context to become a part of popular consciousness, evoking strong emotions or memories.

Nope - it doesn't remind me of the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty and doesn't appear to transcend anything worth remembering. Maybe appearances are deceptive... 

Maybe appearances are not deceptive. 

Sounds as if he's been reassured

BBC should not have to justify ‘very existence’ every 10 years, says chairman

New BBC chairman Samir Shah said the corporation should not have to justify “our very existence” every 10 years and the Government should have the confidence to say “the BBC is a really good thing”...

He told an audience of leading media figures and decision makers on Tuesday that he questioned whether the BBC needed a “root-and-branch review of everything we do, including our very existence” every 10 years.

If the BBC shouldn't have to justify its existence every ten years then it sounds as if government doesn't expect any such justification and Mr Shah knows it. The BBC as official state broadcaster sounds grim but not unexpected.

Mr Shah said: “In reality, it is possible that in January 2028 the BBC stops existing and the Government just sells off its assets.

He already knows this isn't going to happen in January 2028 and his job is to sell the BBC as hard as possible until it doesn't happen. 

Vote Dystopian

As many will know, "The Machine Stops" referred to in an earlier post here is a science fiction story by E. M. Forster published in 1909. Usually said to depict a dystopian, machine-based future, I've read it twice, once years ago and again more recently. A Wikipedia description and an excerpt are given below.


From Wikipedia

The story describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual now lives in isolation below ground in a standard room, with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted, but is unpopular and rarely necessary. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine with which people conduct their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what passes for knowledge.

The two main characters, Vashti and her son Kuno, live on opposite sides of the world. Vashti is content with her life, which, like most inhabitants of the world, she spends producing and endlessly discussing secondhand 'ideas'. Her son Kuno, however, is a sensualist and a rebel. He persuades a reluctant Vashti to endure the journey (and the resultant unwelcome personal interaction) to his room. There, he tells her of his disenchantment with the sanitised, mechanical world.

To my mind, the fascination is that many people such as the character Vashti clearly do not see their Machine existence as dystopian - they have adapted to it. How many people today are voting, step by step, for a modern version of E. M. Forster's Machine because each step is viewed as not at all dystopian? Especially with a few promotional tweaks. 

A description of Vashti's room from the book -

Imagine, if you can, a small room, hexagonal in shape, like the cell of a bee. It is lighted neither by window nor by lamp, yet it is filled with a soft radiance. There are no apertures for ventilation, yet the air is fresh. There are no musical instruments, and yet, at the moment that my meditation opens, this room is throbbing with melodious sounds. An armchair is in the centre, by its side a reading-desk - that is all the furniture. And in the armchair there sits a swaddled lump of flesh - a woman, about five feet high, with a face as white as a fungus. It is to her that the little room belongs…

For a moment Vashti felt lonely. Then she generated the light, and the sight of her room, flooded with radiance and studded with electric buttons, revived her. There were buttons and switches everywhere- buttons to call for food for music, for clothing. There was the hot-bath button, by pressure of which a basin of (imitation) marble rose out of the floor, filled to the brim with a warm deodorized liquid. There was the cold-bath button. There was the button that produced literature. And there were of course the buttons by which she communicated with her friends. The room, though it contained nothing, was in touch with all that she cared for in the world.

The last sentence is is one modern readers probably understand more easily that Forster's Edwardian readers - The room, though it contained nothing, was in touch with all that she cared for in the world. How many voters are voting for something trending in that direction?

Blessed is the Machine, for the Machine is spiteful

Sir James Dyson skewers Rachel Reeves' 'spiteful' Budget - 'death of entrepreneurship'

Sir James Dyson has skewered Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves' Budget, warning it will be the "death of entrepreneurship".

Writing in the Times, the billionaire inventor and founder of the Dyson company, has accused the Chancellor of "spiteful" politics after she raised inheritance tax on farms, family businesses and multi-million pound estates, as well as raising taxes on school fees.


From this perspective, Reeves probably knew what she was doing because political spite does appeal to a large number of voters. 

I don't think much of his vacuum cleaners, but Dyson does have a point.

Blessed is the Machine

'The Machine,' they exclaimed, 'feeds us and clothes us and houses us; through it we speak to one another, through it we see one another, in it we have our being. The Machine is the friend of ideas and the enemy of superstition: the Machine is omnipotent, eternal; blessed is the Machine.'

E.M. Forster - The Machine Stops (1909)

Hot bot got not a lot

A robot retrieves the first melted fuel from Fukushima nuclear reactor

A remote-controlled robot has safely returned with a tiny piece of melted fuel it collected from inside one of three damaged reactors at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant for the first time since the 2011 meltdown.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which manages the plant, said Saturday that the extendable fishing rod-like robot successfully clipped a gravel as big as 5 millimeters (2 inches), the size of a tiny granola bit, from the top surface of a mound of molten fuel debris that sits on the bottom of the No. 2 reactor’s primary containment vessel.


5 millimeters isn't 2 inches but it's the Independent, so numbers and units aren't a strong point.

Lying Down

While we're on the perennial subject of political lying, there is a well-known aspect of life which attracts people willing to lie in pursuit of a rewarding career. These are situations which Wilkie Collins called the liberating opportunity in connection with good and evil. A political career is one of those opportunities.

Are there, infinitely varying with each individual, inbred forces of Good and Evil in all of us, deep down below the reach of mortal encouragement and mortal repression—hidden Good and hidden Evil, both alike at the mercy of the liberating opportunity and the sufficient temptation?

Wilkie Collins - No Name (1862)

Lying can be curiously liberating for people disposed to take advantage of it. We might usefully view it as a core aspect of political status, lying to the plebs, lying from a superior to an inferior position. Lying downwards in a social sense, down the social scale.

Yes, lying is wrong

Chancellor Rachel Reeves admits she was 'wrong' to say higher taxes not needed during election

A month before Labour won the election, Rachel Reeves said higher taxes were not what the UK needed - but on Wednesday she raised them by the highest amount since 1993.

A month before Labour won the July election, Ms Reeves said "we don't need higher taxes, what we need is growth".


Not much we can say about that. She's a liar, but we knew that, so is her boss, but we knew that too.

Education in Oz

EU overregulation shock horror

Peter Caddle has a useful Brussels Signal piece on ECB President Christine Lagarde's comments on how overregulation holds back the EU.

Lagarde: US dollar world-order here to stay as overregulation holds back EU

The US dollar world-order is not going anywhere anytime soon, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde has claimed.

Lagarde also repeated warnings that the European Union economy was falling further behind China and the US, largely as a result of overregulation.

Speaking to Le Monde on October 31, she expressed doubt as to the viability of the proposed alternative international payment system floated by the BRICS intergovernmental organisation comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.


There can't be any sensible person who doesn't know about EU overregulation, but the piece is well worth reading now we have an absurd EU regulation enthusiast posing as Prime Minister.


“It is a reality that Europe is falling behind and France, too,” she told the French media outlet.

“The energy factor is fundamental, particularly for data centres. The labour factor also comes into play, with mobility [for workers between companies] being much higher in the US. The issue of regulation is also essential.

“To oversimplify things, the US is developing artificial intelligence very rapidly and is already starting to see a number of major champions. Meanwhile, Europe not only has no major champions but it is a pioneer in the regulation of artificial intelligence.