Pinker on DEI

 

Progressive driving licences

What are progressive driving licences and will the UK introduce them?

Ministers are expected to resist calls for a major overhaul of driving qualifications when they unveil their latest plans to improve road safety.

Campaigners have argued that replacing Britain's current driving test regime could prevent thousands of injuries and deaths on the nation’s roads every year.

The existing ‘one-and-done’ system means newly qualified drivers face the same rules of the road as other more experienced motorists as soon as they pass their test...

While a ‘graduated’ or ‘progressive’ driving licence could take several forms, it would likely see restrictions such as a top speed, number of passengers and the types of roads they can drive on.

These would be gradually lifted based on factors such as age, competence behind the wheel and driving experience.

Ministers may resist but campaigners won't stop campaigning. Meddling never ends and there is no indication that it ever will.

People don’t visit Ukay

A spot of fiction for what’s left of 2025.

December 30th 2325

I’ve had a yen to visit Ukay ever since my implant gave me a history lesson on its demise, how a thousand years of history were blaired into oblivion. It even told me where the word ‘blaired’ comes from. Apparently the original Blair was an ancient Ukay leader who started the rot and generally made a mess of things.

After much cogitation and some holiday quota balancing, I finally got round to a proper Ukay tour by sorting out a skimmer to take me across with my Skoot and enough supplies for a one week safari. I needed my Skoot to ferry me around Ukay in some degree of comfort and tell me what was what of course.

I initially intended to tour some of the Ukay ruins such as Lundun, Brumm, Glassglow and some of the other ancient cities but Skoot told me about other places beyond the major ruins where a few people still scrape a living. Skoot says it is a common myth that that the whole population gradually deserted Ukay in search of better living conditions - a few stayed.

After some searching around and as Skoot had predicted, I did find a group of people living in a primitive camp but it wasn’t a rewarding experience. I managed to speak with a few of them but I wasn’t welcome. They scolded me about stuff I didn’t really understand without Skoot quietly feeding my implant and even then it came across as weird.

‘Survivors’ they called themselves and they abused me for using energy because they could see that Skoot requires energy. They said that Skoot was changing the climate and destroying the planet by heating it up or something.

Skoot says the ‘Survivors’ are just a cult and even though the advancing ice fields are only a couple of hundred kilometres from their squalid camp, they don’t believe it exists. Tell them the next Ice Age has started and they just yell, wave their arms, shout about warming and the ancient teachings of their guru – Greta Miliband.

“What’s wrong with these people?” I asked Skoot when we left, “and why did you bring me here?”

“I knew you would be interested and your implant confirms that you are,” Skoot replied. “They think sea levels are rising rapidly and in thirty years much of Ukay will be flooded by the mythical BB Sea. It’s been thirty years away for centuries. You won’t come back, visitors never do.”

Skoot was right of course, I didn’t stay in Ukay for as long as I’d hoped. People don’t visit Ukay – not twice anyway.

Mere standing objects

Transport turnaround in Brandenburg – 46 hydrogen buses stand still, millions fizzle out

The transport turnaround in Brandenburg is increasingly becoming a stress test. In Cottbus, 46 new hydrogen buses are standing unused at the depot, although each vehicle cost around 650,000 euros. The fuel is missing. At times, the buses had to be transported on diesel low-loaders to distant filling stations. At the same time, the delivery of ordered electric buses in Potsdam is delayed. Public transport in Brandenburg is thus stuck with diesel for longer than the political promises would have led us to expect.

The hydrogen buses in Cottbus are considered technically ready for use. Their procurement was supported by considerable state subsidies. But without hydrogen, they remain mere standing objects. There is no gas station of its own. Construction is underway, but completion is not planned until the first half of 2026.


Hmm, so there were times when the buses had to be transported on diesel low-loaders to distant filling stations. Imagine that, surely it's beyond anything Ed Miliband would consider...

Or possibly not.

Post-Christmas Sales

I used to go into work on the weekdays between Christmas and New Year. The roads in were quiet and there wasn't much routine work, leaving plenty of time to catch up on outstanding odds and ends. I almost miss that now that we are retired, but not enough to dwell on the memory for more than a few seconds.

Today it's cold, grey and dull in our corner of Derbyshire, so we trundled off to a local shopping centre this morning. Busier than we expected, but we managed a coffee and a wander round the stores stuffed with post-Christmas 'bargains'.

By the time we left, the main car park was crammed and the large overflow area had more cars in it than we've ever seen before. This of course is one reason why the roads weren't busy when I went into work on days like this.

Well they aren't known for their awareness

Starmer did not know about tweets by 'extremist'

Sir Keir Starmer was unaware of the “abhorrent” views expressed by an alleged Egyptian extremist before he welcomed him to Britain.

It is understood that the Prime Minister was alerted to “extreme” social media posts by Alaa Abd el-Fattah only after they began circulating online. He is understood to consider the content of the posts “abhorrent”.

Sources said Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, and David Lammy, the Deputy Prime Minister – who also welcomed Mr el-Fattah’s arrival – were equally unaware of the posts.


To glory in a prophetic vision of knowledge covering the earth, is an easier exercise of believing imagination than to see its beginning in newspaper placards, staring at you from the bridge beyond the corn-fields; and it might well happen to most of us dainty people that we were in the thick of the battle of Armageddon without being aware of anything more than the annoyance of a little explosive smoke and struggling on the ground immediately about us.

George Eliot - Daniel Deronda (1876)

2025 - The Year of the Charlatan

Okay, every year is the year of the charlatan, but this is the time when we tend to reflect on the year soon to be history and the year soon to come. As always there are many questions still unanswered. The strange political phenomenon that is Zack "Hypnojugs" Polanski for example.

Inevitably it's old news, but as 2026 we have to ask again how obvious charlatans become leaders of significant political parties.


Zack Polanski hits back after UK Government minister brands him 'a con artist'

Housing Secretary Steve Reed made the comments while referencing comments the Greens leader made back in 2013 about hypnosis...

Reed's comments reference a report in The Sun in 2013, when a journalist from the paper asked Polanski for a hypnotherapy session to increase her breast size while he worked at a hypnotherapy clinic on Harley Street.


How will 2026 treat another two obvious charlatans. In their different ways they are surely no better than Polanski.

Rachel Reeves is Starmer's human shield - 'if she goes, PM will have to quit too'

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been left in her job because if she is ousted from the Treasury then Sir Keir Starmer "will have to go", Kemi Badenoch declared as she launched a blazing attack on Labour.

 

And this chap is certainly no better than Polanski.

 

Neither is this chap. 

Pecks, Bushels and Baskets

R. D. Blackmore's novel Kit and Kitty published in 1890 is set in and around a market garden business near Sunbury-on-Thames. In the quote below, Blackmore gives us an interesting angle on the 'good old days' where being cheated by short measure was a feature of daily life.

Blackmore had an 11-acre market garden of his own where he specialised in fruit-growing, so he knew all about games regularly played by both buyer and seller.

THERE are ever so many kinds of baskets used in Covent Garden Market, some of good measure, and some of guess, and some of luck altogether, like a Railway’s charges. They come from every quarter of the globe; and the pensive public may be well pleased if it gets a quarter of its bargain. A bushel may hold a peck more or less, according to the last jump made upon it.

The basket-makers are by no means rogues, because the contents can make no difference to them. They turn out strong ware, at a very high price, so many inches in width, and so many in depth, according to tradition. Then they pat it, and pitch it down, and paint the name upon it; and their business ends, except to get their money. And of this they never fail; for the grower, as a rule, grows honesty as his chief, and often only crop. But after that basket’s virgin fill, how many meretricious uses does it undergo!

The poor grower, who has paid half a crown for it, never uses it again perhaps, until it is worn out, and comes back to him, with a shilling demanded for his name; when it has spent all its prime in half the shops and trucks of London. Here it has passed through a varied course of fundamental changes, alternately holding three pecks and five according to its use for sale or purchase.

At first it was gifted with a slightly incurved bottom, not such a deep “kick” as a Champagne-bottle has—which Napoleon III. vainly strove to abolish—but a moderate and decent inward tendency. Here the rogue spies his vantage ground. Before filling it for sale, he lays it flat upon its rim, mounts upon the concave eternal, and with a few heavy jumps of both heels produces a bold and lofty internal dome. Then he stuffs up the cavity round the side with a tidy lot of hay, or leaves, or paper, and lo you have three pecks as brave as any four! But is he going to buy by that measure? He lays it firmly upon its base, gets inside, and jumps with equal vigour. The accommodating bottom becomes concave, and he brings home five pecks running over into his bosom.

R. D. Blackmore - Kit and Kitty (1890) 

Mind wipe

Mind wipe technology - is it likely to become available on the NHS?

Floaters

Well that's Christmas done with for another year even though we have some mince pies left. Maybe Boxing Day is the right time to consider something lighter - such as floaters.

We’ve all seen it, the media story where someone we’ve never heard of is appointed as head of some official or semi-official body we may or may not have heard of either. Always one of those people who haven’t necessarily achieved much but seem to be remarkably well-connected socially. Members of the Establishment of course.

Which leads us on to a feature of modern life - the Floater. The Floater is a phenomenon of think tanks, governments agencies, quangos, NGOs, major charities, commissions, boards, regulators and other semi-official bodies where a dull but sound Establishment figure is required as the public face of a dull and not obviously vital organisation.

Floaters are just that – figureheads who float from role to role across the murky waters of public life. They float from conference to conference, summit to summit, forum to forum, dispensing fashionable views, nostrums, exhortations and the very latest in managerial politics.

Even someone such as Rachel Reeves is more Floater than Chancellor. She is the Treasury figurehead, the public face nobody in the Treasury actually listens to as they plan their next round of useless meddling. Reeves is the Treasury Floater, dispensing platitudes, dishonesty and nonsense until the time comes for her to float away to another mooring.

Merry Christmas

 

Many thanks to all who visit this little nook in Blogworld. Thanks also to those who leave comments because they make it worthwhile.

2025 hasn't been a good year in many respects, so let us assume the New Year has something better to offer if only because optimism is better than the alternative.

Cheers!

 

Strewth, the man's vowing again

Starmer makes cost-of-living promise in Christmas message

The prime minister's message comes at the end of a difficult year for his government, with economic growth stuttering and criticism over tax rises in the budget.

The prime minister has acknowledged Britons' cost-of-living struggles in his Christmas message - and vowed that helping with the issue is his "priority".

Sir Keir Starmer also urged members of the public to "each do our bit" and "reach out" to friends, relatives and neighbours during the festive period.

Old Starmey should give up vowing, promising and pledging after spending his entire prime ministerial career crafting a reputation for clockwork mendacity. It's his only reliable mode of verbal behaviour. 

Starmey could also dwell on his own words for a second or two - then urge members of his Cabinet to "each do our bit" and "reach out" to voters and their concerns during the festive period. This would require a temporary lull in the back-stabbing of course.

Just another festive fantasy then.

Things could be worse

N. Korean parents gather firewood for classrooms as prices more than double

Students take days off to collect quota as green wood fills classrooms with smoke, while forest rangers mostly look the other way

North Korean parents are taking turns gathering firewood to heat their children’s classrooms after prices more than doubled from $28 to $69 per cubic meter, with only eight of 27 families at one Hamhung middle school able to pay cash upfront.

“Parents at some schools in Hamhung and other parts of the province have been roaming through the woods to gather firewood. Parents are responsible for providing the firewood needed to heat their children’s classrooms,” a source in South Hamgyong province told Daily NK recently.


Bad Kim Jong Un he looked out,
from his feast this evening,
When the snow lay round about,
deep and crisp and even;
Brightly shone the moon that night,
tho’ the frost was cruel,
When poor parents came in sight,
gath’ring winter fuel.

Big Santa is Watching You

 

Good grief

Non-crime hate incidents to be scrapped in favour of common sense

Police chiefs will reportedly seek to scrap non-crime hate incidents in plans they will present to the Home Secretary next month.

NCHIs are no longer “fit for purpose”, police leaders have decided, after warnings that recording them undermines freedom of speech and diverts officers away from fighting crime.

Where does the common sense come from?   

From a checklist is the reply, but we knew that before we asked.

Instead, officers would be issued with a “common sense” checklist to go through before they take any action, to prevent police from intervening in online spats or offensive comments.

Good grief.

Warning issued

Among numerous media headlines worth avoiding, the 'warning issued' headline is up there among the more obvious examples of the genre, but there are many more. 

Warning issued to anyone with magpies in their garden

Warning issued for all UK petrol and diesel drivers which 'can not be explained'

Warning issued to drivers filling up at Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s or Morrisons this week

Major warning issued as lethal plant that 'can kill in hours' washes up on UK beach

Air fryer fire warning issued to millions this Christmas

'Significant disruption' expected as new weather warning issued

All demonisations are equal, but some demonisations are more equal than others

Don't call migration a threat to Britain, says EHRC chief

The new head of the equalities watchdog has attacked those who describe migration as a risk to Britain.

Mary-Ann Stephenson, the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), used her first major intervention since taking the job at the beginning of December to warn against the demonisation of immigrants.


Dr Stephenson is being disingenuous here as the demonisation of rich people appears to be okay, as is the demonisation of an essential trace gas in the atmosphere -


Dr Stephenson is a Left-wing economist who called for a wealth tax last year.

As chairman of the Women’s Budget Group, she signed an open letter to Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, which urged her to ensure the rich were “taxed more on their assets” to fund net zero schemes.


As ever we see posh demonisation and vulgar demonisation. Or maybe we could adapt George Orwell -

All demonisations are equal, but some demonisations are more equal than others.

Christmas Traffic

We popped out in the car for a brief cemetery visit earlier today. A dull, grey, misty Sunday but local traffic was worse than the daily school run used to be. Even worse than the Monday morning school run when it was noticeably more frenetic than usual.

The Christmas effect presumably, I'll be pleased when it's all over.

Authoritarian upgrading

Grokipedia has the interesting phrase 'authoritarian upgrading' in its entry for Uzbekistan.


Despite economic progress, Uzbekistan retains authoritarian characteristics under Mirziyoyev, with limited political pluralism and state control over key institutions. Press freedom has deteriorated, with Uzbekistan ranking 148th out of 180 countries in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, its score falling from 37 to 35 points, amid economic pressures on independent media and efforts to co-opt bloggers. Reforms have improved some human rights areas, such as reducing forced labor, but core controls persist, including restrictions on opposition and media, indicating authoritarian upgrading rather than substantive democratization.

Here's another interesting phrase - 'there's a lot of it about'.

Talk of war is political performance art

Chris Bayliss has a fine Critic piece on the wholly unconvincing threads of war chatter circulating around our political classes and the media. Bayliss calls it political performance art which of course it is. Most of what they do is political performance art.

The whole piece is well worth reading, but I'll just quote a couple of paragraphs which get to the heart of it. 


Talk of war is political performance art

The British establishment does not see war as a realistic prospect

Now, as we try to make sense of Britain’s Sensible Faction solemnly preparing to lead us to war with Russia, it is our turn to choose between dissecting the absurdity, or just ignoring them. Alas, the Sensibles are not a dissident group; they are in fact in charge of pretty much everything, including for the time being, Britain’s foreign policy and armed forces. Which to some extent obliges us to at least pretend to take the things they say seriously.

Fortunately for me, Maurice Cousins has already done that, setting out in these pages the practical realities of why the concept of Western European countries going to war with Russia is a straightforward and unquestionable absurdity. Drawing on work by Rian Whitton for the Prosperity Institute, Cousins sets out how the energy policies of Western Europe, and especially Britain, have undermined fundamental industries that are essential to running any industrial economy, let alone a war economy. Steel, chemicals, fertilisers, and materials technology have atrophied or escaped, and with them a myriad of sub-sectors and expertise. This leaves me free to consider the politics behind it with the derision they call for.

Ed's Christmas Conundrum

  

This year’s Christmas could be Britain’s greenest yet, energy operator says

Britain’s energy system operator has predicted that this year’s Christmas Day could be the greenest yet.

If the weather remains mild and windy for the rest of December, the National Energy System Operator (Neso) has said it could record the lowest carbon intensity – the measure of how much carbon dioxide is released to produce electricity – recorded on the network for 25 December.

AI data centres could have a carbon footprint that matches small European country, new study finds

Artificial intelligence’s (AI) carbon footprint in 2025 could match New York City’s or a small European country, and use as much water as the global annual bottled water industry this year, according to a new study.

The report estimates that AI systems running in data centres could be responsible for between 32.6 million and 79.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2025.

Replace two words by one

BBC to review Middle East coverage in wake of bias scandal

The BBC is to review its coverage of the Middle East after admitting to multiple problems with its reporting of the war in Gaza.

The broadcaster has accepted that it must “learn lessons” after allegations of bias were exposed by The Telegraph last month.


In typical BBC fashion, an endemic problem is ignored in favour of a much narrower focus on a particular criticism, as if an ingrained corporate cultural problem is merely some technical breach of otherwise secure procedures. 

How about -

BBC to review all coverage in wake of bias scandal

Or just defund the absurd outfit.

Tedious Temperature Twaddle

Average global temperature to hit 1.4°C above preindustrial levels in 2026, warns UK’s Met Office

Scientists predict that 2026 will be one of the hottest years since 1850, as heat-trapping emissions continue to boil the planet.

Earlier this month, data from Copernicus warned that 2025 is currently tied with 2023 as the second-warmest year on record, with the global average temperature from January to November 2025 hitting 1.48°C above preindustrial levels.

2024 remains the hottest year since records began, and the first to exceed 1.5°C over the 1850-1900 baseline.


An hour ago, about 4pm, we came back from a long lunch with relatives, lit the wood-burner and by 5pm the room temperature was already 2°C higher than when we arrived. Yet somehow we don't feel doomed even though the temperature is still climbing.

Two conclusion are possible. Either we are immune to such a scorching rise in temperature or we are immune to Met Office twaddle.

As an aside, I wonder how many Met Office folk are bored with this tedious twaddle? Will some of them finally admit it during the latter stages of the Christmas party?

Don’t join anything

Make of this chap what you will, but it's an interesting video. For example, Sir Keir Starmer is a member of the Law Society and the Labour Party, we are told he's a member of the Fabian Society, we know he's a fan of Davos, and he clearly possesses a range of ideological talismans.

What is left of the man?

When Christmas card lists become shorter

I've just discovered that a relative by marriage died earlier this year. We hadn't seen each other for years and he never mastered email, although we did exchange Christmas cards. It's that time of life I suppose, where the Christmas card list seems to become a little shorter each year.

I've always assumed that the tradition of sending cards would go out of fashion, but card shops still seem to flourish and supermarkets still stock them.

My father had a simple approach after Mum died - he didn't bother with cards at all.

Actors vote

Actors vote for industrial action over AI concerns

Equity members voted overwhelmingly to refuse digital scanning in a move which could have big implications for the UK film and TV industry.

Actors have voted overwhelmingly to refuse digital scanning on set in a bid to secure adequate AI protections.

Equity - the UK's largest acting union - announced the results of an indicative industrial action ballot on Thursday.

Ah but how do we know they are real actors and not AI avatars protesting about their careers being blocked by human actors? Anyhow, Max Headroom has this to say -

Always 30 years away

UK step closer to 'limitless' energy after AI breakthrough

Britain has taken a major leap towards harnessing limitless clean energy after scientists unveiled an AI tool that slashes the time needed to model complex nuclear fusion reactions from days to mere seconds. Researchers at the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) have developed GyroSwin, a groundbreaking artificial intelligence model that simulates turbulent plasma behaviour up to 1,000 times faster than traditional methods - and at a fraction of the cost...

Fusion has long been dismissed as "always 30 years away", but recent milestones - including record energy outputs at facilities like JET in Oxfordshire - have renewed optimism.


Hmm - 'targeted for the 2040s' may not be 30 years away but sceptics are likely to stick with scepticism for now. Unlike fusion power, scepticism works.

The age of un-natural selection

Andy Myers has a serious/entertaining FSB piece on the future of human evolution. Well worth reading and while reading it is useful to remember a few of the strange people pretending to be UK political leaders, celebrity 'experts' or media 'personalities'.  


The Domestication of Humanity

How AI and technology are quietly rewriting evolution

We bred wolves into pugs. At some point, someone looked at a majestic predator and thought, “What if it had a snub nose, a wheeze, and couldn’t survive a gentle breeze?” Fast-forward a few generations and voilà—a creature designed purely to delight, not to endure.

And now, having reshaped the animal kingdom in our image, we turn the lens inward. What happens when we begin to breed ourselves—not with scissors and genes only, but with the quiet, persistent selection pressures of convenience, code, and comfort?

Welcome to the age of un-natural selection.

Premium content

Free TV licences for benefits claimants under Labour plans

The prospect of the potential handout comes as Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, faces criticism for failing to get more Britons off benefits and into work, with spending on benefits on course to hit £378bn by 2029-30.

Elsewhere in the consultation report, which comes at a time of crisis for the broadcaster, it was suggested the corporation could raise money with a “top-up subscription service” offering premium content, including repeats on iPlayer.


Anyone with even a few molecules of scepticism in their constitution is bound to wonder if 'premium content' includes Panorama. 

It probably won't include 'BBC Parliament' though. The average daily viewing time for that programme as logged by Barb for July was three seconds. Even BBC Scotland managed ten seconds.

Check Every Word

Another Fine Mess

Another fine example of the lunatic complexities of UK taxation. Maybe Rachel from Accounts will spend it wisely. Ho Ho Ho.

Morrisons on brink of £17m bill after losing court battle over rotisserie chickens

Morrisons could be hit with a £17m bill after losing a lengthy legal battle over its rotisserie chickens. The UK supermarket chain has been fighting a 13-year dispute in court to prevent value added tax (VAT) from being added to the chickens. However, the UK High Court ruled on Thursday that the product should be subject to the charge of 20%, as it falls under the category of hot food.

Morrisons argued that its rotisserie chickens should be exempt from VAT because the product is typically eaten cold or reheated later in the day. But, the ruling on December 11 said that the supermarket chain sold the items in packaging for hot food with a label which reads: "Caution: Hot Product".

A chap is bound to wonder

A chap is bound to wonder which randomised double-blind trial with a placebo control this advice was based on. 

Well okay - a chap inclined to be sarcastic might rhetorically wonder -

Super flu: Get jab to protect grandparents, urges London chief nurse

Londoners were urged to get the flu jab to protect grandparents from catching the virus during the Christmas period.

The plea came from London’s Chief Nurse Karen Bonner who warned that the super flu was still sweeping throught [sic] the capital.

The downhill push continues

There is little sign of the EU learning anything worth learning - this downhill move seems certain to cause yet more loss, pain and friction. 

From Blackout News - AI translation of the original German.

EU plans its own corporate taxes to cover increased spending

The EU Commission is directing its course towards new corporate taxes to cover rising expenses. The step follows because several states are rejecting higher contributions. In addition, Brussels is striving for more EU own resources and is relying on structural reforms in the financial framework. Defence financing is also coming into focus as geopolitical risks increase. In addition, the Commission is planning stronger group levies in order to broaden the revenue base and reduce dependence on national budgets

Corporate taxes at the core of the EU's new financial strategy

The Commission defines large companies as the central source of future revenue. New corporate taxes are intended to enable more reliable financing and close the gap created by the rejection of additional contributions. In addition, other instruments are coming into focus: higher costs in emissions trading, stricter CO₂ offsetting and stronger corporate levies. These measures are intended to stabilise the financial framework without placing a greater burden on national budgets. However, representatives of energy-intensive industries warn of considerable risks and point to a weak construction economy. Companies speak of rising corporate levies, which are hardly sustainable in a recession.

The Hobbyist

 

Do We Need Government?

A couple of months ago, Tom Armstrong wrote a very interesting FSB piece on government and whether we still need it. As Armstrong says, it's a question which is rarely asked. 

A rarely asked question perhaps, but not that rare. It has probably crossed the minds of many people concerned about the strikingly ineffectual yet repressive nature of recent UK governments. During the covid debacle for example.

Do We Need Government?

For most of human history, political power was a matter of geography. The Crown or Parliament in Westminster was, to all intents and purposes, remote to the majority of the people. Decisions handed down from London might take weeks to arrive in Yorkshire, Cornwall, or the Highlands, and still longer to make their effects felt. Government was not simply remote in spirit, but remote in fact.

So is it not strange that in an age when a message can travel the globe in less than a second, we still cling to a centuries-old model of centralised power? Why, in an era of instant communication, decentralised finance, instant communication and artificial intelligence, do we persist in allowing a handful of ministers - career politicians – and an army of arrogant mandarins in Whitehall to run the lives of seventy million people, often in ways the vast majority of those millions disapprove of?

So here I ask a question hardly never asked: Do we still need “government” as we know it? Is the centralised State, with democracy heavily qualified by the inaccurate word ‘representative’, its archaic practices, bloated bureaucracy and self-perpetuating ‘elite’ anything more than an anachronism, a hangover from horse-and-carriage times? And could we, the people, using modern technology, do a better job without it?

The whole piece is well worth reading, not because anything is likely to be done in this direction, but because the question is fascinatingly useful as a way to skirt well-worn paths. An idea to drop into conversations at Christmas perhaps.


So, do we still need government? Not in the form we inherited from the days when a journey from London to York consumed a week. Not in the form that treats free citizens as subjects, and a handful of politicians as monarchs in all but name. We need rules, yes. We need order, yes. But we do not need rulers. We do not need a permanent, parasitic class of officials to run our lives. The tools of liberty are already in our hands: digital platforms, decentralised systems, AI safeguards. The only missing ingredient is courage. Courage to say: the age of government is over. The age of citizen rule has begun.

And here we are

Woman becomes first person in the UK to win legal battle using AI law firm

A woman has become the first person in the UK to win a legal battle using an AI "law firm."

The healthcare worker, who had a stellar performance record, felt helpless when bosses placed her on a Performance Improvement Plan. Unable to afford a solicitor, she turned to Grapple Law – the UK’s only legal practice for individuals fully operated by bots. In just a few weeks, her case was resolved and she won £30,000 – without a tribunal or human lawyer in sight.


In the 1960s my father worked in what is now called IT when computers were huge machines tended by engineers permanently on site. Decades ago he predicted that computers would one day do the work of lawyers.

And here we are.

My, how times have changed....

 

It's the carnival of mediocrity and ineptitude again

Greens plan to punish male members who correct women

Men who correct women could face disciplinary action under plans being considered by the Green Party.

Party bosses are considering a proposal to broaden the Greens’ definition of misogyny to the point that “any disagreement” between the sexes could lead to the man facing a sanction.

The revelation is included in an internal 53-page report on legal and reputational risk to the party, which has been leaked to the Telegraph.

"I may be guilty in my own eyes...I like being guilty in my own eyes...Kraft, forgive me for talking nonsense. Tell me, surely you don't belong to that circle? That's what I wanted to ask."

"They are no sillier than other people and no wiser; they are mad like every one else..."

"Why, is every one mad?" I asked, turning towards him with involuntary curiosity.

"All the best people are mad nowadays; it's the carnival of mediocrity and ineptitude and nothing else...But it's not worth talking about."

Fyodor Dostoevsky - A Raw Youth (1875)

Green Spat Spending

Green's splash out '£190,000 on legal battles' as leaked dossier exposes huge internal trans row

The Green Party has been spending huge sums of money on legal battles and disciplinary investigations, as a leaked 53-page dossier has exposed deep internal divisions over transgender ideology.

The confidential report was compiled by the party's own legal advisers and warns of significant legal and financial dangers facing leader Zack Polanski's movement.


Surely a spot of hypnotherapy would be much Greener and more sustainable than spending all that Green money on legal wrangles.

Keir should stand up to 'unreliable ally' says unreliable Ed

Keir Starmer should stand up to 'unreliable ally' Donald Trump, Ed Davey says

Sir Keir Starmer should be prepared to have a Love Actually moment and stand up to Donald Trump, the leader of the Liberal Democrats has suggested.

Sir Ed Davey said the Prime Minister should take a more robust stance against the US president who has proven himself to be a “totally unreliable” ally.

Strange chaps, Ed and Keir. Ed Davey seems to have no intention of ever venturing beyond the politics of stunts and playground rhetoric. It's jet skis and falling off paddle boards every time with Ed, but maybe the real puzzle is that people vote for him. 

Or maybe it isn't a puzzle. Perhaps Lib Dem voters are ahead of the game and already know that political leaders are actors and merely part of the show, not people anyone should take seriously. 

Ed delivers that quite well, the 'don't take me seriously folks' act.

Even Wronger Growth

Revealed: Economy shrank 0.1% in October amid budget leaks chaos

The latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures, released on Friday morning, show that the economy unexpectedly contracted in the month leading up to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ November budget.

That period saw a flurry of leaks over potential tax cuts being eyed up by the Chancellor.

Ms Reeves has admitted the leaks were "very damaging".

The GDP figure for October falls below the 0.1% growth that analysts had been expecting.


Time to run the figures through the Reeves-Starmer Adjusteramer™

When certainty requires ignorance

Alex Story has a fine Critic piece on the deliberate promotion of ahistorical politics by the UK Labour party as a way to evade responsibility for past damage caused by its totalitarian ideology.


Taking down the past

The ahistoricism of Labour’s leaders is worse than ignorant. It is deliberate

As Goldfinger observed: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action”. It is a good observational rule, not least to judge our political rulers by what they do rather than what they say.

Early in October 2024, Keir Starmer removed the portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh from 10 Downing Street. Both were painted in the late sixteenth century, a handful of years after the defeat of Spain’s Philip II and his Great Armada.

Both were old hat. After all, fighting for England’s religious and cultural survival is rather reactionary and potentially “far right” now that hoisting your country’s flag on a pole in your own country could earn you a police visit.


The whole piece is quite short and well worth reading, if only because Labour Party ignorance is so easily dismissed as stupidity rather than a cover for yet another dose of totalitarian failure.


Knowledge, truth and their pursuit require cautious discernment and love of the subject; their absence demands revolution. We are faced by the latter, while yearning for the former. Being ahistorical means never taking responsibility for the devastation your ideology and its many permutations have left and will leave behind. Such certainty requires ignorance. It is a totalitarian shield, enabling politicians to bray mendacious and accusatory slogans without shame and to which to acknowledge popular sentiments to “turn the clocks back” is anti-progressive and anathema.

Our Greatest Shortcoming

 

The Wrong Growth

'A generation's future is at risk': PwC warns on youth unemployment

Jake Finney, an economist at PwC, said: ‘The UK youth jobs market has deteriorated sharply, the steepest decline in the G7.

'Young people account for over half the rise in unemployment since mid-2022, despite making up under a fifth of the working-age population. Young workers have inevitably felt the squeeze.

‘They are concentrated in entry -level roles, leaving them more exposed than colleagues with longer tenure.’

It is not easy to say something new about a UK Prime Minister and his Chancellor of the Exchequer who slithered into their wholly undeserved roles loudly promoting economic growth as their primary economic goal before stifling with policies obviously inimical to growth. 

'Stupid' doesn't work as a complete description even though it is stupid. It has been clear from the Tony Blair years that UK governments do not see their role as being wholly defined by UK interests and the interests of UK voters. For them, that's history book stuff.

Soft skills

Defra agency seeks software to help improve ‘communication and soft skills’ of farm inspectors

Animal and Plant Health Agency, whose responsibilities include monitoring wellbeing of livestock and ensuring standards are met, is interested in software that could help prepare for encounters with angry farmers

The government body responsible for regulating and enforcing animal welfare laws has unveiled plans to invest in software that could help frontline inspectors improve their people skills.

An outsider is bound to wonder why the public sector is so fond of referring to its staff as 'frontline'. It's not likely that anyone believes it, although Defra inspectors probably believe it when confronted with angry farmers. Even so, the farmers are 'frontline' if anyone is.

The same outsider is also bound to wonder if anyone is seeking software to help improve Keir Starmer's people skills. He's frontline too - for now.

David Cameron sounds alarm

David Cameron sounds alarm over British brain drain

Former Prime Minister Lord David Cameron has expressed concern about the exodus of British entrepreneurs and talent, warning that the UK government needs to set aside ‘other goals’ and prioritise business growth.


We don't need no stinkin' talent.
 

Weak and decaying

'Weak' and 'decaying': Donald Trump gives withering verdict on European allies

The US president gave his bruising assessment of Europe's leadership, criticising them for immigration and failing to end the war in Ukraine.

Donald Trump's bruising assessment of Europe as "weak" and "decaying" is a bitter blow to nations already reeling from the release of his national security strategy.


Oh dear, 'a bitter blow' suggests they didn't know what has been obvious for years, Europe is weak and decaying. An aspect of it is that European elites won't admit and get to grips with it, but the first step is acquiring the moral strength to admit it. Won't happen though.


Life was a dark, insoluble mystery, but whatever it was, strength and weakness were its two constituents. Strength would win--weakness lose.

Theodore Dreiser - The Financier (1912)

Mr Starmer the Steward

As Keir Starme grinds through his temporary stint of pretending to be UK Prime Minister, it must seem to him as if he is involved in the operations of Something Globally Important, even though he isn’t important enough for that - it operates him. 

The satisfaction of being Prime Minister today cannot reach the same level of satisfaction of a Gladstone or a Disraeli as they played the Great Game.

Today, Keir Starmer’s role is more akin to a senior servant’s position over a century ago, such as head steward managing the estate of a Great House towards the end of the nineteenth century. 

He has his own desk by the fireplace in the steward's office, a good quality coat passed on to him by the previous lord of the manor and the use of a horse from the stables.

Mr Starmer the Steward is his position. He rides around the estate on his horse, tells peasants why their rents have gone up, why their fences can’t be mended this year and why they can’t collect any more wood from the estate because the trees are to be felled. Times are hard for the Great House.

What the head steward doesn’t tell the peasants is that the best days of the Great House ended years ago and the place is to be sold and turned into an international hotel and leisure facility. 

But the peasants have suspected this for a long time.

It's TTTTK

Now PM joins TikTok ahead of China trip - despite platform being barred from government devices

Keir Starmer has joined TikTok as he prepares for a crucial trip to China - despite the site still being restricted on government devices.

The PM has launched an account on the fast-growing social media platform with a video of himself and wife Victoria in Downing Street.

It shows Sir Keir awkwardly urging people to 'follow me' as he goes out of the famous black door to turn on the Christmas lights.

Sir Keir 'awkwardly urging people'? He does everything awkwardly... as far as we know.

On a more serious note, China does seem to be the Establishment's government model. Not in detail but in terms of a determined focus on comprehensive control by a more formally defined upper echelon.

Labour Together... except Keir

Labour group asks members who they would back in leadership challenge

The think tank that ran Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership campaign is canvassing party members on candidates to replace him, in yet another sign of trouble for the beleaguered prime minister.

Labour Together, a think tank previously run by Sir Keir’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, asked activists this weekend for their opinions on Labour leadership contenders amid growing concern over the direction of the government and devastating approval ratings...

Alongside Sir Keir, eight Labour politicians were named, including cabinet ministers Wes Streeting, Shabana Mahmood, Bridget Phillipson, Ed Miliband and Darren Jones.

Also listed were former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell.

Makes grim reading, dredging a worthwhile leader up out of that lot seems unlikely. Yet maybe there are one or two who think Labour has something to prove because Keir Starmer doesn't appear to accept even that. 

Oh well, at least it should be entertaining.

Yellow Lines

 

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Silly

A problem with the UK Net Zero policy is that the whole policy is silly. There are many other words, but one of the apt words for Net Zero is 'silly'. AI says this about the word ‘silly’.

Silly is primarily an adjective used to indicate a lack of common sense, awareness, or judgment. It can describe actions, ideas, or behavior that are considered foolish, weak-minded, nonsense, or trivial in nature .

In summary, silly is a versatile English word used to describe foolishness, triviality, childishness, or playful behavior, with a long historical evolution from meanings of happiness and innocence to modern-day uses in everyday speech .


The silliness of Net Zero leaves sceptics with the tedious problem of having to go further than the obvious scientific, technical and economic deficiencies of the whole policy. Because it is an official UK government policy with its own senior cabinet minister it is necessary to reiterate the practical futilities over and over again, year after year. That's the silliness being silly.

Yet Net Zero is still silly, bone deep, down to the marrow silly.

Looping back to various meanings of the word ‘silly’, the policy lacks common sense, awareness and judgment. It exhibits ideas, and behaviour which are foolish, weak-minded, nonsense and trivial in nature. Net Zero is silly, but we can’t leave it at that.

The Great Green Grab

Tom Armstrong has a good, solid FSB piece on what he calls The Great Green Grab.

The Great Green Grab: How £28 Billion of Your Money is Being Spent on a Fairy Tale

A lesson in lunacy: Picture the scene. It is a grey December morning in 2025, and the energy regulator Ofgem has just delivered the nation its latest Christmas present: permission for the electricity and gas companies to spend £28 billion of our money upgrading gas pipes and power pylons over the next five years. The press release is thick, of course, with the usual cant; “future-proofing,” “resilient,” “net zero by 2030”. The accompanying photographs show smiling ministers, wearing wholly unnecessary hard hats, standing in front of turbines the size of Big Ben. The average voter, already paying some of the highest electricity bills in the world, is supposed to cheer.

Do not cheer. What has just been announced is one of the largest acts of state sanctioned larceny in British history, dressed up as salvation. And it rests, from first brick to last, on a fantasy we are invited to accept without question: that the climate ‘emergency’ is so pressing that we must bankrupt ourselves to appease it. Suppose, just for a moment, that the emergency is a mirage – and it certainly is – and compound of hysterical computer models, grant-hungry academics, and politicians in search of a noble purpose and good jobs when they retire or get kicked out. From that vantage point, the £28 billion looks less like an investment and more like the greatest confidence trick ever played on a developed nation.

The whole piece covers familiar ground but is well worth reading. Sooner or later the lunacy has to be nailed as lunacy even if those responsible slink off into another lucrative scam. As they probably will.

One day, perhaps sooner than the modellers think, the public will ask the question that should have been asked years ago: if the climate is truly in peril, why are we the only ones prepared to freeze in the dark to save it? When that day comes, the £28 billion will stand as a monument not to foresight, but to one of the most expensive outbreaks of collective delusion in our island story.

Until then, keep an eye on your direct debits. They are about to go up again. And rebel.

I miss her

Starmer: Rayner will return to cabinet – I miss her

In a wide-ranging interview, Sir Keir also insisted that he had no intention of stepping aside before the next election.

He said: “When I took over the Labour Party, everyone said to me, ‘you’re not going to be able to change the party’. We ignored that and carried on.

“Then they said to me, ‘you’re not going to be able to win an election’. We got a landslide Labour victory. Now, 17 months into a five-year Labour term, they say ‘you’re not able to change the country’.

“Every time we’ve been in this position, we’ve defied them. And that’s what I intend to do.”

Team Starmer must think it's safer to have Seaside Ange on the inside rather than the outside, especially as she is seen as a fan of trade unions and Unite is threatening disaffiliation from the Labour Party. 

Apart from this we seem to have the maniacally intransigent twaddle Starmer usually emits during interviews. There is no point in sifting through it for some kind of worthwhile meaning, he doesn't shape his twaddle like that.

It leaves a question hanging in the political air though - who shapes Starmer's twaddle? Why would the man wish to come across as more than a little bonkers, so much so that it tends to obscure the Fabian backdrop? Perhaps because he really is bonkers.

Police Cars

 

Adrenaline Crumble

Tower of London closed after protesters damage Crown Jewels display

Four protesters have been arrested after custard and apple crumble was thrown at a display case containing the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London.

Take Back Power, which describes itself as a new non-violent civil resistance group, claimed it was behind the act as it called for a citizen-led assembly that has the power to tax the rich.

Footage shared by the group showed one demonstrator removing the large foil tray of crumble from a bag and then slamming it against the glass protecting the Imperial State Crown.


There isn't much point trying to make sense of what these 'demonstrators' say as it is almost certain to be nonsense, but maybe what they do is a clue to an adrenaline hit they are seeking. 

There does seem to be an increasing trend towards engineering situations which generate a surge of adrenaline and this is certainly one of those. Crumble and custard are merely props. 

In a wider sense it's not uncommon either, we see similar behaviour in all kinds of social situations at many different levels. One explanation for habitual lateness is that some people get an adrenaline hit from rushing around while still failing to get to work or a meeting on time.

The crumble and custard stunt is perhaps nothing more than a reminder that some need a bigger adrenaline hit than others. In this case, a day in court should provide another one.

Riven with irrationality

Tony Blair ‘planning major intervention’ over Labour’s future

Sir Tony Blair’s think tank is said to be pulling together a policy plan to “save the Labour party” amid frustrations over Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership.

The former prime minister is reportedly looking carefully at a number of candidates for leadership campaigns as reports in The Times suggest he is dissatisfied by the direction of Sir Keir’s government.

Sources said November’s Budget had “killed any idea this is a Blairite or New Labour-like government”, adding Sir Tony had all but “given up” on attempting to influence Starmer over recent months.


So Tony Blair expects to have his clammy hand on the Labour tiller but Starmer isn't responding. Not a huge surprise, but it is interesting if Blair has all but “given up” on attempting to influence Starmer over recent months. It reinforces something we've seen for quite a while - Starmer is absurdly intransigent.

Also interesting is that Blair has chosen to point out what sane folk have always known, the supposed basis of Ed Miliband's energy policy is "riven with irrationality". It's worse than that, but it's a start.

Sir Tony said in a TBI report: “People know that the current state of debate over climate change is riven with irrationality … any strategy based on either ‘phasing out’ fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail.”

Silly games

Revealed: Streeting’s pact with Rayner to gain keys to No 10

Wes Streeting’s allies are pressing Angela Rayner to sign up to a “joint ticket” for the Labour leadership, The Telegraph can reveal...

A source close to Ms Rayner said: “There is no vacancy and there is no pact.

“Amidst all the stirring and silly games, Angela is focused on representing her constituents and ensuring that this Government delivers. Angela is made of tough stuff and she will not be played like a pawn.”

We know those silly games will have been fermenting away for a while now, it's an inevitable outcome of the situation. A useless, charmless and unpopular prime minister with no leadership skills and a poisoned chalice as the glittering prize for the schemer who replaces him.

Oh well, it's grey and drizzly here in our corner of Derbyshire. Seems about right.

Labour’s chaos again

Steven Mulholland has a very interesting CAPX piece on the way UK Labour party chaos is disrupting the building industry, particularly in relation to plant hire.


Labour’s chaos is holding back Britain’s builders

• The Government's infrastructure ambitions are drifting further from reality
• Construction activity has seen its steepest fall since the pandemic
• Labour have left builders guessing on tax, skills policy and investment rules

Today’s S&P UK construction data should set alarm bells ringing in Number 10.

Construction activity across housing, commercial and civil engineering has seen its steepest fall since the pandemic, with new orders nosediving and employment declining for eleven consecutive months.

This is not a natural cooling of the market. It is the predictable consequence of a policy environment that has become more expensive, more uncertain and harder for businesses to navigate. Instead of giving firms the stability to invest, recent decisions have weakened confidence across the construction supply chain at exactly the moment Britain needs it to be firing on all cylinders.

The whole piece is well worth reading as yet another example of severe problems with a lack of relevant experience within government decision-making circles. Or, as so often seems to be the case, a complete absence of relevant experience.

This combination of rising costs and tax uncertainty has created a perfect storm. When firms cannot predict future liabilities or trust the stability of the policy environment, they pause. And that hesitation is exactly what the S&P construction data captures: falling output, shrinking order books and a sharp drop in optimism – now at its lowest point since 2022.

1 in 4 Canadians are now Bureaucrats

I haven't checked the numbers quoted here, but a country which saddles itself with Mark Carney as Prime Minister after a spell of Justin Trudeau's posturing may well be headed in the basket case direction. 

Twaddle(1.0) Revised to Twaddle(1.1)

Major study on catastrophic cost of climate change retracted - but revised figures remain alarming

The study originally predicted that climate change would trigger a decrease in global income of 19 per cent by 2050. Revised analysis now puts the figure at 17 per cent.

Authors of the study also found that there was a 99 per cent chance that by midcentury it would cost more to fix damage from climate change than it would to build resilience. However, the new analysis, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, lowered that figure to 91 per cent.


Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves seem to be well on track to reduce UK incomes by 19 per cent much earlier than 2050. A substantial UK overshoot seems more likely by 2050, or would that be a substantial undershoot?

Keeping it simple

Desperate 'Rural Red' Labour MPs vow to 'get Reeves out before Christmas'

Fraud And Liberal Myths

Christopher F. Rufo has an interesting City Journal piece on the Minnesota welfare fraud story, showing how high the media bar can be for anyone attempting to expose welfare fraud and those who allow it to happen. Worth reading.


The Somali Fraud Story Busts Liberal Myths

Mass immigration, antiracism, and the welfare state lead inexorably to fraud.

There is a moment when every news story either achieves lift-off or tumbles back to the earth. Having covered a few that drove national headlines, I’ve discovered there is no universal formula for which ones hit the stratosphere, and which do not.

Our recent story detailing Minnesota’s Somali fraud rings has been one of the lucky ones, achieving liftoff in record time. City Journal reporter Ryan Thorpe and I summarized a decade of Somali fraud schemes that stole billions of taxpayer dollars, some of which ended up with Al-Shabaab terrorists back in Somalia. These were sophisticated criminal enterprises that exploited Minnesota’s generous welfare state, deployed accusations of racism to deter scrutiny, and looted the public treasury until local prosecutors did the hard work to bring them down.

Your Party is a far left farce

Ben Sixsmith has an entertaining Critic piece on the farce that is Your Party.


Your Party is a far left farce

Radical socialists are a compelling argument against their own ideas

Well, thank God Your Party is not our party.

I should eat some humble pie. “It is easy to write off Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s political party,” I wrote in August. I should have stopped there. For all my musings about how Corbyn “upended British politics once and … has the power to do it again”, it has become very, very easy to write off the party now officially called Your Party.

Comically so.


The whole piece is well worth reading as we need some entertainment to worm its way into UK politics, even if it is only provided by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. As Ben Sixsmith says, radical socialists are a compelling argument against their own ideas. 

We could go further and strike a more sombre note though - radical socialists are a compelling argument that far too many voters are absurdly gullible.


“We need to nationalise the entire economy,” Sultana was saying in interviews. Well, of course! Who wouldn’t want to give the people who have built an organisation as functional as Your Party massive amounts of power? It makes all the sound good sense of investing in Enron in November 2001.

These people are the most compelling argument for libertarianism. I would not go that far myself, perhaps, but the hubris of people who think that they could organise an economy when they could not even organise a football match on a field next to a ball factory makes it tempting.

Lineker says

Lineker says BBC has 'tied itself up in knots' over impartiality rules

Asked whether he sympathised with the BBC over its handling of the Trump saga, Lineker told the London Standard: “The BBC is still the most trusted and respected media organisation on the planet.

“I don’t know what led them to do what they did. They didn’t even need to. I suspect it was just some kind of error. I can’t imagine anyone thinking, ‘If we put that there it makes him look worse.’”


Members of the jury, this is not a complex case, it may be summed up via two comparatively simple lines of evidence.

You have heard the defence prove without a shadow of doubt that the prosecution evidence was fabricated and the defendant Mr Donald Trump did not say the words the prosecution alleges he said. This falsified evidence is the whole basis of prosecution case, without that it falls to the ground.

You, members of the jury may think this conclusive and the defendant has no case to answer. However, the prosecution has received a late claim by Mr Gary Lineker, a former footballer and for may years a sporting celebrity employed by the prosecution to give his opinions on football matches.

This additional prosecution evidence is that Mr Lineker does not like Mr Trump.

Therefore members of the jury, it is clear that you must weigh the balance of evidence. On the one hand the incontrovertible evidence that the prosecution case rests on falsified evidence, on the other hand the equally incontrovertible evidence that Mr Gary Lineker does not like Mr Trump the defendant.

Members of the jury, it is for you to weigh that evidence

Starmer and his "chaotic world"

Britain must not shrink back from ‘chaotic world’, says Starmer

Britain must not shrink back from a “chaotic world”, Sir Keir Starmer has said as he underlined his commitment to internationalism.

In his annual Guildhall speech on foreign policy, the Prime Minister accused opposition politicians of offering a “corrosive, inward-looking attitude” on international affairs.

Taking aim at those who advocate leaving the European Convention on Human Rights or Nato, he said they offered “grievance rather than hope” and “a declinist vision of a lesser Britain”.


Oh come on man, have a go at making sense for once, it isn't that difficult. If we don't shrink back from that "chaotic world" are we supposed to join in? Would staying out of the international chaos count as a “corrosive, inward-looking attitude” on international affairs?

Oh and doesn't your party base its entire political philosophy around “grievance rather than hope”? Hasn't it pursued this outlook from its inglorious Fabian beginnings?

As for “a declinist vision of a lesser Britain” - that's your personal political philosophy isn't it Sir Keir? That's your globalist, Trotskyite outlook on view again.

Misconduct in a Public Office

Interesting video by barrister Steven Barrett. He mansplains, as he puts it, the crime of misconduct in a public office.

COP17

Claire Lemaire has a useful Brussels Signal piece on COP17. 

EU wants money from ‘oil-rich countries’ for biodiversity ahead of COP17

The European Union is aiming for “financial commitments from oil-rich countries” to support global biodiversity efforts ahead of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17), scheduled in Armenia in 2026...

Analysts say the EU’s push reflects recognition that relying solely on traditional donors will not meet the targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework.

COP17 in Armenia will test the international community’s ability to bridge political divides and unlock finance from unconventional sources.


Of course this is not the other COP17 to be held in 2026 in Ulaanbaatar the capital city of Mongolia, although coincidentally they want money as well.

COP17, set for 2026 during the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) — declared by the United Nations General Assembly and championed by Mongolia — will build on efforts to promote the sustainable management, restoration and conservation of rangelands.

Wrong oaks from little acorns grow

When bureaucratic planting schemes go wrong, an entertaining story from Blackout News - AI translation of the original German.


False oaks planted - compensation forest for A14 to be cut down again

A large-scale mixed forest near Gardelegen is on the verge of closure - and only six years after its planting. The reason: The oaks planted there do not come from the legally prescribed zones of origin. Although the young trees look healthy and have grown well, their clearing is now threatened. This compensation area, created because of the expansion of the A14, was actually a symbol of ecological responsibility. But now this is developing into a bureaucratic dilemma, growing citizen protest, rising costs and massive criticism of forestry policy...

In the affected mixed forest, there are hardly any problems. The oaks have taken root deep into the dry Altmark soil. Other species such as the European beech, a close relative of the oak, are also developing positively. So far, the area has fulfilled its function as a near-natural compensation area for the infrastructure project.

According to forestry authorities, however, the planting does not meet the legal requirements – a classic case of incorrectly delivered seeds. The question of guilt is therefore directed against the contracted company. In case of doubt, this must not only pay for the damage, but also provide replacement areas.

A picture paints...

 

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