A Litany of False Claims

Robert Bradley Jr. has a useful and interesting MasterResource piece on years of broken "clean energy" promises in the US.


False Optimism, Broken Promises of Wind and Solar Advocates

“… I also know this credit won’t go on forever. It was never meant to, and it shouldn’t…. I have expressed support in the past for a responsible, multi-year phase out of the wind tax credit. But…”

– Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), an original author of the 1992 Production Tax Credit (PTC)

Special government favor has propped up solar power since the 1970s and wind power since the early 1990s. One decade turning into the next, the (not-so) “clean energy” lobby has repeatedly made promises that their technologies are, or soon will be, competitive with electricity generated from natural gas, petroleum, or coal.

Documentation of this failure is well reported here at MasterResource and by the Institute for Energy Research. This particular post reproduces in large part a 2015 piece by the American Energy Alliance (IER), “Wind Fail: 20 Quotes for 30 Years of False Hopes.”

A Litany of False Claims

It turns out that wind promoters like Sen. Grassley and AWEA have long made claims that wind would soon be cost competitive and that the PTC would not be needed forever. Here are of some of their claims over the years:

The whole piece is well worth reading as the optimism is just as false, the promises just as broken here in the UK.


Conclusion

The American Wind Energy Association surely knew in 2015 that their claims about wind being cost competitive were untrue. Without the PTC, no one would build wind turbines. As Warren Buffet said, “On wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.”

Labour’s dishonesty has become intolerable

Joseph Dinnage has a useful CAPX reminder of Keir Starmer and Labour's underlying problem, dishonesty. Incompetence too, they aren't even competent at hiding the dishonesty. 

A familiar issue of course, but the whole piece is well worth reading because as Dinnage says, the dishonesty is becoming intolerable. Intolerable? This suggests some kind of major upheaval may be lurking on the political horizon, quite apart from the May elections.


Labour’s dishonesty has become intolerable

• Between Peter Mandelson's sinophilia and Chris Pincher's wandering hands, we've suffered sleaze for too long
• Keir Starmer will ultimately leave Britain in an angrier and materially poorer position than when he found it
• Whoever leads Britain into the next decade must be guided by one principle above all: honesty

It takes a special kind of political crisis to make a right-winger agree with Diane Abbott.

As Keir Starmer faced MPs on Monday over his appointment of renowned sinophile and friend of Jeffrey Epstein Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US, Abbott struck at the heart of the Prime Minister’s weakness. Portraying himself as feeling as hurt, betrayed and confused as the rest of the nation, Starmer insisted time and again that he believed due process had been followed. But as the Hackney MP pointed out, ‘ordinary people don’t really care about process and procedure, they want transparency and they want to know that they have confidence in the words of elected politicians’.

She’s absolutely right, and at one time Starmer seemed to think so too.

No way Lammy wasn’t told

No way Lammy wasn’t told Mandelson failed vetting, says former foreign secretary

Exclusive: In an interview with The Independent, former foreign secretary James Cleverly sets out the reasons why ministers must have known Peter Mandelson had failed his security vetting

It is “inconceivable” that Sir Keir Starmer and David Lammy were not told about Peter Mandelson failing the security vetting process for the role of US ambassador, a former foreign secretary has claimed, amid growing accusations that the prime minister scapegoated the head of the Foreign Office in order to save himself.

Describing his own recent experience, Sir James Cleverly, who was foreign secretary from 2022 to 2023, said: “I cannot envisage a universe where someone senior in the Foreign Office wouldn’t have sat down with the foreign secretary and said something to warn about this.”

Hmm, so the highest Ministers in the land are not entirely truthful. 

Queen Anne is dead too apparently.

2 + 2 = 5

Ed Miliband says Labour will 'fight people's corner' on energy costs - but not how

The energy secretary has told Sky News that the government will "fight people's corner" as the war in Iran threatens a fresh energy price crisis.

Mr Miliband said: "We're going to fight people's corner... when it comes to the effects on them. That's why this week, we've been saying to the petrol retailers, the heating oil companies, we're not going to tolerate price gouging. We're not going to tolerate unfair practices.

 

Edward Samuel Miliband 

May well have a political component

German state broadcaster lies about Fukushima deaths

On the 15th anniversary of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Germany public broadcasters have been caught misrepresenting the almost 20,000 people who died in the catastrophe as victims of the Fukushima “nuclear catastrophe”.

That is despite the fact that that just one death was caused by the incident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, according to Japanese officials...

The tendency of German media to misrepresent the tsunami victims as casualties of a nuclear disaster may well have a political component.

The lies may well have a political component eh? Must be troublesome for folk who expect state broadcasters to be apolitical, not so much for those paying attention to these things.

The Ed Stone

Found! The Ed Stone


 

Source

Talk of Ed Miliband replacing Sir Keir Starmer has reminded me of the famous Ed Stone of six policy pledges signed by the then Labour leader and unveiled by him in Hastings and Rye to a bemused electorate on the eve of polling day in May 2015. The two-ton, 8ft 6in limestone slab was intended to sit in the 10 Downing St garden, with its pledges covering the economy, NHS and immigration controls serving as a reminder to a Miliband government of its core purposes.

Fake Flagship Footage

Liars: German national TV caught using AI images of fake ICE arrest

Germany’s ZDF public broadcaster has come under fire over an episode of its flagship heute journal news programme after it emerged it broadcast an AI-generated video clip to illustrate alleged brutality by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

The footage, clearly bearing the watermark of OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video tool, was used without proper labelling as synthetic content, prompting accusations of journalistic malpractice and fuelling wider debate over the use of generative AI in news reporting...

Viewers quickly noticed the prominent Sora watermark superimposed on the footage, a telltale sign that the material had been created by OpenAI’s generative video platform rather than captured in reality.


Surely public broadcasters don't strengthen their political messages by resorting to faked footage? 

Whatever next?

Liar Lies Shock Horror

No 10 denies Reeves 'lied about £21bn black hole' before budget

Rachel Reeves has been accused of “lying” to the public about the state of the country’s finances to justify £26 billion in tax hikes announced in her Autumn Budget...

But it has since emerged that Ms Reeves made those comments just days after receiving a letter from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) stating that the economic outlook had improved and that, rather than a deficit, she in fact had a £4.2 billion surplus.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the letter showed Ms Reeves had "lied to the public" and was “bribing Labour MPs to save her own skin”, as she called for her to be sacked.


Does it matter? This is Rachel from Accounts being criticised here. Nobody with even a modest degree of acumen is likely to pay attention to her tedious mendacity.

She emits economic numbers no moderately alert person would ever believe. She concocts facile strings of reasoning which aren't likely to convince a single MP, journalist, grounded observer or even a BBC presenter.

Nobody paying attention is surprised, shocked or even particularly interested. Rachel from Accounts is widely known to be habitually dishonest, so nobody who knows anything is listening to her within the framework of mendacity she erected. Her verbiage is reported because stories still have to be churned out, but that's it.

Only one more step

Reeves blames Brexit, austerity, Farage and the Tories as she admits tax rises ARE coming in Budget


'Wake-up call' for Britain as top climate advisers issue starkest warning yet


Only one more step down the rabbit hole then we can't go any further with the silly lies. In which case, perhaps the next scare story has to be something like -

'Wake-up call' for Britain as Brexit, austerity, Farage and the Tories have caused climate change.

Should please Farage

Keir Starmer ‘planning to blame Nigel Farage and Brexit’ for budget tax hikes

Sir Keir Starmer is reportedly gearing up to blame Nigel Farage and Brexit for Britain’s expected downturn in productivity at the Budget, as part of a new attack on the Reform UK leader.

Treasury officials are bracing for the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to lower its forecasts for productivity growth – a downgrade that is likely to create an extra shortfall of around £20bn at November’s Budget. The shortfall is expected to be filled by a swathe of tax rises.

But sources told The Times Sir Keir and chancellor Rachel Reeves are planning to argue that this downgrade would not have happened were it not for Brexit, pinning the blame on the Reform leader for leading the campaign to take Britain out of the EU.

Should please Farage, but it's all very weird. An acute lack of credibility is a problem Starmer created and nurtured by habitual mendacity, leading to obvious political consequences which presumably he didn't foresee. 

One consequence is that nobody paying attention is likely to believe anything Starmer or Reeves say about the economy and tax rises. Even Remainers must know they aren't sources to rely on. 

May as well blame goblins.

Trust me

Bosses hit out at PM's 'nonsense' that Labour had 'stabilised the economy'

Business leaders last night rounded on the Prime Minister over his claim that he is backing them ‘to the hilt’ as grim figures laid bare the pressures firms face...

Starmer told the conference: ‘We’ve stabilised the economy, and now we can go on to the next phase of government, building on that foundation, building a future of renewal that you can feel.

'And that means, of course, that we have to back you to the hilt – trust me, I’m fighting for you.’

The problem we face is that the headline is right, Starmer does talk nonsense.

The other problem we face is that his eventual replacement will talk nonsense too.

Nothing will ever change

Liz Truss has a useful Critic piece on how so many politicians fail to offer serious analysis of past failures. It's also a reminder that political mendacity is failing, but nothing will change until this is accepted. At the moment we merely see more and more of it. 


What Mel Stride should really be apologising for

The Conservative Party failed when it rejected change

There are few more fatuous acts in public life than a politician attempting to curry favour with voters by apologising for something for which they had no responsibility at all or opposed in the first place.

These acts are all the more preposterous when they fail to offer any serious analysis of the matter in question or gloss over inconvenient facts which would provide the public with a fuller and fairer account of what really happened.

So it was that we were treated to a brazen display of the genre on Thursday when Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride trooped along to the RSA (motto: “regenerating our world through collective action”) to trash my 2022 Growth Plan, otherwise known as the Mini Budget.


The whole piece is well worth reading as another pointer to the difficulties in the way of worthwhile political change and how unlikely it is that this will change.


Until Mel Stride and his allies admit the real economic failings of the last Conservative Government, the British public will not trust the party with the reins of power again. He should be repudiating the globalist, leftist agenda they pursued which has dragged our country down with the Conservative Party as collateral.

What is needed — and fast — is an acknowledgment of those failings and the need for wholesale reform of how our country is governed. Because nothing will ever change so long as the existing broken system and its acolytes remain in control.

Numbers Game

Rachel Reeves to cut 10,000 civil service jobs in effort to lower government costs

Rachel Reeves has promised the UK’s economy and living standards will improve, as she pledged to cut running costs of government by 15% and civil service jobs by 10,000.

She said she was “not satisfied with the numbers that we see at the moment”, telling Sky News: “It’s not possible within just a few months to reverse more than a decade of economic stagnation, but we are making the changes necessary to get Britain building again, to bring money into the economy.”


A cut of 10,000 civil service jobs is substantially less than natural annual turnover, so effectively it's a freeze on recruitment for a few months. I remember those. 

Will anyone notice? Probably not, it's a political number, not an item of useful information, as even Rachel from Accounts must know. 

The number employed by the civil service is now 34% higher than its minimum in 2016, and only 3% less than its most recent peak in 2005.

The rise and rise of the imaginative CV

Business Secretary claimed he was a solicitor... despite never qualifying

Jonathan Reynolds has been accused of fabricating his CV after it emerged he repeatedly described himself as a solicitor despite never qualifying...

He also told the Commons in 2014 that he “worked as a solicitor in Manchester city centre” before switching careers.

In fact, he didn’t qualify for the title because he never finished his training contract, having quit the course in 2010 to run for Parliament.

An enterprising person would start a betting book on CV "mistakes" by MPs for future elections, especially as CV claims seem to be more and more blatant. There are loads of possibilities -

A CV claim to have been an astronaut. 

A CV claim to have been kidnapped by aliens.

A CV claim to be a giraffe.

A CV claim to have advised Elon Musk. 

A CV claim to be an AI system.

Yes, lots of possibilities.

Trashing a reputation

It is remarkable how quickly Keir Starmer acquired a reputation for habitual dishonesty. It wasn't acquired recently and the story below is already one of many. Online comments all over the media suggest there are many people who do not trust anything Starmer says.

Yes it's only politics, but politicians generally make some attempt to avoid trashing their reputation this quickly. Almost as if Starmer and co. have not yet realised that political reputations are no longer defined within mainstream media, or even within national borders.   

'Fudging the facts!' Starmer accused of 'pretending' he attended state school by former pupil

Peter Lampl, a former Blair adviser and founder of the education charity Sutton Trust, slammed the Prime Minister over his VAT tax raid on private schools, arguing that the policy has denied less well-off students the same opportunities afforded to Starmer when he was younger.

During their school days, Starmer and Lampl both attended Reigate Grammar, a self-acclaimed leading independent school for boys and girls aged between 11 and 18.

When Starmer first joined, the school was funded by the council but became an independent school just two years later. The local authority agreed to cover the fees for students who had joined before the switch and, soon after, Starmer received a bursary when he started sixth form.

Starmer's fellow alumnus Lampl, whose charity aims to transforms thousands of young lives, wrote: "I don’t pretend the school we went to was a state school, Starmer does. But he is fudging the facts.

"I am helping young people to benefit from an education that made all the difference to me, Starmer is destroying the opportunities to have the same chances he had."

Addressing previous questions about his schooling, the Prime Minister said: "As far as I was concerned, I started school as a 'state boy' and I finished as one too."

Even that's a lie

Starmer: No regrets about decisions I’ve made

Sir Keir Starmer has said he has no regrets about the decisions he has made in the past six months and would do nothing differently.

The Prime Minister made the comments as he answered questions from the liaison committee of senior MPs from all parties for the first time.


Of course he has regrets, being the worst ever Prime Minister was never his ambition. Another regret must be his inability to spend every minute of his time flying around the world on endless meeting tours.

He's the mediocre lawyer who shouldn't be there and the whole world knows it. He can't do the job, doesn't know what his next move should be, probably isn't looking forward to Christmas, probably isn't looking forward to 2025, doesn't know if he'll still be PM by the end of another year of serial blunders and can't trust any of his colleagues.

Of course he has his regrets - or he's mad.

Quick - change the targets

Starmer ‘sidelines’ flagship pledge to make Britain fastest-growing nation in G7

Sir Keir Starmer will “sideline” his flagship pledge to make the UK the fastest-growing economy in the G7 this week when he unveils new targets to make British people richer.

The Prime Minister’s pre-election promise is already under threat, with the US economy growing twice as quickly as the UK and a tax-hiking Budget lowering medium-term forecasts.

This week, as part of a new “Plan for Change”, Sir Keir will reveal different economic targets aimed at improving living standards by the next general election.

Hmm - economic targets aimed at improving living standards by the next general election eh? Here are a few suggestions, although it's really too easy.

Reduce taxation.

Acknowledge the crucial role of the private sector. 

Reduce immigration to achieve a closer match between house building and population.

No hurty words policing.

Halve university intake.

Make the BBC subscription only.

Ditch Net Zero.

Ditch Ed Miliband.

BBC goes to subscription only in 2025.

Genuine reform of the NHS.

First world roads without potholes.  

Rachel Reeves sacked.

Keir Starmer resigns.

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.

We need some of that

From Tony Heller's video description -

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

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.