Where next for climate change ?
As regular visitors to these pages over recent months will know, it is rare for Pericles to say anything in a vehement tone.
To-day’s subject however is so important — to the well-being not only of residents of the British Isles but also to those in the far flung corners of the Earth, many of whom will have no access to a computer, many of whom will be largely illiterate — that he departs from his usual conciliatory demeanour.
To-day Pericles urges you to read Prof. Hal Lewis’s letter of resignation from the American Physical Society — an organization once thought of as amongst the greatest bodies (if not indeed the greatest) in the field of physics.
Prof. Lewis’s letter is set out in full at Pericles’s own site, together with his commentary.
Ski helmets have a lesson for us … on ‘localism’
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Boris Johnson rails against the centralization of power that has caused the cost of government to rise like a rocket, saying the sensible way forward is to simplify and devolve.
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In an article in The Daily Telegraph Boris Johnson admits — despite the economic rigours the population generally is suffering — to going ski-ing. He does claim in mitigation that it was a cut-price affair with, as he puts it, “home-made sandwiches for lunch, washed down with eau de robinet”.
It is not, he says, just that he loves ski-ing and is addicted to hurling himself down the slopes and that his children are quite keen. A collateral purpose drove him to take this vacation : journalistic research.
Boris urges Chancellor, “Explain how you will cut taxes ?”
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph to-day, reports political editor Andrew Porter, Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, expresses himself shocked by the levels of income tax, saying he never thought he would see the day when other large European countries had lower rates of personal taxation than those in Britain. He fears this high taxation is harming her competitiveness.
In the face of criticism that high taxation is harmful to Britain’s global competitiveness the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer have been vague in assuring critics of their intention to lower it ; Mr. Osborne has refused to cut the 50-per-cent. rate on highest incomes — instituted by the Labour government — despite being urged that, although it acts as a disincentive to the entrepreneurial creators of jobs and economic activity, it generates little extra revenue for the Treasury.
Quotes of the week …
… ending 25th. September 2010
As he accepted the leadership of the British Labour Party at its annual conference Ed Miliband said —
“I get it and I understand the need to change. I need to unify the party and I will.”
Boris Johnson to run for Mayor in 2012
To-day’s announcement by Boris Johnson of his intention to seek a second term as Mayor of London will be welcomed by many Londoners and come as a huge relief to the current leaders of the Conservative Party. A recent discussion of the question “Should Boris return to Parliament ?” prompts a well-wisher to offer —
Some Suggestions
Background
For some time a popular, although little organized, movement has been proposing the adoption of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, as leader of Conservatism in the u.k. Let us first consider the reality of the situation.
Some years ago David Cameron, either off his own bat or at Mr. Johnson’s suggestion, stood for election to leadership of the Conservative Party (c.p.) ; his period as leader of H.M. Opposition was reasonably successful and, as 2009 drew to a close with a general election just six months away, the c.p. looked set to take power, after thirteen years, by a margin that brought to mind the days of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
Mr. Cameron however, although enjoying general popularity, espoused many ideas decisively unpopular not only with swing voters but even with the core supporters of the c.p. : most of all the subjugation of the British parliament to the profligate and unaccountable European Union (e.u.) and — in line with the vast majority of the scientifically illiterate body politic — the supranational anthropogenic-global-warming fraud.
On May 7, when the votes had been counted, the consequences were clear : as the electorate had come to realize just how close these critical policies of the c.p. were to those of not only the Liberal-Democrats but even the retiring Labour administration, the vital marginal support the c.p. had enjoyed at the turn of the year had evaporated.
The beneficiaries ? The U.K. Independence Party ; perhaps the British National Party ; in all likelihood, however, the greatest winner of the lost ballots was the ‘none of the above’ party. I suspect even the Liberal-Democrats benefited from the fact that there was nothing to choose between them and the c.p. in the two most important matters before the British people. (“The Conservatives are no different from the Liberals : might as well let the Liberals have a go. They can’t do any worse, can they ?”)
Labour, despite having presided over the most disastrous phase of British history since the Civil War, managed to turn its own vote out ; despite their strenuous efforts, c.p. workers — under the burden of the product they were having to sell — could not match their opponents’ performance.
