Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Kyoto, Red Ken and Government theft

Politics with a samll 'P' and Kyoto are the only things that have raised even a flicker of interest this morning.
There is a piece on the comments page syndicated from the Independent about the trade of carbon credits. It kicks off with 'Red Ken' Livingstone, now London's mayor, (how the hell did that happen whilst I was out of the country) trading carbon credits with Los Angeles. It then goes on to try and explain the business that has grown up around the trade in this snake oil of the twenty first century. To be frank the details were lost on me so serpentine were the nuances of perception as to what people were doing that I gave up trying to completely get my head around it. With China, most of the US and Australia, among others, very sensibly ignoring Kyoto the whole thing is just an exercise in futility. But there are a lot of people, principally in Europe, making a lot of money trading this vapour ware (pardon the pun) as if it were beef, butter or bauxite. Just wish I'd thought of it first - like I wish I'd thought of velcro, catseyes or bottling drinking water.
Colin James writes a piece on 'where to next' for Uncle Helen in the face of the ongoing maelstrom of trouble that seems to follow her like a bad smell. This a few pages on from an article about the money and the pledge cards. The latter first. This story is set out on the same page as a piece about a woman who has to repay about $3000 of benifit to WINZ after they (WINZ) had made an error. She now works in some capacity advising other beneficiaries on managing their money and tells us that the WINZ track record for wiping debt is not a long one. The Headmistress, not two columns to the left (how apt) is crying foul saying that if it is found that they have to pay back the election card pledge money its all not fair as 'they' are changing the rules after the final whistle. No prizes for guessing which sum of money gets repayed, the $3000 or the $448000. Meanwhile back on A10 Mr James reinforces my assertion that the damned woman with the facial assymetry is very good at what she does. He lays out in black and white why the Philip Field business has been handled as it has (this for those who are terminally stupid), points out that the current two week recess in Parliament has come at just the 'right' time for the incumbents and gives some clues as to what rabbits the tenth floor might soon pull from their hats to ensure that Labour cariies on for a fourth term. This includes things like Cullen promising 30% rate of business tax (which won't be anything of the sort once you read the fine print, I'll be bound), and various rebranding of more of their odious view of the world. Believe them and vote for them and our headlong slide backwards down the developing country league table is assured.

No comments: