What has happened to global warming?

Like evolution deniers who comically cannot even agree on which fossils are ape and which are human, those who deny global warming use contradictory arguments.

Tell me if there is anyone out there who denies global warming without one day denying warming is happening then the next day when confronted with the news that 2010 is the hottest year on record globally, argue warming is happening but is natural because the dinosaur era was tropical, then flit back to the first argument again about warming not happening the day after. Sometimes they even put both contradictory arguments in the same post using the cold northern hemispere weather these last few winters and the snow in particular as 'proof' that warming cannot be happening. These contradictions should at least make you 'anthro-glo-warm' deniers pause for thought.

It isn't really that difficult to comprehend - CO2 and methane are greenhouse gases and human activity is pumping these gases into the atmosphere at an unprecedented rate causing 'the speed of global warming' to be without precedent and human activity the only reasonable answer to why that is happening so quickly. The distant past may have been hotter but the 'rate' of warming was slower so any sunspot activity would have had a much more gradual effect. That's it, a simple school chemistry lesson that was delivered long before the global warming debate.

So why the snow in the UK? Well if we actually believe our geography lessons at school were not also part of 'the great conspiracy of the global warming swindle', then the temperate climate of the UK is because despite being as far north as Moscow, we have predominantly south west winds off the atlantic, a gulf stream of water from the carribean that hits our coast and a smaller land mass which means we are cooled in the summer and heated in the winter keeping our climate temperate, i.e. without the extremes seem in Moscow and elsewhere on our latitude. In the past when the earth was cooler, the UK south westerlies could still be cold enough for snow, now only north winds bring snow but crucially it seems that maybe north winds are becoming more common. The jury is out on that, but it could be that the UK could lose its south westerlies and gulf stream and potentially its temperate climate. You see global temperatures are rising despite the colder UK winters. This means of course that elsewhere is baking. Ask Australians?

Murdoch Must Be Laughing His Head Off

Oh dear, it seems Mr Cable's heart was in the right place after all. He has told a female constituent or so he thought, that he had 'secretly' declared war on the Murdoch empire, now thanks to this Daily Telegraph undercover reporter, the Tories have the excuse they need to allow Murdoch to expand unhindered. Ironically the Telegraph as a Murdoch rival tried to bury the story...apparently.

Umm..I wonder. Maybe because I read the net too much, I am starting to see conspiracies everywhere. Tory paper helps Tories help right wing mogul...well you never do say.

Who Will Hold The Tories To Account?

Whatever Labour did in power, at least you knew the right-wing press would scrutinise every inch of policy and give a critique (but only from a right-wing perspective of course).

The left-wing media is too weak to have a sizeable impact in attacking the Tories and the right-wing press have the Lib Dems as the fall guys for any unpopular government policy, making it almost impossible to make a hit on Cameron and co.

As Jackie Ashley in the Guardian puts it, Cameron can just smile and screw us over without any comeback at all.

The Tories will have us believe that the best way to help the poor is to take money and public services away from them. This they say is fair, progressive and will help social mobility. The Lib Dems under Clegg after campaigning against this ideology in the election have now taken it on full tilt. The cuts to services are 'progressive' and will help the poor, they too now say.

Not since the 1930s have such policies been so wholeheartedly propounded. Yet the public have been persuaded, Labour seem weak and ineffectual, our electoral system is broken and our press is mostly owned by four rich Tory party donors. Where can the real opposition come from? This is where the protests can fill the gap. They are the ONLY current opposition to these policies. Good luck to UKUNCUT and anyone else who takes on these chancers.

The Lib Dem Case For Fees.

There are 3 main Lib Dem arguments for voting in favour of the new fees; 1. the new fees are more progressive than at present. 2. the deficit needs cuts and why should students be spared? and 3. 'There is no alternative' to increased fees.

1. is actually true (though debts are larger, monthly payments will be less because of the higher 21k threshold and loans are written off earlier) though it is sort of besides the point when university/college grants face 80% cuts and a lot of 'lesser' Universities that are full of working class students will close as a result and the scrapping of the allowance to 16-17 year olds - the EMA is particularly mean to the poorest.

2. and 3 are complete b***shit.

2. Public sector expenditure on welfare, health, education, transport and other public services are still below the European average. Only on law and order and defence does the UK spend more, and what a surprise that a Tory led government has spared the MoD from the largest cuts. Until 2008 Labour had cut the national debt it inherited from the Tories, only when taking on the £1.4 trillion private sector debts of the banks did public sector debt balloon.

3. Increasing student fees is a political choice, why not cut winter fuel payments or bus passes instead? Or better still why not find the £83 billion of cuts in extra taxes on the richest 50% of the population who have 93% of the country's wealth around £8 trillion at current market capitalisation (thats £8,000 billion - a 2% tax on land values market cap. of £4 tr. would raise £80bn).