It was caused by my orthopedicaly unwise habit of walking back from the supermarket with three bags of shopping in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Unfortunately I worked this out while walking back from the supermarket carrying three bags of shopping in one hand and a cigarette in the other so my shoulder is back to being painful.
As I walked past our favourite PCSO on the way home the local burglars somehow got tipped off to the fact I'd been shopping so once again tried to steal the food out of the outside freezer. Sadly for the poor fellow he was disturbed by one of the foxes forcing him to escape over the wall back into his garden just as I was coming out of the house. The fox however took off over the wall after him, chased him back inside his house and has spent the last hour howling outside his back door.
I think that just about demonstrates the Croydon networks place in the food chain when not even the foxes are scared of them anymore.
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
Xmas Injuries
Following in a long and proud history I have once again managed to wound myself during the Christmas holidays. This year I managed to trap a nerve in my shoulder whilst sitting on a sofa next to a physiotherapist who was no help whatsoever. Sadly that is not code so whilst the pain has subsided the shoulder is still stiff with limited mobility. As it was my right shoulder and my right shoulder is my writing shoulder when I came to write a full post on the Boston plane bombing the words just wouldn't flow. I will of course add flesh and colour to the story at some point next year however in the meantime the skeleton argument is as follows;
False flag operation carried out by MI6. Adulmattah recruited as a sleeper back in 2001 but went a bit wonky. Therefore transferred to a "terrorist" training camp in Yemen/Amen. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are connected to Al Qaeda like Al-Muhajiroun are linked to Al Qaeda. As with everything else the Brits do the why is still a bit of a mystery but I think it's fair to say that Britain wants it's Empire back
Elsewhere grandmother off on one once again. If you happen to catch her on her night time manoeuvres I suggest you remove her to the nearest police station where she can be detained under the mental health act. It's the humane thing to do.
False flag operation carried out by MI6. Adulmattah recruited as a sleeper back in 2001 but went a bit wonky. Therefore transferred to a "terrorist" training camp in Yemen/Amen. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are connected to Al Qaeda like Al-Muhajiroun are linked to Al Qaeda. As with everything else the Brits do the why is still a bit of a mystery but I think it's fair to say that Britain wants it's Empire back
Elsewhere grandmother off on one once again. If you happen to catch her on her night time manoeuvres I suggest you remove her to the nearest police station where she can be detained under the mental health act. It's the humane thing to do.
Akmal Shaikh Executed
Today (29/12) China executed a 53 year old British Muslim named Akmal Shaikh after he had been convicted of drug smuggling. Apart from being a Muslim Mr Shaikh also had a history of mental health problems and habit for randomly sending long, rambling and delusional emails. According to his family Mr Shaikh had flown to China thinking that he was going to launch a pop career and release a truly terrible song called Come Little Rabbit which he believed would lead to world peace. Unfortunately for Mr Shaikh the people who recruited him in Poland and arranged for him to fly to China put 4kg of heroin in his luggage. This meant that on his arrival in China in 2007 he was promptly arrested for drug smuggling. Since then the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) have made no fewer then 27 representations to the Chinese government over the case in order to not only discuss Mr Shaikh's religion but also his mental health, his strange emails and his desire to become a pop star.
Rather then being an innocent pawn who was duped by criminals to smuggle drugs into China Mr Shaikh was an innocent pawn who was duped by MI6 to get caught smuggling drugs into China in order to open a dialogue between Britain and China. In short Britain were trying to trade on my reputation without my permission.
Sadly for Britain and Mr Shaikh the Chinese lost interest in the game and carried out the death sentence which is the price you expect to pay if you are caught smuggling drugs into China. The execution is particularly humiliating for Britain because it not only highlights how utterly impotent they are in international diplomacy it also shows that MI6 cannot protect their agents in the field. Britain has responded to this embarrassment by making a big show of summoning the Chinese Ambassador in London to the FCO and complaining how disgusted they are at China's inhumane treatment of a man with mental health problems because they know that ultimately there is nothing they can do about it. Besides when Britain encountered the same man with the same mental health problems their first instinct was to stuff his luggage with heroin and fly him to China.
The only comfort I can find in the whole sorry story is that in death Akmal Shaikh has finally been set from from the great evil that possessed him in life.
Rather then being an innocent pawn who was duped by criminals to smuggle drugs into China Mr Shaikh was an innocent pawn who was duped by MI6 to get caught smuggling drugs into China in order to open a dialogue between Britain and China. In short Britain were trying to trade on my reputation without my permission.
Sadly for Britain and Mr Shaikh the Chinese lost interest in the game and carried out the death sentence which is the price you expect to pay if you are caught smuggling drugs into China. The execution is particularly humiliating for Britain because it not only highlights how utterly impotent they are in international diplomacy it also shows that MI6 cannot protect their agents in the field. Britain has responded to this embarrassment by making a big show of summoning the Chinese Ambassador in London to the FCO and complaining how disgusted they are at China's inhumane treatment of a man with mental health problems because they know that ultimately there is nothing they can do about it. Besides when Britain encountered the same man with the same mental health problems their first instinct was to stuff his luggage with heroin and fly him to China.
The only comfort I can find in the whole sorry story is that in death Akmal Shaikh has finally been set from from the great evil that possessed him in life.
Sunday, 27 December 2009
So Anyway the Detroit Airline Bomber.
That was blatantly MI6 flying the false flag there. The exact network they used and their purpose for doing so is something that I will have to reveal in the sober and organised version that should appear sometime later in the week.
Until then somewhere amongst the chaos and carnage of Christmas morning I had an epiphany. That was that my father is faking or creating symptoms of my grandmother's illness in order to draw attention to himself. Although I need to do some research that seems to be a classic presentation of Munchausen's by Proxy syndrome. Therefore henceforth my father and his activities shall be known as the adventures of Baron Von Munchausen..
Until then somewhere amongst the chaos and carnage of Christmas morning I had an epiphany. That was that my father is faking or creating symptoms of my grandmother's illness in order to draw attention to himself. Although I need to do some research that seems to be a classic presentation of Munchausen's by Proxy syndrome. Therefore henceforth my father and his activities shall be known as the adventures of Baron Von Munchausen..
Police, Police Everywhere Police
Despite being on my absolute best behaviour this Christmas I got to spend and inordinate amount of time with the police.
Last night a repeat of the "My grandmother got brought back by the police at 03:00" story was narrowly avoided when she was brought back by a member of the public at 01:00. This was totally predictable and was in fact predicted by me last Tuesday. Therefore I stand by my original statement that Croydon PCT with the endorsement of the British Crown are purposefully denying my grandmother essential medical treatment in order to make her condition worse and possibly kill her. If anyone feels that is libellous I strongly advise them to sue me so we can get the matter resolved through the proper legal channels if such a thing has ever existed in Britain.
On Christmas morning itself a Croydon Police van spent a good hour parked directly outside my house while my mother was round to collect my brother, my sister and I. If this was meant to be an intimidation tactic then it failed miserably because it meant I was able to leave the presents piled high in my mother unlocked car relaxed in the knowledge that no-one would dare steal them.
On Christmas night I was coming back through the Blackwall Tunnel at around 23:30 when 2 possibly 3 unmarked 4x4's came tearing past with sirens blazing and blue lights flashing. At the time I didn't think much about it but the next day I realised it was probably the Anti-Terrorist squad or possibly the SAS* on their way to raid the London apartment of the Detroit plane bomber. Either that or it was just staged to give me that impression. A similar thing happened last year when travelling down a road called Jews Walk I was confronted with a wrecked and burnt out car. The day that Operation Cast Lead was meant to begin this created the obvious and slightly anti-Semitic joke; "Jews Walk, because they can't f**king drive!"
As for the Detroit plane bombing itself while it is blatantly obvious that it was not an Al Queada terrorist plot the accused has clearly been sponsored by either a state or non-state actor with large resources. Until I have had the chance to check my facts I wouldn't like to hazard a guess as to who because if it is who my instincts think it is then the whole thing's going to get very hot very quickly.
The most exciting encounter with the police though came on December 23rd when both my father and I went out to do some last minute Christmas shopping. While we were both out a Croydon Police car stood guard over the empty house. This was a local response to a national news story that broke earlier in the day. 1980's pop star, Boy George was in court seeking permission from the probation service to appear in January's Celebrity Big Brother. The court refused permission creating the headline; "Boy George Banned from the Celebrity Big Brother House." This was an attempt by the Brits to be seen to be warning the Croydon network not to attempt to try anything over the Christmas break. This of course was just a public relations move made on the back of a two part gamble;
1. The Croydon Network would ignore the very public warning and carry on allowing the Brits to label them as rogue civilians creating plausible deniability. Using Boy George as the metaphor was meant to help this end because it's basically calling the Croydon Network gay in front of their mates down the pub. That's the sort of thing you would expect to make a homophobic person very angry and liable to do something stupid.
2. The amount of damage that has already been done to my grandmother should be making my life incredibly stressful. This allows the Brits to step back from the situation and deny any involvement in the situation.
On December 23rd i also picked up a letter from the Office of Public Guardians OPG over power of attorney stuff. It was actually meant to arrive in the middle of the final week of the Copenhagen summit but I was able to sit on it for a while. I haven't actually opened the letter yet because be good news or bad I won't be able to do anything about it until the new year so there's no point me worrying about it until the new year.
*Although they had blue flashing lights and were moving at some speed they were like no police cars I've ever seen before.
Last night a repeat of the "My grandmother got brought back by the police at 03:00" story was narrowly avoided when she was brought back by a member of the public at 01:00. This was totally predictable and was in fact predicted by me last Tuesday. Therefore I stand by my original statement that Croydon PCT with the endorsement of the British Crown are purposefully denying my grandmother essential medical treatment in order to make her condition worse and possibly kill her. If anyone feels that is libellous I strongly advise them to sue me so we can get the matter resolved through the proper legal channels if such a thing has ever existed in Britain.
On Christmas morning itself a Croydon Police van spent a good hour parked directly outside my house while my mother was round to collect my brother, my sister and I. If this was meant to be an intimidation tactic then it failed miserably because it meant I was able to leave the presents piled high in my mother unlocked car relaxed in the knowledge that no-one would dare steal them.
On Christmas night I was coming back through the Blackwall Tunnel at around 23:30 when 2 possibly 3 unmarked 4x4's came tearing past with sirens blazing and blue lights flashing. At the time I didn't think much about it but the next day I realised it was probably the Anti-Terrorist squad or possibly the SAS* on their way to raid the London apartment of the Detroit plane bomber. Either that or it was just staged to give me that impression. A similar thing happened last year when travelling down a road called Jews Walk I was confronted with a wrecked and burnt out car. The day that Operation Cast Lead was meant to begin this created the obvious and slightly anti-Semitic joke; "Jews Walk, because they can't f**king drive!"
As for the Detroit plane bombing itself while it is blatantly obvious that it was not an Al Queada terrorist plot the accused has clearly been sponsored by either a state or non-state actor with large resources. Until I have had the chance to check my facts I wouldn't like to hazard a guess as to who because if it is who my instincts think it is then the whole thing's going to get very hot very quickly.
The most exciting encounter with the police though came on December 23rd when both my father and I went out to do some last minute Christmas shopping. While we were both out a Croydon Police car stood guard over the empty house. This was a local response to a national news story that broke earlier in the day. 1980's pop star, Boy George was in court seeking permission from the probation service to appear in January's Celebrity Big Brother. The court refused permission creating the headline; "Boy George Banned from the Celebrity Big Brother House." This was an attempt by the Brits to be seen to be warning the Croydon network not to attempt to try anything over the Christmas break. This of course was just a public relations move made on the back of a two part gamble;
1. The Croydon Network would ignore the very public warning and carry on allowing the Brits to label them as rogue civilians creating plausible deniability. Using Boy George as the metaphor was meant to help this end because it's basically calling the Croydon Network gay in front of their mates down the pub. That's the sort of thing you would expect to make a homophobic person very angry and liable to do something stupid.
2. The amount of damage that has already been done to my grandmother should be making my life incredibly stressful. This allows the Brits to step back from the situation and deny any involvement in the situation.
On December 23rd i also picked up a letter from the Office of Public Guardians OPG over power of attorney stuff. It was actually meant to arrive in the middle of the final week of the Copenhagen summit but I was able to sit on it for a while. I haven't actually opened the letter yet because be good news or bad I won't be able to do anything about it until the new year so there's no point me worrying about it until the new year.
*Although they had blue flashing lights and were moving at some speed they were like no police cars I've ever seen before.
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Just To Avoid Any Confusion
I have no opinion either way over the Akmal Shaikh case. So if you read any hidden reference to it in my post that's your problem not mine.
Also during the short and frank discussion with my father over what to do with that dog he did refer to it as; "That friendly dog that comes over here all the time"
Also during the short and frank discussion with my father over what to do with that dog he did refer to it as; "That friendly dog that comes over here all the time"
Evening Update.
Against the advice I very generously gave my grandmother has been released from hospital. That is no great surprise because the problem with murderous scum is that they will continue to be murderous scum until you imprison them and not let them out until they've been rehabilitated. The justification given for kicking her out of her hospital bed was that there are no hospital beds availible. Although that's obviously not true even if it was then surely it would just be opening paragraph of the chief executive of the PCT's letter of resignation.
In preparation for my grandmother's return the charming people who have been letting their dog loose to terrify the cat and defecate in my grandmother's house decided to let the dog loose. The problem is they decided to this while I was still at home so I quickly caught the dog, tied it up and it's been taken to the pound. That means that if the dogs owners want their beloved family pet back over the Christmas period they'll have to go to the pound and sign a confession. That should make it impossible for even the most stupid Crown Prosecutor to fail to secure a conviction. Even if they decide not to collect the dog then at least I've rescued a dog from owners who clearly don't care about human rights.
In preparation for my grandmother's return the charming people who have been letting their dog loose to terrify the cat and defecate in my grandmother's house decided to let the dog loose. The problem is they decided to this while I was still at home so I quickly caught the dog, tied it up and it's been taken to the pound. That means that if the dogs owners want their beloved family pet back over the Christmas period they'll have to go to the pound and sign a confession. That should make it impossible for even the most stupid Crown Prosecutor to fail to secure a conviction. Even if they decide not to collect the dog then at least I've rescued a dog from owners who clearly don't care about human rights.
Grandmother Update.
She is still in hospital and because the brain bleed has stopped they're deciding to what do next.
Without going into detail it should now be blinding obvious to any health professional that she needs to be discharged to a respite care bed. They're not going to do that instead choosing to discharge her home where she will be unsafe.
The discharge should happen around 17:00. Before that I will have a talk with my father he see if he is prepared for once to be a man and simply refuse to take her home. However it will be hard for me to change the habit of his lifetime in under two hours so it will be probably be happening. In that case I think we need to look at everyone involved and ask if they should ever be allowed to practice medicine ever again.
Without going into detail it should now be blinding obvious to any health professional that she needs to be discharged to a respite care bed. They're not going to do that instead choosing to discharge her home where she will be unsafe.
The discharge should happen around 17:00. Before that I will have a talk with my father he see if he is prepared for once to be a man and simply refuse to take her home. However it will be hard for me to change the habit of his lifetime in under two hours so it will be probably be happening. In that case I think we need to look at everyone involved and ask if they should ever be allowed to practice medicine ever again.
Monday, 21 December 2009
The Fightback Has Begun.
After taking an almighty beating at Copenhagen the Brits are now making like a vengeful baboon sitting in their cage flinging any old s**t at passers by.
So far today this been the conviction of Hannah Saff for the killing of Sam Riddal in Bristol. In this story that I have written about extensively I am Sam Riddal and Hannah Saff is the fictitious MI5 handler who masterminded the Bristol Abuse Case. The purpose of the conviction and sentencing is to draw people into a dialogue and convince them that this fictitious character has really been punished and Britain is moving away for that sort of behaviour so should be forgiven. Of course that announcement is in direct contradiction to the evidence I can see on the ground but if the Brits are telling the truth I'm sure they won't any problem allow me to verify that guilty parties are indeed being punished.
Oh and you'll be glad to know that the Auschwitz sign was found early yesterday evening which is a relief. An MI6 soy ring operating freely in Poland, who would have thought it(!)
So far today this been the conviction of Hannah Saff for the killing of Sam Riddal in Bristol. In this story that I have written about extensively I am Sam Riddal and Hannah Saff is the fictitious MI5 handler who masterminded the Bristol Abuse Case. The purpose of the conviction and sentencing is to draw people into a dialogue and convince them that this fictitious character has really been punished and Britain is moving away for that sort of behaviour so should be forgiven. Of course that announcement is in direct contradiction to the evidence I can see on the ground but if the Brits are telling the truth I'm sure they won't any problem allow me to verify that guilty parties are indeed being punished.
Oh and you'll be glad to know that the Auschwitz sign was found early yesterday evening which is a relief. An MI6 soy ring operating freely in Poland, who would have thought it(!)
Sunday, 20 December 2009
Now That's Just Vicious.
Today the British Crown has forced Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, to go public with stories of how his father, a senior figure in the Irish Republican movement, sexually and physical abused his own children over many years. If the Irish Catholics are stupid enough to take this bait then it will unleash a hundred types of hell across Northern Ireland.
More importantly for me it has caused my father to sweat blood because it has sent the message to the world that for the abuse of my grandmother to stop and the crimes of the Croydon network to end then my father will have to confess to all sorts of sins. This is simply not the case because for Britan's debt to be settled the key man the Crown needs to bring down is our burglarising little friend. He will then confess in such a way as to incriminate the local housing association. This will then be used to prove that the Croydon funded housing association and the Croydon funded Primary Care Trust are indeed funded by the same agency and the prosecution will then beextended to other members of that same agency. If any other route is attempt then it will be clear that the Brits are simply snuffling for truffles like the dirty little pigs they are.
Apart from that Brittany Murphy is dead, Rage Against the Machine are number 1 and I'm drunk so bring on the porn.
More importantly for me it has caused my father to sweat blood because it has sent the message to the world that for the abuse of my grandmother to stop and the crimes of the Croydon network to end then my father will have to confess to all sorts of sins. This is simply not the case because for Britan's debt to be settled the key man the Crown needs to bring down is our burglarising little friend. He will then confess in such a way as to incriminate the local housing association. This will then be used to prove that the Croydon funded housing association and the Croydon funded Primary Care Trust are indeed funded by the same agency and the prosecution will then beextended to other members of that same agency. If any other route is attempt then it will be clear that the Brits are simply snuffling for truffles like the dirty little pigs they are.
Apart from that Brittany Murphy is dead, Rage Against the Machine are number 1 and I'm drunk so bring on the porn.
Tzipi Livni Arrest Warrant.
As previously mentioned last week a low level, local British court issued and arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli Foreign Minister and current leader of Israel's main opposition party. Rather then being a serious attempt to arrest Ms Livni this was merely a panicked attempt by a low level judge to discourage Ms Livni from attending a meeting of a small Jewish society in case it provoked a riot. Although the whole thing was pretty insignificant and probably best described as a farce I knew as soon as I heard about it that it had the potential to become a full blown international incident and it did not disappoint.
As soon as the high level Brits at the Foreign Office/MI6 worked out what their subordinates had done they responded by arresting a British, right wing activist known as Wigan Mike. Made famous by the Wigan V Tottenham soccer match Wigan Mike is considered to be a key player in English Defence League (EDL) and the arrest was made for using racist and abusive language at an EDL demonstration a few months ago. This type of offence is normally dealt with under the Public Order Act but this case was dealt with under the Anti-Terrorism Act to make the whole thing sound far more dramatic then it really was. Apart from promoting discussion within the British Establishment over the need for such comprehensive anti-terror laws the purpose of this move was two fold. Firstly it was to reassure the Israelis that Britain was still a friend of Israel by showing that it is prepared to get tough with Fascists. Secondly and most importantly it was an attempt to open a dialogue with the Israelis to find out what they were thinking when they sent Ms Livni to a meeting that could have provoked a riot in North London.
The Israelis decided to hide behind the Hanukkah holidays and ignore the question. This forced the Brits to speculate wildly by using a story about some junior players at Tottenham soccer club throwing a wild Christmas party against their managers orders. As Tottenham is soccer code for Jews this was another attempt to open a dialogue with the Israelis by suggesting that the Livni incident had been the result of some junior Mossad officers playing a practical joke rather then something more sinister. It still got no response from the Israelis though so on Friday someone stole the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign from above the gates of the Auschwitz death camp. This is where things start to get complicated because although it is in Poland the Auschwitz memorial/museum is something of an international zone administered by Israelis, non-Israeli Jews along with non-Jewish Poles, Brits, Canadians and Americans. On the face of it it looked as if the Germans had panicked and stolen the sign in order to force their way into the discussion between the Brits and the Israelis. In fact I think that the British element at Auschwitz, with the knowledge if not the consent of the Israeli element, made it look as is if someone had stolen then sign by cutting a hole in the fence. The purpose of this was to force a reaction out of the Israeli's, convince them that Britain was removing that sort of rhetoric from its politics while at the same time smearing the Germans and putting everyone under ever more pressure on the final day of the COP15 summit.
As soon as the high level Brits at the Foreign Office/MI6 worked out what their subordinates had done they responded by arresting a British, right wing activist known as Wigan Mike. Made famous by the Wigan V Tottenham soccer match Wigan Mike is considered to be a key player in English Defence League (EDL) and the arrest was made for using racist and abusive language at an EDL demonstration a few months ago. This type of offence is normally dealt with under the Public Order Act but this case was dealt with under the Anti-Terrorism Act to make the whole thing sound far more dramatic then it really was. Apart from promoting discussion within the British Establishment over the need for such comprehensive anti-terror laws the purpose of this move was two fold. Firstly it was to reassure the Israelis that Britain was still a friend of Israel by showing that it is prepared to get tough with Fascists. Secondly and most importantly it was an attempt to open a dialogue with the Israelis to find out what they were thinking when they sent Ms Livni to a meeting that could have provoked a riot in North London.
The Israelis decided to hide behind the Hanukkah holidays and ignore the question. This forced the Brits to speculate wildly by using a story about some junior players at Tottenham soccer club throwing a wild Christmas party against their managers orders. As Tottenham is soccer code for Jews this was another attempt to open a dialogue with the Israelis by suggesting that the Livni incident had been the result of some junior Mossad officers playing a practical joke rather then something more sinister. It still got no response from the Israelis though so on Friday someone stole the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign from above the gates of the Auschwitz death camp. This is where things start to get complicated because although it is in Poland the Auschwitz memorial/museum is something of an international zone administered by Israelis, non-Israeli Jews along with non-Jewish Poles, Brits, Canadians and Americans. On the face of it it looked as if the Germans had panicked and stolen the sign in order to force their way into the discussion between the Brits and the Israelis. In fact I think that the British element at Auschwitz, with the knowledge if not the consent of the Israeli element, made it look as is if someone had stolen then sign by cutting a hole in the fence. The purpose of this was to force a reaction out of the Israeli's, convince them that Britain was removing that sort of rhetoric from its politics while at the same time smearing the Germans and putting everyone under ever more pressure on the final day of the COP15 summit.
Update
My grandmother has been kept in hospital overnight for observation. Part of this observation involved preforming a CAT scan. This must've had the Brits positively erect with excitement up until the moment they realised that Alzheimer's tends to be a problem of electrical activity in the brain will a CAT scan monitors blood flow in the brain.
The CAT scan did reveal bleeding in the brain which is consistent with a head injury. My grandmother is to be kept in hospital while this bleeding is monitored and could possibly be transferred to a specialised head trauma unit. In the meantime they have taken her off the warfarin, blood thinning medication. That can only be a good thing because the warfarin was only prescribed to treat atrial fibrillation which is a heart defect that only became an issue when the local PCT were looking for an excuse not to perform a hip replacement as they were trying to inflict the maximum amount of pain possible on my grandmother.
The fact that we are now talking about head trauma means that we have now firmly crossed into the territory of a statistically significant risk of death. Therefore I can quite openly describe the Brits as behaving like Dr Mengele without risk of sounding melodramatic.
The CAT scan did reveal bleeding in the brain which is consistent with a head injury. My grandmother is to be kept in hospital while this bleeding is monitored and could possibly be transferred to a specialised head trauma unit. In the meantime they have taken her off the warfarin, blood thinning medication. That can only be a good thing because the warfarin was only prescribed to treat atrial fibrillation which is a heart defect that only became an issue when the local PCT were looking for an excuse not to perform a hip replacement as they were trying to inflict the maximum amount of pain possible on my grandmother.
The fact that we are now talking about head trauma means that we have now firmly crossed into the territory of a statistically significant risk of death. Therefore I can quite openly describe the Brits as behaving like Dr Mengele without risk of sounding melodramatic.
Saturday, 19 December 2009
Sorry for the Delay in my Last Post.
If truth be told then over last few days my grandmother has been in a very bad way. This culminated this afternoon when she fell over and cut her head open. As she is on blood thinning medication the bleeding would not stop. After several hours an ambulance was called and she was taken to the emergency room. I am now currently waiting to hear if she will discharged or admitted to hospital. This situation is purely the result of the local primary care trusts decision to revoke respite care. So just out of interest what is called when you deliberately deny someone medical attention in order make their condition worse or kill them?
This delay means that I won't be able to clear the backlog until tomorrow at the earliest. I do however owe the Brazilians and apology for my earlier apology. They did in fact sign up to the Copenhagen Accord which was my first instinct. However the BBC later reported they had not signed and because BBC news channel was the only one of four news channels on my TV that has been working for the last two weeks I had no way of confirming or denying that announcement. I apologise for any offence or confusion that may have been caused.
This delay means that I won't be able to clear the backlog until tomorrow at the earliest. I do however owe the Brazilians and apology for my earlier apology. They did in fact sign up to the Copenhagen Accord which was my first instinct. However the BBC later reported they had not signed and because BBC news channel was the only one of four news channels on my TV that has been working for the last two weeks I had no way of confirming or denying that announcement. I apologise for any offence or confusion that may have been caused.
The Copenhagen Accord.
Yesterday the COP15 Climate Change Summit came to an end with the recognition of the Copenhagen Accord which can be read here; http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/cop15/eng/l07.pdf
Given the high expectations that some people had placed on the Summit the fact that is has only resulted in an accord rather then a protocol could cause some people to accuse Copenhagen to be a failure or a waste of time. This is simply not the case. Copenhagen marked an important watershed in the worlds response to Climate Change. It's failure to reach a more robust agreement is more indicative of the failures of the COP summit process then Copenhagen itself. The past summits have been very wasteful with national delegates being more concerned with politics for the sake of politics then finding solutions to the problems. These failures have been the result of problems with attitudes of the main power blocks who between them represent almost 7bn people in 192 countries and often overlap. I hope you will excuse me then any crass generalisations.
The Royalists. Led by the British monarchy and its arc of influence across the world which included the United States during the Bush Presidency this groups attitude to Climate Change is the most problematic and hard to understand. Like Copernicus and the Catholic church in the fifteenth century this group will not even entertain the idea that Climate Change could be real and they will never allow the science to support the theory regardless of the reality. They are though very keen on the idea of large international summits to address Climate Change. This is because gathering all the countries of the world together in order to argue over an issue that cannot be definitively settled one way or another allows the Royalists to observe the local feuds and allegiances that bind the world together in order to use that knowledge to their advantage. Now that it is looking as if the climate change can be settled definitively highlighting the need to find a solution the Royalists are desperate to kill off the issue in case the solution threatens their power base.
The European Federalists. Basically these are the countries of the European Union like France and Germany. To confuse matters this group also includes the British government when it's made up by the Labour party. Although this group is more flexible then the Royalists on the existence of climate change their main priority is not to protect the environment. Instead they want to use the issue as a way to bind the world together through legally binding treaties and mechanisms of reporting and inspection. The conclusion of this process is to form a one world government. The only reason for doing that is to create a very powerful political job like World President for these career politicians to aspire to.
The Large Developing Nations. These are the countries like Brazil, India, Argentina and South Africa who although can't be described as developed nations have such sustained levels of growth that they are close to being reclassified. Although these nations are more at risk from climate change then their developed counterparts and some of them are beginning to feel its effects they, at the moment, lack the depth of political and scientific experience to convince the developed nations to take action. This is not helped by the fact that some of these nations sometime place more of a priority on using climate change summits to boost their emerging global status while others still use the issue as a way to trick money out of the developed nations in order to sustain their economic growth.
The Small Developed Nations. These are the tiny Island nations and borderline failed states of South America, parts of Africa and the Pacific's. Due to internal strife or simply tiny populations these countries are in no way equipped to engage scientifically or politically with the developed world. This forces them to rely on assistance from developed nations who are members of either the Royalist or Federalist groups. As such they are often unwittingly used as pawns in these groups larger political games. This is a shame because it is these nations who are the most at risk from climate change and some have already sustained so much damage that they are largely dependent on subsidies from developed nations. The perilous position that many of these countries are in means that they simply cannot afford to be patient while other nations argue. As result they sometimes end up vetoing good ideas because they don't understand their sometimes abstract importance.
China. Although China is a large developing nation their status as a Communist nuclear power means that the represent a separate group on the issue of climate change and strangely are the group I trust the most. This is because while the democratic world was allowing private interests to cloud the debate over climate change China was doing something that can only really happen in countries where the governments voice is the only voice allowed and the government alone controls the means of production. They took a long and impartial look at the science behind climate change and concluded that on the basis of the available evidence that it was more then likely that climate change is real and it is man made. This gave them a massive head start in developing green technology and incorporating it into the centrally organised development plans. The problem is that China is a country with massive and unwarranted inferiority complex that is currently engaged in a superpower battle with the United States. Therefore they want to use their advantage in green technology to increase their global dominance. Obviously America wants to buy time in order to develop it's own green technology to prevent this happening because while America continues to deny even the possibility of the existence of climate change its position in the world is slipping.
Against this backdrop of complicated and conflicting political interests that were being played out at a conference hosted by satellite Royalist faction the Copenhagen Accord is an almost unbelievably strong agreement. Not only does is accept the need to limit global temperature rises to 2C it commits developed nations to economy wide emission cuts and commits developing nations to put in place mitigation policies. At the moment these are independent commitments to be made at a national level but the accord does leave the way open for countries to make joint commitments. It also decides to pursue a market based mechanism to promote low carbon development (carbon trading) and accepts the immediate need to set up a fund to tackle deforestation in the short term. Importantly it pledges $30bn of fast start money to fund mitigation projects in the nations where they are most needed. Most importantly it declares the need for the accord to be reviewed by 2015 which paves the way for it to be significantly strengthened at the Mexico Summit in November 2010. However no-one is entirely satisfied with this accord and I am no exception. Apart from the obvious fact that is doesn't go anywhere near far enough I am worried that it seems to be used to justify a follow up summit in Germany in June 2010. There already will be another summit in Mexico in November 2010. As the pre-negotiations for this summit will take up most of the year I am not convinced that the German summit is needed and will probably only complicate preparations for the Mexico summit.
Despite all this I think that UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon was right when he described the accord as an "essential beginning." it's just a shame the world had to waste so much time to get to this point. The test now will be to see how many nations will be prepared to support the accord by pledging voluntary emission cuts.
Given the high expectations that some people had placed on the Summit the fact that is has only resulted in an accord rather then a protocol could cause some people to accuse Copenhagen to be a failure or a waste of time. This is simply not the case. Copenhagen marked an important watershed in the worlds response to Climate Change. It's failure to reach a more robust agreement is more indicative of the failures of the COP summit process then Copenhagen itself. The past summits have been very wasteful with national delegates being more concerned with politics for the sake of politics then finding solutions to the problems. These failures have been the result of problems with attitudes of the main power blocks who between them represent almost 7bn people in 192 countries and often overlap. I hope you will excuse me then any crass generalisations.
The Royalists. Led by the British monarchy and its arc of influence across the world which included the United States during the Bush Presidency this groups attitude to Climate Change is the most problematic and hard to understand. Like Copernicus and the Catholic church in the fifteenth century this group will not even entertain the idea that Climate Change could be real and they will never allow the science to support the theory regardless of the reality. They are though very keen on the idea of large international summits to address Climate Change. This is because gathering all the countries of the world together in order to argue over an issue that cannot be definitively settled one way or another allows the Royalists to observe the local feuds and allegiances that bind the world together in order to use that knowledge to their advantage. Now that it is looking as if the climate change can be settled definitively highlighting the need to find a solution the Royalists are desperate to kill off the issue in case the solution threatens their power base.
The European Federalists. Basically these are the countries of the European Union like France and Germany. To confuse matters this group also includes the British government when it's made up by the Labour party. Although this group is more flexible then the Royalists on the existence of climate change their main priority is not to protect the environment. Instead they want to use the issue as a way to bind the world together through legally binding treaties and mechanisms of reporting and inspection. The conclusion of this process is to form a one world government. The only reason for doing that is to create a very powerful political job like World President for these career politicians to aspire to.
The Large Developing Nations. These are the countries like Brazil, India, Argentina and South Africa who although can't be described as developed nations have such sustained levels of growth that they are close to being reclassified. Although these nations are more at risk from climate change then their developed counterparts and some of them are beginning to feel its effects they, at the moment, lack the depth of political and scientific experience to convince the developed nations to take action. This is not helped by the fact that some of these nations sometime place more of a priority on using climate change summits to boost their emerging global status while others still use the issue as a way to trick money out of the developed nations in order to sustain their economic growth.
The Small Developed Nations. These are the tiny Island nations and borderline failed states of South America, parts of Africa and the Pacific's. Due to internal strife or simply tiny populations these countries are in no way equipped to engage scientifically or politically with the developed world. This forces them to rely on assistance from developed nations who are members of either the Royalist or Federalist groups. As such they are often unwittingly used as pawns in these groups larger political games. This is a shame because it is these nations who are the most at risk from climate change and some have already sustained so much damage that they are largely dependent on subsidies from developed nations. The perilous position that many of these countries are in means that they simply cannot afford to be patient while other nations argue. As result they sometimes end up vetoing good ideas because they don't understand their sometimes abstract importance.
China. Although China is a large developing nation their status as a Communist nuclear power means that the represent a separate group on the issue of climate change and strangely are the group I trust the most. This is because while the democratic world was allowing private interests to cloud the debate over climate change China was doing something that can only really happen in countries where the governments voice is the only voice allowed and the government alone controls the means of production. They took a long and impartial look at the science behind climate change and concluded that on the basis of the available evidence that it was more then likely that climate change is real and it is man made. This gave them a massive head start in developing green technology and incorporating it into the centrally organised development plans. The problem is that China is a country with massive and unwarranted inferiority complex that is currently engaged in a superpower battle with the United States. Therefore they want to use their advantage in green technology to increase their global dominance. Obviously America wants to buy time in order to develop it's own green technology to prevent this happening because while America continues to deny even the possibility of the existence of climate change its position in the world is slipping.
Against this backdrop of complicated and conflicting political interests that were being played out at a conference hosted by satellite Royalist faction the Copenhagen Accord is an almost unbelievably strong agreement. Not only does is accept the need to limit global temperature rises to 2C it commits developed nations to economy wide emission cuts and commits developing nations to put in place mitigation policies. At the moment these are independent commitments to be made at a national level but the accord does leave the way open for countries to make joint commitments. It also decides to pursue a market based mechanism to promote low carbon development (carbon trading) and accepts the immediate need to set up a fund to tackle deforestation in the short term. Importantly it pledges $30bn of fast start money to fund mitigation projects in the nations where they are most needed. Most importantly it declares the need for the accord to be reviewed by 2015 which paves the way for it to be significantly strengthened at the Mexico Summit in November 2010. However no-one is entirely satisfied with this accord and I am no exception. Apart from the obvious fact that is doesn't go anywhere near far enough I am worried that it seems to be used to justify a follow up summit in Germany in June 2010. There already will be another summit in Mexico in November 2010. As the pre-negotiations for this summit will take up most of the year I am not convinced that the German summit is needed and will probably only complicate preparations for the Mexico summit.
Despite all this I think that UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon was right when he described the accord as an "essential beginning." it's just a shame the world had to waste so much time to get to this point. The test now will be to see how many nations will be prepared to support the accord by pledging voluntary emission cuts.
Friday, 18 December 2009
Thank F@%K For That.!
The COP15 Summit in Copenhagen has ended tonight with an agreement between the United States, China, India and South Africa. The agreement did not include either the European Union or Brazil. Therefore I owe an apology to Brazil for stating earlier that they were holding a press conference announcing their agreement. I did not see the press conference so I had know way of knowing they were in fact announcing their intention to be a bunch of sulky bollocks.
A more detailed analysis of the agreement will follow tomorrow when I have had time to digest it and some other important world events that have happened this week. Tonight though two things are clear; that no nation is completely happy with the agreement and the agreement does not go anywhere near far enough to solve the problem of climate change. It is though far, far more then certain people thought would ever be possible in Copenhagen so for tonight it is a clear win.
A more detailed analysis of the agreement will follow tomorrow when I have had time to digest it and some other important world events that have happened this week. Tonight though two things are clear; that no nation is completely happy with the agreement and the agreement does not go anywhere near far enough to solve the problem of climate change. It is though far, far more then certain people thought would ever be possible in Copenhagen so for tonight it is a clear win.
I Think We Have A Deal.
In Copenhagen America, China, India, Brazil and South Africa are all holding press conferences announcing that a deal has been reached. I recommend that the other members of the COP15 sign up to it. After if there are any problems we going to be doing the whole thing again next year.
Sorry Did I Not Make That Clear?
Earlier in the day America made a massive concession by dropping it's demand that China grants accountability for it's emissions cuts. The honourable thing now would be for China to make a equally large concession by dropping it's demand that a legally binding agreement is in place by the 2010 deadline.
COP15 Draft Text.
They're producing re-writes by the hour at the moment.
The latest draft has dropped the obligation to have a legally binding agreement in place by 2010. This is a very good idea that I fully support because the summit's trying to solve the problem of Climate Change not set up a one world government. Besides as Kyoto proved in international relations the term "legally binding" is absolutely meaningless.
The latest draft has dropped the obligation to have a legally binding agreement in place by 2010. This is a very good idea that I fully support because the summit's trying to solve the problem of Climate Change not set up a one world government. Besides as Kyoto proved in international relations the term "legally binding" is absolutely meaningless.
COP15: The Final Hours.
With just a little over five hours left the COP15 summit is entering its final stages and there are still two big sticking points.
The first of these is over the money that will go to developing countries. Although the final total fund is set at $100bn there is still argument over how much of this money will be guaranteed government to government funding and how much of it will be less guaranteed private or corporate money. The developing nations want to see a large percentage of the total being government. I however think they should settle for the large amount of government money that is already on the table. This is because it will be almost impossible for the leaders of the developed nations to be able to pledge more then the already generous sum that's available. In fact I can already see how the American media and political right wing are going to shred Obama for giving away so much during a huge economic downturn. Besides if a deal is not reached then that government money comes off the table.
The second, and probably biggest, sticking point is over the amount of access that the US government gets to the Chinese government in order to verify that China is making the emissions cuts it has promised. The Chinese have offered "transparency" that basically means the Americans will be able observes the cuts being made. The Americans are pushing for "accountability" which basically means they will be able to observe the cuts and the processes by which these cuts are made. On this point I think the Americans are asking for slightly too much because there is an understandable lack of trust that the Americans won't use that access to do more then simply check that China is keeping its promises. I should also say that on the issue of climate change and that issue alone I actually trust the Chinese because although they no doubt want to turn the world into a Chinese Empire no-one wants to be the Emperor of a World that's on fire.
The first of these is over the money that will go to developing countries. Although the final total fund is set at $100bn there is still argument over how much of this money will be guaranteed government to government funding and how much of it will be less guaranteed private or corporate money. The developing nations want to see a large percentage of the total being government. I however think they should settle for the large amount of government money that is already on the table. This is because it will be almost impossible for the leaders of the developed nations to be able to pledge more then the already generous sum that's available. In fact I can already see how the American media and political right wing are going to shred Obama for giving away so much during a huge economic downturn. Besides if a deal is not reached then that government money comes off the table.
The second, and probably biggest, sticking point is over the amount of access that the US government gets to the Chinese government in order to verify that China is making the emissions cuts it has promised. The Chinese have offered "transparency" that basically means the Americans will be able observes the cuts being made. The Americans are pushing for "accountability" which basically means they will be able to observe the cuts and the processes by which these cuts are made. On this point I think the Americans are asking for slightly too much because there is an understandable lack of trust that the Americans won't use that access to do more then simply check that China is keeping its promises. I should also say that on the issue of climate change and that issue alone I actually trust the Chinese because although they no doubt want to turn the world into a Chinese Empire no-one wants to be the Emperor of a World that's on fire.
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Well It Is Thursday.
So in my little bit of the world there have been the usual series of small irritations. However these were minor and not really worth reporting on.
At the COP15 summit the Danish hosts released a document totaling up an estimate of the limit on global temperature rise that will be produced by the voluntary emissions cuts that have been pledged. They decided to do this around ten minutes before the start of the Heads of States dinner that was hosted by the Queen of Denmark. While the document is unavailable to me and I haven't trusted the Danish hosts since they appointed the Prime Minister of the worlds largest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases* as the summit's chief enforcer I believe that it puts the estimated total cap at 3C. I consider this to be as accurate an estimate as you will get when you ask scientists to predict the future based on fluid data. To put it another way it might not be 100% accurate but I don't like anyone is purposefully lying. The question for the COP15 delegates then is do want to limit the temperature rise to 3C or do they want to see it rise to 4C, 5C or even 6C?
*Yes that would be Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia. A man who so un-enforcer like he is unable to get environmental legislation through his own Parliament.
At the COP15 summit the Danish hosts released a document totaling up an estimate of the limit on global temperature rise that will be produced by the voluntary emissions cuts that have been pledged. They decided to do this around ten minutes before the start of the Heads of States dinner that was hosted by the Queen of Denmark. While the document is unavailable to me and I haven't trusted the Danish hosts since they appointed the Prime Minister of the worlds largest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases* as the summit's chief enforcer I believe that it puts the estimated total cap at 3C. I consider this to be as accurate an estimate as you will get when you ask scientists to predict the future based on fluid data. To put it another way it might not be 100% accurate but I don't like anyone is purposefully lying. The question for the COP15 delegates then is do want to limit the temperature rise to 3C or do they want to see it rise to 4C, 5C or even 6C?
*Yes that would be Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia. A man who so un-enforcer like he is unable to get environmental legislation through his own Parliament.
Where Have All The Strongmen Gone.
After a series of sensible and not so sensible delays yesterday the COP15 talks are back in session although they still seem to be resolutely deadlocked. Depressingly the current impasse is being caused by the developing nations especially the African ones.
A major problem is that while the developed nations of the so called "Global North" want to see temperature rises capped at 2C above pre-industrialised levels the developing nations of the so called "Global South" want to see levels capped at 1.5C. This is something of an impossible demand because the scientific consensus is that based on level of carbon already in the atmosphere it won't be possible to cap temperature rises at 1.5C without technology to remove existing carbon from the atmosphere. The problem is that this carbon scrubbing technology only exists in theory and even the best design prototypes are still a very long way away from being commercially available on an international scale. Therefore it would be a much better idea to agree to a non-binding 2C cap that can be reviewed as new technology becomes available.
The main sticking point though is still the issue of money. This argument is being made worse because many developing nations, mostly the African ones, are still clinging on to the notion of something called Climate Justice. This well established negotiating position follows that because most of the climate damage was done by the countries of the global north during the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century they should pay reparations to the countries of the global south who bear the brunt of climate change. Although it is probably morally right Climate Justice is merely the intellectual reserve of privileged, white northerners who know nothing of how the world works outside the walls of a university and often care about nothing more then their own egos.
Climate Justice is a particularly suicidal negotiating position for developing nations to stick to because if they do then the developed nations will simply walk away from Copenhagen without any deal being done. If that happens then all the fast start money that has already been pledged to help developing nations cope with climate change will simply disappear. Besides it is the developing nations that will be hit first and hit the hardest by climate change so while the developing world drowns the developed world will easily be able to ignore it by simply changing the channel on their TV's and sitting down to watch another series of X Factor. To be perfectly honest the lack of progress by developing nations at COP15 is especially disappointing because it highlights the vacuum of leadership in developing nations particularly the African ones. Although there are still some above average leaders the strong African leaders of the liberation struggles seem to have been watered down into a neutered bunch who are happy to sit idly by and wait for some neo-colonial master to come along and solve all their problems for them.
Apart from that there is still the problem that China, who have already voluntarily made significant emissions cuts, will not sign up to binding targets. Their regional economic competitors, led by Japan, are still stubbornly insisting that it must be binding targets or no targets at all. So the next couple of days should be simple then.
A major problem is that while the developed nations of the so called "Global North" want to see temperature rises capped at 2C above pre-industrialised levels the developing nations of the so called "Global South" want to see levels capped at 1.5C. This is something of an impossible demand because the scientific consensus is that based on level of carbon already in the atmosphere it won't be possible to cap temperature rises at 1.5C without technology to remove existing carbon from the atmosphere. The problem is that this carbon scrubbing technology only exists in theory and even the best design prototypes are still a very long way away from being commercially available on an international scale. Therefore it would be a much better idea to agree to a non-binding 2C cap that can be reviewed as new technology becomes available.
The main sticking point though is still the issue of money. This argument is being made worse because many developing nations, mostly the African ones, are still clinging on to the notion of something called Climate Justice. This well established negotiating position follows that because most of the climate damage was done by the countries of the global north during the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century they should pay reparations to the countries of the global south who bear the brunt of climate change. Although it is probably morally right Climate Justice is merely the intellectual reserve of privileged, white northerners who know nothing of how the world works outside the walls of a university and often care about nothing more then their own egos.
Climate Justice is a particularly suicidal negotiating position for developing nations to stick to because if they do then the developed nations will simply walk away from Copenhagen without any deal being done. If that happens then all the fast start money that has already been pledged to help developing nations cope with climate change will simply disappear. Besides it is the developing nations that will be hit first and hit the hardest by climate change so while the developing world drowns the developed world will easily be able to ignore it by simply changing the channel on their TV's and sitting down to watch another series of X Factor. To be perfectly honest the lack of progress by developing nations at COP15 is especially disappointing because it highlights the vacuum of leadership in developing nations particularly the African ones. Although there are still some above average leaders the strong African leaders of the liberation struggles seem to have been watered down into a neutered bunch who are happy to sit idly by and wait for some neo-colonial master to come along and solve all their problems for them.
Apart from that there is still the problem that China, who have already voluntarily made significant emissions cuts, will not sign up to binding targets. Their regional economic competitors, led by Japan, are still stubbornly insisting that it must be binding targets or no targets at all. So the next couple of days should be simple then.
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
So My Last Post Could've Made More Sense Then.
On Sunday December 13th a group called Stop the Islamification of Europe (SIOE) staged a protest outside the Harrow central Mosque in Northwest London, UK. As SIOE are a tiny group with only three full time members the policing of this protest was left entirely up to the local Borough Commander just like the dozen or so soccer matches that take place in London every week. Unknown to anyone at the time a small pro-Israeli group called the Jewish National Fund (JNF) had also invited the former Israeli Foreign minister Tzipi Livni to their conference that was being held on the same day just a few minutes down the road from the Mosque. When they got to hear about this the local police and magistrates must suddenly have had visions of their little bit of London being burnt to the ground. Therefore when a pro-Palestinian activist filed an application for an arrest warrant for Ms Livni over the 2009 war in Gaza the Magistrate granted it in the hope that it would keep Ms Livni away from the flash point.
As this decision was made entirely at the local level it totally stunned the higher levels of the British Establishment when they heard about it on the news. This didn't stop the Law Lords at the Supreme Court taking advantage of the confusion by rushing out a ruling that stops a Jewish faith school rejecting potential pupils on the grounds that they don't belong to the right sect of Judaism. Providing you don't look to deeply into the events it sounds as if Britain's love affair with Israeli has suddenly ended. Something that should help increase British influence in the Middle East. There were also questions asked about the Livni arrest warrant at Prime Minister's Questions today.
I should also point out that my father and grandmother visit to the Heaver's Road centre today wasn't for a medical type appointment. Instead it was for an open day/networking opportunity. Although it took place at the Heaver centre it had actually been arranged by one of the Croydon voluntary groups so the Heavers people actually knew very little about it. The purpose of the event seems to be to throw open the doors of the Heaver's centre to allow any interested parties to have a look around and get to know the staff. Of course that would also allow event organisers to get to know the interested parties. The whole thing was made more suspicious by the fact that my grandmother is no longer going to be treated at the Heaver's centre having been transferred to a new centre with a new set of staff. Being oblivious to all this my father was planning to go to the event in order to carry on with the mission that he's been trying to complete for the last couple of years. If that wasn't enough to cause utter chaos he was also bringing my grandmother along whose behaviour is quite erratic at the moment.
In the end it actually went quite smoothly because delays like the car not starting meant a day long event was quickly cut down to one that lasted little over an hour. The format for the event had also changed dramatically from being a big open day with lots of people to my father and grandmother having a talk with a single member of staff over a light lunch. That means the maximum the Brits would have been able to gain from the situation was the opportunity to briefly study the interaction between my father and grandmother. I've already decided that's something that's not worth the hassle of trying to stop because the Brits have been doing that for the best part of 40 years and I doubt they'll be able to turn that into anything useful.
At COP15 the Danish hosts have replaced Connie Hedegaard with the Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen as the President of the Summit. This is no surprise because Ms Hedegaard was a controversial President looking out of her depth from the start of what has been quite a badly organised summit. The change was always scheduled to take place today in order to coincide with the big day of protests and the arrival of the heads of state.
As this decision was made entirely at the local level it totally stunned the higher levels of the British Establishment when they heard about it on the news. This didn't stop the Law Lords at the Supreme Court taking advantage of the confusion by rushing out a ruling that stops a Jewish faith school rejecting potential pupils on the grounds that they don't belong to the right sect of Judaism. Providing you don't look to deeply into the events it sounds as if Britain's love affair with Israeli has suddenly ended. Something that should help increase British influence in the Middle East. There were also questions asked about the Livni arrest warrant at Prime Minister's Questions today.
I should also point out that my father and grandmother visit to the Heaver's Road centre today wasn't for a medical type appointment. Instead it was for an open day/networking opportunity. Although it took place at the Heaver centre it had actually been arranged by one of the Croydon voluntary groups so the Heavers people actually knew very little about it. The purpose of the event seems to be to throw open the doors of the Heaver's centre to allow any interested parties to have a look around and get to know the staff. Of course that would also allow event organisers to get to know the interested parties. The whole thing was made more suspicious by the fact that my grandmother is no longer going to be treated at the Heaver's centre having been transferred to a new centre with a new set of staff. Being oblivious to all this my father was planning to go to the event in order to carry on with the mission that he's been trying to complete for the last couple of years. If that wasn't enough to cause utter chaos he was also bringing my grandmother along whose behaviour is quite erratic at the moment.
In the end it actually went quite smoothly because delays like the car not starting meant a day long event was quickly cut down to one that lasted little over an hour. The format for the event had also changed dramatically from being a big open day with lots of people to my father and grandmother having a talk with a single member of staff over a light lunch. That means the maximum the Brits would have been able to gain from the situation was the opportunity to briefly study the interaction between my father and grandmother. I've already decided that's something that's not worth the hassle of trying to stop because the Brits have been doing that for the best part of 40 years and I doubt they'll be able to turn that into anything useful.
At COP15 the Danish hosts have replaced Connie Hedegaard with the Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen as the President of the Summit. This is no surprise because Ms Hedegaard was a controversial President looking out of her depth from the start of what has been quite a badly organised summit. The change was always scheduled to take place today in order to coincide with the big day of protests and the arrival of the heads of state.
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
Never Turn Your Back on a Jew
Unless you're feeling very lucky.
While the rest of the world has been discussing climate change in Copenhagen our Israeli cousins have been very busy. Over the weekend the former foreign minister Tzipi Livni was scheduled to attend the Jewish National Fund (JNF) conference in Hendon, North West London on Sunday December 13th. On the same day, just a stones throw away, the Stop the Islamification of Europe SIOE/EDL/BNP were staging a demonstration against Islam at the Harrow Central Mosque, North West London. Fortunately on Saturday December 12th someone rather sensibly decided to apply for an international arrest warrant for Ms Livni based on the Israeli war crimes committed during the 2009 offensive in Gaza. Remarkably the court granted the arrest warrant and Ms Livni decided not to attend the JNC conference that clashed with the SIOE demo. In the end the SIOE protest was attended by a sum total of seven people who were promptly advised to [expletive deleted] home by the police.
Anyway I'm currently quite drunk and have just remembered that at around 10:00 tomorrow my grandmother and father will be attending an open day at the Heavers Road Memory Service centre.
While the rest of the world has been discussing climate change in Copenhagen our Israeli cousins have been very busy. Over the weekend the former foreign minister Tzipi Livni was scheduled to attend the Jewish National Fund (JNF) conference in Hendon, North West London on Sunday December 13th. On the same day, just a stones throw away, the Stop the Islamification of Europe SIOE/EDL/BNP were staging a demonstration against Islam at the Harrow Central Mosque, North West London. Fortunately on Saturday December 12th someone rather sensibly decided to apply for an international arrest warrant for Ms Livni based on the Israeli war crimes committed during the 2009 offensive in Gaza. Remarkably the court granted the arrest warrant and Ms Livni decided not to attend the JNC conference that clashed with the SIOE demo. In the end the SIOE protest was attended by a sum total of seven people who were promptly advised to [expletive deleted] home by the police.
Anyway I'm currently quite drunk and have just remembered that at around 10:00 tomorrow my grandmother and father will be attending an open day at the Heavers Road Memory Service centre.
COP15 Draft Agreement.
On Friday December 11th the Danish hosts of the COP15 summit leaked a draft text of a possible agreement which can be read here; http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/08/copenhagen-climate-change
Even by the high standards of multi-national, intergovernmental summits this text is mostly incomprehensible gibberish with bracketed passages promising to do things like cutting emissions by [X3%] by the year [20??] and my personal favourite paragraph 25 which reads simply; [placeholder for facilitative matching mechanism].
The main obstacle for turning this rather strange text into a workable agreement is that there are actually two sets of negotiations going on at Copenhagen in what is being called the two track process. In one track there are groups of nations who are trying to produce an exact replica of the Kyoto protocol that was passed in 1992 and expires in 2012. This group is mainly made up of developing nations who are keen to hold onto the generous subsidies made available to them under Kyoto and some developed nations who just seem intent on causing trouble. In the other track there are groups of nations who are trying to produce a brand new agreement that will learn the lessons, both good and bad, from Kyoto and take into account advances in the depth of available scientific knowledge alongside changes in predictions of emission growth in countries like China in order to better prepare the world for the challenges of climate change. This group is mainly made up of developed nations and nearly developed nations who are acutely aware that although Kyoto was a noble undertaking it was a failure in practice. This is because the United States did not sign up to it and continued to grow their emissions while many of the countries that did sign up simply didn't bother to honour their emission cutting targets.
The other major obstacle is that apart from not knowing what type of agreement COP15 is trying to draw up there is also a deep division over whether it should be a legally binding agreement like Kyoto or a non-binding agreement. This is crucially important because it will ultimately decide what sort of numbers people will be prepared to sign up to. If it is a binding agreement then a lot of people, especially the Americans, will only sign up to the absolute minimum emission cuts over the longest possible timescale, if they sign up at all. However if it is a non-binding agreement then more people will be prepared to sign up to larger cuts because theyll be doing so safe in the knowledge that they will be free to renegotiate those cuts should circumstances change.
Another smaller but still quite large problem that has arisen during the course of the summit is a debate over whether nuclear power should be considered a green technology under the terms of the agreement. If it is included as a green technology then it will make the already delicate discussion over a technology sharing even more complicated. This is because, as countries who have nuclear weapons know, people get exceptionally paranoid and mistrustful when they're talking about sharing technology that has the potential to totally wipe out life on earth in a such a way that would make climate change completely inconsequential. Therefore I don't think it should be included as a listed green technology especially as there is already quite a controversy over whether an energy source that produces highly dangerous waste products and is not carbon neutral nor will ever become carbon neutral can really be considered a green technology.
Even by the high standards of multi-national, intergovernmental summits this text is mostly incomprehensible gibberish with bracketed passages promising to do things like cutting emissions by [X3%] by the year [20??] and my personal favourite paragraph 25 which reads simply; [placeholder for facilitative matching mechanism].
The main obstacle for turning this rather strange text into a workable agreement is that there are actually two sets of negotiations going on at Copenhagen in what is being called the two track process. In one track there are groups of nations who are trying to produce an exact replica of the Kyoto protocol that was passed in 1992 and expires in 2012. This group is mainly made up of developing nations who are keen to hold onto the generous subsidies made available to them under Kyoto and some developed nations who just seem intent on causing trouble. In the other track there are groups of nations who are trying to produce a brand new agreement that will learn the lessons, both good and bad, from Kyoto and take into account advances in the depth of available scientific knowledge alongside changes in predictions of emission growth in countries like China in order to better prepare the world for the challenges of climate change. This group is mainly made up of developed nations and nearly developed nations who are acutely aware that although Kyoto was a noble undertaking it was a failure in practice. This is because the United States did not sign up to it and continued to grow their emissions while many of the countries that did sign up simply didn't bother to honour their emission cutting targets.
The other major obstacle is that apart from not knowing what type of agreement COP15 is trying to draw up there is also a deep division over whether it should be a legally binding agreement like Kyoto or a non-binding agreement. This is crucially important because it will ultimately decide what sort of numbers people will be prepared to sign up to. If it is a binding agreement then a lot of people, especially the Americans, will only sign up to the absolute minimum emission cuts over the longest possible timescale, if they sign up at all. However if it is a non-binding agreement then more people will be prepared to sign up to larger cuts because theyll be doing so safe in the knowledge that they will be free to renegotiate those cuts should circumstances change.
Another smaller but still quite large problem that has arisen during the course of the summit is a debate over whether nuclear power should be considered a green technology under the terms of the agreement. If it is included as a green technology then it will make the already delicate discussion over a technology sharing even more complicated. This is because, as countries who have nuclear weapons know, people get exceptionally paranoid and mistrustful when they're talking about sharing technology that has the potential to totally wipe out life on earth in a such a way that would make climate change completely inconsequential. Therefore I don't think it should be included as a listed green technology especially as there is already quite a controversy over whether an energy source that produces highly dangerous waste products and is not carbon neutral nor will ever become carbon neutral can really be considered a green technology.
The Psychologist Has Been Round.
As was scheduled after last Thursday's (10/12) adventures with the police the psychologist from the Heavers Road memory service team today visited my grandmother. By my own choice I was not party to the meeting. From the reports I have though the main thrust is that the Heavers Road team have decided that they don't want to play any more. Therefore my grandmother is to be transferred to the Queen's Road crisis team which is just another part of the Croydon memory service. This transfer won't take place until the new year so over the next to three weeks we should have relative peace and quiet.
While I'm here has anyone seen this; http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2228594104
Here in the UK we have a TV show called X Factor. It is very much the same to the Pop Idol / American Idol / Afghan Idol shows that seem to pervade the world because all these shows are the brainchild of one man, Simon Cowell. For the last six years the record released by the winner of this show has gone on to become the culturally important Christmas Number 1 single. This years effort promises to be exceptionally grim being a cover of Miley Cyrus' "The Climb" being sung totally anonymous 18 year old from Newcastle. In protest against this assault on common decency some people have set up the above Facebook group which is campaigning for people to go a download Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name of" in the hope it will outsell X Factor winner and become the British Christmas number 1. Obviously you won't be able to participate in this campaign unless of course you were to use a proxy server that would randomly assign you a UK based ISP address.
Anyway the first heads of state are beginning to arrive in Copenhagen for the high level phase of the COP15 so it might be an idea for me to start taking things seriously again.
While I'm here has anyone seen this; http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2228594104
Here in the UK we have a TV show called X Factor. It is very much the same to the Pop Idol / American Idol / Afghan Idol shows that seem to pervade the world because all these shows are the brainchild of one man, Simon Cowell. For the last six years the record released by the winner of this show has gone on to become the culturally important Christmas Number 1 single. This years effort promises to be exceptionally grim being a cover of Miley Cyrus' "The Climb" being sung totally anonymous 18 year old from Newcastle. In protest against this assault on common decency some people have set up the above Facebook group which is campaigning for people to go a download Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name of" in the hope it will outsell X Factor winner and become the British Christmas number 1. Obviously you won't be able to participate in this campaign unless of course you were to use a proxy server that would randomly assign you a UK based ISP address.
Anyway the first heads of state are beginning to arrive in Copenhagen for the high level phase of the COP15 so it might be an idea for me to start taking things seriously again.
Monday, 14 December 2009
No Borders, No Brains.
Today the COP15 Summit in Copenhagen has been suspended following a walk out by developing nations. The walk out, led by African countrys, is being reported as a protest by the developing nations against what they see as their exclusion from negotiations between developed nations. As with all of the most pointless arguments this dispute has a disagreement about money at it's core. Specifically which economic model is best to help combat climate change. Realistically there are only two possible models which I am calling the "Subsidy Approach" and the "Development Approach."
Subsidy Approach. Basically this involves the governments of developed nations raising money by taxing carbon emissions. This money would then be given to the governments of developing nations in order to preserve environmental assets such as forests and build things like flood defences in order to mitigate the effects of climate change. The main advantage of this approach is that it will be very quick to set up. In the highly unlikely event that COP15 ends in a binding agreement much of this plan could be in place in developing nations by this time next year. The main disadvantage of the approach is that it stinks of neo-colonialism. It would effectively force the developing nations to give large parts of their country to the developed nations and forever bind their futures to the fortunes of those developed nations many of whom are already starting to see their position in the world slip.
Development Approach. Basically this involves globally turning environmental assets into economic assets by creating an international market for carbon credits. This would allow developing nations to become richer without having to cut down vast swathes of rain forest in order to ranch cattle of farm soya beans. All nations would also be able to share green technology through a system where technology is exchanged at little or no cost. The main advantage of this approach is that it allows developing nations to retain and possibly increase their economic and political independence while at the same time reducing the amount of environmental damage being done to the planet. The main disadvantage of the approach is that it is very much dependent on this system of technology sharing. This will be difficult because with the world being what it is today nobody likes giving stuff away for free. To make things even more complicated two of the current world leaders in green technology are the USA and China. At the moment these two superpowers are engaged with each other in a number of very complicated diplomatic situations including the Palestine/Israel conflict, the war in Afghanistan and Iran's nuclear program. In every one of these situations both superpowers are trying to swing the balance of global power in their favour. This makes any discussion between the two over technology sharing so delicate they won't be helped in any way by me trampling all over them.
In terms of getting a binding agreement out of COP15 the subsidy approach creates a whole new set of problems. This is because it will be impossible for Barack Obama or any other developed world leader for that matter to sell the subsidy approach to the American people for the simple reasons that it's simply not a very good idea.
As for the walkout itself although the timing was a shock the protest itself was no surprise. A walkout by developing nations had been scheduled to take place on Wednesday December 16th at a time which most certainly would have collapsed the summit. Although supported by a variety of groups the Wednesday walk out was mainly promoted by a British dominated pan-European/Mediterranean* activist group called No Borders. No Borders are a pro-migration group who have been draw into the climate change debate because of the increased migration that climate change causes. Their most high profile action to date was the 2009 Migrants Camp in Calais, France. For those of you who don't know Calais is the main crossing point for illegal migrants/refugees from across continental Europe, Asia and Africa who want to cross into the United Kingdom. As such it has been a major source of tension between the British and French governments over the last 15 years. In 2002 the British government forced the French government to close the Sangatte refugee aid centre. This forced the illegal migrants/refugees to live in makeshift, squatted camps that became known as "The Jungle" The Jungle stood relatively undisturbed for the best part of seven years until in June 2009 the No Borders group set up a solidarity/protest camp to help the residents of the Jungle. Within a month the French police were forced to clear both the Jungle and the No Borders camp and continue to make life very difficult for illegal migrants/refugees in the area.
With tens of thousands of activists currently on the ground in Copenhagen and the Danish police showing clear signs of co-operation with their British counterparts** it would be unwise of me to accuse the No Borders group of being a MI6 front organisation especially as I have no evidence to support this. However I will warn that in the past protests by No Borders have done more harm then good to the people they claim to be trying to help.
*The group of European nations that border the Mediterranean sea e.g Spain, France, Italy, Greece etc.
**They're clearly trying their hand at "kettling" but because they're new at it they're making lots of mistakes.
Subsidy Approach. Basically this involves the governments of developed nations raising money by taxing carbon emissions. This money would then be given to the governments of developing nations in order to preserve environmental assets such as forests and build things like flood defences in order to mitigate the effects of climate change. The main advantage of this approach is that it will be very quick to set up. In the highly unlikely event that COP15 ends in a binding agreement much of this plan could be in place in developing nations by this time next year. The main disadvantage of the approach is that it stinks of neo-colonialism. It would effectively force the developing nations to give large parts of their country to the developed nations and forever bind their futures to the fortunes of those developed nations many of whom are already starting to see their position in the world slip.
Development Approach. Basically this involves globally turning environmental assets into economic assets by creating an international market for carbon credits. This would allow developing nations to become richer without having to cut down vast swathes of rain forest in order to ranch cattle of farm soya beans. All nations would also be able to share green technology through a system where technology is exchanged at little or no cost. The main advantage of this approach is that it allows developing nations to retain and possibly increase their economic and political independence while at the same time reducing the amount of environmental damage being done to the planet. The main disadvantage of the approach is that it is very much dependent on this system of technology sharing. This will be difficult because with the world being what it is today nobody likes giving stuff away for free. To make things even more complicated two of the current world leaders in green technology are the USA and China. At the moment these two superpowers are engaged with each other in a number of very complicated diplomatic situations including the Palestine/Israel conflict, the war in Afghanistan and Iran's nuclear program. In every one of these situations both superpowers are trying to swing the balance of global power in their favour. This makes any discussion between the two over technology sharing so delicate they won't be helped in any way by me trampling all over them.
In terms of getting a binding agreement out of COP15 the subsidy approach creates a whole new set of problems. This is because it will be impossible for Barack Obama or any other developed world leader for that matter to sell the subsidy approach to the American people for the simple reasons that it's simply not a very good idea.
As for the walkout itself although the timing was a shock the protest itself was no surprise. A walkout by developing nations had been scheduled to take place on Wednesday December 16th at a time which most certainly would have collapsed the summit. Although supported by a variety of groups the Wednesday walk out was mainly promoted by a British dominated pan-European/Mediterranean* activist group called No Borders. No Borders are a pro-migration group who have been draw into the climate change debate because of the increased migration that climate change causes. Their most high profile action to date was the 2009 Migrants Camp in Calais, France. For those of you who don't know Calais is the main crossing point for illegal migrants/refugees from across continental Europe, Asia and Africa who want to cross into the United Kingdom. As such it has been a major source of tension between the British and French governments over the last 15 years. In 2002 the British government forced the French government to close the Sangatte refugee aid centre. This forced the illegal migrants/refugees to live in makeshift, squatted camps that became known as "The Jungle" The Jungle stood relatively undisturbed for the best part of seven years until in June 2009 the No Borders group set up a solidarity/protest camp to help the residents of the Jungle. Within a month the French police were forced to clear both the Jungle and the No Borders camp and continue to make life very difficult for illegal migrants/refugees in the area.
With tens of thousands of activists currently on the ground in Copenhagen and the Danish police showing clear signs of co-operation with their British counterparts** it would be unwise of me to accuse the No Borders group of being a MI6 front organisation especially as I have no evidence to support this. However I will warn that in the past protests by No Borders have done more harm then good to the people they claim to be trying to help.
*The group of European nations that border the Mediterranean sea e.g Spain, France, Italy, Greece etc.
**They're clearly trying their hand at "kettling" but because they're new at it they're making lots of mistakes.
Sunday, 13 December 2009
The God Trial.
This is something that I've been meaning to post about for a while now. I have hesitated though because it's one of those occasions where it's quite difficult to talk you through the British Establishment's thought process without it sounding as if I've gone completely insane.
Back in November 2009 Britain did that thing that people across the world like to laugh at Americans for doing. They put God on trial. What's more you can tell from the subtle way they did it that they were being deadly serious.
The case revolved around a 42 year old, Oxford man called Tim Nicholson. Despite being the perfect image of a clean cut establishment figure Mr Nicholson also describes himself as a passionate environmentalist and proponent of the need to take action on Climate Change. This passion led him to personally finance part of the 2009 film about the dangers of climate change, "The Age of Stupid." Incidentally the films director, Franny Armstrong, was recently splashed across the British media hailing London Mayor, Boris Johnson as a hero after he rescued her from an attempted street mugging in a story that many people have described as being far too good to be true.
Aside from financing controversial films on the subject Mr Nicholson also brought his environmental zeal to his work at Grainger PLC, the UK's largest private landlord. After repeatedly refusing to heed instructions from the directors of the company to stop exploring the total carbon footprint of Grainger's operations Mr Nicholson was dismissed from the company. This prompted him to sue Grainger for unfair dismissal under the 2003 Religion and Beliefs Regulations laid out in Employment Equality Act. Mr Nicholson's argument was that his opinion that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide cause global warming was a deeply held philosophical belief akin to a tenent of religion. Therefore his employer could no more penalise him for it then they could ask a Sikh employee to remove his turban or force a Catholic doctor to perform an abortion. Amazingly the court agreed with Mr Nicholson and on November 4th awarded him damages for unfair dismissal setting the legal precedent that global warming is in fact a religious belief.
Apart from making the debate over global warming look ridiculous by framing it as an abstract debate over philosophy rather then a simple scientific argument this judgement also served another crucial purpose for the British Establishment. You see at it's core Britain is a Monarchy. Therefore according to it's Constitution it must be run by a Monarch who was appointed by God to rule in accordance with signs from God. The problem is that over the last year or so the things that you or I would normally consider to be signs from God such as floods, forest fires, plagues and people's first born sons suddenly being struck down dead seem to be directly contradicting the way the Queen is running the country creating something of a constitutional crisis. The Nicholson Judgement allowed the Queen to re-assure her Loyalists that because environmentalism is a separate religion it has a separate god. Therefore all the signs that contradicted the Queen were in fact sent by a different god from the one they pray to in the Church of England.
Although I'm not a religious scholar I think this means that Britain has just disproved the entire Bible. However the message is quite clear; Britain considers taking action to halt global warming to be an alternative religion that threatens the Queens Divine Right to rule. Therefore it must be opposed regardless of cost or consequence.
Nice to know that their objections are firmly based in science then.
Back in November 2009 Britain did that thing that people across the world like to laugh at Americans for doing. They put God on trial. What's more you can tell from the subtle way they did it that they were being deadly serious.
The case revolved around a 42 year old, Oxford man called Tim Nicholson. Despite being the perfect image of a clean cut establishment figure Mr Nicholson also describes himself as a passionate environmentalist and proponent of the need to take action on Climate Change. This passion led him to personally finance part of the 2009 film about the dangers of climate change, "The Age of Stupid." Incidentally the films director, Franny Armstrong, was recently splashed across the British media hailing London Mayor, Boris Johnson as a hero after he rescued her from an attempted street mugging in a story that many people have described as being far too good to be true.
Aside from financing controversial films on the subject Mr Nicholson also brought his environmental zeal to his work at Grainger PLC, the UK's largest private landlord. After repeatedly refusing to heed instructions from the directors of the company to stop exploring the total carbon footprint of Grainger's operations Mr Nicholson was dismissed from the company. This prompted him to sue Grainger for unfair dismissal under the 2003 Religion and Beliefs Regulations laid out in Employment Equality Act. Mr Nicholson's argument was that his opinion that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide cause global warming was a deeply held philosophical belief akin to a tenent of religion. Therefore his employer could no more penalise him for it then they could ask a Sikh employee to remove his turban or force a Catholic doctor to perform an abortion. Amazingly the court agreed with Mr Nicholson and on November 4th awarded him damages for unfair dismissal setting the legal precedent that global warming is in fact a religious belief.
Apart from making the debate over global warming look ridiculous by framing it as an abstract debate over philosophy rather then a simple scientific argument this judgement also served another crucial purpose for the British Establishment. You see at it's core Britain is a Monarchy. Therefore according to it's Constitution it must be run by a Monarch who was appointed by God to rule in accordance with signs from God. The problem is that over the last year or so the things that you or I would normally consider to be signs from God such as floods, forest fires, plagues and people's first born sons suddenly being struck down dead seem to be directly contradicting the way the Queen is running the country creating something of a constitutional crisis. The Nicholson Judgement allowed the Queen to re-assure her Loyalists that because environmentalism is a separate religion it has a separate god. Therefore all the signs that contradicted the Queen were in fact sent by a different god from the one they pray to in the Church of England.
Although I'm not a religious scholar I think this means that Britain has just disproved the entire Bible. However the message is quite clear; Britain considers taking action to halt global warming to be an alternative religion that threatens the Queens Divine Right to rule. Therefore it must be opposed regardless of cost or consequence.
Nice to know that their objections are firmly based in science then.
Friday, 11 December 2009
It Is Done, Part 2.
I'm sitting here looking at a fax report stating that the Office of Public Guardians (OPG) received my concerns at 14:52 this afternoon. Obviously I will be backing this up with a copy in the post but what with Royal Mail being what it is these days when that might arrive is a mystery.
Although I won't be posting a copy of this document here it's contains very little that hasn't already been posted. The main thrust of the argument is that someone who, two hours previously, had to be detained by the police for her own safety because she was hallucinating that she was being chased by the tiny mole-like Freemasons who live amongst the trees in the local park* is clearly not in a fit mental state to sign an LPA.
As if to prove that this is a time sensitive matter and that timescale is not of my choosing both my grandmother and father today received letters informing them that the LPA's have been certified. Of course this make very little difference because if the certification was provided fraudulently then it invalidates the registration. It does mean that the OPG does have a little bit more work to do but if they wanted to avoid that they'd shouldn't have been so stroppy when I phoned them up last Friday.
Now where's that first draft of the COP15 agreement hiding?
*I kid you not. I suppose it means that if she's gone mad at least she's doing it with style.
Although I won't be posting a copy of this document here it's contains very little that hasn't already been posted. The main thrust of the argument is that someone who, two hours previously, had to be detained by the police for her own safety because she was hallucinating that she was being chased by the tiny mole-like Freemasons who live amongst the trees in the local park* is clearly not in a fit mental state to sign an LPA.
As if to prove that this is a time sensitive matter and that timescale is not of my choosing both my grandmother and father today received letters informing them that the LPA's have been certified. Of course this make very little difference because if the certification was provided fraudulently then it invalidates the registration. It does mean that the OPG does have a little bit more work to do but if they wanted to avoid that they'd shouldn't have been so stroppy when I phoned them up last Friday.
Now where's that first draft of the COP15 agreement hiding?
*I kid you not. I suppose it means that if she's gone mad at least she's doing it with style.
Thursday, 10 December 2009
And I'm Back.
I won't be surfing the Internet straight away because first I have to draft up this letter to the Office of Public Guardians (OPG) to express my concerns over these Lasting Power of Attorney. Unfortunately this is one of those matters where discretion is necessary so I won't be posting it up here. However as my printer and USB ports are Fubar I will have to transfer it into an online account in order to send so it shouldn't be too difficult to get hold of a copy. This has the added advantage that the OPG will over 12 hours in order to prepare for it's delivery by fax so should have no excuse not to have a suitable action plan in place upon its arrival.
For Your Information
At 02:35 this morning the police delivered my grandmother back to the house after another period of wandering. This prompted a visit form a psychologist from the local community mental health team based at the Heavers Resource centre. From what I can gather the main purpose of this visit was to argue with my father as to why my grandmother is not currently resident at the Heavers Resource Centre undergoing a period of respite care. The answer to that is quite simply because the Heavers Resource centre put pressure on my father to turn down the offer of respite care in order to save money. The psychologist will return on Tuesday December 15th to try and no doubt fail to resolve the situation.
Although it is an inconvenient time to do so I will now file with the Office of Public Guardians in order to give them the option to mount a criminal investigation into the conduct of my father, the local community mental health team and a certain solicitor. Having spoken to the OPG I doubt this will be successful but let it never be said that they've haven't been given the option to change their ways.
The most disappointing part of the story is that the local Brit Loyalists are still walking around absolutely convinced that for them the future will be different.
Although it is an inconvenient time to do so I will now file with the Office of Public Guardians in order to give them the option to mount a criminal investigation into the conduct of my father, the local community mental health team and a certain solicitor. Having spoken to the OPG I doubt this will be successful but let it never be said that they've haven't been given the option to change their ways.
The most disappointing part of the story is that the local Brit Loyalists are still walking around absolutely convinced that for them the future will be different.
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Corrections
Reading back over my post on the Pre-Budget Report there were a few mistakes on account of it being a bit of a rush job.
The role of the Pre-Budget Report wasn't expanded by Gordon Brown in order to draw attention to himself during his years a Chancellor. It was invented in 1997 by Gordon Brown in order to draw attention to himself during his years as Chancellor.
The 0.5% increase in National Insurance comes in April 2011 not April 2010. The fact that it comes in 16 months after the VAT increase and the reinstatement of Stamp Duty which is basically sales tax for houses slightly increases the risk of inflation but it's still a very small risk.
I said the £160,000 per year cap on Civil Service Salaries was 120% of an MP's salary. This should have read 160% more then an MP's salary.
Also I don't begrudge the £5million made available to help war veterans set up businesses even if most of it will be hoovered up by the officer class in order to set up private security firms. I only drew attention to it because it was a bit sneaky and it indicates the intentions of the people who dictated to the Chancellor what would be included in the PBR.
The role of the Pre-Budget Report wasn't expanded by Gordon Brown in order to draw attention to himself during his years a Chancellor. It was invented in 1997 by Gordon Brown in order to draw attention to himself during his years as Chancellor.
The 0.5% increase in National Insurance comes in April 2011 not April 2010. The fact that it comes in 16 months after the VAT increase and the reinstatement of Stamp Duty which is basically sales tax for houses slightly increases the risk of inflation but it's still a very small risk.
I said the £160,000 per year cap on Civil Service Salaries was 120% of an MP's salary. This should have read 160% more then an MP's salary.
Also I don't begrudge the £5million made available to help war veterans set up businesses even if most of it will be hoovered up by the officer class in order to set up private security firms. I only drew attention to it because it was a bit sneaky and it indicates the intentions of the people who dictated to the Chancellor what would be included in the PBR.
The Pre- Budget Report.
Today the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistar Darling delivered his annual Pre-Budget Report (PBR). Traditionally this is delivered around six months after the Budget itself and is designed to report on how that budget is progressing while allowing the Chancellor to make small changes to keep that budget on track. In recent years though, for mainly political reasons, the scope of the PBR has grown massively turning it into something of a mini-budget.
With only really four working months left until the next General Election this PBR was never going to be much more then an opportunity for electioneering. However with the UK now the only G20 nation that is still in recession and national debt running at an eye watering 80% of GDP there was an urgent need to raise tax revenues and cut spending. The main points of these plans are;
An End to Tax Holidays On January 1st 2010 the VAT rate that was cut to 15% to boost consumer spending will rise by 2.5% returning it to 17.5%. On the same date the Stamp Duty holiday that was brought in to boost the housing market will come to an end. In April 2010 National Insurance (payroll tax) will rise by 0.5%. As these measures were brought in to mitigate the effects of the recession bringing them to an end could threaten the recovery and raise the spectre of inflation. However with the nations finances in such a sorry state this small risk looks like one that the government will just have to take.
Tax On Bankers Bonuses. With immediate effect the UK is going to impose a one off 50% tax on banker's bonuses over £25,000 which is to be paid by the banks. As this is only expected to raise £1bn compared to government borrowing of £178bn it is a largely political move to convince voters that the Labour party is prepare to bash those evil bankers. Besides for the duration of the tax period I suspect most bankers will only be getting a bonus of £24,999.
Public Sector Pay Cap. The current freeze on public sector pay increases will continue until 2011. Between 2011 and 2013 any pay increases will be capped at 1% regardless of inflation. Civil Service pay will also be capped meaning that until further notice no civil servant can be employed at more then £160,000 per year (120% of an MP's salary).
Efficiency Savings. The government intends to cut £17bn of spending through mysterious efficency savings. This is a convenient way for the the government to cut public spending without it looking like they're cutting public spending because efficiency savings sound benign and you have to dig quite deep into the figures to find out what they mean. For example one of the efficiency savings is a large cut to the Legal Aid budget meaning that if you cannot afford an attorney one will no longer be provided for you. The main part of the savings though will come from so-called Arm Length Authorities (ALA's) and Quasi-Autonomous Non-Government Organisations (Quango's). Although what exactly ALA's do has long been a mystery of British politics they include regeneration agencies such as the Thames Gateway Development Corporation, various Regional Development Agencies along with a host of local projects step up to do everything and anything like increasing volunteering to improving community cohesion. To give you a general idea just go to a certain new media companies website and read through their client list. No wonder the Croydon Voluntary Action network are in no mood to celebrate.
Cash for War Veterans. Apart from an extra £16.5bn on top of the defence budget to fight the war in Afghanistan the PBR also featured, buried in the supporting business and growth section, £5million to allow war veterans to set up in business when they leave the armed services. Although £5million is a tiny sum in budgetary terms it's actually quite a large amount of extra support to lavish on a comparatively small group of people. This Mugabe-esque announcement is significant though because it shows that while Alistar Darling was given some freedom in campaigning for the Labour party he wasn't given much freedom at all in the content of the PBR.
All things considered this PBR indicates that the UK is beginning to accept the severity of its financial problems. Although optimistic the Chancellor's spending, borrowing and economic forecasts were all within the realms of reality. Obviously that does not include his prediction that government borrowing will fall to £96bn by 2013 because I do not see how that will be possible but by 2013 I doubt it will be Alistar Darlings choice to make.
With only really four working months left until the next General Election this PBR was never going to be much more then an opportunity for electioneering. However with the UK now the only G20 nation that is still in recession and national debt running at an eye watering 80% of GDP there was an urgent need to raise tax revenues and cut spending. The main points of these plans are;
An End to Tax Holidays On January 1st 2010 the VAT rate that was cut to 15% to boost consumer spending will rise by 2.5% returning it to 17.5%. On the same date the Stamp Duty holiday that was brought in to boost the housing market will come to an end. In April 2010 National Insurance (payroll tax) will rise by 0.5%. As these measures were brought in to mitigate the effects of the recession bringing them to an end could threaten the recovery and raise the spectre of inflation. However with the nations finances in such a sorry state this small risk looks like one that the government will just have to take.
Tax On Bankers Bonuses. With immediate effect the UK is going to impose a one off 50% tax on banker's bonuses over £25,000 which is to be paid by the banks. As this is only expected to raise £1bn compared to government borrowing of £178bn it is a largely political move to convince voters that the Labour party is prepare to bash those evil bankers. Besides for the duration of the tax period I suspect most bankers will only be getting a bonus of £24,999.
Public Sector Pay Cap. The current freeze on public sector pay increases will continue until 2011. Between 2011 and 2013 any pay increases will be capped at 1% regardless of inflation. Civil Service pay will also be capped meaning that until further notice no civil servant can be employed at more then £160,000 per year (120% of an MP's salary).
Efficiency Savings. The government intends to cut £17bn of spending through mysterious efficency savings. This is a convenient way for the the government to cut public spending without it looking like they're cutting public spending because efficiency savings sound benign and you have to dig quite deep into the figures to find out what they mean. For example one of the efficiency savings is a large cut to the Legal Aid budget meaning that if you cannot afford an attorney one will no longer be provided for you. The main part of the savings though will come from so-called Arm Length Authorities (ALA's) and Quasi-Autonomous Non-Government Organisations (Quango's). Although what exactly ALA's do has long been a mystery of British politics they include regeneration agencies such as the Thames Gateway Development Corporation, various Regional Development Agencies along with a host of local projects step up to do everything and anything like increasing volunteering to improving community cohesion. To give you a general idea just go to a certain new media companies website and read through their client list. No wonder the Croydon Voluntary Action network are in no mood to celebrate.
Cash for War Veterans. Apart from an extra £16.5bn on top of the defence budget to fight the war in Afghanistan the PBR also featured, buried in the supporting business and growth section, £5million to allow war veterans to set up in business when they leave the armed services. Although £5million is a tiny sum in budgetary terms it's actually quite a large amount of extra support to lavish on a comparatively small group of people. This Mugabe-esque announcement is significant though because it shows that while Alistar Darling was given some freedom in campaigning for the Labour party he wasn't given much freedom at all in the content of the PBR.
All things considered this PBR indicates that the UK is beginning to accept the severity of its financial problems. Although optimistic the Chancellor's spending, borrowing and economic forecasts were all within the realms of reality. Obviously that does not include his prediction that government borrowing will fall to £96bn by 2013 because I do not see how that will be possible but by 2013 I doubt it will be Alistar Darlings choice to make.
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
Hello Yes I Am Here On the Internet.
I propose to be here for the next two hours and these same two hours for the rest of the foreseeable future.
More Excitement For my Grandmother.
Last night there was some crashing, banging and screaming. I would go into more detail but the situation has determined that I cannot care so I do not care. Instead I will refer you to my earlier statement on the matter; My grandmother has now totally put her life in the hands of the British State so there is nothing in her future other then pain suffering and death. This is a story that has been told millions of times before yet only ever ends one way. Therefore I do not feel the need to catalogue every detail of her hellish existence.
I am however at little disappointed that the Croydon network haven't thrown a street party. After all this is what they've been working towards for three years. Now they've got it I'd expect a little bit of celebration.
I am however at little disappointed that the Croydon network haven't thrown a street party. After all this is what they've been working towards for three years. Now they've got it I'd expect a little bit of celebration.
Monday, 7 December 2009
And They're Off !
Today the 15th Conference Of Parties (COP15) Summit on Climate Change has begun in Copenhagen, Denmark. Over the next twelve days scientific and political representatives from 192 countries will discuss all aspects of Climate Change from the the science that proves it is real and is happening right through to ways of making sure that solutions to the problem are put into action. Ahead of the Summit America, China, India and South Africa have all indicated that they are willing to make economically significant cuts to their greenhouse gas emissions. This gives COP15 a unique opportunity to take a historical step in tackling the clearest threat to life on earth.
By an amazing coincidence Iran's so-called "Green Revolutionaries" have chosen today to re-start the anti-government protests that sprang up in June. Although the BBC are reporting widespread demonstrations across the country the only one I have seen independently verified was at Tehran University. At dawn around 10,000 people, mostly students, tried to leave the university and march to Vali Asr Square. They were quickly contained by the police who used, tear gas, batons and stun grenades to break up the crowd in scenes that were almost identical to the scenes in Athens yesterday. There have been reports that Iran's Republican Guard have responded by firing live ammunition into the crowd but with no reports of causalities this is impossible to verify. To be honest I'm a bit surprised that by this pointthe Iranian authorities haven't lost patience and simply machine gunned the demonstrators as enemy combatants.
It appears that, at the time of writing, the protests have burnt themselves out without really getting started. Therefore I have to regretfully inform the COP15 delegates that the Green Revolution is over so they may as well just go home now.
By an amazing coincidence Iran's so-called "Green Revolutionaries" have chosen today to re-start the anti-government protests that sprang up in June. Although the BBC are reporting widespread demonstrations across the country the only one I have seen independently verified was at Tehran University. At dawn around 10,000 people, mostly students, tried to leave the university and march to Vali Asr Square. They were quickly contained by the police who used, tear gas, batons and stun grenades to break up the crowd in scenes that were almost identical to the scenes in Athens yesterday. There have been reports that Iran's Republican Guard have responded by firing live ammunition into the crowd but with no reports of causalities this is impossible to verify. To be honest I'm a bit surprised that by this pointthe Iranian authorities haven't lost patience and simply machine gunned the demonstrators as enemy combatants.
It appears that, at the time of writing, the protests have burnt themselves out without really getting started. Therefore I have to regretfully inform the COP15 delegates that the Green Revolution is over so they may as well just go home now.
Friday, 4 December 2009
I Really Cannot Be Bothered.
But I suppose I should go into more detail about this complaint about the police.
I hand delivered to the Independent Police Complaints Commission at around 14:00 yesterday. They were actually waiting for me in the lobby of the building which was a little disconcerting. I then had to get the train back to Croydon. Although I arrived at Croydon Police station at around 15:20 it took until 16:00 to hand it over because the reception was left completely empty. That wasn't for my benefit it's just the sort of general contempt the police have for members of the public and there were about four other people waiting there with me along with a couple of police officers. So if you're wondering why the police don't patrol the streets anymore it's because they're all standing in the reception of Croydon police station waiting for someone to buzz them through the secure doors.
As for the complaint itself is five pages long so I'm not going to post it all up here especially as most of it is just me going I phoned them up on such and such date but they weren't available so they promised to call me back but never did. The main part of the document was the five specific complaints themselves which are as follows;
1. As I have previously lodged a complaint against the police the officers seem to believe that in doing so I have forfeited the right to have crimes against me investigated properly.
2. The officers have been deliberately under-recording criminal acts as anti-social behaviour in order to restrict the resources available to investigate those crimes.
3. By failing to take basic investigatory steps such as taking a witness statement or checking to see if a suspect lived at a property he’d given as his home address the officers behaved in such a way as to hamper the investigation and allow a criminal to escape justice.
4. By conducting a search in the Brigstock Road / Windmill Road area and detaining a tall black man on August 14th the officers allowed the averaged height, white man to escape the scene and possibly dispose of evidence.
5. By informing the occupants of the suspect property that I had made a complaint of burglary against them the PCSO enabled the suspect in a criminal investigation to intimidate a witness in that criminal investigation.
It will be interesting to see what happens next but I'm not expecting any major developments before Christmas. Also I won't be getting that exacted about it after all it's more for the Brits benefit then mine.
In latest news Amanda Knox has just been convicted of murder in Italy. This is no great surprise but it is interesting that the Italian's have decided that a little bit of confession is good for the soul.
I hand delivered to the Independent Police Complaints Commission at around 14:00 yesterday. They were actually waiting for me in the lobby of the building which was a little disconcerting. I then had to get the train back to Croydon. Although I arrived at Croydon Police station at around 15:20 it took until 16:00 to hand it over because the reception was left completely empty. That wasn't for my benefit it's just the sort of general contempt the police have for members of the public and there were about four other people waiting there with me along with a couple of police officers. So if you're wondering why the police don't patrol the streets anymore it's because they're all standing in the reception of Croydon police station waiting for someone to buzz them through the secure doors.
As for the complaint itself is five pages long so I'm not going to post it all up here especially as most of it is just me going I phoned them up on such and such date but they weren't available so they promised to call me back but never did. The main part of the document was the five specific complaints themselves which are as follows;
1. As I have previously lodged a complaint against the police the officers seem to believe that in doing so I have forfeited the right to have crimes against me investigated properly.
2. The officers have been deliberately under-recording criminal acts as anti-social behaviour in order to restrict the resources available to investigate those crimes.
3. By failing to take basic investigatory steps such as taking a witness statement or checking to see if a suspect lived at a property he’d given as his home address the officers behaved in such a way as to hamper the investigation and allow a criminal to escape justice.
4. By conducting a search in the Brigstock Road / Windmill Road area and detaining a tall black man on August 14th the officers allowed the averaged height, white man to escape the scene and possibly dispose of evidence.
5. By informing the occupants of the suspect property that I had made a complaint of burglary against them the PCSO enabled the suspect in a criminal investigation to intimidate a witness in that criminal investigation.
It will be interesting to see what happens next but I'm not expecting any major developments before Christmas. Also I won't be getting that exacted about it after all it's more for the Brits benefit then mine.
In latest news Amanda Knox has just been convicted of murder in Italy. This is no great surprise but it is interesting that the Italian's have decided that a little bit of confession is good for the soul.
Thursday, 3 December 2009
It Is Done.
This complaint went into the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) at 14:00 and went into Croydon Police Station at 14:00 so we shall see what happens. As I've been out and about for the day I haven't really had the chance to hear any of the news let alone process. However if the story about the Board of Directors at the Royal Bank of Scotland threatening to step down is being used as a metaphor for the Mind in Croydon people then I say let them resign. After all the loss of their job is going to be the least of their worries.
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
British Yachtsmen Freed
At around 04:00 GMT today Iran freed the five British yachtsmen who had been detained after illegally entering Iranian waters. Obviously the British are claiming this as a massive diplomatic triumph and the Iranians claiming it shows their compassionate side. What really happened is that part of the reason for the operation was to allow the Brits to establish a communication channel with Iran in order to assess the power structure in Iran and find out what is happening in relation to their nuclear program. The Iranians gave the sailors the once over and decided that they were men of little to no value so released them in order to close that communication channel. That seems like a good decision because the Brits were already trying to confuse the discussion by making it about me. It does slightly show Iran's compassionate side though because they could have closed the communication channel by simply shooting them.
As I stayed up so late last night that I got to hear about the sailors release before going to bed today has been a complete write off. I do think it's fair to say that the relationship between my father and grandmother is now totally hellish. So I won't be forgiving and I won't be forgetting and I certainly won't be rewarding that sort of behaviour.
As I stayed up so late last night that I got to hear about the sailors release before going to bed today has been a complete write off. I do think it's fair to say that the relationship between my father and grandmother is now totally hellish. So I won't be forgiving and I won't be forgetting and I certainly won't be rewarding that sort of behaviour.
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Now That Was a Day Wasted.
Today I was planning to deliver this damned complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Then due to procedural tedium I was obligated to deliver the exact same complaint to Croydon Police Station. Unfortunately as I was printing it all out last night my computer started giving me problems. This could have been a co-incidence but I doubt it because then it would be the first time in human history that a computer problem has been solved by simply shouting at it. Instead it may have been the product of friendly fire but I hope not because that would mean that once again someone has been taken for a fool. Anyway the complaint is now going to be filed on Thursday (3/12). I hope that this provides enough time to get word to the IPCC that they have two choices in the matter; to find entirely in my favour or to find entirely in my favour.
Incidentally the Croydon Integrated Therapies Service (CIPTS) people have been in touch. It appears that even though I posted them a response, posted them a response by recorded delivery, emailed them a response and hand delivered a response to them in person they have yet to receive a response to their letter of October 7th. As such they have discharged me back to my General Practitioner. Somehow I doubt that this will be used as grounds to interfere with my benefit payments in any way. I am however looking for a relevant regulatory authority to discuss the breaches of patient confidentiality with. After all several incidents of mis-conduct, taken together would rather serve up the local government corruption charge on a silver platter. With a bow on top.
Today the British government announced that, in light of the Baby P case, all new social workers must serve a one year probationary period before they are allowed to practice. To their credit this announcement was made very quietly before the story quickly died lest it be confused as a reference to me. After all, at this point, the Brits couldn't seriously think that they're in a position to impose conditions.
In about an hour the US President, Barack Obama will be unveiling his plan for the Afghan war. Personally I'm offended that he decided to announce it on a Tuesday but then I'm disappointed that he announced it in 2009. However I suppose that's what happens when America is forced to march to the beat of someone elses drum.
The feedback on the British sailors held in Iran is back and the verdict is harsh. Not only couldn't the international community care less about the fate of these sailors they're not even that interested in my analysis of the situation because they'd already worked it out for themselves about four days ago. This gives the Iranian free reign in how to deal with their prisoners. So that will be trial, conviction and life imprisonment then. After all one of them goes by the nickname of "Ollie" which has got to be worth ten years at least.
Incidentally the Croydon Integrated Therapies Service (CIPTS) people have been in touch. It appears that even though I posted them a response, posted them a response by recorded delivery, emailed them a response and hand delivered a response to them in person they have yet to receive a response to their letter of October 7th. As such they have discharged me back to my General Practitioner. Somehow I doubt that this will be used as grounds to interfere with my benefit payments in any way. I am however looking for a relevant regulatory authority to discuss the breaches of patient confidentiality with. After all several incidents of mis-conduct, taken together would rather serve up the local government corruption charge on a silver platter. With a bow on top.
Today the British government announced that, in light of the Baby P case, all new social workers must serve a one year probationary period before they are allowed to practice. To their credit this announcement was made very quietly before the story quickly died lest it be confused as a reference to me. After all, at this point, the Brits couldn't seriously think that they're in a position to impose conditions.
In about an hour the US President, Barack Obama will be unveiling his plan for the Afghan war. Personally I'm offended that he decided to announce it on a Tuesday but then I'm disappointed that he announced it in 2009. However I suppose that's what happens when America is forced to march to the beat of someone elses drum.
The feedback on the British sailors held in Iran is back and the verdict is harsh. Not only couldn't the international community care less about the fate of these sailors they're not even that interested in my analysis of the situation because they'd already worked it out for themselves about four days ago. This gives the Iranian free reign in how to deal with their prisoners. So that will be trial, conviction and life imprisonment then. After all one of them goes by the nickname of "Ollie" which has got to be worth ten years at least.
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