Monday 15th February 2010

 We seem to have a little spat going on between Gordon and Dave relating to dodgy donors.

On the Conservative side we have Lord Ashcroft, who it appears has managed to avoid paying any taxes in the UK. But at least there is (so far), no suggestion of him milking the old expenses as a member of the House of Lords.

In the Labour corner we have Lord Paul of Marylebone, who seems to have managed to pay no tax, AND to have some questionable expense claims.

So 15 love to "call me Dave", I think, but basically a pair of shysters.

Nice to see education standards continue to rise teenager gets a certificate for getting on (and off) a bus.

A few quotes from our leader, courtesy of  The Talking Clock:


"As a result of our overall prudence, debt as a proportion of GDP is set to fall below 40% to 39% next year, to 38% and then to 36.5%."

- Gordon Brown, November 1998

"I have one further announcement: Because of our prudence in the management of public finances, Government spending is well within the limits we set. Our prudence is for a purpose."


- Gordon Brown, November 1998

"As a result, our current budget this year is expected to be £5.5bn pounds in surplus, and what was prudently projected to be net borrowing of £1bn is now expected to be a debt repayment of £1.5bn."


- Gordon Brown, November 1998

"It is because we are cautious about the balance of risks in the economy that we have based public finance forecasts on deliberately more prudent assumptions than before. First, our public finances are planned on an estimate of 2.25% trend rate of growth, 0.25% lower than the assumption that we inherited."
 

- Gordon Brown, November 1998

"So, even after making most prudent assumptions and then taking into account the world downturn, we meet our first rule - to balance our current budget over the cycle."
 
- Gordon Brown, November 1998
 
"An estimated current surplus for the coming five years of £33bn pounds, a margin that shows that we are equipped to cope with further uncertainties. This £33bn contrasts with, under the last Government, a deficit of £149bn over the economic cycle, as national debt doubled. Our second rule, the sustainable investment rule, requires that, as we borrow for investment, debt is set at a prudent and stable level."


- Gordon Brown, November 1998

Now that the "Man Made Climate Change" bandwaggon seems about to crash:, from The Times:

However, new research, including work by British scientists, is casting doubt on such claims. Some even suggest the world may not be warming much at all.
“The temperature records cannot be relied on as indicators of global change,” said John Christy, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, a former lead author on the IPCC.

The doubts of Christy and a number of other researchers focus on the thousands of weather stations around the world, which have been used to collect temperature data over the past 150 years.
These stations, they believe, have been seriously compromised by factors such as urbanisation, changes in land use and, in many cases, being moved from site to site.



See the complete article.

Does this mean we can expect to see so called "Green Taxes" scrapped?, no, I thought not.

Saturday 30th January 2010

I returned from the Grey Horse last night at about 23:45, it was cold, but there was no snow. Woke up this morning and looked out of the window to see this in our back garden, about four inches of snow has fallen at some point during the night.

The weather forecast said to expect a crisp day, with blue skies, no mention of snow. Wrong again! Given that they cannot forecast the weather one day in advance and they expect us to believe they can forecast the climate 25 or even 50 years in advance, forgive me if I am a little skeptical.

This somewhat puts paid to my plans of a cycle ride and/or digging in Martin's allotment.

After clearing the snow from the drive, and the car, I decide to go to the allotment anyway, if you just ignore the fact that the ground is covered in snow, it is a beautiful winters day. Clear blue sky and bright sunshine, with even a hint of warmth in the sun.

Martin is there digging away when I arrive, and I join him for perhaps a couple of hours, by which time my feet are going numb. How on earth do people survive in Siberia I wonder?

I took a couple of shots, to just set the scene, above you can see someone actually has a palm tree of some kind growing this far north, while on the right, you can see out over the north sea.

We are not alone here, there are a few other people who have turned up, to attend to their greenhouse heaters etc, but no one else is digging.

We manage a few extra metres of turned over earth before admitting defeat. I took a "progess shot" to prove it, but it seems to have disappeared. Clearly I have not yet mastered this digital camera.

In the afternoon a visit to the Stags Head, to see son Anthony. The pub has a new manager, and seems to be very busy despite the weather. I cannot really see why a new manager should have made a difference, it is the same beer, same prices, same barmaid and same decor, just more customers.

Sunday 10th January 2010

For the first time in about 3 weeks, it did not snow last night. In fact this morning it even began to melt. So perhaps we can all breathe a big sigh of relief, Super Gordon has taken time off from  saving the world and has saved us from the Salt crisis, and has ensured we are not going to run out of Gas. For those of you who are still worried about the cold and the snow , you might like to see how the BBC tells us we might cope if our winters were like this every year. But silly me, that could never happen, we are in the grip of global warming aren't we, and we must all pay increased taxes to keep the world cool.

Not a very exciting day, I get the vibes that I have not been doing my share (ie any) housework, so I spent most of the morning preparing vegetables for the Sunday dinner, and cleaning the Bathroom, not to the bosses satisfaction no doubt.

Got to speak to No 1 son (Gary) in Houston, Texas. He has been out of contact (aboard ship) for some time, so it was nice to speak, instead of just exchanging EMailed jokes.