Equality of what?
| 
The EU is regularly abused by its many detractors in speech and in print. One of my favourite expressions is "the lunatics have taken over the asylum", and it can only get more popular. It is difficult to distinguish the asylum keepers from the inmates once the process has gone as far as it has with women's car insurance premiums, which are due to rise in the UK on 21 December this year, by about £360 per annum. The Daily Express, 7 Feb 2012, reports the progress of EU gender equality proposals though the EU Commission and the Council, to the European Parliament, and thence to the European Court of Justice, or as some would say, "injustice".
Women and the politicians who want to get their votes have become used to passing laws which re-address the balance in favour of women, all in the name of equality. But as I like to point out, 'equality' on its own is meaningless, it has to be equality of something - height, weight, shoe size, mathematical ability, anything, not nothing. Equality is just an adjective looking for a noun to latch onto. But the principle is running wild and has latched onto insurance premiums for women, which are lower in the real world, because women drivers are less risky in the real world. But the EU has its principles and they must be allowed to wreak whatever havoc they may in the name of logic. As women's premiums must be equal to men's, they must go up. Naturally the women were not consulted in this decision, nor were the insurance industry. Oddly, it means that women will be entitled to drive more dangerously, to live up to their higher insurance premiums. But I am certain that they will not be taking advantage of this dubious opportunity. Dare I say, this is because it is not in their nature?
Last year lobbyists of the specialist insurers 'Sheila's Wheels' have been to see me in my offices in Brussels to complain. I agree that the EU is loosing its marbles, its marbles are spilling out of the bag as I write. But what can I do, other than I have already done, to vote against the mad Directive from Brussels? Please, ladies, men, everybody, vote against the EU by voting for UKIP, it is a vote for sanity.
A Fiscal Crimes Tribunal
|
Politicians must stop this constant fiscal disaster denial. Greece is a failed state, it is broke, revenues down, spending up and GDP plunging. It is over, the next roll over is March 30th. This is my guess for the date when the world finally accepts it.
Again I demand a fiscal crimes tribunal and we should consider long prison sentences for the politicians, bureaucrats and central bankers who brought this catastrophe about.
Doctoring the Evidence
|
The British Medical Journal has just revealed that around 13% of UK based scientists or doctors have "witnessed colleagues intentionally altering or fabricating data during their research or for the purposes of publication."
The editor in chief writes "While our survey can't provide a true estimate of how much research misconduct there is in the UK, it does show that there is a substantial number of cases and that UK institutions are failing to investigate adequately, if at all."
I can see the temptation to fiddle the figures when a scientist is dependent on giving the 'right' results to a government department, say, in order to have his or her employment funded for the coming year.
There must be better ways of paying for science. We need good scientists in this country rather than training them and then exporting them.
What a Week for Wind
|
Well, what a week it has been for wind energy. First Chris Huhne finally being called to account for his misdeeds. And then the Tory MPs who, like their constituents have had enough of wind energy.
The least of Chris Huhne's sins were, in my mind, the fact that he got his poor then wife to take a speeding ticket. Between now and then, he has presided over the continued expansion of the UK's renewable energy programme, which has brought hardship and misery to millions of people. Costs have risen, pushing millions into fuel poverty -- especially old people.
Huhne's reaction has been indifference, and to claim that the rising costs of conventional fuels would eventually mean that renewable energy would effectively reduce bills. But this does not tally with the experience in the USA, where energy bills have stabilised thanks to the exploitation of shale gas. The world may actually be facing a future in which fossil fuel costs reduce. In which case, Huhne will have secured nothing more for the UK than decades of expensive energy, a loss of competitiveness and thus job losses, and the continued hardship of millions.
And then there are the turbines. Thousands of them. And tens of thousands more planned on and off shore. They ruin beautiful landscapes. They destroy wildlife. And they make a noise as ugly as they look. They upset people who appreciate natural and peaceful things. They disturb people's lives. They split communities -- landowners from their neighbours. They are absurd monuments to the absolute disconnect between the political class and reality. In his short stint in power, Huhne did nothing to remedy these ill effects. He instead said that there would be more (and more and more) wind turbines, whether we wanted them or not.
They would bring about a new industrial revolution, he told people. They would help create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. They would make Britain an energy exporter, he said. Yet prices carried on rising. The number of people out of work continued to rise. Rather than experiencing an industrial revolution, UK businesses continued to shut down.
On the day Huhne resigned, wind energy accounted for just 0.68% of the UK's electricity supply. Yet advocates of wind energy boast that as much as 12% of our electricity can be supplied from wind energy. The higher the capacity of the UK's fleet of wind turbines, the more that we will have to match that capacity with reliable generators -- probably gas-fired. So much for the UK's climate change policies, studies now show that because of this impassable shortcoming of wind, their use may actually cause the emissions of more CO2 into the atmosphere than conventional means.
It has all got too much for the MPs of rural constituencies. More than a hundred of them -- mostly Tories -- have at last responded to their constituent's complaints, and signed a joint letter to David Cameron, demanding that he 'cut the subsidy for on-shore wind and spread the savings made between other types of reliable renewable energy production and energy efficiency measures'.
This, and Huhne's departure are being seen as a turning point in the Wind Wars, and the Climate Wars too. This is "A chance for David Cameron to end the climate change madness", claims Melanie Philips. Energy expert Dieter Helm of Oxford University, writes in the Times that we should "Forget The Huhne Hype About Wind Power". I believe that they have all got their hopes up far too high.
You see, it's not really a choice that you, I, constituents, or even for that matter David Cameron have. It's not a choice Chris Huhne, or his predecessor Ed Miliband had. The terms of our energy policies are determined in Brussels and Strasbourg. There's no democracy about it.
The uncomfortable truth is that, if Britain wants to decide its own energy policies, it has to do more than complain to 'Dave'. The 100 Tory MPs can whistle in the dark, their party is not going to change its mind. Have people forgotten this little video?
When Cameron announced this policy, did they think it would create lower bills? Instead it has allowed people with room on their rooftops to simply take cash from poorer people. I can count the names of 21 MPs on the letter to Dave, who voted for the Climate Change Act in 2008. What did they think was going to happen? Did they really think that the windfarms would only appear in other MP's constituencies?
People need to understand this... The Conservative Party is not going to change its mind about the climate change act, the EU, and wind farms. You might as well ask the windmills to dismantle themselves.
There is a party which does stand against wind farms, however. I suggest that the 100 MP's who have at last found their voice get in touch.
Chinese Cars
|
Those who watched Sunday night’s Top Gear programme might have been surprised that China now manufacturers more automobiles than Europe. Before you say “Good Lord, there’s a thing” and move on, be aware of what this means.
The dominance of American car production, thought unassailable post war was completely out performed by European and Japanese manufacturers to the extent that some of the great US brand names teetered upon bankruptcy. British motorcycle production went the same way, complete dominance to obscurity in under a decade. The automobile industry globally is a desperately over supplied market.
Competition is awesome. By European, Japanese and even Korean standards the Chinese are still behind in terms of style, innovation and build quality. However their pace of improvement is the fastest in the world. I do not foresee an early eclipse of the quality end of the market. Jaguar, Bentley, Rolls Royce, BMW and Mercedes are safe for the time being. The advancing Chinese middle class are already hungry for quality and genuine brand label goods.
Yet, in a few years, what of Peugeot, Ford, Nissan, Vauxhall and Fiat? The mass market is based on value for money, in other words quality and price.
European design and innovation will probably remain dominant for some years to come. Marketing skills probably also. I think the Chinese will make the same mistakes as America on badge engineering. I fully expect them to drop the pass with MG. The build quality of the Long Bridge cars, thanks to Honda and BMW towards the end of that era were simply world class at the top of the range.
Can the march of the Chinese on mass manufacture be thwarted by Europe? Maybe. The odds are stacked against us though the avalanche of regulation, taxation, employment legislation and a suicidal energy policy, making European electricity the most expensive in the world. I am also reliably informed by a UK manufacturer that the Chinese, where necessary can produce very high quality workmanship should the market demand it. One might bring to mind the Japanese overtaking the German camera industry, inconceivable to my father’s generation. Europe and North America seem to have produced the most out of touch and complacent politicians for 60 years. They must go, and go soon.
