Down and Out in Paris and London Thanks to Cap and Trade
Timothy Birdnow
Britain is sliding into chaos, and the Tories are even more clueless than the Republicans are in America. My brother Brian e-mailed me a story from the U.K. Spectator about the failure of the Tories, even before they`ve taken over from Labor. According to the piece by Fraser Nelson, the “shadow cabinet“, a beaurocratic morass intended to advise the inexperienced cabinetry, will do what beaurocrats do-maintain the status quo.
From the article:
This is perhaps why the definitive account of the start of the Thatcher revolution “Just In Time by Sir John Hoskyns“ has found its way to the bookshelves of some of the more radical-minded Cameroons. The memoirs detail the struggle of Hoskyns, a businessman, brought in to shatter the political consensus and make the case for radical change. ‘It is not difficult to carry the country,’ Angus Maude told him at the time. ‘The problem is the shadow Cabinet.’
A generation later and it is the late Lord Maude’s son, Francis, who is running Mr Cameron’s answer to the Hoskyns group. Named the Implementation Team, it is designed to address the lack of experience on Mr Cameron’s front bench by assigning each shadow Cabinet member with two ‘mentors’ one from the business world, and one from the civil service. The intention is to offer advice on practicalities and identify any Whitehall elephant traps that may lie in wait.
Official lines of communication between shadow Cabinet members and their would-be Whitehall departments open in December, but Mr Cameron cannot wait that long. He is haunted by the prospect that he, like Tony Blair, may end up squandering the political capital of an election victory. So he has quietly told his five most senior frontbenchers they will not be moved in any pre-election reshuffle and asked them to start planning for power now.
End Excerpt
furthermore:
Mr Maude’s Implementation Team has adopted Eisenhower’s motto: plans are nothing, planning is everything. Nicholas Boles intends to rejoin the team in the summer when he stands down as Boris Johnson’s chief of staff. They plan to operate quietly, issue no documents and ruffle few feathers. Yet there is already disgruntlement. If Mr Cameron wants radicalism, it is argued, the last thing he needs is an influx of civil servants who specialise in finding a difficulty for every solution.
The businessmen are proving rather hard to get hold of, but there is no shortage of help from Blair-era advisers. Sir Michael Barber, former head of Mr Blair’s delivery unit, has been generous with his time, as has Matthew Taylor, who used to run the Number 10 policy unit. A former Blair adviser is now working full-time on the Implementation Team. The joke among the orphaned Blairites is that if half a dozen of them embed with the Tories, they could retake power meeting Mr Blair at his Connaught Square home for weekly instructions.
The ease with which they slot into Project Cameron is readily explained. The Blair ‘choice’ agenda has mutated into the Cameron ‘empowerment’ agenda. Phil Collins, Mr Blair’s former speechwriter, observed recently that the key dividing line in politics is ‘no longer between left and right’ but ‘between liberal and authoritarian’. The Blairites-for-Cameron can argue, with some justification, that they are fighting for the same cause. And, in Mr Brown, the same enemy.
The supply of experienced Blairite talent is a boon for Mr Cameron, because he is having a hard time finding any Conservatives. As if in a British version of Atlas Shrugged, his most talented people have been disappearing one by one. Danny Kruger, his chief speechwriter, has resigned to work for a charity. Steve Hilton, his chief strategist, has left to work from California for six months, accompanying his partner on a posting to Silicon Valley. Barely a week passes without another Tory staffer being poached by a lobbying company preparing for a change of government.
End Excerpt
So, we have essentially McCainism in Britain-appease the opposing side. Even though Mr. Cameron has been calling for a change, for a more conservative approach now that Labor has self-destructed, the Great Mammoth remains planted at Commons. He`s not going to be able to make the public happy without a major policy shift, and he needs to formulate an actual plan to solve the number one problem in Britain.
What is that elephant? Energy!
The cap and trade schemes to meet emissions standards is killing the British populace, and the public is mad as hell and aren`t going to take it anymore! Below are several excerpts from British publications about the energy revolt, courtesy of CCNet:
Hauliers have threatened to escalate their action against soaring fuel prices after staging a protest convoy between Glasgow and Edinburgh. David McCutcheon, a haulage firm chief who organised the event, warned that action would be intensified if the government failed to cut fuel taxes.
–The Scotsman, 11 June 2008
Concerns were growing last night over a summer of coordinated European fuel protests after tens of thousands of Spanish truckers blocked roads and the French border, sparking similar action in Portugal and France, while unions across Europe prepared fresh action over the rising price of petrol and diesel.
–Angelique Chrisafis, The Guardian, 10 June 2008
There is anger and frustration, and things will start getting out of hand when firms start going out of business. Companies are already reducing their vehicle fleets and having to pay for their fuel every two weeks rather than monthly. Everyone is struggling with cashflow.
–Phil Flanders, The Scotsman, 11 June 2008
People are prepared to take militant action. The Spanish are blocking roads and it will come to that here eventually. This country is heading for meltdown and a general strike. This is not just a bunch of truck-drivers looking after their own ends. We’re out to fight the cost of fuel, which is affecting the whole economy.
–Jim Macauley, The Scotsman, 11 June 2008
Millions of people are suffering from fuel poverty due to rises in fuel costs, energy charities have warned. An estimated 4.5 million households now fall into the category of being fuel poor, the National Energy Action group (NEA) claimed.
–The Press Association, 7 June 2008
Thousands more children and pensioners are living in poverty, according to new official figures. The number of children living below the breadline rose by 100,000 for the second year in a row to a total of 2.9 million, a blow to Gordon Brown, who has pledged to halve the total by 2010.
–The Times, 11 June 2008
All this pales into insignificance compared with the real energy crisis roaring down on Britain with the speed of a bullet train as, within six or seven years, we stand to lose 40 per cent of all our existing electricity-generating capacity. Whichever way it is looked at, Britain is threatened by what, thanks to years of dereliction and misjudgement, has become arguably our most serious potential crisis of modern times.
–Christopher Booker, Daily Mail, 11 June 2008
End Excerpts
Cap and Trade means poverty, since wealth=energy usage. Prices soar when energy is restricted, and energy is restricted when emissions are restricted, as surely as eating is restricted when one is constipated. Industrial civilization requires energy use, and one does not have growth without it. Third World countries want to advance their standard of living, want their citizens to be able to afford more than burnt toast and a rotten egg for breakfast every other day-if that. They HAVE to increase their energy usage. China, Russia, India, Brazil, all of the emerging nations aren`t going to tank their economies for a silly Western game, so worldwide emissions continue to rise. But Europe has bought this malarky hook-line-and sinker, and the coming fall of Labor in Britain illustrates that people are ultimately not going to sacrifice for a dubious scientific speculation.
Poverty kills. The poor die younger than the better-off; they die MUCH younger in poor nations, from starvation, disease, from violence, from despair. The poor of this world will die like flies if we impose worldwide emission controls, since this means that the standard of wealth will decline worldwide. This is truly an instance where, well, maybe not women and minorities are necessarily hardest hit, but a great many of the poor are indeed women and minorities, and they will be the ones to suffer from Rich Folks Angst.
So, we MIGHT suffer from a warmer world (if one believes Global Warming is caused by Man, and that it is necessarily a bad thing-something that is arguable, since plants-and animals-generally prosper under warmer conditions. In fact, they appear to be doing fine in the Modern Warming Period.) but many of us are certainly suffering right now from our attempts to fix what may not be a problem at all. Is that wise?
The price of energy is directly linked to the efforts of the Greens for lo these many years, and we cannot have it both ways. The answer is simple; explore, drill, refine, repeat. There is no reason why we can`t explore alternative energy while doing the above. The only reason is that the Greens WANT human suffering, to spur their agenda. People will accept almost anything if their personal ox is being gored, and the Greens will point to high energy prices and claim that the fuel itself is the culprit (and Big Oil) rather than the restriction of the use of that fuel.
A political career could be made by many if they would recognize these simple facts. Unfortunately, the Tories don`t seem to grasp it. Neither do the Republicans and most assuredly John McCain does not. He plans on imposing on America the very thing that is leading to protests and a political catastrophe in Britain.
You cannot ask people to be poor, which is what is being asked of the West. Poverty kills, and will likely kill more people than Global Warming. Global Warming is tied to solar activity, anyway, so our “help“ is futile.
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